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Dallas Cowboys FOOTBALL is back ~ The Rangers are making history ~ Pineapple

Dallas Cowboys
Pre-season football has started!!! (Wins don't matter yet).

You know what that means?

Fall is on the horizon. The best time of year (yes, I say this every year, because it's true every year). Crisp air, windows open, candles that smell like pine trees, beautiful apparel in dark yellows, oranges and reds... and Post-season Baseball and Football!

If you haven't watched any of the games yet... here are a few notes to keep track of as we head into the first Regular Season game on Sunday, September 9th at 3:25 PM CST.

Tight Ends... not burnt ends, like you can get on a BBQ brisket. Which now I'm craving Hutchins BBQ. Back to football, we no longer have Jason Witten, but you'll get to see him as a broadcaster on Monday Night Football. Geoff Swaim is a TE that has been on the roster the past three years and is finally getting his chance to start. He had two catches for 16 yards in Saturday's pre-season game vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. But, Rico Gathers is the TE that everyone is talking about. He's the former college basketball player, Baylor, turned TE. He was on the team last year, but never played in a regular season game. He caught two out of three passes for 32 yards Saturday night. Twitter was trending with #RicoGathers comments and how he should be a starter.

Smith
We all know someone with this last name, because it's a great last name, and you may have heard of a guy named Emmitt Smith. In the US, over 2.3 million people have this awesome last name. So let me tell you about the Smith's on the 2018 Cowboys roster...

Rod Smith, RB (Running Back) ~ He had a 19 yard reception on a screen pass from Dak Prescott (our QB). He also carried the ball for 30 yards on 13 attempts. Zeke (Ezekiel Elliott, our starting RB, who will play the entire season, no suspensions necessary) wants to be a receiving RB, but that's not the role the Cowboys want him to play, and plan to use Smith instead. Don't worry Fantasy Football owners, Zeke will get his share of yards and TD's. But if you need a guy for your bench, Smith may be a good option.

Jaylon Smith, LB (Linebacker) ~ This is the guy who had severe nerve damage to his knee after he got hit in his final college game at Notre Dame, the Fiesta Bowl vs. Ohio State. He played most of the year last year, but I hope that having another off-season to heal, rest and get stronger has helped. He had 50 tackles last year and 31 assisted tackles. The top three LB's in the league last year tied for a combined total of 144 tackles. Pretty steep competition, but I feel Smith is up for the challenge.

And this is all of I have to say about the rest of our Defense. Watch this. Chidobe Awuzie for the INT (interception). We may not have the best Defense in the league, but we will compete where we can!

Wide Receivers (WR) ~ Last thing you're probably wondering about... Dez Bryant is gone. Who is going to replace Dez? It's been a topic of discussion and ownership has stated that we're not going to have one star receiver this year. We don't have Julio Jones or OBJ... but we do have Terrance Williams, Allen Hurns, Tavon Austin and Rookie's... Marchie Murdock, Michael Gallup, and Mekale McKay. The Rookies showed more potential than the vets on Saturday, but they get more playing time and are trying to secure a spot on the team. I feel like Williams will draw a decent amount of attention from our opposing defenses and give these other guys space to find their routes. Dak has more freedom now to train these WR's in the way he wants to connect, as opposed to the other way around. If you think about Tom Brady... what all-star WR's does he have? Only WR's he's made all-stars. I'm okay with this method, if it works for us.

Injuries: If you saw Guard (G) Zach Martin go down with a knee injury, don't worry, he'll be fine. He's just out for the rest of the pre-season.

Our next pre-season game is this Sunday, August 26th at 7:00 PM CST on NBC.
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GO RANGERS!!! 56-70 (wins - losses)
Since the Rangers aren't in the race for the Pennant this year, many fans have given up on watching them play. This is sad for many reasons, one being baseball is still fun to watch. Another is these dudes are still playing hard and gaining momentum on how they want to play next year!

Sometimes, when the pressure is off to make the post-season, you just play to play. It's working well for the Rangers. Not that I want this to become a habit, I want a World Series title next year. I'm not okay waiting for a new stadium to be "good" again. 

Here's what's happened in the past few weeks... 

