Happy 27th Birthday, Tim!

When I was pregnant with Tim, I had a lot of change going on in my life. Rich was at pilot training in Mississippi, I was in the Air Force as well – as a nurse – stationed at Scott AFB, IL. We had Joe, who was a toddler….under the age of two. I finally separated from the Air Force and moved down to Mississippi to be with Rich. That was the summer of 1996. I was hugely pregnant with Tim at the time and chasing after Joe, who was rather adventurous. Rich was in class all day and studying quite a bit. I changed doctors when I was about 32 weeks pregnant. So not ideal…but definitely better than being separated by several states when Tim was born. So Tim is my Mississippi baby. He was born on the first nice day after a sweltering summer. In fact, my doctor was golfing the day he was born. He had a LOT of hair when he was born. The nurses couldn’t believe he had so much hair! It was down his neck and over his ears. They say if you have horrible heartburn when you are pregnant, your child will be born with a lot of hair. That was definitely the case with Tim! I used to chew trays of ice cubes a day trying to get rid of the heartburn….to no avail. Rich thought he was a strawberry blonde….but it quickly changed to a firecracker red that he still has today.

Tim has always been quiet and intense. Even as a baby, people would comment that he was an old soul….just taking everything in around him. When he was younger, he wanted to be a zoologist. However, by junior high and high school, it was evident he wanted to do something with sports. He played basketball through most of high school and also played rugby. He started studying people’s training habits to see if they would make him better. He was the kid during conditioning who never cheated himself and took the easy way out. He went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and studied how to help athletes learn to eat better, move faster, and strengthen themselves so they were the best athlete they could be and avoid common injuries. He became a kickboxing coach…and even started up a new gym in Colorado as a manager during the height of the pandemic. (Not easy – but he made it a success) While in Colorado, he worked hard online to earn his masters degree in strength and conditioning coaching. He accepted an UNPAID internship at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He was there, working hard, until he was called to interview for a temporary spot at Stanford University. He did the interview via zoom over his Christmas break and got the job. So we moved him across the country to Palo Alto, CA. He was supposed to be at Stanford for 5-7 months. Tim ended up staying for 18! He recently moved down to San Diego, CA to be the head athletic performance coach for the University of California-San Diego women’s basketball team. Two weeks after starting the job, he got the wonderful opportunity to travel with the team and coaching staff to Italy for 10 days, where they not only played 3 international games, but did some awesome sightseeing as well. This week they just started practices and lifts on their regular schedule. Tim also helps out with the men’s basketball team when he can. As of yesterday, he’ll be working 12+ hour days until March. He is spending his 27th birthday today doing what he loves most…working with athletes and the game of basketball. To say I am proud of Tim would be an understatement. He is the most driven and dedicated person I know. Every athlete that I have met that has worked with Tim gives him nothing but praise. He is a diehard mixed martial arts fan. It is always fun to watch the fights with Tim because he knows so much about the fighters. In his down time (driving to and from work) he is listening to podcasts to better himself as a person, a coach, and an athlete. He is a student of life, and it shows. He is also a fierce competitor. He is a cutthroat Monopoly player and that red hair goes into overdrive when he is losing. Tim is also a dog whisperer. Joe’s dogs and mine are madly in love with him. His lifestyle doesn’t allow him to have a dog, but wow, he is great with them and loves them to pieces. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of Tim. (and just when I say that, he usually proves me wrong and does something awesome.) Happy 27th birthday, Tim! I love you so very much! Can’t wait to show you Montana when you life slows down!

Here are 27 of some of my favorite photos of Tim: