In which I vent about a reality t.v. show...

No photos of Ryder in this post... if you read this blog to hear about him no sense in reading this one. If you're a baseball wife or watch reality t.v.... maybe you'll want to read :)

The reality t.v. show Kendra has seriously been on my nerves lately. For anyone who isn't quite sure what the show is she was one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends on the show The Girls Next Door and since leaving has her own show called Kendra. She is married to Hank Baskett and has a little baby around a year old. Her husband Hank happens to be a football player in the NFL. When the show started he played for the Philadelphia Eagles and was traded to another team last season. At the start of this season he was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles once again, but realeased not too soon after the start of the season. His agent got him a deal with the Vikings, and he is currently playing there.

For a while I felt like I could relate to her and felt bad. She was stuck constantly moving around with her husband, dealing with him being on the road, and never knowing just how long he would be with a team. A bad week could mean the end of his career. On the show it shows her embracing the lifestyle for a while and enjoying it, but finally hitting that point we all hit... we want a HOME. We want a place we can hang pictures on the wall, raise our kids in, keep steady friends that we see year round. I felt for her because even if they are on a higher scale in this sports world then we are we all have the same desires, wants, and needs.

That is until this season! Week after week it's listening to her crybaby about how she CAN'T move out to Minnesota with him, how she CAN'T not get back to work in L.A., how she CAN'T move around the country like this with a baby, how she CAN'T deal with the instability, how she CAN'T deal with being away from him either. It's annoying!!! I don't know what her husband makes, but i'd imagine that the NFL minimum is quite the hefty paycheck to us average folks. On top of that Kendra has her own reality t.v. show, modeling contracts, appearances, books, and is an ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner. They in no way what-so-ever "can't" do anything. I makes me crazy. I want to sit her down and tell her what it's really like to NOT be able to do something.

This week she made the final decision to move back to L.A. for the duration of the season with the baby while making visit to Hank in Minnesota. Her move didn't involve pinching pennies, driving cars across country, staying in crappy hotels, moving into a crappier apartment, living with another couple to make ends meet, staying at her parents while waiting to see if he's really going to stay with the team, or anything like that. Her "move" involved her opening the door for the movers who literally packed her boxers for her, walking into her escorted car, getting onto her private jet, and walking into her mansion in L.A. that her ASSISTANT flew out to days earlier to stock full of groceries, baby proof, get beds made... it's ridiculous! I'd like to show her what it's like to really have to tough it out. I remember first getting to our apartment in N.C. and sleeping on a bare mattress with my baby after driving all night waiting for Wal-Mart to open so we could get bedding and groceries.

I understand that no matter what pay scale or level anyones husband is at in this sports world it never gets easier. The moving, travel, time apart, and emotions are all the same, but the idea of NOT being able to do something is so different. Either of them could quit their jobs and still live such an amazing life and never worry about a thing. They do not HAVE to be apart right now, she doesn't HAVE to keep her baby away from her husband for a whole sports season, they don't HAVE to miss each other so much it hurts. It's just annoying. I wish someone could give her a HUGEEEE reality check!!!

Derrik and I have sworn that if we ever get to a point in Derrik's career that we aren't struggling ourselves that our first way of "giving back" will be to help support younger families in minor league baseball. We know the true meaning of NOT being able to be together and have somehow always managed to make it happen. It's our number one priority. We make sacrifices to make this happen and so do other couples we are friends with. I just wish some of us could sit down with Kendra and make her realize just how good she has it!