Oh, Shortstopmom-I found it!

LOL Son's games have been cancelled for tomorrow, so I was planning on consoling myself with some shopping... I'll have to add Walmart to the list!

BBFam!!!
I saw your post and giggled outloud!! Coffee spewed everywhere! ha ha!!! Ya made my morning!!!

I love it!! Baseball Easter baskets???.....baseball Easter eggs??? ( beginning to hyperventilate! ) ....baseball tote bags???
( my brain is startin' ta tingle!!! ) Oh my goodnesss,....I am sooo there!!!!

Zippin by there tomorrow! This shortstopmom is no longer the procrastinator!!! I'm on it!! Thanks soo much for the heads up!!!

Sounds REALLY cute!!!
You are too cool for school!!!
THANK YOU!!!

You can also try target--they have two different styles shown online:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_13/602-22...se=1&asin=B000J5QAUU

Bordeaux ...

Now that would also be very cute for a centerpiece at a banquet ... filled with baseball related items like peanuts and sunflower seeds, maybe have a real sunflower or two 'planted' int the bucket. Or it could be used as a 'basket' at an auction, maybe filled with tickets to a MLB game, and other baseball related goodies.

Makes me wish my not-so-youngin' were still young. Guess I'll have to wait for grandchildren ...

quote:

Makes me wish my not-so-youngin' were still young. Guess I'll have to wait for grandchildren

Yes, that is kind of the way I'm thinking these days too .....

Shortstopmom is squealing loudly once again! You gals never cease to amaze me!

Outta my way people,..I am a baseball mom on a mission!!
( ~ insert silly Super Hero music here ~ )

Zippin', zingin', and zoomin' through Kansas City I go ( cape flowing and bling-bling tiara secured in place! ) bound and determined to scoop up all the baseball Easter stuff while its still hot on the shelves! No stinkin' lousey snow or -7 degree weather shall stop me!

Gotta go and snag those " Targey " baseball baskets for indeed just that,...center pieces for the end of the year baseball banquet!! Tooo cute! How perfect can ya get??? Perfection I tell ya,....they are pure perfection!! Walmart,..I am on my way to you tooo!!! Swooooosh,...they will not sell out before shortstopmom gets there. I dare them I tell ya,..I dare them!!


Now,.....if I can only figure out a strategic plan on how to show up with them,..and NOT get suckered appointed into heading up the entire decoration committee.
( Perhaps they should just suddenly appear * poof * on the Coaches desk at lunch time with a note from the annonymous banquet decoration fairy! tee- hee! )

Thank you ladies!!!

SSM--I think those baseball baskets are only available online from target--very easy one-click ordering via an Amazon account--hope that saves you an icy pursuit in vain. But I'm sure you can find other fun stuff anyway while you're out and about--I love the visual image!

Our planned trip this week to Boston for a college tour for my daughters was a victim of ice and JetBlue, so we leave shortly for a car trip to visit southern California colleges instead (flexible people here). Fun to take the earmuffs and long underwear out of the suitcases and replace them with flip flops and tank tops! It was near 70 here yesterday, although a bit cooler today. Anyone who wants to come visit, let us know!

Bordeaux ...

Dare you share what schools she is looking at down here? Is she an athlete as well? Just curious.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureBack.Mom:
Bordeaux ...

Dare you share what schools she is looking at down here? Is she an athlete as well? Just curious.

I'm curious too Bordeaux. My daughter is a HS junior and we're planning on beginning to visit starting in early April. I'd forgotten what a special time this can be.... get to spend time with your child exploring and visioning their futures. Mine isn't an athlete, so it's changed how we're going about choosing schools to visit, but exciting nonetheless!!

Hi to both of you--actually it is two of them! Twins. Happy to share and maybe we can exchange ideas! I'll send you both a PM as I don't want to overly hijack this thread. If anyone else wants to join in, just let me know and I'll add you.

But in quick summary--down here, we are just looking at 3 schools for this first trip: Scripps, Pomona, and UCLA. Also doing a bit of touristy stuff as believe it or not, we haven't ventured to LA with the girls before! They are not athletes, they both have different interests.

