Pictures from the Admirals Games

OK... I was just informed by Coach Norris's wife Melinda that there is a website where you can view pictures from the games. I checked it out and it is awesome! The photographer's name is Bob de Calonne, aka "Bodeca". I've seen him on the sidelines taking pictures of the fans, players, cheerleaders, etc. There are some really good pictures of Jared from the last game. There's even a picture of me!! You all should check it out... but don't give me any grief about my lack of excitement... i'm sure it was half time or something! :)

To view the pictures, click in the link below:
www.Bodeca.nl

THEN... click:

• English
• Admirals
• Season 2006

From here, you can view any of the events you would like, however, to see the action shots of Jared, (and the pic of me)... Click

• Away against Centurions
• At the bottom of the page click on the number 3

Rember Jared is number 12, and as for the picture of me... don't search through the pictures of the crazy fans... it's just me and 3 other wives... you can't miss us!

Jared's Day Off - Tues. 3/28/2006

I first titled this post "Our Day Off", but then realized that I get EVERY day off... so I changed it. When walking through the mall Monday afternoon Jared and I found a reputable hair salon called Haarfijn Kappers. We made him an appointment for Tuesday morning. I was concerned when we got their and the girl shampooing his hair didn't speak english. However, a different girl came over cut his hair, and she spoke english pretty well. Once Jared told her we just got married she talked his ear off. She is engaged and planning her wedding so she asked him a million questions. The both enjoyed finding out the differences in our traditions and theirs. Although Jared is very spoiled with his mom's perfect (and free) hair cut's back home, Shirley managed to give Jared a very good hair cut for 18 euros. Jared's hair was getting so long I think he would have paid her 50.

After his hair cut we caught a trian to Amsterdam with Skyler, Gibran, and Bush (taking the picture). Gibran and Skyler took Bush to see the Anne Frank House and Jared and I ventured out on our own. Although we had talked all week about finding a unique restaurant for lunch, we ended up at Hard Rock Cafe... again. We were both very satisfied.

After lunch we walked through town towards the Heineken Experience. Heineken beer was founded in Amsterdam. The origional brewery is now a museum. We were able to send a video and a picture via email from the museum. Here is the picture we took. You may think that a museum on brewing beer wouldn't be that interesting, but we were actually very impressed with it. Not only did it show you exactly how the beer is brewed, but it also went throught all the marketing of the beer in each decade... i.e, beer bottles, billboards, commercials, logos, etc. It was the most interactive museum we've been to.

After the Heineken Experience, we spent a couple hours viewing a section of the city we hadn't yet seen. For dinner we met up with Gibran, Bush, Skyler and the offensive line at a mexican food restaurant called Los Pilones. I don't know what that means, so I hope it's not inappropriate. It was amazing food and of course very entertaining company.

This restaurant is located down a very small street that Jared and I probably never would have ventured down. The last picture shows the restaurant's surrounding shops. Apparently it is

tradition for the boys to take the picture you see after they eat at Los Pilones. The significance of the picture can be better understood by reading the store name on the pink and black sign, or I guess just by the flag adorning the building. The players are showing that they are very comfortable in their masculinity by grabbing each other's butts. What can I say... they're boys. They always make things fun!

After dinner we took a train back to Utrecht and topped our night off with Swirl's. Swirl's is the very popular ice cream joint conveniently located in the train station (across the street from our hotel)!

Amsterdam Admirals vs. Cologne Centurions

On Sunday the Admirals faced the Cologne Centurions. Coming off the close loss to Berlin, the team was eager for a win. Kick-off wasn't until 4pm so 3 of the other "wives" and I chose to walk through town and catch a train to the stadium. The tram dropped us off right in front of the Rhein Energie-Stadiom which is located just west of town. The picture is of the stadium as we are walking up. As you can see it was a cloudy day with expectations of rain. Although I was prepared with a rain coat and umbrella the weather remained dry throughout the game. From my previous experience at rainy football games I know that had I forgotten my rain gear, it would have poured.

