That's a First!

Well, Saturday was the big baseball game between Southwestern (Chris' team) and Waldron (Jacob's team). Prior to the game even beginning, Chris was throwing batting practice for the kids, one of whom hit a line drive directly back to the pitcher's mound. Chris didn't have the protective screen up, and he didn't have time to get out of the way or even put his glove up. The ball hit him in the chest directly over his heart. To be honest, he's truly lucky it wasn't a little bit higher or he could have been very seriously hurt (think of that coach that died last year after taking a hit to the temple). So he's been in quite a bit of pain; we don't think he broke any ribs, but I definitely think he's bruised the bone. Of course, we'd never know for sure because he won't let me take him to a doctor.

But that was only the FIRST exciting thing that happened the day of the double header. In the first inning of the first game, the umpire was making some truly inconsistent calls. This is the same ump that Chris got into an argument with last year, so he knew it would be a difficult day. Chris called the ump on his inconsistency in calling balls and strikes (fairly politely... he didn't even leave the dugout), which made the ump angry. The ump told Chris to leave the umpiring to him, to which Chris replied "Well, I wish you'd start umpiring!". Honestly, I thought that was pretty clever! But at that point the ump lost his temper and ejected Chris from the game!!! It's almost unheard of for a coach to be ejected from a game unless he gets physically in the face of the umpire or uses profanity, so everyone thought this was completely ridiculous(well, the SW fans anyway... or maybe it was just SuperFan Dave and me... who knows?)!!!

Now, whenver a coach gets ejected, he must leave the facility, so Chris had to go and sit far away near the bus. An ejection also means that in addition to the game the coach is ejected from, he must serve another game's suspension. Before Chris actually left the facility, he walked towards the umpire to ask him if he would have to serve his suspension in the next game (the second game of the double header) or if he could put it off and serve the suspension at their game on Monday. This is a basic rules question that the umpire should have known. But the ump didn't know the rules! Chris REALLY lost his temper at that point and told the umpire that he was completely pathetic that he couldn't even call a simple game and didn't know how to enforce the rules!

Waldron won the first game of the doubleheader. I'm pretty sure Jacob wasn't too happy about some calls either, so at least the ump was consistenly horrible (as odd as that sounds). It was a pretty good game, especially because the teams are evenly matched. Southwestern won the second game, which means they have won a total of two games this year. That is the highest number of wins since 2004, which is a little sad, but at least they're showing some improvement! I didn't stay for the second game; I didn't see much point since the only reasons I go are to support Chris as he's coaching... and to check out his cuteness in that baseball uniform!

That pretty much sums up the excitement for the weekend! Now I've got to go check on Chris (his game today was cancelled due to the weather) and make sure he's keeping the ice I gave him on his chest to help with the swelling and bruising!

EEEWWWWW!!!

Okay, so remember like a week ago I heard some THING scrambling in my dryer vent? Well, I thought it was the wall at first, but then figured out it was actually the dryer vent. Yesterday I put a load of clothes into the dryer, and when it buzzed I went to take the clothes out... and they were still wet. Not damp, but every bit as wet as they were when I put them in. I knew it was tossing the clothes around, and I knew it was getting hot because steam came out when I opened the door. So I knew something had to be clogging the vent... and I dreaded finding out what that something was. So I got the shop vac and hoped that it was just a clog of lint. As you can guess from the title... it wasn't just lint clogging the vent. It was a medium sized dead bird. The shop managed to move it enough so that I could pull it out... don't worry, I was wearing gloves. And screeching like a little girl the whole time. It was so so so GROSS! But at least my dryer is working right again and it didn't cost me anything! Now all I have to do is make Chris climb up onto the roof and fix the screen around the vent when it's not raining so nothing else gets in there. Because I DO NOT want to have to dispose of any more little unintelligent animals that think the vent looks like a nice place to live and end up croaking instead!

The earth's a shakin...

This morning I woke to the awful sound of all my windows rattling as if a tornado was approaching, which was promptly followed by the sensation of the bed shaking. We turned on the news and learned that an EARTHQUAKE hit Indiana! And then around 11:20, an aftershock hit! I've got to admit it was one of the strangest things I've ever felt. I suppose it's really neat since no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. I talked to Heidi in Evansville, which is much closer to the epicenter of the quake, and she said moments before it hit her dog started freaking out! Apparently animals can sense things like that before people. Regardless, it was a weird experience and at least now I can say I've lived through one!

Baseball is upon us!

Well, as I'm sure Kristen will agree, baseball season and therefore coaching widowhood is upon us! The Spartans have played 3 teams so far, with one of them being a double header last Saturday (in the 40 degree weather). They managed to win one last night against the Baptist Academy after an excellent coaching move by my sweetie, who signaled his player to steal home for the game winning run!

