I'M GETTING MARRIED!

The good news:
My pitcher finally popped the question! He proposed back in October, but I have been too busy wedding planning and playing on Pinterest to blog. :)

How it happened:
One Friday night in October my pitcher and I were planning to go out to dinner at a pub downtown. He called me that Tuesday and asked if I had ever seen him in his new suit. I said no and suggested that we go to a fancier restaurant on Friday night, so he could wear it. He agreed and picked where we would be going, but refused to tell me. The whole time I figured that going out to a fancy restaurant was my idea when actually, it was just part his little plan.

On Friday night we got all dressed up and headed downtown for dinner. My pitcher still would not tell me where we were going, so I had no idea until we arrived at the restaurant. My pitcher's younger sister, who was obviously in on the plan, kept joking that he was taking me to McDonald's and the reason we had to get dressed up was that we were going inside instead of going through the drive-thru. HAHA. We were a little early, so it took a while for them to seat us. Finally, they escorted us back to a table.

After we finished our dinner, we were sitting at the table waiting for the waiter to return. I was having that, "I kinda have to go potty, but maybe I will just wait until we leave" discussion with my pitcher. He was overly pushy in urging me to go, so I got up to go to the restroom. 

When I came back the waiter was setting out the dessert menu and then walked off. Daniel and I were discussing if we wanted to order any cheesecake (his favorite) when the waiter walked back to our table with a plate. He told us that he had our dessert for us. My first thought was, "we didn't order dessert yet." I bet the look on my face was priceless. He set down a plate in front of me.

Written on the plate in chocolate syrup was "Will you marry me?" with my beautiful ring in the center! 

The first thing out of my mouth was, "Are you serious? You aren't kidding, right?" He laughed and said he was serious. I then asked if I could put the ring on. Through my utter shock I think I finally said yes, but the next question out of my mouth was if he asked my father for permission. My pitcher, being very sarcastic, said no. I believed him and began to freak out a little bit. I told him that he was going to need to call my parents himself and break the news. I was not going to have that awkward conversation with them! It was not until about three hours later that my best friend finally broke the news to me that my pitcher had met my father for lunch the week prior and asked him for permission. (So glad he really did know the rules!!)

I also found out later that my pitcher had come up with the whole plan. He made our dinner reservations in advance and had told the restaurant exactly his plan and what he wanted to do. No one said anything to him or even acknowledged his plan until the waiter came up and asked him for the ring. He was getting nervous and worried he was going to have to wing it. 

What now:
We couldn't be happier. My pitcher and I will be getting married on December 1st. Wedding planning is turning out to be a fun and mildly stressful adventure, but it will all be worth it in the end. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life married to the man of my dreams! I'm a lucky girl. :)

I'm sure you will be hearing about our wedding planning soon!

~Soon to be Mrs. Baseball!

Red Velvet Cake Bites!

These red velvet cake bites may just be my favorite thing ever! I got this idea from a catering company we order from at work all the time. Ever since the first time I made them, I have been craving them and love to make them any chance I get. Even my pitcher who does not express emotion or excitement over anything has made it very clear that he loves these cake bites! I will warn you that you may not be able to stop eating these once you start, so make at your own risk! ;)

Ingredients
1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
1-1/4 Cups Water
3 Large Eggs
2/3 Tub of Cream Cheese Frosting
1 Package Vanilla Almond Bark

Bake cake according to package instructions in a 9 x 13 pan. Let the cake cool and then cut into 6 large pieces.

Crumble the pieces with your hands into a medium size bowl.

Add the 2/3 of a tub of cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake. Mix together with your hands until all of the white frosting is mixed in. This is one of my favorite parts! ;)

Once the cake and frosting are mixed together, start pulling off bits of the mixture and rolling these into 1-1/2 inch balls.

Refrigerate or freeze the balls for about 30 minutes, so they are firm and easy to work with.

Slowly melt the vanilla almond bark either on the stove or in the microwave. Make sure you stir frequently to ensure that you do not burn the almond bark!

Roll the chilled cake balls into the melted almond bark to fully coat. Either you can remove the coated cake balls with a spoon and place onto a plate for them to harden or at this point, you can also add a lollipop stick in order to make cake pops. To cool the cake pops while allowing them to remain round, I use a pasta strainer turned upside down and place the lollipop sticks in the strainer holes.

Let the cake bites or cake pops harden and enjoy!! :)

~Ms. Baseball

Philippians 4:13

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Oops...Happy Belated Birthday Mrs. Bee!!

Happy Wednesday Evening!

I would first like to apologize as recently I have had a very tough time sitting down to write on my blog. Apparently since I have turned old, my life has become a wild tornado. I feel like I have been going from one task to the next nonstop. :)

I was at bible study earlier this week and was talking with my best friend, Mrs. Bee, about blogging. She told me that I need to write something to get back in the swing of blogging. Since she told me to write about ANYTHING, I am going to dedicate this blog post to Mrs. Bee. I actually wrote a blog post back in July for her birthday, but I apparently didn't get around to ever posting it. This being said, I will share my belated birthday post now. Haha.

Some of you know Mrs. Bee personally. Any of you who do know her can attest to the fact that she is an absolutely wonderful person. In fact, Mrs. Bee is one of the most amazing people I have ever known. We have been best friends since the day I was born (as I was born one year after her).

Breast Friends...haha

We have that type of friendship where we don't have to see each other every day, every week, or even every month. We each have very busy lives and we definitely have had seasons in our lives where we were in completely opposite situations and places, so we just didn't talk very much. Even with these times, we have remained best friends and have always picked up our friendship right where we left off.

We always laugh that even if we don't see one another for months, when we finally get a chance to hang out, we will be wearing the same outfit or have the same haircut or same hair color. We are definitely sisters at heart.

