Brooke

Another First

2010-10-03T13:08:00.002-05:00

I have truly been blessed since coming back to Texas to work with some successful football teams. Last year at River Road the football team became the most successful team in school history by playing in the state quarterfinal game. I felt so privileged to be part of that team.

This year I was part of another first. Bushland has played Muleshoe 3 times previously before this year. They had never beaten Muleshoe in football at any level. That all changed this week. Overall we went 4-1 against the Mules at all levels :) Thursday night the 7th grade won 20-6, 8th 22-20, 9th 25-26 and unfortunately the JV team lost. Pretty good for never beating them before. Then came the big game. Going into the game Muleshoe had a 30 game regular season win streak. (Now if you go back to last year River Road played Muleshoe in the bi-district round of the playoffs and Muleshoe went into the game with a 25-0 overall record dating back to their state championship year of 2008. Quick reminder if you've forgotten.) Well Friday night the Bushland Falcons snapped that 30 game win streak and beat the Mules 27-20 for their first win over Muleshoe in school history. (This is their 6th year of playing varsity sports.) It was a CRAZY CRAZY game with tons of fumbles and turnovers and interceptions, but once again it ended in my team's favor. Click here to read the newspaper article in Saturday's paper. The boys were SOOOOOO excited to say the least. It's been a different year for the Falcon Football team. We started off the year with a win, then dropped 2 in a row, something these boys are not use to happening. We bounced back with a win over Slaton and are now 2-0 in district. So many times they have been compared to last years' team that played in the state championship game and everyone had high expectations for this year. We still have those high expectations, but they have finally found themselves as this years team. I saw so much passion in Friday night's game and a group of boys that never gave up. This is why I love my job!

Volleyball did well this week, beating Highland Park in 3 on Tuesday and Childress on Saturday in 3. That makes them 4-0 in district and in sole possession of 1st place. They play each of the district teams again, and fully expect to be district champions.

Well onto another week :)

Great Start

2010-09-28T21:43:00.003-05:00

District has started off great! Volleyball has beat Fritch, River Road & Highland Park to start off district 3-0. We fully expect to be district champs, as well as going undefeated. The girls are doing really well and I am so proud of them.

Football opened up district with Slaton last week. We stomped them 49-0. It was so much fun to be back on the winning side. It rained an inch before we got to town and then some more before the game. It was a little misty but nothing major throughout the game. Their field is grass, so it was disgusting to say the least. We made it through with no major injuries (just a few tweaks) so that was definitely a plus. I was so excited last Monday because the varsity was at 100%, for the first time all year. Well Tuesday was a different story. I had one senior boy break his 4th metatarsal (thankfully this one didn't require surgery and he is back playing) and also a different senior have an avulsion fracture of one of the flexor tendons in his middle finger. He is going to have to have surgery, just not sure when yet. I think we are single-handedly keeping the hand specialist (there's only one) in Amarillo in business. He's a wondeful doctor though and I would recommend him to anyone. Our team physician (who is AMAZING!) works in the same office as him and they have really treated us well. It is so nice to have someone who I can call and will take care of whatever I need almost immediately. I'm very spoiled! Anyways, this week is a HUGE week for Bushland football. Could be another first for BHS. We host Muleshoe for our 2nd district match up. The Falcons have never beat Muleshoe, so hopefully it will be the first time in history for us to do so and help us to win the district championship! So excited.

Well that's about all right now. Until next time...

HELLLLOOOOOOO.....

2010-09-13T19:13:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I have blogged. Needless to say I've been a tad bit busy.

School is in full swing. I LOVE my new job. Bushland is a great place to work. I am only teaching 3 periods a day, which I love. I have a TAKS Math class with 4 seniors & 3 juniors. The Srs take their TAKS test in October so we are covering as much as possible in a small amount of time. They are all VERY close to passing so my goal is to get them over that hump in October. The juniors don't take their test til April, so I have plenty of time to work with them. I also teach 2 sports medicine classes. I've got 14 in one class and 15 in the other. I enjoy teaching this class so much. There's no TEKS (state standards) so I can basically teach what I want. The kids seem to be very interested in the class and ask tons of questions. My students are mainly juniors & seniors with a few sophomores. Upperclassmen are my favorite to teach. Most are athletes or involved in athletics in some way so they are full of questions.

Football is currently 1-2. Not exactly the start we expected but have played some great teams. We opened the season with a win over Stratford, then fell to Perryton & Borger. We are open this week and start district next week. The off week is nice to get some minor bumps and bruises healed. I currently feel like a hand expert. The first night of pads ("Midnight Madness") I had a senior tear a tendon in his pinkie and a freshman break his finger. Thankfully the senior is just in a splint, unfortunately the 9th grader had to have surgery and still can't play. Then I had a freshman break his wrist in the first scrimmage. Then a junior boy broke a bone in his hand in practice and had to have a plate and 6 screws put in. He's back playing now. Then I had a senior tear a ligament in his thumb. He missed the game last Friday and goes to the hand specialist this week to find out more. Thankfully nothing too major. I have already spine boarded a kid this year, which I never wish on anyone. He was knocked out on kickoff, but ended up just having a concussion. He's back practicing and doing well. A few other concussions, but nothing serious. I also had a senior that they discovered had an enlarged spleen. He wanted to play so bad, but I explained to him how dangerous it could be. (After nearly losing an athlete to a ruptured spleen last year, I have personal experience to basically scare the crap out of my athletes.) He was cleared last week as his spleen is back to normal size. So I've been a little busy, but not terribly busy which is nice.

Volleyball is huge at Bushland, and I hate to admit I have no idea what their record is. The girls haven't played at home much at all, so I rarely get to see them play. They've overcome some adversity, but seem to be pushing on. District starts this weekend, so we are hoping for our first district championship. The cross country teams are doing great as well. They are looking to be district champs on the boys side and hope to contend with Spearman girls (they were the state champs last year) for the title. I love how district championships are expected at Bushland.

There's my life in a nutshell right now!

Summer Update in Pictures

2010-07-25T13:47:00.036-05:00

Well here is a quick summer review....in pictures.

After I FINALLY got out of school in June, the first summer occasion was Kevin & Emily's wedding shower.

Me, Mom & Em at the shower.

Then that night was Tate & Sarah's wedding. We had a GREAT time!!!

This by far is the best Mother-Son dance I have ever experienced in my life. Gotta love when they break out the Stanky Leg!

Dancin' with my Daddy.

Me & Katie

Me, Momma Debbie (mother of the groom) & Booser.

Katie & me again

The next weekend we went to Midland for Jeff & Leslie's wedding. It was a TON of fun. It was so nice to hang out with the "orginal" Tulia coaches gang. How we turned out "normal" I will never know, but I wouldn't change how we grew up for anything in the world.

These are the people who raised us....so much is explained in this picture!! Haha!

We might have been the life of the party ;)

Me, Jorja (Jeri's daughter) and Katie

Emily flew back home and after a week of doing nothing we flew to STL for a week long trip in STL and Chicago. I also made a quick trip to Columbia to see some friends.

Me & Emily at the Cards game.

Mom & Dad at the Cards game.

The Fox Theatre to see Wicked. Amazing place and an even better show!

Me, Mom, Emily & Jaime at our girls night at Wicked.

Up entirely too early on vacation to catch the train to Chicago.

Kyle & Em waiting on the train.

Mom & Dad waitin' on the train.

Best. Pizza. Ever.

Even better was that I ran into a friend from Tech while here...he played football and is now with the Lions!

The family after stuffing our faces on the above pizza.

Picture in The Silver Bean...it does nothing for your figure.

Dad, Mom & Me at the Silver Bean.

The Millers

Kyle & Em being goofy at the Silver Bean.

Soldier Field. 'Da Bears.

Emily & Dad being goofy with a dinosaur statue outside of the Field Museum.

Walking. Emily loves these sculptures but had never gotten to take pictures with them.

Going for a ride.

Being goofy. We decided the arms were a little much...gonna have to repeat next trip.

Em & Me on the bus....who knew public transportation could be so much fun ;)

Dad, Emily & Kyle on the bus.

Me & Mom on the bus.

Navy Pier...one of my favorite places.

Me & Dad on the Ferris Wheel

Kyle & Emily on the Ferris Wheel.

The first Ferris Wheel in the world is located in Chicago. (See you learned something new didn't you!)

Em, Kyle & Me on the swings at Navy Pier.

Kyle, Em & Me at Navy Pier.

Lake Michigan & Navy Pier

Me Em & Kyle taking a tour of Chicago from the 94th floor of the John Hancock Observatory. It was really cool & very imformative....let me tell you Chicago is HUGE!

Dad & Mom @ the John Hancock Observatory.

Eating at Ed Debevic's

The family at Ed Debevic's

Emily & Kyle along the Chicago River

Dad & Mom along the Chicago River

Mom, Me & Emily out on Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline behind us.

Me, Dad & Mom waiting on the L. We are all smiling because we had just eaten some great Mexican food at Uncle Julios (and we could finally hear each other talk...it was beyond loud there.)

The Chicago Skyline at night. Emily took this picture from the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building.

Wrigley Field...great experience.

Wrigley Field

My daddy and me on the train on our way back from Chicago.

After our Chicago trip I made a quick trip to CoMo to hang out with Tara and the Hairstons. This is the only picture I have, but can you believe how much Harper has grown? And she still loves and misses her Auntie Brooke. She cried when I left which made it so much harder to say goodbye once again. :(

The most amazing ribs I've EVER had. If you are ever in STL this is a MUST visit. It was featured on Man vs Food. Just make sure you get there early they serve 'til they run out of food & the sweet potato fries are awesome as well!

Me, Dad & Emily @ Pappy's Smokehouse.

Jenny's baby shower was July 10th in Kress. It was soooo great to hang out with her and all the other girlies and she got some really cute stuff. I am so excited for September to finally meet Baby Boy Bezner!!!

This is Nater-Tater (Nathan). He is the cutest little boy ever...he's JJ's son.

Jenny, JJ, Elaine & Me. This is quite the candid picture, but the only one I have until Elaine posts hers. We are all great friends who don't get to hang out near enough. It was so great to be at the shower together.

We went to Ruidoso for the weekend to celebrate Kevin & Emily Parker's wedding (July 17th). Kevin is Kyle's brother.....yes, you read right, there are now two Emily Parkers in one family.

Kevin & Emily

Watch out world.....there's TWO Emily Parkers now!

The family (minus Kyle) at Kevin & Em's Wedding.

And that's my summer. Most of the other days were spent visiting family or laying out by the pool. I have definitely gotten my money's worth at it this summer. I started working some this week and 2-a-days start August 2nd....so it's back to the routine on Monday. I have an inservice tomrrow and then plan on enjoying my last few "free" days relaxing. I'm so excited for the upcoming year though. I think I am really going to enjoy Bushland!

Decisions, Decisions

2010-06-04T17:51:00.003-05:00

Well I made one of the hardest decisions in my entire life last week....

I have officially accepted a job at Bushland High School next year (I haven't signed a contract yet....waiting for the board meeting on the 15th). It was all a really quick deal and I was totally not expecting it.

