My beloved Pitcher

So the season has started, the Salem Red Sox are 13 games down and Brew has pitched in 7.2 innings as a reliever. His first game was a rough start, naturally as an actual game in ages and the first time with a new team, new field, etc I'm sure was nerve wrecking! He hit a few guys and well you know how that goes, they get walked. Bummer. Since then though, he has done great.

After the game I asked him if he asked if the guys were okay. He said they don't do that! Didn't you learn in Kindergarten to say sorry and ask if someone you hurt is okay? I guess not. Baseball boys!

Every night I rush home to listen Evan Lepler, "The voice of the Salem Red Sox" and his play by plays of the game. Its hard when I don't know when Brew is going to pitch and I never want to miss it. I used to be able to always watch the home games, but they don't offer that there. (Hint hint). I usually get home by the 5th ish inning if I am lucky. Usually though its JUST in time to tune in. The poor kids get a lot of "shhhhh" when he is on the mound. But they like listening to! Although lately I really need to try to not listen every night. I don't get anything done. Luckily, tonight's Friday and I know he wont pitch tonight since he did last night..so ill just check a few tweets to get score updates.

A few quotes about my man so far....

"Ruben Flores spun a perfect eighth inning for the Sox"

Then the Salem Red Sox had their first Shutout of the season!! "Ruben Flores slammed the door shut in Salem's dominating 5-0 victory over Lynchburg on Monday night at LewisGale Field" "He emerged and retired six of the seven batters he faced to complete the evening. He hit a batter with two outs in the eighth, but struck out the final two batters of the game."

Then last night, #PitchDay, he "an inherited runner scored, Flores held the Nationals offense at bay over the final inning and two-thirds"

Between you and me, I think inheriting a runner is unpleasant for both pitchers! In this situation he came into the inning after it started and there was already a runner on first and third base. So he really was in a no win situation. Nevertheless, he did a great job!

So far as of today, he has given up 3 runs in 7.2 innings, 10 strikeouts, with an ERA of 3.52.

Oh and he is number 28! He called me when he got there and had a few to choose from still. We went with 28! He turns 28 this year in May so I thought it would be a lucky number, lucky year PLUS its one of my Absolute always numbers to bet on in Roulette! ( I dabble...) So that alone was a no brainer!

This is his field before the Home Opener! So green!

So early in the season. Miss my husband but excited for the rest of the season!

Proud Wifey!

We have been married for 2 months today! Horray!!

Warning!! Photo Overload!! =) <3

Our Wedding day! Two months have past today. Seems like it was ages ago but when I look at the pictures it feels like yesterday. Yup, two whole months, of being the "Newlyweds"! Wow...isn't quite how I thought this "stage" would be. I find this silly since we have been together for so many years, but whatever ill roll with it. Still...isn't what I thought about when I was a little girl and spending all this time with my husband! Instead we are 2000 and some odd miles apart, Scottsdale and Salem, Virgina. Trying to find the time to text, talk, Skype and hopefully visit. Between the kids, work and school and his crazy baseball schedule which leaves little time for Wifey!

I contemplated traveling with him this summer, after the kids get out of school, but the fact of the matter is we have reality and I have a great career I love (most days) and feel great to work and have independence. So much that I'm sure he wishes I would depend on him more. Whatever. Unfortunately, we have insane amount of expenses with two brand new cars, child care, bills, etc that we just couldn't justify it, although I would have eaten ramen every day with him just to be with him this summer. It would just lengthen our time further down from building our dream home and having another baby. So I stayed home, working way too much and enjoying this "Newlywed" life!

Today makes me feel happy! I reflected alot last night while Skyping with him (after bawling my eyes out not realizing how much I really MISS him until I see him and cant touch him) on the amazing and sometimes very tough journey we have been on together and how amazing our wedding day was. In my eyes, (that's all that matters anyway) it was MAGICAL! So this is my "Newlywed" post since I cant be with him. I'm allowed that!

We got married on a BEAUTIFUL Saturday night on February 18th, 2012. After 9 months of planning which most I did alone while he played ball, however, I must say he was heavily involved surprisingly, I married my best friend! Planning this was stressfull at first considering when we set the date he still had no offer from a team yet and we had no idea when he would leave. So needless to say, we took a risk.

