Updates and Nieces and Florida...Oh my!

Coming to you live from BEAUTIFUL Tampa, Florida. As I write I sit by the pool where I spent many-a summer day as a kid. It's so good to be home :-)

Let me begin with a big fat thank you! I was so touched by all of the supportive emails I received regarding my last post about the struggles I am facing in my new teaching job. I couldn't believe the response. What wonderful followers and friends I have! That being said, I am now very very glad that I posted that piece. This is a lifestyle blog. It includes everything from fashion to family and travel and a lot about football. And this blog is about sharing with you, it's about writing something that you all can understand, something you can feel and from the 10+ emails I received I would say that "Hate" was a post you could understand all too well. I hope to update you on the matter when school begins again in January.

Moving right along. My Niece and almost niece are such a joy in my life. With one born in July and the other in September the Coach and I are in baby heaven. Sometimes it gives me baby fever....and then we go back to the shoebox where we can sleep through the night and I forget alllllll about that baby fever ;-)
My Sister, and her family got into Tampa last night and unlike the Coach and I, they must split their time all over the city because HotRod, my brother-in-law is also from Tampa. My sister's son is Grant. I rave about the little monster rather often on this blog. And from what I understand he has embraced this idea of being a "terrible two." My poor sister.  Baby Annabelle on the other hand, has been a rather darling baby. She likes to be held, she sleeps fairly well and she is generally undisturbed by her brother's antics (this is a good sign for the rest of their lives- she's a smart girl already.) But ALL of this is simply second hand information to me. I haven't seen Grant since June and I HAVE NEVER MET ANNABELLE.....UNTIL TODAY!

My Dad (Pops) with Annabelle at Grant's 2nd birthday party in October.

Annabelle Elizabeth (love that name!) was born in September. And between school and football I haven't been able to get home. Born with the same raven hair and coal eyes as her brother and mother this little baby is a gem! I can't wait to scoop her up and introduce her to the most AMAZING (and only) Aunt she'll ever know!

The coffee calls to me from the kitchen and after last night (post to come,) I need it!

Love & Peace (and thank you for the moral support)

Hate.

I'll admit that I've said it before.
I've said it about food, and movies and papers or classes, and as ugly as this makes me sound- I'll admit that I have said it about people.

It's really a terrible word. It's sharp the way it comes off your tongue and it's so definite in its purpose. But the most terrible part about it is the mood, the vibe, the Ora it creates. Hate is such an evil thing. It takes you over. It blinds you and it blinds others too. It's the least justifiable emotion I can think of. It's crippling.

I can't go into a whole lot of details but I'm feeling pretty hated right about now.
I'm young and foolish and I'm new to my school and there is so much I don't understand and don't know. But I love my class. I'm trying really hard to do right by my students and still, I am feeling so hated. The way things work at my school are really different than anything I've ever seen or done before- but I am trying. I really do want the best for my class. I want to do the right things and yet every day feels as if I've failed miserably. I am feeling very broken, very discouraged and frankly, hated, right about now.

It's really unlike anything I've ever experienced in my personal or professional life before. And to be perfectly honest, I'm no longer sure about how I should proceed. I can't help but wonder if all the hate I've ever felt in my whole life might be coming back to me. It sounds sort of pathetic. I sound so weak. I didn't know I had so much "defeat" in me.

So here is my prayer. Today I ask the Lord to give me hope for the coming semester. And joy in my heart as I teach my class each day. I ask Him for peace between all parties and I ask that He help me find myself again. I ask that He gives me the wisdom I need to understand the other women at my school and that He give them some wisdom to better understand me. And most of all I want to thank God for this job that He provided. This job I so deeply desired.

Today, I start over. With an attitude of gratitude, for my life, my family, my job and for second chances. It's a new day.

Love & Peace.

Grandpa.

10 years ago tomorrow my Grandpa passed away.
Everyone loses their Grandparents. It is something we all know will happen, and as those people in our lives age, it's only natural that God would call them home.

But it's still so very sad, because death is hard for the living. 

