Specifics

If you know kids at all, you know that it is black and white with them. There is no gray area. I think today what the day that I officially understood this about their little brains.

Every week there is a different theme at the gym, this week it was Crazy Feet! We were doing all of our tumbling skills while paying special attention to the positioning of our feet. We wore silly socks and a lot of people (girls and boys) painted their toenails. At the end of each class we always tell them what the theme is for next week so they can be prepared and bring props if they need to.

Well, next week is a Progress Pajama Party. The parents get to come into the gym and watch the progress their children have made and the whole class is a sleepover theme. I told the kids they could wear their pajamas to class. After this announcement several of them told me what was going to be on their pajamas. However, some of them were sad.

I asked Joseph what was wrong and he said, "I don't have pajamas."

I felt horrible and immediately said, "Oh that's ok. What do you wear when you go to sleep at night?"

"PJs"

"Ok, everybody you can wear your pajamas or your PJs to class next week."

Still there was one sad little girl. I asked Selah why she was sad and she says, "I don't have those."

"Oh, well Selah what do you wear to bed?"

"Jammies."

Lesson learned: Be specific.

Big Brothers

I have been working at The Little Gym for about 2 months now. If you haven't heard of it before, Kelsey usually describes it as PE for pre-schoolers. I have to say that she isn't far off. I teach gymnastics to 2-5 year olds all day long. And while doing somersaults and handstands are a lot of fun, I have to say that I am in this job for the priceless things kids say and do.

Sometimes it is random...

When I asked what the bar smells like, the reply was "Categal magical carrots!" (Well of course! That's what I was thinking too!)

When I asked what the magic word was, I was told it was "Carrot Soup Apple Princess Power" (I thought it was please, but that works too.)

Even though these responses are a little bit silly I have to say that sometimes when kids tell me stories, they make perfect sense. A 3 year old in my sports class told me that he watched a movie the other night with his mom, dad and sister. I asked him what movie he watched and he replied, "CARS!" It must have been quite the night because when I asked if it was good he said, "Yeah! And we had cocktails."

I could go on with these stories for a while but let me close with what I felt was the best quote of the week. In a parent/child class I teach I was talking with a 2 year old's mom. Grady is the boy's name and while he was playing, his mom and I were talking about the new baby they are expecting in May. After I awarded her a congratulations she continued to tell me that Grady doesn't quite understand what is happening. When I confronted Grady about him being a new big brother he gave me a response I wasn't quite ready for. According to Grady, it isn't a baby inside his mother's stomach...it's a tiger.

Raaawwwrrr.

Sorry :(

I have to be honest when I say...I really don't think anyone besides Kelsey Hake is even going to read this. So Kels...here's to you.

I have to apologize that I haven't written a new post since spring break of 2010. I would love to say that it's because I am too busy, but that's just simply not the case. I would love to say that it's because I have something better to do but let's be honest about this entire situation....I forgot I had a blog.

You might be asking yourself, how does a person forget they have a blog? Certainly someone like me, someone who enjoys talking with people about meaningless things all day long would want to write about it. And obviously someone who works with pre-schoolers would want to share the hilarious stories she has when she comes home from work. Well my friends, I DID forget...sue me :)

But I am here to say, it ends NOW! I WILL write on here more. I believe funny things happen in my life all the time. I think it is mostly because I am easily entertained but I want to share my humor with you all so sit back, relax and get ready to read.

go norse.

Hello fans of LCSB-

Unfortunately for us, we haven't really come out and taken care of business in Florida like we wanted to. Having now 3 losses, we sat with our heads down after an upsetting 0-3 score to Mount Mercy College. What was missing? Why were we falling short when clearly we were better than all of our opponents?

After a lot of discussion among the team, we discovered the problem. Passion. We had forgotten what a privilege it is to come out and play the game we have loved since we were 7 years old. We had forgotten how blessed we are to have the abilities we do to play at such a high level of ball. We had forgotten that this game is FUN.