I looked with my mom forever for a venue and when we stepped foot at Sassi, my breath was literally taken away. With the help of a DVD they gave me I sent it off to my then fiance and he loved it too! My parents were utterly supportive, involved and AMAZING during the whole process of planning. My mom and Maid of honor were my planning sidekicks and literally were there every step. Sassi is very rustic, old world, huge beautiful doors, iron, candelabras, etc. You name it plus the STUNNING views of the Scottsdale Mountains and the Boulders. To die for! Ruben and I knew we loved, not sure why, but loved a soft lime and black look. It turned out amazing and I'm so glad we stuck with it!

Of course, naturally I wanted to incorporate baseball in very small tasteful ways as to to over do it and have a cheesy effect. We did, after all, meet while he was playing baseball ( I was NOT a cleat chaser) I didn't even ever go to a spring training game in my LIFE until I met him. Our life as been revolved around it and lets face it, its something my husband loves and we shared many places and experiences together with this sport. My mom had this amazing baseball cake and glove made for his Grooms cake, we had table names from "The Bullpen", "The Pitchers Mound", "The Dugout", "The Mariners" (that's who he played for when we met) and the rest were other un related baseball names that were about us. My mom went all crazy and bought baseball silly bands, tattoos, sunflower seeds, old baseball cards, gum, cracker jacks, etc. You name it! We filled them for fun in jars and on his grooms cake table. So fun! The adults loved it more than the kids. Of course naturally, most of the groomsmen were ball players he has known forever and has remained very close with. Which is hard to do when they are always been moved around. Aside from this, baseball related items ended there!

After it was invaded

My cake, was to match my dress! Pearls pearls pearls! Loved it! The cake people did an amazing job. We had tall and short centerpieces. They were green and white Hydrangea with tall iron candelabras and hanging crystals. Others were smaller with ribbon. Each guest had a black box with a green ribbon with Custom green and black M&Ms which my mom (I told you she got really into our special day) had our faces made on them with sayings like "At last"! So cute!

We also hired a photo booth which was SO much fun. I could have stayed in there all night! I know our guest loved it and our photo booth guest book is something so neat to look back on! In addition, my fav, we also hired a Cappuccino company to come out the last few hours and make gourmet coffee drinks! So yummy..although I had one only at the end. Bummer!

Our cocktail hour had a Mariachi band and custom Margaritas which were SO amazing. I still need to ask for the recipe!

Our guitarist sang Marry me as the wedding party went down the asile. 6 Bridesmaids, 6 Groomsmen, 1 Junior Bridemaid, 2 flower girls and 1 sign holder! Tears!  Instead of a sand or candle cereomny, we did what I naturally would do..a wine ceremony! Score! We had some laughs during this.

The Kids table named 'Disneyland" activity books.

We wrote our own Vows. Mine were so long and I started to cry so much, I got through half . I dont knwo how brides do it. Makeup ruined! He loved them so much he now has a part of them tattooed on his whole forearm which he sees as a reminder of how much I love and support him every time he pitches.

Letting  the girls have a bit of the ball I threw in Brews face!

I had the best night of my life! It seems like it flew by, but it was amazing. I could not have asked for more from my parents or Brew and his hard work during the off season to help! I am so glad to be Mrs. Flores. Now if I can get my mom to throw such a bangin vow renewal every year! Ha ha!

Maybe I should sleep in it tonight!

The girls being silly in the Photo booth!

Our Special moment without seeing one another before the wedding.

My Handsome Mr.



Parts of Vows. He picked parts he wanted. <3

The end! Now maybe next time someone can teach me how to make a slideshow!

We'd like somewhere to live, no lease, furnished, etc!

Once we were set in Salem, VA mode and knew where the heck Brew would be living the next 5 months, my job the two days before he arrived was to find him an apartment. So, I started to call all the numbers the Red Sox gave us for living situations. FAIL! They all either needed a very secure long lease or were ridiculously priced. After about 200 phone calls, I needed to gather my info, so I made an excel spreadsheet of the name, distance to field, furnished or not, price, # of rooms, lease term, deposits, etc. Much easier now! I called several extended stays, but the problem with those are when you keep checking in and out, they cant secure a room for you. Not to mention most seemed shady. Its kind of ridiculous when you think that these guys are on the road on hotels for half the month, so only need somewhere to live 12-15 days a month. When you have to pay for furniture, utilities, rent, etc. Lame! No host families are in Salem, VA which is crazy to me since AA and AAA have host families. I guess it just varies town to town. Several wives who were in Salem in the past tried to help me as much as they could and gave me people they knew to call. Very helpful group of ladies!! I heard all types of great things about Salem which made me feel much better about the unknown.

