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There is something about being at a baseball game.  I find it rather relaxing, to be honest. It’s kind of like going home – familiar sites and smells and sounds.  Some things don’t change at a ball game.  Hot dogs and beer, peanuts and pop.  The smell of the leather gloves and the fresh air caressing your face along with the sun.  The sound of cleats on concrete as the players make their way to the dugouts.  The crack of the bat, the zing and thump as a pitcher throws a slider at 90 mph into the catcher’s glove.  And oh those umpires with the “you’re out!”  It’s an activity that fills your senses before you even open your eyes!

In case you hadn’t noticed, we are a baseball family.  I can’t claim to have gained this distinction naturally.  I married into it.  Ever seen the movie “Fever Pitch”?  Replace Red Sox with Phillies, and I married that guy.  Don’t get me wrong – my husband is a wonderful man and possibly the kindest most caring most wonderful husband and father on the planet.  In fact, when our daughter came along, he made the sacrifice to no longer to attend spring training in both Arizona and Florida – he only attends one spring training state per year now.

And I make him go.  There have been years when various financial issues would have made it easy to not spend money on a baseball trip.  But trust me when I tell you that we are a happier family when he goes.  There were a few years I went with him.  I was a bit stunned when we walked into the stadium and several guys yelled out “hey, Kansas!”

I shouldn’t be surprised that I love going to baseball games.  We spent our first few years of marriage at Lawrence Dumont Stadium, catching Wranglers games, getting autographs, getting to know great prospects you may have heard of – Johnny Damon, Mike Sweeney, and later when our daughter was a young teen, she was getting autographs from people like Alex Gordon.  What great experiences we’ve had involving baseball.  Some of our first family moments were at the ballpark.

So this year David decided we’d make a brief stop at spring training in Florida.  “Not like my usual spring training trips” he reminded me repeatedly.  So after a night flight into Albany, Georgia, we drove the next morning to Americus, Georgia.  Habitat for Humanity was founded there and is a ministry near and dear to our hearts – one that has been a part of my husband’s family since he was born – and The Fuller Center for Housing holds the same dear spot in our hearts today.  Both were founded by Linda and the late Millard Fuller, two of the most thoughtful, hard working, kind, devoted, Christ-like people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.  We enjoyed a precious visit with Linda and the staff of The Fuller Center.  My husband especially enjoyed meeting the staff because some of them will be on the cross country bike trip to raise money for The Fuller Center, and he has signed up to join them for a week or two this summer.

Following this wonderful day, we drove north of Atlanta to Acworth, Georgia, where we spent the night with our dear friends, the Tykolis family.  These wonderful people were in our small group at church, and their daughter was our daughter’s very best friend.  We miss them dearly, and it was so nice for all of us to spend some time together.  The next day we all enjoyed The World of Coca-Cola and the CNN Center for lunch,  By 4:30, my husband and I were saying good-bye to our daughter and our friends, as she was going to stay and enjoy some time with them.  Then my dear husband (aka trip planner extraordinaire) began what I soon found was to be an EIGHT HOUR DRIVE beginning at 4:15 p.m.  I am not my usual charming self when I’m hungry and tired.  This car trip was causing both.  Let me apologize now to my husband.  He puts up with a lot.  Aside from the last hour or two of the trip, we were fine.  Those last two hours, however, were a struggle. I was slapping myself to stay awake.  At one point I was leaning my head on my hand, with my elbow resting on the door.  Apparently I was doing the head bob thing so badly that my elbow slipped, hit the door and my head hit the window.  Loudly.  At least my husband got a chuckle.  And he even stopped for ice cream and salt and vinegar chips to keep us awake.J

We made it into Bradenton, Florida, around midnight.  A lovely hotel welcomed us – right on the Manatee River.  We awakened – as we did each day on the trip –around 7:30.  But this day was different — on this day we headed to the ballpark.  Sigh.  Like I said, it’s like coming home.

