Just Checkin' In....

So June marked the halfway point to my Happiness Project. Kinda bittersweet. I'm having so much fun doing this project and don't want it to stop! 

I guess it's a good thing that I have a plan to keep it going for a much longer time and it will be much more fun and exciting than this year..... ;)

ANYWAYS. I figured I would do a little check-in for the past six months and where I am with keeping up with these goals. I'll go ahead and say that some are great while others still need a bit of work.

JANUARY: This month was all about getting organized. I wanted to start a blog, "spring clean" my apartment room, and start a great devotional.

Wellll, score one for Andi because I started a blog and I AM STILL DOING IT. That's right. I think this is the first project I have ever stuck with. Especially for this long. Is this what growing up feels like? It feels great. 

LOL real hard at me spring cleaning my apartment room. That was a shot in the dark though. My room is never clean. Except I actually did make a pile of stuff to throw away/take home.....it just never actually left the corner I put it in. But I'm all moved out now so TECHNICALLY I followed through with this one because by golly that apartment is spotless now.

The devotional is at about 50% accuracy. I'm still doing Jesus Calling and I absolutely LOVE IT. I highly recommend it to anybody looking for one because it is perfect. It's weird how it says exactly what you need to hear and the verses that you look up for it are amazing....obviously. I say it's at about 50% accuracy because like I said I'm really bad about keeping up with projects and things. I just have a really bad attention span and I forget to do it every day. I know, I know, I shouldn't forget something that important and I'm working on it.

FEBRUARY: I was trying to get on a health kick this month. You know, working out, eating real meals, and drinking more water and less soda. 

I honestly didn't do too shabby with this month and am still sticking with it the best I can. The whole working out thing has been put on hold because I was dumb and tried to play soccer, as you all know. But before I hurt myself I was on multiple rec teams at Mizzou and was just pretty active in general. I'm finally getting slightly better with my knee and have been set free to go on BIKE RIDES. HOLLA. 

Eating healthy. LOL. I'll never eat strictly healthy. I love chocolate and chips too much. However, I really did quit eating fast food so much (okay this is partially because I'm broke but SO WHAT) and the majority of my meals were rather healthy. As for drinking more water I've rocked this. Yes, I still drink soda but not near as much. I quit buying it because it was just a waste of money. You know what that did? Gave me a bit more pocket change to do fun stuff with AND I got healthier. Win win. 

MARCH: This month I wanted to focus on school, read more educational books, and subscribe to/read Time Magazine.

I rocked that school thing that apparently is SO important this month/semester. Seriously. I made a pact with myself that I was only going to skip a class if I had an actual reason to. I did realllllllly good with this too until about the last two weeks of school when I lost all motivation. I only skipped one class before that and it was so I could go with my brother on his college visit. Other than that I think I only missed four classes or so at the end. Which I am proud of. 

Reading wise, I subscribed to Time and I read the magazines when I get them. I love it. Educational books.....well I'm taking a Harry Potter class this fall so I'm rereading all of the books. Do those count as educational? I'm going with yes. 

APRIL: In April I spent my time focusing on my relationship with Christ. I did this because I don't feel like I can be truly happy until I'm in a place I feel good about with Him. However, I really don't think this can ever really be reached. I'm just enjoying the journey. 

I really wanted to spend more time serving others, praying, and reading my Bible. With Phi Lamb I was given so many opportunities to serve. I truly love my sorority for all that it offers. As for prayer, I've just never been very good at it. I spent my whole spring semester in prayer group talking about how I just get so distracted and it never turns out how I hear all of my sisters talking about their prayer life. Needless to say, my crazy brain hasn't changed any and I still get super distracted, but I've found things that work for me. And I've read my Bible every time I do Jesus Calling, sooo....slightly succeeding I suppose? I should really read it more. It's got some good stuff inside.

