The Thrill of Traveling

I write from IOWA today! Lots to blog, I finally made it out here this passed Monday, but sure had a journey trying to get out here; I'll start with that. Bear with me....

Monday morning started out perfect. Set my alarm clock to wake me up at 3:30 am. Although I barely slept at all due to the anticipation of finally getting to see my husband after 6 long weeks apart. Had all my bags packed and my mom, dad, tutu (Hawaiian word for grandma)and I headed out to SNA airport. We decided to leave early in hopes to have a nice breakfast somewhere before my flight. But as soon as we got in the car, I realized my headsets weren't in my iPod case. After my million check-list making sure I had everything, I fell short on the headphones. I asked my dad if I could run into the super Walmart near our house real quick, because I was not ready to make those flights without my music and didn't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on headphones at the airport. So I ran into Walmart headed towards the electronics to quickly pick up some headsets. Turns out, all the headsets were locked up and I needed to find an employee to unlock it for me. After asking multiple employees, all in which didn't have the key, about 10 minutes had passed. That turned into 13 minutes as I continued waiting once I was told they were on it. I'd say about 15 minutes into it, I was finally able to retrieve the headsets! It took way too long, but headsets in hand and I was ready to go!

Unfortunately this ended up cutting into our breakfast time, so I had to settle for a McDonalds McMuffin in exchange for the pancake stack I had been anticipating from Ihop. Finally pulled up to the airport, said my goodbyes and I was on my way.
I walked up to the ticket counter, dreading putting my suitcase on that scale, but to my surprise, my bag was only 2 pounds over so I was able to throw a couple things into my carry on. As I went thru security, I noticed the belt had stopped and my bag was under inspection. Two men looked through the security monitor examining my bag as I stood there jacketless, shoeless thinking what could possibly be the hold up. They then called for back up as my mysterious carry on bag continued to hold up the line. I was pulled aside, given the talk, and then was searched. Turns out I had a bottle of hairspray in a pocket in my bag that I had completely forgotten to check. Must had been there from a previous trip. So that was tossed and I was finally free to go.

The first flight was perfect. I landed for my layover in DFW, ticket in hand and ready to hop off to quickly check the gate number for my next flight to Moline. As my eyes scrolled down the list of destinations, I came to Moline only to be disappointed by the words CANCELLED scrolled across it! I was clueless on the reason and what I would be doing. All I knew is that I was determined to get to Daniel someway or another Monday. After waiting in the long line of fellow disappointed and irritated American Airline flyers, I finally reached the counter to find out my options. There weren't many. She told me she had nothing flying into Chicago or Iowa City and that they would put me in a hotel for the night and fly me into Moline tomorrow evening. No thank you! I continued to ask if there was anything else at all and was so relieved to hear the words "we actually have a flight flying into Peoria, leaving DFW at 7:30 tonight". "I'll take it!" It was one of the last tickets, so I was thrilled I didn't have to stay the night, but not so thrilled that I had about 4.5 hours to kill at the airport. Peoria was also about an extra hour of a drive for Daniel to come get me, but worth it instead of us having to wait a whole extra day.
Finally boarded the flight and made it safely to Peoria. I had butterflies as I walked towards to baggage claim and was met by my handsome husband! The crazy day was all worth it at that moment!

So I have been completely enjoying my time out here in Iowa. We are back with the Fullans, our wonderful host family that we stayed with last year. They make us feel so at home and really do feel like family to us. We are so grateful the Lord brought them into our lives. We were also worried about our car situation while I'm out here because we decided it'd be too hard to bring our car out here again and a wonderful family, the Collachias, is letting us use their car! It's been such a blessing! The community and people out here are incredible and we feel so extremely blessed! God is so great for ALWAYS working out the details! :)

Well, Daniel's game was suppose to start at 2:00 today but has been delayed due to rain. He just texted me saying it's back on for 5:00 (which is in about 15 minutes), so I need to wrap this up. Thanks again to all our prayer warriors out there! I'll try to post again soon.

