Stadium Arcadium

Last night I had dinner with the Irwins, but before we sat down at the table, we were watching the World Series. The fact that at first I didn't know which team was Texas and which one was San Francisco tells you just a little bit about my knowledge of sports. It wasn't until one of the Texas players turned around and I saw the big TEXAS across his (ugly, might I add) jersey that I realized who was who. That said, it made me think back to the time this summer when I played softball. I mean, we're not major league YET . . . okay, or at all. But it was genuinely fun—not because I knew what was going on, because most of the time I didn't—but because it allowed me to spend time outdoors having fun with friends. Today I finally got around to editing my softball photos.

And looking back on all the fun I had, I'd like to dedicate today's post to

TOP TEN REASONS WHY
I WILL NEVER PLAY IN THE WORLD SERIES:

10. Odds are more likely that I'd get my cleat stuck in the toilet while changing before the game.

9.  I don't even own my own mitt. Legit.

8. Converse shoes don't really have great traction for running bases.

7. They say "batter up" and I ask what flavor they're offering.

6. Baseball pants don't come in electric blue.

5. They don't allow you to wear beaded necklaces in the big leagues.

4. When catching a ball: "I got it! I got it! . . .  SQUIRREL!"

3. My idea of a pop-fly involves Thanksgiving and some old jeans.

2. They chant "Be the ball," and I curl up in a ball and scream "DON'T HIT ME!"

1. I actually confessed to someone this season that I thought that Ken Griffey Jr. played baseball with Babe Ruth and was a baseball legend.

. . . so yeah, all of these—plus the fact that I don't want to, have never trained for the position, and a ton of other factors. Oh well, at least I know I'm prime for a short-term softball league! And really folks, that's all I need! :)

GO RANGERS!!

GO GIANTS!!

GO WHOEVER IS GONNA WIN!!

Reflection

After my last post about being on the Westside softball team, I am pleased to say that I was able to walk away from the tournament on Saturday with a FULL heart, happy and excited that I got to be part of such an awesome team!

I went in with a positive attitude and walked away with an even more positive outcome. All season I'd been overwhelmed with the fact that I could never seem to hit the ball past the infield, which increased my odds of an out at first base. But on Saturday, I got some pretty awesome hits—including two past the infield! So I actually got a chance to run around the bases!


AND as a bonus plus, I even got to cross HOME PLATE! And THAT was such a winning feeling! We played our hearts out and made it to the championship game! And even though we came in 2nd in the tournament, I walked away with a 1st place smile! It was seriously such a great day! The fact that I got a nice tan during the games and got to go to a pizza party afterward wasn't too bad either. And I KNOW I got a really good workout too because even as I type this, my leg and arm muscles are still feeling the burn. I got to rest up yesterday and I'm ready for another great week!

Still Be Here

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

This is one of those quotes I lean on a lot. On Saturday, we played our last non-tournament softball game, and I discovered a lot about myself. I've mentioned before that my family is BIG into sports. I mean, we grew up playing baseball, football, kickball, etc. Well, I didn't personally play all those sports, but I was always surrounded by it. There have been many times I've mentioned in conversation that I am not very competitive, but on Saturday I got a better grasp on that statement. I should change it to:

I am pretty competitive deep down inside,
but I don't like being competitive.
It brings out the worst in me.

Now many could argue that a spirit of friendly competition is good because it teaches you to fight to be better than someone else and someone HAS to come out on top the winner, right? Maybe. But I'm not so sure that perspective works best for me. Because that friendly competition for me is never actually very friendly. I realize that deep inside I can become extremely competitive, but when I am, I'm not entirely proud of the things that run through my mind or come out of my mouth. I say hurtful things about others in my mind and I get really angry and determined to make someone else pay for my losses or struggles. This just leaves me a loser in either case.

And what's worse is that no matter what comes out of my mouth or what I repeat over and over in my head, the opponent doesn't receive the full effect of the pain. I do. I cannot tell you how discouraging it is to try to make it to first base without getting out—you hope deep down inside that the short stop will drop the ball or some elf will come snatch it out of his hand and throw it to the outfield . . . I mean really, where ARE my angels in the outfield?? ;P But the damage comes when I walk back to the dugout, upset that I didn't "make the cut." Upset that I wasn't "good enough." I talk myself down and I adopt the theory that I'll never make it. This is just how my mind naturally works. I mean, there are things that I love and things I KNOW I can do well . . . sports . . . just aren't anywhere near the top of the list. Sometimes I really do just accept in my mind that I'll never beat my weakness.

