Opening Day.

Back "in the day," I was a fairly decent softball player by most standards.

In high school, I earned all-conference first-team honors for four years, regional honors, and team MVP. I threw with decent heat, had a pretty decent strike-out average, and usually batted at or around fourth position due to a fairly hot bat.

I was able to go on and pitch in college, where I also earned conference honors for hitting and pitching. I pitched nearly every game for the Golden Eagles for two years, before pretty much running my poor rotater cuff into the ground.

I am not recapping all of these honors to toot my own horn. The reason is this: Tonight, all of those softball honors paled miserably in comparison to the pride and privilege I felt in coaching my 5-year-old daughter's first t-softball game. My husband and I are coaching the team together and.....What a blast! Several of these little girls barely know where first base is and have to be reminded to go after the ball when it is hit to them. Some of them are "tiptoeing through the daisies" rather than paying attention to the game. But what better thrill is there in life than to share and pass down your loves to your children. To see my daughter beginning to develop a love for softball, to see her hit that ball into the outfield, and to see her excitement as she said "I like softball lots better than soccer, Mommy!".....there aren't many things better than that.

BTW, these photos are not as close-up as I like to take; the simple reason for this is that I was trying to coach first base, remind my runner on first to run when the ball is hit, and take photos of my daughter at her first in-game at-bat ever. I'm sure there were a few folks who deemed me a crazy woman, but that doesn't really ruffle my feathers. Whatever it takes.

And hey, for you draft-watchers out there, today was a special day for us in that one of my husband's former football players, Daniel Bazuin, was drafted to the Chicago Bears in the second round. We come to regard Matt's players as our own kids in some regard, so we are thrilled for Daniel, proud of his hard work, and anxious to see all of the wonderful things that the future has in store for him. And Chicago is fairly close, so I'm sure we'll be making the trek for several of his games come football season. Now, my husband is quite a large man, but look at how big-and-bulky Daniel dwarfs him in this photo from today's celebration party. We wish you God's best in these awesome opportunities, Daniel.....you had worked hard and you deserve all that is coming to you,