P.S. I HAVE placed my order for ONE baseball Easter bucket!!

Yes sir indeeedy,..I made my super sonic shortstopmom trip to Targey yesterday,..and not only did I find the baseball baskets ( which by the way come in a nice variety of other sports also! ) but I also found an adorable baseball nightlight and even a humidifier in the shape of a baseball,..along with an cute cute hi bachi style baseball shaped grill for tailgating!
Must be some kind of Target new Spring decor theme,... I was impressed,...and left with a cart full and a big ol' smile on my face!
Oh and P.S..... Ya just couldn't go wrong with their, funky but fun, $1 bin St. Patricks day decor,....green glittered hats, sequined
" Kiss me I'm Irish " sashes, cute socks, earring, etc.
...and thats no blarney!!

Oh Bourdeaux,...

quote:

I'll send you both a PM as I don't want to overly hijack this thread. I

You're not hijacking this thread at all,...were simply transitioning from conversation to conversation,..as if we were all sittin' around the kitchen table having coffee!

Please continue!!! I have a daughter too and am all for taking notes about what to expect during college visits with her!!! Thats going to be a whole new world of territory to cover when we get to cross that bridge. I'll need all the help I can get!! ha!

Just got back from Target!! Bought my "Plether" Baseball Easter basket and "All-Star" Sports eggs! I forwarded the Target link to my other sports mom friends - the s****r, golf, and football baskets are darling! Didn't make out quite as well as shortstopmom~ didn't see the humidifier (don't need in our part of Texas) or baseball hib achi grill.

The problem now will be to remember where I put this stuff when Easter finally rolls around.

I'm taking the baseball basket with me this weekend to show the banquet chair at our preseason games - just got to be careful not to get put in charge of decorations!

Thanks gals - I've never been this ahead of the game!

Well, by the time I get back home from this college trip (love the Claremont Colleges, by the way, although the weather right now is picture-perfect and probably not as dry and warm as is typical in southern California), my baseball basket will be waiting for me at my doorstep!

I am glad we are all having so much fun baseball shopping! Do you think that other sports attract as much decorating fervor? I always think there is just something about baseball, but maybe it's because our kids are so passionate about it?

quote:

Do you think that other sports attract as much decorating fervor?

I think other sports do garner the decorating fervor BUT I think they are more TEAM oriented as opposed to the GENERIC baseball decorating that we baseball fanatics do.

(Did that make sense? I am a bit headachey today and not thinking very clearly ... )

Yes, I think I know what you mean! Hope your headache is all gone (3 Advil do wonders....)

We are back from our trip and although it felt nonstop, including a 6-hour zip back home Interstate 5 on Thursday night, arriving precisely at midnight, it was a really good trip. One of my twins loved Scripps and the other, UCLA. Nice to start off finding colleges that excite their imaginations. Scripps is a small, cozy-feeling women's college that is part of the 5-college Claremont consortium. 5 really good colleges basically right next door to each other on a lovely campus, near a very charming little village, and a train ride away from downtown LA. UCLA is gorgeous!! And somehow as big as it is, they manage to create a very cohesive feel to the student body although class size and housing seem to be issues.

Anyway, I got my cute baseball basket (it is cuter in reality than on the website I think!) and today at the parents' lunch during the Stanford game, there were a couple of the "pleather" baseball baskets being used as containers for pretzels and they too looked adorable. I found Snickers eggs (is that what you were talking about?) wrapped in baseball and s****r wrappers at Longs' Drugs. So I am ready for Easter even though I believe the team will be in Arizona that weekend, sigh. Do you think that chocolate gets stale if kept in the wrappers that long? If so, please let me know so that I can eat them and avoid them getting stale.

No no Bordeaux ... don't eat the Snickers. They will last ... after all, think of how long they have already been on the shelves and how long they will stay on the shelves before Easter.

By the way, wasn't that clever of me (the no no Bordeaux play on words) ???

Clever use of words, not the answer I was looking for.

Bordeaux ...