MAY: I really wanted to focus on being in the present this month and in the future. This was something that I'm really just going to have to continue working on. Mainly because technology can be so addicting. I wanted to reduce my use of social media, watch the news more, and just pay better attention to daily life.

Well the social media thing is hard. Cell phones are crazy and it's hard to stop using it so much. If you ask my family they would tell you that I'm still really bad about using it at home. But when I'm in new places or out with friends I do my absolute best to keep it put away. I've done pretty well so far and I have had some great conversations with wonderful strangers because of it. This has helped me pay better attention to my daily life because when I'm out and about I notice more now. And I trip and fall a lot less. Let's not get carried away and assume I'm not clumsy anymore though because we all know that will never change. Ask Andy Etzler. That pirate preacher knows how to call a girl out for being clumsy. It's cool though because I can do neat things like call him a pirate preacher in return. Keep on keepin on, man. 

I didn't have TV at my apartment so I don't know why I said I was going to watch the news. I've caught it a few times at home this month while mom is watching it though.

JUNE: I wanted to focus on my family this month. I spent lots of time with cousins and went to some family suppers and attended an amazing family reunion. WHERE I BECAME A WORLD CHAMPION IN THE BLACKWELL FAMILY OLYMPICS. That's right. World Champion. There is only one duo a year in the whole entire world crowned the Olympic Champions. TOTAL DOMINATION. Germany ain't got nothin' on me with that silly World Cup. Basically, I really love my immediate and extended families on both sides. I'm super blessed to be surrounded by the people I am. God gave me some keepers. 

So I'd say that these first six months have been pretty epic. And I feel like if I was going to give myself a grade I would give myself a B. You know, there's always room for improvement but I don't like bad grades so I wouldn't want to give myself anything lower than that. Get into that C range and you might see a rare occasion of me crying. So I'm a bit of a nerd, whatever. 

So if you've been reading these past six months, THANK YOU SO MUCH. Special shout out to my girl KB because she tells me every time she sees me that she stalks my blog and it makes my day every time. If you don't read my blog, well, you won't see this and I think you're really missing out on some goofy stories. 

Keep it real, homies. 

The Road to Glory: Blackwell Family Olympics

Who doesn't like a little friendly competition? 

Every year at my family reunion we have the Blackwell Family Olympics. This is no joke. Completely serious. It's legit. And it is a big deal. 

We've had the games for many years now. A few years have been individual winners, but then we started teams. My cousin Steven and I quickly paired up. This is our story of glory. 

2009:

The first year for teams. 

The Olympics this year consisted of a giant relay race. We had challenges like: eating a doughnut hanging off a string without using our hands, finding a specific crayon in a bucket of crayons, swimming back and forth between docks in the lake to match up ducks with names on them, filling a tub with water using a sponge, and a few others leading up to......a word scramble. 

Let me just tell you that we had a huge lead on every single other team until the word scramble. As soon as we picked up our pencils, we fell apart. 

And that's the first year we did not leave victorious.

It was a rough day. And year. Considering we were made fun of for our word scramble failure from then on out. 

After a few years of single champions, we are brought to last summer. 

2013:

The second year for teams.

We were tired of being the Family Olympics joke. This was our year. We were in it to win it. 

The Olympic games this year were individual events with a running total of points. First place in an event received 10 points, second place 9 points, and so on down to last place receiving 1 point. Some of the events included: family trivia, pogo stick, a luck of the roll dice game, bowling, hitting a baseball after spinning around 10 times, water balloon toss, and a few others.

Just like in 2009, we took first in almost every event. The dice game and family trivia were our downfalls this year. However, I would like to add that Tara and Chandler cheated in multiple events.

For the second year, we came in second place. 

We'd grown tired of these "fun" family games. We planned on taking a trip to Vegas instead of joining the family in Branson this year. 

However, team asthma showed up. Third times a charm, right?

This year I was pretty sick. I was doing a breathing treatment for my asthma every four hours and just couldn't get any energy. The day of the Olympics I slept until 2:15 only to get up to drive over to the site for the games. 