In case you haven't already heard, Jared and Reggie are trading off games to assure they each get playing time. Reggie played last game, so we knew ahead of time that Jared was going to be playing 2nd quarter of this game. Here is a picture of him handing the ball off. The admirals are in white and if you click on the picture to enlarge it you should be able to see Jared with the ball. This was Jared's first time to play football at the pro level!! He was very thankful that the coach eased him into it and he felt great being on the field again.

The Admirals finished with a 20-15 victory over the Centurions. They played a tough game and it was very exciting to see them win!
Here is a picture of Jared and Gibran after the game. The players are very good about acknowledging their very loyal and energetic fans after their games. Jared does a good job of finding his #1 fan too! He waves to me before and after the game.
I took this last picture as the guys were talking to the camera for Admirals TV. Starting from the far left: Reggie, Jared, Gibran, Bush (Gibran's brother who plays qb at Boise St. and is in town for the week), and Skyler. Skyler caught a 65 yd pass from Gibran for a touchdown this game... way to go!! The Admirals face the Frankfurt Galaxy next Saturday in Amsterdam.

Jared gets some time this afternoon off, as well as all day tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to take a train to Amsterdam to hang out and have dinner with the O-Line and some other guys at a mexican food restaurant. That should be an experience in itself!

Cologne, Germany

Saturday afternoon we all loaded on 2 double-decker buses to depart for Cologne, Germany. They players and their wives rode on the top decks and the coaches were on bottom. Fortunately the buses were very spacious, making our 3 hour trip very comfortable. Jared and I borrowed the great movie "Without Limits" from Gibran to watch on our laptop. By the time we got to our room we only had about an hour and 15 min. to explore before dinner. Cologne is famous for it's gothic style cathedral that towers over the city. It didn't seem to appear too far from our hotel so we set out walking towards it.

After about 35 minutes of walking we arrived. We only had about 10 minutes to spare before we had to start walking back towards our hotel. As you can see the cathedral is beautiful and very unique.

The building of the cathedral began in the 12th century. Before it was even 1/2 way finished the funds ran out. It wasn't until the mid 1800's that construction began again. The cathedral was finally completed in 1892. The most remarkable thing I read is during WWII Cologne was a major target spot for the British army. However, they managed to destroy the city without any harm done to the cathedral. I bought some postcards with pictures of the city in 1945 with the surrounding buildings demolished and the cathedral untouched.

To get to the cathedral from our hotel we had to walk across the Rhine River. The bridge over the Rhine was a spectacular place to view the city of cologne. Although we only spent a very short amount of time in the city, we were still able to get a glimpse of it's culture. Someone else stated that Cologne is the "San Francisco" of Germany. The people freely expressed themselves in their appearance and actions. I think it was more shocking to Jared and I because that is what we least expected. We've realized one thing that is truly amazing about Europe is that you can travel 3 hours and enter a new city (or country for that matter) and experience a drastically different culture and lifestyle. We look forward to our future travels!

Ajax Game

Last night we had the wonderful opportunity to
attend an Amsterdam Ajax soccer game. The Ajax team (pronounced "Eye Ax") is very popular around here. The arena that Jared plays his football games in is actually the Ajax Arena. The Admirals team security director, Dick, has season tickets. He and his family live just outside of Amsterdam and regularly attend the Ajax games. He had the option to buy some extra tickets and so graciously invited us to go. We attending the game with Dick, and the Admirals strength coach Tom Perry and his wife Angela. The picture to the right is of Tom, Angela, myself and Jared.

As am sure you all know, soccer is a much more popular sport here than football. The fans are absolutely wild. They come to the game decked out in their Ajax attire. They bang their drums, blow their whistles, and wave thier flags throughout the game. It's wonderful to see their enthusiastic spirit.

The other team (Roda JC from southern Holland) was ahead 1-0 as the game came to an end. Time had run out and they were playing on injury time when an Ajax forward scored on a bicycle kick. The stadium went nuts. Not 5 seconds later the whistle blew to end the game. In overtime Ajax score 3 goals. Needless to say it turned out to be a very exciting game and Ajax won 4-1. It was a very important game for Ajax because the win put them in the Gatorade Cup finals.

