Six Months

In honor of my wonderful husband I am posting this picture from our wedding!

We are celebrating six wonderful months of marriage today. It's hard to believe that we were in Vegas with our family and friends just 20 weeks ago. I apparently didn't get the memo for how big six month wedding anniversaries are. Doug surprised me at work this afternoon with flowers and a lovely lunch. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful and caring husband. Even better, a one with a great sense of humor. When I told him I didn't think it was that big of a deal he responded, "It's a huge deal when you consider how long your first marriage didn't last." I was rolling on the floor laughing after he said that. We've learned to laugh at our mistakes and take life one step at a time. Otherwise, it just gets too serious and there's no time left for fun. So, for my wonderful husband on our six month wedding anniversary, I love you more today than yesterday but not as much as tomorrow. Thank you for being my rock and my best friend. I don't know what I would do without you!

Family

I’ve had an amazing opportunity over this past week to reflect on a single word, family.


According to Wikipedia, In human context, a family (from Latin: familiare) is an exclusive group of people who share a close relationship —a unit typically (or "traditionally") composed of a mated couple and their dependent children (procreation) in co-residence.

Blake, my cousin from California, recently stayed with us for a few days. It’s funny how a change in routine/pace can shape your whole attitude. Blake’s attitude is contagious. From the moment he landed in Des Moines I wasn’t able to wipe the smile off my face. Blake and I are more like brother and sister then cousins. For a period of time, it felt like he was the only family I had. We’ve been through so many ups and downs together in the short 25 years we’ve known each other.

Anyways, Blake was in town and was super excited to meet the women I play football with. He joined us at our Friday night practice to meet the team. Watching my football family and my real family come together was such a treat! It’s difficult for me to describe how much Blake means to me and what an influence he has had on the person I’ve become. I wasn’t expecting my teammates to understand exactly what I was feeling but somehow, someway, they just did.

Blake was able to make it to our game on Saturday against the Nebraska Stampede. I felt anxious, nervous and exhilarated all at the same time during that game. We had some healing to do as a team and I also had some healing to do with my family. For the next two hours we all played our hearts out. We finally got all eleven of us out there on that field to click, it was absolutely the most fantastic game I’ve been involved in since joining the Iowa Thunder back in 2008.

So I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to my Thunder Family. Thank you for helping me heal and thank you for being there. All of you hold such a special place in my heart and I’m so proud to have you as my FAMO!

Football Is My Life and I LOVE It!

Wow, I haven't been on here since March?!??? I can't believe where the time has gone. Football has defiantly taken over my life right now and I love it. Parker and I will be celebrating our six month wedding anniversary on the 14th of this month. We were trying to plan a dinner date to celebrate and we don’t have an available evening together till the 24th, crazy!


I know so much has happened the last two months but for some reason I don’t know what to write. I’m keeping busy with my monthly BUNCO and book club meetings with the girls. This portion of the month helps me keep my sanity. It’s amazing what good conversation, good food and GREAT wine can do to improve the work week! 

On top of the BUNCO and book club I’m also playing in an over the hill soccer league on Tuesdays, football practice Wednesday/Friday with games on Saturday, and finally, Doug and I have sand volleyball on Thursdays. As you can imagine, this leaves very little time to get things done around the house. We hope to have the landscaping in the back yard completed by the end of June. I’ll have to post pictures as this should be a major transformation! I used to love cleaning the house but our schedule has given me a distaste for cooking and cleaning the past few weeks. All I think about is sleep and when the next few moments of rest will come.

Doug is doing really well with his knee therapy. He continues to make great improvements and is now able to walk on the treadmill at 3 MPH. I know this doesn’t sound like much but it is completely awesome! We are hoping to have him cleared for running by the end of September. I know he’s really looking forward to getting back in the gym.

Sophie continues to be as cute as ever. Her little brother should be here by the end of July or August. We’re trying to work on training with her so she doesn’t teach the ‘lil guy a bunch of bad habits. Her favorite activities at the moment are playing in the pond in the backyard and then running through the giant sand pit where the patio used to be. Have I mentioned how excited I am to have this landscaping done? It’s hard enough wiping up muddy paws due to all the rain in the Spring, but sandy paws on top of it all is enough!

My cousin Blake is coming to visit from California in two days. I’m excited to have him back and also have him watch me play football. Hopefully we can pull off a win and show him what Iowa Thunder football is all about. Doug and I are looking forward to all the vacations we have planned this summer. I’ve never been to a MLB game so we’re going to three this year – Cubs vs. Cardinals, Cubs vs. Rockies (in Colorado) and Yankees vs. Royals. We also have a vacation planned to California to see my family and I hope to take Doug to see the local wineries. We hope to top off the year with a vacation to either Las Vegas or back down to Mexico for our one year anniversary. Between all the tailgating for college football and vacations we hope to start planning a family sometime this winter!