Baby Bump Pics

I know! I know!! I have been saying that I would post baby bump pics my entire pregnancy! Sorry for the procrastination on this one considering baby Weber will be here in a matter of weeks:) I haven't done a really great job at remembering to take pics or post them, so all these are courtesy of either Tristan or my mom. Enjoy...

Snow Day

As a teacher, it is nice to still have the schedule of children in school. I get to have Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, and spring break. But one of the greatest times both as a student and teacher is getting to have those unexpected days off. Today was one of those days. Due to the amount of snow Dallas received Thursday my school had planned on opening at 10 am on Friday, but as the snow continued to fall Thursday night, the plans changed. We got the whole day off, and man was it a nice break. It ended up snowing more in Dallas Thursday, February 11, than it ever has. DFW airport recorded 12.5" and most of Dallas had between 10" and 13". Pretty amazing to see a white blanket across our world. Here are some pictures...Enjoy.

HP 9th Baseball

If you're interested in coming to any of the HP Freshman Baseball games this spring, click here to see game times and locations.

About 6 Weeks Left

Pretty amazing that Denisa is now 33 weeks along in her pregnancy. In a few more short weeks, our baby will be out in the world! It seems like just yesterday when we first found out that we were going to have a baby, and here we sit with just a couple of weeks before our family officially goes from 2 people to 3.
We had our first baby shower last weekend and were overwhelmed by how much people have done for us. We are certainly blessed to have such amazing friends and family to love, support, and bless our child even before it is born.
I'm sure you noticed that we are still calling our baby "it" because we don't know what it will be until it is born. Any guesses? I'm constantly wondering, but lately, have not been able to really firm up our opinions on the gender. A couple of weeks ago I had a dream that it was a boy, but just a few days ago I dreamt it was a girl. Not really sure what to think about that, but I do know that I love that baby so much already. It's pretty amazing.

Finished...Finally!

Well, it seems that the formal education part of our lives is closing. Denisa finished chiropractic school this August and is now practicing near downtown, and I wrote the last paper of my master's degree this week. It's weird to think that in the almost 6 years that Denisa and I have been married one or both of us has been in school for all but a few months. When we first got married, both of us were working on our undergrad. After we both finished that Denisa started chiropractic school, and once I started coaching at HP, I started my masters. That's a lot of time, effort, and money that has gone towards little pieces of paper that now hang in our place and in D's practice. Thanks to all who has supported us through this process.

Bittersweet

The job that I enjoy so much is such a fickle profession. Whether or not we win a game on any given Friday night is determined on how well a bunch of 15-18 year olds play. Not that coaching has nothing to do with the outcome, but often times, the team with the better athletes will win the game. Now, I don't say all this to give up an excuse as to why the team that I coach lost last week. In fact, I'm not really sure why I felt the need to say that because our loss last Friday was a team effort. All parts of the team (coaches and players alike) felt that we had a superior game plan than our opponents; however, we were not able to successfully execute that plan and lost.
With that being said, let me talk briefly about the title of this post and why I named it "Bittersweet." The loss is both bitter and sweet; hence the word. It is obviously bitter because of the way we lost and that we felt we were the better team with a better game plan, but how can this event have a sweet part? Well, there are actually several ways:
1) Having been a part of high school football as a player who lost in the state championship game my senior year by 3 points to a team I, to this day, feel that we should have beaten, I understand the lessons that can be learned by losing a game in that manner. I will forever understand what it means to be gracious in defeat and how to overcome obstacles that feel like will impact my life negatively for a long time.
2) It is no illusion to any of you that know my wife and I, or that know any coach and their spouse for that matter, the amount of time that coaches spend away from their families game planning, practicing, at games, and watching film. The time commitment is large and sacrifice is great for these families. This is why I am so grateful to my wonderful wife who is so supportive of the path I have chosen. I spend much time away from her from August until the end of the season; so now that the season is complete, I get to see her much more often. This is also special because the extra time spent will be the last time we ever get to spend together with just the two of us. Come late February or early March, there will be a permanent addition to the Weber family!