Jared made friends with some very interesting locals sitting next to him. By the end of the game they were hugging and jumping around together. Chants are really big at soccer games here and one that lasted forever translated to something like "If you're not jumping you're a fool". Thank goodness we had Dick with us to translate! We jumped our little hearts out along with the rest of the 45,000+ fans.

London-2nd Day Touring

We started our morning with STARBUCKS!!! The only coffee i've had since I left Oklahoma was from the train station and it was no comparison to Starbucks!

We purchased tickets to tour the city from a bus. The tour had 4 different routes of which you could jump on and off of the bus as you wished. Along the way their was a tour guide announcing over the speaker facts about the city. The bus was a double decker bus, but only the first few rows of the upper deck had windows and a roof. The top deck was the best view, but very very cold. The first stop for us was Buckingham Palace... again. The Palace grounds take up over an entire block. The Queens Gallery is currently open to the public so we got to go inside and view her collection of artwork and artifacts. The paintings were undescribable!!
We were also able to see the changing of the guards. Surrounding the palace was packed with people but we were able to get a good spot and it was a very memorable experience.
Next we went to Westminister Abbey. WOW! We were blown away by this place. The architecture and the HISTORY was unbelievable!! We both could have spent all day there. Unfortunately you can't take any pictures inside, but we bought a book on it to show everyone back home. We saw the Coronation Chair in which every coronation since 1066 has taken place.

After the Westminister Abbey we went to the bus station to head to our next site and we met a very nice couple from Ohio. Oddly enough the wife went FAU!!! They lived in Boca for awhile and then moved to Ohio. They now have a 3 1/2 yr. old boy and twin girls that are 5 mo. old. It's a small, small world!
We next caught the bus through the city, viewing many famous sites. We got off the bus at the Saint Paul's Cathedral. We took a touristf break for lunch at this place called Pizza Express. You can see Jared eating his "Pizza America" which was pepperoni pizza. He's proud to be an American!

After lunch we hopped back on the bus and viewed the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Tower, London Eye, House of Parliment, Big Ben, and numerous other beautiful buildings.
Here is a picture of us on the top of the bus, being the ultimate tourists. We have headphones on to listen to the tour. As you can see we are under the covered part of the top deck. I was taking the picture myself and had trouble getting both of our heads in it. After 5 tries Jared stared making funny faces. Here is the picture that turned out the best! At least we're having fun!!!

After taking over 100 pictures and walking many miles to tour as much of the city as possible in 2 days we headed back to the airport. It was an amazing trip, we only wish we had more time in the wonderful city of London.

Our night in London

For dinner we went to this place called the Duke of York. The restaurant was upstairs and downstairs was a very popular pub where you waited for your table. This is a picture of us waiting for our table downstairs. The restaurant was very nice and quaint. I think Jared and I were a little underdressed, but oh well. The food was delicious(especially the dessert!).







After dinner we walked to Buckingham Palace.
We tried to take pictures, but it wasn't quite as lit up as we expected it to be so they really didn't turn out well. We even tried to take a picture of ourselves with Buckingham Palace in the background because we were the only crazy people in London staring at Buckingham Palace at night when it was freezing cold outside, but it didn't turn out either. This stone is along a walk in memory of Princess Diana.

After Buckingham, we walked back to our hotel. We stayed at a hotel near the Westminister Cathedral and Victoria Station. The lobby was nice but small and the room was very small. However, we can't complain about the lack of space because we had our own bathroom, a double bed, and a TV. We realized we were definately paying for the location, which we would have never traded.

London-1st Day Touring

Wow... there is so much to say about our 2 day trip to London. Monday morning we caught the 7am train to the Amsterdam airport. We quickly learned that things don't operate as efficiently at the Amsterdam airport as they do at the OKC airport. Arriving just over an hour before our plane took off required us to run from line to line only to BARELY make it in time. Once in London we took another train to the station near our hotel. We ate lunch at the cornish bakehouse, the food was.... different. Our first tourist sight was Madame Tussauds.