I found an apartment in Roanoke which was about $1,600 furnished with Utilities (some) but they needed a 5 month firm lease. Grrrrr! I should know better being in this business. Just thought we were an exception! =) Thankfully, Brew found two guys who also still needed an apartment. So we went with the deal! Three bedroom, so they each get their own room, fully furnished, utilities but no cable or internet for $1,600. Thats about $530 each plus I set them up cable and internet for about $100 on top of that. Much better deal than an extended stay and I feel better knowing he can feel somewhat "settled" for the next 5 months while he is away from his home.

After his 17 hour drive from Ft Meyers, The guys are now all moved in! The apartment looks spacious and great for them. Although a few cleaning issues they are getting sorted out but all in all, I can breathe knowing one more thing is off the list to make this a smooth season! The only sucky part is we do have a 5 month lease, so during the season if something happens to one of the guys, and gets moved or whatever may happen the other two are fully responsible. Oh well! You take what you can get!

How Spring training ended

I have been SO swamped with the girls, work and finding Brew an apartment . I finally have a few moments to reflect on the end of Spring training events. Phew! First off, ST FLEW by! Does it feel like that for anyone else? Seriously it came and went. I secretly hope the Season goes by just as fast, although I know Brew is doing what he loves. A girl can hope!

The last few days of ST were very stressfull. Im a detailed planner by nature. Excel spreadsheets and all. So not being able to find him an apartment or who he was going to live with, if any was stressing me out. The guys would go in every morning those last few days, look at the rosters and see if any changes were made. Every morning, super early since Im still 3 hours behind, id wait for his text for the news. Same roster. Phew! In the meantime, he backed up 4 big league games, although never ended up pitching. So that was positive news. At least in my mind, got his name out there. Two days before he was set to leave with everyone else, I woke up to a very unhappy husbands text....Of course I woke up three hours earlier than normal since I couldnt sleep now at that point. Had very little info, as by that time, he was on the field. The worst feeling is when your husband is 100% unavailable and you know he needs you and you cant even help or reply or talk about it for HOURS! I felt so helpless. When we finally did talk, they moved several other guys down, trickle effect again, and many more got released. In doing this, he was moved down to the High A Roster. The last day....after doing so well in ST. To make matters worse, they held him back two days after that to back up the big league games again. Salt to the wound much! So while all the other guys were arriving, he was not sure who he would live with or where. See, the team pays for a hotel for 3 days max once players arrive. So they have that time, and that time only to find somewhere to live. While everyone else, aside from a very small handful was already doing this, he was delayed a few days until he was done with the games, and drove the 17 hours there. Oh and I had no idea where high A was. We never even thought it was an option, so we never looked...Salem, VA. Salem, VA? Where the heck is that?!! Im sure Southwest Airlines doesn not fly there!!!!

So that entire day and that day only, I knew my husband was hurting, mad, angry, etc. And that made me hurt. I cried for him...hard. I felt so helpless. But with the help of my baseball wives and my family...by the end of the day, I called him and said ,"Listen, this is it, it is what it is, your a great player, a great guy, and we dont need a roster to tell you that. I understand your angry, mad and confused, and your allowed that, but you have got to arrive there with a positive attitude and your game on. You can't go there worrying about where your at, how you got there or when your moving up or the next level. " I explained to him, he needs  to just go and we need to be thankful he still broke camp with a team, any team which gives hope. Hope is all we need, and a little faith that this is Gods plan.  I told him to just play like he did last year, for his love of the game and thats it. So by the next morning, we dried up the tears, and moved on. This was a new team, a new organization and a new, exciting Journey.

Here we come Salem, Virgina! Home of the Salem Red Sox!

A Spring training Visit & Some Ramblin'

            So for my Birthday I got to visit my Hubs in Ft Meyers for Spring training. (Wish he was still in Phx at home like usual for ST...eventually ill get over that). Anyway, So my red eye flight at 1240 am was thrilling with absolutely NO sleep and uncomfortable seats. I flew Delta on the way due to scheduling. I despise Delta and usually only fly SWA. I arrive at 11:30 am and the hotel shuttle comes and gets me so I can go to hotel to freshen up after my overnight flight. Brew was pitching that day and I was already late. I finally arrived when he was already on the mound in his 2nd inning. It was SO hard to not see my husband for almost a month and just sit there and watch him eagerly waiting until he was done! I watched him the next inning and a half and he did a great job! At last I get to hug him!! What a great feeling!

