Growing

David is out of the hospital! He was released at around 5 Tuesday night and was at Chase's game at 7! Can you believe it? That is one determined man! He was released without any restrictions and all of his tests came back well! Thank you to everyone for your prayers on his behalf.

Yesterday afternoon while Chase was at the field before the game, David was kind enough to share his passion with me-gardening. He has a beautiful vegetable garden in the backyard. I could tell he was anxious to get to it after being in the hospital for a week. He showed me what all he planted this year: 3 types of tomatoes (red, Roma, and yellow), 2 kinds of cucumbers (eating and pickling!), about 4 0r 5 types of hot peppers, green bell peppers, cabbage, green beans, beets, etc. He taught me how to hoe around the base of the plant to get all the weeds uprooted from around it and then he would come through in-between the rows with a hand-cultivator. Almost as soon as he was done, a good rain came. It was perfect. Something about working outside and watching things grow makes me feel closer to God.

Last night, I had fun sitting with Jeanne and David at the game. They are such great supporters of Chase and the team. David is always yelling, 'Chase, you the man!' And Chase went 2-4 again! He played first base and enjoyed it. It seems like he might be a jack-of-all-trades for this team (he's played left field, DH, and first base already) which is wonderful as it equals more playing time for him.

Chase has had some quotes published in local newspapers. It's very exciting! Jeanne got supplies for us to make a scrapbook with all of the clippings. Here are a couple links to some of the articles:

http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/538929.html?nav=5024
http://www.vindy.com/news/2010/jun/24/scrappers-finally-score-but-still-come-u/

Chase wanted me to share that with all of the Latin guys on the team he has determined himself to learn some Spanish. He is trying to learn a new word each day. Most of the words he has learned pertain to baseball (surprise, surprise)...things like 'line drive' and 'curve ball.' I won't attempt to tell you what they are in Spanish. Even if I remembered, I couldn't spell them. You will have to ask him :)

I have to share with you a story about a friend I made Tuesday night. I was sitting on the steps of the field reading a book when this man approached me and struck up a conversation. "Getting a whole chapter in?" Trying to be polite, I answered and the next thing I knew he was telling me about how he was in WWII and told me to guess how old he was. Well of course, I didn't want to guess. Turns out he was 85! And he certainly didn't look it. He whipped his drivers license out of his wallet and asked if I was good at math. Sure enough, his birthday was on April 22, 1925. He asked me if I knew what was special about that day and I had no idea. He went on to tell me that when he was 40 years old, they made his birthday Earth Day. He said, "Yep, I'm older than dirt!" Haha!

I've got some catching-up to do on sharing pictures.

Here are a few from Monday--Opening Day:



















Eastwood Field!



















Announcing the teams



















Sprinklers going off on the visiting team!



















Chase hitting--he's number 34 on this team.

And some pics from Tuesday:
























Reading on the porch...



















Welcome home, David!

And some pictures from the game last night:



















There was a short rain delay.



















Chase and I before the game. Doesn't he look good in the Scrappers uniform??



















Chase with Jeanne before the game.

Well, that's all for now. Until next time, lots of love to everyone!

Cait

Opening Day

First of all, I just want to say a BIG ‘thank you’ to everyone for their comments and for reading the blog! It means so much to us that we have people wishing us well from back home! We miss and love you all dearly!

Yesterday marked Opening Day at Eastwood Field. Cars were waiting in lines to get in the parking lot and the ticket lines were packed!

It was wonderful to see so many people there to support our new team, the Scrappers!

Before the game started, as the teams were warming up, the sprinkler system came on but only on the visitor’s side! It was so funny to see them caught off-guard. I don’t think they did it on purpose but it was quite a coincidence!

Unfortunately, we lost last night 12-0, which makes their record 2-2. It wasn’t pretty for the team, but Chase had a good game going 2-4 with a double and a single. He also broke two bats last night! That makes three broken already this season. Chase has only played in three of the four games, so right now, he’s averaging a bat each game. I told him that if he keeps going at this rate, they will be cutting down whole forests just to supply him with bats! He’s going to have to work on being more environmentally friendly :)

They had a wonderful fireworks show after the game last night and I found out they have one at every Friday night game. It seems like every day has a different promotion. I know that Tuesdays are $2 tickets, drinks, and hot dogs and that Thursdays are $1 drinks and hot dogs!

After the game last night, Chase was interviewed by several people. I’m not sure if it was for a newspaper or what, but I want to find out.

