Monster Zucchini

Well, not much to report here! We had a nice weekend, and yep, you guessed it, Ryan had another softball tournament... but again, it was drama-free, and thankfully, it was a one-day tournament here in Littleton. PHEW! So I got in a good run around Johnson Lake at Clement Park during his first game at 8am, and then stunk up the stands by sticking around to watch the rest of their games! It was a men's only tournament, and they didn't do as well as they have in the past, but they seemed to have a good time all the same.

Last night it poured rain and gave our gardens and yard a nice saturation, thank you Mother Nature! So today I busted out the lawn mower (always an adventure for me to get that darned thing started) and took care of mowing the lawn, and then I checked out our veggie garden and to my surprise, I encountered the largest zucchini I have ever seen in my whole life. It's more like a large eggplant than a zucchini. Lisa just told me that you're supposed to harvest them at around 5 inches... this one's like a foot. OOPS! HA! I checked it on the weekend and it was maybe 5 inches but skinny, so I wanted to give it a little more time, but DANG! I gotta watch those squash carefully! Holy smokes! Take a look at this bad-boy!

Still in the garden:

Next to an average sized friend:


Anyways, like I said, not much going on... waiting for a friend to go into labor so we can meet her 3rd daughter, and looking forward to my upcoming birthday and my parents' visit in another week or so. :)

I was SO good about running nearly everyday last week, but this week I've been so focused on cleaning the house that I've run out of time both yesterday and today... tomorrow, I start fresh with a good early morning run while it's nice and cool and before the car exhaust takes over The Ranch.

Happy 36th Anniversary to my Mum & Dad! You're my heroes! :)
~alliwilli

So Sorry to Disappoint... :)

We had a LOVELY drama-free softball weekend in Vail! It was fabulous! So for those of you awaiting the next installment of Softball Tournaments Gone Wrong, sorry! But man, we were thrilled to have such a wonderful weekend!

Friday afternoon we had our 16 week doctor appointment and all seems well. It was our first appointment with my OB Doc, Dr. Jodi Gibson, instead of our RN, Joan. So it was nice for Ryan to meet her, and it always gives me a warm fuzzy to have the doc come in and say "everything looks good!"... I've gained a bit more than I'd/they'd like in the last month or so, but she said not to worry, that every woman is different, so to just keep up with the healthy eating and exercise and I'll be fine. We heard the heartbeat again, which is wicked cool. It sounded a bit like galloping horses this time (in the 160 bpm range)... the doc said it sounded like a girl... HA! Sorry Ryno! ;)

Then Friday night we had our last Friday night co-ed softball league game up in Westminster for the summer league, and we won! No, not just the game, but the whole league for the season! We scored some sweet long-sleeved t-shirts that say "Champions"... I'm a Champion. HAHAHA!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Vail for the team's first game at 11:00. The Outlaws then proceeded to win 4 games in a row! 11:00, 12:00, 2:00 and 3:00!!! I kept official score for all the games, which I'm now obsessed with... loves it. Thanks for teaching me that, Dad! And then Ryan and I packed it up and went and found our hotel right in West Vail (the Holiday Inn Apex Vail) and got changed and cleaned up and then made our way into the Village of Vail and walked around and found some supper at a Pizza place (the only thing we really can afford in Vail! HAHAHA!). Then we went back to the hotel room to hang out and relax and eventually met back up with a few teammates at a sports' bar to watch the Rockies' game! Oh, and we went to Sports Authority and I scored a very cute sun-hat to sport at all the games and avoid hair-part-sun-burn. ;)

Sunday I got us some Egg McMuffins at McDonald's for breakfast and then we got to the fields with plenty of time for their next game, at 10:30am. Again I kept official score, and the team won! On to the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME they went! Yee-haw! The championship game was at 12:30 and unfortunately even though we were up 9-3 in the 5th inning, in the 7th inning the wheels came off our team, I think we were just tired, and the other team scored 10 runs making it 13-9 and we just couldn't make up the difference so we ended up taking 2nd in the tournament. Not too shabby if you ask me! But the team was a little disappointed. But all in all a great weekend!

