Friday, May 20, 2011


I stole this post from this great blog. She always post things I absolutely adore and this is one of those things! I just wish I would have seen this amazing idea 1 year ago before my wedding. We did something different for our guest book, but this is so adorable! What a great alternative since you never really know what to do with a guest book anyway, but you could frame these beauties and have them in your home. I hope I can inspire someone to do this!




Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Being healthy...

Lately we have been working on making our bodies healthier by adding better foods to our diet and exercising as much as possible. No real schedule to this, just do more than we have been and do it better!
Is there a reason for this?? Yes...there is! Kris has been dealt the genes of having to deal with high cholesterol (thanks FIL) and he has to take cholesterol meds now because of it. In order for him to come off these meds, he has to lose some weight and eat a MUCH better diet. When we were dating I used to cook for Kris and his friends a lot and it was never exactly healthy meals...in fact they were probably some of the worst meals you can think of. For example some of these things were fried chicken, hamburger helper, enchiladas, chocolate cake, cookies...just to name a few. We ate out A LOT and probably drank more than we should have. Those were pre-engagement days, so once we sealed the deal things began to change. I no longer needed to feed him to get my way into his heart...I had that one taken care of, so we started to slowly watch what we ate. Now that we have a real health reason to eat better it is a lot easier than before, so I have the challenge of finding healthy/extremely flavorful/GOOD meals for my husband. He is not necessarily picky, so that makes it a little easier and I will eat pretty much anything. I thought I'd share some of our favorite recipe finds lately starting with this one:

Turkey and Yam Spicy Tacos Recipe
 This was unbelievably good...we were a little skeptical at first of the pairing, but it was a great combo of sweet and spicy. We love spicy, but 4 jalapenos would have been WAY too spicy for even us, so we only used 2. One thing we cut out is flour tortillas and used green onion whole wheat tortillas from Market Street, but you can use wheat, corn, or really any kind you like. The fresh cilantro and tomatillo salsa was key, so don't leave these out; we have fresh herbs in our back yard so I try and use them whenever I can!

 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Rules...

I found these and thought I'd share...they are pretty spot on and now make me feel bad for my last post. Ha!

Rules for coping with your Coach/Spouse
1: Prepare to communicate frequently about schedules. Then, prepare to scrap it all and juggle things on the fly. It's going to take considerable effort to coordinate your normal family commitments with the district game schedule. So flexibility and patience will be vital if you hope to avoid missing kids' dental appointments and talent shows because he forgot the local college scouts were going to be on campus to recruit that day. This can be extremely frustrating, and leaves many coach's wives feeling that their spouse is selfishly putting his job and athletes before his family. Try to remember that much of your spouse's work requirements are set by other people, so he often cannot avoid late hours and weekend work. Though this sort of flexibility is part of life with a coach, you have the right to ask and expect him to choose time with family over work when the choice is his to make. If he will do that, you'll find it a lot easier to deal with the occasional family trip that has to be canceled due to an unexpected bid in the playoffs!

2: If you are already sports savvy, great! If you're not, try to learn the basics about the sport your husband coaches. Most coaches don't care if their wife knows enough to fill in for the local sports announcer or only enough to know which team to cheer for, what matters to them is that you care enough to learn about something that is important to him.
3: Even if you don't share your husband's enthusiasm for the sport, appreciate his commitment to the kids he coaches. That's probably part of what you love about him, anyway! Most coaches genuinely care for their athletes and work extremely hard to help them be successful.

4: Understand how important your support is to him. When a game is not going as well as he hoped, or when his team's just clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, he's probably going to want to know that you're in the stands to cheer him on. Just as you would like him to be present at important moments in your life, try to be present for his.
5: Respect the superstitions and traditions that make him feel prepared, no matter how crazy you think they are. If he won't wash his "game socks" all season or insists on a pre-game breakfast consisting of a footlong chili cheese coney and key lime pie, just try to go with the flow. Some coaches feel that breaking traditions are dangerous in the midst of a winning streak or in the face of a losing one, so provided it doesn't potentially harm your guy (and provided he's willing to stash those socks in the garage and not the house!), don't sweat it.

6: Talk early and honestly about how he likes to handle both victory and defeat. You might think that a big win would automatically open your husband up to talk about his excitement and confidence after the game. For some, a win does just the opposite; it creates tension about securing the next win. On the other hand, when even the lucky socks don't produce good news in the win/loss column, your husband may want to immediately move on to planning for the next game where others may want to re-hash the loss over and over again. You'll want to know what your coach needs from you.
7: Find and nurture your own interests, career and hobbies. You'll find at any level of coaching that you will spend a significant amount of time either alone or with your kids without their father while he is at practice or at games. Don't spend that time resenting his absence, instead treasure that time as your own to do with as you wish.
8: Learn to collect praise and to ignore criticism. Coaches find early in their careers that their every move is subject to scrutiny from a variety of sources. At every level of coaching, your community will feel justified in both their praise and criticism of your spouse. It's a fact of coaching. So, in order to cope as a coach's wife, you'll need to develop tough skin.
9: Learn to bite your tongue. While everyone else may feel entitled to discuss your husband's performance, you'll never have a good opportunity to fire back. As great as it might feel to respond to difficult fans when they are critical of your husband, you'll never do your coach a favor by indulging yourself with that one well-placed come back.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Story of my life...

So once again playoff are upon us...Kris' team made the playoffs in baseball and they start this weekend!

Please don't judge me for this next part...Sometimes the thought goes through my head that I wish my husband didn't coach for such an athletic school, because football season and baseball season last FOREVER when they go into the playoffs. It just means that until they are over I can't make any weekend plans. The games fall on Thur-Sat and it's best out of 3 games so you don't know if you will win the first 2 or have to play 3. If you do win in 2 games that doesn't mean he gets to come home and spend the weekend with me...nope...that means a scouting trip to wherever the heck in Texas the next teams are playing!!

Don't get me wrong I do absolutely LOVE being a Coaches Wife...I enjoy all of it, but there are times when things like this go through my head when I am trying to plan for things. Instead I have to keep it all up in the air and hope everyone understands!

Here's to counting down the days until our real vacations begin (trips to po-dunk rural little Texas towns for the playoffs don't count)...43 days until North Carolina and 63 days until JAMAICA for the big ONE yr Anniversary!!!

GO RAIDERS!!!