Oh, and Daniel hit a HR the other day!!!! Super exciting!!!

Hope you all are having a blessed day!

Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

Stranded At Sea

Yesterday my family and I made the 4 hour trip to Nevada to spend the day at Lake Mead. We ended up leaving around 2:30 in the morning because my Dad wanted to be able to get out there early so we could get the most out of our day trip. The day started out great. We got some really good boating in. My sister and I got to tube, she fell off twice while I held on for life! There was no way I was letting go and getting in the fish infested water. It's just a phobia of mine, which I know I need to overcome. I'm not even quite sure when this phobia started because I remember when I was younger I was fearless of the water. Thinking back... I think it may have been when I was 10 years old. I went to a summer camp in Hawaii called 'Explorations'; in which Hawaiian children are taught about our culture, etc. We get to do alot of hands on trips and one of them was making a human fish net (the way Hawaiians used to do it) and I don't know; I'm thinking something happened then. Maybe I got bit? Or maybe the slimy feeling of the fish on my feet and legs freaked me out? Not too sure. But I kind of remember this crazy phobia of mine starting sometime after that.

Anyways, now that you got that background story on me, back to our day at Lake Mead. The sun was beaming and the temp was hot. I don't mind the heat at all though. I actually prefer it. I get cold pretty easy, so 107 degrees doesn't bother me too much. While my parents and sister complained about it, I soaked it up. Maybe a little too much because I feel like I look like I just stepped out of a tribe in the Amazon, I got dark! So as we boated around and enjoyed the scenery, we got kind of caught up in it and really lost our sense of time and wasn't paying too much attention to how long we had been out on the lake for. We started out with a full tank of gas in the morning and figured it'd be enough for the day. When we realized we we're starting to run low, we knew it was time to start heading back to the dock. Thinking we knew where we were going, we began to make our way 'back'. This lake is pretty huge (way bigger then our usual day trips to Lake Perris in which we pretty much just ride laps around). We turned into a cove which we thought we had docked from, only to find out it was just a cove... we began to ask boaters how to get back to Boulder Harbor and was directed to keep heading South. After seeing it in the near distance, "brumpt brumpt brumpt", we had ran out of gas!!! So there we were, my dad, mom, sister and I drifting engine less in the middle of Lake Mead. Boaters began to pass us thinking we we're just hanging out. My mom pulled out her cell phone, happy to see the signal bars and called a Lake Mead emergency number. After being told the cost of towing would cost somewhere around $185; we resorted to try to ask for help before committing to paying that. I pulled out the fog horn and began to blow and wave my arms to oncoming boaters. After about 15 minutes, we saw a boat in the distance begin to head towards us. As they were pulling up, the young guy driving the boat was heading right towards us and not stopping. We all began to panic and were confused as their boat hit the side of ours. After realizing it was an accident and that they weren't some crazy pirates trying to attack us, we let them know what happened and they were so kind to throw us a rope to tie to our boat and towed us to the lake gas station, which was about a 20 min boat ride away from where we were. They were a really nice family of about 8 people, offered us watermelon and waters as we floated behind them to get gas. My parents ended up paying them for their trouble and we were so relieved to gas up and finally head to our dock! It was an adventure for sure and the Lord was so faithful to provide those friendly boaters that came to our rescue! Lesson learned, Always make sure you have enough gas to make it back! :) I love my family! I finally leave tomorrow morning to be with my wonderful hubby after a very long month and a half of being apart! Beyond excited!! Next time I blog, I'll be with Daniel! Hope you all are doing wonderful!

