So a few weekends ago we were given the wonderful opportunity to attend a fellowship of christian athletes coaches marriage retreat in Franklin Tennessee!! It was one of the coolest things we have ever done! I don't believe that marriage retreats are for marriages that are in trouble or failing (well I believe with the divorce rate at 50% everyone's marriage is in trouble with the devil in this world) and I will take ANY chance I can to further strengthen our marriage and our walk of faith! It is beyond special to have them both like at a christian marriage retreat!
So Cody left school early Friday for us to get there by 3:00pm to check in to the Embassy hotel which many of the conference sessions were held at also. (Driving pic above) We were very pleasantly surprised to see how nice the hotel was!! We had no idea! Each hotel room was like a mini apartment with separate rooms and everything!
We arrived just in time and immediately were handed a lanyard with a detailed schedule of our weekend and headed off to the other place the sessions were being held, D1 sports, as they fed us dinner there along with two marriage/coaching sessions. The guest speakers for the six sessions over the weekend were pastors and really neat people! For Friday's sessions, we learned about our impact on players and our impact on each other in marriage. We also broke out into huddle groups and got to meet really interesting couples from around the state! The huddle groups focused on scripture and reinforcing and discussing what was being taught in the sessions. There was a dual focus for the weekend being of course marriage and strengthening/connecting that bond even through difficult sport seasons where you may be away for most of the days for months on end, and coaches christian impact on their schools and players.
It was beyond amazing being able to connect to other coaches wives who understand what it is like to have a coach as a husband and how different it is to any other job a husband might have. We just get it and it's nice to be able to have that in common.
They then fed us dessert and we went back to our hotel at 11:00pm. The next morning we woke up bright and early at 6:50am to make it to the start of the conference day #2 at 7:00am. They were long days but soooo worth it! We ate the huge breakfast the hotel provided along with other coaches and thier wives (I love meeting new people especially with things in common) and had individual prayer and bible study time for an hour with our table and then just Cody and I before the first official session began.
Us in one of the breakout sessions
We listened to an amazing sermon on inspiration and then broke out to our huddle groups from there. Then all 125 couples there were given the opportunity to choose 2 out of 4 group sessions to attend and Cody and I chose the 4 quarters of marriage and health. We then went back to D1 Sports to eat the catered lunch for us as we broke into our huddle groups to discuss the mini sessions with our table. We then had another short session and the coaches broke away into coaching groups and the coaches wives all went back to the hotel for the coaches wives session. I thought this was a very special thing to do so the wives can connect to each other and our husbands can connect together on coaching and how to improve/implement ideas and positive christian impacts on their players! The wives broke into groups after the speaker talked and worked on scripture versus and implementing positive action words into our lives to help us better understand and cope with football seasons such as patience, understanding, forgiveness, humbleness, etc. I struggle most with patience but I am working on it very hard! See, my grandfather was the assistant head coach at UT for a number of years a long time ago so my grandmother was a coaches wife. So I have heard coaches wives stories my whole life and I definitely knew what I was getting into marrying Cody and being just that! On the other hand back at D1, the coaches were learning different coaching strategies and actually completed a workout all together which they loved!
We all met back together 3 hours later for the scheduled date night they had for us!! We had reservations at the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville's Opry Mills mall and loved it so much!!! When else do you get the chance to go to the Rainforest Cafe!? It is so magical and reminded us of our Disney honeymoon!!
I got to sit behind a fish aquarium :):)
We finished our meal with their famous dessert, the volcano! You better believe we ate every single bit of it too haha!!!
After dinner we walked around the mega mall and got back to the hotel at 11:30pm. We watched movies in our bed which is so awesome by the way, and fell asleep excited for the next day.
So the next day we woke up bright and early for our 7am session and ate our breakfast with our prayer time again and then headed to the final session about investment and how you can invest in your faith, coaching, and marriage. We listened to the pastors wonderful message, sang together, had our final huddle groups and left at noon back home. We met so many new friends and hated to go!