I had already decided that I was going to stay at Road. I checked out the job board (every coach is always "looking") but never saw anything that I was really interested in pursuing and I really love my staff at RR. The Friday of graduation (2 weeks ago), Coach Greeson and I went and ate lunch after we got out at noon. She asked if I was staying and I told her yes. So we go home and I decide to take a quick nap before getting ready for graduation. At 4 I get a text from Coach Rhodes (Bushland boys basketball coach--who I know pretty well) that the training job at Falcon nation is open. I wasn't too surprised as he had told me that it might open up previously. I told him I would look into it, but not much else. So of course I call my dad to talk about it and what not, then I get ready for graduation. Well I've got no one to tell....so I finally find Greeson and tell her that the job is open....and she hates me. (We have a weird relationship.) I share with a few others that night and go about my business. So throughout the weekend I talk to some people, etc. and I hear that there have been 2 names mentioned for the job and I am one of them. So Monday afternoon I call Coach Flowers (Bushland AD) and ask about the job. He tells me to come over Tuesday. Going in, I had no idea if it was a formal interview or if I was just going over to find out some details. Well it was a formal interview and I did great---granted I already know most of the staff. It's an athletic training position and they are adding sports medicine classes next year, so I would teach 2 of those. I tell Coach Flowers I would really like to coach basketball and he agrees that he could work that out. So we finish talking and go to the superintendent's office and he discovers that I teach math and he is super excited. (One word of advice....if you want a job anyone in Texas, get Secondary Math certified...it's not an easy test by any means, but you can basically pick where you want to live and superintendents & principals LOVE you.) So he tells me they might use me in math as well. So things go great and I head home. I cry nearly the whole night Tuesday. I am so emtionally torn on what to do I really couldn't even think rationally. I talk to several different people on the phone...yell at my mom becuase I'm emotionally drained....apologize and cry some more. Finally give up and go to bed.

Wednesday was kind of a blur. I was just trying to hold it together most of the day and consider all the pros and cons. I talk to Bryan....cry in his office (I'm pretty certain that made him uncomfortable and he really didn't know what to think)...and continue to just be a basketcase. Thursday was much better. I finally had made a pro/con list that focused more on the positive than the negatives and put my emotions aside and looked at the facts. I had a wonderful talk to with Angela and finally felt like I was leaning towards a decision. Friday I felt so at peace. I called Coach Flowers in the afternoon, but he didn't answer so I left him a message saying that I would accept the job if they offered (this all goes back to my interview...left out those details). He called me back about an hour later (in the middle of his golf game...gotta find out tee times in the future) and said the job was mine.

Calling Bryan and Angela to tell them I had accepted the job was one of the hardest things ever. (And now I'm crying again as I type this.) They were somewhat expecting it, but it was still hard. I have been so blessed to work with such an amazing staff this year and have learned so much from them. They have truly become my family and I will miss each of them for different reasons. We went through so much together this year, I'm not sure how I will survive without them. No matter how our football games were going this year, I could always find a way to make Bryan smile or laugh. One game in particular was the Fritch game when it hadn't started out as our greatest game and we had an interesting halftime to say the least. Everyone was on edge, but walking out to the field I made some smart comment and all he could do was laugh. Well he repayed me...I remember sitting in his office last Wednesday crying and saying, "It's sooo hard to decide what to do. I'm a horrible decision maker, I don't even like to decide what I am going to wear to school each day" And Bryan looks at me and says, "It's not a big decision or anything....it's just your life." I instantly bust out laughing. Needless to say, it's these little things that I will miss the most. I have developed so many great relationships with my athletes, it is so hard to leave them. Especially because I am the 4th athletic trainer River Road has had in 4 years. I feel like I am abandoning them :( The good thing is that I will still get to see them quite often. We are just across town and in the same district in everything (did I mention they are big rivals???). Weeks that we play each other will be hard, but I will never forget all that they taught me while at Road. As Greeson told me, "The Road Goes on Forever...."

So there it is....I'm now a Falcon (after finishing up a few more things at Road). I truly feel like it is the best situation for me, especially in a long term aspect.

Along those line....the Bushland baseball team has done an amazing job.....they've only lost 5 games all year (and one was to RR) and are headed to the state tournament in Austin next week. So proud of my future team :)

A Quick Update

2010-05-22T22:34:00.002-05:00

Wow....a lot has happened since my last post. I'll just go with a quick list to catch you up.

--Spent the weekend after district track with my parents for mine & mom's birthday dinner. It was so good just to eat, talk and catch up with my parents.

--Spent a weekend with the Bezners & Van Beeks' in Dalhart. I love both of those families so much and I got to play with Nater! Jenny & I taught him to sit up Sunday afternoon while his momma was working. We were pretty proud and according to JJ he loves to do it all the time now.

--Went to Lubbock for the weekend to watch the Mizzou-Tech baseball series. Mizzou won Friday nigth in 11 innings, Tech won on Saturday, I missed Sunday's game, but Tech won that one as well. It was soooo great to hang out with Katie & Matt over the weekend. Matt is the Mizzou baseball trainer and was one of my good friends while I was up there. I really miss sharing an office with him, as every day was a new adventure and there was NEVER a dull moment.

--Regional track was fun. The girls made it to the finals in the 800 relay, the first time in 5 years anyone has advanced to the finals so we were really proud of them. None of the boys relays' made it to the finals, but Chris did in the 100. He ended up 5th overall. Tony ran well and placed in the top 10. Jordan did AMAZING. Sorry gotta insert a story. I really need to add the video as well. There were 3 vaulters left and Jordan was sitting 3rd on misses (the top 2 go go to state). Well he was vaulting 2nd of the 3 vaulters and they were at 15'. Now Jordan had cleared 14'6 for the first time in a meet just previously and he was on his 3rd attempt at 15'. It was do or die...clear and go to Austin (the Cisco kid had missed 15' all 3 times...Spearman kid still had a 3rd vault) or miss and pack your bags and head home. Well HE CLEARED!!! The Spearman kid (who Jordan beat out at district on misses as well) missed his 3rd attempt, so Jordan went from 3rd to 1st in one vault. It's kinda crazy how quickly the tables can turn. So he qualified for state.

--Baseball ened up 3rd and played Tulia in the first round of the playoffs. Talk about mixed emotions. We ended up losing in 3. :( Tulia won game 1 5-2, we won game 2 3-2, Tulia won game 3 1-0. It was some of the best high school baseball I have ever seen. Tulia's baseball coach is one of my best guy friends. We went to school together from 4th grade on and have remained very close since then. I told Tate (Tulia coach) that if we were going to have to lose to somebody it might as well be my best friend and alma mater. I still hated to see our guys lose and even shed a few tears. That same weekend Ewell & Blake both graduated from WT, so they had a graduation cookout. It was very nice to see all the Adams family and hang out like old times.

--STATE TRACK MEET was GREAT! I got to go down with Jordan and watch him vault and so many others run. Jordan didn't have his best day but finished 5th clearing 14'. I saw a lot of coaches that I miss so much. I ran into Grissom & Sharon and got to catch up with them. It has been several years since I had seen Grissom, and I assure you...he hasn't changed a bit. I was very upset to find out that he was at our regional track meet because he was coaching the Cisco hurdlers this year---like I said, he hasn't changed....he'll never fully give up coaching track. The Hamlin girl that I know through the twins won the 800 for the 3rd year in a row....going for her 4th and final next year. The Thornberry twins were there...Amber ran on the mile relay and Ashlen was an alternate...they finished 4th. Sunray girls were also there in the mile relay so it was great to see Coach Hartman, Ryan, Ruby and several of the other girls. Keith's girls were there too. Keith is one of my state tournament buddies. He is one of Cooke's good friends and I have sat with him for years at games and then he is in the suite with us. He has 3 daughters and 2 of them were running at state. Payton is a senior and won the 800 for the 3rd year in a row. I have been dying to watch her run and finally got to this year. Payton & Kambrie both ran on the mile relay and they finished 7th. I got to see several new state records and a lot of good track. If you've never been to the Texas State Track Meet, I suggest you check it out. It's way addicting. I had a GREAT time with the Yankovich family and am so glad they let me tag along. I am so super proud of Jordan. He's been through a lot this past year. He wasn't able to pole vault last year because he broke his back while at Tascosa. Then he moved to River Road when his dad got the basketball job and started football. He is the one that tore his ACL in the first district game, so he didn't really feel like he contributed much to the success in football, then he missed all of basketball season except the last 2 district games....and holy cow I wish we would have had him all year. He made a huge impact on the team, so he missed that whole season, so this year track was his thing and he did and AMAZING job at pole vault. I am so excited to watch him next year in all sports.

--Graduation was this Friday. We have what is called "flex" and early promotion. All the seniors as well as all other students that have passed all their classes, passed their TAKS test and don't have an attendance problem are done with school. Everyone else had 9 more days. It's pretty crazy and I'm not really sure I understand the idea behind it or like it. Basically we take all the "smart" kids out and are expected to "babysit" the others for 2 weeks. Oh well, I'll smile and trudge on through the next 9 days. I am so proud of myself for not crying at graduation. Several of the senior boys are like sons to me and I am so excited for them to graduate, but at the same time, sad to see them go. Luckily for me, most of them are staying around here, so I will get to see them every once in a while.

This is the first weekend in a while I haven't had plans of going out of town. It was actually pretty nice to have nothing planned, however I was WIDE AWAKE at 7:30 this morning. So I finally gave up sleeping at about 8 and got up and went and watched our varsity girls play basketball. I watched 3 of their games then decided to go watch Coach Greeson & Coach Upchurch's sons play baseball. They are both 5 and play coach pitch. They are soooooo cute and fun to watch. They lost tonight by 1 run.

Well that's all....I'm headed to bed :)

Regional Bound

2010-04-18T20:19:00.002-05:00

Well we are Regional Track bound!!!! I am soooo excited and proud of our kids.

We started out the day with the kids we thought would make running finals did, with a few surprises. Field events went ok. My high jump girl was in a 4 way tie for 3rd place, but didn't win the jump off to go to regionals. She jumped pretty well though. Kallie qualified for pole vault placing 3rd and Kaci advanced in discus placing 2nd! So proud of those girls. Neither of my boys did as well as they or I would have like them to do. Kristian didn't place and Travis ended up 5th. Baza ended up 4th in one of the throwing events (don't remember which, shot I think) and Jordan is the top qualifier in the region for Pole Vault!!!!

Then running finals started. The sprint relay went well. The girls placed 2nd and the boys finished 3rd, so the both advance to regionals. Then came the 800. I was pretty confident about getting Betty & Tony both out. Then distaster struck. Betty was running a GREAT race...she was 2nd at the break and was holding strong at 2nd-3rd throughout the entire lap, then at the last curve of the first lap she got tangled up in a group and fell. She got up and was in tears when she got to me close to the start/finish line, I told her to keep going, then turned to my head coach and said I was just going to have her stride to finish, becuase I could tell she was hurting and she still had to run the mile relay. So I run across the field and meet her on the other side and just tell her to stride and finish. None of my girls ended up placing, but I was very proud of the way they ran. So then it's the boy's turn. Tony is running a great race, not leading or in 2nd like I am used to, but he is right on pace. He kicks when I need him to and coming down the home stretch he is in perfect position to end up 2nd. A Bushland kid is in the clear lead and another is in 2nd and the last one right beside him. Well Bushland kid C, goes to pass Bushland kid B on the right in lane 2. Bushland kid B is running on the very outside of lane 1, so there is PLENTY of room for Tony to pass on the inside. I am yelling and jumping like crazy for Tony to finish. Just as Bushland kid C passes kid B, he looks to his right....the next thing I know all 3 of them are even with me and Tony is rolling off the track. He lands right in front of me and I remember just yelling at him to get up and finish. Well he ends up finishing 4th and I am CRUSHED. I go check on him and tell him good job and begin walking back to the bus to check on Betty and wrap one fo my girl's hamstrings. On my way back down the track, I meet several of our boys and they say, "What are they going to do?" I say what are y'all talking about, and they reply, "That kid shoved Tony off the track." I reply, "Seriously???" cause I never saw it. Then I realize nearly every one of our coaches are headed towards the finish line. I turn around and see my boys' head track coach, my athletic director, 2 Bushland coaches and the meet director talking. I walk up and one Bushland coach says that the other Bushland coach saw him shove Tony off the track. Our coaches say they saw it and then the meet director says he was standing next to the AD that was hosting the district meet and he saw it. He then says the Bushland kid would be disqualified and Tony was in. I was SOOOOOO EXCITED. Then I had to find Tony. I had NO IDEA where he went, so then I went on the great adventure. I finally found him and told him he was in. I felt like I had finally succeeded. Before I found all of this out, I was ready to just go to the bus for the rest of the meet. I was still upset that Betty hadn't qualified, but felt a lot better with Tony getting out. The rest of the day went pretty well. Chris got 2nd in the 100. Our boys 800 relay team was edged out by Bushland by .05 of a second, but our girls beat Panhandle by .02 of a second. Thank goodness Taylor leaned!! Sheldyn didn't get out in the hurdles :( but Tony qualifed 3rd in the mile. (He by far didn't run his fastest time, but ran well enough to get in. He was pretty sore from his tumble before.) Our boys ran an exciting mile relay and won it. Coach Pointer has checked regional times and we are 3rd going in. Top 2 advance to state so we gotta run well to get in. Our girls didn't run their best splits and ended up 4th :(

Anyways, I am super excited for all of the kids that qualified and am looking forward to a great time in Odessa. We are middle of the pack in most of the boys stuff except for Jordan in pole vault and the mile relay. I am not sure about the girls. I would think that we will be middle of the pack for most things. I am just so excited to get down to Odessa and see how they do.

