Tournament

This weekend the team was at a tournament in Örebro. We drove almost 2 hours to play 3 games. Ingrid was attending a wedding this weekend so she was unable to coach. That meant that Taylor and I were given the coaching duties. We also had some help from Jen, which was really great.  She had worked with some girls from other teams from previous visits, so she was able to see some of them and give some pitching help to the girls that wanted it.

For this weekend Taylor and I tried to play as little as possible. We really wanted to give the younger girls some more playing experience so they started every game and we rotated the regular starters on the bench. Each game, except for the finals, were only 55 minutes long. Also, we had to finish 3 innings and only 9 batters were allowed to hit each half inning. We ended up losing the first game, winning the second game, and losing the last game. It was the longest day of softball they had probably ever played and they did really well. There were some really great defensive plays and some nice at bats. Everyone contributed and we all had a ton of fun. It was Gabby's birthday yesterday so we had some sparklers and some fika. After the games we all went to Pizza Hut for a team dinner. There were a lot of laughs throughout dinner; it was great fun!

Today we went back the play the last game; every team was guaranteed 4 games. Unfortunately, we were in the losers bracket, so we only played one game. We played against the team we beat yesterday. Wilma made her pitching debut and did really well. She had a solid first inning and the last two innings went ok. We ended up winning 12-11 in the third inning.
All in all I think we had a good weekend. Everyone got more experience on the field and it seemed like we all enjoyed the time together!

Planning Practice

The last couple of days I have been relaxing and planning practice. I was pretty sore from our wins this weekend. For this week we have scheduled individual practice for all of the girls. We set up time slots for two 1 hour sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Each 1 hour session we see 3 girls. On Thursday we will have a team practice where we will set up a scrimmage. Monday was rained out but we did have practice yesterday;  I think it went really well. We were able to give the girls a lot of reps and really focus on their needs. Today we will have the younger girls; Taylor and I plan on doing some relays since My might be late to practice. Without her, we only have body language to communicate with the girls, which is really hard!

After practice I'm going back to the house where we are having a BBQ for Jen. She got in at 1:00pm today. Tomorrow we are driving to Uppsala to spend the day and this weekend she might come to the tournament.

New Hair and More Wins

Yesterday Taylor and I went to the grocery store and bought ourselves a hair coloring kit! I have never done anything to my hair before so I was a little nervous about doing it. We stood in front of the shelf of boxes realizing that none of them had any english translations. The only thing we could understand was the name of the color. I picked out a dye called Golden Honey, which you would probably assume to be in the blond range, but it's actually brown. Taylor's hair now looks like it should be called Golden Honey, and she concluded that mine looks more like Caramel Honey or Cinnamon Honey :) It came out really nice, and I'm glad I did it!

Today we had our last regular season games. We played home against Leksand and we won them both. We won the first 10-4 and the second 7-5. Everyone played really well, but I think the MVP's of the games were My and Amanda Howe. My's bat was on fire and they both played great defense; it was so great to see their hard work pay off! Now that we have won we will be hosting the semi finals against Leksand. After we win 2 out of the 3 games we will advance to the finals! Unfortunately they are three weeks away. Next week we play in a tournament, the week after that is free, and then the next weekend is game day!! It's good to get in more practice, but I'd really like to play sooner.

This week is exciting because Jen Williams will be here! Jen played for my dad when she was in high school. She also helped coach my high school team and my college team. About 4 years ago she came over to Sweden and did what I am doing now. She stayed with Ingrid and played softball for the summer. She'll be here for a little over a week; the girls and I can't wait to see her!

Pulling Weeds

Today Taylor and I went down to the softball field to pull some weeds! We were told by the town maintenance that if we did work on our field then they would give us money for it. They don't have enough workers or time to pull the weeds off of our field so Taylor and I agreed to do the work. Yesterday and today we have been cutting and pulling all of the weeds off of the field. Our field looked as if it had a green beard, but now it is clean shaven!! haha

Feeling Sick

Yesterday I was feeling a bit sick. I went to Freja's football games in the morning and I had to ride my bike back to the house to lay down. I slept a little and that made me feel better. Later we had BBQ chicken for dinner and then Ingrid and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. When we got back home we decided to have family game night. We played UNO, one of my favorite games! We played different rules to what I was used to and we ended up playing for about 3 hours. It was a good time!