Madame Tussauds is the wax museum with models of celebrities, world leaders, war generals, and many other famous people. Here is a picture of Jared giving Susan Sarandon a nice little elbow to the face due to a difference of political opinion.

Below is a picture of me with Princess Di and Prince William. Jared and I had a great time taking pictures with many different wax models. In addition to the wax models, Madame Tussauds also had a serial killer exhibition that was similar to a haunted house and a history of London ride. We very much enjoyed ourselves.















We next caugt a train to the opposite side of the city to see the Imperial War Museum. The Imperial War Museum has 6 floors of War Exhibits. We spent most of our time in the Holocaust Exhibition, and the World War I and II Exhibitions. Jared is much more into history than I am so I had to kind of pulled him along to see everything before it closed. I think he'd still be reading and admirinig everything if he could. The most amazing thing about the museum was there was no admission fee. We were very surprised that such a magnificent place wouldn't charge, and you were allowed to take pictures!!

Amsterdam vs. Berlin (Game 1)

Below are a few pictures from the game last night. Unfortunately the Admirals lost to the Berlin Thunder 29-33. It was a very exciting game. The culture at sporting events is so much different here. The fans are loud and crazy. They have these horns and whistles they blow the whole time the other teams offense is on the field. There is LOUD music playing between every down and everyone is dancing and clapping. Four of us girls were able to get seats together behind Berlin's bench. We made the assumption that the roof of the dome would be closed due to the bitterly cold weather. However, we learned when we got there that the only close it when it rains. We nearly froze the whole game and will undoubtedly wear more close to the next one. I have to apologize because I really didn't get any good pictures, I'll try harder next game.

Here are the guys after they ran on the field. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can actually see Jared. He is #12 and you can spot him in the middle of the group of orange jersey's.

This picture gives you a glimpse of how big the area is. There weren't any fans sitting in the upper deck, but the entire lower section all the way around was pretty packed.

Preparation for the 1st Game

The Amsterdam Admirals have their first game tonight against Berlin Thunder. Thursday Carly, Kristy and I bought construction paper and markers to make the team signs. We made a sign for every player and coach and taped them on their doors. They guys seemed to really like it. It was funny to hear their responses. Our room is directly across from the elevator so when the players got off the elevator I heard a few of them saying how cute it was that I made Jared a sign, then when they got to their room I heard them yell..."Hey, I got one too!!".

Jared had all afternoon off yesterday so we ventured out to do some shopping. We purchased a new microphone to allow for better reception when phoning home through Skype. Skype is such a big deal here that the headset we bought even said "Skype Compatible" on it. I bought a new flat iron for my hair. The one I brought from home doesn't work here and my curly hair in this weather is quite dreadful. Jared and I found lots of clothing stores that we loved. His goal was to find a pair of jeans. Not many of the European men are shaped quite like Jared. His thighs and butt just don't fit into the jeans here. After LOTS of trying on at 3 or 4 stores we managed to find a decent priced pair that fit him well.

Last night was movie night. Every week (even on away games) the whole team and all girls in town go down to the team meeting room and watch a movie. They provide popcorn, gatorade, and pizza. Last night we watched Wedding Crashers, it was alot of fun. It's great that they let the girls participate.

Jared just has meals and a meeting or two today before they depart for the stadium. We have spent the morning planning our trip to London on Monday. I am going to catch the train to the Arena with some of the girls about an hour before the game. It's still pretty cold here, but thankfully the Arena is a dome. After the game there is a big dinner/party for both teams which is unusual, but i've heard is really fun.

Have a wonderful weekend and God bless!

Oh... fyi...today is our 1 month wedding anniversary!!!

Our "Home" for 3 months... Home is where you are!

This is our desk, minifridge (in the cabinet to the left of the chair), TV, food drawers, and Brynn's suitcase/plastic tub clothing storage. Notice all the cords next to the computer. That is where we charge everything we own. Since we have to have the converter AND adapter plugged in to our computer, phone charger, camera charger, ipod charger, Jared's electric razor charger, etc for them to charge, this is where we keep them. It drives Jared crazy because he gets the cords and correct adapters confused. I'm going to try to better organize this soon!


