Louisville

Every morning Collin and I find a spot to read a section from our couples' devotional bible and drink a cup of good coffee (or espresso).  We have found a couple of decent places within walking distance of the hotel here in Louisville.  However, at our home in California we have a french press that we use every morning to make the perfect cup of coffee.  I am proud to say that over the past year, I have turned my husband into a coffee snob:)  And ever since I forgot to bring our french press with us this season, Collin has been on a quest to find any cafés or restaurants that offer it.  So, yesterday morning we drove to a cute little 1940's house-turned-café that had french pressed coffee.  And it was worth the drive.

 Since we already had our car out of the parking garage, we decided we might as well go check out the Kentucky State Fair.  We were a little less than impressed.  Last year we went to the New York State Fair and let's just say between the endless rows of booths offering fried.. anything.. a frozen wine sampling tent, a traveling one-man-band and the live show from Canada complete with 3 HUGE bears, our expectations were set a little too high.

*disclaimer: I do not condone the use of bears as entertainment. I'm sure the very last things these bears want to do is ride a Schwinn or shoot some hoops:(

Three positives about the KY State Fair:
1. The huge amount of exhibits found INDOORS... in air conditioning!
2. We got to see little baby chicks hatching:) Cutest.thing.ever.
3. The produce display/competition!

For some reason, I get overwhelmingly happy when I walk into a room full to the brim with fruits and vegetables.  Not just a room of produce but a room dedicated to the care and natural beauty of fruits and vegetables.  I think us humans take for granted what fruits and vegetables are.  Imagine coming across a certain fruit or vegetable in the wild for the first time ever. imagine what the people thought when they first sliced into a big oval green striped fruit lying on the ground and found the bright red sweet juicy flesh of a watermelon.  It's like natural candy!  I think we try and do too much to disguise fruits and vegetables instead of just respecting them for what they can naturally offer.

This is from the NY State Fair last year. I have the cropped image of this picture in four frames in my kitchen!

Blue Ribbon winner! 200+ lb watermelon

Sweet baby chicks!

Collin in the Tobacco section.  

I was convinced I was getting a contact buzz from being in the room.. yuck.

Tonight is our last night in Louisville.  Collin has an eearrrlly wake up call tomorrow morning to fly back to Syracuse.  And instead of making the 12+ hour drive to Syracuse tomorrow, I am going to Columbus to see some friends tomorrow and then I will drive up to my brother's house in Perrysburg and spend some time there:)  Can't wait to see this little gem:

Still haven't quite figured out the correct pronunciation for this darn town I'm in.  Loo-ee-vill?  Loo-i-vill? Loo-vull? Loo-i-vull? I give up!

Big Leagues and Back

One month is an unacceptable time gap between blog posts but I do have a few excuses:)

Let's go back to the morning of July 24th.  Collin and I were doing our daily devotional over coffee at a café in Durham, NC when Collin got a call from the Syracuse manager telling him that he was going to fly out to Milwaukee to join the Nationals for their game against the Brewers that night.  We quickly packed up his things and off he went in a taxi headed for the airport.  I stayed in Durham because he was supposed to come straight back the next morning.  However the chain of events that carried out continued to surprise us and allowed him to stay up for 2 weeks!  It's terrible to see people get hurt in baseball and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone but it just so happened that a few people went on the DL which opened up roster spots and kept Collin from being sent down.  We were even able to go on the Arizona/LA road trip, which is such a special trip for us because we got to spend time with my brother, Stephen, in Arizona and Collin's family was able to come to the LA hotel and Dodgers games!  Oh, and if timing wasn't perfect enough already... Lauren (Collin's sister, whose boyfriend Anthony was up with the Twins at the time) just happened to be going to CA for a wedding that weekend, so I was able to spend quite a bit of time with her too!

After the last game in LA, Collin got sent down. (Ironically Anthony got called up 4 days before Collin, and got sent down the morning Collin did)  No reason to be sad though!--- when we got back to DC, we drove to my brother's house in Ohio, stayed with them for a night and Collin flew out to Syracuse the next day.  The Syracuse road trip this week just happens to be within driving distance of my brother's house, so I drove to Indianapolis yesterday to meet Collin here for four days, and then we will drive together to Louisville on Monday night.  The last couple weeks couldn't have gone smoother.  This is all proof that God has a plan for our lives, and this year we have thoroughly understood that, and have put all our trust and faith in Him.  When you do that, you can live in peace knowing that no matter what happens it happens for a reason.  Even when life throws you curveballs (no pun intended), you can take them with grace because you know ultimately everything will work out in the end and God will provide for you.