Today I'm feeling much better! Ingrid and I are going to drive to Amanda Howe's town to practice with her. She lives about 50 minutes away so it is hard for her to get to our weekly practices. The catcher we have now is going back to school in California this week, and Amanda will be filling in. We need to practice throwing to her so that she can get used to catching our pitches. She's a great player; I'm sure she will get back into the groove of things fairly quickly.

Practice

Today was a pretty normal day at the house. I did some chores for Ingrid and I tried to finish my book (both are not complete). We also had a practice this afternoon. Ingrid and I got to the field early so that she could do some pitching; she has really improved since this May. The ball is coming in quick and it's very consistent. It has been great working with her and I really think that we have the best Swedish pitcher in the league! It will be a great advantage for us when we get into playoffs because I'm only allowed to pitch the first game of the 3 game series. For practice we split the girls up into two teams and we had a 7 inning scrimmage. I threw and Taylor caught for both teams. It went really well. Some of the girls were able to try out new positions in game like situations and everyone got about 20 at bats. They all worked really hard and it also gave light to things that we still need to improve on. It seems like there is improvement everyday, and the girls really make it easy to coach - today after practice 4 girls stayed late to do extra hitting! :)

Applying for an Extension

Yesterday Ingrid, the kids, and I drove to Västerås, about a 30 minute ride from the house. We went to get my visa extended over the allotted 3 months. We left around 12:10 so that we could get there around 12:30 (it's open from 12:30-3:00). We ended up getting there around 1:00 and the place was pretty full. There were people from all nationalities and races; it was interesting to see how many different people come to live in Sweden. We ended up waiting for a little less than 2 hours - we got out of there with about 5 minutes to spare. The lady that worked there gave us props for having all of our paperwork organized and ready. She checked my passport, took my picture, scanned my fingers, and then took a copy of my signature. We were out of there pretty fast. After that we went home, I watched some TV and took a nap, and then we had dinner.

Taylor is back from Rome! She has been traveling throughout Rome with her boyfriend for the past week and they arrived back in Sweden last night. Later today we are planning another practice for the team. We have a week and a half to get ready for our games. I can't wait to start playing again!

Rainy Day

Yesterday was a very rainy day so we stayed inside and watched TV and movies. We watched George of the Jungle, which I haven't seen since I was kid! I was also able to read some more from my book. I've been reading Wuthering Heights, a book that I started a couple of years ago but never got through the first chapter. It's a really good book! Today is a much nicer day so I plan on going into town and exchanging the British pounds I still have from my vacation. We also have practice today so I'll be planning practice and doing some pitching instruction with Amanda before practice.

 On another note: Time has been flying by; there's exactly 7 more weeks that I'm here and I hope to experience as much as I can from the time I have left. I have had a great time so far and I'm excited for all that is ahead!

Crayfish Party

Yesterday I was invited to go with Ingrid and Micke to a crayfish party. It is a Swedish tradition to have crayfish parties in August to celebrate the end of summer. All of Micke's baseball friends were there. The baseball team ended in the late 90's but a lot of the players stayed in contact with each other. Every year they get together with their families and catch up. The party started off with drinks and trivia. There were questions set up around the neighborhood that we answered...we ended up being in last with only 6 right answers out of 12. After that we had dinner which included pasta salad, bread and butter, and crayfish that everyone brought for themselves. It was a long dinner because you had to open every crayfish individually, and once it was open you only got a shimp sized amount of meat. Throughout the dinner there were drinking songs and snaps...after they took their snaps they tried to translate the songs for me; it was really funny!

