Fighting the Funk!

Well after a couple of months of little physical activity, its time! My belly is where I gain my
weight first and well its a little more than it was or a little looser. Never a good thing. After a chocolate malt today, I knew it was time! Time to start it up and start getting after it!

Enough excuses... My mind has been telling me I don't play again til June, I needed a break. But I have to fight the funk! Fight the excuses. I know I am a happier and healthier woman when I work out. Its a sense of accomplishment, pride, empowerment, strength, and so much more.

Its always the first couple of days that hurt the worst and are the hardest to get going. My body however is in desperate need of physical activity. I find myself slowly slipping, slipping into this lazy funk mode. Especially as the holidays approach. I have baked way too many batches of cookies and brownies in the last 2 months. The holidays do this to me every time. Oh, how I love this time of year! Family, Friends, & Food! I made the decision, today is the day to start the journey. Its always the journey you remember, the victories are great but its all about the journey.

I ran about a mile in between some circuit work outs. 2 sets of 12 Step Ups, Walking Lunges, Quick Jumps, One Legged Squats, and some Straight Leg Deads. Not a bad start for day 1, I know its a little weak but I'll come around! You have to start somewhere, whether its half a mile or around the block! In between sets I would hit a bucket of balls right handed off the tee and then a bucket left handed. It felt good and I couldn't help but smile the whole time hitting balls!

Tomorrow I am going to be in pain but I feel better today, physically and mentally. Getting out and fighting the funk! I want to encourage those out there who are in need of a little kick or pat to get it going! We all know how great we feel after! Its just making time and doing it! Get after it! Fight the Funk!

Believing!
#27

My Golden Girls

I was sitting in the Doctors Office yesterday and was joined by 4 Golden Girls! They were chatting about their families, cancer, life, and getting old. I was tickled overhearing their sweet conversation about getting old!

Here are a few quotes from the Golden Girls.

"I don't know why they call these years the golden years, there is nothing golden about it." Another replied, "It's only golden for the Doctors, that's about it!"

One said, "My mother told me getting old is Not for Sissy's, and boy was she ever right."

Another, "If I would've known getting old was going to feel like this, I would've tried harder to stay young, that's for sure."

One said, "I'm shooting for 90," she was 73. Another replied, "Oh honey, good luck with that, you have a long ways to go! I am shooting for 2 more years and I will be the oldest to ever live in my family!"

It was such a cute conversation that I thoroughly enjoyed! If I make to my golden years I hope to have a golden sense of humor to go with it like these adorable beautiful Golden Ladies.

I had a golden week last week, spending it in the mid west with my Golden Grandmothers! They sparkle and shine of pure Gold. I feel so blessed to know them, have them, and spend time with them. I treasure every minute!

Here is a photo with them from Floyd Valley Hospital's 7th Annual Pink Ribbon Night! We had a great time raising money and awareness for the Fight against Breast Cancer. Thank you to everyone that joined us and support this great cause. I can not express my gratitude to all my family and friends in the mid west!

My mom's mother, Grandma Ada to my left and my dad's mother, Grandma Lois to my right.
They define beauty & grace!

Believing in the "Gold" of the Golden years!
#27

Fear vs Faith

In a world of so much negativity, Fear surrounds us. It's everywhere. Looking into my child's eyes, fear can over take me in a second. I am in constant battle of fear whether it is as a mother, as a wife, a daughter, on the mound, before a speech, every day its a battle.

In the Bible it says "Fear Not" thousands and thousands of times! This is my hope and prayer, Fear NOT! I want my Faith to overcome Fear. Its NOT easy, you turn on the news, you look outside, our world is filled with things to fear.

Through out my career I have had to face many fears. Fear of losing, fear of striking out, fear of hitting batters when I was young, fear of bases loaded, fear of leaving home, fear of getting hit, fear of letting our Country down on the Olympic stage. Fear CAN and WILL over come you IF YOU LET IT. We have to FIGHT OUR FEARS! We have to fill ourselves with POSITIVE thoughts, with FAITH!