Chandler told me I had to pull a Michael Jordan and compete like he did in the legendary "flu game" of the NBA finals. 

All of the doubt was in our corner. I was practically dying and Steven has bad asthma as well. 

The scoring for the Olympics this year was the same as last year. Individual events with a grand total of points.

We had to complete a 40 piece puzzle. We rocked it and got first place.

We had to balance 3 dice on a spoon without touching them. This was a last team standing event. Despite our perfect zen, we came in last place for this one which really hurt our total points. 

We had to complete a Soduku puzzle. I have never been so thankful in my entire life for being a complete nerd in middle school. I did these puzzles for fun. Probably because I didn't have much of a life back then. Oh well. It came in handy because we dominated and took first in this event. 

 

This one we had to use straws and suck to carry a smartie from one end of the table into the jar at the other end. We actually came in third place in this event. After we finished, Steven threw up in his mouth because he couldn't breathe and I had an asthma attack. All in good fun, right? 

There were a few other events. For instance, we had to eat an entire box of milk duds then chug a drink, fill up a jar with water by transporting the water with a cup carried only with our mouths, a memory game, and maybe one or two others. 

Then the last event......the dreaded word scramble. We just knew that we were done for. We're terrible at word scrambles and we were down in points because of the dice. 

BUT WE ROCKED IT. AND WE CAME IN FIRST IN THE WORD SCRAMBLE.

That's right. Sweet, sweet redemption. 

However, it wasn't quite enough. By getting first place we tied it up with Tiffany and Alex. We had to go into a tie breaker. 

Things just got real.

We had to bounce or throw ping pong balls into a jar a few feet away. The first to make four balls in the jar would take over as champion. 

Now everybody would automatically look to Alex and Tiff to easily win this round. I mean, we know how they were in college. This is life size beer pong. (Sorry, guys. Love you.)

This took serious focus. And it was a lot harder than you would assume.

BUT

......

.....

.....

VICTORY WAS OURS.

THAT'S RIGHT. WE WON.

BLACKWELL FAMILY OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS.

I've never been more proud to display a trophy in my life. 

That one was for you, dad. 

#glennyaward

Family and Father's Day

The month of June is supposed to be a time for me to focus on my family. When planning what each month would be I made a month to focus on my friendships and thought long and hard about adding a month for my family. Normally this would be an easy decision. However, I'm insanely lucky to have such a close family. I mean, how many people can say that both their immediate and extended family on both sides is so close? 

My mom, brother, and sister are my favorite people in the world. Both sets of my grandparents are incredibly loving and have taught me so many life lessons. My aunts and uncles push me to be the best that I can and never skip an opportunity to give me a hard time about something. My cousins are seriously the coolest. The ones who are close in age to me have been some of my best friends while growing up. The ones older than me have been role models while teaching me how to have a blast at the same time. Their kids have taught me that I don't need kids of my own for a very, VERY, long time. 

So my big dilemma when starting this project was if I really needed to devote one of my few 12 months to family. If things are good, why try and change them? My family is the key to my happiness. People are always leaving while family stays. Mainly because they can't leave. Trust me, I've tried to disown them on a few occasions....doesn't work. 

Long rambling conclusion....of course my family needs a month. 

So we'll start with Father's Day.

Some people may think that Father's Day may be super sad for us. Out of all the holidays and individual days that can be depressing, this is not one of them. That's like giving me a bag of chocolate chip cookies on National Oreo Day and asking if I'm sad that I don't have an Oreo to eat. Sure, I'd really love to have an Oreo, but I have a WHOLE BAG of chocolate chip cookies. Who am I to complain? That's how Father's Day is to me. Sure, I'd love for my dad to be here, but I have a WHOLE FLOCK of men who have helped shape me into the woman I am today. Who am I to complain? It's a day to celebrate them!

