Day 3,694

The Fourth ALDS Game

It started off like any best morning—an OFFICIALLY FREE Covid household, ready to explore the world again after an extensive hiatus, AND of course, Fruity Pebbles to celebrate!

A fresh Bub-made coffee to top it off!

Adam has been working out with the taxi squad team as he gets back into pitching form (even though he was never out of it because he never had actual symptoms), and this time, he came home in his workout outfit—something we only get to see in the off-season. The kids went nuts over how good he looks in all that Rays gear! Or was that just me? ;) 

We spent the day in the pool and packing more and more items for our upcoming move. Monday night’s game was a must-win in order to play game 5 to determine the winner of the ALDS, so we’d been preparing to have to live in potentially three different places up until Monday. 

We played our hearts out. 

Came in. Cooked, colored, and put on the game. 



We were as excited as a group of Covid-sidelined Conleys could be while we watched the drama unfold on a team we’ve so enjoyed being apart of. Unfortunately, we lost to the Red Sox and Daddy’s season is officially over. 

More to come in the days ahead, and though we’re bummed how it ended (in more ways than one), we have so much to be thankful for, so much to reflect on, so many blessings through so many unmet expectations, and my goodness, we’re excited to be home with all our people. Stuart, church family, we’re coming for ya! 

Rays family, we’ve only known you barely one season,  but what you have created in St. Pete (and Durham!!) is absolutely incredible. We are thankful that of all the teams we could’ve played for this year (Japan included!), we ended up exactly where we never knew we wanted to be. The Lord is kind. 

 Rays Up!

Day 3,626

The 37th Move in One Month Short of a Decade

Daddy received news of his promotion to the Rays from his  hotel room, while on the road near Atlanta. 

To our grateful surprise, our friend Lucas was also in Atlanta for a chiropractic convention and was able to both see Adam AND drive him to the airport! Thank you Lucas!

While Daddy flew through the air to meet the team in Minneapolis, we were saying goodbye to our sweet friends in Durham. 

After our ER visit the day before—hours before Adam was called up—my dear friend Stephanie offered to watch the kids for me in order to give me a few hours to myself after an emotionally and physically draining week. It was an unexpected kindness, but one I was still undecided on saying yes to. Watching all four of my babes at once is a bit of a task, and usually I don’t readily accept help. 

Once we got news of our move however, her offer was an obvious blessing I couldn’t deny. God’s timing and hand is so intricate in all things, and He’s continued to display that to us so intimately this season. So, having already the invitation to send my kids off to Stephanie’s house Saturday, that’s exactly what we did. And for SIX hours, I packed and cleaned our two bedroom apartment up as best I could. 

The entirety of our Durham belongings in one picture. Not bad for six people, right?! Exhale. 

I remembered when we moved in to our Durham apartment thinking, “Well at least moving out will be easy when we leave—the floor elevator is right outside our front door!

And on the ground level of that elevator: a loading dock!

It took only TWO trips with the luggage cart to get everything downstairs.

With the generous of help puppy Gracie’s mom (Mrs. Haleigh), we packed the car up and even figured out how to strap down the three bags we heaved on the roof—baseball wives getting it done!

We finally said our last goodbyes…

…the kids screamed farewell to the Durham Bulls…

…and we took off for Florida, watching for Daddy’s Rays debut on split screen. It didn’t happen Saturday night, 

but losing our luggage almost did. 

We may have gotten the method down, but clearly the execution was lacking. I stopped three times in two hours to check on these darn bags and I’m happy to say we didn’t lose any, thankfully!



We drove those two hours before stopping for the night—a headstart was all I was hoping for and we managed it well. About the time we pulled off into out room for the night (thanks Ellie for helping me find one, as my multitasking skills were at full capacity!), Adam sent us a picture of his view from the hotel in Minneapolis. 

We made it back. 

Day 3,625

The ER Trip. The Minneapolis Trip. 

All is good. All is good. We had some popsicles by the pool yesterday. 

The scene quickly changed about 20 minutes after this, when Amelia came up out of the water with a busted chin. She somehow managed to reopen the same wound from two years ago when she slipped on the tile in her ballet tights. 

So, we changed out of our suits, drove to our new friend’s house, dropped the kids off (THANK YOU WHITE FAMILY!!!), and my babe and I headed to Duke Emergency. 

And they were hands down, the best ER doctors ever!

It was a breeze and completely calming. Amelia didn’t shed a single tear and ended up with three stitches!

That’s my girl! So proud of her and SO grateful to the pediatric team at Duke! Truly, an incredible experience!

After only two hours in the ER(!), we picked up the rest of the babes, said a huge gigantic thank you to our friends, and headed out for family ice cream. 

