From where I sit....

As I sit here in my usual spot in our hotel room with just a couple of days left in Spring Training, I am left to ponder about all that has happened in the last seven weeks. Sometimes I laugh (out loud) when I think about how much baseball impacts every part of our life. To you reading and everyone who surrounds us that isn't in our baseball family it is just a sport that is on TV April through November, but it is so much more. 

It's what my husband and many other husbands to women I have met in baseball's deepest most sacred dream. It's something we eat, live, breath, drink, worry over, cheer over and pray over for God to bless our husband's with another day in. It's the sport that I dream about when Jess can one day take our little boy (if there is one) to "work" with him so he can chase him around the locker room and field. Or when I can dress our little girl in "Daddy's #1 Fan" shirts and dresses. Baseball is not just Jess' lively-hood. He said to me the other day "I love this game", and although those words seem like just a statement I could hear the depth and sincerity in his voice when he said it. 

It is no secret that Jess has had a rough couple of years playing. In all reality compared to other guys he hasn't had it that bad. I think the rate he breezed through the minor league system in the Cardinals Organization trumped him into thinking that the work of a professional athlete was easy and in REALITY it isn't. It is just something we have to learned to accept. I will say that even though things have not always gone our way I believe that we are put in the places that God needs us to be and in the end that is the only place I want us to be. Where we need to be. 

As I start to pack up our stuff and get ready to head on to our next destination I always have a few hundred emotions stirring inside of me. The excitement of where we will be going next, the nervousness of adjusting to a new place, the scariness of meeting new people, the cluelessness of where to grocery shop, where the post office is and what neighborhoods not to venture out in. The love and admiration I have for Jess in how hard it is to keep working at achieving his dream always reminds me why we do this. The power of God and his many blessings remind me that we can do this and I am so thankful he picked us to do it together. 

Here is to season 2013! God willing may it be the best yet!

Love,

E

What I'm Up To

Hello on this glorious Palm Sunday!

We were up bright and early this morning because Jess had to "back up" in Port St. Lucie today. I dropped him off around 6:40am after getting him some donuts and coffee ;)

The bus left out at 7:30 so he wanted to make sure he had enough time to get everything together before their departure. On Friday he had "backed up" and almost got in the game but the short stop ended up making a really great play that ended the inning. Jess said he was "Ready to go in!" and was pretty pumped with his warm up session he had as he was getting ready to go in. Today's game actually just ended and he didn't end up throwing in that one either. Maybe next time!

My day has been filled with watching Church online this morning, a visit to the laundry mat, giving myself a pedicure, reading and now blogging. I've started doing my own manicures and pedicures, doing a pedicure once a month and a manicure every week. It's quite liberating for me. Saving $30 every other week has been really nice!

This will probably be the last day that is low key until the end of baseball season. The coming week will be full of working ahead in my school work and getting everything set up in Toledo. Saturday is the day we are supposed to head up North and from then on we will be on the go. Lots of exciting things happening in the coming months!

I will let y'all know if anything changes here in Lakeland! I hope y'all have a fabulous "Holy Week" and enjoy the days leading up to Easter!

Love,
E

Update

Jess ended up getting called to back up the big league game today. If he doesn't pitch today in that game then he will probably throw for Triple A tomorrow. I will let y'all know if he did or didn't throw so that way y'all wont be wondering ;)

In other news I ordered this really cool hoodie yesterday.

The concept was created by a fellow Baseball wife and I literally cried when reading how You Play. I Pray came about. It is amazing just how many other women go through the exact emotions and ride the same roller coaster of baseball that I do. I actually even spoke to the girl over email after ordering. I encouraged her to keep inspiring women all over that have someone dear to them playing sports. I am so glad to have stumbled upon You Play. I Pray. 

If you want to see what it's all about click here.

Happy Friday Y'all!

Love,

E

9 Days

We have been here for 37 days. We only have 9 left.

With that said within these next 9 days there will be a lot going on. Jess will throw tomorrow and then probably again on Sunday. It looks like right now they have a rotation of every other day. He threw yesterday and had 2 hits with 1 run scored. He said he felt good just stumbled on some tough luck. I will continue to keep you posted on how he does so check back tomorrow evening for an update.

I can't believe our Spring is coming to an end. Camp will officially break March 30th when then everyone who is driving for the season will be dismissed to drive up to Toledo. I am hoping to make a stop in Columbus to see Sumita and her family for Easter! We are very excited to be close to them during the season this year.

We also want to try and see Josh one more time before we break camp, gosh just thinking all that is about to take place in these next 9 days makes my brain hurt.

We have enjoyed this Spring Training so much and even though it was no West Palm, we have really came to love Lakeland. I know Jess has really not missed me going to the West Palm mall if you know what I mean ;)

I hope everyone has had a smooth week!

Love,
E

A Nice Gift

In my last post I mentioned how busy we would be this past week. Well we were and the week came and went faster than before.

