Rebels For Life

Honey! We are Home!
Well, it has been a few weeks since I had time to sit down and write. The Rangers ended the season with a  great fight. Rob and I are sad we couldn't experience payoffs and the World Series BUT we are home in the off season and so excited.
 Rob finished the season strong. I couldn't be more proud of him. This was his second completed year in the Big Leagues. We feel blessed beyond measure. I freaking love baseball season and all the blessings that come with it. But now I am so ready for this off season. We packed up our Dallas Home and headed home to Ky two days after the season ended. I had packed and arranged NOTHING because like all the players and wives I was prepared to head to Cleveland for the Wild Card Game. There is always tomorrow in baseball and if there is not tomorrow then there is always next year. That is the great part! We will get em next year!!!! Enough about baseball though.
 We drove 14 hours back home through the night because Robbie is stubborn and refuses to stop. We pulled into our home at 9:30 am on Thursday morning. Headed straight to bed. And then we woke up...  We woke up and it hit us. Reality. Baseball was over for the year and this was our off season. We are so sad to say bye to Texas, our friends, the field, the fans, and everything else we leave behind in the off season. But let me tell you about all the exciting things we have planned. And how we are going to live like Rebels for Life.
  Robbie and I like to use the saying Rebels for Life almost everyday. We both have it tattood on us. I don't really remember where the saying came from. Robbie would tell you these were lyrics I made up to a Beyonce song because I can't seem to ever get the words to a song right. Whereever it came from it has stuck. It has been one of our Life Motto's since high school. We feel like it fits us perfect. Because we are vocal about our Christian beliefs in a world and industry that doesn't have the same beliefs we view that is quite rebellious. Rebels for Life is also a daily reminder that people are going to have opinions about us no matter what. We are rebels for life because we tend not to live by the unwritten rules put on people to govern their actions in society but rather living life to fullest and embracing the human side of us by making mistakes and learning from them but never at the expense of others. I am naturally a very OCD and ADD person. The two of those things mixed together makes life extremely stressful for me. The OCD side of me has to have things unpacked and perfectly in place but the ADD side of me can't think straight enough or sit still long enough to do it.  Rebels For Life reminds me to just Breath and Let go.
So... We are Rebels for Life-ing this off season! I am quitting my job tomorrow. Yes Tomorrow. It is actually pretty dumb that I am writing this before I quit but hopefully no one from school reads this before the morning. And this will give me the extra push to do it. I told you before I work at a Christian School.  I wanted to see how they would handle the NOH8 Campaign Rob and I did. They handled it just fine. I spent an entire day in meetings with people explaining my heart on the situation. Everyone showed love towards our decision. I wont lie, there were rumors. Teachers and people I don't know were saying things and starting drama but for the most part everyone was great. The reason I am quitting is not because of that! I have worked with the high school cheerleaders for the past four years. We have had a different coaching staff every year since I graduated five years ago. I know these girls and have relationships with them that will last forever. My heart is 100 percent with them BUT when new coaches come along my relationship with the cheerleaders becomes threatening to the new coach. My husbands job and my lifestyle becomes target practice for some people. I get treated different than others. Drama that is unnecesary begins and I do more micromanaging then coaching. What it comes down to is there are a lot of women who CAN'T figure out how to be happy for other women. Or when someone can't figure me out then walls come up and drama flows out. Robbie and I don't fit into a mold or a category or a steryotype. He is a professional athlete with a heart of gold and I am an athletes wife who loves connecting with people. For whatever reason this is a world view of "people like us" (which I am sick of hearing). And because we boldly march to the beat of our own drums people FREAK OUT! We believe in God but don't allow the rules people have put on Christianity to define us. We are Rebels for Life. We say what we feel; the good, the bad, the ugly. We try to be real. Sadly, this is a foreign concept to people. I've asked a few of my friends what their perception of us was before the knew us. They told me straight up; we are intimidating. I hate this. Feeling like my outsides don't match my insides. Anyone who really knows us knows we aren't intimidating. But unfortunately Pro baseball player and Athletes Wife has its own meaning to some people.
Back to cheer. This new coach (who will remain nameless) decided (for me) to stick me with the middle school team. I had NO decision in this. I was told through a text message. My feelings were hurt and I made silly decisions like calling my athletic director 16 times before he answered. He was assuring and reaffirming to me and I had some decisions to make. Rob and I prayed about and God made it very clear that I needed to quit. My heart wasn't with the middle school. I actually would rather do anything but hang out with middle schoolers. They freak me out. Middle Schoolers these days aren't like what I experienced in middle school. They are like adults. They don't have acne and they have cell phones. They watch the same TV shows as me and no more about boys and sex then I do. It confuses me. I get lost in interaction with them because they are little people with grown up minds. Therefore, I can't work with middle school. My heart has always been with High school. But because life isn't all Diamonds and Rose like it should be.... (and women struggle accepting other women without feeling threatened).... I am quitting.
 Quitting coaching cheer is FOR SURE Rebels For Life. This off season will be filled with planning events. We have an annual Halloween party, charity event, bachelorette party, volunteering, traveling to Africa, going to weddings, and our siblings basketball and soccer games. We are having community dinner nights once a week where anyone and everyone is welcome to come eat dinner at our house and just do life together. In the big scheme of things; I am really doing the same thing as I always do. I like working with high school cheerleaders because I get them. Instead Robbie and I will spend the off season with different people who get us and we get them. It is my off season goal to start loving women radically and underservingly. Women need to start being happy for each other. Jealousy in every form is ugly. The only way to drive out evil is to pour abundant senseless love right back into the world.
REBELS FOR LIFE this off season
HE>i
xox
b