Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

A couple weeks ago I went and played softball on a Sunday afternoon with some people from church. It was just a casual game with a wide range of ability levels. I showed up a little late and was the last one to practice batting before we started. They had already been kidding me about my fancy sports bag (I spared them the sight of me in my baseball pants). On the second pitch I broke my bat. The ball barely made it to the outfield, but the bat made a funny sound and the top was dangling. I have never seen an aluminum bat break like that. The bat is probably 10 years old. So now they all think that I am some kind of super softball slugger, which is not even close to the truth. I will now be known as "that guy who broke his bat." I guess that's better than "that guy who can't catch fly balls" or "that guy whose pants are too small." Lindsay's cousin Jim had told me several months ago that I should paint flames on my lawn mower and put ...

We've had a busy weekend of picnics and fun. Sunday we had the Yoder/Zook BBQ chicken (yum!) picnic. Easton: "Who me?" Monday morning, we started off by eating breakfast with Mom, Dad, Todd, and Kate. Then, we walked to the Belleville Parade, were we got lots of candy. In the afternoon, we had a picnic with some of the Sharp side of the family. After lunch, we played the corn hole game that Jesse and I made last week. I thought it was a lot of fun! Last night after we were home for a while, I put Natalee's pajamas on her. Then, I told her we needed to go and trim her toenails. She ran back out into the living room with Jesse and Brady. Natalee: "Toes. Mom." Jesse: "Yes, Mom has toes!?!?." Natalee: "Yeah...." Me: "Okay, Natalee, it's time to cut your toenails." Jesse: "Oh, is that what you were trying to tell me?" Natalee: "Yeah!" ;)

Natalee and I had a Mom and Daughter breakfast this morning. Natalee needed some Mom time. We went out together to Tops Diner for some sweet potato pancakes. Mmmm. I went to shoot a short video of the kids playing today, but Natalee decided she wanted to look at the video screen and narrate. Since she isn't the clearest in her speaking -- she gets lazy on some of her words--, I will decode some of it for you. Brady (she says it minus the "d") Two = she saw two Bradys, one on the video screen and one in person May = Meg Yellow = the color of Brady's shirt Kick Lay down Da = Dad (she heard his lawnmower outside)

Tonight, we went to check out the new mountain bike single track trails at Raystown Lake. The Allegrippis Trails were so much fun! It was really easy to go further than you intended to go. I nearly ran over a baby chipmunk. It was so close to my tire that I shrieked. Jesse also had a few squirrels dodge out in front of him (like we were in the Geico commercial or something). This is a must do mountain bike ride if you are in the Raystown region! P.S. The Raystown Lake is behind us, but it was so bright, beautiful and sunny that the lake did not show up in the picture! The views of the lake will be better in the fall when the leaves fall down.

Wow, two months gone by already. Although, it seems like a really long time, too! He had his two month appointment this morning. He is up to 12 lbs. 11 oz. (50-75th percentile--again, slowly creeping up in the percentiles) and 23 1/8 inches long (50th percentile). Although he is doing slightly better, if we could just get him to sleep throughout the night....

Today, we continued with the gardening theme, except this time we were in the vegetable garden at my house. We intended to have a vegetable garden in Port Orchard, (I even made the raised bed) but then I decided to wait when Natalee came along that summer. Now, I have some good help! What did we plant? LOTS of potatoes. Two kinds of red potatoes and one kind of white potato. I also bought a few sweet potato starts. At the one side, I put in a red raspberry plant and I intend to plant some blueberry bushes near it. Hopefully I have more success with my blueberry bushes here than in Port Orchard (I got about 15 berries combined, over two years). I may put in some tomatoes and a zucchini plant, too. Carrots would be nice. Natalee helped to pick up rocks. This time, she collected a bucket-full of worms! After a while, she got really tuckered out. These are the only pictures I took because I did not want to be accused of slacking by taking pictures instead of working!!

The women of the family got together yesterday evening to plant flowers at Mamma's house (my grandma). Natalee helped, too. Ang and Lily came too, but they were a little later. Aunt Cindy and Aunt Lois Mom and Natalee A worm! Afterward, we ate dinner as a group. Mamma prepared us some delicious corn chowder. It was a lot of fun to be with some of the other ladies of the family. I'm looking forward to our ladies weekend at Aunt Bev's house at the end of this month!

I thought I'd share some of the beautiful spring scenery from my walk two weeks ago. (I'm just a little behind posting some of these things!)

I thought I'd share the photos my sister-in-law took at Easter because they are so good. You can see the Easter Bunny scare and more.

Natalee was nicely sharing her tennis balls with Brady the other evening. Then, she would throw them both and bring them back. She is saying many words now (in her own dialect sometimes). Natalee likes to say my name lately and she likes to say hi to Brady. You will see her say these things as well as some other surprises. At one point, she will announce something and you will see that her ball throwing game changes as she decides she should not move anymore. We had to take a ball throwing break to use the loo.

The evening before Jesse's parents left, we were playing in the living room with Natalee and Brady. Natalee, of course, loves to play actively with a little roughness sometimes. In this short video, she enjoys one version of her airplane rides. Even though dizzy, she always wants MORE! They had an early morning flight on Saturday. So, when Natalee woke up, they were already gone. The first thing Natalee said to me was "Buppa", which translated means Grandma and/or Grandpa (it sounds the same for both). She was already missing her grandparents. I sadly had to tell her they were going home on an airplane to Idaho. She looked so disappointed.