Thanks for the memories ! (:

This past week has been great, and emotional. Late Thursday night, Point Loma began pool play for the NAIA tournament. They beat Ottowa Thursday, and then beat MidAmerica on Saturday. Their final season came to an end on Monday against Shorter. I told myself I wasn't going to cry... that didn't last very long. The most awesome part of that day ( actually the whole week ) was when they asked me to come to their last huddle & gave me the signed jersey. I love it ! Then, I was asked to give a speech. Well, 1) I was not prepared to give a speech so I had no idea what I was going to say and 2) I was crying, so they probably didn't even understand me. But I do want to point out that I wasn't crying because I was disappointed, at all. They did great, and are still #1 to me. They are all awesome softball players and people. I'm glad that I got to spend more time with them before they left, too. They invited me to lunch, and I loved listening to the funny stories they told about the season. Then we went out and watched some games before they left. I was absolutely dreading 3:30, I didn't want them to go. But the time came, and after saying bye, they all left. I couldn't even stick around the ball fields after that, I had to leave. I am sad that they won't be back next year, I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll leave that for then & not worry about it now. I'm absolutely, 100% proud of this team. They are wonderful, and are so close. They are the exact definition of a team. The dictionary needs to say "team-(n) Point Loma Nazarene University softball team. " Lastly, I would just like to thank them for everything they have done, for making me feel special to them. Especially when they scream " RAAACHEEELL! " every time they see me, no matter where we are. I want to also thank all of the parents, they are so sweet ! I'm going to miss every single one of them, a lot. Thank goodness for Facebook, so we can keep in touch ! haha.

Tyler & I Walkup & I

The Final 14

Thursday began the games for this year's NAIA tournament at Wilson Morgan. Like every year since 1st or 2nd grade, I went out to watch,my favorite team, Point Loma. Most of the time when I tell people that, they just look at me funny and say " Who are they? " or " Why?". Well, they are an amazing softball team from San Diego, California, and for many reasons.

I can remember that first year like it was just yesterday. My dad and I went out to watch the tournament for fun. We would just float from game to game and watch an inning or two then go to the next game, but as we walked up to the field where Loma was playing, there was something different about them. There was a completely different vibe coming from their dugout. A sense of a strong team bond, spirit, and it was my image of a perfect team. I can remember chasing every foul ball hit in that game like it was money flying through the air. After the 6th or 7th foul ball, one of the people that worked at the field just let me keep the ball. Later, I got the team to sign it (I still have that ball, and everything they gave me or pictures on a wall in my bedroom, its my "Loma wall"). From then on, watching them has been tradition.

Going through the past years, I could go down the rosters and tell you at least one thing that each player did that made me a better person and/or ball player. Here are some that I can just think of off of the top of my head (in no particular order, of course) : Cheryl Bolding- Cheryl, who was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame this year, is just an all around great softball player, but she also knows that there is always something to work on, and stays grounded. She is definitely one of my softball idols. Mackenzie Gerke- She is the reason I have been #31 for most of my softball years, she included me in things the team did while they were here in Decatur, and it made me feel special. She always worked hard and never gave up. Melissa Gomez- Mel is so sweet, and always said, " Hey, Rachel !" with a big smile on her face, no matter what, even if they were losing & the game was on the line. She's an amazing softball player, and always made me feel special. Randi Mead- Randi was a great softball player, and she was so nice. She would come and talk after every game, no matter what the outcome was. KC Robertson- KC was a great pitcher, and even though she has graduated, we still talk every now and then. She sent me a birthday card one year, and it is still hanging up in my room. It meant more than she even knows. Allie Boeckelman- Allie was one of the best catchers I have seen in my life. She was smart, and was calm in tough situations. She played through pain and injury, because she knew she couldn't let her team down.There are SO many more, and those are just past players!

