Back to Our Fantasy

Relief. That's what I feel. Complete and total relief. For a while, I was feeling a little like this:

But now that the NFL lockout is over, AJ & I have finally gotten all ten members of our league signed up and we are just contemplating how to determine the draft order, I am proudly feeling like this:

That's right ladies and gentleman, the NFL is rolling again. It's time to carefully watch the free agent market, pay attention to rookies in training camp, contemplate your bi-week options, calculate RB vs QB in first round scenarios, and get your list of favorite smack talk sayings out, cause fantasy football is back on track.  

For those of you who are scoffing and rolling your eyes about fantasy football, I previously wrote a post regarding why I finally caved into this past time with AJ. You can read that here.

For now let me just say, I am the only girl in our league and I'm pumped. I can't wait to be mistaken as an easy week. I can't wait to smack down "the big boys" at their knowledge of the game of football. It's exciting to watch these macho men get so infuriated when my little blonde self crushes their team. Oh what a world. So yes, the NFL lockout is over. And we're back to our fantasy again.

PS: Yes, that is Jon Lajoie. If you are unfamiliar with him, go to youtube and search: Everyday Average Normal Guy. It's my favorite. 

The Kelly's Lately..

So I haven't updated in a bit... AJ & I have been quite busy but unfortunately I'm terrible at taking pictures. The pictures I do take, I am even more terrible about putting on the computer. Since I don't really like to update without pictures, I haven't been, but we are starting to get really far behind. 

I have decided to update today with pictures.. All be it maybe not the exact pictures that would have been taken using my camera. I'll let you be the judge.

* Friday AJ & I had the military ball to go to. It was my first and it was interesting. We didn't stay very long, a little over an hour. We had our pictures taken (I'll post them when we get them), ate dinner, sat for the ceremony and left. I felt like I was at a cheesy prom dinner actually. We had to leave early because...

*We had tickets to the 7:30 showing of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II!!!! I had fandango tickets because I knew we would get there a little late. We arrived a little after 7:30, which meant the seats we had were horrible. So I took to sitting on the stairs in a better spot with AJ. We started a fad because after that a lot of other people in bad seats sat on the stairs too. Can I just say: AMAZING! Can't wait for the blu-ray!

*Saturday we took the dogs swimming (we are on our 47th day of consecutive over 100 degree weather.. its terrible) and went grocery shopping. AJ then took his car over to his friends to get tuned up cause its gas mileage has been HORRIBLE! He found out that two spark plugs were bad. But my sexy mechanic got it figured out and fixed.



*Sunday was the WOMEN'S WORLD CUP FINAL!! AJ & I invited many people over. We decorated, bought pizza, soda, the works. We were so excited about it!! Unfortunately, because people suck now-a-days, one couple showed up. Just one. I was so angry. A friend of mine wrote a blog about that type of thing, which I love and you can read here. Unfortunately, the women also lost the world cup. Which I'm still getting over. But I'm still proud of our girls.

*After the World Cup, in order to get over the defeat, AJ & I played some frisbee golf. I can honestly say I played the worst round I have played in a long time. It was terrible.

*Tuesday- I had a doctors appointment because of a sharp and piercing pain below my left hip that comes and goes and lasts only a few seconds. It's been going on for the past few weeks. As a tribute to how horrible military doctors are, my primary care physician says most people with pain in their hips have arthritis or just need to stretch more. Yep. My 26 year old self with a random sharp alternating pain that just started has arthritis in my hips. Ridiculous. I also mentioned I'm a personal trainer and get plenty of stretching to which he just stared at me like I was a worm.

*Wednesday- AJ hurt his wrist pretty badly about 2 months ago. He went to sick call about it about two weeks after it happened and they told him to stay off it and gave him an appointment scheduled ONE AND A HALF MONTHS LATER!! He just barely got x-rays and found out yesterday that his wrist had been, in fact, fractured at the time he went to sick call but that it had already healed itself. Now he has to have occupational therapy and possible surgery to fix some ligaments and tendons. Ridiculous.

*Last night I got a phone call offering me the assistant coaching position for the traveling U16 girls soccer team. WOOT WOOT! I'm super pumped and am meeting the team tonight.

So that is our past week in a nutshell. Complete with pictures. :) We have an equally busy week coming up.. We'll see if my personal camera catches the pictures this time. Hope your week was good too!

Anyone?? Anyone??

I don't get along with girls very well. I know what you're thinking, if you had a dime for every time you heard a girl say that.. But it tends to be pretty accurate for me. It's not that I don't like girls or don't want to hang out with girls, its more that my personality type, hobbies and likes, combined with my age group puts me in a very small population of women.My problem is that I am incredibly active and my idea of hanging out would be playing a round of frisbee golf or taking a kayaking lesson. I am not a gossip and chatting about what Suzey and Shannon are arguing about today or the latest drama on facebook is not my thing. I would rather sit down and chat about the most recent health and fitness data, last nights Jon Stewart episode, chatting about the upcoming football season, the best fantasy picks, or that freaking sweet goal made by Abby Womback. I'm also not a shopper. I hate shopping. I hate spending money. I would rather get my sewing kit and patches out and repair my old pair of jeans than go spend 40$ on a new pair. Did I mention I have a very loud personality? I'm very blunt and talkative, which is pretty intimidating to a lot of girls it seems.