It comes to a time where we have to release our fears or we will never do what God has in store for us. Think of how many talents, dreams, goals, businesses, gifts, jobs, relationships and so much more go to the grave with people. Go after your dreams, go after what God is putting on your heart, its an opportunity, Go For IT! One little step, one domino pushed over leads to hundreds and possibly even thousands of dominoes falling over, falling down! Its taking that first step, getting the first domino to tip, lean, and fall which leads to so much more. More than we could possibly even imagine or dream of! Push it OVER, Make it FALL! Go FOR IT!!! One step, one foot in front of the other, step in Faith!

My challenge and prayer is that we break ourselves of this fearful mindset, get rid of our excuses, and live by FAITH! May we look at our fears and pressure as God-given opportunities. If God is for us, who can be against us!

Dreaming & Believing in Faith!
#27

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you all a Safe and Very Happy Halloween!!!

Love, Scooby Doo & The Gang

On the East Coast, although rooting West Coast! Go Dodgers, Go Angels!

Last week was a tough one for me. It was the longest I've been away from Casey and Ace in a while, since our USA Softball Japan trip. Ouch, it felt like 3 weeks.

Although it was tough personally it was full of lots of good stuff! Last week I headed out to Baltimore for an appearance for Dermabond. It was at the Annual Nurses Convention, I was there to promote kids safety. It was a lot of fun meeting people from all over the US.

From there I headed to Flemington, New Jersey to Diamond Nation. What an incredible weekend! We had our first Finch's Ace's Tournament, with over 30 teams there to compete. Diamond Nation looks absolutely fabulous. "Big League" is the perfect explanation! Amazing. I never growing up and still rarely get to play on fields like these fields. First class! Even the concession stand, well... yea we have a Chef! Unreal. I was eating Buffalo Chicken burgers and sweet potato pie, yummy! Dangerous, yummy! And the JF Softball Academy is quite the place! The highlight for me was meeting our 14 under travel team, Finch's Ace's! These girls represented! They had such great attitudes and are a really fun bunch of girls! The Coaching Staff has done such a great job with them. I was so impressed! I'm not going to lie, a bit giddy! Pretty stinkin' cool to have our own travel team! I even coached a little first base, it got my juices flowing! We can't wait to expand over at DN! Such great stuff going on over there in Jersey, so proud to be a part! Thank you to the sponsors who have made it all happen! Big props to my girls, the Ace's for getting 3rd place in their first tournament! Way to go!

Check out these Ace's! Here they are! Finch's Aces!

The Ace's Staff, full of Ace's! My girls Kathy & Ami! They have done such a incredible job at the JF Softball Academy, Ace's, and so so so much more!



With Jack Cust Jr. and Jack Cust Sr. I am so grateful for their partnership. Jack Cust has had his Academy for 10 years now, they have done such a phenomenal job helping advance baseball in the East Coast. I am blessed to have partnered with them for Diamond Nation and the JF Softball Academy.

We are having a Coaches Clinic Dec 5th and Players Clinic on Dec 6th at Diamond Nation. Check it out at DiamondNationConvention.com Leah Amico, Andrea Duran, and my dad Doug Finch will be joining us at the Convention! Hope to see you there!

From Jersey, headed into NY City for a productive, busy couple of days, which ended with a bang at the Women's Sports Foundation Dinner. Taped some footage for We Play, met with MLB.com for MLB Pulse, visited Audemars Piguet... beyond fun!

The WSF Dinner, what a night! It is always so inspiring and an incredible honor to attend. My highlights were walking the red carpet with Annika Sorenstam, saying hello to Pat Summit, visiting with Billy Jean King, dining with the lovely ladies of ESPN, catching up with all the athletes, meeting my girl Emily, and so much more! You always leave fired up knowing there is always more we can be doing! Thank You Billy Jean King and the WSF for all you've done and continue to do!

From NYC, headed out to Kentucky to attend the Dudley Annual Sales Meeting. I was able to meet all the dealers and reps. I have enjoyed being part of the Dudley team and look forward to some great things in this partnership ahead. They have been awesome to work with, its been fun testing out all sorts of softballs, seams, covers, and etc.

Now well... Reunited and it feels so good! So good to hear mommy nonstop, loving it! Ace gets so happy to have his mom and dad in one place... can't blame him! I better get back to boys!

Little Rock, Arkansas here we come this weekend. Camp #4 for the Fall! Let the good times roll! Can't wait to see my girls/Coaches, the Battin' Babes, and all the campers this weekend! Spots still available, come and join us!