This year is the last year that Point Loma will have a softball team, at least for a while. When I first heard this news, I was crushed. My dream was to go out to Cali ( as much as my dad said no ) and play for Point Loma. The team this year has faught so hard, and continues to fight to make this the best. They have worked so hard, and are more than determined to go far. It's crazy to think, that when the tournament comes around next year, they won't be there. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but what I do know is that I'm not going to take this year for granted. I am going to be at as many games as possible. Rain,shine,hot,cold,early in the morning,late at night; I'm gonna be there, cheering them on. I love to watch them play, and every single time I do, I feel like a kid again. I look up to them, and it's like no matter what they are the best. I'm going to miss them a lot! But this tournament is just getting started & I'm ready to watch them go all the way !

http://www.pointloma.edu/Athletics/Softball.htm

Here comes goodbye.

Tonight was our banquet for the 2010 AHS Softball season. This season has been absolutely amazing, to say the least. As we sat and talked about the season and watched the slide show of pictures, you could hear people saying " Remember when this happened...? " & laughing because of inside jokes that happened in those moments. Our seniors this year were the greatest, they were such good leaders and we wouldn't have had the season we did without them. Each and every one of them had a positive influence on the team and we grew stronger because of it. I became closer with them this year, and I'm happy about that. I just want to say a little about each senior.

Amy- Amy is just an awesome person, and she knows how to make people feel better when they are down. I will never forget in the Morgan Co. Tournament, I was upset because of a bad play, and when we came back into the dugout I just went and sat down in the corner & Amy came over there, looked me in the eye and said, " Rachel, get up. There's nothing you can do about it now, you've got get out there and hit, we need your stick ! Go take it out on the ball ! " & I sucked it up, & got back to work. Amy is a great 3rd baseman & that girl can hit !

Brooke- Since the beginning of my softball career at Austin, Brooke has always been one to lift me up & encourage me when I'm down. She always has the best advice, not just about softball, but about life too. & Brooke is awesome at cheering everyone on, giving 100% in everything, and she is a great ball player (:

Haley- Oh boy, Haley is just crazy. She always has something encouraging to say & most of time it's hilarious. She always says something random/funny/crazy in our huddles. She would always make us laugh if we looked down, or just say something insane to make us all give that "ooohhhh haley " look to her. Her favorite cheer was the " Na na na na na " cheer & she'd make up a new verse every game. Hahaha. Haley is an amazing pitcher & I know she is going to go far!

Sarah- Haha, wow. Sarah & I have developed a special relationship this season. If a complete stranger walked up in the middle of one of our coversations, they would think we were about to beat eachother into the ground ! We both knew we were kidding, though. If we were down a couple points in a game Sarah would look at me and say, " Rachel, I just don't think I've been mean enough to you today, that's why we're losin ! " and even tonight, as Coach Dutton called my name to get my award, Sarah whispered my name, and I looked back at her and she said " I hate you !" with the biggest smile on her face. It won't be the same next year without her there to pick on me & for me to pick on !

Bre- Bre just cracks me up. She can be SO hyper and crazy at one moment & then down to business in the next. I swear, she hit so many out this year that after a while we all got tired of running out there every time ! But we're glad she did ! She is so quick, if a ball was hit to center, we wouldn't even stress, we'd say " Bre's got it " and just calmly wait for the ball to drop into her glove.

Lauren- This girl always has fun, & she always kept the dugout loud & made sure we kept pushing through all game long. She was always wearin those shades in the outfield & would freak out if she couldn't find them. haha. She is a great pitcher & is gonna do so good at Snead ! Hot Chicken ! (not cold turkey.) & Mrs. Richey's class has been great too ! She just loves us & I'm just gonna have to scream " MRS. RICHEEEEEEEY! " for you next year ! Haha.

Jasmine- I cant forget Jasmine ! a.k.a. Management ! Haha, thanks for coming and helping us this season. It was fun.

I'm going to miss every one of these girls. They have been a big part in our success this season and the rest of the team has learned so much from them. We are going to keep this up & make sure that Austin Softball is a big success next year too !

I love you seniors !