I have always had fun playing this game and even though there are times that I have been frustrated with myself, softball has always been a constant in my life. Luther College Softball has been a home for me. The girls on this team have given more support for me than I can write down and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. My eyes opened after Mount Mercy today and I realized I was forgetting all of the things Luther Softball is about. No matter what happens on the field, everyone has fun. Playing time or not, everyone is a part of the outcome of the game.

I know that other teams don't understand or could ever experience the camaraderie our team has. We know that we are unique and great at what we do. We are going to be amazing this year and we will have fun while we do it. Some teams see losses as a bad thing and while I can't lie and say that I like them either I know that we learned a lot about ourselves today. We relit the passion we had for the game 14 years ago when all we really knew were monotonous cheers that drove parents crazy.

I'm excited for those of you not able to be with us right now in Florida. Don't get me wrong I wish you were here but you are not going to believe the team you are going to be watching when we come home.

GO NORSE!

Oh, and just to prove that we have learned from our loss to Mount Mercy, you might like to know we killed Lawrence College 15-0 in 5 innings tonight. They weren't a bad team but they were not ready for the new and improved Luther College Softball team.

Disney World

First of all, to my family that couldn't make it on this trip...

I am so sorry that I haven't been blogging in the last couple of days. Two games a day really tires me out and I couldn't get myself to write down what happened that day when we had to get up again to play two more at 6:45 am.

Today however was our day off!! And...we went to DISNEY WORLD! It was amazing! Like the sign said, all of my dreams came true. I saw Minnie and Mickey and all their friends! We started the day off at 10 am but by the time we got through all of the gates and actually into Magic Kingdom it was around 11. My mom and grandma met me inside and we started off the day by going to Buzz Lightyear's Intergalactic Adventure Ride. Simo, her parents, Kim, Megan, and Kelsey went with us. It was the only ride that Grandma went on but she loved it. From there we went on Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain. I love roller coasters and actually convinced mom to go on them. I thought she was going to bail on me but she ended up enjoying all of them!

I was surprised that coach allowed us to walk around so much with such a big day ahead of us tomorrow. Western Connecticut and UW-Whitewater are going to be tough games but I think she figured it was pretty important for the team to bond in other areas besides softball. It probably helped that her 3 year old son wanted pictures of all the Disney characters, requiring her to walk around the entire park in search for them.

We were all pretty tired when we came home and stayed off of our feet for the rest of the night but had a fantastic dinner at Kelsey and Tiff's house. You can't beat cheesy potatoes and sloppy joes!

Until next time....

Living the Dream

Today...we met Dot Richardson. I had no idea that it was actually happening until I shook her hand. She came to our practice today to hand us our information packet for the tournament. When she approached the dugout she simply said, "Hi guys, I'm Dot Richardson." Lo and I just stared at each other thinking, "Wait...like the real Dot? That's her?! OH MY GOSH!!" We asked her if she had a minute to take a picture. She was more than happy too. I am more than pleased to say she is a nice as she looks.

LCSB with Dr. Dot Richardson

Before we knew it, she began speaking to us. I can't put into words how she touched all of our hearts. Over half the team was in tears before she was finished. Not only did she have us in tears but then she threw a curve ball at us and started talking about the Olympics.

She talked about the games, the experience, and....THE GOLD MEDALS!!!!! Yes, I got to hold an Olympic Gold Medal and let me tell you, they are heavy! But it was worth every ounce.

After practice we ate at Subway, pretty standard for our team. While the rest of the coaching staff was finishing eating inside, everyone else tried to catch some rays.

We couldn't get too much sun before we left back to the houses, however. We had to get back in the air conditioning so our JV could be rested for their game. While they were resting, the rest of us went to Walmart to get groceries for the rest of the week. We had about 25 minutes to get a week's worth of groceries. Because we were on a limited time schedule we were racing through the isles of the Clermont Walmart so we could go pick up the JV team for their game!

Everything was going smoothly, getting groceries only took a half hour longer than we had planned. We took all of the groceries to the car and then waited for coach to come out with the bill. We waited....and waited............and waited! Um, we were running late coach, come on let's go! There was no sign of her. It turned out that the credit card given to us by the school DECLINED her transaction at Walmart because she had used it too many times that day.

