Go Cougars! 14-13 vs #3 OU!

Wahoo! What a game! My voice was almost completely gone. My hands hurt from clapping so hard! AMAZING!! :) Way to hold them defense! Way to play!! So proud of the Cougars for rising to the challenge in front of a VERY big crowd that was definitely not a home crowd! That stadium had a lot of red in it! Steve and I are in Dallas for the game! Loved it! The stadium is amazing - but it looks like a martian helmet - you know the cartoon Martian? This pic doesn't show it as well as the other angle.

Before the game, both teams greeted each other on the field. Check out the size of the players on the field compared to the big screen hanging above the center of the field. Also notice the RED stands!

A beautiful logo on the big screen!!

Wahoo! Final view of the scoreboard!

Can't really tell in this picture - but the big screen has the "Cowboy Classic" logo on it - this was after teh game - notice the empty seats on teh other side of the stadium - the OU fans had cleared out, QUICKLY. Steve and I with my sister, Nyla and her husband Biff.

WAHOO! GO COUGARS!!

But I have to commend OU fans. I have been to a lot of away games, bowl games and even basketball championships, and I have NEVER encountered fans that were so respectful and kind. I didn't get cussed out, taunted at, swore out, etc - not by a single OU fan. Some weren't really happy, but they were never rude to us. And they definitely outnumbered us. Many of them even went out of their way to sincerely say good game, congratulations etc. When we got in conversations with them (waiting for and on our shuttle bus), they were very respectful of our team. They didn't try to say they lost because they blew it or because they lost their quarterback. They said we earned it, we played well and we really are a good team. When we went out to dinner after the game, their fans nodded, waved and said hello to us (and we were in our Cougar shirts). Total Class. Most of the fans for teams we have played in the past/play frequently could learn from them! Thanks OU fans for not trying to ruin our victory with bad attitudes! Thanks OU for a good game! And thanks Cougars for winning! :)

To readers of my blog ...

If you read my blog and you blog, please check to see if I have your blog address listed in my blogs that I visit. I know several of you blog but I don't have your addresses so I can't check them. Please email me your address! I love keeping in touch with so many people via their blogs. Its so fun to know what is going on in your lives! I hope more of you will blog!! :)

Camping at Pineview

The weekend before school started we went camping at Pineview Reservoir with a bunch of families from our neighborhood. I think there were about 9 or 10 that came up for at least part of the weekend. Our girls were so excited about it. The girls and I went up on Thursday afternoon, set up camp and enjoyed the evening. The plan was for Steve to join us Friday afternoon and we'd all stay until Sunday. The first morning we woke up to see this site ... hot air balloons.

The girls were very excited about the balloons. It was a really pretty morning. Here are my girls and a few others with teh balloons in teh background - although you can't see them very well.The group we went camping with was heavy on the girls. Friday the weather was really nice so we went out on the boats. Tubing time! Check out these two tubes ... yes, there are 12 kids on them and 11 are girls!! In the 6 families that intended to stay the weekend, the girl boy ratio was 12 to 6, but 4 of those boys are under the age of 3. :) Taylor is in the front middle on the yellow tube and Alyssa is back middle on the red tube.

Jess didn't want to tube so she hung out on the boat with me.

Taylor getting splashed! She's on Jeremy's lap.

Alyssa loving the ride! She's the one on her tummy. Jessica just isn't sure about tubing - I think she doesn't like the spray in her face. She tried it for awhile on Aimee's lap and we got a few smiles out of her, but for the most part, she just wasn't interested.

After tubing for awhile, we took a break on the beach.

My OCD child! :) Taylor was done playing in the sand - tired of the sand stuck to her. So, she rinsed off in the water and then had me carry her to this dead tree branch so she could dry off ... and wipe ALL the sand off her feet!

While they waited to eat, some of the little girls played London Bridges. Taylor wasn't willing to put her Sprite down though. :)

Time for more tubing! This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend! Check out the double thumbs up from Taylor - FASTER, FASTER, FASTER!! She loves the speed! She loves the waves! She loves every bit of going fast!

Once again - GIRLS! Taylor is in the back on the right and Jess is center.