I have some amazing girl friends. Unfortunately, none of them live here. I have a friend in New York City whose fitness and activity level would leave me so far behind I would probably be ashamed. Another friend in Idaho where Jet Ski's and four wheelers were a huge part of our summer. I've recently reconnected with an amazing girl where rock climbing and skating are part of her passions. A friend who crushed her first 10k this past year despite doctors telling her she would never run lives in Miami. One girl who challenges my conversations and intellect the most lives in Utah. 

But here I am, in Oklahoma. 

I've looked. Believe me I  have. Most of the conversations I have with girls that I have tried hanging out with go like this, "I hate drama." "Me too!" "I am not a gossiper." "Oh, I hate gossip." "I'm super active and an outgoing personality." "So am I!!!" Everything sounds great but then after a few weeks it turns into, "Oh my gosh! Did you hear about so and so and such and such?" "Let's go shopping or sit and watch a movie." Hanging out turns into sitting on the couch and talking about people. I just am not interested in that.

I have to admit, I'm a little bit of a friend snob. I'm kind of picky about who I want to spend my time with. My philosophy with friends at this stage of my life is that if you aren't going to make my life better by being in it and only bring me and my family down, I don't need you in it. Everyone and every relationship has their ups and downs but at the end of the day, if I'm not happier having you in my life than out of it: Bye! 

Maybe this seems a little bit harsh but I have had so many people in my life that have claimed to be friends that have only been a destructive force to me and those around me. I have kept them around because of that friend label and continued to be torn down. That's not ok.

Now that AJ is home its been awesome. Him and I go and do things close to every night; fishing, the batting cages, the dog park, frisbee golf, etc. But he also has his guy friends. Which is great!! Totally happy he can go and be with the guys. He needs that. But that leaves me at home with the dogs. It's frustrating. I'm a very extroverted and people person. 

I guess I'm just frustrated. I'm looking into assistant coaching and fitness training for the competitive soccer leagues here in Lawton. If that goes through it should be a blast but surprise, surprise, all of the head coaches I will be working with are men. Welcome to my world.

This post is a giant complaint and I know I just need to get over myself. I have an amazing life and if my only complaint is that I all of my awesome girl friends are across the country, than I'm doing pretty damn good.

Hero Worship

I'm not a celebrity kind of person. If Sandra Bullock, Lady Gaga, or Usher walked into the room right now, it probably wouldn't phase me much. I've been around a lot of powerful people before and it's no biggee. But if Abby Wambach  or Hope Solo walked into my office right now, I would turn into a tween girl meeting Justin Bieber. Seriously. There would be tears falling from my eyes in excitement. 

Abby Wambach & Hope Solo - 2011 World Cup

Sadly, the majority of people reading this right now are thinking, "Who?"

These are two of the women on the US Women's Soccer Team currently playing in the World Cup. We just won the semi-finals today after losing that game the past three consecutive Women's World Cup appearances. The finals are this Sunday. The past two games have  been insane. AJ & I both agreed that the quarterfinal round against Brazil was one of the most intense, if not THE most intense sporting match we have ever watched. 

These women are insane. They truly are. I am in complete awe of not only their athletic talent, but their drive, their attitudes and everything about them. If you don't know these women, look them up. Truly. I cannot fathom how Americans don't love soccer more than they do.

Going Private.

Well ladies and gentleman, due to some recent happenings that are a little too "coincidental" for mine and AJ's liking, we have decided to make our blog private. This saddens me a bit because we love being able to express our viewpoints and share our stories with the world, but for our peace of mind, we can no longer do this on a public platform. So for friends and family, if you would like to be placed on our allowed readers list, please let me know and we will add you. Hoping to go private in the next couple days. 

Thanks so much for your understanding!! 

The Many Problems of Women

A good friend of mine recently wrote to me, "I would love to see you blog about this one..." I opened the link and saw the following:

CEO: Monthly 'problems' why women earn less

My first thought was, "Certainly this isn't saying what I think it is?" Oh how wrong I was.. 

Alasdair Thompson, chief executive of New Zealand's Employers and Manufacturers Association, was on a radio debate and cleared up all of this silly frustration over why women are still earning less than men in the same occupations. He lists the following two reasons:

1) ..."once a month they have sick problems."

2) and that when they become mothers, ""they have to take time off to go home".

Thanks for clearing that up Mr. Thompson! I appreciate it! We can now go about our lives content with women earning less... I just have a few questions if you please..

1) What about the fact that men are more likely than women to take an extended vacation?

 2) And even when women do take a vacation, they are almost twice as likely to feel guilty about it?

 3) How about women on the work force performing 70% better than men in complex multitasking?

4) And women in the work force typically having more education than their men counter parts?

