Sleeping

I, like most people, enjoy my sleep!  I might require more than others but just the same, I enjoy it!! 

Let me tell y'all a little bit about my way of sleeping,,,,,no, this isn't about to get personal!  I have what is called sleep apnea.  The short of what that means..........I stop breathing throughout the night so I have a CPAP machine I wear at night to help me STOP doing this and get a better nights sleep.  So, if you can, imagine this is me instead of this lovely lady in the picture and this is what I wear to bed every night.

The only difference is mine is pink. I have to be able to "girly" it up a little bit!

Next, I have a teeth grinding issues, this might be due to the amount of stress I have in my life, but I digress.  So along with this LOVELY head piece, I also wear a mouth guard that you can't really see but it makes me talk kind of funny. At least it helps me from grinding my teeth off to little numbs I guess! 

If anyone breaks into our house y'all they are going to get WAY more than they bargained for with me looking the way I do when I sleep!!

And the next piece of information I am going to share with you, might come as a shock to most but,,,,,,,,,,I am here to share so here it goes.  I, Mama Nellie, Sleep with a stuffed animal.  Yes, I am thirty something years old and I sleep with a stuffed animal.  No, I don't take it places with me when we spend the night, it stays at home.  It is a stuffed piglet and he sleeps with me every night at home.  I think it is just a comfort thing....I don't really know!  Don't judge me!  I am sure there are PLENTY of people out there who have something, maybe not a stuffed animal, but something they sleep with at night that helps them sleep. Anyway, he sleeps close to my face most of the time until he falls of the bed that is.  

Okay, know onto the topic at hand.  The reason for my post today is I would like to thank the good officers at DM PD for doing an excellent job of helping me with my "situation" on Saturday night!

For about a month now there seems to be an after party that has moved into our neighborhood around 2:30 A.M. EVERY Saturday night and wakes me up out of a DEAD sleep.  Know when I say dead sleep I mean DEAD sleep.  When I have my CPAP on, mouth guard in, and piglet by my face,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,it takes A LOT to wake me up!!!  But I can ALWAYS tell when it is 2:30 on Saturday nights these days!!

So when the time came this past weekend, after being sick with strep throat and not feeling well still, I decided to take matters into my own hands!  I looked out the window to asses the situation.  When I did, all I saw were cars lined on both sides of the street all the way down the block and GROVES of people in the middle of the street!  It was like Mardi Gras had come to our neighborhood!

There was an SUV parked right in front of my house FULL of people screaming at each other but from what I could tell they were just talking, yelling to try to talk over each other.  All smoking and drinking and having a good old time y'all!  Now, I used to KNOW how to have a good time,,,,,,,,,,,,but when I have a baby in my house sleeping and they are about to wake him up!!!!!!!!!  This is NOT going to end well for someone!

So I called the police and within about 10 minutes or less all it took was ONE squad car to drive down the street and I have never heard so many car doors shut, engines start up, an crickets chirp all at once in my whole life!  It was the sweetest sound on earth!!!

And the best part,,,,,,,,,,,,,,B slept through the whole thing!!!

B and I snuggling on Sunday.  I LOVE these days!

Football Player.............YES I AM!!

So as some of you might know, I got the chance to do not only something for an AMAZING cause but also something FUN for myself too!  On Saturday I went to Iowa City for the Iowa Ladies Football Academy.

What is this, you ask? Well, first off it is a GREAT fundraiser for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital.  They are building a NEW hospital set to be completed by March of 2016.  Kirk and Mary Ferentz are HUGE supporters of the hospital and the players try to go over and visit the kids as much as they can. 

So three years ago Mary started the Iowa Ladies Football Academy.  It is for Ladies only and it is a day all men can be jealous of!!!  If you are a football fan of any kind and especially a HAWKEYE fan this is the thing for you, Ladies!!! 

This year there were 225 ladies that took part and we raised a combined total of $230,523.00!!!  This makes a total of $717,523.00 raised for the three years they have had the academy going!!!  Their goal was to make $1 million in 5 years.............I think they will make it next year!!!

I decided last year at one of the football games, I was doing it!  It cost $50 to register and you have to raise a minimum of $500 to be able to participate the day of the event. I set my goal high but I wanted to win the prize of the most raised................they have some pretty great prices!!!  But for my first year, I didn't make my goal but I didn't pretty well, I thought.  I didn't have as much time to raise money as I thought I would.  I am going to start WAY earlier next year and try to raise all year long. 

I headed over the night before and stayed in a hotel just so I didn't have to get up as early and worry about traffic and all that stuff.  I had a nice dinner and then just relaxed in the room and read my book.  I don't get to do that very often so I took full advantage of it!

The next morning, it was "Game Day!"  We had to check in at 11 a.m. and bring all the money we had raised.   My phone was my camera for the day and wouldn't you know, it was all but dead!  So I tried to leave it charging in the car as long as I could to get the most battery I could. (If you are a long time blog reader, do you sense a pattern with the cell phone battery being dead......just sayin!)

Anyway, y'all this was very out of the box for me! I didn't know ONE PERSON there and I don't usually do things like this.  But, I jumped in with both feet and I am SO glad I did!!!  Walking into the new indoor practice facility, I met a wonderful young lady and we hit it off instantly!! She was a first timer as well and didn't know anyone either!! PERFECT!!  So we headed in and checked in for the day!!  While in line, we met another super sweet lady who was a first timer and all alone so we quickly became a group!!  Then within minutes we had two more first timers and loners and we became the Pink Ladies!!!  (More about that in a little bit!)

