The making of a Nashville Star

So Matt and I went to Nashville to get a chance at my dreams of being a country superstar...ok not really, but the thought was fun.

We went to Nashville for a 2yr anniversary and had a great time. It has been a long time since it was just Matt and I and I think sometime we tend to forget that it is just as important to spend time just the 2 of us sometimes.

We got to Nashville early Saturday morning and spent most of the days walking around downtown in the little shops and listening to people play on the sidewalk. That night we went to the Grand Ole Opry and had such a great time. It was so fun to be in a place like that and experience that part of history. The next day we went and toured the Ryman Theatre, the home of the original Opry, and the Country Music hall of fame. That took almost the whole day so we spent the night at a local place listen to a few people sing. It is crazy to be out there and hear some of the most amazing voices and know that they will probably never sign a record deal.


We had such a great time just being together, talking about our last year together, and talking about what we have planned for year 3. I couldn't ask for a better weekend with my hubby!

Blog Name Change....

Ok so I am changing my blog name AGAIN! AHH why can't things just work out the way I want them to! HAHA Anyway, I am on the road to 13.1 but it is going to be a VERY long road of recovery from this current injury (stress fracture). Some people believe I am just being a wuss and should suck it up and just run, but the problem here is that they have NOT ever had a stress fracture and don't understand the pain I am in and the consequences of just "sucking it up" and running. So they can talk about me all they want, I am going to be a good little patient and follow the doctors orders of staying of the leg, doing rehab, and training in a different less intense way to prevent injury.

It sucks to not be able to run right now, but in the whole scheme of life this is mediocre for me. I would much rather be able to play and run around with my kids and be healthy then try and run a half marathon and really injury myself. I look forward to the day I can put those running shoes back on and get back into the swing of things, but I am totally ok with not being able to right now. There is so much more to my life than running and I am good with that.

So now we will go back to The Schafer's because there is more going on with that than my journey to a half marathon! Thanks for sticking with all my changes....we are back to rachandschaf.blogspot.com. Please update your links :) Sorry for all the changes, no more I promise!

Two, Two, Two

Matt and I celebrated 2 wonderful years of marriage together on April 11. This past year has been a roller coaster ride but at the end of the ride we are still hand in hand.

We did a lot of fun things in year 2 such as...

• Concerts at Billy Bobs
• Eric and Lindsey Watson's wedding
• Adventures in Fred with the Riley's
• Chris and Amber's wedding in Jamaica!
• Joey and Leslie Blackwell's wedding
• Bachelorette Parites
• Awesome house parties by Alex Gregory
• A 30th birthday in Vegas
• Texas A&M Football Games
• An Engagement
• and many more things I am sure I just can't remember right now
  Some of our memories from the past year

We had a lot of fun in year 2 but we also had some hard times.

We made a very big decision last year to move away from Texas to Kansas to being our life together. This was very hard for the 2 of us and to be quite honest there were times we didn't know if we were going to make it. We both struggled with this decisions, we prayed and prayed, and prayed some more. We screamed and cried and all that stuff and in the end we chose to move. It was very hard on both of us and especial

ly my family. We had to do what we felt was best for us and as hard as it was, I know it was the right decision. This may be more information than I should put on a blog but I want to be real, and letting everyone know that everything is not always hunky dory is important to me. Even though we had a rough few months in the end Matt and I

did what was best for us, and looking back I could not and would not have made this decision without him standing by my side and that is the important piece of all this.

Just Us-TOGETHER

Matt, it has been a great 2 years. I can not see my life without you. We have our ups and downs, but the best part about those are that we are in them TOGETHER. We fight through them TOGETHER, we cry through them TOGETHER, we laugh TOGETHER, we make the hard decisions TOGETHER. You are my best friend, my rock, my shoulder, my voice when I can't speak, my joy and you mean so very much to me. Some times I can't live with you...but I know for sure that I can't live without you! I look forward to what is ahead for us in year 3! It just keeps getting better with you. I love you...forever and a day!

Home Sweet Paxico Home

The Schafer's have moved into their first home...yes that includes Matt, Rachel, Scout, Tiffany, and Rocky. We have been so excited to have our own place for some time and it took a few set backs for us to find this place. Matt loves the outdoors and so he did NOT want a home in a city, or really in a subdivision at all, but was willing to if that was all we could find. One day he stumbled across this house in Paxico, KS which is centrally located between Manhattan and Topeka, and he just knew it was the one. We looked at the next day and it was a done deal. We negotiated and got the house and the rest was history. A little painting had to be done, but his dad graciously did that for us while we were at work. There is still a lot that needs to be done but for the most part it is together. So here it is....

Starting from the top I will walk you through our house...

1. Standing in the drive way looking at the house

2. As you walk through the front door there is a set of stairs leading you up to the main floor or down to the basement area

3. At the top of the stairs you will see the wide open kitchen, one side has the oven and fridge

4. The other side of the kitchen is the sink and dishwasher. Matt has plans for this area such as a bar top or island...we can't decide

5. You can stand in the kitchen to view the living room

6. Our entertainment center

7. Standing in the hallway to your left is our bedroom.

8. In one corner of the room looking towards our bathroom

9. In the other corner of the room looking towards the hallway. It has 2 closets....yep one for me (the bigger one) and one for Matt.

10. Our bathroom

11. This is the first guest room located across from our room. Please disregard the mess it is the storage room at the moment, but will be an office/craft room.

12. The second guest room just down the hall.

13. Guest bathroom

14. Downstairs room. It is a long room which we don't know what we will do with. Maybe a second entertainment area or media room.