It took us 3 hours to get home due to mountain traffic and then after a couple hours resting at home, we played our co-ed Sunday league game at 9pm and won by a landslide... I think we 15-runned them in the 4th inning. Doh! Fun times!

So a much less dramatic weekend, but way more fun and a lot less stress!

Here's a picture of the 2nd place Outlaws:

(Back, L-R: Pat, Dale, Ryan, Eric, Brian, Zach; Front, L-R: Ann, Kim, Connie, T-Bone, Darcy)

And a picture of Ryan and me (in my fab new sunhat):

Another Weekend, Another Softball Tourney Fiasco... HA!

Well, the Title of this entry pretty much wraps it up... yup, Ryan had another softball tournament this past weekend up in Summit County. Last weekend's was a men's league, so we thought "no drama b/c no women?!" but alas, no, plenty of drama (read my last post). So this past weekend's was a co-ed league, but the team has been together for a long time, Ryan was the newest addition, they are a solid bunch, so we thought "alas, no drama"... wow. We were wrong, again.

Their first game was scheduled for 5:30pm on Saturday in Breckenridge, so we left here at just before 3pm and arrived to a rainy (very rainy) Summit County. The game in front of Ryan's was playing despite the rain, so Ryan got ready, but then the rain really picked up, so there was a rain delay from about 4:45 until 6:30 or so, which gave them a little time to rake the fields and move some of the standing water on them around to make them playable. At 6:30 the game resumed and Ryan's team started warming up. At 7:00 Ryan's team played its game and won! Yay! No drama. Then the original schedule was supposed to be Ryan's team's game at 5:30, then a game played by 2 other teams at 6:30, followed by the winner of the 5:30 game at 7:30 and the loser of the 5:30 game at 8:30. Well, as you can guess, with the rain delay, that all got jacked. Now, mind you, they had a hard-stop at 10pm because the lights on the field are on a TIMER and shut off at 10pm, period. No ifs ands or buts about it. Done at 10. So, Ryan's game ended at around 8:00 or so, and then the other game played until around 9:15, and finally they were going to play the game that was supposed to be at 7:30... however, clearly they didn't have an hour to play it. So the umps decided they'd play 35 minutes of 1-pitch-ball. That means that the game would go SUPER fast... awesome! We'd all be able to pack up our things and get to our cars before the lights in the entire complex shut off and it went pitch black! Oh, and side-note... the team they were playing were apparently a nemises team of ours?! Whatever. Anyways, so they played ONE INNING of the 1-pitch ball, and then the other team complained that the game on the south field was playing a regular format game, so the umps and captains huddled and decided to go for it. So as of the 2nd inning they played a regular game. WTF? Now it was 9:30 and we only had a half-hour to get in 40-45 mins of ball. Super. I was annoyed. So yeah, things were pretty heated between the two teams, the score would fluctuate with whichever team was at bat, was winning. So anyways, at 10:00, with a mere 4 minutes left in the game, the lights went out (surprise!) and though we were down by 4 runs, were up to bat next, so probably could have won it... so the umps said "this game will resume tomorrow morning at 7am"... um, excuse me? We didn't even plan to spend the night and here it is 10pm and we have to be ON THE FIELD playing at 7am? Time to get a hotel room. Anyways, so people were annoyed, the teams were tossing smack-talk back and forth, but whatever, it meant nothing to Ryan and me, so we left.

Here's a couple pictures from the Breck games on Saturday, hey, at least the scenery was gorgeous!:




We knew that 2 people on our 10-man-roster wouldn't be coming back for Sunday because of previous engagements, but we also knew that 2 people who weren't there Saturday, would be there for Sunday's game (which was originally for 1pm, a little different than heading up the hill for a 7am game from Denver...). No problem, right? So whatever, we went and got a hotel room at the Holiday Inn in Frisco for the softball tourney's discounted rate of $65 and were ready to crash and burn because we were so tired. Then, before going to bed, I called T-Bone (the gal captaining the team) just to make sure that Pat & Courtney would be able to make it in time for the 7am game, because if they weren't going to make it, then there was no point in getting up early and going out to the fields at 6:30am if we'd just end up forfeiting, right? Right.