Blissful Blessings

I was so blessed to be able to spend this past Saturday in celebration of both Ryan and Jordan graduating from college. We had a huge party at Daniel's aunt and uncle's house in Irvine. It was a gorgeous day! And I was so relieved I was finally able to go out in public after dealing with that skin infection the past week, but it's almost 100% cleared up, so I was so exicted to get out of the house! There were so many people there to support them and celebrate with them in this accomplishment. It was so nice to see everyone. Daniel has a very special and unique family and I feel so blessed to have married into this beautiful family. It's a big Mexican family and when everyone gets together, it really is a 'fiesta'! Daniel's mom, Carmela, has 3 sisters and 3 brothers. Daniel and all of his cousins are very close due to that fact that his family has always been consistent about having family gatherings, camping trips, etc since they were young. There is always an overwhelming amount of love when you get the whole bunch together and truly is something special. I really enjoyed my time with everyone, but did feel a sense of incompletion without having my hubby there. But I can not be more proud of him and the hard worker he is! I am beyond excited to see him! 2 weeks can't come soon enough! I also got an exciting praise report- Daniel had a career high and went 4 for 4 last night in his game last night (Praise God!). I was visiting with Daniel's parents and we listened to the game online and screamed in excitement every at bat! It was a sweet blessing from the Lord! Super stoked for him, but we're still taking it day by day and trusting in God! Thanks so much again for the continued prayers!

Ryan & Jordan Graduate College

Special shout out to my brother in law Ryan and cousin in law Jordan who just graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara!!!

We're so proud of you guys and love you both so much!

Beautiful Lord

As I sit here writing this, I have just clicked the repeat button on my iTunes for at least the 5th time to the song "Beautiful Lord" by Leeland. The lyrics are just, well, beautiful.

"When the storm is raging all around me. You are the peace that calms my troubled sea. And the cares of this world darken my day. You are the light that shines and shows me the way. Oh, the beauty of Your majesty. On the cross You showed Your love for me! Beautiful Lord, Awesome and Mighty, I’m captured by this love I see. Beautiful Lord, Tender and Holy,Your mercy brings me to my knees. It's Your mercy that has made me free, Beautiful Lord"

As of the late,especially these past few weeks, it has felt like "a storm raging around me". To wrap it up in a nutshell, these are some of things that went down:

1.Daniel went on the DL for 2 weeks due to a strained hamstring.
2.May 9th marked the one year anniversary of my cousin's death, which was tough.
3.Having to deal and adjust to being in a long distance relationship with my husband right now.
4.I had to go to the ER because my face started to swell, itch, and I broke out in this crazy rash. Turns out I got this pretty bad skin infection. It was scary to say the least, and not fun at all.

That's just some of it...And to be honest, just being loaded down with thoughts had alot to do with the 'storm' I felt I was experiencing. [Thoughts of doubt, insecurities, uncertainties]. It becomes way too easy to get caught up in 'circumstances'. You know, when you just have one of those days when you just want to dwell on the negative thoughts just to try to find some sort of satisfaction in throwing a pity party for yourself? Don't deny it, we've all had them. I've been catching myself do that too often lately. But the Lord has been reminding through Philippians 4:8 to turn those negative thoughts into thoughts that are 'admirable' and 'praiseworthy'! How much more do those thoughts please the Lord? I mean, yes, He knows my heart even better then I do, He knows the things I feel, He understands that things aren't always going to be easy, but He truly is the "peace that calms my troubles storm"... He has never failed me yet!
I share that just to give an understanding of what's been going on in my life and in my heart. I know life is a constant battle and I know things aren't going to be perfect. But I am writing with a refreshed heart today that has regained it's joy and has seen my beautiful Lord come through for me once again!

Praise Reports:
1.Daniel is now off the DL feeling healthy and strong.
2.I booked a flight to see Daniel in 3 weeks, which we're both very excited about! Also, Daniel sent me the sweetest care package in the mail today! I love him!
3.My skin infection is 95% cleared and healed!!!

I know our life is always going to be full of ups and downs. Just like in baseball, you can go 4 for 4 one day and be on a high, then go 0-4 the next day with 4 strikeouts! You never know what "pitches" you're going to face or what's going to come your way in life. It's great and beyond comforting to know I can find consistency in an unchanging God even with my ever changing heart... Thank you beautiful Lord!