Spring Break Adventure

2010-03-21T18:53:00.002-05:00

It's my favorite time of the year. The state basketball tournament followed by spring break.

The state basketball tournament has been one of my favorite vacations since 8th grade. (Background information on my family & the state tournament click here.) My dad has been to every state tournament since 1975. I've only missed 2 in the last 14 years. I LOVE IT!! I left school Wednesday at 2 and we headed to Austin. It was a great 3 days of hanging out with some of my favorite people. It's really a shame that I only see some of them 1-2 times a year. Sunday we drove back to Tulia.

About 3 weeks ago I got 2 new tires and new brake pads on my car so it would be ready for my adventure to Missouri. The day before we left for Austin a belt on my car starting squealing TERRIBLY. Wednesday when I pulled into my parents' garage my mom could hear it all the way across the house. She got concerned. She sprayed some WD-40 on it and we headed south. Sunday when we got home I started the car and it was awful, so she said, you aren't taking that to Missouri...put everything back in my car. So being the smart kid that I am, I grab my gate key to my apartment, load everything up and head towards Amarillo. I am exhuasted, still have to do some laundry, pack and also get some sleep--as I planned to leave between 6-7am the next morning to get to Emily & Kyle's house for supper. Well as I am exiting off the interstate in Amarillo, I realize, I have a gate key, but all of my apartment keys are in Tulia. GREAT!! So I call my mom hoping she has a key in her car, nope...it's in her purse in Tulia. So I turn around and head back south and she heads north to meet me. An hour later I finally get back to Amarillo and to my apartment. I didn't get near the sleep I wanted to, but I got up around 5, showered and headed out the door.

I made great time to Granite City, IL. Emily cooked a wonderful supper and we hung out for the rest of the night. It was so nice to see her and Kyle. Tuesday I slept in a little and headed to Alton to have lunch with Em. I ran a few errands then headed up to school to hang out with Emily a little more before she headed to Indianapolis for a PE teachers conference. They were in the middle of her intramurals periods, so I got to meet several of her favorites. They were pretty humorous to say the least. Afterwards we headed back to Granite, made a stop at State Beauty and then I headed west to CoMo.

I had a GREAT time in CoMo. It was so great to see everyone. Spending 3 days with Tara made us both realize how much we miss each other....and truly relied on each other so much. Tuesday night I went to see the Hairstons and delivered birthday presents. It amazes me how much Harper & Reid have grown. Wednesday & Thursday I hung out at the training room most of the day. I had a great time seeing all the athletes that I use to spend EVERY day with. Wednesday night Casey & Neisha fixed an amazing dinner of steak, baked sweet potatoes and corn. It was sooo good. After that Tara and I headed to the Deuce for some St. Patty's Day festivities. Thursday nigth we went to the Mizzou-North Dakota baseball game. We actually left in the middle of the 5th inning, when the Tigers were up 14-3. The 3rd inning was pretty amazing, scoring 11 runs. It was so good to see the boys play. It was a little odd though becuase there are 21 newcomers, it felt like a WHOLE new team. We decided dinner at Tequila's was a must and invited Casey & Neisha to go with us since they were kidless. After that we headed to the Deuce for a relaxing evening with our favorite "Deuce friends." Being there Thursday night made me realize how much I hate holidays at the Deuce becuase people come out of the woodwork to hang out, but Thursday night was back to our favorite place to hang out, "where everybody knows your name."

1693 miles later I made it back to Amarillo. (This doesn't include the Austin trip, just Amarillo to the MidWest.) Although I didn't get to see everyone that I would have liked in CoMo, it was sooo good to see the ones that I did. There are so many things I miss about the MidWest that I didn't realize. It's amazing how much I am torn between home and the MidWest. Both have so many pros, but with the major con that I am so far away from so many friends and family members. Maybe I should move to Tulsa...it's the halfway point. HAHAHA TOTALLY KIDDING!!!! Then I would just be stuck in the middle with NO ONE.

Alrighty, I gotta do a few things before bed. Sorry I don't have any picutres. I amazingly didn't take ANY. Shocking I know. Have a great week!!!!!

Venting

2010-02-20T21:12:00.002-06:00

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will probably start reading this and think, "Brooke, drop it....." but I am very passionate about what I do and you all know that when I do something, I tackle it with everything....I'm a perfectionist and accept nothing less than the best. But here lately, my teaching job has truly been a challenge.

I just don't understand how so many kids just flat out DON'T CARE. For example, not last Wednesday but the Wednesday before I gave all my geometry classes a test review and they worked on it in class. Every once in a while I will just change the title to Test instead of Test Review, but I informed my students this wouldn't be the case this time, but that it would be VERY similar, so if they didn't understand a problem to be sure and ask. Well needless to say...some asked questions, most did not. I took up their test reviews and took a grade on them. Now mind you on Wednesday when they finished their test reviews I offered to check their answers...so this should have been an easy easy 100. Well at least 10 didn't even turn in their reviews, so that's their first 0. Whatever, waste your time, I'm giving you the opportunity to raise your average and you won't even TURN IT IN (frustration #1). I have threatened to quit giving reviews, but then I think, I punish those who actually DO their review, STUDY their review, and NEED that review to pass my class; so I continue to make test reviews and spend a class period working on them. Thursday rolls around and it's test day. I begin grading their tests and OH MY...they either made a 85 and above or a 15 and below. We just spent 2 WEEKS on this topic, yes 2 weeks....how could you possibly not get more than 3 out of 20 questions right. I wrote the test and test review. When writing the test, I took the test review and put in the exact same questions, only changing the numbers (i.e. 5 to 6, 12 to 32), nonetheless it doesn't change how you do the problem, only the answer and then I also changed the order in which the questions appeared. They all should have easily made at least a 50, good grief, half of them all you had to do was draw a picture. As the day progressed I became more and more frustrated. I ended up with 9 zeros on the test. I had 4 students tell me they didn't know how to do it, write a 0 on top of their test and turn it in. How do you not even try and exactly what have you been doing the past two weeks. After grading their tests, I began grading their test reviews. I couldn't believe how horribly half of my students had done on their test. I became even more angry while grading their test reviews. How in the world do you make a 100 on your test review but a 0 on your test.....oh wait, you copied someone else. Friday's class began with a griping session. I was NOT HAPPY to say the least. Yes, it was a difficult topic, that's why I spent two weeks on it. I could go blue in the face saying, if you don't understand ASK....but those who really don't understand never ask. How in the world can my special ed kids make 90+ on their test and those of you who are perfectly capable of doing everything make a 0....oh wait you don't try. I JUST DON'T GET IT.....I even asked for suggestions of how I can be a better teacher or help them learn. One suggestion was, "Well we have done this for so long, maybe we have gotten bored with the topic." I nearly lost it on this comment....mainly because the student who suggested this had only turned in 1-2 of the worksheets out of about the 7 we had done. I replied "Well I'm sorry, do you want me to just teach it one day, do a worksheet then move on? Because that's not happening. It has taken over half of my students this two weeks to actually understand what we are doing.....and I don't understand how you tell me you have gotten 'bored' with the topic when you haven't even DONE it." Yes I was a little blunt, but I was beyond frustrated by this class period. This is a student who I have daily struggles with and he always thinks I am wrong and he is right. I exchange e-mails with his mother at least every other week, if not every week and I told her what I said. I told her I was blunt and she was not upset at all. She was actually thankful.

We have moved onto another topic and it is much easier so hopefully the test grades will be better. We are doing a test review on Monday and taking a test on Tuesday....SURELY the grades will be better this time. Otherwise I may be looking for a career change....ugh....I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!

So...that's my venting for the night.

2 MONTHS???

2010-02-10T18:25:00.002-06:00

Holy cow, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I have posted. Needless to say I have been a tad bit busy. When I have had time to blog, I haven't had a computer, as it made a trip to the Dell Depot to get fixed. I am back however in the technological world with a "fixed" computer and new phone--long story & lots of money :(

Basketball season for the girls is officially over. Last night was our last game and the boys have 2 left. We definitely didn't have the season we would have liked to have by any means, but I guess you will have down years. My JV really has improved throughout the season. We finished the year 9-18. We did finish with back-to-back wins over Bushland and Sanford-Fritch so that was exciting. Now it's on to track/baseball/softball/golf. I am an assistant track coach and in charge of the long distance runners and high jumpers. I will be the first one to say I have NO IDEA about high jump. We used to play on the mats all the time when I was little and I did it beofre actually getting into track in JH, but other than jump high and make sure your butt clears the bar, I am clueless. Oh well, gotta get experience some how.

Outside of school I have no life. Boring I know...but I haven't had much time for entertainment. I am super excited for the basketball playoffs and going to watch some great games. I absolutely love going to the state basketball tournament and we should have a suite again this year so I am excited about spending 3 days with a great group of people in Austin. Can't wait!!!

I do hope to make a trip to Missouri before too long. I miss my sister & Kyle and all my friends in CoMo. Before too long school will be out and it will be time for summer workouts, weddings, camps, and a trip to Chicago!

I hope everyone is doing great. I really plan to be better about updating my blog!

Tech vs Baylor at Cowboy Stadium

2009-12-12T21:37:00.003-06:00

Well after Melissa talking trash to me most of the game because not only was Tech losing to Baylor, but my Tigers were also losing to kansas, the tides turned and both (Tech & Mizzou) were victorious!!!! The Tech-Baylor game was definitely an ugly one, but I am so glad the Red Raiders pulled out the win. The Cowboys Stadium is AMAZING!! Holy cow that thing is huge. We were up in the top section, but didn't have bad seats at all. We took Mom's camera into the game so I don't have any pictures from inside, but here are a few after the game while we were waiting for the traffic to clear out.

Cowboy Stadium -- "Jerry World"

Mom, Dad & Me after the game

A sweet lady walked by and offered to take a picture of us.

Overall my Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good. I really would have liked to have gone 3-0 with my football teams for the weekend but you can't complain about 2-1, especially with the Mizzou game ending with a game winning field goal over ku. MIZ-ZOU.....Wreck 'Em Tech!

All Great Things Must Come To An End...

2009-12-12T21:07:00.003-06:00

Follow me around for a day and you will understand why this post is so delayed....

Just as the title states, all great things must come to an end. My football team (yes mine, I have spent more time with this team than anyone else over the last 4 months) fell to Brady Thanksgiving weekend. Again, I can't remember the score, but I know the boys NEVER gave up and we were in it right up until the end. It was such a hard night, but I am soooo super proud of all those boys. No one outside of the Wildcat Football family ever believed they would have gone 3 rounds deep in the playoffs and make school history. It has truly brought together our school as well as our community. I can honestly say I am proud to be a River Road Wildcat (scary I know)!

