Happy Birthday Jess!

It is hard to believe....Jess is now what he likes to call "on the down-side of 25".

I told him to stop over analyzing becoming another year old but he insisted on being a debbie downer about it for at least a couple of hours. His mood changed shortly after their day game on Thursday though, because almost the whole team went to dinner with us to celebrate his "down-side of 25".

About 20 of us went to Texas de Brazil! It was soooo good and we had a blast! Over the years you make friends and we both really feel this organization has given us friends for a lifetime. I appreciated the love Jess' teammates showed him by going with us to celebrate and I know he did. One of them even paid for our dinner! I thought that was a very nice gesture and I know I will always cherish this baseball family we have here in this organization.

Here are some pictures from Jess' Birthday Week!

Opening up his presents!

New Shoes!

The look he gave me when he saw the words "Michael Kors" on the box, lol.

Have yall heard of Gigi's Cupcakes? Jess loves them and instead of his usual cookie cake he requested a red velvet cupcake.

One of Jess' hilarious teammates.

Kat and Andy, Andy is the starting catcher for the team.

Goofballs!

Speaking of goofballs here is our roomie Broderick.

Yummy dessert!

Yes, I live with this....

Me and Kat!

Birthday Boy eating his Birthday breakfast, Captain Crunch and raw biscuits, ughh!

This was the seventh birthday I have spent with Jess. I cant believe how time has flown. I love him more than ever and I couldn't imagine life without him. Happy 26th Birthday Jess! I cant wait to spend 7,000,000 more together!

The next couple of weeks are going to be super crazy! One of my best friends is getting married next weekend and then I am heading to Kilgore to make our move to Austin. We are moving earlier than what we planned but Jess wants to be in our place and settled by All-Star break. I cant wait to get all of our stuff moved and start decorating!

See yall soon in the ATX!

Happy Earth Day!

Love,
E

Home Opener!

Friday was our Home Opener for the season. I was so excited and ready for this day to come because season never officially starts until you play at home. As most of you know, I love Memphis! I love the culture, the feel but overall the food!

Since my husband loves me so much he took me to my FAVORITE place here in Memphis on Friday. The restaurant is called The Blue Plate and they are only open until 2 everyday. It is so good that they only have to open for half a day and still make triple the profit because everyone (excluding Jess) loves it!

Here is my number 1 choice at The Blue Plate....

The second and third place choices consist of blueberry pancakes and cornbread with cabbage. Absolutely delicious! Anytime anyone comes to visit this is the first place we take them.

The game Friday night was a packed one! I waited in line to get my ticket for about 15 minutes which is crazy seeing that it was in Will Call. I guess everyone wants to see the Triple A affiliate of the World Series Champions. Kat who I met in 2009 is Bryan Anderson's long time girlfriend. People always ask us if we are sisters and we just smile, laugh and say no. She is Argentinian and while this picture does not show it we really do look alike some days.

Our stadium got a new Jumbo-tron and might I say that it is JUMBO! It is amazingly clear and the picture is crisp and bright. There is a joke going around that they sold the workout equipment in the players locker room so they could get it. That is probably not true but they did sell the the equipment so the guys have to workout at the YMCA with the public. The boys were disgusted when they found out they would have to share the gym with all the other people who have a membership there but it has worked out just fine, I think lol.

This is the new JUMBO-TRON

They lost their home opener but it was good to be back in the stands watching the good old Redbirds. The team is a mix of old and new and Jess is on a whole new end of the spectrum this go around because he is one of the older guys. It is quite funny listening to him talk about the young guys and the things they do because he was once that young annoying cocky kid. My, oh my, how time does fly when you are having fun!

Jess threw on Saturday night and had kind of a rough night. His first batter hit a line drive to his face. Jess' quick coordination blocked his face with his glove and he almost caught it but it flopped out and the runner got on base. He then gave up a 2 run home run but then got out of the inning. Everyone has a bad day and that day was Jess'. Just another day in the life of a pitcher and it could have been worse :)

For those of you who have iPhone's the Memphis Redbirds have an app you can download. It helps you keep up with the team and players. It's pretty nifty if you ask me, it doesn't live stream the games but it keeps you in "the know" so I definitely suggest downloading it.

