Meet our Willmar Stinger

So much has happened since my lost post on April 24th. The school year came to a close and we welcomed Eli Wilson, a University of MN baseball catcher, who is playing for the Willmar Stingers this summer and living with us. We adore him! He is an amazing young man of character and we are having a blast getting to know him. He filled out a "Host Family" form prior to the season so that he could be placed with the best possible family. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the most) he had to rate if he preferred living with kids under the age of 10. He said "4" so we were blessed to get him! Based on the decibel level around here, if he had the chance to fill out the form again, he might say 1 or 2. :) He's great with the kids and they are in love with him. On the form he also had to rate how organized he was. He put a "5" and also added a comment that said "VERY ORGANIZED." I told my boys jokingly, "He's my favorite son already!" True to his rating, he is a 5+ and we laugh about things like the fact that he praised me for how I loaded the dishwasher so perfectly. ;) This was after the previous dishwasher load and been loaded by my husband in his own very "organized" fashion. He is on the road for days at a time with just one day off each month of the summer. When he is at home, he has to be at the ballpark by 3pm everyday for batting practice and then stays until the game is over....often around 10pm. So while our time with him is limited, we feel like he is already part of the family. He is so easy and natural to be around.

To back up a quick step, prior to Eli getting here, we were asked to host a temporary Stinger player for the first 10 days of the season. Corey Binger is a pitcher who was just going to be here to start out the season until some of the other college pitchers finished up their college seasons and were able to get to Willmar. We agreed and on the Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, Corey arrived and took up camp in the guest house (Eli was going to be coming the following weekend and would be staying in the basement bedroom for the summer). It was so fun to get to know Corey and there is a chance he will come back for the end of the Stinger's season in August, in which case he will camp out in the guest house again. Corey and Eli overlapped for a handful of days, so for a while we were a family of 7! We've gone to almost all of the home Stinger games and are feeling the intensity of the schedule without even being a player! A lot of back to back late nights, plus a few crazy storms and 40 hours without power, have made the first few weeks of summer pretty exhausting. But we are getting used to the schedule, choosing to skip some games when Eli is not catching, and finally getting into a nice summer routine.

The boys are playing teeball (Ben) and baseball (Luke) this summer and are beyond excited to go each Monday and Wednesday. This is a change from the past 4 years when they had no interest in playing. It has been so fun to watch them get excited about a sport!

Lastly, I decided to take a VERY part time job at the Spicer Library! I will only work 8 hours a month (not 8 hours a day, not even 8 hours a week, but 8 hours a MONTH), every other Saturday from 9am-1pm. Not many people know about my love of libraries, but I often regret that I didn't study Library Science (which requires a Masters Degree). I worked at the Richmond Library beginning at age 5, when my mom was the substitute librarian there, and then starting in 7th grade through my senior year in high school, I was employed there during the summer months. It's no surprise I love being in the library - I love to read and I am super organized. The Dewey Decimal system makes me very happy. :)

Here are some pictures from the start of the summer!