After dinner we had a music trivia game. The guys are really into music and some of them are in a band together. We had three teams of 8 or 9. There were about 10 questions you answered that had to do with music, or not. Also there were about 8 songs that they translated from English into Swedish that you had to try and identify the song. After that they had about 13 songs that we had to listen to the intro of the song (about 10 seconds) and then we had to write down the name of the song, the artist, and the decade that it was created. It was a lot of fun, and I was able to answer about 3 of the questions! After the game we had a little dessert with coffee and tea and then we talked for the rest of the night. Everyone was really nice and welcoming; I had a really nice time!

Week in Öland

I just got back from a really nice vacation in Öland, Sweden!

We drove about 6 hours to get there and we stayed 5 days and 4 nights. We got amazing weather; every day was beautiful, so we were able to enjoy all the beaches and watering holes. We left around 8am on Monday morning and stopped once for lunch. On our way we played some car games. One of the games we played was sort of like I-spy. We made a list of 10 things that we had to spot and if you were the first one to say the item you got a point. Whoever got the most points won. Assar won, but I think he had an advantage because he sat in the front seat...I'm not bitter! One of the items was to find a yellow car, so the entire trip we were noticing all the yellow cars and we would shout out "yellow car" whenever we found one. We got a good laugh out of it every time!

This bridge was 1 kilometer long

Anyways, when we arrived at the house Maria, Emil, Agnes, and Eliot were already there. They had stayed there the week before. It was a very cute summer cottage that included a guest house that we stayed in.

After we settled in we headed to the beach! We stayed there for an hour or so. Since it was late in the day the wind was a little cold, so Maria, Ingrid and I kept warm in the sun while the kids and Emil went for a dip.

Emil and Agnes

Just a little cold!

 After the beach we stopped to see some of the windmills that were on the side of the road. Öland is famous for their windmills; anywhere you travelled throughout the island there were windmills to be seen.

 We then went to get some icecream by the water. It was so pretty!

Vidar and Freja

 On the second day of our vacation I got up early and ran two and a half miles. Around lunch time Maria and Ingrid's softball friend Johanna came with her husband and their daughter. We had lunch with them before we went to the beach. We ate spaghetti with meat sauce and salad. I made some tomato sauce for myself. They don't really sell jarred tomato sauce here like we have at home, but fortunately I have an Italian grandmother who taught me how to make my own homemade tomato sauce. I sauteed some garlic and onion and some olive oil then added some crushed tomato. I added some fresh basil and some salt. It wasn't as good as my grandmother's sauce but it sure made me feel like I was home for a moment! After lunch we went to a watering hole. Though there were a lot of people there it was really neat because it was right next to the kilometer long bridge. After swimming and sun bathing we went back to the house for some BBQ and apple pie! It was delicious!

The third day we went to another part of the island where there was a lot of shopping and places to eat. We had a really nice lunch; I ate pasta salad with tuna. We also had some ice cream while we were there!

On our way back from the shopping and ice cream we went to see some castle ruins. Unfortunately there was a charge to get in so we decided to just look at it from the outside and take some fun pictures. Before we went back to the house the girls went to a fish store and picked up some salmon to grill and some smoked shrimp for an appetizer. The shrimp were smoked shell in all so we had to take apart them ourselves. It was the first time I took apart my own shrimps; it was messy but they were so good!! The salmon was really good too! Especially, because Maria made a sauce to go with it. It was sour cream, red onion, feta cheese, dill, and salt and pepper... yum! 

 On our last full day we drove about 2 hours to the northern part of the island. Along the shore was a lot of coastal weathering. The rocks were worn away by the water and there were tons of small rocks that had fossils from plants and fish. We ate lunch there and then we found a small beach area to sun bathe and take a dip in the water. We found a private area on the shore that was quiet and peaceful. It was so relaxing! That night we feasted on all of our leftovers and then we roasted marshmallows on the grill. It was a wonderful vacation and everyone had a lot of fun! It was so nice for Maria and Emil to invite us there. It took me back to my camping days with my family and I know they would have loved it too!