This is a picture of our bathroom. As you can see it consists of a sink in the left corner, a toilet, and a shower/bath which has a VERY powerful shower head. It's not very big, but it works just fine! This picture actually does not do it justice. To the left are 2 big mirrors and some counter space and to the right a towel rack and shelf.















Here you see our "sitting area". Behind the chairs is our dinnerware. We have tupperware and plastic silverware that Jared brings me my meals in. I bought a sponge and some dish soap so I daily clean the dishes. To the right you can see Jared's suitcase of stored clothes, and to the left his plastic tub.








This is our bed. It is actually 2 single beds pushed together and a king size comforter on top. The bed is REALLY comfortable and we each have our own down blanket. On either side of the bed we have our night stands where we have stacked our books.








Here is our closet! Notice how we don't have a dresser. So far we have managed to successfully hang/stack our clothes in this closet and in our suitcases and tubs. It's a tight squeeze, but it works just fine.






The "House Keeper's" come daily to change out our towels and empty our trash cans. They do a full service cleaning every 3 days. They are extremely thorough with their cleaning and I've made friends with one of them that speaks english quite well. They all seem to extremely friendly.

Brynn, Carly, Kristy, and Debra

From left to right: Brynn, Carly, Kristy, and Debra in the Amsterdam Centraal Train Station.

Amsterdam with the Girls

Today I ventured to Amsterdam with 3 other girls that are here. Carly is Jeremy Caudill's fiance, she is from Kentucky. She was here last year for about 4 weeks so she knows her way around here pretty well. Kristy is Ben Herrell's girlfriend from Chicago. She also was here for a little while last year. Lastly, Debra is Mwamba's fiance and she is from California.

We spent most of our day just wandering Amsterdam. We had lunch at a very neat Italian restaurant and shopped at some local stores. We didn't really buy anything, but we had a good time getting to know each other. We wanted to get back to see the guys after practice, so we headed back around 3:15. We checked the display to find what platform to wait on for the next train to Utrecht. When the train arrived we got on and found 4 seats together. When the train took off we were going the wrong way. Hmm... not much we could do but sit and wait for the next train station. We started talking about all the things that could happen to us... get kicked off the train for not having a ticket to whatever city we were headed toward, get fined 150 euros for not having the train ticket, end up in a train station where the train back to Amsterdam wasn't for 2 hours... and a few other options. We finally stopped in Haarlem about 35 minutes later. We all got off and walked down to check the display. It lead us back up to the same train that left 15 minutes later to head back to Amsterdam, and then on to Utrecht. Needless to say we wasted over an hour of our day traveling the wrong direction, however it was a nice time of bonding for us.

Typical Streets in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Picutres

Eating lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam. We thoroughly enjoyed the hamburgers and french fries.

Amsterdam Adventure

The team was given the day off yesterday so, despite the cold weather, Jared and I decided to tour Amsterdam. We managed to purchase round trip tickets and get on the correct train heading to Amsterdam. We noticed a worker was coming through the train checking everyone's tickets. Not exactly sure what he was doing we got out our tickets and handed them to him. He looked them over and said "UH OH!" Jared and and looked at each other with panic. After some difficulty communicating we realized he was trying to tell us we were sitting in 1st class and our tickets indicated that we had purchased 2nd class. He escorted us back to the 2nd class section. It was slightly humiliating, but we found humor in it.

Our 1st goal in Amsterdam was to get lunch. To assure we would have good food to fuel us for the day, and on upon referral, we chose to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. We went in the Ramada to ask for directions. She suggested we take the tram to Leidse Square. Well, we waited for the right tram # and not quite sure what to do we just got on. It was really crowded and confusing. We weren't really sure what to do. We just kept on riding because they never announced what stop we were at. Finally, I saw a sign that said Leidse so we just got off. I'm almost positive the tram rides aren't free, but we never really understood where to pay and no one ever said anything to us, so it was free for us for that short ride.

