Happy Birthday to Me...and April!

So for the past four or five years I have been away from my family on my birthday. With being in Iowa this year I was absolutely thrilled when Scott planned a birthday dinner with many of my family members. You ever have those times when you are experiencing something and the entire time you are there you are overwhelmed with happiness, and don't want it to end...well this was my birthday night! Brooke, James, April, Isiah, Drew, Beth, Scott and I all met at Graze in Iowa City and had a great few hours of feasting on amazing food, gift openings, cake eating, and awesome family time! Thank you family for making this birthday so special!

NFL Lockout

Here are a few links for those of you who are wondering what this NFL lockout is and isn't. Just to clarify, the players ARE NOT asking for more money. Check out this link to get a quick idea of what this is all about.

http://www.nfllockout.com/

Here is a great article by Rick Reilly that I wanted to share with anyone who might be interested.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=6177574

Starting Over

Yes I am officially the absolute worst blogger! It has been almost a lifetime since I last blogged. I blame a few moves, finding out I was pregnant! Yes we moved out of our rental in Texas and bought our dream house in Iowa. We are practically all moved in and are loving the space, yard, and having all of our stuff finally out of storage.

Our other big news is I am pregnant again. I am 17 weeks along and finally feeling good again. I was pretty sick again with this pregnancy but alas the morning sickness is almost non-existent. We found out this weekend that we are having another girl. I am just gitty inside knowing that Lyla will have a sister close in age. Bring on more hair bows, dresses, and SHOES!

Some of you may have been wondering what our plan is with the lockout going on. We basically just sit and wait. We are planning on staying here until things get resolved. I am due in August so I will have the baby in Iowa City and hopefully Scott will be in training camp out in New York. Lord willing if camp goes well, we will move out to Buffalo once the regular season starts up. This is a short blog and definitely to the point. I promise I will try and be better about blogging in the future. Thank you to our Texas and Iowa families for being so helpful and supportive during this past move. We truly can not thank you enough for all that you do to help us out. We love you all so very very much!

BAD BLOGGER I KNOW!

Ok so I sort of have an excuse as to why I haven't been blogging this past month...life has been a little crazy. I will try and do a recap of the last month or two so that I can get all caught up.

I forgot how fast time flies when Scott is on an active roster. Weekends are consumed with football and the weeks just fly by. Scott had been playing a lot of special teams the past month and a half, and was doing a wonderful job. We had the joy of getting to see our awesome friend Gonzo over Thanksgiving break while he was back from Arizona. We had a great Thanksgiving weekend at the Ranch with Bryan, Linda, Caitlin, Christe, Nathan, Creighton, Carson, Grammy, and Ginger. The ranch is such a special place and it is always so nice to get away from all the hustle and bustle and just relax. This was also the place where I got engaged, so extra special in my eyes. After Thanksgiving we went back into our routine and I was getting ready to fly to Indiana for the Cowboys/Colts game. That morning Scott called and told me he had been released by the Cowboys. Ok this has happened before but this time I WAS SHOCKED. Scott was playing, and he was doing good. What happened was the Buffalo Bills wanted to claim a TE off of the Cowboys practice squad. Dallas didn't want to give him up to Buffalo so they cut Scott to make a roster spot for this other TE, with the intentions of signing Scott back to their practice squad 24 hours later, and possibly their active roster. Well the Lord he is so good and he truly truly provides for us. I flew out to Indiana as planned and got a call while I was there from Scott saying Buffalo wanted him. I was shocked. Buffalo was always the team that we really didn't want to play for because it is freezing cold there with TONS of snow. I wasn't sure how I felt about this because life was so simple in TX. We had church, friends, family close by, warmer weather, and a beautiful rental house. About an hour later Scott called back with the news that we were now Buffalo Bills and that he was flying out that night. You would think by now I would be used to this lifestyle right...I mean come on 4th team in 18 months. For the most part I was pretty chill about the whole thing. Yes it does get easier. We know that this lifestyle is special and that it won't be here forever so we need to just enjoy the ride as long as we can.

After meeting with the GM and coaches Scott was really excited about the possibility of him getting a lot of playing time. This made me feel a lot better as well. So I packed my suitcases and Lyla and I flew back to Texas, grabbed some more stuff, and then hopped on a plane to Buffalo. Scott didn't play his first week in Buffalo because he had only been there a few days but Lyla and I were lucky enough to see him play in Buffalo this past weekend. It was so much fun seeing him on the field so much. It felt like college all over again. I forgot how nervous and excited I get when watching him play. I missed having my Cowboys wives at the game with me but I am confident that I will meet some nice ladies out here.

All in all Buffalo has been WONDERFUL! It feels so much like Iowa out here with the cold, snow, the friendly people. The stadium is in the middle of a residential area! The atmosphere felt like a college game. I am so anxious to see what the Lord has planned for us out here.

In the mean time as I type this, Lyla and I will be out in Buffalo until the 23rd, and then we will be flying back to Iowa until the season is over. Once the season is finished we will go back down to Texas, tie up some loose ends, and then move back to Iowa during the off season. Because of this pending NFL lock out it could be a very long off season. As much as I am enjoying the thought of being back in Iowa for a while, I really hope this mess gets straightened out so that we can be employed next year!

Thank you again to our friends and family for all of the support these past few weeks. We so needed it!

Happy Halloween

The Chandlers had the pleasure of experiencing Halloween three times in the past few weeks. We started out the festivities with a fair at Countryside Bible Church. Then a couple of nights later we went to Nate and Christe's annual kids Halloween party. We then capped it all of with a little "trunk or treat" in downtown Grapevine on Halloween. Now if only I would have had a trick or treating...we are going to be eating hot tamales and mike n ikes until December!