15. bathroom downstairs which is also the laundry room

16-19. Our wonderful view off the front and back porches. I can't wait for those nice spring and summer days spending time with friends and family enjoying this view!

So that is a tour of our house...feel free to come for a visit anytime. I can't promise it will be in perfect shape but I can promise you will have fun!

So much to blog about!

I have so much to blog about just not enough time. Since we just moved into a new house (yep need to blog about that) we don't have internet yet so I am struggling to find time to blog! I hope to get back to blogging again soon because well...we have a new house, we just celebrated 2yrs of wedding bliss, the aggie women's basketball team won the ncaa championship, we spent the weekend in Nashville, and I am on crutches! Yep I think that sums it up. Stay tuned for the next installment...the new house.

We are headed to the CHAMPIONSHIP!

Disclaimer: I did not edit this at all because I wanted it to be my true emotions of how I feel, so it might be all over the place and some of it might not make sense but it is what is going through my head and heart right now.

I am over the moon with excitement for the Aggie Women's basketball team. They beat Stanford last night in the final four to make their way to the Championship game agains Notre Dame on Tuesday night! This is the first time in school history that the women's team has made it to the Championship game. It has been a crazy season but in the end the women have proved themselves again to make it to where they are. They fought hard last night against a great team and it came down to the final seconds.

There are a lot of haters out there and I am trying really hard not to pay too much attention to them. I had no idea how many people hated A&M. It is hard for me to see some of the post on facebook about how they don't deserve to be where they are and that A&M sucks and is the most hated team in the Big 12. There is so much more that people are saying and it truly breaks my heart. I am sure there are A&M fans that are just as bad as everyone else but for me I try my best to support every big 12 team when they have made it to something like this. In 2005 I was so happy for the Lady Bears. They fought hard and won the national championship and I could not have been more proud of them. Yeah I was jealousy that A&M was not good enough to be there but I was still happy for them when they won and never would have said they didn't deserve it.

If someone could tell me why there are so many Baylor fans that HATE A&M so much it might make things easier or it might not. I guess I just don't understand why their hatred is so strong to say the things that I have seen being said. I am a HUGE A&M fan and that is no secret and I do enjoy the rivalry stuff between the teams but what I don't like is the name calling, saying they don't deserve what they have achieved, calling aggies stupid and dumb for their traditions and being just down right mean.

Tuesday night will be a big night for this Aggie and I really hope that people can put aside their differences and cheer on the Aggie Women! What a year it has been for them.

No training=Unhappy Rachel

So I have not blogged in a while due to the lack of training I have been doing. This makes me a very sad person but I know in the end the down time will be worth being healthy...or at least that is what I keep telling myself.

So I have been in physical therapy for about 3 weeks now and have been making progress...so we thought. The first 2 weeks were tough and I was still having pain in my left knee but it was getting better. We did stretches, exercises, icing and stem therapy (oh how I love stem therapy!) For the first week I rode a stationary bike for 15-20 minutes and let me tell you how much I hated every moment. I hated it because for someone that had been putting in 10-15miles a week going to just exercises for 20mins didn't even seem worth it. But I was a good little injured girl and did what Chad told me to do :) The next week I was able to put some weight on my legs and moved to the elliptical. Aww this was kinda like running so it made me happy. So far still just a little pain but not at all like I was having before. Chad thought I could ease myself into running last weekend and I was overjoyed with the news. I could not WAIT to get my shoes laced up and get back on the road. As much as I wanted to just go after it I followed instructions to do 5 min jog, 1 min walk for 20 mins. And... it went very bad!

First 5 min jog was good, my legs were getting loosened up and I didn't have much pain in my knee so I thought "oh this is awesome, I am getting it back" then the next 5 mins came and there was the lovely pain I remember! Not only was I having pain in my left knee my lower right leg was so tight and felt like someone had wrapped a thousand rubber bands around the bottom of my knee. The pain just kept shooting down the back of my leg. Oh no was my first thought, then my second was "I bet my legs are just sore from not running and I just need to loosen them up." So naturally I kept going...can you see my competitive side...or stupid side I don't know which. Anyway, I made it back to the house and iced my legs and did the exercises I was told to do and went on about my day. My legs were tight and I was having some pain in my left knee but I was able to push through it.

Monday I tried again...and I failed miserably! I could barely walk to get back to my office and when I got there I just broke down in tears. I was so upset and in so much pain. I didn't know what to do. I didn't have PT that day but thought about going in anyway to see if they could help, but I didn't. Chad called me on tuesday before my appt to check in because he was not going to be there when I got there and I broke down in tears again. Told him all about my weekend and he just listened and didn't even laugh! He told me he would call Dr. Chase and get me in right away because something was wrong and we needed it looked at. So Thursday came along and I hobbled over to see Dr. Chase and he confirmed that I have patellae tendinitis in my left knee! Great I thought, but he said it is not a big deal, just do some different rehad, some strength training and get a patellae band and I would be back on my feet soon. As for the right leg below is our conversation...

DC-"I don't want to assume anything but I am going to put this out there...I guess on Saturday you didn't exactly take things slow as in slow jog did you? I bet you went at your normal pace and pushed through the pain."

ME-(laughing)"why would you think I would do something like that??"

DC-with a very scowler gaze"Rachel, you HAVE to think back to when you just started this journey and remember the time you put in. You can't just pick it back up or you will do what you did and stain your calf muscle. You are lucky you didn't tear anything."

ME-(no longer laughing)-"I know, I am sorry. I will start slower next time, and work through recovery and not try to get back in so soon."

We shook hands and it's all good..I think. So I am back to PT, starting a strength training regiment with a personal trainer, and trying to get healthy. That is the running update...stay tuned for an actually Schafer family update soon!