After a very American lunch we walked through the city stopping at a beautiful church and some elaborate shopping centers. Most of the shopping in Amsterdam is very upscale. The department stores and shopping centers are unbelievable. After lots of LOOKING we made our way to the Ann Frank House. There was a long line, but it was well worth the wait. Jared of course read every word on every plaque in the house. I managed to make my way through a little faster. It was very interesting to see and only imagine what they went through. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside.

The rest of our day was spent wandering through the streets. We realized it would take many days to see all of the hot tourist spots, so we'll have to venture back. I must confess we did walk through the red light district. We debated it and decided we should be able to tell everyone the truth about the WHOLE city. I'm sure we didn't get the full effect, since he and I walked through together on a Sunday afternoon. However, it is still so awful. I don't think he or I took a step without mumbling how sad it was to see this sin and uttering phrases like "God loves you", "He has a better life for you", "You're worth so much more"... It was so upsetting to see that Satan has taken over that section of the city. He's not even fighting for it anymore because he's won the war. It only took about 2 minutes for us to realize we wanted the quickest way out. And I must say... although Amsterdam is KNOWN for the red light district, it has sooo much more to offer. The red light district is a very, very small section of a very gorgeous city.

We continued our sight seeing and picture taking of the beautiful buildings for awhile longer. Before heading back to Utrecht we ate dinner in Dam Plaza at a little cafe. You have to be careful what restaurants you go in around here. It is TRUE that they sell marijuana at many of their coffee shops. The team is not allowed to enter any coffee shops for that reason. Just by inhaling second hand smoke the drugs can be detected when they are tested. Needless to say these 2 very naive young adults from Edmond America have had quite a culture shock living over here. It is a short adventure we will never forget.

Admirals Introduction and Dinner

More Utrecht Info

I just thought I'd give you all a little more information on Utrecht today because the internet card I purchased is up in about an hour and a half. The hotel is trying to work out a deal for the team where we can just pay one flat rate and receive unlimited wireless internet for the next 3 months. Like I said earlier, this hotel is very nice. All the workers speak English, the food is phenominal and it is very up-to-date. You even have to swipe your key card before the elevator will take you anywhere. (Great security huh dad?)

For those of you who haven't heard, Jared and I are now able to call people through the internet on our computer and the rate is about 2 cents a minute. It's amazing, however, we need to purchase the wireless connection before we can really begin using it. We were able to call our parents yesterday on their cell phones and just talk through the computer's microphone. We also purchased a local (405) area code phone number that you can call and talk to us (only if we are connected to the internet and sitting at our computer online). Technology is amazing these days! The time difference limits the time we can actually talk though. We are 7 hours ahead of Oklahoma time.

Back to the city... Jared and I walked around last night just sight-seeing. I'm learning my way around pretty well. I am starting to learn what streets to avoid, not because they are dangerous, but because they have these fast food restaurants that serve the VERY popular french fries drenched in mayonnaise. UGHH!! I am sooo thankful our food is provided by the hotel. For dinner last night Jared brought me a pasta with veggies and tomato soup. Ths morning I had yogurt with granola in it. He does a great job of choosing my meals. (This information is for Katie!!)

Today is Jared's first day of practice. Yesterday they were taken to the stadium and their practice fields just to look around. Jared said the practice field is small and nothing special, but for the first year ever it is in Utrecht and not Amsterdam which is really nice. He said the stadium is amazing. Apparently it has a highway that runs right under it! Sunday Jared has the day off so we are planning on taking the train to Amsterdam to see some tourist sights. We are planning on touring the Ann Frank House, the Heineken Brewery, and a couple of museums. Hopefully by the time we get back we will have the internet permanently and can post about our day.

Thank you to those of you who have been keeping in touch with us. We wish you all the best!