So this Father's Day weekend I went to St. Louis to spend the weekend with my family. And it was fantastic.

I GOT A TAN. Okay I got burnt. But guess what, by this weekend it will be a tan. 

I got to see my little cousins. They're seriously adorable. One of them spent a good 2 minutes trying to explain to me how my cousins Tara and Tiffany were sisters. And then she told me that she thought that she would maybe be my age when she gets older. Too awesome. 

We had an awesome meal on Sunday to celebrate all of the fathers in our family. It was delicious. 

Then we watched the NBA Finals. I'll be the first to tell you that I don't really like the NBA. I'd much rather watch college basketball. I don't know what it is, but something about the NBA just gets to me and bothers me. Either way, the Heat lost and that's all I cared about because I REALLY don't like Lebron. MJ forever.

All in all, this weekend was great and my family continues to make me happy. 

Later, gators. 

May Wrap-Up

So to all of you trusty readers out there who actually pay attention to how my blog relates to my Happiness Project (mom I'm talking to you), you may have noticed I didn't really write about what the month of May was focusing on. 

Here's why.

You see, the month of May was a month for me to focus on being in the present. You know, put my phone in my purse, pay attention to world events, and try and not have my head so far up in the clouds in the wonderful world of Andi. 

There wasn't really a specific event that I felt really deserved a special post. So I decided to just make one and explain my conclusions.

But first, here is a great link that I read on one of my favorite procrastination sites, Thought Catalog. It really goes well with what I'm thinking.

http://thoughtcatalog.com/olya-kudriavtseva/2014/06/put-away-the-social-media-your-need-for-instant-gratification-can-wait/        Check it out!

Now don't get me wrong, I am totally one of those cell phone obsessed people. I'd like to think I would be completely fine if I lost the thing, but let's be real, I'd be so bored and I'd feel so out of the loop. 

Before texting was cool and I became attached to my cell phone in high school, I focused my free time in so many better ways. I love(d) to get completely lost in a book. So lost that I would quit reading and have to remind myself that I am in fact NOT Hermione Granger and I am unfortunately NOT a witch. Always such a buzz kill. I also love(d) to color. Boy oh boy how awesome a brand new coloring book was. The endless choices of which Disney character to bring to life next! I love(d) to people watch. People are so funny and do some of the most ridiculous things. I love(d) to sit and look for four leaf clovers. Blackwell luck is no joke. Documenting it with a special little clover can be so very exciting. I love(d) to do so many things that don't require an ounce of technology. I say love(d) because I still love all of these things. Honestly, I will love all of these things plus many others until the day that I die. However, I've let myself ruin my favorite activities by getting distracted with my phone or Netflix or Buzzfeed or stupid games that are addicting like 2048.

Do I still do all of these things? To some extent. When I'm reading, I let myself be yanked away from the wonderful make believe world I am in to check an incoming text. When I'm coloring I color while watching Netflix or a movie ruining my time that used to allow me to become less stressed. When I'm looking for four leaf clovers I allow myself to check the latest tweets and Facebook posts which being quite honest, takes all of the fun out of it. 

When starting the month of May I asked myself why I allowed myself to be so distracted with technology when I know that it really just makes me unhappy in the long run. And I didn't have an answer for myself. Why does anybody fall into the trap of technology? Just because? 

This month was hard. And I in no way got anywhere near where I want to be with technology. I decided this is going to be a very long work in progress. I decided to start off, I would make sure I always kept my phone put away when I was out with friends. And generally, I stuck to this. A few times when I was with one friend, they told me numerous times that it was okay to text somebody if I needed to. But there is the problem. Everybody is okay with this these days. I wish everybody would treat me like my grandparents do and scold me when I have my phone out around them. 

One time last month I was sitting at the orthopedic group waiting to see my doctor for my knee. I pulled my phone out at first to pass the time and quickly remembered this project and put it back away. Not a minute later an elderly man sat down across from me. We quickly picked up conversation. He told me about his family and I told him all about my regret for playing soccer which resulted in me being stuck in this knee brace. Why would I ever have my first instinct to be taking out my phone instead of have a really pleasant conversation with that man? 