Basketball is in FULL swing. I am done with JV tounaments for the year. It's been a crazy month to say the least. 3 basketball tournaments in 4 weeks along with Thanksgiving
& football playoffs. Last weekend I played in the Arbor Tournament, we ended up 4th. We beat Arbor, lost to Clarendon and then lost to Randall 9th. My girls are improving though and gaining confidence. This weekend we hosted our JV Tournament. We ended up 4th again. We beat the Amarillo Flames, lost to Sunray and then lost to Nazareth. We've got 2 games next week, then we're off for Christmas break. My record rigth now is 5-10.

I am sooooo ready for a break from school. I am physically and emotionally exhuasted. I spend most days running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get a million things done in a small amount of time. We're out of school for 2 weeks, but I'll only technically have 5-7 days off due to basketball. It definitely won't be as hectic as when we are in school though.

Alrighty...I gotta get busy on my semester test. It has to be multiple choice per my principal, so I have my work cut out for me!

Happy Holidays to EVERYONE!

Catching Up...

2009-11-22T19:07:00.004-06:00

Holy cow, I haven't posted in forever.

I will start with football. We beat Sanford-Fritch in our final district ball game. Honestly I can't even remember the score. We won, that's all that matters. We finished undefeated on our home field (and the beauty of one that it is--yes that was sarcastic). I am soooo proud of these boys. We finished regular season with a record of 7-3 and 2nd in district. This is the first time River Road has made the playoffs in 10 years, so you can imagine the excitement around school.

We are the largest school in our district, so we went to the Division I bracket. Our first draw was #4 Muleshoe. Muleshoe won state last year and was coming in with a 25-0 record dating back to last year. We were picked to lose the game by 20 point. WOW, what a game! We were up 12-0 at half, fell behind 21-12 and came back to win 25-21. We scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick and scored again in the last 5 minutes of the game. BI-DISTRICT Champs!!!!! Here is a picture of most of the boys with the trophy following the game.

The two boys below are two that I am VERY close with. They started calling me Mom at the beginning of the year, and it just stuck. Several others have also started calling me Mom as well. It's actually pretty entertaining to hear someone yelling "MOM" on the sideline and see me answering to them.

After beating Muleshoe, we advanced to the regional round vs #21 Littlefield. Littlefield has a lot of tradition in the playoffs as well. This week we were picked to lose by 13. Our boys have fed off being the underdog is so many of our games. There was actually a story in the Amarillo paper this week about this. We led the entire football game and even though it came down to the final 6 seconds, and a batted down pass with time expired, WE WON!!! 34-28....REGIONAL CHAMPS!!!

The win over Littlefield actually made the team the most successful team in River Road school history! Everyone in the community has come together and really supported this team. We now advance to the State Quarterfinal round and play Brady on Friday at 6 pm at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa. So...if you are in the area and want to see a great game, head up to Ratliff for some Friday Night Lights!!

Basketball is in full swing as well. It hasn't gone as well as I would like for it to, but they are headed in the right direction. We started off 0-3 and played in the Nazareth JV Girls Tournament this weekend. I only went Thursday becuase of football conflicts. We lost our first game to Muleshoe, but then they ended up winning their next 2 games and won consolation. We have two big games this week, Sudan on Monday and Vega on Tuesday.

I am missing my family Thanksgiving again this year because of football playoffs. The Ward family (one of our football coaches) has graciously invited me over to spend the day with them and any others that are staying in the area. I did however find a reasonable flight to Dallas early Saturday afternoon and get to go to the Tech-Baylor game with my family. I am sooo excited for many reasons, I'll get to see everyone but my PawPaw, Emily & Kyle during Thanksgiving break, I get to see my Red Raiders play, and I get to see the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

I hope everyone has a very safe and blessed Thanksgiving!!! GO CATS!

November Already?

2009-11-01T20:42:00.003-06:00

I can't believe it is already November!?!? Time is flying by and my days are getting busier. Basketball practice started on October 21st. It is going ok so far. We still have several girls in volleyball so it makes it hard to teach stuff when you don't have your whole team. I never realized how lucky I was and how nice it was to have your entire team from the first day of school until this year. We had a scrimmage on Saturday that I ended up not going to for a variety of reasons, but Coach Greeson said my girls worked hard and did well. They even ended up scrimmaging in one of the varsity scrimmages...so that gave them some extra playing time. We have another scrimmage this Thursday and then our first game the next week. I am so excited to be back coaching and am excited for the season to start. It's a little hectic with football and basketball going on, but I will make it all work.

Volleyball made the playoffs and has their first game against Dimmitt on Tuesday. You all know my feelings about Dimmitt, so honestly I hope we STOMP them!

Two weeks ago we played at Spearman for football. We came away with another shut out 23-0. We played the worst half of football we have played all year, but had a good 2nd half and came away with the win. That helped out our playoff run greatly. One of my football players also had his ACL surgery that week. He is doing amazing so far in his rehab. He went to the the doctor this week and found out he can start jogging in about 4 weeks. I am so excited. This week we played #2 Bushland. We lost 48-14, but the boys never gave up, so I am super proud of them for that. It was a tough loss because it is a huge rivalry, especially since several of the Bushland football players grew up in River Road and have moved to the Bushland district. No major injuries in either of those games, praise the Lord! We play Sanford-Fritch this Friday. A win puts us automatically in the playoffs. That's all we will talk about for now. Making the playoffs will be HUGE as the Road hasn't made the playoffs since 1999. I am soooo excited.

School is going good. Only a few weeks until Thanksgiving and I get to see my family. :) I wish I could see Emily & Kyle, but it will be Christmas before I get to see them again. I miss them so much!! Well I guess I should get ready to go to bed before to long. I have another long week ahead of me!

A Slower Week & Time With the Bestie!!!

2009-10-18T21:45:00.003-05:00

Whew, thank goodness this week wasn't near as eventful as the last. Tuesday nothing too exciting happened. Wednesday we hosted FCA Fields of Faith. We had 67 kids show up. It was so great to see kids from River Road, Highland Park and Bushland all come and worship together. We had some great testimonies and several accept Christ which was awesome. We had 4 River Road coaches help with the event. I am so blessed to work with a staff that is grounded in their faith and willing to take time out of their life to help those students who we work with on a daily basis. Thursday I went to the JV game at Highland Park. We suffered a loss, but no injuries. Friday night we hosted Highland Park. We won big, 68-0, and are currently in a three way tie for 2nd place (and leading the tie-breaker--thank you Fritch for beating Panhandle by 14!!!). It was a good game and everyone got to play. We had two defensive touchdowns by defensive lineman. One read a pass and intercepted the ball and returned it 14 yards (that's a long way for a lineman!) and the other recovered a blocked punt in the endzone. We had 8 different people score so that was super exciting. I did have to spineboard a football player, but thankfully it wasn't mine this week. Their quarterback went down with some neck pain and the guy (I still don't know if he was an athletic trainer, PA or what) wanted to send him to the hospital so I said ok. I was the first one to him, so I was in charge of the head. I got word on Saturday morning that he was up and walking around Friday night, which I was so glad to hear. I also had an official strain his hamstring during a run. We got the ball on our own 3 yard line and Chris Perez scored a 97 yard rushing touchdown. He was just too fast for the official running down the sideline. Thankfully, we finished the night with no injuries. (Even though I still felt like I had run a marathon at the end of the game, because they had 2 others go down with ankle injuries and I was always the first one there.)

Saturday morning I had treatments and watched a little film with the boys. Around lunch Mom and I headed to OKC to see Tara. Mizzou soccer played Friday night at Baylor and were playing Sunday at OU so she was going to be in OKC for the night. It's only about 4 hours from Amarillo to OKC so I jumped at the opportunity to spend some time with Tara. I didn't get to see her when I went to Missouri in September so this was the first time I have seen her since I moved to Texas at the end of June. We went to dinner at Chileno's, a great Mexican food place in Bricktown. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to check on the girls before they had curfew. It was so good to see the soccer girls as well. There are a few who I felt like were some of my own athletes because they were in the training room so much and I spent quite a bit of time with them. We had planned on going back down to Bricktown to watch the Mizzou-OSU game, but we got comfy on the couch in the hotel and ended up staying in and watching the game there. It was a tough one to watch, as it's never fun to see my Tigers lose. The game wasn't over til nearly midnight and all of us were exhausted by then. So Mom and I headed back to our hotel. Miracuously neither Tara or I cried when I left the hotel. I think we were both so exhausted we couldn't even show any emotion. Even though my trip was quick and we didn't get to spend too much time together it was so good to just sit down and spend time with Tara. I hate living 11 1/2 hours from her. We've both been so busy we haven't talked much, but we are both determined to see each other again before 4 months go by. Hopefully we will get to see each other during Christmas break sometime. I'll be right in the middle of basketball season, but hopefully we can find sometime to get together.

Well I better get in bed. I've got another week ahead of me. I hope you have an amazing week!!!

When It Rains, It Pours

2009-10-12T18:42:00.002-05:00

Ok let me get you up to speed....my weeks have been jam packed.

My football team started district this week. We were 4-1 going into our game on Friday. It is the Road's best start since 1994. Pretty impressive if you ask me. This week started out positive and Friday the bottom fell out (well my stress started Thursday night). My kid that lacerated his spleen had a CT scan on Monday, his 6 week check up, and praise the Lord he is COMPLETELY healed. I was sooo excited and amazed by God's work. We were not expected him to return to football this year, but he was fully released to return to all sports. He played with the JV team on Thursday and is playing with the varsity this upcoming Friday. He did very well and thankfully I didn't have any scary moments with him. With 3 minutes left in the JV game on Thursday night I had a kid get driven into the ground, get up, then I ended up spineboarding him with neck pain. After the game I headed to the hospital to check on him. I left after his CT scan around midnight and he got released about 2 am. Thankfully he only had a neck bruise and whiplash. He's still pretty sore, but I am so glad he is ok. (Oh and my Mizzou Tigers lost to Nebraska on Thursday--not good.) My boy with a shoulder injury--AC sprain after falling off the hood of a car :( was released to start moving and strengthening his shoulder and able to return to football this upcoming week.

Friday night we traveled to Panhandle for our first district game. It turned into a not so fun night rather quickly. First I had a kid go down in the 1st quarter right in front of me with a non-contact knee injury. My initial thought when he went down was ACL, but he popped up and seemed to be fine. He wasn't swelling, didn't have pain in the back of his knee, only seemed to be medial. I wasn't able to test his ligaments because he was in his football pants, it was cold, and I couldn't get him to relax very well. The more I talked to him at halftime the more worried I got about his ACL. I was very open with him and told him I was pretty sure he had a medial problem, but that I couldn't rule out ACL because I couldn't test it, and with his knee slipping that concerned me. Then in the 4th quarter I had a kid go down with a back injury. I spineboarded him as well. 2 spineboards in 24 hours, not fun. We finish the game and end up losing by 3. Not a good night AT ALL. As soon as we get back to Amarillo I head to the hospital. Not too long after I get there, the doctor came in and told us that my athlete has a cracked vertebrae in his back. The night just keeps getting worse, but thank goodness that was all that was wrong. They move him to a room around 2am so I head home. Of course I am WIRED and worried about my boys. I don't sleep at all and head to work Saturday morning for treatments. My boy with the knee injury goes to the doctor and they suspect torn ACL and a few other things. Not how I wanted to start my day. He was scheduled for an MRI on Monday. I had a few other injuries to work on and we are all still disappointed and mad about the loss the night before. My head coach was really just wanting me to give him good news, but I didn't have a lot for him. After treatments I head to Lubbock for the Tech-Kansas State Homecoming game. It was a great game and the Red Raiders got a big win. My back kid was up and moving around, doesn't have to wear a brace and was able to go home Saturday night. Praise the Lord!!!