Distance Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Daniel and I were apart for 3 weeks before I was able to visit him for 9 days last week. We had such a great time together! I am now back in California and Daniel is still in Iowa. 3 weeks really isn't too bad. I think of wives whose husbands are in the military and am convicted in my own complaints about having to be apart from Daniel. We are truly blessed in the fact that he is getting to do what he loves, he's in no true endangerment (besides the 95 mph fastballs pitched towards his head) and we are able to talk on the phone on a daily basis. So when I start to feel down or am missing him; I really just need to keep things in perspective and be thankful and happy he's getting to do what he loves.

Being apart truly makes me appreciate the time we have together though. I am so proud of my husband and how the Lord has used the trials we've gone through the past 2 baseball seasons to grow us stronger in our relationship with Him and with each other. God has been showing me more and more the true meaning of being His disciple. If we claim to be a disciple of Christ, then that means we need to be ready and willing to follow Him wherever He may lead us. Following Jesus doesn't mean that we're following Him to the big leagues or to move up in the minor league organization- we are following Him to be with Him and to be wherever He places us. As easy as it is to get caught up in the thrill of baseball and the idea of Daniel being in the big leagues someday.... that is not what matters in the end. In the end, it matters what we did to make an impact for our God. It's been a fresh reminder to be content in where the Lord has us. I know Daniel is in Clinton, Iowa for a reason outside of baseball and that excites me! As much as we both would have loved the convenience of Daniel playing in California we know God is working this out for a greater purpose and everything is in His perfect timing. (Ecc.3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in His timing"). Key words:His Timing. Not ours.

For those of you who may have been following him and wondering why he hasn't played the past few games...it is because Daniel actually strained his hamstring this past Sunday after running out a basehit. It is only a strain (not a pull) which we are thankful for and will take this over a broken bone any day. He should be back playing by tomorrow or Saturday :)

Thanks again to all our prayers warriors out there, keep them coming please!

Long time No Blog

Hey Hey Hey!
We meet once again after a long break between my last posting. I think I may have officially broken my record for the longest gap between blogs. I apologize yet once again.

Anyways, It's been so long that I'm not even sure how to begin to sum up the last 2 months for us...

I'll start off by saying spring training is now over. Daniel had a great spring training. He hit .321 with 3 Doubles, 5 RBIs, and 5 Stolen Bases. He even got called up to 4 big leagues- Praise God! :)
One of the biggest highlights of spring was that Daniel got to be apart of Ken Griffey Jrs. WALK OFF GRAND SLAM!

(Here's some links of some articles if you want to check it out: http://lumberkings.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/carroll_paves_way_for_griffeys.html

http://blog.seattlepi.com/baseball/archives/199652.asp

That was truly a moment I know we will both have etched into our memories for years to come. Although that was high, we also experienced some lows during our stint in Peoria, Arizona. When camp broke; despite Daniel's great spring training; he was reassigned back to Clinton Iowa to start this 2010 baseball season. We did feel disappointed in not being able to reach the goal of starting in the California League, but we know God has His hands on everything and is allowing Daniel to return back to Clinton for a reason. Because Daniel has a chance of being called up to California at any time, we decided it would be best for me to 'wait it out' at home in Cali in hopes for a call up. So I am home now in California and Daniel is in Clinton, Iowa. We've been apart for 1 week now; which has had it's moments of being hard; but overall we both are really feeling the Lord's strength and trusting in His plan. If Daniel hasn't been moved up within the month, I will most likely head out to Iowa to be with him.

Here's a link to a really great article posted in the Clinton Herald that pretty much sums everything up: http://clintonherald.com/sports/x1612527229/Carroll-hoping-for-better-luck-in-third-trip-to-Midwest-League

Back to some exciting news, Daniel really feels in his 'groove' again and has already hit 2 HOMERUNS in his first the two games he's played in so far. So we're so excited about that! All Glory,Honor,& Praise be to God! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1T0jjZ1TXE

Thank you all again for your continual support and prayers! Keep em' coming please! Love you guys!