Classy ladies

I usually don't reprint from another source but I was so inspired by thee girls that I have done so in tribute to them. Way to go ladies!!!



YouNewsTV™Story Published: Apr 30, 2008 at 9:51 AM PDT

Story Updated: Apr 30, 2008 at 7:42 PM PDT
By Associated Press Video MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) - A senior with a .153 career batting average hits her first home run, a three-run blast, to help Western Oregon move closer to a spot in the NCAA's Division II softball playoffs.

That was improbable. To 70-year-old Central Washington coach Gary Frederick, what happened next was "unbelievable."

Sara Tucholsky, the 5-foot-2-inch right fielder, sprinted to first as the ball cleared the center field fence Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash. Given that she had never hit a ball out of the park, even in practice, she was excited. So excited she missed first base.

A couple yards past the bag, she stopped to go back and touch it. But she collapsed with a knee injury.

"I was in a lot of pain," she told The Oregonian newspaper on Tuesday. "Our first-base coach was telling me I had to crawl back to first base. 'I can't touch you,' she said, 'or you'll be out. I can't help you."'

Despite the agony, Tucholsky crawled back to first.

Western Oregon coach Pam Knox ran onto the field and talked to the umpires. The umpires said the coach could place a substitute runner at first. Tucholsky would be credited with a single.

"The umpires said a player cannot be assisted by their team around the bases," Knox said. "But it is her only home run in four years. She is going to kill me if we sub and take it away. But at same time I was concerned for her. I didn't know what to do."

An opponent did.

Central Washington first baseman Mallory Holtman, the all-time home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could carry Tucholsky around the bases.

The umpires said nothing in the rule book precluded help from the opposition.

Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky and resumed the home-run walk, stopping to let Tucholsky touch the bases with her good leg.

"We started laughing when we touched second base," Holtman said. "I said, 'I wonder what this must look like to other people."'

Holtman got her answer when they arrived at home plate. Many people were in tears.

The second-inning homer sent Western Oregon on its way to a 4-2 victory, ending Central Washington's chances of winning the conference and advancing to the playoffs.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," Holtman said. "It was about this girl. She hit it over the fence and was in pain and she deserved a home run."

Frederick, the Central Washington coach, said he later got a clarification from an umpiring supervisor, who said NCAA rules allow a substitute to run for a player who is injured after a home run.

The clarification doesn't matter to those who witnessed the act of sportsmanship.

"Those girls did something awesome to help me get my first home run," Tucholsky said. "It makes you look at athletes in a different way. It is not always all about winning but rather helping someone in a situation like that."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Little Ensteins

Its about time that adults acknowledge the fact that children are the true inventors of the world. And better yet, they do their inventing for free. No wages, social security, no workers comp, no nothin'. They just do their thing and all hell breaks loose. For instance, Kullen's concoctions all the super glues to shame. For some reason he will not mix his food on his plate but somehow his food all comes together in the chair groves and is impossible to get out. You can't chip it, you can't burn it,and you can't wash it. It stays stuck to the chair better than any super glue ever made.

Quote

One of my favorite quotes:

"Alice laughed. 'There’s no use trying,' she said. 'One can’t believe impossible things.' 'I daresay you haven’t had much practice.' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.' ” Lewis Caroll, Alice In Wonderland

A Tad Bitter Are We...You Bet!!!

So Dave is getting ready to go away on another business trip. I hate it when Dave makes it "sound" like business trips are a big inconvience and he wants to be home with us. Yet, while he is gone he rarely calls. It just doesn't add up...ya know! So while he is sitting there complaining about his time away from home I am thinking...yeah, right, give me a frickin' break!!! Wah, wah, wah!!!

Like who doesn't like fresh sheets daily, their room magically cleaned when they step outside the door, a choice of foods for every meal of the day that I don't even know how to pronounce much less cook, getting to watch whatever YOU want on TV, those little bottles of soaps and creams that smell so yummy, renting a sportscar in an attempt to relive those magical yet desperate days B.C., shopping at someplace other than Target ALONE, fluffy impossibly white bathrobes, and lets not forget all the liquor you could want with the oh so tempting possibility of passing out on the bed and waking up with a hangover that is not the result of your kid screaming you awake at 5 a.m. in the morning. Oh and the eye candy down by the pool. PLEASE. Should my life only be that "rough."

Personally I think that Mommyhood needs its own frickin' conference once a week in order to keep up with all the news coming from science on how best to raise our children, seminars on how to make jello into a nutrious food and how to keep your sex life glowing when you have had little hands touching just about every part of your body 5000 times a day for the last three years, or how about instructions on set broken bones in your own home so that those pesky doctors bills can be avoided. Yep I want my own little conference to attend. I promise I will look dismal at the thought of going off on my own but I'm afraid that when I burn rubber after the requisite hugs and kisses; it might just be a dead giveaway as to my true feelings.

It's Okay If It Is My Way

I don't know about you but the thought of tanks coming to get me and my children gives me pause.


It has been very interesting to me the lack of public outcry regarding the raid on the polygamist YFZ Ranch in Texas. I mean just three weeks ago many fundamentalist religious leaders were outraged that California had deemed home schooling "illegal" according to the religious pundants. Yet, no one anywhere is crying out against the state of Texas on religious grounds for separating families and removing over 400 children from the place that they call home. I guess as long as it is "them" meaning those who are wrong in their religious beliefs vs. "us" those whose spiritual ideals are correct then it is okay to feed "them" to the wolves and not wave the Constitution in every one's face.

