Congratulations!

Congratulations to our good friends Paul and Meredith Stewart who just had their 2nd little girl, Raleigh Elizabeth Stewart on June 14th. Raleigh was 19 inches long, and weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces. We're so excited about their newest addition to the family!


We met Paul and Meredith during spring training of 2003. Brian and Paul were both playing for the Red Sox at the time, but after spring training Brian was sent to play for the double A team while Paul was sent to the triple A team. However, the next season (2004) they both pitched in double A for the Brewers. Paul and Meredith became some of our dearest friends that season and we've remained close ever since.

In other exciting news our friend, Chris Barnwell, made his Major League debut last week with the Milwuakee Brewers! He's gotten one hit in 3 at bats, so his batting average is .333, which is great! Brian called him the other day to say congratulations, and all of his family was in town to see him play. How exciting?!! I hope that gets to be Brian one day!

Happy Birthday Kari! Kari Joachim, our host mom, will be the big 42 tomorrow! She's probably not happy that I announced her age on my blog, but she definietly doesn't look 42! I made one of her favorite cakes for her today, coconut cake. It's my family's recipe that is absolutely outstanding! I made it for their family last year and they liked it so much that Kari made two more. She took one to work, and the other to her Mom. She says that it's now the most requested cake in Fargo!

Pictures

Here are some pictures I took recently.

Brian making his daily walk to the bullpen.




Loosening up in the bullpen.





Newman Outdoor Field at night. That's Brian warming up on the mound.











My friend Kim and I. Kim is the fiance of Brandon Culp, another Redhawks' pitcher.




Playing golf on our off day!

Oops

I have a correction to make. The chicken salad recipe actually calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of mayo. I thought it only called for 1 cup. I only used about 3/4 cup because I didn't have 4 cups of chicken, so really you could use as much or as little as you like!

Baseball, Golf, and Chicken Salad

I felt like I should update my blog today since it's been about a week since I wrote the last entry. There's nothing extremely special or out of the ordinary for me to share, so I thought I'd just fill you in on the little details of our week.

Brian is pitching great! His ERA is 1.00! He's pitched the last 3 games in a row, so his arm is tired. The pitching coach is hoping he can throw another inning today, but I'm not sure that would be wise. I think a little recovery time is needed.

We have an off day on Thursday, and like every off day, Brian wants to play golf. I can't blame him since the Redhawks players and wives are allowed to play for free at two of the local courses. Golf is not my favorite activity, but my game is getting better, I think. I still swing and miss sometimes, and I only play 9 holes. After that, I've had enough. Brian would probably try to play 36 if I were up for it! Anyway, hopefully we'll get to go out on a date too. Dinner and a movie sure would be nice. I'm thankful just to have some quality time with my hubby, and get a break from watching baseball. We have to capitalize on these off days. They are few and far between!

Brian and I ate chicken salad sandwiches for lunch today. I got the recipe from Southern Living magazine. I love trying new recipes and finding a keeper! It's not the best I've ever tasted, but it was definitely good. If you're interested, the recipe is below:

4 cups cooked chicken breasts, chopped (I just used canned chicken for time's sake)
1 cup dried cranberries
3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup mayo (I used light Miracle Whip)
1/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Be sure to stir the last 4 ingredients together first, then combine that mixture with the rest of the ingredients.