Snapshot of right now

I had no idea that when Danny and I got married last summer we were also secretly initiated into the "you are now eligible to receive family Christmas cards" club. Go figure. One after the other we received the most beautiful Christmas cards this year from both friends and family alike, some of whom we hadn't spoken to in years.

Some cards were from our happily childless couple friends, many of whom are newlyweds, but most cards had family photos on the front of them, complete with newborn babies and family dogs. And, of course, the ones with photos on them were almost always accompanied by detailed paragraphs outlining what the family had been up to since the previous Christmas. In a nutshell, Danny and I feel pretty honored to be surrounded by so many future soccer hall-of-famers, pint-sized Picassos and of course, plain and simply, little genius children.

We had so much fun flipping through the Christmas cards and playing catch-up with good friends that we'd somehow lost touch with. It was as if the little paragraphs in them adequately replaced the need for long-lost-friend dinner dates. You know, the ones you schedule and rescheduled about a hundred times over the course of a year because when they get close you get nervous that you'll have nothing to talk about. They're the same ones that generally require a glass of wine to loosen you up a bit before you meet for dinner. We couldn't help but conclude that the convenience of the Christmas card was truly brilliant, and we were enjoying every bit of our speed dinner-dating until we found ourselves cringing through some of the paragraphs. As we flipped through the pile of cards that we'd gotten from the friends that we've made through Danny's NFL career, there was one staggering constant that seemed to hit home like a ton of bricks. Change.

Change, sudden and constant change at that, was the common denominator in every single Christmas card that we'd gotten from Danny's old teammates, coaches and their families. And it was, quite frankly, a reality that we knew all too well with our 4 teams in 4 seasons history. Card after card, in the upbeat and optimistic foreign language of NFL-speak (one we're learning quite quickly), we read about our dear friends being traded, being released, moving, getting injured, exploring alternate professions, being signed, moving, getting injured again, moving again, and getting released again. New states, new cities, new homes, new climates, new schools, new friends, new co-workers, new jobs. And although they weren't written on the page in legible ink we undoubtedly read about the hellos, goodbyes, see you laters, good riddances, and how could yous. It was exhausting.
So as the first real entry of my blog, I've decided write my version of what our Fells Christmas card would look like today. A snapshot of our "right now" if you will. Because tomorrow could be another story.

Happy 2010 Everyone! This last year has gone by like a whirlwind but we're still chugging along! We got engaged last April and married in June, and by now you know that no, I wasn't pregnant, we just didn't need a long engagement. Seven years was a long enough time for us to figure out that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. After being in four weddings over the course of 9 months I was somewhat wedding-ed out, so we decided to just have a couple of intimate celebrations with family and call it a day. Married life has been pretty phenomenal. Although Danny swears that not a single thing has changed other than the piece of paper that now bonds us, I secretly think that little paper makes him love me just a tiny bit more than before. I'm still not used to calling him my husband and I think I'll forever turn around and look for his mom whenever someone calls me Mrs. Fells.
Three long years after getting my masters degree in Writing I'm finally publishing my debut novel, "Drowning in the Mainstream: Confessions of a Sister." I often describe it to friends as a girly, young adult novel about sisterhood and sorority-stuff and then follow-up with the phrases "No, you're not in it. A novel is fiction," and "Yes, I agree, it would be awesome to be on Oprah one day." I've been lucky enough to have a career that I can do anywhere because Danny's has pretty much taken us all over the U.S. Danny's currently a tight end for the St. Louis Rams. He had somewhat of a breakout year in 2009, scoring one-third of the team's touchdowns last year and making it onto the pro bowl ballot as a second-stringer. A pretty hard feat on a 1-16 team. But don't you worry, Superbowl 2011 here we come! (That's an example the optomistic NFL-speak I wrote about above)
So since it's offseason, we're spending our time at our duplex in San Mateo. Yup, I said duplex. My sister and her husband are our neighbors (we share a wall) and yes, our life is pretty similar to most episodes of Friends. Danny is almost fully recovered from a knee injury he sustained at the end of the season (on a cheap shot I might add) and we'll be heading back to St. Louis once Off Season Training starts up in March. I'm not excited to leave California again but I do terribly miss the girlfriends that I made in St. Louis this last year. My life as an NFL wife is both everything that most people think it is and nothing like anyone could ever imagine it to be. In a nutshell, while most people spend their Sundays vegging and bracing themselves for a busy work week, I spend most of mine taking deep short breaths, the kind that vibrate in the back of your throat when you're nervous, and praying for the physical safety of the man that I love. Praying for the physical safety of the man that I love. It's like that MTV phrase that everyone used to use as their IM status update in college, "You think you know, but you have no idea."