2010 AHS Varsity Softball
" Goon Squad "

" All I wanna hear is a simple song "

So today as I laid in my bed listening to my iPod, I found my self reliving a moment or thinking of a person every time a song came on. It's funny how the smallest thing can remind you of a time or person in your life. Some of the songs made me laugh, others made me wish I was still close to that person, some made me want to go back to that time and stay in it forever, while others made me want to erase that time from my memory.

All I Wanna Do reminds me of Lexy House and how we listened to this song over and over on the way home from the beach.

Anthem for the Underdog reminds me of watching Never Back Down a billion times with Brittany Bishop.

Ayo Technology reminds me of the 2007 Point Loma softball team ( I believe ), they warmed up to this song at the NAIA tournament & I thought it was the most awesome song ever, just because of them.

Body Language reminds me of Lauren Lindsey & how we would jam before & after church to it.

Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot - Jamie Kennedy & Stu Stone - This song reminds me of Allie Garland & how we listened to it before every away softball game last year.

Curbside Prophet reminds me of riding to the Hack Shack with Brooke Baker.

Cyclone reminds me of when Ashton Cowan spent the night with me the day after my birthday a few years ago, also the day after Katelyn Hill, Payton Mansell, and I rolled her, and she found a roll of toilet paper in the truck & found out that we rolled her.

Disturbia reminds me of Brittany showing me the YouTube video of the girl dancing to this song & we laughed for hours.

Drop It Like It's Hot reminds me of the 6th grade dance with Lulu & Crystal Hill.

Ever Ever After reminds me of screaming this song in the car with Katelyn Hill & talking about how we love Disney movies and quoting random movies.

Fearless reminds me of making a video to this song with Brittany Bishop when she was on some talk show the night before her CD came out & being the first ones at the Decatur Wal*Mart to get it.

Fireflies reminds me of Jay Chenault and how he danced to this song in the car on the way to Ricatoni's & Greystone Manor.

Hard reminds me of this past softball season & randomly singing this song in the dugout.

Hot Mama reminds me of Meghan Cole & how we are hot mamas and we use the codename "one hot daddys".

I'm Yours reminds me of Chelsea Franks & how she always asks Coach Shannon to play the video of the Ukelele Boy in history.

I Love College reminds me of Ashley Hudgins & how we would sing this song every time we were in her car this summer.

Ice Cream Paint Job reminds me of State this summer & how we'd sing this every second of the day.

If I Were A Boy reminds me of Brittany Bishop and how we laugh every time we hear this beacuse of the person who " tried " to sing it.

Imma Be reminds me of Lulu & how she told me she works out to this song cause it has a good beat.

Imma Star reminds me of Libby and how she would ALWAYS listen to it & we'd sing it when she came up to bat.

In the Ayer reminds me of many times in the convertable with Pam & Allie Garland. Tooooo many memories !

Kiss Me reminds me of Savannah Fausz and how when we played Karaoke Revolution on the XBox, this was the only song I ever sang because it was the only one I was good at.

Leave It All To Me reminds me of always telling Eric Smith that he looks like Freddy from iCarly.

Lose Control reminds me of dancing in Ashton Cowan's room.

Make a Toast reminds me of Alabama Football games at Zach Johnson's house & how Zach and Dylan Woods would always listen to this song when they played basketball.

Man in the Mirror reminds me of Ashley Hudgins screaming " I love Michael Jackson " at Sonic, while listening to this song shortly after he died.

Marvelous Light reminds me of interpretive dancing at church with Jordan Grisham.

My Life Be Like Ooh Ahh reminds me of Shelby Sandlin & listening to this song when we played on the Diamonds.

Party Like a Rockstar reminds me of Payton Mansell & the 8th grade band trip to Atlanta.

She's Fine (Halle Berry) reminds me of singing Kayla Miller's cheer when she would pinch run.

This is the Way I Live reminds me how Chrisy Amos & I used to sing this all the time in 8th grade.

True Friend reminds me of Katelyn Hill because that's what she is.