Tess, Paige and Jess (Tinkerbell swimsuit)! Tess and Jess are both in preschool this year. Paige just started kindergarten. Paige is one of Jessi's BEST friends. She loves to play with Paige all the time. Tess is in Jessica's preschool class so they enjoy seeing each other too.

This is actually out of order - its Thurs evening. The kids all played games until bed time and then the grownups visited around the campfire. Alyssa is on the left side of hte table at the far end.

I am so grateful for such amazing friends. These are friends my kids will remember forever! So, what about the rest of the trip ... Friday night, Steve came up as planned. He arrived just after dinner. We managed to go out on a boat for about an hour before sundown. Then, as we came back in, the wind picked up ... And then it picked up MORE!! The boat owners all went to pull their boats out of the water while the rest of us scrambled to put things inside of boxes, coolers, cars, tents etc to prevent it from blowing away and getting wet when the coming rain hit. Our tent had to be moved because it was out on a point of a cliff and too exposed.

The wind got so bad by about 10pm that we all confined ourselves to tents because the sand was blowing so much. We played games in our tent for awhile with some of the other adults and then they went to bed and we laid there and tried to sleep. Steve didn't bring his ear plugs so he never fell asleep - the wind was wipping and howling outside our tent and really wiggling the tent. The lightning and thunder kicked in at some point, and it was so close the lightning flash and thunder crack were almost simultaneous. We were all a little worried the kids would all wake up and/or that the lightning would hit one of our tents!

About 2 or 3, the wind and lightning backed off ... just in time for the rain to start!! By about 4 am, the problems really started for us (remember, keep in mind, Steve still hasn't slept yet!). When we moved our tent, we didn't get it setup perfectly so door wasn't angled very well and the rain started dripping inside on Steve. The wind was also blowing the rain in through the windows (we have flaps that tie down rather than zipper windows). We rearranged so he wasn't getting as wet and made sure everything else was away from the edges and water. I finally drifted back to sleep and was woken up about 5:15 by Jessica crying. The roof above her wasn't sloped so the rain had puddled and was dripping in multiple spots on her upper body. By the time it woke her up, she was soaked (quilt, sleeping bag, PJs). I changed her and moved her into my sleeping bag with me. We used towels to soak up as much as we could of the water and carefully moved Taylor over so she was farther from the leak. Taylor slept through it all and Alyssa, fortunately, slept through it all in her little tent with a friend - totally dry! I think I slept another 15-20 min that morning (add it up - less than 2 hours for me ... maybe 15-20 min of dozing for Steve). We were both done, so by 8am we were packed, loaded and pulling out. It was not a fun night!

We spent the rest of the day, napping and then washing everything - we soaked 3 of our 6 sleeping bags, about 8 of the large beach towels and a quilt. But everything else was wet too so we ran the washer for the next 2 days to get it all cleaned before we put it away. We set up the tents and rinsed the dirt off of them and then let them dry. CRAZY camping experience! Oh the memories! We did get to enjoy a camping/pot luck dinner that night at our neighbor's house with 3 of the families that had been camping. Everyone else stuck out the morning but came home that afternoon.

Since Steve and I aren't typically campers (this was Steve's 3rd night of camping in 13 years - my 4th if you don't count girls camp!), everyone has asked will we go again? The answer - YES! But we are buying a new tent before next summer (with zipper windows) and if it looks like rain, we're bailing! Actually, we're camping again next week - just closeby for one night though. :)

New Blog Background!

So tonight, in the creative mode that I'm in, I decided to try my hand at creating my own blog background. So if you read this from a reader and don't see the background, check it out!!

Actually, I wanted a background that shows my "true color" as we start football season, but couldn't find one. Ok, so its probably because of copyright issues ... But I created one for my own personal use. I started with two screensavers that you see below that I downloaded from http://www.byucougars.com/, typed up a schedule, snagged some other common images that I like and ended up with what you see! Its my first attempt. I have a large screen, so if it doesn't look right on your screen, please let me know and I'll make it a bit smaller. But its perfect on mine!! Hope you enjoy it! And in the future, I just might create other backgrounds for fun. It wasn't as hard as I thought once I got the basic code and the sizing figured out. :) Yeah!!!!

