How many different uniforms?

And so softball begins.

As a freshman, Alyssa is finally old enough for high school softball. There is no softball program for our Junior High girls, which becomes apparent at tryouts when you see a marked difference between the skills of girls who have been playing travel ball, and the girls who have not.

Alyssa made the JV team this year, and she (and we) were very disappointed that she did not make varsity. Of course, there is the athletics rule that all seniors must be on the varsity team, which limits the space for the underclassmen, especially young freshmen. Next year, there will be more spaces available because of departing seniors.

Having never played sports in school, I am new to the whole concept, and learning as I go. Apparently the coaches have the option of moving a girl or girls "up" or "down" temporarily as they see fit. There were 3 teams formed this year: Varsity, JV, and the "C" team. As a pitcher especially, Alyssa has more opportunities to actually play, since she is being pulled up or pulled down to one of the other teams.

Since the "C" team has no pitchers, each time they play, two pitchers (out of 5) are pulled down from JV to pitch for them, and sometimes another girl to be the catcher. These photos are from the "C" team's game that Alyssa was "pulled down" to pitch. (She didn't really want to do it because the games can be so very frustrating, but we told her to consider it pitching practice. With live batters.) The school colors are purple & gold, and their uniforms are gold shirts, with the purple stripe down the gray pants' leg.

This is her at bat, when she hit a solid, stand-up triple.
She pitched the first game of the double-header, and played third base for the second game. Third base is where she usually is when not pitching.

Receiving the ball back from the catcher.

Her own JV team uniform looks just like this, except the jersey is purple, and they wear gold socks. I haven't snapped any new photos of her in the JV uniform, but rest assured, they'll be coming!


The flip side of being a JV pitcher, is that she can also be "pulled up" to Varsity. So the exciting part about that is that this weekend, the Varsity team is traveling to Boise for a tournament, and Alyssa is being pulled up to go with them!! We are SO psyched!!


Oh, by the way..... this means yet ANOTHER uniform. The style is closer to her travel team's shirt style -- photos to follow after this weekend. Oh, and no purple stripe on the pant legs. Bonus...... she was also able to get her favorite number for the varsity uniform, unlike her JV & "C" team uniforms,... so she was excited about that. GO #17!!


And if that weren't enough, the Varsity team ALSO has a spare jersey in white, in case there is any game where the girls meet an opposing team that also wears purple. We're now up to 4 uniforms for high school ball. And get the socks colors straight, too -- purple, gold, purple, purple.


We're hoping she'll get a good chance to pitch, and if the varsity coach sees good things, perhaps she will be pulled up for more. However, many of the upcoming games happen with a Varsity & JV game going on at the same time (think about it... the traveling team has to secure a bus, so to conserve on time & gas, the games coincide). There is not a lot that happens on different days, so we'll just have to see what happens.


The other bonus for this upcoming tournament, is we've decided to pull Cameron and Darcie from school on Friday, we'll go down & watch Alyssa play in Boise, then drive on to Pocatello to visit with my mom, which we are overdue to see her. It will be a short getaway, and we'll make the most of it. On to packing & arranging for absences from school.....

Easter Bonnet?

One of the huge blessings of being an "older" mom, is having teenagers around that will help out with the baby. They make life with Emma go pretty darn smoothly. One thing that Darcie has been doing consistently is to get Emma dressed for church each Sunday morning. If I have everything laid out the night before, it makes the morning go that much better.

This last Sunday, I had laid out a new outfit for Em. (I should have gotten a photo, since it's a really pretty dress) It happens to be one that I picked up second-hand. I love the little shop that's across the street from Welenco! This particular dress had a matching bloomer-type diaper cover.

In a hurry, Darcie and I were dressing Emma together -- I'm sure she couldn't figure out what was happening to her all at once! As I pulled on the tights, Darcie held up the bloomers and asked, "Ok, so how does this go?"

"Before the shoes.... it's a pair of panties!"

Darcie blushed a little and laughed....."Oh, I thought it was a hat!"

Um,.......... no. But it was good for a laugh. But the really funny part was the next day, when Emma was helping me with the laundry -- one of her favorite things to do. She dug out the panties from the dress outfit and held them up:

And then............. once again, I couldn't have staged this......... She put them on:
Yep, runny nose and teething drool and all -- I ran for the camera to snap this photo! Apparently Emma's thoughts were the same as Darcie's! I think we have a budding fashionista on our hands!

P.S. She really does have other clothing that she wears! It seems she always has the same thing on when I'm snapping photos for the blog!! Whoops!!

You WISH You Hit Like a Girl!

As for the title of this post, one of Darcie's volleyball t-shirts has that saying on it... and the picture is of a volleyball embedded into a wooden gym floor.

