Tagged by Di...NSR

NSR (Non-Stamping / Scrapbooking Related) post Warning....

Earlier this week, my fellow PCP Super Nova, Diana, tagged me. So here are the rules:

•Open your photo folder on your computer
•Open the 6th folder of photos
•Select the 6th picture
•Post the picture on your blog with a description
•Invite six friends to join the challenge
•Link your six friends to your blog post

I'm way late with this post, but I was actually dreading opening up that 6th folder in "My Pictures"! I knew it was from about 2004-2005, when I was living the sort-of-single life here on Maui while Joel was finishing up his college wrestling career and that little thing called a degree back in Oklahoma. Those were the days that most of the pics of me probably show me in a skimpy bikini on the beach with a drink in my hand, or surfing, or .... the point is I love you guys, but I don't really want to go broadcasting my bikini-clad butt all over blogland!!! Now don't get me wrong, that was before I got that wild hair up my @$$ and decided to ruin my smokin' hot bod by getting knocked up shortly after getting married, but still....I think I'll keep my bikini pics to myself for now. Lucky for me, the first 20-30 pics in that 6th folder are all of Joel in his wrestling glory!!!

So here's my 6th pic in my 6th folder:That's my sexy husband, Joel, in his senior year wrestling for the Oklahoma Sooners. Joel's the one on top. This photo is significant for a few reasons....first, we spent that year apart and it was the hardest year EVER. Joel and I met at OU, in the wrestling room. I was in my final years of Physical Therapy school and working as an athletic trainer for the OU Athletic Department and had been assigned to the wrestling team. Joel was one of my super hot (slightly younger - he was actually a redshirt freshman when we met) athletes. Anyway, we became very good friends first and eventually started dating. We were able to keep our relationship a secret from most of the team and the athletic department until the last few weeks of wrestling season his Sophomore year (fraternizing with the athletes was somewhat frowned upon for the athletic trainers!! ha!). We stayed together and eventually moved into a cute little house together near campus in Norman. After I graduated from PT school, I worked for a year for an outpatient clinic in Norman before travelling to Maui to visit my brother. At that time, Joel was in his Junior year at OU. While on Maui, I stopped by the clinic where I had done one of my 8-week clinical rotations my last year of PT school and surprisingly was offered a job. If you've never been to Maui, it's kind of a small island and specialized jobs like PTs don't come around that often. I decided to take the job. I knew it meant at least a year of a long-distance relationship with Joel, but we decided that we were strong enough to do it. And besides, what better test for a relationship than that? If we could survive a year apart (me being on a tropical paradise of an island surrounded by surfers and lifeguards, Joel being a Senior in college and a hot jock at a Division I school), we could probably survive just about anything!! It was tough, but we did it!! Joel wrapped up his final year of wrestling, graduated in May and moved to Maui a few weeks later!! We were married on the beach in Makena 6 months after that!

So, all of that big long story to say that I love these pics. These were from his Senior Year - the year I had to watch his wrestling matches on the internet or ESPN from thousands of miles away (ya know, when ESPN randomly decides to broadcast a REAL sport like wrestling in place of something like the International Women's Ping Pong Championship or a Celebrity Poker Tournament or Bowling for crying out loud!). And because I think these are such great shots (they were taken by the OU media guide photographer...I'm probably in violation of some copyright here or something...oh well), I thought I'd share a few more action shots with you....
I like that one because Joel's opponent is beet red, almost purple....a nice shade of Lovely Lilac, moving towards Elegant Eggplant, wouldn't ya say? Seriously, wrestlers are the toughest guys I know. And I know my athletes. As an Athletic Trainer at OU I worked with them all - football, baseball, basketball, etc - and NOBODY works as hard or puts their bodies through the crap that the wrestlers do. There's NO WAY I could ever be a wrestler....I'm way too big of a wimp (and cutting weight??? NO THANK YOU!)....all it would take is one person to jab their thumb into the meaty part of my arm like that and I'd scream "uncle" and drop!!!And that blue foam strapped to his headgear with athletic tape (that you can see in the first 2 pics)? Joel had recently re-injured the cartilage in his right ear, which is EXTREMELY painful. Have you ever had an outer ear infection? Ya know how it hurts to even touch your ear when you have one of those? Multiply that times like 10 and you've got the pain of some fresh cauliflower ear!!! I can hear Coach Spates now asking him if he's hurt or injured and Joel saying he's just hurt, he can still wrestle. Then Coach telling the trainer (which was me in the early years) to get him some Vagisil so he could get over his case of Vaginitis and get back on the mat....basically coach's way of telling the guys to stop being a p*$$y and get back on the mat (yeah, real classy, huh?). But Joel sports the one-sided cauliflower ear with pride these days!!! And I know I've heard him ask his high school boys (he coaches high school wrestling now) if they're hurt or injured....I just hope to god he doesn't EVER tell them to break out the Vagisil!!!

So there you have it folks....probably more than you bargained for today!!! Thanks for humoring me!! As for tagging more people....I always hate coming up with people to tag and I think I've already seen this one on just about everyone's blog. So if you haven't already played along, consider yourself tagged!!! :-)

I'll be back tomorrow with a few last-minute Easter projects to share!!!