Arrival in Amsterdam

Yea!!! We are finally here! I'm not quite sure where to start on describing our trip here. Our flight left Tampa Tuesday night at 7:55pm. Jared took the bus with the team to the airport, while I took the rental car. I pulled up to the airport and was very concerned with getting my 2 huge rolling suitcases and my 2 very heavy carry-on's to the counter. I managed to attach them (thanks to Colin showing me how) and lugged everything through the parking garage and airport. When I got to the counter the lady asked me for my passport. To my undescribable shock it was missing. I panicked, I frantically began searching all my bags. It was no where to be found. As tears were coming to my eyes some random guy walked up to me and said "You might need this". As it turns out I left it in the rental car!!! Can you believe it?? Needless to say Jared now asks me every 5 minutes if I have it with me.

Fortunately Jared was able to arrange for us to have seats next to each other on the plane. The flight was very long but we just watched movies and slept. The dinner they had for us was surprisingly very good! We had salad, rice, green beans, grilled chicken, pasta, cheesecake, and of course after dinner tea... very common here. We had a 4 hour layover in the London Gatwick airport. Then our last flight was very quick.

Getting our baggage in the Amsterdam airport was organized chaos. It was 50-60 football players who had been traveling for 24 hours together, everyone was a little tense. Walking from the airport to the buses there were tons of fans dressed in their blue/orange Admirals attire. They were all chanting and singing "We've got the world bowl in our hands" to the theme of He's got the whole world in His hands. It was really exciting. We then had about an hour long drive from Amsterdam to Utrect. It was quite interesting being the ONLY girl on the bus. However, I must say all of the players have gone out of their way to be very nice to me.

The weather here has been pretty much constant rain/drizzle. This afternoon it cleared up for awhile and it's now just cold, not miserable, but chilly. Jared get's every meal provided for him and he brings food up to me. It has been really easy and it's good food too! About 15 of us... when I say "us" I mean 14 football players and me... went out around the town last night. Gibran gave us a mini tour since this is his 3rd year here. You can see some of the boys in the picture. We hung out at a pub for awhile and then wandered around the city some more. The city is amazing!! We are able to walk everywhere, although most people here ride bikes. Above is a picture I took while walking down the street shopping today. There are canals runing through the city and it's shops and restaurants galore!! Today I spent a good 30-45 minutes at this store at the mall called Vroom & Dreesmann, it's 6 floors of a department store. It had EVERYTHING! I felt like I was in Bloomingdale's, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Gap Kids, Pottery Barn, and Toys R Us. I noticed that Abby would love it here because the Playmobil stuff is really popular and every girl wears a skirt with boots. To my amazement everyone dresses up here. Just walking through the city most people have on dress pants, dressy shoes (mostly boots) and skirts. It's not a very bright city either. Not just because there is no sun, but people wear black, brown, tan, and gray. As I'm sure you can tell everything is new to us right now. OH!!! And although we've been told most people speak English, everything is still in Dutch.

Jared doesn't know it but I've been writing down some of the funny things he's said (because I always think he has some great quotes)... so far my favorite one he said earlier today... it was "I bet you the lung cancer here is outrageous!!" That unfortunately is probably true. Lots of people here smoke. It's really gross, but we've managed so far.

Well, we look forward to hearing from all of you. Please let us know what is going on in YOUR lives! Even though we have CNN and Oprah in English, we still feel very out of the loop. Take care and God Bless!

On our way...

It's about that time, we are finally leaving... TOGETHER! Jared and I have been enjoying our time in Tampa getting to know all of his teammates. There are some amazing guys on his team. We are leaving Tuesday evening so we will spend all day tomorrow preparing for Europe. Very important things like... For Brynn = getting a pedicure, for Jared = getting a massage.

This morning we had the pleasure of attending church with Doug (the team chaplain for the Buc's) and his family as well as Luke, Katie and Jonah McCown. After church we all went to lunch and had a wonderful time. It was so refershing to meet a fun christian couple involved in the NFL. Their son Jonah is about 9 months old and is absolutely adorable. He made us miss precious Dawson Jack. After lunch we went to the store All About Puppies. There was the most adorable Puggle that was just over a month old. We spent the whole time holding it and playing with it. I was so smitten over the puppy that Jared was ready to purchase it on the spot. Too bad we are going to be gone for three months.

We hope everyone is doing well. Please keep in touch with us and we will be sure to keep you up to date on our adventures. Much love and God bless!