Jess had his first official outing on Saturday. Verlander started the game for Triple A and then once he reached his pitch count Triple A pitchers fell in line as the proceeding innings changed. Jess closed the game in the 9th with 3 up, 3 down. He looked great and his velo was on point. The first batter flied out, the second batter broke his bat and grounded out and the third batter struck out. They were playing the Washington Nationals and our roommate from last year Brian Broderick threw 2 innings for them. He as well looked on point and I was so happy for him and Jess. Broderick called me down to the player's entrance once the game was over and we caught up real quick. He seemed so happy and he concurred that he was much happier this season. He will always be one of our dear friends and we wish him all the luck in the world.

Yesterday I went to Church and then a luncheon some of the wives and Bible Study teachers put on for us. Only about 6 girls showed up but it was nice to hangout and visit like we did. Plus even though Jess didn't have to go on the road for the Triple A game he and the others that didn't have to go had to stay and watch 5 innings of the High A team. So that left me some time to burn and I figured getting to know some girls wouldn't hurt ;)

I went into this season with the mindset that we were here for Jess to play ball. I wasn't interested in making any friends and sure as heck didn't feel like hanging out with anyone. I have been burned in the past and just didn't want to repeat that again. The Detroit Tigers Organization or better yet the people in this organization have made me throw that mindset out the window. I feel as though this team has so many genuine, caring, REAL, God-fearing, faith founded people in it. People you want to be surrounded with and men I want Jess to be around.

During Bible Study last night some of the big league guys shared their testimonies and their ups and downs in baseball. I wanted to slap myself right out of my chair after hearing one of them say that he had been designated 7 times in his career! I seriously thought we had the sob story of it all and Jess has only been designated 3 times. Which in no way am I under-minding that but it was a real eye opener that we aren't the only ones this game has hurt. I know a lot of times Jess feels pinpointed in the failure department in comparison to his close friends James and Chris. Truth be told though, we all have different stories and different paths. It might seem unfair to us, (Lord knows he has heard us both say and think it a million times) but it is what has to happen in order for us to be the people God intended us to be.

We received some very nice gifts last night at Bible Study and I just wanted to share a picture of them with y'all.

The picture above is a book called "God's Promises" that has our names embellished on them. Below is the note the Bible Study Chaplain from Detroit wrote us. Everyone who has been coming to the study got one and I was so touched by this. 

As spring training starts to wined down and pandemonium starts, whether we end up with this organization or not I will always cherish who we have met and all we have learned from the people here. I am so thankful God put us here and hope that we touched just as many people that we were touched by.

Rumor on the street is that rosters plan to be set by the 24th. Please pray for Jess to to be at ease through it all. I will let you all know as soon as cuts start to be made.

I hope everyone had a Happy St. Patty's day yesterday!

Love,
E

Many Hats

Although my love for Fashion has had me showcase many hats in my day, I "sport" many invisible ones daily.

Like today I was a chauffeur, Jess was done by lunch and since he wasn't feeling a sandwich from home he wanted one from Subway or I would have been a cook too. I was a personal assistant by apartment hunting and finding the PERFECT apartment for season while it being the right price, right distance from the field and right size for my husband. This was a task this year. Like I have said before, I wasn't going to have the hotel hell situation again so this caused me to really dig deep.

To round out the afternoon I was a therapist/counselor and then for my own good a student. The funny thing about all these hats is that last year and years before I honestly had a melt down every other week. I am a huge planner so not knowing what was going on and where we were going drove me nuts. I don't know if it is maturity (which I doubt it, I can overreact like George Banks on any given day) or pure exhaustion that has led me to chill out a bit. On top of that I feel so strong in my faith right now and I truly believe something wonderful is in store for Jess this year. I don't know how prepared Jess is but I am prepared to take on whatever agenda God has for us. I can't lie, as I am typing this I feel my heart tug a little with doubt, but there is no turning back. I am pressing on, I want what the good Lord above has planned for me.

I have had a really good time here in Lakeland even though the atmosphere is no West Palm. I have met really nice girls; one in particular, who since our husbands have the same last name we get mistaken as being related and the boys are mistaken as brothers all the time. Her husband's name is Jade so fittingly two J names followed by the last name Todd would only mean their brothers, right? She says we should just own it so I think I am just going to start saying "yes"when they ask if we are related.

We had a Women's Luncheon in Largo, FL this week that we went to and it was really nice. It is put on by Baseball Chapel and a couple of different women speak that have been in the game and know how our lives are. Books are provided for us to take if we want them so I grabbed a few and I am really excited about one of them I nabbed. I also was able to see Jill, Chris' wife and that was a nice surprise!

This week has been a busy one with Jess backing up in Clearwater on Tuesday and Port St. Lucie yesterday that it flew by. Camp is supposed to break on the 30th for us to drive wherever our team is at for the season so that leaves just about 15 days here. It's so exciting to me and I am so excited to see what is in store for us this season!