Well, if you must ... GO AHEAD AND EAT THEM ... we wouldn't want them to go stale (did I spell that right? Sometimes I wonder if I did indeed graduate from college )

quote:

Do you think that chocolate gets stale if kept in the wrappers that long?

Absolutely, without a doubt, 100% positive, there is no other answer, other than yes,...they will indeedy by all standards go stale.

Activate eating procedures immediately!!

Its your duty as a fellow chocolate connoisseur to make sure no chocolate falls below the nummy standard.

Eat them,...its a Mom MUST mission!

( Feel free to ship some to me,..and I will gladly assist you! )


Ahhhh,....HS baseball season starting,....spring time approaching, an abundance of never ending chocolate ( still have leftover valentine stash hidden in cupboard )....ahhh life is good!

AF son flew home last night ( traded 80 degree Florida by the beach weather, for 20 degree cold-burrrrr-heck-a-freakin'-cold in the cornfields weather ) to spend a week of vacation with us.

( see this proud happy momma grinning from ear to ear! )

Highlight of trip is watching/supporting his younger highschool junior brother tryout for baseball this week.
Gotta love it!!!!!!!!! Nothing like big brother support.

Thank goodness for the sweet sweet moments!!!
I am doing my best to take them in slowly, one at a time, with an abundance of detail!!! One bite of chocolate at a time!

Well, I wrote that wishful thinking before baseball season got underway at home and I am now on the Nervous Mom's baseball season diet. Can't eat. Baseball eggs and all others are safe from me.

And yes, stale was spelled korrecktley.

Hi All,

Just came home from grocery shopping in No. VA. I don't know if "Palmer" chocolate is nationally distributed, but I found sports eggs - hollow chocolate eggs covered by aluminum foil skins for the various sports. I scooped up the baseball ones.

My boys haven't looked for the Easter Bunny for a very long time, but hey have never lost faith in this Easter Mother Hen!

Besides, the four inches of snow that we got yesterday makes baseball season and spring feel like a very long way off and I needed to renue MY faith that they both will eventually get here!

SSMom, who needs chocolates when you have the best sweets ever to savor? Plus, the heart gets a good exercise and there are no calories!

Bordeaux, I tend to overeat when I have PMS (Pitcher's Mother Syndrom). Those pistachio calories add up! Is there any way that we could average our calories?

Enjoy!

Try this.

The Non-Stress Diet

This diet is designed to help you cope with stress which normally builds up during the day.

Breakfast

1/2 Grapefruit
1 Slice Whole Wheat Toast, Dry
8 oz. Skim Milk

Lunch

4 oz. Lean Broiled Chicken Breast
1 cup Steamed Spinach
1 cup Herb Tea
1 Oreo Cookie

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Rest of the Oreos in the package
2 Pints Rocky Road Ice Cream
1 Jar Hot Fudge Sauce
Nuts, Cherries, Whipped Cream

Dinner

Loaves of Garlic Bread with Cheese
Large Sausage, Mushroom & Cheese Pizza
4 Cans or 1 Large Pitcher of Beer
3 Milky Way or Snickers Candy Bars



Rules For This Diet

1. If you eat something, and no one else sees you eat it, it has no calories.

2. When drinking a diet soda while eating a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are cancelled by the diet soda.

3. When you eat with someone else, calories don't count as long as you don't eat more than they do.

4. Foods used for medicinal purposes NEVER count. Example: hot chocolate, brandy, toast, and Sara Lee Cheesecake.

5. If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.

6. Movie-related foods do not have calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel. Example: Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior Mints and Tootsie Rolls.

7. Cookie pieces contain no calories. The process of breaking the cookie causes calorie leakage.

8. Late-night snacks have no calories. The refrigerator light is not strong enough for the calories to see their way into the calorie counter.

9. If you are in the process of preparing something, food licked off knives and spoons have no calories. Examples: Peanut Butter on a knife and ice cream on a spoon.

10. Food of the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are spinach and pistachio ice cream, mushrooms and white chocolate.

11. Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other.

MY PROPOSED ADDITION:
1. Food consumed while offspring is pitching does not cause weight gain because the stress endured cancels the calories in the food.