Now, I will give hubby credit here.  A Phillies fan through and through, our time in Florida this year was devoted to…… drum roll please….. the Pirates!  What?!  Did I just say that? Yes, I did.  We have some dear friends in Kansas by the name of Forbes.  Kind, thoughtful and downright fun people.  (As you can see, we are truly blessed with wonderful people in our lives.)  Mr. Forbes just happens to be in MLB.  The last couple years he has coached for the Pirates organization… something he previously did for the Phillies.  Regardless of which team he’s with, it’s always nice to visit with these folks.  We not only got to see him in action at Pirate City – working with players to help them improve their game, but we also got a chance to catch a Phillies/Pirates game a McKechnie Field. (Phillies had a split squad but we still got to see Howard and Ibanez, along with others, and the Phillies won.) We even got to enjoy a sushi meal later that night with a dear friend.

I will say this about the Pirates…what an amazing organization.  Of all the spring training complexes I’ve been to (and trust me when I tell you I’ve been to a number of them over the years), The Pirates facility is probably the best.  McKechnie Field is like a small ballpark – still easy to maneuver in, has everything you need, yet you can still line up along the chain link to watch the pitchers in the bullpen.  I was a foot from Ryan Howard, who came up to sign DURING THE GAME while he was over in the bullpen area on his way to the clubhouse.  And Pirate City …. wow.  They have a fantastic facility that allows fans to see four fields at once… up close…. And have close contact with players from time to time.  I can watch the batting practice, turn around, maybe walk 5 or 10 steps, and I’m watching the pitchers.  The Pirates have definitely done it right – for fans and players.

Phillies & Pirates game at McKechnie Field.... aaaahhhh baseball.

You see, spring training shouldn’t be about huge complexes and expensive games.  It should be about baseball.  The love of the game.  And what a game it is.

Before I close, I’ll mention that we did make a brief detour to Clearwater to see the Carpenter Complex, home of the Phillies – also a beautiful facility.  Not that the Phils were in town that day, or that we had more than ten minutes to spend before rushing to Tampa to the airport.   But as hubby said, we graced the presence of the Phillies Florida home.

We all made it home safely, despite a few airline delays, and were all glad that hubby planned such a wonderful, harried, typical Austin trip.  Baseball and friends.  You can’t be that for vacation.  Thanks, hon.

Today we received in the mail a thank you card and a gift – a very elegant letter opener engraved with “A” for our family name, Austin.  Was it a gift from a friend for whom we’d done a favor?  Was it from a charitable organization to which we’d donated?  No, and no.  It was from the mortgage company we used when we recently refinanced our home to take advantage of lower interest rates.  What a gesture from First Federal National Bank, a business I’d never even heard of until we decided to refinance.

Last night we ate at Bossa Grill.  I was wondering about some of the Brazilian items on the menu that I was interested in ordering.  A young woman who worked there came over and spent the time to explain the menu items to me.  After I finished eating, the owner came over and talked with us, making sure we had a good experience.  We had a great time talking with him, learned more about the restaurant, the food, even the country of Brazil.  We will be going back.  Yum!

I had an oil change and other assorted work done today on my Jeep.  Let me give a bit of a disclaimer here:  I love my Jeep.  Not as in “it’s the best vehicle I’ve ever owned.”  Not as in “I like driving this vehicle.”  Although both are true.  I love it, as in sitting in that Jeep is my happy place.  Driving that Jeep makes me happy.  Thinking about that Jeep makes me happy.  That Jeep, something I’d wanted for some time, was a surprise gift from my husband and daughter.  Yes, it’s true.  I love my Jeep Wrangler.  And if you don’t get that, then the phrase in vinyl lettering on my Jeep Wrangler windshield is all you need to know:  It’s a Jeep thing.  You wouldn’t understand.

I love my Jeep Wrangler!

Having clarified my feelings for Jeep Wranglers, let me continue with my story about the service work on my Jeep.  (How many times can I say “Jeep” in one paragraph?)  So what made vehicle service noteworthy?  Excellent customer service.  They had water, coffee and pastries available when I got there, a table at which I could spread out and go over some files, and the television tuned to the Weather Channel.  Not that I had time to watch it.  Because instead of me waiting for my vehicle, Don Hattan Chevrolet had someone drive me to work.  If I had waited and had my Jeep serviced this afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, I would have benefitted from Ladies Day – free chair massages, $10 manicures, and more.  That’s real customer service — for both me and my Jeep.