Stay tuned for the revealing of Ace's Halloween Costume!

Go BLUE! Go DODGERS!!!

Continue dreaming & believing!
#27

Off Season!

We have been enjoying our off season to the fullest! Loving our time as a family! This is the time that we regroup and recover from our wild crazy in season schedules! We are having a ball, and not on the ball field, or at the ball park. Just hanging out enjoying life. We are so incredibly blessed to have this time together. Here are some great pics that are better than words to let you know what we've been doing.

Ace & Daddy petting "Fix It, Blondie," at the race track!

Family pic at the Circus! Oh my gosh, Ace had a ball! Okay... me too!

Ace & Casey fishing... its scary to admit but Ace has it in his blood!

Our lil' stunt man, four wheeling away!

Casey & Ace's biggest catch so far of the off season!

We have been mixing in a few JF Camps too! We are half way done for the fall and winter. We've hit Sioux Falls, Virginia, and Sacramento. What a blast we've had at each stop! Thank you to all the many have made it such a great environment and experience! Here are some pics from the camps!

Andrea Duran, Laura Berg, Me, Mac Vandergeest, and Toni Mascarenas! My go to girls! They are the best! We've had such a blast! I am SO lucky and blessed to have them help out with camps! This is in Virginia at a BBQ place. Yes, that's a wild boar in the center!

Sam Bannister, Toni, me, Casey (yes, he actually went to camp, he made my weekend!), Jenae Leles, Alicia Hollowell, and Mac. This was the Coaches for Sacramento Camp plus Vicky Galindo. A great group and we had fun even with the heat of 104!

The girls again in Sac! Check out our new mesh shorts in the pic! Cute and comfy!

Our last 3 camps of the year are filling up quick, make sure to get registered asap!
October 24-25 Little Rock, AR
November 14-15 Binghamton, NY
December 12-13 Rochester, MN
register at www.jenniefinch.com

In between camps, Ive been traveling a little bit. It hasn't seem to slow down too much, which is a good thing! Its not always easy leaving, well never easy, but I've had some incredible opportunities.

Visited with Mizuno, in Georgia. Had some great meetings going over products, checking out whats coming up next. I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of the Mizuno brand & family. Its great to talk product, give feedback, see new designs, pick colors, and see what new technologies they have come up with. Lots of exciting stuff and I'm excited and grateful to continue my relationship with Mizuno.

Headed out to Bristol, Conn to the ESPN campus. It is huge, its always fun to visit and be on campus. You never know who you are going to run into Larry King was there the same day we were! Even had the chance to pitch to host Jay Crawford from First Take. We had a good time.
I was there to encourage people, players, Coaches, teams to join WePlay.com. Its a safe, great way for teams and players to have a home on the web. Check it out and join! I brought a camera with me during the ESPN shoot from a couple weeks ago and posted pics to @Weplay: http://tinyurl.com/yccdlsp.

I headed up north for another trip to NY, for a satellite media tour. Announcing my title of Commissioner of the Mexican Avocado League. Here is a shot from the set, I felt like Rachel Ray. Check it out along with many great recipes at www.theAmazingAvocado.com

Looking forward to more fun with the family! I will be heading back to NJ & NY in a few days!
Heading out to DiamondNation for a JF Tournament this weekend, can't wait! The Women's Sports Foundation Dinner & Gala is next Tuesday night, always one of my favorite events of the year! Hope to see you there!

Dreaming, Believing & Enjoying!
#27

Virginia Camp

Oh my goodness! What a blast we had in Virginia for camp! We had such an amazing turnout! More than 2,000 people were there to share in the festive camp experience! Moments like these prove to me our sport has a bright future! No matter what vote, Olympics or no Olympics!

We had over 2,000 people and over 400 campers eager and excited to learn about this game and about the game of life! Its about having dreams and believing in those dreams! Part of my continuing playing is for these young girls. I still want them to know that just because we are not in the Olympics there still is that dream of wearing USA!

Weekends like this are so overwhelming! Amazing! I love this game and I love the bright future of it! Thanks for another incredible camp!







Heading out to Atlanta to meet with Mizuno, then NY for WePlay!

Next camp will be in Sacramento, California Sept 26 & 27! Spots are still available, its our only stop on the west! Looking forward to it!

Dreaming & Believing!
#27