Now don't think for a minute that I agree that marrying off 13 year old girls to lecherous 50 year old men is fine and dandy. Nor do I believe that limiting exposure to the outside world is in the best interests of women and children in being able to develop that thing we call "free will." I can't say that I believe that having 50 children is a good thing either or that marrying one's cousin will improve the species in any lasting and good way. Hours of chores a day, well it seems a little excessive but hey we are all suppose to be trained to be good capitalists here in the good old USofA and we know the people at the YFZ Ranch were because our government awarded contracts to them. However, I can also say that I do not believe many tenants of many "main line" churches are good for society or the individual either but that doesn't make me want to have the state step in and rip children from their parents.

When I think of the damage that is being done to these kids by being put into and exposed to the foster care system I question what is worse...staying with what you know and those who love you or leaving to experience things that you should never have to be exposed to. Having been a foster parent I have seen the damage that is done to children who become victims of the system that was "suppose" to protect them and it is not pretty. Having children with RAD I know what ripping a child from those they love can do to the quality of quantity of their future relationships.

And so I ponder the unanswerable questions of what is better (or worse) known vs. unknown and why the conservative religious movement abandons some of its most conservative when the views are not "their" own. I guess it boils down to not wanting to keep company with those who are "different" than us or wanting to be sure we are on the "right" team. Or perhaps it is simply an economic issue for the leaders of the Christian Right. All I know is that the people paying the highest price will once again be the children and they are the ones who can least afford it.

Don't Eat What My Children Give You

This has been a hard couple of weeks. We are getting ready to move (again) and my house is a disaster. Truly. I have mopped once in an entire week, cleaned the toilets two weeks ago, the sinks over a week ago. Trust me it is a mess.

So yesterday I give all the kids a popsicle. Five minutes later Kullen, while nonchalantely licking his popsicle, says "I dropped my popsicle in the toilet mom but don't worry I rinsed it off." I would like to say that in the 2.3 seconds it took for me to process this tidbit of information...my first thought was for my son but I confess that it wasn't. Instead I feverishly racked my brain trying to remember if I had just taken a lick from that same popsicle. Afterall, I absentmindedly graze from my kids plates all day and don't recall doing it just seconds later. Hence...the weight issue. After deciding the odds against me were 60% which in this household are considered favorable; I quickly rise from my seat and tell Kullen "Well bud lets get you a new popsicle."

On the way to the refridgerator I proceed to tell him why eating popsicles that have fallen in the toilet is not a good idea. Later I even find our small microscope to show him what germs look like. Anotherwords, I do the Good Mommy Act...and act is what it is. For what I really want to say is....

Son, you will be six this week and you mean to tell me that I have
never gone over rule number 548 which says "What goes in the toilet
STAYS IN THE TOILET." Or rule 673 which says "If you drop it don't eat
it" Or rule 837.2 "You never eat what has been where your butt has been
planted" or any variant of the above. I mean Come On. For crying out LOUD!!

Oh when Karson was about four he went into one of the outhouse toilets in the national park. He came out with a lollipop that he did not go in with. When I asked him where he got th lollipop he said "I found it on the floor next to the toilet."

There is a lesson to all of this. If my kids ever offer you something to eat ...don't take it! I am going to stick to this now and forever...bet I lose 10 pounds in a week!

A Little April Fools

I decided to play a little spur of the moment April Fools joke on a friend.

clddbdrkkkk: Soy cheese?
clddbdrkkkk: Gross
Squirrelchaser30: no, they don't do well with soy
clddbdrkkkk: Rice cheese?
Squirrelchaser30: tummy issues
clddbdrkkkk: Goat milk cheese?
Squirrelchaser30: ya, i buy them rice cheese stuff, but mostly we
just avoid it
Squirrelchaser30: and alex won't drink rice milk
clddbdrkkkk: How about pig cheese?
Squirrelchaser30: he hates it
Squirrelchaser30: PIG?
clddbdrkkkk: Or ferret cheese?
Squirrelchaser30: pigs make cheese???
Squirrelchaser30: shutup
Squirrelchaser30: haha
Squirrelchaser30: you had me going for a minute
Squirrelchaser30: i was like...crap
clddbdrkkkk: What are you talking about I had you going...I am dead
serious
clddbdrkkkk: Look it up
Squirrelchaser30: pig cheese????
clddbdrkkkk: Yes
Squirrelchaser30: omg
Squirrelchaser30: barf
Squirrelchaser30: i don't want anything that comes from a pigs teat
clddbdrkkkk: Well I think ferret would be better
Squirrelchaser30: shutup
Squirrelchaser30: there is no ferret cheese
Squirrelchaser30: i'm not that stupid
clddbdrkkkk: Yes there is!!!! Look it up!!!!
Squirrelchaser30: no frigin way
Squirrelchaser30: you stop
clddbdrkkkk: Are you looking it up!
clddbdrkkkk: Do it!
Squirrelchaser30: ok i will
clddbdrkkkk: See I told you!!!!
Squirrelchaser30: there is NOTHING here about ferret cheese
clddbdrkkkk: Bullshit
clddbdrkkkk: Just a second I will find the link
clddbdrkkkk: www.ferretcheese.com
Squirrelchaser30: that doesn't register
Squirrelchaser30: cheryl!
Squirrelchaser30: you stop trying to make a fool out of me
clddbdrkkkk: Doesn't take much
clddbdrkkkk: Easter Bunny cheese might be good too
Squirrelchaser30: haha
clddbdrkkkk: April Fools you big fool
Squirrelchaser30: ur an ass
Squirrelchaser30: HAHAHA
Squirrelchaser30: i forgot it was april fools
Squirrelchaser30: that's a good one
Squirrelchaser30: you ass
Squirrelchaser30: i was like, no way...but then again it is cheryl
Squirrelchaser30: so anything is possible
clddbdrkkkk: Yep can hardly wait to tell the gotcha girls this one
Squirrelchaser30: omg...you rat