Yes, we have season tickets and so we will be at all home games. We are also going to do some tailgating this year, so if you are going to a game, let me know! We'd love to have you join us for tailgating. The more, the merrier, right? Oh ... and I'm also going to the opening game of the season! #20 BYU vs #3 Oklahoma in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Dallas! Can't wait! Steve and I leave next Thursday for a long weekend away!! Go Cougars! Here's hoping for a great season, key wins especially against that team up north and better than a 10-3 finish!!

PS Any fellow cougar fans want the background ... leave a comment or email me and I might share my code. :)

Swim Team Year End Party & Awards

Alyssa was SOOO proud to receive her trophy for getting a qualifying time in all 5 events (freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and Indiv medley - all 4 strokes in one event). She worked VERY hard to get qualifying times!! And so here it is ... her awards night where she got her trophy and found out she placed in 2 events at the county silver meet!! We were super excited for that news too!

She placed 7th in butterfly! And 13th in freestyle! SO PROUD OF HER!! Her seed time did not put her in the top 18 for either event, so she really moved up! Way to go Lyss!

They had this little "photo opp" set up and we took advantage of it. Gotta love the cheesy grins from these two! Alyssa really enjoys swimming and Caitlyn challenges her and yet, the friendship makes it more fun too!

After the awards, they were allowed an hour of swimming at the Legacy Center Pool - unfortunately, it was from 9-10 pm and it was only 8:40. So, Laura and I convinced Caitlyn and Alyssa to let us take them to frozen yogurt at our favorite yogurst place (Frozen Yogurt Junction -in AF by the old Smith's on State Street - same parking lot as Chadders) and then they got to swim in Caitlyn's pool until 10pm. It was perfect for them! I watched them swim. It was really fun. They created challenges for themselves - "dunk 10 times, spin 3 times, swim to the other end of the pool and back, then jump off the rocks making a funny face and then slide down the slide and scream before you splash." They also did things like touch the bottom, do handstands, blow bubbles in the water ... It brought back memories of me and a friend playing in a pool - not even sure who it was. But we created synchronized swimming routines. Funny how memories of my childhood come back when I'm watching her live her life. Wish I could figure out who it was I was playing with. May have been Joni, Larissa or Genevieve ... hmmmm... I'll have to facebook two and ask if it was them. Thanks Alyssa for a great swim season and some fun memories! I love you!

A Speed Scrap

So, what is it? I wasn't really sure either but was feeling up for a challenge, so I decided to give it a whirl tonight on scrapmatters.com's forum. Here are the instructions ...

Starting at the top of the hour (7pm my time), the hostess will post your first instruction, followed by 1 more step every ten minutes through the hour! At the top of the second hour, the hostess will post the last instruction and then you'll have 1 additional hour to finish and post your LOs.

Note: (LOs are layouts).

"And the most important thing is to have FUN!!!"

I'm very behind on my scrapbooking, I'm feeling rather creative and up for a challenge, plus I just got several new digital kits for my birthday from my awesome girlfriends in my neighborhood (from scrapmatters.com), so I decided to give it a try. Of course, I started about 45 minutes late, which means this was right when I was trying to start getting the girls settled and ready for bed. I finished 45 minutes late too, but I wanted to share my results! Yes, these two pages took me most of 2 hours, but I'm ok with that! Still trying to get the hang of the software really well.

The steps:
1. Choose 1 template that you LOVE.
2. Any number of papers will do, but I want to see a paper border on 2 sides of your layout.
3. How about 3 (or more)photos tonight! If your template doesn’t have 3, be creative with it.
4. Choose an element and use it in 4 different spots on your layout.
5. Add 5 more of the same element and embellish to your hearts content.
6. Let’s see at least 6 lines of journaling (I don’t care how long the lines are).
7. Use an alpha for your title. It should have 7 or more characters (numbers, letters, punctuation, etc…).