Yes, it's volleyball season again! Alyssa is not playing this year, because at her age level, all the tournaments fall on Sundays. We already give up enough Sundays for softball, so she dropped the travel volleyball this year, devoting more of her time to warming up and practicing for the softball season.

This also makes it easier on me, because now I don't have to split myself between locations for a tournament, and hope that I haven't missed too much of my daughters' playing time. Darcie's team is not as strong as she would like, but they seem to have a good time together. She seems to have her antennae up when I'm snapping photos, though.

Of course, she had no idea I was there snapping pictures when she was doing the water bottle toss on the sidelines. Gotcha!!

But she did give me "The Look" for this one. Well, one of "The Looks", anyway!


Here's another "Look" How she zoned in on me with the camera when she should have been focused on the incoming serve, I don't know. Darcie plays a Middle, and when she is on defense, is usually right at the net, waiting to jump up for a block. On offense, she's the one who calls for the setter, and then goes up for a hit (or a "spike" for you oldsters).

I did get her completely focused on the game when she was serving herself. Darcie has a great serve, and is pretty consistent about getting it over and in play. It's usually her teammates that have "lost" the serve for her. These pictures are from last Saturday, at her second tournament. Two more tourneys, and then the volleyball season is over until next fall at school. Dad was awesome about getting her a new set of knee pads after this tournament, since her old ones were worn through. Good luck in the next 2 tourneys, Darcie!!!

The Gift of a Letter

Sometimes, there are not enough blog-worthy things happening. So you have my apologies for the delay & gap between blog posts.

But here's one that is hitting closer to my heart. A recent news headline proclaimed that the US Post Office is looking to cut costs..... one proposed method is to have a law changed (there's a law about it?) so that Saturday deliveries would be eliminated.

On the surface, that sounds like a good idea. Green, and all that. After all, email and other online transactions have really reduced the flow of snail mail, and that trend is likely to continue.

On the other hand......

When I go out to my mailbox, which, in my semi-rural area of town where there are no paved sidewalks, is across the street......... I typically find the same things that you do. Store sale ads and flyers. Bills. College recruitment stuff (Ok, so I have kids that age.). Magazines. Newsletters that are really ads in disguise.

But sometimes, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, and JOY of JOYS! ...... There is an envelope, a piece of personal mail. A LETTER! And when I bring the mail in, I usually leave it all in stack for Todd to see when he gets home............ except for my letter -- and then the first thing I do is slit open the envelope and read my letter. It's like a huge, HUGE treat. Do you do that, too?

When I first left home for college, which was my first time away from home, I got on a letter-writing kick. I'm sure it endeared me to my parents, since it meant they heard from me quite often. My mother, in particular, had impressed upon me the need to be frugal with my spending money. So I walked on out to K-Mart (2 miles?), bought a box of plain white envelopes and a pad of plain white paper, and I was set. A stamp cost a mere 20¢.

I wrote a lot, and I wrote to a number of different people -- family, friends, old youth leaders, etc. The amazing result was that I also received mail back from these people. Of course, not everyone wrote back all the time, but I still received quite a bit. And my roommates were very, very envious. There is not usually a lot of mail for college students, so sometimes the only incoming piece of mail was a letter for Marilyn. I tried to explain to my roommates that to GET mail, you had to SEND mail. I don't think I ever made that point to most of them. They didn't write, but continued to be envious of my incoming mail. Of course, this was back in the Dark Ages, before the Internet and email even existed.

I'm not down on email, don't get me wrong. In fact, I admit I spend more time on the computer than I should, and I don't play games, either.

But there is something very cheering about a real letter on paper, coming in via snail mail. I've come a long way from the plain-paper days, and I love finding fun stationery, or creating my own with colored cardstock & my Cricut cutter. Sometimes, I get too caught up in life, and my letter-writing goes out the window. Other times, (like now!) I get back on a correspondence kick, and I write people again. Over the years, as I have pared down my Christmas card list, my circle of mail recipients has shrunk too. So I am also trying to send out some random cards to local friends and acquaintances, thanking them for something they have done or some service they have rendered to my family. My next random card will be going to my ward librarian, for the extra copies she has to do for me as ward Relief Society activities coordinator.

I try not to let "time" be an excuse. It takes me about 5 minutes to write a note, address the envelope, fold, seal and stamp it. Seriously, that is NOT that much time. If I took only five minutes a day, and wrote to someone each day, that would be 30 pieces of mail a month, and each one could possibly make someone's mailbox trip into a fun experience and bring a smile to their face. (I don't really write that much, but it's a nice thought, huh!!)

Plus, I was further inspired yesterday, when I blog-stalked myself into this video. So, I am extending to you the challenge that I found on the blog. To write a note. A letter. Send a card. It doesn't need to be much. But maybe you can make someone's day with it.

And maybe, the Post Office would re-think their Saturday deliveries!