But after the game on Saturday, I took a few moments to sit and think and meditate on where I've come from and I was able to note the different difficulties I've been able to overcome. I realized that it was when I stopped allowing those negative words to become absolute truth that I was able to get headway and work towards overcoming them. It was when I allowed faith to overtake my human perspective that I was able to do something that I'd never been able to do before. For instance, the fact that I actually make contact and hit the ball, as opposed to just standing there, not swinging like I did when I played as a 5th grader . . . which . . . was the last time I'd played before joining the softball team last year. Also, seeing the vast improvements I've made this year as opposed to where I was last year is encouraging.

I realized that somewhere along the way, I made the games about my personal success as it pertained to points and a win, as opposed to being a team player and focusing on the fun moments with the people that mattered. When I focus on the right things, the difficulties become less about the technicalities and measuring sticks, and more about the here and now learning experiences that build strength and a worthwhile season of my life. And amazingly, when I focus on the right things, I get better at clearing the hurdles.*

I'm really looking forward to the tournament this upcoming weekend! And I'm not just saying that to soften the blow because we're not the #1 team—I mean, we're still in the top 3 as of now—but because it'll be the last hurrah for this season. The last chance to make the lives of others more full and more fun. I'll give my best and I'll try with all my might to end every inning with a positive, hopeful thought and do my best to focus on the people that make our team amazing. Some would call that a cop-out, I call that making the most of life's opportunities. If I play defeated, it won't matter what the score is, I'll still be defeated and I don't want to live like that.


*totally mixing up my sports there ;)

Osmosis Land

Wow. I just realized I haven't blogged since Wednesday. Life just seems to have picked up at ridiculous speeds. So I figure the best way to catch everyone up on my latest shenanigans is to do a little recap post.

It's kind of like when you watch a TV Show and they say,
"PREVIOUSLY ON _____"

Well, here you go . . . PREVIOUSLY IN AMANDA'S LIFE:

Thursday:


I got to hang out with Alisa and her kiddos! After eating dinner and running around the house, we got to go have ice cream at one of my new favorite places: PEAK'S FROZEN CUSTARD. It's a frozen custard shop that also has awesome coffee and free wi-fi. I mean, really, what's NOT to love about all that? The kids loved it and Sophia was introduced to her first Troll doll. Man, I hadn't seen one of those in years, but the toy shelf at Peak's had a bunch of them all lined up. It was great. I got to have some great conversation and just chill time with Alisa, who is one of the most amazing women I know. I think back to the short amount of time I've known Alisa and I just smile because being her friend is just one huge gift!

Friday:


I spent the evening with Cindy J. and her kiddos! Well, mostly with her and Juliana, but it was still wonderful! I had my first ever Bruin Burger, which is a fried burger, found mainly at fairs. It was something new and fun! We also ate some brownies with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Afterwards, we went to KENYA NIGHT at Westside. One thing I absolutely LOVE about my home church is their involvement with a church/organization in Kenya that is dedicated to feeding children and providing micro-financing resources for women to be able to make money necessary to feed their families, as well as providing help and hope for those living with AIDS. We got to see some pictures and hear stories from one of the teams that recently got back from Kenya and got to learn more about the ministry going on over there. It was hopeful, inspiring, and gave me a greater passion for people. I will say though, the highlight of my night was when Cindy dropped me off at home and the kids requested that I have THEM all over to my house for a playday! Gotta make that happen!

Saturday:

Saturday was by far my busiest day, but it was just as fun as it was busy!

The first thing I did was enjoy a wonderful brunch with Amanda Stubbert and her daughters. I can't even understand why her kiddos love me so much, but I'm incredibly honored by it. I feel that I'm especially close to Hannah. Every Sunday morning she runs up to me and gives me the biggest hug and doesn't want to leave my side. It really blesses me.

In fact, side story: One Sunday morning, I was INCREDIBLY tired and had gotten to the church early, so I decided to catch a nap downstairs in the Kingdom Kids room. Hannah decided to join me:


So it's always a highlight to hang out with Hannah. But I rarely get to actually hang out with Amanda, so it was really a TREAT to enjoy her homemade Dutch Apple Pancakes and great conversation as Simon & Garfunkel played in the background.


After brunch, I headed home to get ready for my softball game.


Great news: WE WON!! It was a good game, but it was tough cause we were down a player, so we had to take an automatic out. But it was still nice to come out on top!