My Mom's Mom (Grandma Craig) is still living. She is healthy and active. The woman walks miles and miles, alone, everyday. She mows her own lawn, she makes between 5 and 12 quilts every year- BY HAND. She cleans her own house and she makes more food than any one person could ever need just to store in her freezer.  (The Coach has a very special bond with my Grandma. She needs him to help when her computer "isn't working" and the Coach needs Grandma to keep making him Chili! Ha- I'm not kidding.) I think about Grandma Craig everyday but when December 10th comes around....well, you can imagine, I have a heavy heart. As I prepare to start a new marriage I spend lots of time thinking about how deeply I love my fiance'. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with this man. I want to have children with him. I want to help each other grow our careers, I want to build a happy healthy home and I want him to be by my side forever. I can't imagine being without him for 10 days, let alone 10 years.

How deeply she must miss him, how sad she must feel at times, how much she must miss being hugged or dancing in the kitchen together or going to tractor shows or watching ball games together.

I know that my Grandma is surrounded by family who love her very deeply. But that doesn't change the longing that I know she has for my Grandpa. Our God is so good. I know that he has given my Grandpa a kind of peace and joy that he never knew on earth. But as tomorrow approaches, I ask that you all say a little prayer for my Mom and her Sister as they remember their Dad and for my Grandma, that she may find hope and solace and joy in remembering such a fun, hard working, loyal and loving man. I hope that some day my Grandchildren have as many happy memories with the Coach and I do with my Grandpa.

If you have Grandparents around, please hug them this Christmas for me.

Love & Peace.

55-3, Purples.

Pre-game

We were seriously excited :-) So I look like a little kid on Christmas or something!

Handshake...the start of it all!

The back of the Coach's head :-) 

This would be the Coach looking for me :-)

This is me with Dana, our head Coach's wife and also the P.E. teacher at the
 school where I work, and the girl in the white is Jamie, her husband Justin
is in our wedding next June. She has been my football bff ;-)

He is so cute, I just love him.

There it is!!!

A big win and a big winner.

My fiance' is incredible. When I think I know all I need to know about him he surprises me. 

As you might have guessed by the title of this post, the Bowling Green Purples won the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP last night. I will have a big ole post on the subject tomorrow after I pick up my picture CD at Walgreens (No camera cord= stupid.) 

But until then, I'd like to brag just a little on the man in my life. 

I stood for a long time in the stands last night when the game came to an end. The other wives all made their way to the field and the players ran around joyfully. But, I stood just to watch. My Dad had reminded me earlier in the evening that no matter how much we hope that this State Championship win is only the first of many for my Coach (all of the Coaches really), it could very well be a once in a lifetime moment. I wanted to take it all in. I wanted to see our friends celebrating and the fans cheering, I wanted to remember how proud I was of them all at that very moment. After I did make my way down to the field to smooch the Coach I found myself wondering about his rather calm and quiet reaction to such a monumentus win. He's a pretty level-headed guy so I didn't exactly expect him to be fist-pumping on the 50 yard-line but last night he just stood there and smiled. I kept asking him if he was happy, if he was excited...

This morning when I asked him again to tell me how he was felling he said:

"I'm happy we won, it's great. But it's not about me." 

I think that might be one of the best things I've ever heard any coach, in any sport, ever say.

In the midst of hype, and celebration and chaos my Coach was standing on the field, looking up into the stands for me doing the very same thing I was doing at the very same moment. He was making a memory of everyone else. He was soaking it up. And he was remembering that last night's game was about so much more than him. The Coach has his own State Championship from 2004 when he was a high school football player so he knows how much this win means and will mean to the boys. He knows the value of his fellow coaches, he know how much is to be learned from Bowling Green's head coach. He knows that last nights win was not about him. 

And this makes me proud. 

I read somewhere once that you should never marry a man unless you would be proud to have a son exactly like him. I look forward to having son's like the Coach. He is such a good man. I don't know what I ever did to deserve someone so good. 

This picture is terrible of me but it's the only one we have so far :-)

Thanks for letting me brag, friends.

Love & Peace.

Worth watching.

What a wonderful place for the Coach to begin :-)
#gopurples.

Tomorrow night my Coach will spend his last night as a Bowling Green Purple.

After 5 years we have decided to move on. After we're married in June Coach and I will be moving down to Tampa where he will continue coaching at a different high school. 

We have loved Bowling Green. We have loved the city and the school. And tomorrow the Bowling Green Purples compete in the 5a Kentucky State Championship game. What a wonderful way for our time here to end. We have been so greatly blessed in our time here and we look forward to many football seasons ahead. 

#gopurples.