When you leave something like this you just feel renewed and refreshed with your passion for the Lord and your connection to him just continues growing from there. There is no better feeling in the world! It is wonderful to be able to worship God as a unit in marriage and you can also be each other's study buddy of the Word! So much fun, forever bible study buddy!
So for the following week I kicked my cooking skills into high gear and started making healthy meals for Cody and I that were vegetable based. We are both trying to lose weight. Above is one of my favorite meals, omelette with spinach and zuchini noodles cooked with olive oil!
Oh and on MLK day we took this opportunity to take down all of our Christmas decorations. It was so incredibly sad but much needed!
I rode my hot pink ripstick many times this week because it is to darn fun!
A few nights ago Cody and I put together our last night stand that we got from Gigi for Christmas! It was so fun to build something together! I got to use my pink tool set, right up my alley! We put the sucker together super quick because this was my specialty in my Engineering fundamental classes in college! I love building things! Almost as much as I love writing! It took us this long to build our last one because the one before was missing an important screw and we had to send it back.
So the other weekend we went on a fun date night with Cody leading it full of surprises that I didn't know. He is so sweet! We first ate Chinese food then went to starbucks, then he took us to the mall so I could buy my favoite body spray perfume things at Bath and Body Works because he knows how much I love that and then took us to see the movie, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, which was surprisingly really good! We ended the night with a surprise trip to get ice cream (our favorite!) and stopped by his parents house to say hi. Cody is always so much fun and loves to always surprise me!
Now since the Christmas decorations are put up, we tried to decorate for valentines day but this is all we could muster to find but that's ok! And yes that is my smoothie so stay tuned for the awesome recipe blog post coming soon!!
So now on to Valentines Day!!
So on the morning of Valentines day, I woke up (Cody was already at work) and I came into the kitchen to this beautiful setup Cody left for me! He really went above and beyond to make me feel special. We really love Valentines day since we are both a romantic (lucky right!) and really try to make the other person feel happy and special. So I immediately opened the blue gift bag and inside was a GORGEOUS necklace and earring set Cody picked out himself for me! He really has an amazing taste for jewelry especially being a guy, and I love everything he has picked out over the last 6 years! The small vase of roses you see are actually chocolate roses! He is so creative (and knows I LOVE chocolate). The big red sheet is actually a mega card! I was so shocked with the size of it and absolutely loved it and his sweet words.
After I opened the gifts, I worked on my gifts for Cody the rest of the day until he got home at 4:30. We then rushed to Bonefish Grill because we had reservations at 5 and ate an amazing, amazing dinner.
Here is my chocolate rose and if you can see, the gorgeous necklace he picked out for me!
After our Bonefish selfie by the water fountain outside, Cody had surprises planned the rest of the night. He then loaded me up in the car and handed me the sweetest card! Then he took me to Starbucks, our favorite place ever! (I love tea and he loves coffee) When we got back in the car he told me we were heading to bowl! I was ecstatic because I love bowling so much and we hadn't gone in over 3 years! I won by 3 points! It was such a fun game especially since Cody and I were so evenly matched. When we got back in the car he handed me a hear-shaped box of sour gummy worms! 😁
Cody then surprised me taking me to Brewsters to finish off the night with more chocolate!...Chocolate ice cream that is. We got home and watched an episode of our favorite tv series, criminal minds and I had Cody open my gifts to him.
The main things I gave Cody were a plush emoji (that we use all the time), a reeces heart, two cards because I couldn't decide which was funnier, and sweet hearts. I actually made a love card of our love story out of the sweet heart messages if you have ever seen anything like that. He loved the creativity!
Cody really knows the way to my heart, red roses, chocolate, sour gummy worms, and sweet words. I love him so much and enjoyed our first Valentines day married emensly! Everything is just that much sweeter being married!
With so much love,
Cody and Kayla Raborn
2-15-17