This fiasco had us all on edge but we made it back, unloaded the cars like a Nascar pit crew and flew the JV to their game. Well, you would think that playing ball our whole lives we would know that the tournament is always behind!! Typical. Everything worked out to our advantage and we were ready to go once we were called to the field. JV came out on top tonight over Bethel 9-0 in 5 innings.

Hopefully tomorrow the varsity can come out just as strong against Carleton and UW-Steven's Point.

Varsity girls hanging out before the JV game

Until tomorrow, when we are 6-0...GO NORSE!

Spring Break (Travel Day)

To be honest, we didn't really need to leave today. Don't get me wrong I am more than excited to be in Florida but we have been blessed all week with clear blue skies, green grass, and dirt that is in such perfect condition the pros will be asking to play on it soon.

I have been doing this for a couple of years now but the process of actually arriving at our destination has never been this smooth. We left Decorah promptly at 10:30 am and arrived at the airport with an hour and 45 minutes to spare before the flight. There was more than enough time to get through security and we only had to wait about a half hour before we boarded the plane. However, it seemed like some people just weren't made for traveling.

Anna taking a little nap waiting for our plane to arrive

Upon arriving in Florida we waited for our baggage and then the vans, driven by the coaches, to take us to dinner. At about 7:30 Iowa time we were plenty ready to eat. Kelsey's mom, Sam and my lovely mother and grandma met us at the airport to take some of the luggage in their cars. We ate at Denny's and finally!!! at about 9:30 we finally got our food. It took no time remembering our table manners while we scarfed down our meals.

Then....it was time for the houses. No we don't stay in hotels. We don't even stay in condos. We are staying in Award Winning Vacation Homes that are about twice the size of my house back in Iowa. After we got settled in we decided to call it a night. Practice tomorrow at 10 am! GO NORSE!

Here is a glimpse of the homes we are staying in. They all look the same but they are decorated differently. These pictures are from my house.

The first living room when you walk through the door

Kim and my bedroom to the left when you walk through the door

The dining room to the right when you come through the door

2nd Bedroom

3rd Bedroom

4th Bedroom

1st Bathroom

2nd Bathroom

Kim and I also have our own master bath and walk in closet. I forgot to take pictures of those.

The kitchen

Mom and Grandma by the kitchen in our 2nd living room

Our Pool

Two yahoos hanging out on our patio area (Kim and Bre)

It was too dark to get any pictures of our neighborhood or the outside of the house. That will have to be another day. All of our houses are a stones throw away from each other and we look forward to spending a ton of time together over the next week. Have a good night everyone reading!

Blogging Virgin

Ever since Kelsey started blogging our road trip back in August of '09, I thought to myself, "that...looks like a lot of work." If you know me at all you would know that I am not a fan of scrapbooking, picture taking, or journaling. If I want people to know what is happening in my life I would just give them a call on the phone. Why write it all down if I could just talk about it?

But at about 7:00 pm tonight, something sparked inside of me and I felt the urge to start on a blogging journey...I was bored. It seemed like a good idea a few hours ago and as I keep thinking about it, this blog is going to be a wonderful thing. For one, I am headed to Florida for a week on spring break with the softball team. While my mom and my grandma get to join us, my dad has to stay at home. He won't be able to enjoy the rays of sunshine and endless softball and I feel bad about that, seeing that it is my senior year. This blog will allow him to see what we are up to.

And not only that, but who knows what I will be up to after I graduate. I could be any number of places. Call me indecisive...I won't be offended. It's the truth. I do have my summer planned out, which is a start, but after that is a mystery. I have faith that I will find the things I am looking for in life but for right now, I am just enjoying my last eight weeks at Luther College.

I am not sure how much I am going to keep up with this blog. Maybe I will be pretty religious about it, maybe I will post nothing after the trip to Florida. I don't like to make promises I can't keep so I guess all I can say is...until next time!

Whoever is reading, have a great Tuesday! I know I am going to try to.