Since the All-Star break, we've won 15 of 29 games... .517 

The Rangers traded Cole Hamels (our "Ace" Pitcher, he's awesome when we have 4 runs on the board) to the Chicago Cubs on July 27th. He seems to be happy there. Sad for us, great for him. Bonus: He gets to see Kris Bryant every. #cute

Bartolo Colon (our 45 year old "Ace" Pitcher) has become the most winningest Latin American pitcher in MLB history with 247 wins. There's a cool article matching Colon vs. Cy Young pitchers this season. He's won 3 out of 4 games and hasn't won the Cy Young award since 2005. Read on

Jeff Banister had an epic barehanded catch on a foul ball, watch

Ronald Guzman!! You know him as the first baseman who can do the splits, and has had to on many occasions. But, he can also hit home runs!! On Friday, August 10th, he hit three home runs against the Yankees. This first Rookie to do so vs. the Yankees and the first Rangers Rookie to hit 3 HR's in a game. While the three HR's were cool, the best part is that his family was there and his dad got to see him play for the first time in a Major League game! Read on.  

Adrian Beltre has re-injured his hamstring. He's day-to-day.

Delino DeShields fractured his finger, I assume he's out for the season?

Rougned Odor has comeback this year in a way no one expected. Well, my family and I didn't. My parents saw him at the Frisco Roughriders when he was in his rehab assignment and we were all a bit nervous about his season. As of today he's batting, .279, has 15 HR's (home runs), and 54 RBI's (runs batted in). The craziest part is in the last 30 days he's had 41 hits (43% of his season total), 9 HR's (60% of his season total), and 30 RBI's (55% of his season total). That's one heck of a month!

THE TRIPLE PLAY!!!!!!! Did you see it? Watch. Since 1912, no team has turned a triple play where the batter wasn't retired. This means, three other outs were made and the hitter was not one of the outs. That's a bit crazy. Read how it all went down

Here are a few pics from our victory Friday night!! 




The Angels Ohtani was held to no hits and one strike-out! 

I highly encourage you to go to a game... the weather is getting better and better and baseball is still fun to watch! 


#TexasRangers
Thoughts... 
Pineapple. Don't you just love pineapple?? It's yellow and happy, once you get past the spiky stuff and the sharp pointy leaves at the top.

When my family and I were fortunate enough to be in Hawaii last month, we were told that Pineapples start out as a flower on a plant and then grow into a large pineapple. We were in slight disbelief until our kind server showed us a photo. He used to work at the Pineapple factory near the Road to Hana.




Shortly after arriving back at our hotel, my sisters and I noticed a pineapple plant right there at our hotel! So crazy!!! I never knew that's how they grew.


After seeing this, I thought more about the one thing I do know about Pineapples, is that they have anti-inflammatory properties. I was looking for natural ways to reduce inflammation a while ago, and I found a natural supplement called, bromelain. It's typically mixed with turmeric, but they're quite expensive pills at your local health food store.

That's when I figured out that bromelain is extracted from the core of a pineapple. The part most people, myself included, cut out. It's tough and hard to chew. So we typically cut around it and get the easy/sweet stuff to eat.

Not to dive into the deep end on the emotional side, but in a super weird way, this whole process started reminding me of life. How we tend to want the easy/sweet things in life and ask, beg, and pray for only those seasons, instead of trusting that the tough times have purpose too. The healthiest and most beneficial part of a pineapple is the core. The tough part. The part we cut out. As in life, the tough seasons are typically seasons of regret, grief, remorse, shame. We want to cut them out, instead of combining them with the easier/sweet seasons to see that they all serve a purpose. And recognize that in the tough seasons, we grow more than we do in the easy ones, if we're able to forgive and move forward. That's when the healing begins.

So back to the culinary part, if you buy a pineapple, cut off the spiky stuff (no point in killing the roof of your mouth) and then slice really thin slices of the entire pineapple. Then cut it into sixths, or whatever you want, and eat the core too! If you cut it all really thin, you hardly notice how tough it is, and you're getting the best of both worlds for your body!

So, here's to pineapples and enjoying the tough and sweet times of life together! Only then can we bear fruit!

#pineapple
#yellow
#hugsomeone
#John15

~smile~

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