Busy Busy

Inevitably every year as the baseball season comes to a close, our schedule for the fall starts filling up like mad. I almost get stressed out thinking about all the things we're going to do, yet they're always really fun things. For instance, we'll be headed to some Clemson football games, we'll be getting together with family, and I'll be going to Edisto for a girls weekend with my college girlfriends too! Our schedule is so packed already that I think there's only one weekend in October that's even free. I guess when you're gone for half the year, you have to pack everything in during the other half when you're home. I'm thankful that Brian's a baseball player and not a football player. I feel sorry for professional football players and their wives because their season is in the winter. That means they're away from home during the holidays and sometimes have to play on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! That would stink.

Only 3 weeks before the season is over and we start heading home. It's always a bittersweet time. We look forward to going home, but it's hard leaving the friends we've made up here too, especially when you have no idea if you'll ever see them again. We could be back in Fargo next season, or we could be somewhere else. Only God knows the plans He has for us. Sometimes I think it sure would be nice if we knew what they were. But obviously not knowing is part of His plan for now. We'll know when we're supposed to know. In the meantime, I'm sure we'll stay so busy that the off season will fly by!

And a Good Time Was Had By All

Beach week was great! It flew by in a hurry, and before I knew it it was time to go home. Many of us played in the water more this year than in the last few. My little cousins are now old enough and brave enough to ride some pretty big waves, so we had a blast together.

Here are a few pictures from the week. If there's one thing our family loves to do, it's making strange faces (as you'll see in the last few pictures). For those of you who don't know my family I feel like I should let you know that they don't really look like that all the time. Sorry I couldn't post more pictures. My mom takes pictures at the highest resolution, so it takes a long time to download them to the blog.

Family, I enjoyed the beach week and can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!

"Beach Week"

A relaxing week at the beach is only two days away! Every year, since before I was even born, my family has taken a week long vacation to the beach. When I say family, I mean everyone on my mom's side: parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins, EVERYONE! It is absolutely so much fun that I look forward to it every year. The only bad part is that Brian is never able to go because of baseball. So I end up missing him during that week and wishing he were there to share in all the fun. One day he'll be able to come though!

I fly to Columbia on Friday (tomorrow), and we leave for the beach Saturday morning. I've already gotten my "base tan" so I don't get fried on the first day. (My host family has a pool that Brian and I have found quite enjoyable!) I looked at the weather forcast for the beaches of SC, and unfortunately we may not have much sunshine. Every day they're calling for scattered thunderstorms, but I'm sure we'll get some nice sunny weather at some point! In any case, it will be nice just to be with my family that I haven't seen in 5 months!

Every year at the beach is different, but there are some things that we always seem to do. Maybe because of tradition, but mostly because they're fun. For instance, if there's a thunderstorm, we love to go out on the covered porch and watch it as comes in, or goes out across the ocean. There's also always a golf outing, a good card game, and crabbing (one of my personal favorites). I love it when we catch really big ones! One year we caught so many that we kept them and made crab dip. I don't think we'll do that again because shelling all of those crabs was tedious! Anyway, of course we do the standard beach activites like riding waves, searching for sharks teeth, and going out to eat for good seafood too. When I was little we would always go to a small waterpark. I think my favorite one closed down a few years ago. I'm going to check on that when I'm down there this year, because if it's open, I'll be trying to talk some people into going with me!

On a completely different subject, I've neglected to give the Redhawks trainer, Jake Fish, or "Fish" as we call him, proper credit in previous entries. He's done a great job helping Brian recover from his strained biceps tendon. So Fish, here's to you buddy! No more leaving you out on my blog entries.

No more chemo!

For those of you who didn't know, my "little host brother," Joey, was diagnosed with cancer 4 years ago. After a hard fought battle, he is now cancer free and done with all of his chemotherapy!! Apparently the doctors and nurses throw a party for the kids when they're done with treatment. It was complete with pizza and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen! Brian didn't get to attend the party yesterday because the team is playing in Winnipeg this weekend, but I got to go. From what I've been able to observe over the past two summers, Joey has been extremely brave and courageous. I'm so proud of him, and I know that his parents are too. The party was well deserved!

MRI

Brian had an MRI done yesterday on his shoulder. If you recall, about a month ago a doctor performed an ultrasound to see what was causing the pain in his shoulder. At that time the doctor determined Brian had a strained bicep tendon. So Brian didn't pitch for about a week and it felt a lot better. However, it began hurting again about two weeks ago, so back to the doctor he went. We got the results back from the MRI today, and thankfully they were negative. That means there's no major injury. The doctor thinks that same tendon is still strained or irritated. So Brian will be getting "a-stim" treatment. I have no idea what that is, but it's some form of therapy. Thankfully, Brian hasn't thrown in about 8 days so that should aid in his recovery time. The trainer says he can start throwing again soon. I'm glad he'll start pitching again soon because it's kind of boring for me to watch a lot of baseball games when Brian isn't playing. That's about all from Fargo!