For all the Mizzou kids out there. How many times have you pretended to be on your phone walking through Speaker's Circle so you didn't have to talk to anybody? Or while waiting for a class to start you get on Facebook or Twitter instead of trying to talk to a peer? Lord knows I do both of those. And that's weird. Because the world we live in is not a virtual one. We should be communicating the way everybody used to.

Since when did how quickly somebody responds to your text define how much they like you? Why does it make me so annoyed when I don't get 11 likes on Instagram? Why do I feel so accomplished when somebody retweets me?

I am unique. I am weird, an odd duck. I have great family and amazing friends. None of them like me any less because my tweets aren't favorited and I haven't hit the wonderful number 11 on Instagram likes. Why do I care so much? Because that is the society I live in and the world isn't going to change for me so I need to take matters into my own hands.

Like I said, I'm still really bad about this. I've checked twitter more times than I can count just today. Also, I'm blogging right now instead of being out in the world. 

This is going to be a slow change. But it's something that I really feel is necessary. I want my life to be focused on "the now" not what was posted to social media by all of my closest 700 friends on Facebook. 

SOOOO, if you see me out and about or just sitting at your house and I'm on my phone.....be my grandparents and tell me to put it away. 

I WANT YOU TO. 

Cookin' With Chlo...Round 2

Soooo....this post is a little late. Considering it happened like two weeks ago. Buuuut, it is just too classic of an evening in the life of Andi Blackwell for me to not share.

Also it's super funny because Chloe is this "super great cook who runs the kitchen and never messes up and everybody wants her to cook for her and I'm laughing at what I'm about to write about because it goes against everything I just said".

So here goes:

It was an ordinary Wednesday evening for Chloe and I while we were hanging out. We decided that eating and watching Scandal would be our exciting event for the night. You know, we decided to switch things up and try something crazy.

Well I found this super delicious idea on Twitter from a Pinterest account. It was called a cookie bowl. A COOKIE BOWL. And you are supposed to put ice cream inside of it. Like, get in my belly....NOW.

I mean honestly, who doesn't want a slice of that Heaven? If you say you don't then you are a liar and I just can't trust you anymore.

So I tweeted the link to Chloe and we planned to make these a week later. And to be honest, I thought about these bad boys for that whole week. And I'm still thinking about them. To this day. Right now. Okay I need one.

ANYWAYS....

So Wednesday night gets here and like any normal night of cooking with Chloe, I'm kicked out of the kitchen before the cooking even begins. Apparently I get in the way and don't exactly know what I'm doing. Oh, and she just really hates to share a kitchen. She's going to be one of those real nice wife ladies.

So Chloe tells me to just go start watching Scandal while she makes the cookie dough and she'll call me into the kitchen for the fun part once it's ready.

So going into this process, we had visions like this dancing in our heads:

Just beautiful.

So Chloe FINALLY calls me into the kitchen after taking her sweet, precious time creating an egg substitute since we didn't have any eggs. Apparently that makes you some kinda chef. Whatever.

This was my huge contribution to this project. Yeah, I really love cookie dough. That should have been obvious.

So we begin the process of molding these delicious pieces of art.

We decided to play it safe and only make three bowls to start out with. You know, JUST IN CASE they didn't go exactly according to plan. That way we would have some cookie dough left to use.

JUST LOOK AT HOW HAPPY AND EXCITED WE ARE.

So it's about time to put these little treasures into the oven and here comes a direct quote from THE Master Chef Chloe. "These really could use a bit more flour. Oh well, they'll be fine."

WRONG.

SO VERY WRONG.

DISASTER STRUCK.

We were watching some Scandal while they were cooking, and I smelled something burning. I don't have very good eyesight, and I can't hear very well, but by God I've got the snout of a police canine.