The kids finally all passed out by midnight, and at that point, I had just barely spoken to Adam. Last I had heard from him (maybe around 11), he was told he was opening the Durham game on Saturday (sort of like a starter but they only pitch one or two innings before the actual starter comes in) and was hoping to get some extra sleep. Molly struggled falling asleep, so when I got him on the phone at 12:05, I was in every way expecting him to give me a brief update and then we’d go to sleep. But instead, he told me he wasn’t opening anymore. Ok. Well that was a quick turnaround. Well, why? Well because the Rays decided to call him up instead!! :) So from midnight until about 1:30, Adam was receiving itineraries and texts and phone calls and the like, preparing him for his noontime flight to Minneapolis, where he is right now. A total, utter surprise, especially after the past couple weeks we’ve had! The Lord has been working so intimately on our hearts in regards to baseball this past month, and truly, we were at a point before last night where we were both content with whatever was to come of the rest of his season and career. We trust God ultimately and live our lives in pursuit of glorifying Him, but sinfully, we were hoping in all that baseball would give us as well. We had had so many expectations fail miserably over the last couple years and the weight of any more was just wearing us out. It was wrong. So, we resolved to enjoy a season finished in peaceful contentment, striving to work his very best, but nothing more, and wherever that would be. And as of tonight, it is with the Rays in Tampa. We are incredibly excited and feel honored to have gotten the call. Durham is loaded with not only exceptional talent, but the best group of guys Adam has ever professionally played with. Thank you, Rays, for giving him the ball again. Wow. Our past few baseball years have been pretty tough, but this is the team we specifically wanted to play for, and you’ll get our very best. 

Finally we can say it together:

RaysUp!

Day 3,620

The Kind Help of a Friend

Took my babe to the doctor on Sunday. She had a rash a fever and was generally just not feeling “normal.” So we went mostly for peace of mind. Turns out, she’s just got basically a diaper rash (we’re still in pull-ups at night, mixed with all the swimming and gymnasticsing and sweaty NC weather—the perfect storm) and the fever was of no relation to the rash at all.  She’s not got any other sickness either, so we’re thankful for that, though I do believe she’s a bit run down.

Spending two hours at urgent care is no small task, so even though sugar is exactly the opposite of what their bodies need, their emotions said otherwise. So we got a little cup of ice cream goodness and my goodness, did they perk up!

While I did the doctor thing with the littles, our new friends graciously took our oldest two to the game we were *all* supposed to attend together. And though we were bummed we couldn’t all go, what a blessing that was that they still could!

The kids took their friends ALL over the stadium, showing every nook and cranny this place boasts. To their delight, Sunday was apparently Disney Princess day at the field too!

They even got the full experience by seeing Daddy pitch!

They introduced our new friends to all our favorite people, including Officer Jones, 

and Wool E. Bull!!

What a night! Thank you for the pictures and for sacrificially loving our little family as you already do, friends! The Lord is just so kind. 

Day 3,619

The Durham Dinosaurs

Potty training has us like ^

She poops solely in the toilet, but peeing…well, not as consistently. We’re working on it. The new Baby Shark undies have helped, but the problem now remains: what happens when I have to go pee but I’m having too much fun?! 

Answer: Mom’s fault. 

The next time we encountered one of those especially “fun” times, she was masterful. Saturday night was Dinosaur Night at the field, and these kids spent every last second enjoying the curious sight. 









Once all Dino’d out, we sat to watch the last inning of the game before fireworks; our most favorite thing! 

Day 3,617

The Reset

Daddy decided to put the kids through a workout Thursday morning. With extra energy consistently being Bearett’s quickest way into trouble, mitigating it is becoming quite necessary for everyone’s sanity. He’s eight and my goodness, the child is endlessly filled with all sorts of ideas and wiggles and screams and snorts and continues to provoke his sisters any chance he gets. I’ve been told again and again that this sort of energy is totally normal from boys BUT OH MY WORD MAKE IT STOP FOR FIVE MINUTES!!! So Dad did. Only he needed to correct some sloppy form before they got too far into their exercises.  

When you have an athlete for a daddy, it comes with the territory. 

Dad timed their 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off workout from the couch and by the end of it, we’d succeeded in tiring that wild child out alongside his sisters. However, it wore off rather quickly and soon enough, we were right back in to the thick of snarls and spastic movements and flying objects and screaming sisters. Boy moms: ya feel me? 

Tuesdays and Thursdays are now much more busy with gymnastics in the evenings, so our routine has since changed a bit. Once school starts, my guess is that we’ll attend less games and likely be even later to them than we already are. We usually show up somewhere in the fifth or sixth inning. Games start at 6:35 here, but that’s usually the time the kids are waking up from their naps! So we get there when we can and have only somehow missed Daddy pitching once this season while home. We nearly did it a second time, having to sprint up the hill and into the foyer to watch his first inning of work on the tv. 

Luckily, he went out for another inning and this time, our tardiness allowed us to watch him from right behind home plate. 

:)

I’m thankful for these sweet memories watching Bub watch his Dad. Adam’s had a rough past month of work. After two months of pitching better than he’s ever pitched in his life and expecting from the beginning to spend little time in Durham, he’s faltered and has since waded through some muddy waters of late. I could use many words to describe the unmet expectations the last three years of baseball has met us with, but instead, I was thankful to just stand back and enjoy the scene before me. 

After Adam was finished—a solid outing spanning parts of three innings—we assumed our regular bullpen seats and ate our homemade spaghetti supper. 

Afterwards, it was back to silliness and lots of Durham Bulls smiles. This week is shark week here at the DBAP, and so Wool E. Bull was appropriately dressed in his life guarding gear, though instead of saving small children from big scary sharks, he was saving his small tail from big scary children. 

<3