Bordeaux,..Bourdeaux,..Bourdaux,.....
You have me on the floor,..rolling around in a ball,...with tears pouring out of my eyeballs,...arms hugging sides,....stop it,...stop it!!! Toooooooooooooo FUNNY!!!

Thats really reeeeeeally good,...absolutely classic!!!
Must post recipe so all the mom's can see!!!!


Oh my goodness,..laughing this hard in the morning,...I think I pulled something!! But I LOVE it!!!!!

We've soo all been there!!!!
Must get control,...must find kleenex,..and must print this for the frig!!!!!

Bordeaux,

I think that you qualify as a certified professional (pitcher's mom). May I take your "prescription" to my nutritionist?

I started reading your post thinking, boy, Bordeaux really is a perfect person - grapefruit, toast??

When I finished reading I KNEW that you ARE a perfect person!

The stress of watching P pitch plays havoc with my blood sugar levels. So, I can't give in to my fight or flight instincts (if I can't go out there and make blue call them the right way, I will flee into the safety of snacking).

I do eat nuts to counteract the occasional candy bar (re)treat.

Taking team photos during the games keeps me busy and I can move around without seeming like I'm fidgeting (which I am).

Any other survival techniques?

Thanks, Bordeaux, for once again showing the one true path (humor) for a baseball parent!

Hugs,
P&CMom

P&CMom (I'm glad that isn't just "PC" mom)

quote:

Any other survival techniques?

Having quite a few years on most of you ... chronologically as well as PMS'ly ... I have found that the meticulous scorekeeping in a large score book is the essential tool to reducing stress. It lets you focus on the other players' mistakes (sorry moms of position players but we pitchers' moms need all the help we can get), all the pass balls (there is no such thing as a wild pitch, just something made up to calm the catchers' moms), and the lack of run support. I also 'perfected' my scorekeeping to the point that I use colored INK with various colors meaning different things. Just keeping the pens and pencils on my lap is effort enough ... no time to grab snacks when there are 10 colored pens rolling all over the seating area (So, now you can see why I am in such a quandry as to my excess weight ... how did that happen???))

Dr. Bordeaux,

Thank you, after years of testing I finally have a diagnosis and a great diet plan to help cope with the stress! Actually, I think I have already been following this diet on some sort of subconsciencious level occasionally

Your diet is so great (at making me laugh out loud - picture water spewing out all over keyboard and me running downstairs to grab napkins and back upstairs to dry desk - I even got exercise!) I hope you don't mind that I forwarded a copy of it to a few friends.

As far as the chocolate goes, by all means eat it and pleeeaasee eat some for me. I abosolutely LOVE chocolate, especially Dark Chocolate and since I had Meningitis a couple of months ago, I am still on some Neuro. Meds and am NOT allowed to have ANY Chocolate or Coffee or several other things but the, No Chocolate, is the hardest for me. Especially since we just had Valentines Day and now Easter coming up. Since your name is Bordeaux ..... red wine, including red grapes, and raisins is one of the other "no no's" on the crazy long list.

Congrats to you and David to... a Great Scholar and Athlete!!!


P&C Mom,

Keeping score and stats in a book, helps my mind and hands stay busy and stops me from mindless, nervous eating during the games. The score books also serve as souveneirs through the years. It has been fun to look back on the kids he has played with/against, now following them into college. Who know's, what started out as a volunteer team duty may yeild some future All Star's early playing days history! Then I can say, "I remember that kid!"

Hey FBMom

I started typing my reply before your post about keeping score! I guess it took me longer than I realized to clean up that water and get my key board dry and working again!!!

Gals,..I think we all need to go to lunch!

Whatta ya say?

What an incredible group of ladies!!!!!!
Wish we were all neighbors!


You all make my day so much brighter!!

FBM - P&C is for pitcher and catcher ! I try to avoid politics - correct or otherwise !

SSM - Lunch sounds great. Kansas is central, but the weather Bordeaux has would make the trip worth while . Son P was at Stanford showcase last summer and while he was working his tail off, I discovered a diner named Hobees. It was a nice friendly place. The only problem was that they bake their own goodies - very seductive! Sounds like just the kind of place we could make our home away from this virtual home .