I like baseball okay, but I'd much rather watch tennis (if Chris is coaching) or football if I'm just watching a game. It's hard when the person you spend the vast majority of your time with has baseball on the brain... for several months it's as though every conversation eventually leads back to the sport, be it talking about coaching, playing (in the summer), or watching it on TV. Chris is compelled to watch every single Atlanta Braves game played, as well as to catch as many Reds, Yankees, and Red Sox games as possible. In fact, he managed to talk me into purchasing (for the annual fee of $179) a MLB package that allows him to watch every single MLB game played for the entire season. In high def, no less. I've told him he's obsessed but he just laughs!

So this gives me the idea to do a little information sharing... we now know what my hubby is obsessed with, but what about everyone else's husbands? What is that thing that they would devote all their time to if they could? That thing that is both endearing and frustrating at the same time??? I'm thinking this should definitely be good for a few laughs!

What a week... and it's only Wednesday!

This has just been one of those weeks. First off, my car (you know, the one I JUST got back from the mechanics Saturday?) on Monday starting doing the exact same thing that caused me to take it into the shop in the first place. The thing I just paid $350 to fix... except it wasn't fixed. So today I had to take it back to the mechanics, where it will remain for who knows how long. Luckily my dad has a spare car that he's letting me borrow until mine is fixed.

But that's not all! Sunday, while I was working on my homework, I heard the most peculiar noise coming from the laundry room. So I went in, and found... nothing. Went back to my homework, and heard that weird scratchy sound again. And then I figured it out. SOMETHING had crawled or fell or flew into the dryer vent. Now, apparently the dryer vent is on the roof (believe me, I searched all over before I noticed it up there), and a bird (we think) was scoping it out for a nest, fell in, and then scrambled for several hours trying to get out... which is that scratchy noise I heard. At least, we think it got out; in any case, the noise stopped and I haven't smelled anything decomposing yet, so here's to keeping your fingers crossed. But now I'm all paranoid things will be crawling around in my walls or building nests where they shouldn't, and it's yucky to think about.

And then there was today. Today, I noticed my little darling students not exactly doing their work as they were supposed to. Since the whole point of them being in the alternative program is to graduate, I tend to get annoyed when they aren't doing what they're supposed to. Especially condsidering they only attend school 3 hours a day and they only have 6 weeks left of school. So during my lunch break, I checked out what they'd been up to. As it turns out, several students had found remote proxy websites that allowed them to get past the firewall and view myspace and youtube. So I spent most of the afternoon updating the firewall against those new proxies... not much fun.

Hopefully the rest of the week will go by much smoother!

Spring Break Recap

It's been a good but busy spring break for us. I managed to get a lot of spring cleaning done, which was a big relief. Just getting things reorganized and clutter removed really helps, ya know? With baseball season starting to heat up, I don't get to spend as much time doing stuff around the house as I'd like because I try to go to as many games as I can.

My car was in the shop pretty much all week... it had been kind of messed up for the last month but we decided to wait until break to take it in. Apparently the water pump had been malfunctioning, but that's all taken care of now. Since we're planning on selling it as soon as school is finished for the summer anyway, we mostly wanted to get it fixed enough so that we'll get a good resale value.

The other exciting thing that happened over break is that Chris finished his final class for his special education license. He's been working on it for a year and a half, and he is very excited to not have to take classes for a while! Now he is licensed in K-12 PE and Health, as well as K-12 learning disabilities, mild/moderate mental handicaps, and emotional disabilities. Very exciting!

On Thursday we headed to Connersville to see Chris' family, which was a lot of fun! I couldn't ask for better in-laws!!! Chris' mom Sheri and I had planned a little surprise graduation party for Chris that evening (just cake really, nothing big or he would have been suspicious). No sooner than we sat down to eat lunch, Claire says to her Uncle Chris, "Did you know we've got you a birthday cake? It's hidden in the closet!". She's turning 4 in a month, so you can't really be mad... but needless to say the surprise was spoiled. It ended up being a lot of fun, with lots of makeup being tried out and multiple hair stylings. Pictures to come!

Last night we went to the Marshall's house (they live on our cul-del-sac and have the cutest little girl named Lily) and played Cranium until about 1:30. It was fun but I definitely need to work on my game! We promptly came home and went right to sleep... neither of us could remember the last time we were out so late... which is a little pathetic. But I guess we're getting old, and that goes with the territory!

Now to do some homework (sadly, it will be a year and a half before I'm finished with my master's... so still lots of homework left for me) and try to get ready to get back in that work week grind!