Here is Jess' bio page in the App, the picture is recent so that is his beard. I know granny would be proud!

I hope all of you had an amazing weekend! Tomorrow kicks off Jess' Birthday week! I have plenty of surprises in store for his big 2-6! 

Have a great week!

Love,

E

My Best Friends Wedding, the Start of Another Season and a New House!

Hello! There have been a lot of changes over the past couple of weeks! We are no longer in beautiful West Palm and are now in Memphis Tennessee! You will hear no complaints from me because I LOVE Memphis! My husband on the other hand, not so much. Luckily for him though he really loves his teammates this year. So that makes playing and the season that much more fun. We have 2 roommates this year, Brian Broderick and Barrett Browning. They are both pitchers, Broderick is a starter and Barrett is a lefty reliever so we have a good mix all in one apartment. Our apartment is 2 bedroom two bath so instead of getting a dining room table Barrett set up his bedroom there.

Here is Barrett's room....

Have yall heard of Instagram? Its an app on the Iphone that allows you to take pictures and edit them. Its pretty cool. Here is my photography of our view out of our stairwell window.

I left West Palm a couple of days earlier than Jess. One of my besties is getting married on the 28th of this month and you know we had to celebrate! It was a fun-filled weekend and I was so happy to be able to spend some time with them.

Here we are at Esparza's Mexican Restaurant 

As some of you may know we bought our first house this week! We were beyond excited and feel extremely blessed!

Since we were already moved and in Memphis our realtor (my mom) had a courier sent out to us so we could sign. We signed in our apartment complex's family room. This nice little old man was our courier and he was so patient and even went over everything with us so we felt comfortable. He even asked for Jess' autograph when we were done. We said sure as long as he would take a picture of us after :) We also found out that Jess was activated that day as well so it was a very happy day that day.

Here are some pics to hold you over until I can get in and get some more taken!

Living Room 

Opposite view of the Living Room

View of Kitchen from Living Room

Staircase :)

Jess threw in his first game of the 2012 season last night. He went 3 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, no walks and 5 strike outs. He did very well and he said he felt great! I cant wait for them to get back to Memphis! Im ready for some baseball!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! 

Love,

E

And may the odds be ever in YOUR favor.....

Hello!

It has been a very busy week! This always happens right before Spring Training, the days get shorter and the to-do list gets longer.

Our date night went so good the other night! We started off at Jumby Bay which is a restaurant by the Spring Training Complex. It is really cute and has a "5 o'clock somewhere" vibe. A total of 8 of us went, Barrett and Meah Browning, Brandon and Lauren Dickson, Shane and Jessica Robinson and myself and Jess. The movie was AWESOME and I can see this being way bigger than Twilight. Jess is even thinking of reading the 2nd one because he cant wait until the next one comes out to see what happens. I dont know if yall have heard much about the Hunger Games but the title of this post is the poster board quote for the movie.

This quote just so happens to be the theme of our lives right now. Word on the street is that tomorrow is D-Day. Supposedly tomorrow is the day that all the decisions, send downs and cuts will be made. Usually this is never the case but that is what the coaches told everyone today at the field. They have Jess scheduled to throw on Tuesday which is a good sign but seeing that the world of baseball is a fickle one, we dont know for sure if that is going to happen. Hopefully "the odds" WILL be in OUR favor and he makes the team.

I truly believe though that if he doesn't make the team there is another opportunity that is better for him somewhere. I know its going to hurt him, I know its going to hurt me but I have faith that its going to work out even better than we wanted it to.

Today we had a baby shower for Jessica Robinson. It was so good seeing all of the girls! I was so excited last night just thinking about it because it has been 3 years since I have seen some of them. Jessica and Shane are really good friends with some of our really good friends Wes and Katie Hodges. Katie and I decided to split getting her the car seat since we are all very close. I like getting gifts for people that they can really use! Especially when it is a gift for a baby!