Besides when women get "sick" once a month, it's basically a full week where they have an extremely high "bull shit meter" and need everything around them to be done just right and perfect. In a sense, you get a full audit of your company practices and policies once a month. And not one person is going to get in the way, because what employee is going to argue with this:

 Obviously this guy, Al, is ridiculous and his arguments disgusting but his answers come from a very honest and not PC place. This is what he feels and believes; honestly. It really shows the mentality still against women in the work force. It truly is sad. 

I am not a feminist. I truly am not. I do believe there are major differences between men and women. I don't believe we are on equal footing on everything simply because we are built different in a very natural and basic sense. But don't for a minute think that I believe that women ought to be treated any differently or not afforded the same opportunities as men. I believe that equal should be that, equal. 

I disagree with biases on both levels. For example, I really, really hate that women fought to be in the military and they continue to fight to be allowed in all the same areas of men in the armed services, yet have a completely different and lower standard than men in the physical testing. How does this make sense? I can do everything you can do, combat and all, but I shouldn't have to run the same time, do as many push ups, or have the same physical skill sets? That's bull crap if you ask me. In the same way that a woman lawyer, CEO, or other professional occupation can do twice the work and get three quarters the pay. It's all a bunch of bunk.

Although I disagree completely with the thoughts of our good friend Al up there, it's actually nice to see someone be honest. This world is full of every one being so damn "politically correct" all the time, society pretends that those thoughts and feelings don't exist anymore. "No one actually thinks that way." That's not true, a good number of people, men and women, think that way, they are just too smart to say so in public. 

Here is what I am getting at, Al is obviously silly, but he isn't alone. Our society needs to stop being so politically correct in everything they do and what they think and "feel" and be honest. We won't be able to fix the problem if we are just continuing to pretend everything is ok on the surface, while watching the real affects of the true feelings and perceptions continue on.

Let's be honest and let's fix these problems.

*Sources
International Vacation Deprivation Survey
Science Daily 
Reuters

From the Fat Girl.

My name is Scottie Ann Jensen and I am the fat girl. 

I play soccer but running burns my thighs. Not because of the exercise but because of the friction of my thighs rubbing together. 

It's painful.

My shorts ride up in the middle because of my thighs touching.

It's embarrassing.

My friends wear all these cute clothes and swap them around to each other. I can't borrow any. I am too big.

It makes me cry.

My brother teases me about being fat. He's not meaning to hurt me, he thinks he's just being a big brother.

It hurts.

My friends are thin and beautiful. They wear shorts and bikinis in the summer. I want to.

I can't.

I'm not ugly, I'm just bigger than the other girls in school. They call me the cute girl.

I'm always "the friend."

I want to go shopping in the cute clothes section. I want to wear clothes I like. But for my age group;

The larges are too small.

I come from a large line of heavy women. Almost all the women I am related to are overweight. I'm told it's genetics. I'm told this is the hand I was dealt in life. I'm told I will just have to learn to love myself, the way I am.

I am the fat girl.

My name is Scottie Ann Kelly and I was the fat girl.

I know how it feels. 

I know what it's like.

I know how hard it can be.

I know about bad genes and tight jeans.

I understand how endless it feels. 

I understand the desire to just learn to live that way.

I know it doesn't have to be that way.

I know it can get done, I know I can be whatever I want.

I know that where I come from does not have to define me.

I am not the fat girl.

I am the fit girl.

Because of what I experienced as a young girl up to the age of 15, I became a certified personal trainer with American Fitness Professionals & Associates, soon to add nutritional adviser to go along with it. In 10 months I will be back in Idaho, back where I grew up, back to a place where I remember being the fat girl. I am very excited to hit the ground running and can't wait to give back and show people they can be fit, at any age and from any background. Not skinny, not thin, but fit and confident. Powerful in their own right. 

My profession though, isn't about me. It's not about what I want or my journey. It's about what you need and your own journey. I need to know your questions and concerns. I need to know your struggles. I need to know what it is you want and need, from me. So, I am going to create an additional blog where I will be posting blog questions and concerns, ideas, musings and wonderings about what you all need and expect from a personal trainer. Whether you are looking to lose weight and feel better or are already an athlete and want to boost your performance in particular areas, I'll be there for it all.

Who has two thumbs and a sexy accent?

This guy!

 

AJ has a Texas accent and I LOVE it. This morning he woke up late for work and whenever he is stressed or talks fast, his accent really comes out. Poor AJ, while he was scrambling to get his PT clothes and gear located and get out the door, I was zoned listening to his accent. It's amazing how romantic, "Sh**, where is my PT belt?" and "Did you hear my alarm go off?" sound with a good southern drawl added to it. His accent rendered me useless this morning. I have always loved accents and this prompted my google image search on accents today.. Here are a few things I found...

This Graph Shows "the Sexiest Accents in the World" by Country

This was created off of a facebook poll, and although not very scientific, I thought it was kind of fun. You can see where this info came from here. 

These two gentlemen, I would agree, never get old. 

Then these two comics cracked me up! Hope they make you smile too!

So there you have it. My husband's ridiculously sexy Texas accent this morning, spurns smiles the world round.