So after I suspiciously smell the burning for a minute or two I turn to Chlo and say, "Hey, you smell that burning? Think it's okay?" And she's all, "Yeah, I smell it, let's give it like five more minutes."

So we return to our show. Hellooooo, huge mistake.

A few minutes later the burning smell is getting quite strong, so we decide it is time to investigate. Our friend Amber was there too and had been sitting watching TV in the living room the whole time. I don't know how she handled the burning smell without saying anything.

So we open the oven.....and this is what happens....

Hasta la vista any hopes of having a cookie bowl that night....

Does the disaster stop there? OH NO.

So these little trouble makers decided to drip onto the bottom of the oven. Well when Chloe closed the oven door after removing them, it continued to smell like something was burning really bad. So I told her to open the oven again.

"FIRE!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled at her. She thought I was yanking her chain. LOL because I wasn't. She opened the door, yelled, and closed it again.

My brains kicked in and I told her that the fire won't actually put out itself and we need to actually do something. So she opened the door again. And obviously my first reaction was to have my camera ready....because what would have been a smarter decision?

There she blows.

Well, at this point Chloe asks me what we're supposed to do. I'm just laughing. Thank God for Amber being there because she took over and extinguished the flames.

What a champ knowing how to save lives and whatnot.

At the end of the day what did we have? Crushed dreams, burnt cookie bowls, an extremely smoky apartment, and our lives. I guess living and having a standing apartment are still decent outcomes.

But look at how sad we were. How can you not want to cry for our devastating loss?

I still need a cookie bowl. Now taking applications for better cookie bowl chefs. Sorry, Chlo.

The Moment I Realized I'm a Blackwell with Standards....almost

First things first......raise your hand if you know one of the Blackwell boys. If you aren't raising your hand, well, I don't know if I'm happy or sad for you. They're a unique bunch, that's for sure. 

Here are three things that every Blackwell male is known for:

1. They can talk to a brick wall. No joke. I've never gone somewhere with one of them where they haven't either known some random person or made friends with some random person. This is one trait that I am actually pretty okay with getting from them. It comes in handy for lots of situations. Trust me.

2. They are late for EVERYTHING. Seriously. If you want to be somewhere on time you might as well just go without them. However, growing up with men like this has made me agree very much with needing to show up fashionably late to most situations. 

3. They don't let things go to waste. Food, clothes, toys, anything. You name it, and they will find a "use" for it. My Uncle Flipper has even been known to dig through trash to get some treasured item.

Which brings me to my story......

Today, though I am not necessarily proud, I channeled my inner Uncle Flipper. 

It's a normal day in the life of Andi. You know, wake up, go to work, come back to the 217, watch Netflix, read Harry Potter, nap, read more Harry Potter, decide to do something productive and take the trash out. 

I travel the long distance across the parking lot to the dumpster and what do I see just out of reach? A golf bag IN PERFECT CONDITION. Come on, college kids. Why would you throw such a great bag to waste? If you can't fit it in your car the least you could do is take it to Good Will. There was no need to put it in the dumpster. 

So, super sad with my peer, I head back up to my apartment to text all of my family to explain what I just saw. I was kinda happy with myself however, because this was the moment I realized I had this not wanting to waste anything trait, but with a twist.....I had standards. I didn't dumpster dive.

Well immediately everybody texts back saying it was stupid not to climb in the dumpster to get the bag because somebody could use it. The more responses I had, the more I realized what a stupid move I was making.

"That's what showers are for Andi!!" - Tiff

"No question should have climbed in n got it" - Uncle Flipper

"Get the bag and give it to me!" - Chan

"You'll get hurt- don't do it" - Mom (Classic response from the fun sponge)

"Don't you have a fishing pole?" - Aunt Karla

"Go girl!! Make sure someone gets a picture of this please!" - Tiff

"I agree with Tiff!" - Alex

Obviously if I didn't go fetch the bag I would never live this down. 