Our night is now winding down and we are about to hit the sack. I just wanted to share with yall our weekend and what we had to look forward to tomorrow. Please pray for Jess as I can see in his eyes how very scared he is. I know everything will fall right into place its just waiting on that to happen that is hard.

Thank you for reading my blog! I hope yall all had a great weekend!

Love,
E

Close Call....

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Today marks exactly 13 days left of camp. Seems like we just got here (probably because we did) but our time here is now dwindling down. We are already back in baseball mode which consists of not knowing what day of the week it is, watching ESPN 24/7 and keeping up with the latest transactions and rumors online. Fridays always feel like Sundays to me but inevitably Mondays are always Mondays! Yesterday was a "Monday" for Jess. As he was shagging balls during batting practice a batter hit a line drive. As another player yelled "Heads up! Heads up!" Jess ducked behind the screen but left enough of his right arm out from the protection screen and was hit. As crazy as it seems out of all places the line drive could have hit him, the estimated 100 mph ball hit him right square on the bottom part of his right forearm/elbow. It hit him so hard that he walked in circles because he felt like he was going to throw up. The trainer then came out there to make sure he was ok. He felt of Jess' arm and determined it was not broken but that he needed to go in and get treatment immediately. They put some type of suction device on him and propped his arm up like the kid in Rookie of the Year. Jess said they were all calling him Rosenheimer or whatever the kid in the movie's name is because he looked just like him. I am so happy they could all joke about it seeing as that if I were there I probably would have fainted :) You know how it goes, no one can hurt your baby and if they do mama bear is ready to rock and roll! Jess came home and slept for a couple of hours because I think the situation stressed him out. We all anticipated him being very stiff and sore this morning but praise God it wasn't that bad. He was able to throw a bullpen and he said it was actually a good one even though he had just been pelted by a line drive yesterday. 

Other than that little hiccup the week has started out great. School started back up yesterday (which Im not over the moon about, but Im almost done) and we have a lot of things that are going to keep us busy during the rest of our time here. 

Friday the Hunger Games come out and we are going on a double date with another couple to see it. It is Jess and the other guy's way of having to sit through a movie they know nothing about with someone who dips. Can we say EWW? 

I hope y'all enjoyed the first day of Spring today! 

Talk to y'all soon!

Love,

E

Catching up!

Hellooo! I hope you all enjoyed your Spring Breaks! Spring Break is always one of those things that comes and goes so fast and yet after a full week off we are still left wanting MORE!

This past week has absolutely flown by and to think that there is only 13 days of camp left seems even more cray! -Note to you that I did not just misspell crazy, the word CRAY is the new crazy and you know how I love to stay in "the know" with all things fabulous including the latest ebonics.

Anyways games officially started on Tuesday but Jess didnt throw until Wednesday. He pitched 2 innings 21 pitches, 0 hits, 0 walks and 4 strikeouts. He did amazing and Im so proud of him! He felt so good about it and I know he was happy to get the first outing of spring training under his belt.

Friday Jess was put on "back up" duty in the big league game. My parents came in on Wednesday night so we were having brunch when Jess let me know he was scheduled to back up. By chance we were in Abacoa eating so when we finished we just walked across the street to the stadium.

Im a pretty emotional person so I had to fight back tears as Jess came out in the St. Louis uniform. I know that the journey we have been on is not as bad as it could have been and in all reality the trials we have faced are petty and ridiculously small compared to the troubles in the world, but seeing him in that uniform brought an overflow of emotion. I felt happy, sad, proud, thankful and grateful. I felt emotions a thru z but overall I felt proud. I have sat here and watched him fight for what he loves so much and seeing St. Louis across his chest sent the message of victory to my heart. I know that there is a lot left to fight for in this business but Jess can handle it, with God's will he can do it. It's been a long road and there is still more ahead but Jess and I both know now who is in control. That is a lesson we had to learn and I am so thankful that it was taught to us.