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

I like the idea of keeping the book although I think that I would drive my husband, or those unfortunate enough to sit near me, crazy with my questions. But, if it was just for me, I guess that it wouldn't matter how I scored it or even it I scored it.

I have tried hiding behind whatever book I am reading at the time, just peeking when I felt that my stomach could take it, but I always get asked how I can read while sons are playing. The truth is, I rarely turn a page. At least if I had a scorebook in my hands it wouldn't look so strange or elicit as many comments.

SL - No chocolate? No coffee? Cruel and unusual and I would be postal! I have actually found a doctor who believes in the medicial value of an occasional dose of dark chocolate and red wine. Do you have to avoid cheeses, also? Meningitis is nothing to fool with, but I didn't realize the treatment had such restrictions attached to it. Hope you will be able to be off the meds soon and able to enjoy your chocolate and wine, etc..


Your sister in chocolate,
P&CMom

Hobee's--how funny! They make this special blueberry coffee cake, and they donate it in large quantities to all of the local footraces. The promise of Hobee's coffeecake is one of the chief reasons I still run in some of those races! Anyway, I would love play hostess to anyone who wants to come out West(but note conditions in last paragraph of this post).

But, the baseball diet does work well. I got on the scale this morning and I've lost 2 pounds since this time last week.

That anti-stress diet has been around for many years. I don't remember when I first read it, but TO THIS DAY, I ALWAYS think about calorie leakage when I reach for a cookie. I think I have come to believe in it!! I really do believe that all emotional eating should be calorie-free. But, life is not fair sometimes.

When D pitches, I retreat to a private spot in the ballpark (and of course I move to another spot if it proves to not be a "lucky" spot). Woe to anyone who gets in my line of view, talks--to me or anyone else within hearing range--or otherwise interferes with my total concentration. On Sunday a sweet older scout leaning on his cane was sitting near me and started talking to me and of course I had to be polite to him because he was my elder and truly WAS so sweet, even when he asked if D was my grandson.

Bordeaux - Running races? Grandmother? Not only was he older and possibly lame, it sounds like he was also probably blind.

You showed great restraint even though he was sweet and your elder (YOUR grandfather, perhaps?)(and that he potentially could have an impact on your son's future!).

Being a baseball mom has more hazards than golf.

By the way - I found your two pounds. May I return them to you?

quote:

By the way - I found your two pounds. May I return them to you?

NO!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!

The fact is, my hair has turned gray (from watching the dang pitching, no doubt), although the rest of me does NOT look like a grandmother of a 20-year-old I think!

I don't think he is scouting any more, I think he is just one of the wonderful guys who still live for baseball. Watching all the generations at the ballpark, from babies to youngun's dreaming of playing when they grow up to parents to the older guys loving to watch and comment on the game--it's one of the things that makes baseball one of the greatest gifts in life! I guess in a way, I even have to include PMS in that whole equation. It is, after all, why we are there in the first place!

P & C,

I am a firm or is that flabby? believer in the medicinal value of dark chocolate and red wine, as well as my doctor. Unfortunately, the chemical combination of these foods and the medicines I need at this time are a bad combo and they trigger knee buckling head pain and difficulties with my vision and hearing. (I must confess I was feeling improvement, ate a little chocolate, a couple of choc. covered almonds, and paid a price ) So for now I make my sons Rich Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing, brownies,etc... and just enhale deeply while they wolf it down! Mmmm it smells sooooo good.

quote:

Bordeaux,

"On Sunday a sweet older scout leaning on his cane was sitting near me and started talking to me and of course I had to be polite to him because he was my elder and truly WAS so sweet, even when he asked if D was my grandson."

I think he made this "grandson" comment earlier in life to the wrong woman, someone not as patient and understanding as you obviously are, and that is why he now must use a CANE!



SSMom,

Lunch sounds great!