I hope y'all's week has been a good one!

Love,
E

A Sincere Apology

I would just like to say that I am so sorry for not updating y'all in a while. We have been super busy and I have not had the time to sit down and write out a decent post. 

I don't like to post on here unless I really put some effort into it. 

With that said I will fill y'all in on what exactly we have been up to! Jess has been backing up in big league games and has backed up a total of 5 so far. He hasn't pitched in a game he has just been there on "standby" if need be. He did close the game against Western Michigan University they had last week and had 1 strikeout, 1 fly out and 1 ground out. He said he felt good and was happy to be out there. 

He has thrown bullpens and 1 live bp. As of now he will throw a bullpen tomorrow and back up on Thursday. He hopes to get more work in before season breaks but now that the rest of the minor league guys have reported he doesn't know exactly how things will go. 

This Spring Training has been a sporadic one. His schedule is never the same and I am always guessing how the day will go. 

We have gone to Bible Study the past two Sundays and have really enjoyed it. Like I have said before Jess only knew one guy on the team before reporting this spring, so we both thought Bible Study would provide us with friends that were a good influence and fun to be around.

This past Friday we went to Bucsh Gardens and spent the day there. That was a lot of fun but Tampa has very very very bad traffic so leaving was quite the chore!

I was pretty skeptical of the Kangaroo's and didn't want to get as close as Jess was to them.

Jess' favorite animals to look at were the alligators. He is so intrigued by them it is crazy! We walked over to them 3 times while we were there. He wanted to see them move so bad. We ended up staying there until 6 and then headed back to Lakeland. 

Throughout the day the cold that I was starting to get obviously got aggravated and I woke up Saturday morning with a head and chest full of congestion. Jess ended up being off that day so we headed back to Tampa to spend the day with Josh and his in-laws. 

Josh' mother in law rented a condo on Clearwater Beach for the month of March so we went and had brunch and then met them at the condo. The day ended up being a overcast chilly one so we decided to go bar hopping. We ran into a teammate Jess had last year that is now with the Toronto Blue Jays so that was a nice little surprise. 

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures that day but we hope to go back down there soon and spend some time with them. 

This week is going to be a busy one because I started a 7 week math class, I have a luncheon on Wednesday in Tampa, Jess is backing up on Thursday and we plan to see some old friends one night this week.

The great house hunt has began for Toledo and I am super stressed about that. Short term leasing is such a pain to deal with. You would think that after all these years I would be a pro at this. A new team brings a new city so I am trying to learn which areas are safe and what areas are not. There are only 19 days left of camp so I better figure something out soon ;)

I hope y'all forgive me for the lack of updates! We get up super early and go to bed super early as well so by 10 we have already hit the hay.

I hope Monday treated y'all well!

Love,

E

One Thousand Gifts

Happy March 2nd y'all!

Thank goodness there is only 9 months and 23 days left until Christmas!

Haha! Just kidding....but not really! I was talking to my sister last night and we were both saying how we couldn't wait for Christmas to get here. We are crazy, I know!

While we do have a while before the holiday season is back in full force, one season that is in full swing is the baseball one. Things have been going good and we are so thankful for that. Jess has backed up a couple of games but has yet to get in the actual game. He is actually backing up today against the Pirates so maybe today is THE day ;)

If not it's no biggie, he will get his chance. I'm not worried....

Worried, worry, worrying. One word=immense impact. Worrying is something that both Jess and I have come to know quite well. Most of the time we both have to slap ourselves out of it but sometimes (and I admit this shamefully) it takes over our psyche for a little bit.

Like I have said ONE MILLION times and will say it one million more, we are so blessed. Too blessed, but we (I) do still worry. Me more than he but men don't really show emotions anyway. A way that has been helping me not worry so much is a book called "One Thousand Gifts". It is a book written by a woman who has endured some painful seasons in her life but has taken it upon herself to write down one thousand things she is thankful for. I mean every little thing she could possibly be thankful for. While washing dishes she stopped to write down "362. Suds...all color in sun" this was her being thankful for the way the sun reflected colors through the suds. I mean something so very small she is thankful for. Every day little things that we as humans just take for granted unknowingly.

I decided to take on this approach to help keep positivity in my life. I will share a few with you every now and then and hopefully I will reach my list of one thousand gifts.

1. My family.

2. My health.

3. My life.

4. All the places I have been.

5. Coffee, I love coffee.

These are in no particular order, I just started writing things down and this is how it flowed out of me. I mean if we were really ranking things, grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese would be before coffee. Just saying.

I hope that if any of y'all are burdened with worry this approach will help you get through it. Just take a minute and start jotting things down. You won't regret it ;)

I hope y'all all have a fabulous weekend!

Love,
E