Jess threw again today, he went 3 innings 35 pitches, 1 hit and 3 strikeouts. As far as his role goes we really dont know what that is so for right now Jess is just happy throwing and that is perfectly fine with us.

Here are some pictures from this past week.

 This was at Juno Beach Cafe, the best breakfast food ever!

 Juno Beach

 @ Jumby Bay in Abacoa

 New jumbo-tron at the stadium

 Jess is on the left in his STL Uni :)

For those of you who do not know what back up in the big leagues means I will give you a quick tutorial. When Jess is scheduled as back up this means he will only come in if the pitcher that was actually scheduled to pitch cannot finish his outing. So basically back up means on-call, there is a possibility you may get called into the game but not a definite chance. It is exciting for one to be scheduled as back up if you are not in the big leagues but my husband states that it is not that big of a deal. He is wrong-just saying :)

Anyways I promise the blog will be more consistent from now on. It was just a little cray with games starting and my family visiting.

Have a nice Sunday!

Love,
E

Do you know him?

Let me start off this blog post asking you a little question....Do you know him?

Well if you don't my husband can tell you. Jess and I once again had another run in with a famous baseball player. Last year it was at bible study, this year it was in the mall at the Louis Vuitton store. We were shopping for my 25th birthday present and Jess did not really like the Michael Kors bag I picked out so he said "let's go into Louis Vuitton"....uhhh if you know me (which only the people that do know me, read this blog) I am in no way going to talk him out of going into Louis Vuitton. So we proceeded into the store where I pretended we were rich and started to look at bags. As we were browsing we noticed 2 Latin men talking with a sales lady. I went about my business because we are in West Palm Beach which is not that far from Miami so of course rich Latin men run rampant around here. One of them kept looking at Jess, Jess kept looking at him....my thought was "uhh, do you know him?" Another thing you know about me (if you know me) is that I know 3 things pretty well....Fashion, Food and Famous People. I know baseball pretty well in my opinion but I don't study the programs with pictures or anything creepy like that. Im more of a stat person. Anywhooooo, we kept walking and looking around the store until we made it back around to where the man was shopping. He then looked at Jess and said, "Hey man, how are you?", "You doing good?" Jess replied and asked him the same thing, he answered and we went about our business. At this point Im sure the suspense is killing you of who it was! I couldn't be more proud to say that it was JOHAN SANTANA!!!!!!! A pitcher for the NY Mets. I know if you don't know who that is your thinking who cares, but if you do know who that is then your thinking "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!"

Don't get me wrong Im not saying that he should or shouldn't know who Jess is, all Im saying is that it is somewhat of a big deal that he recognized Jess. He is a big time player. I might also add that he and Jess have never shared a team together, so he simply just knows Jess because of who Jess is. Before you start to think that I think Jess is the greatest amongst greatest or a humongous deal and all that jazz I want you to know that I don't. (I mean I do, but I dont....you know what I mean!) I consider Jess and myself to be pretty normal people that don't really require much, just pretty simple and my point about this post is that Jess may feel that he his previous attempts at being a big leaguer have failed but not all people feel that way or see that. Johan Santana, a long time big leaguer recognized Jess and acknowledged him. He knows who he is, knows that he has struggled but respects him. This game is hard, (Im sure your thinking she says that all the time) but it is, and having someone of that rank speak to you out of uniform is absolutely amazing. Johan did not have to say hi or even speak to Jess but he did. My point is that even though Jess has had a rocky road (this just came to me-rocky road is my fave ice cream maybe I should change that and see what happens)-(just a thought) but he has still accomplished so much to be proud of. I mean seriously, Khloe Kardashian moved to Dallas and I was so proud of myself because I grew up 45 minutes south of there. Oh the small things :)

I will stop rambling now I just had to brag about my husband a little. I know he struggles daily with the game and I just want him and everyone to know that not only am I so proud of him other people are too.

Have a good weekend!

Don't forget to Spring FORWARD!

Love,
E