Football Randomness

And here are the 'outtakes' from our fabulous night of high school football.....

As I was taking pictures of the field, I noticed that in the distance you could see downtown Fort Worth. My favorite city down here!

This could possibly be the coolest shirt I saw all night. I want one!

Here are Sharon, me and Cindy at the game!

And at halftime, we got a text from Maggie, saying that it was HER son who painted his whole body blue and wearing ONLY Superman underwear, ran out on the field at halftime and did back flips! Well, the cops showed up at her house and said she had to come and get him......so we met her in the parking lot to hang out with her until they brought 'the criminal' out....

Here's me, Cindy, Maggie & Sharon waiting for Bobby to get released to her......

The 'exchange' of the blue man......

Things I didn't think I would see for a thousand, Alex! Here's Bobby, his ticket and his Mom, Maggie!

He thought it was worth it and told us to put the pics on Facebook - haha!

Carting off the criminal!

And here is Bobby in all his blue glory - ready for the yearbook!

Travelin' Band

I had to do a whole separate post about the band at LD Bell high school. It was so amazing and fun to watch! Oh, and they were the #2 high school band in the country last year (2009). Way to go!

Here they are in the stands, playing their hearts out.....

They looked AND sounded wonderful...

And then at halftime, they really showed us what they were made of!

Spectacular performance.....

I have no idea how they can march in weird formations AND play their instruments at the same time. Now THAT takes talent!

And then the dance teams from both schools did a joint routine (Cindy says that that's not normal) - VERY COOL.

Cindy used to be a "Troy-Ann" - the girls in red.

Thursday Night Lights

Last Thursday I experienced something new - high school football in Texas! And boy is it different than up in the north! It is a HUGE HUGE HUGE deal down here - there were TV trucks and a fantastic stadium. Very exciting!

Here's the banner on the Fox Sports Southwest truck....

Crazy - Texas football is HUGE!

The teams that played were LD Bell High School and Trinity High School - a huge rivalry game. These two schools actually share a field and are geographically near each other.

Here is where the Bell Raiders came out onto the field.....

And here's the entrance for the Trinity Trojans. We were cheering for the Trojans since Cindy went there for high school and our tickets were right on the 50-yard-line on the Trinity side (considered "Home" team for this game).

Here are the Bell cheerleaders:

And the Trinity dance team:

The weather was fantastic and it looked like a very professional performance with all of the pomp and circumstance I would expect from seeing all of the TV trucks, etc. outside! Oh - and Trinity is the #1 team in the whole country right now!

And here come the Trinity Trojans! I guess if you went to school at Trinity, you stick your finger out like this - I didn't know all of these things, so I just watched!

At Trinity, there is a big Tongan population and so their players always do a tribal dance/chant before the game starts - these next two pictures are capturing that. It was so awesome!

And the game begins!

More tomorrow........

Crash Course

So, as most of you know from Facebook, I got in a car accident last week. I really wasn't injured (except for being achy and my wrists are a little sore), but my Ruby was pretty banged up. It happened Tuesday night on my way home from my life group at church - around 8:15 or so.

A girl in a Ford Explorer t-boned me on the front right side (see below)....

This was very scary since I have never been in a real car accident before. I was surprisingly calm, cool and collected at the scene........but when I got home and called my Mom, I burst out crying and didn't stop for 2 hours! I think it was more of an emotional thing because all I wanted to do is call my Dad. I guess I reverted to my teenage self and thought that Dad would know what to do and fix everything, even though he wouldn't be able to do anything over the phone even if I could've called him after the accident. I guess it was just scary and talking to a 'car guy' would've been comforting!

At any rate, Ruby is at the car hospital and will be fixed in about 2 weeks. It's weird because as much as I don't really care about the vanity aspect of a car, I DO get very emotionally attached to whatever car I am driving. For instance, when I dropped my last car off at the lease return place after driving Vince for 4 years, I almost burst into tears at saying goodbye. I felt like I was abandoning a good friend at a big scary car prison! It makes no rational sense, but I suppose I am just a person who gets attached to things/people/routines very easily......

Baby Time

Last week, I had two very special visitors - Holly and her 2-month-old daughter, Madalyn! I haven't even held a baby at all since my trip back to Ohio last August - and that baby that I held was Holly's son, Isaac. I forgot how good babies smell!

Holly and Madalyn were only here for about a day and a half since it was a side trip from their main objective, which was to visit some of Michael's family in Tulsa. I'm so glad they were able to sneak away for a day to visit me!

Here they are at Riscky's BBQ in the Stockyards.....look at how Madalyn is drooling over that gun rack!

I give Holly a lot of credit - she was willing to hop up on Big Jake with a baby attached to her chest! Kudos!

What a great shot for her baby book - "Rode on a longhorn by age 2 months." That sounds like a pretty adventurous milestone if you ask me.......

This next one is a picture of the cutest cowgirl I have ever met!

When you're hungry, you're hungry!

Here is the Grapevine Vintage Railroad train leaving the station as we took a break on a bench. I need to ride that train one of these days.....

And yes, train conductors apparently still wear the overalls and striped hat!

And it's only fitting that we eat at La Madeleine to honor this sweet baby!

I want somma THAT!

I was so sad to drop them off at the airport so soon after they arrived, but I am THRILLED that these fabulous girls were able to visit me in Texas!

Holding On....

"I always thought that holding on was the strongest thing a person could do...now I see that it is letting go that takes an enormous amount of courage & strength." ~Anonymous

I saw this quote recently and found it quite thought provoking. I think that holding on AND letting go take an enormous amount of courage and strength - at different times in your life. It's determining which you should be doing at any given time that is the REALLY challenging part.

Sometimes we let go when we are supposed to be holding on for dear life and then there are other times when we should stop hanging on and just be willing to let things go. I have tried to know the difference, but failed at this often...

One thing that comes to mind when I read this quote is the idea of "family." At this point in my life, my only living family members are my Mom and sister. That's not very many, especially compared to some of my friends who have their spouse, children, parents, grandparents, several siblings, a gaggle of nieces, nephews, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and on and on and on.

I long for a family, a sense of belonging, of unconditional love, but it seems to be elusive and not in the cards for me. I know my Mom loves me unconditionally, which I am grateful for....however, we are very different people with very different hobbies, lifestyles, environment, etc. I am a very nostalgic, sentimental person and she just isn't. That doesn't mean either one of us is wrong or lacking, just different.

For some reason, I just keep hanging on to this idea that I need this big huge family in order to be happy and that's just not in the cards for me and I need to accept that and "let it go" like that quote says. I have realized over the years that family really is the group of people who you are close to in your life and the ones who would drop everything and help you when you really need them. And I have many sweet friends who would and HAVE done that.

So basically, I need to let go of the formal definition of a family because I am not going to have that and I need to accept it and move on. It's so very hard for me - especially at the holidays, because the idea of 'family gatherings' is shoved in my face for months and it makes me very sad and long for those connections. But I need to stop focusing on what I don't have and concentrate on the wonderful blessings of an 'alternative' family that God has woven in my life over the years.