Sunday I went to a baby shower for the girls' basketball coach in Tulia then Mom & I headed to Amarillo to catch a movie. It was so good to just relax and not do anything. Mom helped me clean my house and make it look liveable again. She ended up staying the night with me and we had a great time. This morning I headed to practice. It was so good to see my back kid there and walking around some. He is pretty sore and slow right now, but we are so lucky that he only has a crack. He has about 6-8 weeks of rehab and hopefully will be healed. My knee kid was there and in pretty good spirits for his teammates. He had his MRI at 12:30 and I just got word that he did a good job of tearing up his knee. Torn ACL, partial tear of PCL, meniscus tears and some other things too, can't remember them all. His knee is totally messed up and surgery is obviously necessary. Pre-surgery prep starts tomorrow.

Needless to say this weekend has been a very very emotional one. I hate for ANY athlete to suffer any time of injury, but these types of injuries really tear me up. I was so excited to have each of my varsity players back this upcoming week and I lost two to very major injuries. So, after you finish reading this say a little prayer for my boys and for me. We all have a long road ahead of us.

After school basketball practice starts next week. My workload doubles but I am so excited to get in the gym and back to coaching. I have missed it so much. Well I gotta get back to grading papers and trying to catch up on all my TV shows. I hope everyone has a great week.

Quick Update

2009-09-13T11:31:00.002-05:00

This will just be a quick update about my football team. I have what seems like a bazillion things to do today and I really just want to lay around and do nothing--but that won't happen. Two weeks ago we played West Texas High School. We came away with a shutout 54-0. Our starters didn't even play in their positions during the 2nd half. Some still played, but they were in a different position than their "normal" one. It was so great for the boys to get a win like that. This week we hosted Friona. Friona was 2-0 coming in and riding high off a come behind win over Littlefied (who only had one loss last year, and that was to Muleshoe who won the state championship). Holy cow it was barn burner. It was back and forth all night. We missed a field goal once to go down by 1, but went for a 2 point conversion on our next touchdown and got it. We ended up prevailing 35-30. We got a safety at the end of the game because we had to run 5 seconds off the clock and we were on their end of the field so our guy ran around and then ended up running into their endzone scoring 2 points for them. That win was HUGE!!!! The guys were sooooo excited afterwards. This week we are open which is good becuase I had a key player go down with an ankle injury, so I have 2 full weeks to get him back. My goal is to keep him out of practice this week and hopefully he can go the next week. When we get back into action we go play at Dimmitt. Honestly I hope we kill them. Most of you know my hatred for Dimmitt---I grew up in Tulia. That hatred is just instilled in me!!!!

Anyways, just wanted to give a quick update. I gotta get busy on grading papers, planning lessons, running errands, laundry, and picking up my apartment--it's a MESS!!!

Yes...

2009-09-02T21:37:00.002-05:00

I'm alive. Very busy & exhausted, but alive. I get up between 5-5:15 every morning, get ready and head out the door by 6:15 or 6:20. That puts me at work between 6:35-6:45 every morning. Varsity football starts at 7:15 (film, weights, light practice). I leave athletics about 8:35, teach 3 geometry classes, eat lunch, 2 more geometry classes, conference (which I run around half the time trying to get things caught up) and then Varsity girls athletics. As soon as the bell rings, I high-tail it back over to the field house and tape for football practice. Practice is over about 6:30 or so, I clean up, catch up on paperwork, help with laundry and leave between 8-9. So I'm a tired little girl by the time I get home. I eat something, shower, iron clothes for the next day and go to bed.

We played Canadian last Friday night and did really well. We came up a little short 35-25, but that's definitely not bad for playing 2 time state champions and a team ranked #7 in the state. They were picked to beat us by 40!! The boys did really amazing and if we just fix a couple of things, the game would have totally gone the other way. I'm so excited for our home opener on Friday night vs WT High. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Friday Night Football in Texas. I have truly missed it the past 2 years.

I'm really enjoying my job so far. I stay very busy and many days I am completely exhausted when I get home, but I love the kids I work with (well the majority of them anyways!) I've been blessed to have an amazing coaching staff to work with (both boys & girls staffs) as well as a great teaching staff. We all get along so well in athletics, and trust me, I'm fair game with any of the male coaches...nothing like being outnumbered 10-1. I hold my own though, and I can definitely get what I want most of the time ;)

Well I've got to get a quiz made up and get some papers graded. I'll try to update more often, but no promises!!1

I Survived...

2009-08-17T06:30:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a quick post...as I am getting ready for new teacher inservice while doing this. I survived two-a-days (well actually three-a-days most days). After two weeks of at least 2 practices a day we are done!!! Today we have new teacher inservice, then three days of work days/campus meetings, then a district welcome back on Friday, so we have changed to one practice a day. We did very well in our scrimmage against Sunray on Saturday and it was so good to see quite a few of my old students. This week we travel to Wheeler on Thursday for a scrimmage and our 9th grade scrimmages Bushland on Friday.

I finally got into my classroom on Sunday. I've got a lot of work to do in there this week and I am definitely going to miss my whole wall of windows I had in Sunray. I am having to start from scratch on EVERYTHING becuase I can't find all my old files from Sunray. I have NO IDEA where they are. I know they should be on a cd or something somewhere, but neither my mom or I can find them anywhere. So I have a lot of work to do.

Well I better finish getting ready. Just thought I would give everyone a quick update!!!

Where did July go?

2009-08-02T18:26:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it is already August!! I feel like all I did during July was travel. I did get to catch up with my friends and family so I can't complain about that at all. I started work last Monday. We had to get everything ready for two-a-days and we also had our volleyball/basketball camp Tuesday-Thursday. I spent many hours at work trying to get the training room ready. I finally got my bids done and hope to order all my supplies that I need on Monday (yeah I know it's late, but better late than never). I have most of the necessities but hopefully my shipment will get here fast! Two-a-days start tomorrow morning. We have both of our practices in the morning and are done at 1. Luckily, once I am done, I don't have to go back. They do have "special sessions" in the evening, but I don't have to attend these. We start taping at 7:15 so that means I am out the door between 6:15-6:30 to get there and get everything ready. This means I am going to bed early!!!! (Hopefully anyways). School starts the 24th. I can't believe it is already that time again! I still haven't seen my classroom, but I did meet the principal and got to see my schedule. I am teaching 4 sections of geometry and then a section of honors geometry. I have some long days ahead of me. I am ready to get back in a routine, but know I will be longing for time off as soon as it starts!

This weekend mom and I went to Dallas to Lindsay & Luke's wedding. She was a beautiful bride and it was so great to see my friends from Breck. I think Mom enjoyed seeing people more than I did. She had a mini-high school reunion with several of her good friends from high school. It was a quick trip but well worth it!

Photoshoot with the Sister

2009-07-21T13:04:00.010-05:00

Emily got to come to Texas for a few days for a wedding and to see family. While at my PawPaw's house we went on another photoshoot. I asked her to bring her camera becuause I wanted pictures in my boots and she immediately replied with, I want to wear some boots too...do you have some that I can borrow? This comment really surprised me because I do not see Emily as a "cowgirl" at all...me on the other hand I LOVE my boots. So being the nice sister that I am, I let her borrow a pair. I absolutely love the way the pictures turned out, espeically Emily's becuase we found an old truck that matched her dress EXACTLY!!! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

(Sorry the pictures are so big, I realized about half way through they were set to large and I wasn't starting over)

We tried to get some pictures by the pile or tires, but couldn't really get a good pose, a few of Emily's turned out cute.

The barn that I absolutely love at my PawPaw's house. The sun was going down and sining right in our faces so we had to adjust the colors on some.

I thought this picture was pretty funny...while jumping up on the pickup I went a little too far and nearly fell into the truck (those of you who know me well, know that whatever direction my butt is going, that is where my body is going!)...Emily missed it but had me reinact it for her.

Time Off??????

2009-07-07T20:46:00.003-05:00

Whoever said teachers have it made because they have summers off is horribly wrong! Ok so most of my stuff doesn't have much to do with actually teaching, but it some of it does have to do with coaching and what not. I have a busy few weeks ahead of me and it's not even time for two-a-days to start yet. Whew...

Today I finished my 20 hour course for school bus training. THANKFULLY, our instructors were awesome and we didn't have to go through 20 hours of lecture. We got out early the first day and then the today we just drove the bus and got out really early. It was so nice. I was a little apprehensive about actually driving the bus, but I overcame my fear and actually did pretty well. We didn't get to train on the best bus by any means, but I definitely learned a lot. Now I just have to study up for my CDL test and pass it and I will be all set. (I am going to have to practice my parallel parking a little more before the skills test though.) Tomorrow I get to hang out with one of my best friends Elaine and her precious little girls. I am so excited to see them, especially becuase I haven't seen them since Jenny's wedding in August. Thursday Emily gets to Amarillo for Brandi's rehearsal and then her wedding on Friday. I've got a to-do list that will take me most of the day of things to get done in Amarillo. Gotta get a new phone, open a bank account, fill out all my paperwork at River Road, etc... Saturday and Sunday we are headed to Breckenridge to see my PawPaw. I can't believe he is 96!! Monday we are going over to Abilene to see my cousins and aunt & uncle. After lunch sometime the girls' coaches from River Road are picking me up in Abilene and we are continuing onto Austin for TGCA Coaching School. It's going to be a scorcher of a week in the ATX, but I am excited to get to meet the rest of the coaches and hang out with them. We come back sometime on Friday, so that wipes out all of next week. Picnic and the Swisher County Ranch Rodeo are on Saturday so that is a full day in itself! I do have a few days to recover from that the next week, but gotta get my tv & internet connected sometime during those few days and maybe go couch hunting. (I really really need a paycheck!)

The weekend of the 24th-26th the Texas Millers' are hosting the Miller Family Reunion at Fort Phantom so I am going down there for hopefully a relaxing weekend at the lake. Work officially starts July 27th. We have a work week and a few days of camps as well. That's really when things get into full swing. First day of 2-a-days for football and volleyball is August 3rd.

Oh yeah...I am going to Dallas on August 1st to one of my childhood friend's, Lindsay, wedding. It's a friendship that runs 3 generations deep. Our families are actually so close that we share a family cemetery....kinda creepy I know, but that's just the bond we have. My PawPaw and T.C. live just down the road from each other and have been friends for who knows how long and have farmed and ranched together for decades. My mom & Aunt Karan grew up with T.C. & RosaLee's sons, Mitchell & Scott. Lindsay is Scott's daugther and we are the same age. We became friends when we both lived in Breck and have remained good friends since. Then I actually ended up student teaching under Mitchell's wife at Shallowater. It's crazy how small of a world it is. I am so excited to go to her wedding and see so many friends from Breck and to witness Lindsay marry her Prince Charming! Then it's back to the grind of football. Before I know it school will be starting on August 24th. It seems so far away, but I know the time will fly!

Well there's a run-down of my life for the next month. Whew, I am just worn out thinking about all of that. Guess I better get back to studying for my CDL test. Have a great week and if I don't blog for a while, maybe now you will understand why!

I Made It!

