Correction

In my last blog I said Matthew's game would be televised. No, thanks to our school district they moved the game to Saturday so it won't be televised. That's game 3 that got bumped off the TV. Our team can't seem to get on the air.

Brag List

Monday morning, when Makenzie got to school she found out she got "Player of the Game" in volleyball. She had a certificate posted on her locker. They announced it Friday during Advisory, but we were on our way to Dallas so she didn't hear it. Way to go Makenzie!!
Matthew also received a "performance jersey" for his hard work during practice last week. You earn them by playing well in the game or working hard at practice. This is Matthew's 2nd jersey. Way to be a hard worker Matthew ! And for those of you who get FoxSports Southwest, Matthew's game will be televised on Thursday, October 16th at 7 pm. I don't know if family in CO, CA, and UT get that station or not. If you get it you might want to tune in. GO Team!

If I Graduated in ....

My friend Liz, led me to this website. You can see what you might possible look like in different yearbooks. Check it out: www.yearbookyourself.com I graduated in 1981 and the hair in the 1980 or 1982 wasn't anything like mine. It's something fun to do and your kids will laugh!

1950

1960

1976 My favorite

1990 My hair was actually like this, only blonde. Look at my wedding pictures

I Like a Day of Rest

I was so grateful to have General Conference this weekend. Not only was I uplifted by the messages, but able to relax on Sunday. Imagine that, Sunday being a day of rest.

We were very tired from Friday and Saturday's events. We left for the Dallas/Fort Worth area around 1 pm Friday afternoon. I went to pick Makenzie up at school at 12:15 and she wasn't back from a field trip. They finally got in about 12:45. Only 45 minutes late. We arrived at the stadium about 6 pm so we made good time even with rush hour in Dallas. The stadium was a big stadium considering it was that schools own stadium, not a district stadium. This team had all this nice equipment, man I thought our school had it good. We lost the game 42-24. It was a state and nationally ranked school so we didn't feel too bad. Ok, we felt bad. We wanted to win! We scored more on them than any other team has so far. We headed back home after the game. We got home at 3pm and Matthew didn't get home until 4:45. We were tired when we had to be at Jacob's game at 9 am. The game wasn't till 10. Makenzie also had a soccer game at 2:30. We were dragging the rest of the day. I had to go get some groceries and that about took all the energy I had left. I'm getting too old for this. Here is a picture of the stadium and a video of a plane that flew by. The stadium is close to DFW Airport so every 5 minutes or so a plane would fly by.

Dale also had a post on his blog this weekend. Check it out.

Picture of Matthew #18

View of the stadium from the visitor's side

One of the many planes flying by

Another Busy Weekend...But it keeps us out of the Bars

Just when you think you are getting a break from high school football, the coach schedules a game... in Dallas. Matthew was suppose to have an off week, but the #2 team in the state had an off week and invited us to play them at their home stadium, so we get to pull the other kids out of school and drive 5 1/2 hours to the Dallas area. The kids are glad they get out of school early, but it will be a long day. We have to come back after the game since Jacob has a football game at 10 am Saturday and Makenzie has a soccer game.
Makenzie had her 2nd volleyball game last night and they won. It was a rival school so it made the win that much sweeter. Speaking of volleyball, a few weeks ago, Dale asked Makenzie if she was one of the taller girls on the team. Makenzie said no, but there are two "freakishly tall girls" on her team. When her team came out on the floor last night Dale looked at me and asked if the girl who was a foot taller than everyone else was one of the "FTG's", and it was her. Very cute girl, but very tall!

With the busy weekend schedule we look forward to having PJ church this Sunday, you know when you can stay in your PJ's and watch Conference. Have a great weekend everyone! And before I forget, Happy Late Birthday to my brother-in-law Bryan :) .

Other Weekend Activites

With all the excitement of homecoming I almost forgot the other kids. Makenzie had her first volleyball game last week and a soccer game witch they won. Jacob was cleared for sports again. He played in his first football game Saturday and they won. He also had a 50yd touchdown run. I missed it because I was coming from Makenzie's soccer game. They were all celebrating the touchdown just as I got there. I got behind somebody driving 30mph in a 45 and couldn't get around them so I was already mad then even more mad that it probably cost me seeing my son score a touchdown. Slow drivers annoy me!!! Here are a few pics and videos of the weeks sports. I've included some of Matthew's game also.

Good save Makenzie!

Punt that ball

Jacob as Safety

Jacob as Quarterback (#49)

Makenzie serving the ball. She was on a roll when I decided to tape it and sure enough, she hit it out of bounds. The girl does have arm strength!

This is right before the team takes the field. All the Varsity parents, who want to, meet outside the locker room and a Pastor, Preacher, etc.. offers a prayer with the parents. It's a neat thing. We then line up and cheer them as they take the field. Matthew is #18.

Here I am being a stalker mom. The cute blonde with the white jacket is Emily, Matthew's homecoming date. I wanted a picture of her with the mum so I taped her and then she came to talk to me. I should have just asked to take a picture.

Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Dopey.

Sorry no Dopey, Brittney isn't in the picture. (jk Britt)

Enough Ribbon, How About Some Homecoming Pictures

Matthew and Brittney: They almost look like they can stand each otherMatthew trying to figure out VelcroMatthew worried about that pin Matthew and Emily

Andrew, Blakley, Matthew and Emily
Emily and Matthew
My favorite picture

Boys will be boys

The guy in the pink pants is NOT with Brittney, they just happen to match.
Brittney, Crystal, Sara and Alisa
Brittney's group- just kids from church

Mum and Garter Exchange

This is the garter that Matthew got for homecoming. The guys wear these an their arm.