Now, realistically, will I return to these or any other businesses because of a letter opener or a chair massage?  No.  It’s not like they let me use their vacation home in Tampa.  Nor will I return if I get all of these things and yet have no personal customer service or the work is not good.  But if the work is good, and the people I dealt with made a good impression, I will return because they care.  I will return because the kind lady at the service desk knew my name.  And pronounced it correctly.  Not something I encounter frequently with a name like “Keturah.”  And I will return because they did great work on my Jeep.

So why am I bothering to write about all this?  It’s not to brag about my day, although so many examples of great customer service in my day really are brag worthy.  It’s not to advertise these companies.  It’s because I think we all have a lot of days when we talk about, blog about, update our statuses about, share with everyone we know about…bad customer service.  Yes, I’ve had some miserable customer service experiences.  But let’s focus on the positive.  There are some great businesses out there that get it.  They understand that customer service is the whole package – it’s good people, good work, and a few customer perks.  And they not only understand, they deliver.  So I’ll return, I’ll recommend, and I’ll continue to appreciate excellent customer service every time I receive it.

Last week, my daughter touched my heart. She doesn’t know it, and truly, she’s a teenager, so we could be frustrated at each other within moments. The truth is, we have a pretty good kid. We’re lucky parents. As frustrating as teenage angst can be for teens and parents alike, we get through it together.

Our family has been busy. Exhausted, actually. Aside from the jobs my husband and I hold and the volunteer activities we devote time to, our daughter holds a job. I’m proud of her for this responsibility she’s taken on, sorry for the number of hours she works, and very sad that we as a family rarely have the opportunity to eat supper together.

But let’s get back to last week. Shuffling into the house with exhaustion on Sunday evening after we all ended up working for the weekend, we realized we could do it – have a family dinner! I wasn’t too tired to cook, but I was too tired to clean up after doing so, so we went to an old favorite of our family that we used to visit regularly: On the Border. We were disappointed to learn our favorite server had moved (we were a bit too frequent there at one point – she knew our orders right down to drink, appetizer and main course) but were glad to be there relaxing into our chips, salsa, fresh tortillas and shredded cheese.

We laughed. We hugged. We smiled. We ate enough chips and salsa and tortillas to make me want to sleep in the booth. We each even tried a new dish! And as fun (and delicious) as all this was, I haven’t even told you the wonderful part. When our food came and we were excited to dig into our newly selected entrees, we bowed as we always do in prayer, holding hands. My daughter usually says our family prayer, so I wasn’t surprised when she started speaking with her head bowed. To be blunt, it does my heart good just to hear her pray. Every single time.

But last week, last week was different. I won’t even try to quote her words exactly. I was getting too teary eyed to get it right. But I will tell you this: She thanked God for the day, for her family, for the meal. Bless my beautiful little girl’s heart! Then my sweet 17 year old daughter thanked God for this time we were having together and prayed that we have more times like this.

Okay. So maybe for you this seemed anti-climactic. I get that. But you have to understand – for me, this is heart warming, touching, something that makes me strong enough to get through another day. This must be what people mean when they say something is so wonderful it makes their heart swell with joy. My daughter, who will be 18 years old and a legal adult in less than 10 months, my daughter, who is a cool teenager in high school with a boyfriend of two years and a very responsible job at which she makes pretty good money, who is liked by everyone she meets, wants to spend time with her parents. At dinner. The family dinner. We do miss it. I knew her dad and I were missing that time and experience with her. And I’m glad she is too. It means the world to her dad and I.

And from now on, I will do my darnedest to make sure we have a family dinner at least once a week. Whether we fix a meal or go back to On the Border, it doesn’t matter. We’ll still have our time together. And God, thank you for that dinner, that moment, my family, my meal, and for my lovely daughter’s sweet prayer.

my two favorite people -- my husband and daughter

Keturah

It’s finally here!  My site is up!  I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say —  about a variety of topics — and I’ll offer a variety of views.  I love to write down my thoughts, and this site is simply a chance to share a few of those thoughts with family and friends.  I have no regular blogging schedule or topic, so check back every once in a while and see what I’ve added.  Photos are coming soon!  If you’d like to contact me, email me at keturah@keturahaustin.com or DM me on Twitter — @kltaustin.