 

Inside the Practice Facility

We started by checking in and handing in our money. Then we headed over and got our back pack, t-shirt, and bag tag.  Inside our back pack had a Hawkeye towel, bug spray, rain poncho, Coach Ferentz game day gum and some other little goodies.  So we change our shirts to the "practice gear" and head to the weight room!

The Pink Ladies: Teresa, Abby, Me, Ashley, and Kelley

 

 In the weight room we got to take pictures with some of the players and check out their daily routine.  I would LOVE to have 1/4 of the machines and weights they have at my disposal!!!  But then again, I am not a football player so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I guess they need those things more than I do!!  LOL

On to the bus just like the players do on game day!! We took a charter bus from the weight room area over to Kinnick for the Hawk Walk!!  That was pretty sweet!!!  We even got to rub Nile Kinnick's helmet just like the boys do!!!

Into the locker room for the pre-game talk.................well kind of!!  Their locker room is SWEET!!!

We went from here to the tunnel and onto the field!!!!  I cannot even put into words what this was like!!!  It was pure amazement!!!  They had different stations set up on the field for us to do.  We got to try tackling, punting, kicking, passing, we even got to try on the uniform.  Helmet and all!!!

Let's see your Game Face!

Now for the best part of the day!!!  Meeting Coach Ferentz!  I have met him before and he remembered it!! Him and his wife Mary came to Des Moines for a walk around the Capital area for a Healthy Iowa thing.  Mary even held B!!!  She remembered that!!  SO COOL!!!

One of the NICEST guys in the world!!

We grabbed some lunch and took a short break.  Then we got to watch the dance team perform a little bit and the Honorary Captains perform with them.  They are triplets that were 3 months premature and stayed at the U of I hospital for a while.  They were VERY CUTE!!!  The players even showed some moves............yes even the white boys!!! LOL

Then to finish the afternoon we got put into groups by our wrist bands.  This is where the Pink Ladies comes into play...............we all 5 "conveniently" had pink wrist bands.......SO we got to be in the same group!!!!  We had a BLAST!!!!  We spend all day together already and got to do drills together too!!! 

Drills were great! We learned what Tight Ends, Linebackers, Defensive Ends, Special Teams, Quarterbacks, Defensive Backs, Running Backs, and there were two more but for the life of me I can't remember them!  We got to see the coaches in action and throw the ball around with the players, it was GREAT!!

Once we were all finished it was PRIZES time!!!  The top money raisers got prizes and then they had three raffle prizes they gave away. On of our Pink Ladies did win for raising money!! Way to go Abby! I didn't win anything but just getting to be there for the day............was PRICELESS for me!!!  I was even quoted in this Hawkeye Sports article!! For more pictures from the day check out my facebook page under Photos Album Ladies Football Academy.

I will for sure be back next year and this was right up there with one of the TOP THREE OR FOUR things I have ever done!!!!  And my daddy and hubby are both pretty damn jealous!!!

Piece and Chicken Grease Y'all!!!!  GO HAWKS!

18 Months Old!!

I can NOT even believe it that my baby boy is 18 months old today!! It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital and now he is in the big boy room at school and being sassy at home to his mama!!  I wouldn't have it any other way! Well maybe the snuggling at night, I do miss that, but otherwise, I love watching him grow right before our eyes!

It was a very laid back weekend, well as laid back as it can be for Mama Nellie's house, and that is just fine with me!  Saturday started with working down at Farmers Market where the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!!  It was very busy but I LOVE it that way!  Can't wait for the next time I get to work down there.  It won't be this weekend as I have an AMAZING opportunity to be in Iowa City this Saturday.  (More to come on that later!)

Saturday afternoon we just all hung out and watched some movies and played outside a little bit.  It was very relaxing after a busy morning for me.  Then Sunday Mama went and got a mani/pedi and I LOVE my time of doing this! I don't really spend much money on myself but this is one thing that I really enjoy doing and I try to do it at least once a month.  I ALWAYS have my toes painted but my fingernails I don't care as much about.  But this time I just wanted to really pamper myself so I went all out.  I just needed some me time! :)

My lovely Pedi after a great foot massage!

This week is going to be CRAZY busy for all of us!!!  Tomorrow morning B has and ENT checkup since he is STILL getting ear infections and his tubs are starting to come out already.  So we are going to see what our next step is with that.  Then as soon as I get off work we are making a FAST trip to Omaha to the airport to meet my AWESOME brother in law who is coming back from being deployed for a year with the Army!  It will be great to see him after being gone for so long!!

We are getting a hotel room in Council Bluffs tomorrow night and then taking B to the Omaha Children's Museum to see how he likes that!  I am sure he will be have PLENTY to see and play with there!  I can't wait to see his little brain turn trying to figure it all out! :)

I decided to wear my hair El'Natural today and this is how it looks.......well with a little product in it of course! :)

I would also like to tell y'all about an AWESOME road race that my friend is doing on September 28th!!! It is called The Brew Mile and it is just a mile run and you can either Run, Jog, or Walk and it is going to be a BLAST!!!!  It is going on at the same time as Oktoberfest in Des Moines and if you win in your division, you win your weight in beer!!!!!!!!!  Does it get any better than that!?!?!?!?!?!  I DON'T THINK SO!!!!  Let me know if you have any questions or check out their SWEET web site!!!  I really think it will be a great annual event!! I am already trying to find a GREAT costume to run in!!  Anyone want to run on my team?!?!?!

Piece and Chicken Grease Y'all!! I will have PLENTY of pictures of the home coming for y'all after tomorrow night!!