The Red Zone

Someone said to me the other day, "when you get in the single digits, you are for SURE in the red zone til wedding time!"... So since today marks 9 days away, we are officially in the red zone. Its so hard to believe that the time is right around the corner (NEXT WEEKEND might I add). The bows have been tied, the ribbons have been curled. Plans are made for hair, makeup, nails, fans, music, candles, food, the whole nine yards and now its just time to implement the plans we've worked on for 11 months! Its crazy. But I'm so ready... But the thing about all this is that I'm ready for the wedding ceremony, YES.. I think that's in every girl's DNA and especially when you meet the ONE.. But I'm more, WAYYY more, ready for this life changing roller coaster to take place.. MARRIAGE.

Since day one I have said that I was so excited and just ready to marry Rickey. Sure for the wedding, sure for the cake.. Sure for the dress and the tux and the guests.. but my HEART knew that he was the sure-fire one, so all in all i was ready for him. I am lucky to think that I have this wonderful wedding that, even if there are mishaps and mistakes in the planning and everything ISN'T smooth, will still be one of the most beautiful days in my life. I will be surrounded by people who love me and Rickey and for that I am forever grateful. BUT.... I am forever to be placed on my knees in thanks for being given the best gift I could have ever gotten and that was the opportunity to meet and fall just smack-dab head over heels for a boy with a glove and a baseball in his hand. I never dreamed that I would find someone who loved a funny movie on the couch with ice cream just as me.. Or someone who CHERISHED time with family just like I did.. Someone who can entertain my 2 year old nephew and finds a special place in his heart to "jumble blocks" for hours upon end just to see this child smile and call him "uncle Rickey" brings not happiness, but JOY, to my life- I cannot even explain... So the wedding is a bonus. The wedding is just one big party and celebration to the biggest commitment I am ready to make..

My grandmother always said to me (and Betty always knew best), " Lacey, aside from choosing to accept Christ into your life as your One and only Savior, the choice in a husband and saying I Do is one of the most sacred promises that you will ever make". And she is right. And I cannot wait, for this wedding and ceremony is just one day that will skim the surface of the many days that I get to spend with Rickey. And THAT's what I look forward to... I look sooooo forward to the days ahead.. Things like more baseball games, more date nights with the "hubby", more times when we might struggle to make ends meet but know that we have each other to rely on, more times when everything in the world might be going wrong in our days but we come home to each other and our partner makes it better, days that we celebrate "wins", days that we are sad for "losses".. I cannot wait to do all those things, because I get to do those things with my VERY best friend in the world..

Rickey and I have started to get the "sooooo when are you guys gonna have little ones??" question. ANDDDD If you know us, you know that's something that ranks very high on our agenda - Just not at the moment. There are so many things that we ALSO want to do in our lives, not saying that having children is a bad thing, but its just not a "right now" thing.. I firmly think that when The Lord thinks its time for a couple to become parents and transition to that point in life, He makes that happen for them. And that may happen on day one of marriage if He sees fit. But currently, I think that we pray for some time for our marriage to grow. Rickey and I are young and we are new to this "couples" thing. To say that we were pros at relationships would be FARRRR from the truth and to be honest, there are things that we need (and WANT) to work on. We've both been in hard times in the past, with other relationships, etc, and we want to focus on the areas that marriages should focus on. God... Faith... Time and Presence... Strength... Dependence... Independence... you know, the must-do's.. We want to first and foremost continue to develop our relationship with our Creator, because if you don't have God in a marriage, what do you have? Well... I'm not really sure but it's not a marriage. ;) We both feel a strong need and pull to get closer to Him, not only in our relationship together but in our own individual lives. Rickey firmly believes that when you place God in your coaching perspective, you not only are a messenger to youth who may not know God but a man who is deepening his relationship to motivate and be a better example FOR these athletes. And I have seen and witnessed how medicine works when you involve God in your practice. Nursing is a tough career, no matter what anyone says, and there are so many times that a nurse, a doctor, a practitioner, can stray away from the religion in medicine and see so much of the fact- but the fact is- its all in God's hands. So keeping the faith in my career, helps me keep sane at times... Not to mention, we just want to get closer to Him so that we have a deep relationship in general with our Lord. There is nothing greater than His love, and that we both long for.