Bordeaux-Where were you in January when I started my diet? This one is much more to my liking and easier to follow!! I especially like your addition. It is amazing to me how much stress there is when a son is on the mound. I thought it would get better with time but it only seems to get worse. I guess the higher the stress level the more chocolate a mother needs to consume.
We should start a PMS group (Pitcher's Mother Sorority)and support each other when we know our stress will be high, but I promise I won't talk to you when your son is pitching.

quote:

Originally posted by BBfam:
I thought it would get better with time but it only seems to get worse.

Yes, I have found the same thing to be true. You're right, we ARE a sorority!

Totally LOL about Still Learning's comment/analysis!

Still Learning ...

quote:

I must confess I was feeling improvement, ate a little chocolate, a couple of choc. covered almonds, and paid a price

That gives a whole new meaning to a hangover, doesn't it? Must be something between the 'good food and drink' and your meds that causes conflict between vessel constriction and vessel dilation.

For me, the very thought of no chocolate gives me a headache, but I try not to keep any in the house because I cannot resist it ... no such thing as eating just one piece at a time. My husband always puts boxed See's candies (chocolates) in the freezer to keep for a long time ... been known to have a box in there for a year or more and the chocolate stays fine. I thought it would be a good idea to do likewise but guess what I learned? Frozen soft centered chocolates are actually better than the regular ones ... follow it up with a little cold cold milk and mmmm mmmm good.

If any of you ladies are out this way (somewhere out here ...) I would love to get together with you. Several of us mothers of older players connected through PM's several years ago and 6 of us were able to finally get together in San Francisco for a week-end of baseball and good food and fun. I strongly recommend it ... I can honestly say that I now have some very good friends that I didn't have 5 years ago and who I know I could call on for help at any time and know that they would be there. This is a wonderful wonderful site and has changed my life (and in some cases my outlook on life) remarkably ... and not just for baseball.

quote:

We should start a PMS group ( Pitcher's Mother Sorority )and support each other when we know our stress will be high, but I promise I won't talk to you when your son is pitching.

Ohhhhh,....Ohhhhh ...Ohhhhhh,..can I pleeeeease pledge tooo,
even though I'm not a pitchers mom?

Somehow I have inherited the PMS ( pitching mom's syndrom) through telepathic osmosis which I think infected me while sitting next to my good friends who are moms of pitchers.

Before I knew it,..I was downing peanuts, seeds,...& bottles of tums by the fistfull,...( sound familiar?? ) felt this grinding and turbulant churning inside my stomach....
while at the same time my head filled with pressure, stress, and a throbbing sensation, when any of their boys came up to the mound.

I suddenly could only watch the game from behind the bleachers, a conveniently misparked car, or ( god willing) the trunk of a perfectly planted tree,..peeking from behind both hands strategically placed in front of my face.

( What is it exactly that causes a grown sweet woman to instantaneously blurt out, " YOU CAN DO IT -----!! " " Rip em a nice one right down the middle pipeline _______!!! " or " OH COME ON BLUE!!! Where are YOUR glasses?? " at the top of her lungs??? )
Its like something posseses me and takes over my mouth!! ( the reason I now wear ducktape and sit in center field at every game! ha!)

Now I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure I've diagnosed myself, I too have Pitchers Mom Syndrome. Seen it before many times with my dear friends. Their boys are my son's best buddies, and I adore them!!!!
I just cant help myself,..I'm infected and I havent found a cure.
( I am likin' the scorebook idea though!! Very clever! Me and my buddy Jim Beam are gonna try it this season!!!)

Sooo,..if you all would be so kind,..please consider letting a fellow baseballmom sister pledge your sorority. I promise on my honor I will do my best to support, squirm,..and feel nauseated with the rest of you!

Lets hear it for the baseball moms of America!!!!!

P& C Mom,....where have you been all this time?? We are soooo glad to have ya!!!

Ladynmom....Goodness, that is a kind of horrific story! I think that yes, perhaps you should keep any more cute baseball stuff at home in your son's room! (That's acutally what I do too--I don't take it to him, I keep it here for him to enjoy when he comes home)

Psst...I hear that maybe you are going to see Hokieone at a game soon. Give him a hug from me, okay?