Turn My Swag On also reminds me of Zach & Dylan listening to this when they would play basketball at Zach's.

Wait Your Turn reminds me of going to the baseball pancake breakfast with Allie.

We Be Steady Mobbin reminds me of Jamie Rohr and how she sang this song all the time this summer.

Year 3000 reminds me singing it all the time in 8th grade at PE.

This is definitely not all, just some I could think of while scrolling through my iPod. There are so many more & many more to come. If you can think of one that I missed, comment on here & tell me.

Lessons Learned

Although this weekend was not the greatest, I definitely learned a lot and re-learned other things.
1. People change, and others don't.
2. Be careful who you trust.
3. There is a huge difference between friend & true friend.


I am the kind of person that trusts someone until they give me a reason not to, and I usually give 2nd chances and sometimes more, even if it's not deserved. But, my true friends are always there to help me when things go wrong, and I love them for that. I'd do anything for my true friends, no matter what. Actually, I'd do anything for most people, that's just the way I am. Unfortunately, people take advantage of it. Friendship is about giving, not taking, but sometimes one of the people take & take, but never give. Then the friendship just falls apart. I wish things like this wouldn't happen, but my mom always tells me " It's sad, but it even happens to adults. " True friends will do anything without even caring what is in it for them, or how its going to effect them. But enough about that.

Today is Mother's Day & for the past couple years I have given my mom those paper flowers that we make in Spanish. This year I decorated a pot to put them in so it's a little different. But I'm sure she is getting tired of seeing those flowers every year. Haha, but lucky for her I'm not taking Spanish next year, so I'll have to be real creative. My sister, Julia, and I also made her a cake, but not just any cake, a hot pink cake. Thanks to this little sucker, my hands are temporarily dyed pink. But it was worth it ! I'm not the best cake decorator, but I tried ! & Julia was a big help ! After making the cake I went on a bike ride with my other sister, Sarah. That kid is hilarious, and when it's just you and her she talks and talks nonstop! We rode up to Chestnut Grove and she told me where her and her friends sit in their " spot " under the tree and have their " talk " every day, except for when it's raining of course. Yes, she did feel the need to clarify that when it is raining that they can't go to their spot outside. As we were riding, she stayed in front of me the whole time so that I could keep an eye on her, but she kept looking back and saying " Like I told you before, you CANNOT beat the lightning, Wipeout !" Wipeout is the name of her bike. She got to pick a bike out for her birthday, and she picked a red boy's bike with Wipeout written across the handlebars. When she showed dad the one she wanted, he told her it was a boy's bike and she told him that she knew. She was satisfied and that's all that matters. As much as she annoys me sometimes, I just love that kid. Oh, and the #4 thing that I learned this weekend was that will you learn a lot about a person if you will just spend a little bit of time with them. I hope that next weekend is better than this one, but I'm glad this weekend happened. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, good & bad.

" If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it. "

Best friends

As I've noticed lately, it's hard to trust a lot of people. Also, that you need to keep those around who you can truly trust. Katelyn Hill and I have been best friends since birth. I can't remember a day when we weren't best friends. She is someone that I can count on no matter what, 3 o'clock in the morning or 5,000 miles away. Although we don't get to see each other much because of our conflicting schedules, when we do find time to spend together we always have a great time and spending most of that time laughing. She knows me better than I know myself and always gives me advice or a second opinion when I ask ( or don't, for that matter. haha). She is an absolutely amazing person, and I have absolutely no idea what my life would be like if we had never met! Although we had always gone to Noah's Ark since we were newborns, when we were old enough to talk our friendship grew. We were very small at the time, but I remember it like it was just yesterday. It was play time, and we were going to find some toys to play with, and Katelyn came up to me, and her exact words were, " I don't have any friends, you wanna be my friend?" and of course I said yes. We have been best friends ever since !

This is a picture of Katelyn and I when we were three. We took this picture in the back yard of my old house, one summer day. This is our 'signature' picture along with another where we are turned backwards with our arms around each other. We attempted to reenact this picture this past summer, and it turned out like this.