We want to travel. Point blank. Rickey and I are currently living in a town which, hate to say it, doesn't have much to offer us.. We know that eventually, when the baseball and bat are retired here at Delta State and the degrees are placed upon the wall, we will move back home to Denham (I can see Papa Rick smiling as he reads this now) and will begin a new chapter coaching and living there. In the meantime, while we are still ball and bat in hand, working on lesson plans, studying, test taking, etc etc, we are here in Cleveland. We want to see the world. We want to be able to run, at a moment's notice, and catch a weekend cruise in the off season. We want to have a few days off in the summer where we can drive to St. Louis and catch a baseball game with hot dogs and do some shopping. We want to be able to get to do all those things now because we both know, when we ARE blessed with kiddos (I can see Papa Rick smiling at that statement too), we wont get to do that on a moment's notice.. Our kids will come first and foremost, and family vacations will come after baseball and school and this and that... Our "couple" time becomes a little limited..

And we want to be MARRIED.. All of my friends who have lived to tell through their first years of marriage will All attest to saying, "BE MARRIED", "Get to know each other the first few years", "ENJOY IT and ENJOY EACH OTHER" and that's exactly what we want to do. I want to just be married. Candice said that the first couple of years that she and Glenn were married, although it was tough, it was the best time of their life as a couple.. She learned his in's and out's. She learned what annoyed him (and HER).. They had their first BAD fight.. They had their first Christmas with a piddly Christmas tree and she burned dinners when she tried to learn to cook. She LOVED IT. Tanya will say the same thing. She got to know Randall on a deeper level. Got to see him upset, got to see the relationship with his family and her's and how it became more enriched every single day. She also found herself as a woman, a companion, a wife, and a friend.. She learned things about herself- how to hold her temper, how to be more compassionate, how to relax and not worry, and when it WAS time to WORRY. :)

We want to develop our careers. My favorite character Benjamin Button says, "it's never too late to be who you want to be". Our careers are important to us; they almost represent who we are as people. And we want to deepen that. And also try new things. Take more classes, broaden our horizons, try new things, open our minds. I definitely want to get into more wedding planning and coordinating and do it on the side. Rickey LOVES giving baseball lessons and is working so hard on his master's. We want to meet new people. We want to work on restoring furniture and decorating our house and saving money.. WHEW we have SO many things that we want to do! :)

Save! Save! Save! We want to save money. We aren't loaded by any stretch of a means, but we aren't broke. We are "fine" we like to say. We can pay our bills, we have some left over to do things like date night every now and then and enough to save to take small vacations once in a while. But, in our future we see a house. A sweet little house that's perfect for us. We see ourselves BUYING that house. And to buy that house, we need to save more money. I am a focused person. I am the type to have a plan, with a backup plan for my backup plans... and saving is on the top of my To-Do list. I feel comfortable with that cushion in my pocket and as Rickey and I have discussed when the topic of blending finances comes up, so is he. My dear friend Joeli has heard me time and time ask her, "how does marriage work when you first start out and you and your husband are in school and working and doing this and that..." and she would just bluntly say to me, "you MAKE it work, Lace. You budget yourself, you watch your spending, you work hard, and you pray and you make it work". And that Joles is right. She has been a great source of motivation because she KNOWS what it feels like to do nursing with your hubby in school and be stressed all the time with not a lot of time to share together. SHE KNOWS. And her hear her say, "It can be done" is great motivation. So we save. And work hard and save some more. And in the end, that sweet little house that we want to buy (in Denham Springs or Baton Rouge) will be ready for purchase oh so very soon.

And we change.... As we have been meeting with our preacher, Brother Terry Booth, he speaks about not being able to "change" your partner. And I think that Rick and I have a decent grasp on that idea and concept. But we do realize that our life is about to change. I becomes WE. The individual concept becomes US. We are now our very own family, and we have branched out to unite our families together. In marriage and even being engaged, you realize that it's fun to do "couples" things and not "singles" things.. We look very forward to spending time with our favorite friends and couples who are relishing in great things in their lives- new babies, engagements, weddings of their own, their lives together.. We look very forward to being able to spend time with our friends who are currently married and getting married and have that common BOND.. We look forward to sharing time with our families- our new blended family- our new family members (baby Benjamin), our "in-laws" our brothers, our sisters, OUR PARENTS.. We look forward to it all...

So far in this 25 years of my lifetime, I like to think that I have learned a little bit. I realize that we are never guaranteed tomorrow, and all this happiness may be taken away from me in a second. And that's OK- because if it was so- I would be in my eternal home. But here, on this earth, I just want to relish in every single day that I get to do the above, not on my timeline, but on his. All the things I just typed are just wishes, things that I would like to be able to do, and I have faith that the Good Lord above will bless me with some and maybe all of those things. But.. I know that if I just hold on tight and follow the course that He's gonna give me, each and every single day, I will experience a life that I can only imagine, only dream of.. and that's been PROVEN TO ME.. holding on tight to his relationship plan led me to Rickey- and He's blessing me with a marriage to him next weekend.... :)

Avec tout mon couer,
Lace