Who won the Texas Tech-Texas game?

It wasn't pretty, but Texas WON! Since Tech fans used to fling 'em at their games back in the day, we used tortillas to spell TEXAS this week.

Texas 34, Tech 24. Hook 'em!

On the road again...

Quick recap: When we sold our house, we moved in with Brett's parents. After living there for a week, their house was struck by lightning and caught on fire and suffered extensive smoke damage, so we moved into a hotel for a week. After the hotel, we moved out to a friend's house.

But now the time has come for us to move yet again. We are back at Brett's parents' for what we hope will be just a few more days. We are set to close Tuesday morning, and after a few days of cleaning, we should be able to move ONE MORE TIME and get settled into a home of our own. We are ready to get into that house! It has truly been a long road!

Strike up the band!

Ryan's middle school band got to be part of the local high school's fall band rally this Thursday night. The two middle schools that feed into that high school got to perform together before the bigger band played.

It was fun to hear all those middle schoolers play together!
And then we got to hear the high schoolers play their competition piece plus a couple of stand tunes. It was a fun night for us band parents!

Crafty Katie.

Our Katie loves making crafts and LOVES Halloween. So we're not at all surprised that she takes a liking to the fall craft magazines. She found this idea in one of the sundry mags she's picked up lately. Presenting...

the BAT!

Game 1: Texas 59, Louisiana Monroe 20.

Remember back in April when I was so stressed over the tree that was smack-dab in the middle of our tailgating spot?

Guess I stressed needlessly. Where did it go? When we arrived Saturday morning, it was nowhere to be found, and from the looks of things, it had been gone for a while. Sure was convenient for our purposes!

Tree or no tree, it was good to get back to our old stomping grounds.

This was the easiest menu yet: sub sandwiches. The home opener is always hot, hot, hot, so the sandwiches meant we could bypass the grill.

Painkillers are always a hit on a late summer afternoon.

In honor of our opponents, the Warhawks, we feasted on fowl.

We enjoyed some pleasant breezes while watching an afternoon full of football.




It was great to see all our old friends at the tailgate, but it was especially nice to see newlyweds and new Austinites Cara and Jeff!

After months of waiting, it was finally time to make our way to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial.
It always feels like a homecoming when we take our places in Section 1.

Kickoff! The 2009 season is underway.



That's a whole lot of people. Maybe that's why not one of us with an iPhone had a signal during the game in spite of AT&T's sponsorship.

So how 'bout that game! Bradford got hurt, and then they missed a field goal in the closing minutes. OH! You mean OUR game!

It'd be way more fun to talk about ou-BYU because the Horns looked awfully sloppy*. Colt even threw an INT. (Gasp!) Missed tackles, the same ol' third-down "pass for 5 when you need 7" play-calling, that one 75-yard touchdown our D gave up, fumbles, the pitiful drive to end the first half... just plain UGLY. I'd hate to see what would happen if we were playing, oh, just about anyone else and played so poorly!

Still, we had our moments: the kickoff return for a TD, Colt and Ship playing like Colt and Ship, and Garrett Gilbert playing like the superstar we can't wait to see him become. We didn't cover the spread, but since I'd never, ever bet on (or against) the Horns, I'm always happy just to see this:

(Speaking of the ou game, those with non-AT&T mobile devices were keeping the rest of us updated. When Bradford got hurt, word spread pretty quickly throughout our section. I sincerely wish him a speedy recovery. He and Colt are friends—or at least friendly—and he seems to be a good kid. From the bottom of my heart, I hope he and the rest of the sooners are at full strength when the Horns crush 'em on Oct. 17 in the Cotton Bowl.)

Happiness is an orange Tower. Delirium is having survived another long off-season! HOOK 'EM!

This week's bonus feature: the new Godzillatron intro! "Give me a phat beat" is long gone (thank goodness!). The new beginning to the team's introduction is a start; I love the way it refers to our legacy. I won't miss the minotaurs! Those half-Longhorn/half-human things in the old video creeped me out!

*For some real game analysis, check out T's Take on the Longhorn Experience website.

Who won the Louisiana Monroe-Texas game?

At our tailgate we have a tradition of spelling TEXAS with a food that somehow references our opponent: e.g., frog legs for TCU, tortillas for Tech, Rice Krispie treats for Rice, shrimp for Florida Atlantic, pork for Arkansas. The ULM Warhawks were a challenge, but we settled on the closest "food" we could think of: Warheads!

Home, suite home and a Project GOOD update.

For one week after the fire, this was our home.
It was wonderful! We were thrilled that it had a separate sleeping and living area.
The fact that it had two HD TVs was an added bonus.
Still, after a week of all of us living in one big room, we were really ready for some space.
ESPECIALLY when it came to the bathroom! Now this was a lovely restroom, but—well... We'll just leave it at that.

After a week of the suite life, we moved out to the home of some friends. It's a WONDERFUL opportunity for us to stretch out, take some deep breaths. We're so very thankful to them. We'll be there for a while, but not too long because—(drum roll...)

The seller's bank has accepted our offer on the house we want.

Since it was a short sale, we had to have "third party lender approval." We now have that approval! We have also had the house inspected, and since there were no major repairs needed, we are headed toward a closing date. After all the issues and obstacles we have faced in the past, I hesitate to even type those words, but I have faith that this is it. WE ARE GO FOR LIFT-OFF.

Please pray for us that all will go smoothly!

Journey to Jerry World.

After nearly a week of the suite life, we were ready for a break. When we heard the Cowboys were having an open practice at the new stadium (Free! With $10 parking!), we were there!



Ryan insisted on getting his picture taken with this cheerleader for some reason.

One of my favorite Cowboys, Texas Ex Roy Williams

The video board was impressive. When it went to the split screen (four pix in one), I couldn't help but think they were just showing off!

Jerry Jones tells visitors as they walk in that there's only one other screen like this one in the whole world. "Where is it?" they ask. "On the other side," he answers.

Brett and Ryan paid careful attention to the cheerleaders' "halftime" performance.

We were all impressed by the mix of natural and artificial light in the stadium. The sight lines all seemed to be really good, too, but no one was allowed to get in the upper decks for the practice. Our only complaint was that to get to the sideline seats, we had to travel through bunker-like corridors. It was pretty confusing for a first-time visitor, and some of the spaces were pretty claustrophobic. Some of the concourses were pretty narrow, too, especially considering how ginormous the building is. Still, it's an impressive facility!

Cool view of the Ballpark across the way

First day of school: Suite life edition.

Last year, when we actually had a home and all, I posted flashback photos of the kids' first day of school pictures, all taken on our old front porch. This year, we didn't have a front porch so we settled for this:

Ryan as an eighth grader, Katie as a sixth grader

We're in front of the Holiday Inn Express!

Yes, as the first day of school rolled around, we were still living in the hotel post-fire. So instead of running around our house getting ready for our first day, we ran around our room and then

headed into the elevator to go downstairs. Weird!

Strange as it was, it was awfully nice to have a hotel-prepared breakfast! And it made for my shortest commute to work in about 14 years, too!

After school Brett and the kids met me at Fuddruckers for our traditional "first day survival dinner."

We always do this so we can kick back and discuss how the first day went in a relaxed setting.

Knowing we're going out also gives us all something to look forward to if the day gets stressful.

We had a ball! In fact, we had two handfuls!