So T-Bone answers, I ask about Pat & Courtney, she says yes, they're coming, but we're still 2 people short. ??? HUH? So I was like, wait, why? She said "because Eric and Kara aren't playing tomorrow", and I was like "yeah, I know, but that's why I called to check on Pat & Courtney, so 10 minus 2 plus 2 is still 10"... and there was a pause... and then she was like "Ohhh, you left right away, didn't you?" and I was like "yeah, why?" and she was like "Diane and DJ got ejected from the tournament"... HUH!!?!?!?! WHAT?!!!! These grown adults did WHAT?! So okay, apparently the other team was talking smack to Diane, so she was talking smack back, and DJ was putting their stuff away, in the dark, so he had his bat in his hand and went over to back up Diane, and the umps caught a glimpse of him holding the bat and talking smack and called it agressive and booted them from the entire tournament. FABULOUS. Fantastic. Nice work, people. Mind you, the rest of our team backs Diane up in saying that the other team "started it" (yes, we are back in grade-school) but the other team didn't receive any repercussions at all. Nice. Oh, and let's step back and talk about what pieces of work the people on the other team were... example: I was keeping score for our team and someone on their team hit a fly foul ball into the parking lot and you could hear it hit a car, and I joked "if that hit my car I'm comin' after you!" and the batter smirked but the TEAM CAPTAIN who was coaching 3rd base and was right by me, started talking smack to ME like I was serious, like "nope that's the risk of parking front row, you should know that if you know anything"... and I was dumbfounded... I gave him a "are you retarded?" look and then said "yeeaaah, I was kidding"... GOOD GRIEF! And that's just one example how their team was getting all up in our team's grill the whole game, and not just our team, but our fans, too! Sheesh! I love middle school antics.

Back to the ejection and team situation... so, now it's after 11pm and we're still 2 people short. T-bone is trying to call people in Denver to see if they'll fill in, and like 4 people on our team are like "let's just stand them up and take the forfeit"... so eventually Pat calls T-Bone and is like "I agree with the team"... HA! So at 12:30 we got a call from T-Bone saying "Don't show up for the 7am, we're taking the forfeit but we're not calling to tell anyone"... HAHAHA! So the other team showed up for the 7am game and we slept in until 10am. HA! Loves it. Best part of the whole thing. The best part was when their team captain called our 3rd basemen Ann at 7:10am and was like "thanks a lot for just not showing up!" and Ann was like "no problem, any time". HAHAHAHA! wow. Un-freaking-believeable.

So, I bet you think that was it, huh? You're naive.

So Sunday we slept in and it was a beautiful morning, we putzed around and eventually went to Subway for an early lunch at 11am, then to WalMart to get an umbrella because I'm sick of being caught in these afternoon deluges without one, and then back to the hotel to pack it up and head to the 1pm game.

So, we still only had 8 people, right? But one extra guy came up with Pat & Courtney from Denver to fill in for Eric, and then we grabbed a gal off of Ann's women's team (which WON the women's division!!) and voila, 10. Phew. So the 1pm game went great! We won it and were ready to play the 2pm game when the other team "challenged our roster". OMG are you KIDDING ME?! They decided that they didn't like our team and that they thought we were cheating by having new people on the team, and so they challenged the roster. But, it gets better. I mean, sure, 2 people weren't on our original roster, so that could have been bad anyways, but it turns out, that on Saturday, none of the umpires would TAKE our roster from T-Bone, and then she forgot to hand it in at the Dillon fields on Sunday morning, so our team didn't have an official roster on file, so DISQUALIFIED. Boom-bye, see-ya, Gone. OMG. Yup, that was it. Done.

I hope you're laughing. It took us a while to come around and laugh, but eventually, we were. Good GRAVY.

And here's a couple pics from Sunday's game in Dillon, again, just beautiful:





So that was Tournament Weekend Number Two. And guess what?! Despite my saying "we're never doing this again" on Saturday night to Ryan, on Sunday they invited him to do the Co-Ed tournament in Vail this weekend, so yeah! We're heading on up for Round 3, *DING*!

Vail, here come the Outlawas... are you ready for us? HA! :)

4th of July Weekend

Well, no news is good news, right? :) Sorry, still bad at blogging regularly! So, this past weekend was the 4th of July... on Friday (the 3rd) we went over to Anna's for a BBQ and then crashed early because Ryan had a softball tournament in Loveland all weekend starting Saturday morning.