THEN, I capped off the night at Karli's performance with her A Capella crew at the University of Washington: UNLEASHED! A CAPELLA. They did sooooo good! My favorites that they sang were "Killing Me Softly," "I'm Yours," and "Proud Mary."


Afterwards, I got to join them for dinner at The Ram in U Village. We enjoyed burgers, fun conversations, and a rousing rendition of The Proclaimer's 500 MILES song as we all sang along to the overhead speakers.

Sunday:


Westside celebrated it's 12th birthday as a church by having a fun picnic. Originally it was supposed to be at Salmon Park, but in true Seattle form, it rained and we moved it to inside the church. And I dunno about you, but a bounce house inside a church sanctuary is pretty awesome! I even got to jump in the bounce house!! It was good food, good hangs, and just a fabulous day!

Now I'm primed to watch the MTV Movie Awards and call it a night!

Let's Get Physical

Heyyo! So today I got to spend a lot of time at the gym. Usually I only get to hang there for about 30 minutes because I don't always make time to be there for longer. I was working out hard today . . . for about an hour and a half, and was just thinking of the journey I've been on to get to where I am currently as far as my physical fitness goes. You see, when I was growing up, I was a pretty big girl.

Look, I'm Hispanic and we love to eat, okay? And we have the BEST FOOD EVER!! ;) Also, the fact that I was never was good at saying no, especially to yumtastic food, didn't help either. Growing up, I ate what I wanted, and a LOT of it was very unhealthy. We were constantly on the go and I'm pretty sure we spent a large chunk-o-change on fast food. Since finding out I had Pre-Diabetes, and fighting to avoid it, I've been able to make some pretty big changes in my diet. There are a lot of fatty foods I have cut out of my diet and a lot of things I'm slowly siphoning out of it currently. It's not always an easy fight, but I am getting much better. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't conscious of my weight. I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't excited for all the progress I've made thus far. Last fall, after months and months of working out and eating better, I was able to drop 2 pant sizes. This may seem like a little step forward, but for someone like me, it's a pretty big deal!

Usually when I go to gym, I go dreading the workout. Even when I was on staff with MCA and we HAD to go to the gym 2x a week, I hated it. I had the worst attitude towards working out. I didn't like to sweat and I didn't like to push myself. Also, I was pretty comfortable with just being large and in charge. But today when I was at the gym, I noticed that my attitude toward working out had shifted for the better. I even worked out a little extra just because I felt I could push beyond my perceived limit for the day . . . and I did and it felt great!

I'm looking forward to working with my doctor/nutritionist to become better and better and get to a place where I can feel good about challenging myself to push my limits. I want to be healthy and make wise choices. I've gotten so much better about saying NO to the wrong foods and YES to foods that are healthier for me, even if they're not my favorite foods. I've rearranged my schedule to get in more gym time and I'm looking forward to becoming even more healthy. I would be lying if I said that my mirror reflection wasn't a motivator, but an even greater motivator is the thought of defeating something that can easily take my joy, my health, and my life and lead it to a point of pain and inconvenience.

I will add that living in Seattle has worked wonders for me as well . . . these hills . . . they're insane. Also, the building I work in has no elevators and I work on the third floor. I sit at a desk for the majority of the day and it's so easy to just be content with inactivity, but one thing I do is challenge myself to make more trips up and down the stairs to continue to get in some more exercise. I discover that the more active I am, the more free I feel and the more healthy I feel. I want to be able to do another 5k this year as well (possibly even 2), and softball season is starting next month! I'm looking forward to going into these physical activities with a brighter, more positive outlook!

Don't You Know You're Beautiful

So, we lost our softball game yesterday, but it was a GOOD game :D The best part of the day was AFTER the game, when Amy & Jacob, Mike, Krista, and I all went to eat dinner at Sonic Drive-In in Puyallup! It was an hour and half drive both ways...so 3 hours total. But it was SO worth it! I have missed Sonic!! :D

on the way to Puyallup

Having lived so close to Sonic when I was in Austin, it was totally weird driving 3 hours to go to Sonic. And what's more is that this place was HOPPIN'! There was a huge line of cars waiting to get in line to drive up for their order, and 4 or 5 lanes of people waiting to park in a stall. Even when we asked the lady if we could eat outside she was like, "Yeah. It will be about a 10 to 15 minute wait." It was so bizarre!

(these are the cars waiting to park in a stall)

I know it totally threw off my healthy eating habits from this week, but man. It was so yum! :D It was Mike's first time at Sonic and he was so funny! He stood at the order machine and when they asked him what his name was, he was trying to be mischievous and said "Dude" like his name was Dude, but the guy on the other end was like, "Jude?" and Mike, giving up at making the joke, was like, "Yeah. Jude." It was so funny!!