He will just wear it to school tomorrow since he is in the actual game. They are a little more toned down from the mums. Matthew and Emily exchanged them last night.

It was convenient (for Matthew) that it was before Mutual was over with and

I was at Makenzie's volleyball game so we didn't get any pictures of the exchange.

Hooray! The Mum is Done!

1 fake mum. 27 yards of ribbon. 10 yards of different gold beads. 6 yards of plastic pearl strands. 27 gold letters. 8 jingle bells. 4 plastic homecoming trinkets. 3 gold stars. 1 teddy bear. 1 whistle. 1 small bottle of bubbles. 1 cow bell. 1 set of lights w/ 2 batteries. 1 hot glue gun. Lots of staples. 4 trips to Hobby Lobby. 4 diet cokes. 4 Excedrin. And lots of patience.

Finishing the mum: PRICELESS

Believe it or not, this is small compared to a lot of mums. And I forgot to add in that I didn't even burn myself with the hot glue!

Today's Funny

This is an email Dale received today from the 1st Counselor in the YM Presidency. Dale is the YM President. Sorry, but I couldn't help not sharing this:

"Thank you very much Dale. We will be putting together an elongated opening exercise (20-25 min). We will focus on gratefulness with an emphasis on Hurricane Ike.
We will then retreat to the gym where we will play dodge ball (unless anyone opposes or has a more enlightening idea??).

Dale - Do you have any balls or know of anyone that may have some?

Teachers will also provide a treat."

Thanks,

Hurricane Night Sky

These photo's were on a kid in our ward's facebook. He lives just a few blocks away from us and really captured the sky the night when the hurricane was coming. I asked him if I could share them and he said of course. Thanks Javier Ascanio!!

Hallelujah! The Kids are Back in School

The kids are back in school today. Matthew and Brittney thought there would be no Seminary till Thursday, till we got the news at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting that our building now has power. You could almost hear all the moans from the youth. We only had an hour long Sacrament Meeting yesterday since there were 7 wards sharing a tiny building. I kind of liked that scheduling. It's not as good as "off campus Sunday School", but we don't have a Del Taco here(inside joke). Makenzie finally got to give her talk and she did a great job. Her talk was hand written and Brittney asked why she didn't do it on the computer. Well, the power was off when she wrote it and didn't have time to put it on the computer yet.
With school back in you'd think I could get something done, right? Wrong!! I have spent half the day buying stuff to make a homecoming mum for Matthew's date. I had never heard of these till we moved to Texas. It's a southern thing. You take a big fake mum flower and put it on a piece of board with lace around it. You hang ribbons, bells and beads and all kinds of crap off of it. You put things on it that have to do with what they are involved in. Matthew's date is a cross country runner and they don't have any thing for that this year. One Hobby Lobby called another store and that store said they had cross country ribbon, but they didn't when I got there. The bigger and gaudier, the better. The girls actually like big cow bells on them. I don't know about you, but when was a teenager, I don't think I would have liked to walk around the school with a cow bell ringing. They wear them the day of the football game. The girls usually decorate overall and attach this mum to it. Overalls are about the only thing to support it. I will have to take a picture of it when I am done. So much for getting anything done today and tomorrow I get to put this mum together. Wish me luck!

Getting Back to Normal

Things are trying to get back to normal here. The kids have been out of school all week long(feels longer). Our schools weren't hit so bad, but some of the others in our school district were. There is a lot of tree debris to clean up also. Matthew went back to football practice on Tuesday. We actually have a game tonight. This is not our scheduled game, but we are playing another school in our district just to try to get things back to normal. Even though we didn't have the massive damage as they did in other area's we have felt some of the impact. Lines at the gas pumps have been long since people from other area's that don't have it come here. We didn't have produce in the stores until yesterday. I was so excited to see a banana and a head of lettuce. It's amazing what we take for granted. As of yesterday, the church still didn't have power, but all the homes around it did. Makenzie's talk got moved to this Sunday so she is voting for no power. Makenzie will have her soccer game on Saturday and Jacob's team has a scrimmage(he still can't play till Wednesday). At least there are things for the kids to do now and I hope they will be back in school on Monday.

Tough Day at the Smith Home

Today we had to put our sweet dog, Bubbles, down. She was 13 years old. She had cancer all over her body. It was very hard letting go, in fact it was probably one of the hardest things we've had to do. We know she is at peace now and we will miss her terribly.

Being Prepared!!

Two days after Ike we are still getting continuing coverage of the devastation. People are without food and water and are getting angry that supplies are not getting to them fast enough. I really shouldn't be talking since I have power now and had plenty of food and water, but why is everyone waiting for someone else to take care of their needs. They always tell you to have 3 days worth of food, water and fuel because that's how long it takes to get stuff into people. Even for the people who evacuate they tell them to take these supplies with them. Where is the personal responsibility? And then there are those people (40%) who had a mandatory evacuation and they didn't. On the brighter side, I saw a piece on the news last night where neighbors were clearing out the limbs and trash out of the street so the water could drain. They were helping one another, instead of waiting for the city to clean their streets and getting results instead of being miserable doing nothing. Today, a bunch of youth from church went to the church to clean up the broken trees. They decided to do this and started texting each other and they had a big turn out. In all the complaining I see on the news, it's nice when they show people helping each other and kids finding something useful to do when there is no school. I'm grateful for the church that they push being prepared! I'm grateful to my parents and my husbands parents who have taught us to be self sufficient and to know if we can't help ourselves that they will be there for us.