So I went.

And I dove.

And I fetched.

And I won.

And she's packed snug in my trunk to deliver to my brother tomorrow night. Hopefully there wasn't a rodent in it. In that case, my Uncle Flipper will be getting a call because I have not graduated to that level of him yet.

Now that I've showered and scrubbed all of my skin off, I think it's time to just relax with some more Harry Potter and Netflix for the rest of the night.

#NoShame

Turning Pages and Moving On

First things first.....yeah it's been a long time since I've posted. However, it was finals time and I was being a good student and focusing on my studies..... Actually I talked about needing to study more than I actually did. Finished my semester with all A's though, so that's a check in the win column for me. Score.

Also this month's happiness project is being in the present and focusing more on the real world and less on the virtual world. So there is another of my excuses for not posting. 

ANYWAYS. Now for the reason I am posting today. My brother and all of his friends have graduated and have completed their careers in sports....well the majority of them anyways. There are a few who will be playing sports in college. 

While there are SO many people in his grade that I have grown up around and love dearly, I'm really just going to focus on the group of boys I have been around more than I ever hoped for. 

These boys have been playing baseball together for a decade. Which means I have been sitting at the fields complaining about being either bored, hot, or hungry for a decade.

When the boys were younger they were on a traveling team together. Many of our vacations involved being at some random city for a baseball tournament. The best of these was obviously Branson, but we didn't get to do anything cool except Ride The Ducks so I will forever be mad at them for that. 

Yeah, they all played other sports. Most of them played football which is obviously way more fun to watch. However, I grew up watching them on the baseball field. As much as I complain and carry on about how bored, hot, and hungry I am, I think in the upcoming years this is what I will miss the most. 

I don't have a picture of them when they were younger and I really wish I did because they were much cuter then than they are now. They actually are much nicer to me now compared to when they were younger though. I guess they FINALLY just realized how cool I am and that it's a much better idea to be my friend. About time they got smart. 

Throughout this past decade, I was closer with some of the boys than I was with others. No matter what though, they're all family. Tyler, Zach, Devan, Justin, Gannon, Tyler, Chandler, Austin, Brandon, Cullen, Tristan, and my real life brother, Chandler. All of these boys are little brothers that I never asked for but got stuck with.

This past decade has had so many ups and downs, but no matter what I will always be so proud of them all. Even after all these years when they hit a home-run they always cross home with that same goofy, boyish grin they had when they were 8. Watching Tristan pitch on senior night probably made me happier than when I had my own senior moments. Seeing that a few of them will go on and play ball in college. Watching these boys grow up has been my favorite thing. 

Of course I need to send out a little shout out to our baseball family. The moms, dads, brothers, and sisters have all been there just the same. Without all of them, my life would be a lot more dull. I'll miss hanging out with them just as much. 

Finally, I want to talk about how happy watching this kid play sports throughout life has made me.

Not only is he a great athlete, but he's an even better person. I can't even begin to explain how many times I have heard somebody come up to mom and tell her how excellent of a sport he was and they were really impressed with him for that. 

Well being a classic older sister for a minute, I couldn't agree with them more. Except for his occasional fits when he made a mistake. Those were ridiculous and I don't claim to be his sister during those. Yikes. 

But seriously. I always knew that Chan would be the first one to give out a high five or a congratulations to a teammate. He also was always there to literally help someone from the opposing team up off the ground when they were down. 

I really will miss all of these boys next year. And I have no idea who I am supposed to watch play sports anymore. And who is going to eat all of the food and candy at home? And what am I going to do without them constantly making fun of my life? 

My little brothers are all grown up. I couldn't be more proud. 

Thanks for making me have slightly tougher skin. I don't know what I would have done without y'all constantly picking on me. 

If those of you coming to Mizzou next year see me on campus, don't take it personally when I don't wave back. I never wear my glasses. 

Peace out, boyz.