So, Saturday morning I got up early and got in a nice run before the heat hit, and then we hit the road to Loveland at just about 8:30, getting there at just before 10am. Ryan's first game was scheduled for 10:20, but they ended up playing at around 10:45 or so. Ryan's Dad came to the first game so I had company while watching which was great! They lost their first game, but since it was a double-elimination tournament, they moved to the losers bracket and their next game was scheduled for 12pm, but they didn't play till 1pm. After winning their second game they were due to play again at 3pm, but then a big storm rolled in and the fields became swimming pools... this was where the tournament staff started to cause us concern... we all stood around until 3:30 at which point they told us there'd be a delay until 4:30. Yeah right. Like they'd clean up the oceans by then... but alas, we went to Chili's for a quick bite with the team and returned at 4:30 to see that they had, in fact, ressurrected TWO out of the TEN fields. Yeaaahhh, that was NOT going to cut it. They needed ALL of the fields to complete the brackets as planned that night, but did they make a decision and send some of us home? Nope, we all kinda mingled around for a while, which was fine because Ryan's Mom and her husband came to watch the next game but ended up just hanging out with us. It began raining again at around 5:00 and we stood around waiting for them to call it until 6:30pm. Oy vey! Finally they sent us home and said they'd post online when to expect games for the next day (Sunday)... so home we went.

We got home at around 8:00pm, which was just barely after EVERYTHING closed, we had quite a time finding some supper and ended up with KFC (the new grilled chicken ain't too shabby). We went to the Highlands Ranch fireworks at 9:30, found out Ryan's game was scheduled for 10am the next morning and called it a night.

Sunday morning we hit the road again by 8 or so and he was ready and raring to go for that 10am game... too bad his whole team didn't show. This tournament was QUITE a fiasco. Wait. It gets better. So, adult rec softball is played with 10 players (that's 4 outfielders instead of 3 for all you confused sports' fans out there), and apparently for this particular tournament you NEED to have 9 players to start the game. They had 8 at game time. Luckily, a guy named Ikena ("ee-kenna") was almost there so we were able to stall the umps till he jumped the fence just in the knick of time... so, game on. However, since you're supposed to have 10, that 10th spot is an automatic out each time it comes up to bat on the line-up... yuck. Oh well, off they went... Game On. So, they were up 3-0 and then one guy hit a homerun and guess what?! Homeruns are illegal in this tourney! So that not only counted as an automatic out for him, but then he was no longer allowed to bat and his place in the lineup also became an automatic out... yup, that's right, we now have 2 automatic outs in our line-up. Awesome! So, they continue. They are then down 5-3 but at the bottom of the 5th inning they were on fire, they had the best part of their line-up at bat and the first 2 guys got on base, woo hoo! No outs and the go-ahead run was at the plate... everyone was excited... and then Ikena (who was coaching first base) suddenly STORMS off the field using some colorful language stating that he doesn't need this kind of BLEEEEEP and he's outta there, he mumbled something about no one being able to pronounce his name right (um, hello, it's a hard name and these people don't know you for more than 24 hours) and then literally LEFT. He left. Now guess what... we have 8 people. Game Over. He literally left the team HIGH AND DRY. They had to take a forfeit. Tournament over for the Rockers. Home again Home again jiggity-jig. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! This is a GROWN man!!!???!!! Wow. No words. Rather comical at this point. But very irritating at the time!

The rest of our weekend was far less eventful... we got home early Sunday afternoon and Ryan hit me some fly balls in the outfield to practice my right fielding skills, and then we chilled out a bit watching the Rockies. Then we invited our friend Alicia over for supper because she's new to the area just this weekend, and her hubby already had to go away on work travel! So that was really fun!

Here are some pictures of my fab hubby playing his softball... this coming weekend he has another tourney up in Summit County, so I hope for less drama but more pictures, especially of the beautiful scenery up yonder way.




My kitties are cuddling in the cutest way, I must go cuddle with them!
Thanks for 'listening'!



Oh, and yup, all is still well on the pregnancy front... no news! Our next OB appointment is next Friday (the 17th), so more news then probably. :)