We tried ! Haha, anyway, I know that she will be here for me forever, and she would never do anything to hurt me! I love you BFF :D

" Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. "

Well I decided to start this blog as a place to put thoughts and day to day events that occur and need to be shared. I also love to write. I'm going to try to update it as much as possible, but we all know how things like that go. But who knows, maybe this will be different. * Also, this first blog is a rather long one. *

As most of you know I play softball, and have for the past 9 1/2 years of my life. I love it, and that is why I play, not to get scholarships, although if given the opportunity to go to school and play softball on a scholarship, I will greatly take it, but generally I play because it makes me happy. I have been on the team at school since my freshman year and I have loved it, but this past year has been the greatest. I feel that the team meshed very well and we were very strong in all aspects of the game. We worked very hard all year to be the best we could possibly be. We had happy moments and sad moments, and we stayed a team through it all.This past week was our last time together in uniform for this season. We practiced very hard Monday - Wednesday, and on Thursday we headed to Sparkman to play in the Area Tournament.

As I sat in 1st and 2nd period on Thursday, the clock seemed to tick slower and slower with each passing minute. Finally I couldn't take it anymore, and Lauren Williams and I headed out of Mrs. Richey's room, while Mr.Stiener (her sub) was pretending to cry because we were leaving. We went and got dressed, and met the rest of the team on the sidewalk of the J parking lot to wait on the bus. We joked and talked about fun times until the bus arrived. We all piled on the bus and chose our seats, and began our trek to Sparkman. But before we left Decatur, we made a stop at Chik-Fil-A. I swear, this team is more serious about food than anything ! Before the bus could even get stopped everyone was piling out of the bus, including opening the emergency exit in the back. We got our food and got back on the bus, and continued unfinished conversations. As we got closer and closer to the school, our adrenaline levels started to rise quickly. Everyone was pumped and ready to play, I don't think we had ever been more ready the whole season. We got off the bus and applied our eye-black and got down to business. We played Bob Jones first, and beat them, which was AMAZING. After that we had a one-game break, and then we played Sparkman. We got beat 9-8, which is the closest we have come to beating them this year, but we were still in good spirits. We had a lengthy break and decided to go to the Madison Square Mall to eat dinner and kill time before the game. After eating ( the table was filled with a variety of food, including Chinese, "Mexican" which was really mashed potatoes and mac-n-cheese, Subway, etc. ) we went to the arcade. Along with food, our team is very competitive when it comes to games. Dance-Dance Revolution was a popular choice, although frustration arose in those who were rhythmically-challenged. Along with that was Air Hockey ( or as Kayla called it 'Ice Hockey' ). I would upload the beyond hilarious video of Ashton playing Dance-Dance Revolution & Sherika and Coach Crump playing Air Hockey, but my phone is not cooperating. We love to have fun, and this includes many Sing-a-longs on the bus, which are so funny and happen quite frequently. When we got back to Sparkman, we warmed up, which usually leads to playing some kind of game or pretending to be a pitcher or dancing, you get the picture. Going into the last game we had numerous peptalks and random dancing ( we tend to do this a lot ). We were pumped nonetheless. We fought the whole game and never gave up, but we were shy 1 run from extra innings. With the last out came the waterworks, people who you rarely see cry were bawling. The coaches said their words of encouragement and how proud they were. Then they gave the floor to the seniors who were struggling to get out sentences through the tears, but they said things that made us laugh, cry even more, and things that encouraged us. They have been a big part of our success this season through their leadership and actions. It will not be the same without them next year, and they will be missed so much. This season has been memorable, and the end was not the one we wanted, but we did get a lot accomplished this season. We had a winning season, we won a tournament in Tennessee, where we beat #22 in the nation, Beech, we beat Bob Jones, and came so close to beating Sparkman. There are so many more things that were accomplished, those are just a few. I had a great time this season, we worked hard and our hard work payed off. I am so excited for next year, and hope to be taking a trip to Montgomery for the State Tournament !