               The next few days are so eventful, Wake up at 6:30 am, take Brew to the field a mile away, go back to hotel, do some work on my laptop, sleep, go to pool, go back and pick him up around 3pm. One day I made him drive himself, the one day I actually wanted to drive somewhere. Dumb idea. He is on a 5 day starting rotation, so he only pitched for me that first day. Bummer!! I just love seeing him on the mound. He looks so tough and in control. <3. One of the days, he was asked to go on the road with the Big league team to back up. It was an away game in Sarasota. I was pretty much alone from 7:00 am - 6:00 pm. So exciting! I downloaded The Hunger games since all my twitter friends kept hyping it up and starting reading, and reading and reading.

                Every afternoon and night we went to the beach, dinner and just spent as much time as we could together. Naturally I was wanting to stay up so late since I practically did nothing all day and the poor guy was fighting to stay up with me as tired as he was. Good trooper! Bonus! We got to look at our wedding photos together..finally! Brought back such great memories of our special day a month ago!

              The morning I had to leave on Monday he was scheduled to pitch again..go figure. I left so early in the morning since I needed to get home in time to get the girls from school. Wish I could have seen him. He pitched two scoreless innings and did a great job! Proud Wifey!

I will say, now that im home and so happy to be here and know he is doing a great job, its a scary, unnerving feeling to know that Spring training breaks in less than 3 days and there are still more cuts to be made, more roster moves to be made, etc. Nobody knows for sure where they are going yet, and that is a scary thing. Brew drove from our home in Phoenix to Florida, so as a driver, he leaves a few days to report wherever he will be before the "flyers" do. Originally, he was placed in AAA, the moved down to AA when a bunch of Big League camp guys were moved down and of course created a trickle effect. ( We signed thinking AA was where he would go, so we would be totally thrilled still to go there) ...although I say "thrilled" lightly as Phoenix to Portland, Maine is like TIP to other TIP opposite of the US. So pretty much means my husband would be further than hes ever been from us. However, I have to remind myself, it is what it is, and I will continue to support him and his choices and career dreams until it starts to tear our family apart. Regardless, this uneasy feeling of him walking into the field every morning the past few days along with every other guy who has no idea where they are going or even if they'll stay with the Red Sox organization. I dont understand why the team waits til the LAST second to make these choices, but I know they know what they are doing. For now I just keep trusting in Gods plan and waiting until we know for sure where he will live the next 6 months. This Crazy Life!

 

My blurry pic!

Something to pass the time...

Wow. As I just re-read the title it made me laugh. Time? What time? I need the hours in a day to double. Literally. Raising two daughters on my own 80% of the time who are at a crazy age of almost 7 and 5. Already in Kindergarten and First grade. Daily homework, reports, birthday parties, acivities, lunches..the list goes on. Then we have our two dogs. Dolce and Louis Vuitton. Crazy boys! They are like Dr. Jeckle and Mrs. Hyde when my husband is away the dogs will play....ggrrrr.. Then I have a full time career in Multi Family Property Managment which ive done for 11 years now. This is not a 9-5 job. I am constantly doing something for work. Dont get me wrong, I absolutley LOVE what I do, but all that added up, and my Husband being gone for 6 months at a time.....time for some Wine!

So nevertheless, Every often I do have free time. Mostly right now its after the kids are in bed and my husband who is now 3 hours ahead of me is already going to sleep. BIG BUMMER! I am over the "daylight" savings time. It is not saving anybody time. Atleast not me! The girls and I live in Arizona full time. I am a born native, so the chances of me moving, slim to none. Brew is for the first time, in Florida for Spring training. So instead of being here until April, where he has always had spring training he left a month earlier. Oh and did I mention it was two days after we got back from our honeymoon? We'll get back to that in a another post! So now when im getting home, by the time I get the dogs walked, kids dinner made, fed, baths, homework, lunches packed, and I can finally sit down and relax to talk to him. He is going to bed and exhausted. Believe me, he would stay up for me if I asked him to. But with waking up at 630 in the morning and its already so late, who would do that and put that stress on him! So instead, I deal with it and have time to catch up on the dvr, sleep or blog! =) Unfortunatley his "free" time is while im at work in the mid-afternoon! I cant wait until Spring training is over and the regular season starts and the hours are opposite!