Since we now live in the same area, I get to see her beautiful face every week. I enjoy her so much and love spending time with her. She is always so bright and lights up my life. I don't know what I would ever do without her.

I love you so much Mrs. Bee and I hope your birthday last month was wonderful! ;)

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

Love, 

Ms. Baseball

P.S. Good luck at Hood to Coast!! :)

My 25th Birthday

I just celebrated my 25th birthday (ugh). This was kind of hard for me because I am now feeling a little old. I had such a fun birthday though. I am visiting my pitcher right now, so I got to spend most of the day with him and the rest of the day with the wives and girlfriends of the other players.

My pitcher took me to see the movie "Horrible Bosses" in the morning and then took me to the mall to do some shopping and to get some lunch before I had to drop him off at the field. After I dropped him off, the girls and I went to a flea market. I have to admit, I had never been to a flea market before. I had so much fun! I need to find some good flea markets around home. I fell in love with this adorable Pillsbury Dough Boy cookie jar, but I couldn't bring myself to buy it because I couldn't figure out how I would get it home. After much thought and after calling my wise mother, I went back the next morning and bought it though! :)

Isn't he cute?!

I tried to ship him home, but they wanted to charge me $28! That was more than I paid for him, so I moved some things around and somehow fit him into my carry-on bag. Hopefully he makes it home safe and sound!

After the flea market, I changed into my birthday shoes! I always wear these on my birthday! I feel like my birthday is the one day of the year that I can do whatever I want. This includes wearing hot pink heels to baseball games! ;)

Before heading to the game though, we went to grab drinks and appetizers. We found this adorable little cafe/bar downtown that had happy hour specials all night. We ordered delicious fondue that may or may not have had Velveeta cheese in it and some yummy drinks. I feel that birthdays are also days that you can indulge a little because calories don't count.

Lemon drop martini

A fancy raspberry puree martini

I also got a free "birthday cake" shot that tasted just like a birthday cake!

One of the girls was so sweet and bought me a cupcake from a shop next door. The girls felt that they all had to sing to me in the cafe which of course was mildly embarrassing. ;)

Vanilla cupcake with toasted coconut cream cheese frosting. Yum!

After the baseball game (where I even got to see my pitcher play!), we headed back downtown for dinner and more drinks. We decided to go back to the cute little bar/cafe since they had happy hour specials until close that night. I got to meet some of my pitcher's teammates who I hadn't met yet. Of course, they had to embarrass me some more by singing to me again.

I had a great time on my birthday and am so glad I got to spend the day doing fun things with people I enjoy. Let's hope 25 isn't as bad as it sounds! Here's to hoping this year will bring good things! ;)

~Ms. Baseball

Volcanoes Game

My pitcher finds it kind of odd, but I enjoy watching baseball and going to games. I have been to a ton of games in the past few years. Last weekend, I invited my parents to come for a visit and to go to a baseball game with me. This was a strange experience because I don't often go to baseball games where my pitcher is not involved. This was also weird because my pitcher played for this team a few years ago and I had never been to a game at this stadium before.

During the game, the Giants World Series Trophy was on display. Of course, my family and I stood in line to see the trophy and take pictures with it.

Don't get me wrong, the trophy was pretty awesome, but it was smaller and less significant than it appears. We thought it should have diamonds or something on it and be much larger! :) It was such a fun experience and so cool to see it though!

During the game, I got asked if I wanted to spin a wheel for a gift certificate to a local restaurant. I said sure, so in the middle of the 6th inning, I went down and spun the wheel in front of the whole crowd.

The wheel landed on the "Volcanoes" logo, so I won a $100 gift certificate! The man said they had been doing this same game for 3 weeks and I was the first one to win!

We had a good time at the game even though it was strange to watch baseball without my pitcher.

Happy weekend to all. I am, again, off to watch more baseball! :)

~Ms. Baseball

What If....

My pitcher and I were talking the other day and he mentioned to me that as a little boy he wanted to go to the University of Texas. This got me thinking about "what if..." When I was younger I wanted to go to the University of Oklahoma and be a cheerleader. Had I gone to OU or had my pitcher gone to Texas, we may not have ever met. I'm so glad we decided on the same college instead. It's interesting to think about how each choice you make has an effect on the rest of your life.

Another example of this that I have thought about is when you drive up to a car accident just moments after it happens. Had you not run back into the house to grab your gym bag or had you not eaten that bowl of cereal before you left, you could have been involved in that accident.

Looking back at choices I have made over time, there are some I am so glad I made. Some of my choices have led to great things and others have even kept me out of danger. Back in high school my parents took me to the Rose Bowl one year over New Years to see WSU and OU (SOOO fun!!). This was a great decision because not only did we get to go to the Rose Bowl, but back home, my friends got in a rollover car accident in a soft-top Jeep. Luckily, all of them had a seatbelt on, so everyone was okay. Had I not gone to the Rose Bowl, I probably would have been in the car and someone wouldn't have had a seatbelt on.

I am so glad I joined my sorority in college. I made some of my best friends in college through my involvement in the sorority. After I graduated, I am grateful for the city I chose to move to and the jobs I chose to apply for. I am so happy where I am and love doing what I'm doing. I am also glad I chose to attend the women's retreat at church a few months ago. Not only was I able to grow spiritually, I made some new friends which led to my involvement in an amazing small group.

Although one should not stress and worry over decisions*, it's interesting to think about the "what if..." and good to think about the consequences for our actions.

I hope you all have a beautiful Saturday! I definitely will as I am off to a Baseball game!! :)

~Ms. Baseball

*If you find yourself worried, please refer to my quote about worry in my post from June 3 titled "My Random Friday Thoughts." It's a good one! ;)