2009-06-30T15:50:00.003-05:00

This post is a little late, but hey better late than never right? Dad and I left Missouri on Friday morning around 8:15 or so. Talk about an emotional morning with lots of crying. Thursday night began the really emotional time. Rex threw a going away party for Adam (another GA who left today) and me that all of the athletic trainers were invited to. It was a great time. Of course we left there and decided we needed to make a trip to the Deuce. One last go 'round for me. (Even though we had a going away party there on Tuesday night...haha). My dad went with us anf finally got to see the infamous Deuce. We had so much fun. Around 11:30 Dad and I decided we needed to head to bed, so we left. I had shed many tears by the time we walked out the door. Saying goodbye to all the GAs who have basically been my family the past two years was so hard. And of course it was hard saying goodbye to all of our friends that work at the Deuce...there are so many people there that I will miss. Friday morning I got up early to go to the facilities to tell Tara bye because she had to work soccer camp and couldn't make the festivities the night before. Saying goodbye to Tara & Casey were two of the hardest things to do. Tara and I aren't really sure how we are going to survive living 11 hours apart. Needless to say we have done lots of chatting via phone, text & chat over the past 5 days and I don't see that slowing down at all. We were inseparable while at Mizzou and I know our friendship will last a lifetime. Casey is like a big brother to me. Just ask his mother, we definitely fight like brother and sister. He calls me his 2nd wife. We have been through so much together in the 8 years that I have know him. It started with him living 13 hours from home and then me moving 12 hours from home. I've been through his engagement, been in his wedding and seen him start a family and he has two of the most adorable children I have ever seen. I am so sad to leave him and his family. After saying goodbye to them, I headed back to Carolyn's house (Casey's mom) to catch Neisha dropping off the kids. She had me crying the night before and that morning wasn't any better. She has cooked more meals for me than anyone (well Carolyn may be close or right above her) in Columbia, and I think both of their grocery bills may go down now that I am gone. I think Harper finally caught on to what was going on when she saw both Neisha & me crying. We have been telling her for a few weeks that I was going to go bye-bye for a long time like J. (Harper is super sad that Jmac moved to Philly. Now when you ask her whose girl she is...she answers "J's girl." It is so cute!) When I hugged her bye she didn't want to let go. And just kept snuggling up to me. Of course I lost it at that point again. My last goodbye was Carolyn. You would think at that point I would have been cried out, but not at all. She's my Missouri mom and always will be.

The first part of the drive was awful. I would be ok one minute, then bawling another. Finally after about 4 hours of driving I quit crying near as often, just a few tears every once in a while. I got great news right before I got to Joplin though--Tara was hired as a full time assistant athletic trainer at Mizzou! After a long few months of waiting, wishing, being confused and so many more things, she finally got hired on. I am so proud and excited for her!

After stopping in Amarillo to eat at Rosa's (LOVE that place), we finally got home around 9:30. We could have made it by 9, but chose to eat in at Rosa's after a long day on the road. Sadly the first thing I did when I got home was look up River Road's football schedule and compared it with the Mizzou Football and Soccer schedules. I was so excited to see that RR's open week for football has changed and Mizzou DOES have a game that week. I think Dad, Mom & I are going to try to go to the Furman game that weekend at Mizzou. Then the next month Mizzou plays football at OSU, so I am hoping to be able to drive over to that game on Saturday and then Tara's girls (soccer) plays at OU on Sunday so I will detour through Norman to go see her. She will be in California the weekend of the Furman game, so I won't get to see her then. Hopefully it all works out so that I can see everyone.

Being back in Texas is great as well. I really miss all of my Missouri friends, but catching with my Texas friends has been so nice. Saturday night I went and hung out with Tate, Malisah & Evan. We had such a great time. I graduated with Tate & Evan and we have all remained close since graduation even with all the different directions we have gone & have all ventured back close to home. I have really missed hanging out with them! They were two of my best friends all throughout school and you would never be able to tell that we have spent time apart. Both of their families are basically like another set of parents to me and have put up with me a lot throughout the years. I am so excited to be back close to them. I still have to get together with so many different people. I really need to find time to go see Jenny, Elaine & JJ. Tulia's Picnic Week (it's a BIG deal in Tulia) is July 13-18th and I hope to see tons of friends that weekend. This is when everyone comes back home for the parade & ranch rodeo on Saturday. This is also when all the graduates have their class reunions. Lots and lots of people come back home this weekend so it is always a great weekend to see everyone.

Monday we took the moving truck to Amarillo and unloaded it into my apartment. I have a HUGE living room and the bedroom is a nice size. I definitely need a bigger closet, but I am working on how to make everything fit. I unpacked all the boxes but still have to finish decorating and stuff. I saved that for another day when I am bored in Tulia. I'll take pictures when I am done with everything and post for everyone to see. If you are ever in Amarillo give me a call!

Well that's all for now. I really thought if I waited a few days to write this post it would be easier, but it wasn't. I still teared up in the beginning but ended with smiles thinking about catching up with all my friends that I have known for so many years. I can't wait to see all my family as well when Emily comes in the weekend of the 11th!

ESPY Awards

2009-06-28T17:41:00.005-05:00

I copied this post from my sister's blog, but the Campbell family is a family that is very dear to our hearts. Every vote helps!!!

My friend, Jeremy Campbell, that I previously blogged about after he won the gold medal & set the world record in the Pentathlon at the Paralympics has been nominated for an ESPY award! Please help him out by going and voting for him!!

(For you Tulians, Jeremy is the son of Gregg Campbell - Kay Sturgess' brother & Nancy Hamilton's son)

Go to:

http://www.espys.tv/

Click "Vote Now"

Click "Register".

Create an account. (you have to do this to vote...it's free)

Once created, click "vote now" again.

Scroll down to "Best Male Athlete with a Disability" and click on his picture. (the first one) Then click "Vote"

You can vote for all the other categories too!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T22:40:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day to the greatest Daddy in the world! You have been my hero since the day I was born. I could not imagine having a better Father than you. Thanks for everything you have ever done for and taught me!

Emotions

2009-06-19T10:01:00.002-05:00

The emotional rollercoaster is in full effect. Like I said previously I am so excited to move back to Texas. I have what I expect to be a GREAT job and I am so excited for my new adventures there. I really like all the coaches I have met so far (so what if it's only 3 of them, but still). My parents will only be about 50 minutes away, so I can get my family fix then (and my dad will actually get to come to my basketball games now!). Jenny & JJ will be about an hour away, Elaine about 3 and half hours away, Katie 2 hours, and on and on...so much better than the at least 12 hours they are now. My extended family will also only be about 5 or so hours away. So many things to be excited for.

However, as I get down to packing the last parts of my house, I find myself becoming upset and the whole reality of leaving Columbia hits me really hard. I have developed so many great friendships here. Tara and I have become inseperable over the past 2 years and have kept each other sane. Neither of us are going to know what to do without the other one. She has a plan to team up with my sister to get me back up to the MidWest (and I haven't even left). Tara grew up in Illinois right outside of St. Louis. Her parents live about 20 minutes from Emily & Kyle so we have carpooled there several different times. Her family has taken me in and treated me like a 4th daugther. It was so nice to have another "family" to spend time with. Also I could not have asked for a better group of GAs to work with. It's pretty amazing that we work together, hang out together and half of them live together, yet we never really seem to get too tired of each other. Sure we have had our differences, but in the end we are all GREAT friends and if you mess with one of us you mess with us all. Some of my volleyball girls have become my good friends also. They have definitely kept me on my toes the past couple of years and honestly nothing surprises me anymore. Through volleyball I met Lindsey aka Hunter who I have become close to as well. She got me through volleyball season this year more than she realized. I am sad that I only got to spend a year with her. I am forever indebted to Casey, Neisha & their families. Neisha has fed me countless times and is always there when I need her the most. If it wasn't for Casey I would have never moved to Missouri. Their two children have been a true blessing in my life. (see the post below). Carolyn has also fed me countless times, especially at lunch when my cabinets have been bare. Neisha's family also treats me like I am part of them. I have met so many other great people through the athletic department, the Barnes, the Catons, the Scoggins, the Sharps, and on and on (I know I have left so many people out).

Moving to Missouri has truly been a great experience for me. I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a new experience. I have learned so much about life, work, and friendships. I've already started looking at my calendar for next school year to see when I can get back up to visit everyone. Saying goodbye is always so hard, as I have done it so many different times between me moving and others moving. However, I must do it and just writing this post I have tears in my eyes.

Now I gotta go pack some more boxes so that everything is ready when my dad gets here next week. Then it's headed to the pool with Tara and then dinner with some very special girls tonight!

A Mizzou Photoshoot

2009-06-08T17:30:00.011-05:00

Emily came to visit me on Sunday and Monday, one last time before I move. I have really been wanting to get pictures around the Mizzou campus before I move back to Texas. Luckily Emily read my mind and brought her awesome camera with her and we ventured out on Monday after eating lunch at Booche's to get pictures. I think it was about 99.99% humidity at that point and Emily completely agrees. That type of weather really makes me ready to move back to my dry west Texas air.

This is the main entrance to campus. The Columns are very well known at Mizzou. They were part of the original academic hall that burned in 1892 and all that remained were these columns. For more background information about the columns click here. Behind the Columns is Jesse Hall -- MU's main Administration Building.

There's a rumor that two of the columns aren't equally spaced for the architect's own humor. I really have no idea if this is true or not.

Emily did a great job :)

Thomas Jefferson & me. Want more info click here!

Emily & TJ...she was being funny and waited until NO ONE was walking by to take this picture. She isn't going to be very happy with me posting it.

At the Tiger Fountain in Tiger Plaza.

Close up of the tiger & me.

Memorial Union

After walking all over campus, Emily & I agreed we needed to cool off with Cold Stone.

Emily LOVES Cold Stone. We had to capture this photo before leaving.

Football Stadium

Couldn't resist pictures in the helmet cart.

Makes you wonder how they see while driving around the field.

Press box

South end score board...the stadium is getting a new one on the North end

The Tigers' Locker Room

Football Field and the Rock M

Moving

2009-06-07T12:31:00.003-05:00

I am very excited about moving back to Texas at the end of the month. It will be so nice to be back closer to all of my family (with the excpetion of Emily & Kyle) and all of my childhood friends. I AM sad to leave all the wonderful people I have become so close to while in Columbia though. Yesterday afternoon Kara, our softball trainer, got married at the Les Bourgeois Winery. Before the wedding I got a picture with one of the reasons I am sad to leave CoMo.

How couldn't you love these two cuties?!?! I have had so much fun playing with and watching Harper grow up over the past two years. She absolutely loves her Auntie Brooke and I have truly cherished my time with her. She can always bring the biggest smile to my face even when I am having the worst of days. Now she has a precious little brother Reid that I wish I was going to get to witness all of his firsts. He has already changed so much over the past 10 weeks. Neisha---you are going to have to be the picture posting queen on your blog or facebook!!!

Alrighty, I gotta get back to packing boxes. The joys of moving!

Bragging Just a Bit

2009-05-27T23:03:00.002-05:00

So I am going to brag just a bit about myself. I finally remembered to check my grades to see how I did this semester. This really means nothing to anyone else, but I am pretty proud of myself. After a year of graduate school at Tech to get my teaching certificate and two years of graduate school at Mizzou to graduate with a Master of Education in Health Education and Promotion, I have a 4.0 in grad school. WOOHOO!!! Like I said it is really pointless because it doesn't really help me get a job or anything, but it is a personal goal for myself and I am so glad I accomplished it. Honestly neither of my grad programs were that difficult but they did require some discipline and I usually did pretty good and even did most of the required readings (my motivation class was definitely the exception to this). So enough bragging. I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend!

Cards vs Cubs

2009-05-24T18:09:00.007-05:00

On Thursday, Tara, Shane, Borts, Jen, Drew, Erin, Clyde & I all loaded up and headed east to St Louis to watch the Cardinals play the Cubs. All in all it was a great game. I personally could have cared less about who won. Tara & Borts are both Cards fans and Drew is a diehard Cubs fan. The Cards had already won the series, but were going for the sweep--which they achieved. It was nice to get out of Columbia and do something as a group. It was my first time to be in Busch Stadium. I must say it has nothing on The Ballpark at Arlington. Maybe I am a little biased being from Texas, but The Ballpark at Arlington is BEAUTIFUL. We took advantage of the buy one get one free coupons and ended up with seats in right field. The first few innings were a little rough as the sun was directly in my eyesight, but it eventually went behind the stadium. Here are a few pics from the game.

Tara & I before the game

The group before the game.

The veiw from our seats.