Chase is having a blast! He is loving being a ‘professional ball player’ and can’t stop talking about it. He is settling in on the team very well and making friends. There are 4 or 5 guys on the team that are Latin, but I’m not sure where all they are from. There is also a guy from Japan; a pitcher. They call him Taka (sp?). He doesn’t speak very much English and Chase already has some funny stories about the guys trying to communicate with him. I’ll share one of them with you:

One of the Latin guys brought a plate of celery to Taka and asked him how to say it in Japanese. Taka said, “No, no thank you.” The Latin guy said, “No, how to you call it in Japanese?” Taka said, “No, no thank you.” The Latin guy asked again and Taka said, “Okay, thank you” and ate one. Haha. I thought that was so funny! It’s probably funnier in person than it will be reading it here.

David, our host “dad”, is still in the hospital. He has been having tests done to see if there are blood clots in his heart. If the results of his Echo come back well today, he might get to come home tonight. Chase and I are anxious to meet him. I ask for your prayers for him and his family as I know this has been a stressful time for them. Especially while opening up their home to two strangers.

Jeanne made a strawberry pie yesterday and Chase and I shared a piece out on the porch after lunch today. It is delicious! She is such a kind-hearted person.

On Sunday, I drove to church in Warren. It is a small church of Christ about 25 minutes away. Everyone was so welcoming and I found so many who share my connection to Harding. Jeanne met me there for worship after class as she had gone to the hospital that morning to see how David was doing beforehand. I hope her and David will come back with us. A couple of the families from the church were actually down in Atlanta for a wedding that day, so it was kind of ironic. They said ‘we send some to Atlanta, and Atlanta sends us some back.’ It turns out that she knew some of the people that attend church there. Jeanne headed back to the hospital and one of the families took me out to lunch at Wendy’s, Doris, Nina (her daughter), and Lindsey and Michael (Nina’s children). I believe it is their Sunday “ritual.” Lindsey, will be a junior at Harding this next year. She is a psychology major. I had a very nice time. I do miss Buford, though, very much. There is no place like it.

Another picture of the dairy farm.

Here are some pictures of our space in the Bryner's home:

The bedroom.

"Closet" and bathroom.

Our sitting room. The back porch is off of this room.

This time I’m writing to you from Starbucks close to the field; a nice ‘escape’ from the “country”. Pictures from Opening Day will follow soon. I forgot my camera cord this afternoon : ( Until next time,

Cait

The Beginning

We have arrived!

We drove all the way up here on Wednesday and stopped for lunch in Lexington to meet Mimi and Papa and Cindy and Haley at Cracker Barrel. It was so nice to see them and we were grateful for the break. The trip took us about 14 hours total and we were exhausted upon arrival. Chase drove straight to the field to check in and get his uniform. The team put us up in the Fairfield Inn next to the field and we went to sleep early!

Chase had to report for pictures, practice and a physical at 8 on Thursday morning. While he was busy with that, I checked out the mall that is right next to the field! Talk about convenient! It's a nice mall, with all the "essentials" but nothing like the Mall of GA. We're pretty spoiled! After Chase was done with his physical, we went out to our host family's home in Newton Falls. It's about a 30 minute drive from Niles.

We are living in the country! It is so beautiful! Right next door to the house we will be living in is a dairy farm! Chase and I took a walk out into the field last night and enjoyed the picturesque fields and barns.

Unfortunately, our host "dad", David Bryner, is in the hospital right now. He suffered a mini-stroke and is recovering. We have yet to meet him but it feels like we know him already! His wife, Jeanne, has been with him at the hospital most of the time. Her niece, great niece, and great-great niece met us at their house and helped us settle in and cooked us spaghetti for dinner. It was so sweet of them and we enjoyed getting to know them. They live very close by and I'm sure we will be seeing lots more of them this summer.

Jeanne, our host "mom", got in a little before nine last night and we talked to her for hours. She is such a sweetheart. She is a nurse. We also found out that she is a writer; a poet. She said that her writing is often inspired by her nursing--a profession she believes to be sacred since you deal with life and death everyday. She has 4 books published so far, I believe.

Last night was our first night in their home. They have built an addition onto their house and we are staying in a bedroom with a bathroom in it (no separation, I'll show pictures later). That will take some getting-used to! There is a little sitting room attached to our bedroom and the back porch is off of that. The view off the porch is beautiful! I hope to spend lots of time out there this summer.

Chase left early this morning for Jamestown, New York. He will be gone until Sunday night (we think). So, I am in the 'Brew Basket' in town in Newton Falls on the internet. Our host family doesn't have wireless internet at their house, so I'm not sure how often I will add new posts or reply on facebook. Until next time,

Here are some photos from the past few days:











Cincinatti












Welcome to Ohio!
























The dairy farm next door.
























Our new friend
























Excited!

Love and miss you all! More to come soon.

Cait