All in all, the trip was so fun and it made up for the loss at the game :D

Real Life Fairytale

Yesterday was so much fun! 

The morning started off a little rough... I got on the wrong bus. :(
(the blue shape is my house, the red shape is where I went at first, and the green shape is where I needed to go.)

You see, I use the online metro transit site to navigate my way around here, but when I typed Meridian Park into the destination line, I guess it never occurred to me that there was not only a Meridian Park in the Wallingford neighborhood, but there's also apparently a MERIDIAN PARK neighborhood in Shoreline, which is the COMPLETE opposite direction of where I needed to go. :(  who knew...

Anyway, I finally made it to the party and had a great time helping Christiaan Vodegel celebrate his FIRST birthday! :D  




And if it's possible at all, I think I've actually fallen head over heels in love with a park—MERIDIAN PARK!  It was so whimsical and all the playground equipment was just...the bee's knees! seriously!  All of the decor was centered around storybooks.  And there was SO much to do! I WISH this stuff had been around when I was a kid...it's seriously so innovative!











Then after the party, I headed over to Soundview Playfields in Crown Hill for a DOUBLE HEADER game! We didn't win either game, but we had a whole lot of fun just playing and cheering each other on and laughing so hard.  :D Unfortunately, we were short on players so I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures, but trust me, it was fun...

...Unless you count the umpire, who obviously didn't know what was going on. First of all, he was calling really bad calls. But what's worse is that he would call it, and then be like, "I think it was a...." (REALLY??!!??) And then when he would make calls, he would kind of say them under his breath so we had to constantly ask him to repeat what the call was. And playing catcher, it was so creeptastic because he was all up in my area and i actually accidentally pushed him against the back board because he was so up on me that it was a natural chain reaction.  In my head I was like, "Look, H-Umpire... ease up off."  Aside from the umpire madness, it was a great time!  :D

Me and My Gang

We WON our softball game today!!

It was so great!  The game was a lot of fun and I really enjoy hanging out with my teammates.  Everyone was cheering and just being so encouraging—it really made the game a million times better!  Here are some pics from the game:

the team hanging out before the game

jessica talkin' trash

our pastor up to bat

hanging out in the dugout with jacob and amy

coming in to bat

Also, last night I went to go see Little Ashes (a Salvador Dali biopic) at the Harvard Exit Theater.  I must say it was quite an amazing experience being in this type of theater because aside from the flat movie screen, it had a completely different feel.  It was an actual THEATER that is now used to show movies.  I felt very "indie" through the whole movie! :D Here are some pics of the theater:

the entrance to the movie's theater

the lobby

Also this morning, I got to babysit some amazing kiddos—Isaiah, Eliza, and Luke Misselbeck + Samuel Sandelin.  They really kept me going... I LOVE making them laugh and smile :D

Here's a couple of pics of me playing dress up with Eliza!

eliza loves flowers!

All in all it's been a fun weekend so far... and tomorrow, i'm going to spend the afternoon down in Ballard enjoying the Grunnlovsdag parade and festivities in Ballard. Ballard is a neighborhood in Seattle and is the traditional center of Seattle's ethnically Scandinavian seafaring community. And though I'm not Scandinavian, I think it would be a cool experience just go and check it out and take pics—so more of that on tomorrow's post! :D

Just The Same But Brand New

Well it turns out I didn't go to the game after all.  But I heard the team did great and was only 1 run short of winning.  Believe me...I wouldn't be that one run. ;) hahahahha

But I did get to have SO MUCH FUN today at Scott and Jodi Andrina's house, celebrating Hayden Grace's 1st birthday!  It was so fun to hang out with some really fun amazing people.  And seriously, their backyard looked like something out of Martha Stewart or Home and Gardens or something magazine worthy.  It was gorgeous! (sorry I don't have pics) I kept joking with Scott and Jodi that I was gonna set up a tent in their backyard and live there—they said I could come over ANYTIME I want and I can camp out ANYTIME I want (as a mischievous grin appears on my face).  Here's a pic of Scott and Jodi with their daughter, Hayden. 


And then here's one of just Hayden—what a cutie!<

And for your enjoyment, 2 new Seattle pics...




And 2 cool songs to check out!

SWITCHFOOT'S "Vice Verses"


JAMES MORRISON'S "You Make It Real"


have a good rest of the weekend and don't forget: TOMORROW IS MOTHER'S DAY!