The scoreboard

Water & Keyboards Don't Mix

2009-05-22T11:26:00.003-05:00

If you only knew how long it truly took me to type this post. Yesterday I was doing something in the living room and my computer was sitting in the floor, well I got up to walk to the kitchen and kicked over a glass of water I forgot was sitting there..right onto the keyboard of my laptop. So I quickly dumped the water out of the keyboard, sucked out as much as I could and everything seemed to be fine. I was so relieved! Not so much when I got home from the Cards-Cubs game. I decided to check a few things online before I went to bed. That when I discovered the problem, the left side of the keyboard where I spilt the water was perfectly fine, the right side not so much. Here is what it looks like when you type:

I never rea;lized I used the ;letter po spo much in everyday typing\. Thank gpoopness I have teh Cpompo;lete Care POrpotectipon with De;ll;.\ They wi;ll; repo;lace it fpor free )(we;l;l my warranty cpovers it)(.\ It is being shiopoped tpo the Depoopt as spoopn as I get the bpox\. Spo that means I wi;l;l be abpout a week withpout a cpompouter :L)( but it has tpo be better than fixing every sing;le sentence that I typoe\.

Translated: I never realized I used the letter o so much in everyday typing. Thank goodness I have the Complete Care Protection with Dell. They will replace it for free (well my warranty covers it). It is being shipped to the Depot as soon as I get the box. So that means I will be about a week without a computer :( but it has to be better than fixing every single sentence that I type.

The Cards game was fun, but that will have to be a later post when I don't have to do so much editing!

***UPDATE as of 2 pm*** So I got off the computer, ate some lunch, picked it back up around 2, and I start typing and realize that everything is back to normal. This is pure craziness, the rest of the computer must have dried out. However, I still think my computer is going to make a visit to the Dell Depot just to make sure everything is ok!

The Damage

2009-05-20T21:15:00.002-05:00

If you haven't read the post that follows this, you should probably start there. From the pictures you can see how LUCKY I was. I definitely had a guardian angel watching over me. Pretty amazing that this is all that happened to my car considering that I hitt the cement barrier.

Well That Made for an Interesting Trip

2009-05-15T21:31:00.003-05:00

WOW is all I can say at this point. I waited around all afternoon to go to the baseball game then head to Emily & Kyle's house to stay the night and catch my flight at 7:55 in the morning for Texas. Baseball game starts at 6:30, at 5:30 the Heavens open up and pour on Columbia. I look at the radar, solid storms back to the west all the way to Kansas, all moving east, softball has been postponed, so I call Emily and tell her I think I am headed that way. Obviously they aren't going to play baseball, especially since it's not a conference game. She says ok be careful. So I head east. It downpours all the way to about Lake St. Louis and Emily texts me that it is all black out her back door and to be careful. I call her and tell her I am finally not in downpours that it has cleared up, but I am driving directly into what she sees, but should be at her house in about 20 to 30 minutes. Well about 5-10 minutes later it has really gotten heavy and I am trying to stay out of the massive puddles. Apparently I hit one directly. All I remember is that I began to fishtail and I tried to steer out of it and that I was headed head first for the cement median, when I believe my tires finally caught and I begin to do circles. I kept waiting to hit the median, which I finally did, somewhere on the backside of my car and as I spun around I saw sparks and finally got turned the right direction and begin coasting down the interstate, but I have no brakes--can't stop, can't accelerate and I am shaking like crazy. I finally came to a stop at mile marker 229.0. I'm pretty sure this all started back around mile marker 228 or so. (I have never been so happy to have mile markers every .2 miles) I immediately call my sister and tell her I've wrecked my car and they are going to have to come get me. Then I call the motorist assistance number (that I just happened to see on a sign on the way here....I never remember it, but for some reason *55 was in my head--THANK GOODNESS) and tell the highway patrolman where I am and that I am in the left lane and can't go anywhere. At this point on I-70 it's 4 lanes wide and I am stuck on the very inside lane, where there isn't much of a median, so I am half in the median very close to the cement divider and half in the left lane (AKA the fast lane). Not really a comfortable feeling. After talking to the highway patrolman I called my mom. (Just a side note: Emily & Mom didn't really help my nerves much, I think I was still in shock that it had happened and they both freaked when I told them what happened...STAYING CALM would have been better in that situation).

So I sit and wait. The motorist assistant guy comes up behind me and asks me if I need help. I am like yes I need to be towed. In my head I am thinking yes I need your help, holy cow, do you think I sit in the middle of a lane on I-70 for fun? Obviously I haven't gotten out of the car and I think my whole back end is smashed in and that my tires are ruined, etc. I thought I hit the median HARD. (Later I realize that my brakes were locked and that's why I couldn't stop, go, and that I thought I was riding on my rims---pretty sure I am definitely going to need new brake pads as well). The guy asks me if I can get my car in neutral because if I can get it into neutral he can push me off the interstate. Not going to lie this freaks me out a little...being pushed off the interstate doesn't sound like fun. So I start my car back up and it does go into netural. So he tells me he is going to push me to the next exit and there is a gas station there. When he says he is going to push me over there...he wasn't lying. We went across 4 lanes of traffic a lot faster than I would have liked to. Along I-70 the motorist assistance trucks have the big flashing construction arrows on the top of their trucks, thankfully people follow instructions and go around them. I was scared to death he was going to get rearended and send me flying down the interstate. As we begin to exit the thought that I don't have brakes begins to go through my head. (I didn't have any earlier because they were locked--they released when I put my car in park, but I didn't realize this until later.) The exit is a downhill curve, I become concerned because I look in my rearview mirror and he isn't pushing me. I push as hard as I can on my brakes and begin to slow THANK GOODNESS!! I get to the bottom of the hill in the right turn lane and there are no cars coming, so I turn right, go across to the left turn lane, the light turns green as I get to and thankfully no cars are coming so I make it safely into a parking spot at the gas station.

At this point I get out and start walking around my car and can find NOTHING wrong with my car. No wonder the guy thought I was an idiot sitting on the side of the road. I tell him that I hit the median but can't find anything wrong with my car. So he gets out his flashlight and we walk around the car looking for something. I knew I had seen sparks so we decided that I must have hit one of my tires and the hubcap caused sparks. I turned off my car and then started it back up and no warning lights come on, so he thought I would be able to drive it. He gives me the number for the tow truck in case I need it. I tell him I am going to wait on my sister and brother-in-law to get there and will make a decision then. I tell him thanks so much and he goes on his way.

So I sit and wait for Emily & Kyle, who are having to creep along because the storm has now reached where they are and they can't see. They get to the gas station and we begin looking at the rear end of my car. Emily finds a scratch on the bumper and then we realize that the bottom half of my receiver hitch is all scratched up. It is black and the bottom half of it was all silverish-brown and it looked like mud on it rather than scratches. This is where the sparks come from. My car was running fine and I finally made it to their house. The trip that usually takes me around 2 hours, took over 3 to get here. I knew it would take more time because of the rain, but didn't really plan on spending part of it doing circles, sitting on the interstate and being pushed off the highway by a pickup.

Thankfully I am fine and amazingly so is my car. I guess I just actually brushed the median as I was spinning around. I either did 2 or 3 360s, I am not really sure, but I am pretty sure I did 3. The whole time I just kept waiting to hit the median and roll over onto the west board traffic or be shot across all the east bound traffic. I definitely had an angel watching over me.

Just a side note---this is now the 2nd time I have hydroplaned and spun around on the interstate. My senior year of high school, me and four other friends were coming back from a wedding in Snyder and around Lubbock--which floods like crazy--we hydroplaned (we were in Elaine's 4 Runner) were thrown off the road into the median, hit ruts where another car had run off the road which thre us back onto the highway, spun around and stopped across the two lanes of I-27. Pure craziness. Both times I have somehow dodged all the cars going around me. In fact tonight I do not remember seeing a single car go around me.

I am so thankful that I am safe and that my car made it through ok.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T20:55:00.002-05:00

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to the greatest Mom in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!

You have truly made me who I am today. Thanks so much!!

Celebrate Good Times

2009-05-05T09:11:00.004-05:00

WOOHOO...tonight is my last graduate class EVER! I am just a tad bit excited. I finished my paper on Sunday and got everything printed out yesterday at work. We will definitely be going to celebrate tonight after class. And it's Cinco de Mayo! :) Finals are next week, but I don't have any so that is a plus. Graduation is technically next Friday but I am not walking. I didn't walk in undergrad and I don't really want to walk for grad school, so I am opting out again. My parents were just here a month ago and Dad is coming up at the end of June to help me move so I decided to let them save money and not force them for another trip. Also...I'm flying home early next Saturday to go find a place to live in Amarillo. My parents have scoped out a few places but wanted me to come look and decide on one myself. It will be another short trip, land in Amarillo around noon on Saturday and flying back mid-afternoon on Monday.

Last night was the ROARS for the athletes. It recognized their athletic and academic achievements as a whole. It was a semi-formal event so a few of us got all dressed up and attended it....I must say we are one good looking group.

Melissa, Tara, Shane & I at the ROARS.

Annie, Me & Pip....two of my "little people" from the volleyball team. I will miss these two next year!

Easter & The Trike

2009-04-17T14:37:00.004-05:00

I am a little behind on this post, but this week has been a tad bit crazy. Last weekend the volleyball played in a tournament at Indiana University, so we headed out Friday afternoon, played most of the day Saturday and headed back. I turned around and drove back to Em & Kyle's house to spend Easter with the family. My parents had driven up becuase Emily had Thursday-Monday off from school, crazy people in Illinois don't get a spring break, they give you 3 days off for Easter and call it good. Kyle's parents and brother also came up for the weekend. By the time I got there Saturday night everyone was headed to bed.

Sunday morning we all got up and went to church at the movies. Lifepoint has outgrown their building so they have moved to the movie theatre until they can buy/build a new building. It was so great to get to spend the day at Lifepoint, I love the people there. After church we headed home to eat our Easter feast. Mom, Valinda & Emily had fixed ham, green bean casserole, twice baked potatoes, homemade mac & cheese, homemade bread and salad. My contribution was making tea :) It was all so wonderful. Emily had also baked mom's amazing chocolate cake (from scratch) and a red velvet cake (from scratch as well). We spent the afternoon being lazy and watching the Masters. Several took naps, I ended up talking on the phone for an hour with Blake while he was driving. The Masters was pretty amazing though. I really wanted Chad Campbell to win--he's a West Texas boy, then when he went out, I was rooting for Kenny Perry to win the green jacket, unfortunately he ended up losing to Angel Cabrera in the 2nd playoff hole. It was a definitely fun to watch though.

After watching the Masters we decided we had to be active in some way. Emily has a Trike at the house because she was supposed to learn how to ride it so she could teach her PE kids. Let me tell you...this thing is a workout, especially when trying to get up the "hills" in the street. We finally figured out how to get it started without using a push start with our foot. Here are a few pics of us riding the trike. No pictures of me, I had the camera in my pocket....can you tell it was a tad bit chilly outside?

Mom riding the trike.

Emily showing us how it is done.

After looking up the instructions online, Mom, Valinda & Emily discussing how to properly start the trike.

Valinda is a pro.

4-4-4

2009-04-10T10:08:00.004-05:00

1.Choose the fourth folder where you store pictures on your computer.
2. Choose the fourth picture.
3. Explain that picture.
4. Tag 4 other people..

This picture is from the Cotton Bowl this year in Dallas--sadly the Red Raiders lost :(. Katie Beith and I both used to babysit Madison when she was younger so Kimberly wanted a picture of the 3 of us before the game. I can't believe how old Madison is now, it makes me feel soooo old. I can still remember when she was born and Kimberly loading her up with us in the white school van to take her to basketball games with us, or dropping her off at her grandparents along the way (and that was my freshman year of high school, which was nearly 12 years ago!).

I tag Melissa, Emily, Sherry & Adriene!

Job

2009-03-31T22:50:00.005-05:00

Well I got the call tonight after class. I was offered the position at Amarillo River Road and accepted it. I know many of you who know me well and the history of Tulia and River Road are probably just as shocked as I was when Dad called to tell me about the job. It really is a great situation and one I couldn't pass it up.