1. I chose a template with 3 pics on it and then put 6 on the other page. :)
2. I used a background plus the pink paper to make the borders.
3. I always use 3 pictures or more. I take too many and want to include them all.
4. I chose the little pink button to put in 4 spots.
5. Yikes, add it 5 more times? I managed though.
6. 6 lines, including the title of the journaling, that counts, right?
7. Check - alpha used. And it has more than 7 characters. Actually the name came from the name of the scrapbook kit I used. Its named Thoroughly Amused which is too long for my page, so I went with Totally instead. :)

The finished results (yes, these are pics you've already seen - from early in August).

It was fun! I still need to add two more pages to the layout with more pics, but that part won't be as hard as the original two pages. There is another speed scrap tomorrow ... unfortunately, its right when I drive carpool. I might still do it (just a few hours later) and post my results here again! :) This really helped me step outside my normal, more boring pages. :)

And I'm liking the QP challenge on their site as well. (QP = quick page, a page totally designed that someone else could just drop pictures, a title and journaling into). They tell you which kit to use (Sweet Summer is the kit this month, and of course, you have to buy it...) and then you do your QP and submit it. At the end of the month, they give you copies of all the other QPs submitted. A whole album worth. But I don't have "Sweet Summer" (although I really like it), so I'm not sure if I'll buy it or wait until next month and hope it is a kit I have. :)

P.S. The digital kit I used for this page is one of the ones that my girlfriends gave me! Thanks Michelle, Michelle, Carol, Dani, Angie & Laura! I LOVE IT!

1st Day of School

I've skipped some other posts, but I'll come back to them. I just don't want to miss these special moments!

Well, its that time again! Getting up at 7:00am, off to school, home work, reading ... Part of me is so ready, but part of me is really sad to see the summer end. But the biggest part of me just really doesn't want to get up early every morning!! :) Anyway, I am excited for the girls. For the things they will learn, the friends they will meet, the experiences they will have and mostly for how much they will grow. I love my girls and watching them become better people is really fun for me! Now if I could just learn as much as they do, I'd be doing pretty good too.

So, here they are ... pics from the first day!

Alyssa is so grown up. She didn't want any help from me this morning and she wanted to do everything for Tay. Wake her up, do her hair, get her breakfast, walk her to clas... - that's where I draw the line! Its a mother's right to walk her kids to class on the first day - especially in K and 1st! I also helped with the hair a bit. :)
Love the big Princess Lunch bag ... gotta have something big to fit the Go-gurts, drink and chips for her lunch!

By her classroom door.Putting away her backpack, lunch, folder and giving the teacher the class supplies she took to school today.

Ready to start her day ... ready for mom to leave. So proud of her. She wasn't anxious or anything. A little unsure of the day, but no biting her fingers, no playing with her hair, no tears, not even a request that I stay. Just asked who would pick her up and then she was good to go!

Baby Giraffes and Awesome Birds

One last summer trip to the Hogle Zoo with my mom, sister and her kids. We went the first week of August - so this is a catchup post.

This trip to the zoo we made sure to see the Bird Show ... something we'd never done before. The girls LOVED it. They loved the birds that did tricks like the giant seagull, the parrot that talked and said "My favorite color" everytime you said green, the bird that took money from your hand, the birds flying low across the audience, the big owls with amazing hearing and most of all the amazing eagles.

Last year, for the spirit assembly at my daughters' school (Eaglecrest Elementary), they brought in an eagle. It had a huge impact on both Taylor and Alyssa and they talk about it every time they see pictures of an eagle. So, seeing two eagles up close was really exciting for them.

Me with Taylor and one of the eagles - the power of its wings is impressive. It flapped a couple of times and it sent chills down my spine to feel it.

My neice Meghan with Jessica

The other highlight of this trip was the BABY giraffe - 5 days old! It was really neat to see it. And since giraffes are Taylor and Alyssa's favorite animal ... they LOVED IT! This picture is aunt and baby.

Fun day!! We got to do everything we wanted except see the new baby elephant (which hadn't arrived yet - she was born a week after we went) and ride the trains. I think we're going to try to get back up there in September to see the baby elephant. Its the first baby elephant at Hogle Zoo in 80 years so its a big deal. And I think the kids love seeing baby animals.