I will be teaching high school math (5 sections with 1 prep), JV girls basketball coach, a spring sport coach (this has still not been decided, either track or softball), and then serve as their athletic trainer. I am excited for this next step in my career!

So break out your purple & gold and become a Wildcat fan!

Spring Break

2009-03-29T13:46:00.003-05:00

For having a week off, I don't feel like I got as much accomplished as I would have wished. I had all these plans to visit people and it just didn't happen. Katie flew up on the Wednesday before spring break to visit Emily, Kyle and me. She stayed with Em & Kyle on Wednesday night and Thursday. Thursday night I met Emily & Katie in Warrenton for supper and then Katie returned with me to Columbia. Friday we spent the day shopping and I showed her around Mizzou and some of the town. Friday night we went to the baseball game and then to eat with some of the other trainers. Saturday we made our trek back to Texas. I was very impressed with Boo, she only slept an hour and a half out of the 12 hours it took us to get back. That is quite the accomplishment for her. I tried to keep her entertained by bringing out the old school cds (which she made me feel old because she didn't recognize half of the songs) and singing to her. We made it back safe and sound though.

Sunday Dad & I went to church, then to Amarillo to pick up my mom. She had gone to Houston for the weekend to play grandma and babysit. I was very jealous, she gotten to see Henry twice in the last month. Then Sunday night Mom & I went to Lubbock to see my friend Valerie. Val and I went to undergrad at Tech together and she is now the women's basketball trainer at TCU. Lucky for me, TCU played their 1st round tournament game at Tech, so Val put us on the pass list so we could come see her. It was great to see her as well as several of my old bosses from Tech.

Monday was pretty boring, I don't really recall doing much. Tuesday I went to the store and helped Becky with some things and then went to Tate's baseball game. They won, so that was a plus, then Pam brought the kids by on her way home. I can't believe how much Rebecca has grown. I couldn't get them both to look at the camera and smile at the same time, so this is the best picture I have. Rebecca had gotten her 6 month shots earlier in the day, so she wasn't the cheery/happy baby she usually is.

I finally got her to smile for the camera before they left.

Robert LOVES to take pictures, but he always wants to see them as soon as you take it.

Wednesday I had an interview in Idalou. It went well. They have one girls assistant position open and may have another one open up depending on what another coach decides to do. After my interview I headed to Tuscola to spend the night with my cousins so that I would be closer to my interview on Thursday morning. I got to eat supper at Belle's in Abilene--great place I recommend that everyone eat there. GREAT GREAT homecooked food. I was stuffed off of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet corn, green beans and rolls. My aunt & uncle came to Abilene to eat as well, so it was nice to catch up with them. Thursday I had an interview in Goldthwaite that went very well. The coaching position is great, and I love the head coach. The teaching position isn't my first choice, so I am struggling with whether or not I am wanting to make that sacrifice.

Friday the blizzard hit the panhandle. Luckily Tulia didn't get it like Amarillo and north got. We had snow, but nothing major like they did. I really wanted to interview at River Road on Friday, but they cancelled school on Thursday before the weather even hit. Luckily, I was able to schedule the interview for Monday morning and my boss at Mizzou was very understanding and is allowing me to stay in Texas an extra day to get that taken care of. Friday night I hung out with a bunch of friends and had a blast. I miss all of them so much. It really makes me realize how much I miss Texas and how excited I am to get back down here. I really have enjoyed my time in Missouri, but everytime I come home I realize how much I am missing living 11 hours from home.

Saturday & today are pretty lazy days. Work on homework, make burp rags for baby presents and watching basketball. It was sad to see the Tigers lose yesterday, but they surpassed preseason expectations beyond comprehension. We were picked 7th in the conference in the preseason polls and ended up finishing in the top 8 of the nation...not bad at all!

While home I never got to go see Katie's house in Lubbock, didn't get to go see the McGuire family, didn't get to see the Wheelers or the Bezners & Van Beeks, haven't hung out with either of the Adams' brothers (although I did get to see Evan at El Sarape) or spend time with tons of other people. So I'm excited to get back this summer where I can see all of those people.

Well I've got to finish my homework for this week (even though I am missing class on Monday night) otherwise I am going to be way behind. Just a few more months as a Midwesterner and I'm back to Texas!

The Mystery Problem

2009-03-23T10:17:00.003-05:00

In mid-December I had a bruise on my ankle, that I didn't think much about. I am always running into things or getting hit by things that jump out at me, so bruises are nothing uncommon. Well towards the end of my Christmas break (so now we are getting close to mid-January), I notice that it is still there and it is kinda a hard bump. I don't think much of it, but decide to let Dr. Adams see it when he is in the training room to see what he says. I start to do light massage (when I can talk someone into it), laser therapy and game ready (compression & ice at the same time) to see if that will help. Then the "bumps" begin to multiply and spread. I finally see him see him about the beginning of February or so. I have no recollection of hitting it or anything like that, so that makes the diagnosis a little harder. Although, as I previously said, it very easily could have happened without me realizing it. He says he thinks it is a hematoma and to continue to massage & ice it, but don't do ultrasound becuase it will cause it to scar more, to start taking 2 naproxen sodium (Aleve) twice a day. He said the laser therapy shoudl be fine to do.

Well it doesn't seem to be getting any better, and starts to turn more red and go all the way across my ankle, swell, hurt, get kinda warm, etc... Well I being the athletic trainer that I am, I don't necessarily take care of myself like I should. I have 11 other girls to take care of right now and they are pretty time consuming. I had one have surgery on her foot the Wednesday I left for Austin (I didn't get to watch her surgery which I was very disappointed about) and had another have some health problems come up on Friday while I was in Austin, so I was trying to get them squared away. I showed it to my mom at the state tournamend and she became very concerned. Then it became show-and-tell of Brooke's ankle in the suite. Everyone had their own opinion about what it was, but everyone insisted that I see the doctor. I said I would when I got back to Columbia. Well of course our doctors either left the training room before I got back over from practice or they didn't come that day. Dr. Adams came on Wednesday and I showed it to him again. He decided to do x-rays to rule out a stress fracture or something else going on in there. He knew it wasn't that swollen or red the first time he looked at it, so he was a little concerned with it going on for 3 months. So Thursday I got x-rays....everything bony looked normal but there was definitely some soft tissue swelling so he ordered an MRI for Friday. He wanted to make sure I didn't have a blood clot or bad vein.

Friday around lunch I had an MRI. Around 3 that afternoon Dr. Adams' nurse, Donna, called to tell me the results. I had an inflammed blood vessel. An inflammed blood vesssel? Who gets those? Apparently me. Donna tells me that inflammed blood vessels aren't very common and they aren't sure what caused mine becuase I don't remember doing anything to my ankle. So they start me on NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) twice a day for a week and then once a day following that. Gotta love Celebrex. I started those on Friday. I think they are helping for now. Friday was by far the worst day I have had, I think because I had to hold my ankle in one uncomfortable position VERY still for 45 minutes while they did my MRI. My ankle isn't near as red and the swelling and pain has decreased. I will Dr. Adams again when I get back after spring break. Hopefully the medication solves the problem!

So Far Behind

2009-03-23T10:09:00.006-05:00

I am so far behind on blogging I know. It's been a very busy past two weeks. I had a GREAT time at the State Tournament in Austin. We had a suite again this year and definitely enjoyed ourselves in there. It was so great to see all the guys that we hang out with every year and spend three days with them. I also got to see several other friends that I seem to talk to only once or several times a year. Dean brought his son, Trace this year. He is 8 I believe. We picked on each other most of the weekend. Scott's kids came to the final session on Saturday, but I didn't end up pictures with them. Trace was determined not to smile, but mom caught him while he wasn't looking.

One of the greatest things about having the suite is that there is a TV with cable included in it. With it being the final week before the NCAA tournament, we got to watch all of the conference tournamnets and I got to see the Tigers win the Big 12 Championship!!!! GO TIGERS!

I thought these signs were humerous. They were on the elevator doors in our hotel. Mom took the first one on her phone, that's why it's a little blurry, but it was my favorite.

Little People I Miss

2009-03-07T22:46:00.002-06:00

My mom e-mailed me some pictures tonight....and I really miss these cuties. I'm sure you can tell why. At the girls basketball playoff game a few weeks ago, my parents sat with the Blakenships & Culwells....she got such a cute picture of Miss Maude. I can't wait to see her over spring break!

Then last weekend Mom went to Houston to see Henry, Nathan & Amanda (Nathan is my 1st cousin...basically like a brother). I've only seen Henry once since he was born and that was last March. He turned 1 in December and is one of the most precous little boys I have ever seen. He inherited his daddy's blonde hair and beautiful big blue eyes. I'm super jealous that Mom gets to go back to babysit in a few weeks.

"Grandma" Nece & Henry

Isn't he PRECIOUS?!?!

Apparently this is one of his favorite faces to make.

Amanda & Henry...such a cutie pie!

Mom said he goes crazy in the bouncer. Apparently he is exactly like his daddy, so I am not surprised at all.

Undefeated at Home

2009-03-06T17:37:00.004-06:00

Wow, what a season...even if it's not over. The men's basketball team closed out their home season against OU on Wednesday night. I was excited for this game all year. I hate to admit, but I enjoy watching OU play. Blake Griffin is a stud, plain and simple. I've watched Austin Johnson play since high school and got to see Willie Warren play in the state tournament last year and take over the game. What a game it tourned out to be!!!! Oklahoma scored the first points and never led the rest of the game. The final score was 73-64. You gotta love beating OU in anything. (Sorry Kyle, I still love you.) The Tigers finished 18-0 at home this season and I got to experience a majority of those wins. Beating KU & OU in the same year is quite an accomplishment in the conference. They play their final Big 12 game at A&M on Saturday afternoon. Then it's on to the Big 12 Tournament next weekend--with a 1st round bye. We were picked to finish 7th in the conference and cannot finish any lower than 3rd now!

Here's a few pictures from the game:

Playing some defense

The student section at the game.

A little more defense.

Halftime score.

Final score...I even captured Anderson & Capel talking.

Obviously players shaking hands....we moved at halftime and ended up closer to the floor..thanks to Ek aka Mr. Mizzou

The students didn't rush the court this game, but they did get as close as they could to congratulate the guys.

A Stressful Week

2009-03-04T16:03:00.004-06:00

WOOHOO, I'm stress free for the rest of the week...well for the most part. These past few days have been quite a load. Monday I had 4 different papers due for class, Tuesday I had a presentation and a paper due for class and today I had my comprehensive exam for graduate school. And I am done with all of it!!!!!! I'm a tad bit excited can't you tell?

I spent most of last week and my entire weekend studying for my comps. Thankfully our advisor has the theory that if you pass all your classes with As and Bs and fail your comps it is ridiculous, so he gives us all the quetions we are going to have so we can develop well thought out and written answers for our test. Thank goodness, otherwise I would have definitely had a nervous breakdown before today.

I am so excited to being once step closer to graduation. All I have to do is pass my two classes from this semester and I have a Masters of Education.

Now I'm headed to the home opener baseball game vs Western Illinois for a bit, then over to the final home men's basketball game vs OU. GO TIGERS!!

Oh and here's a picture from trimming my hair a few weekends ago. I decided to go with straight across bangs this time!

A Boring Busy Life

2009-02-23T11:53:00.003-06:00

The title of this blog pretty much describes my life right now. Boring, but beyond busy. I feel like I run around like a chicken with my head cut off many days. I have several early mornings right now and unfortunely long days that follow. Monday's I open the training room at 6 am, have volleyball individuals from 2:30-4:45, weights from 5-6, then class from 7-9:30. It's definitely a full day to start out the week. Tuesdays volleyball has 6 am conditioninga t Hearnes, so I am usually out the door by 5:30 am. We have open gym from 3-5, then I have class from 6-8:30. Wednesdays I get to sleep in and go into work at 9. We have individuals and weights again this day. Thursdays it's 6 am conditioning again, with open gym in the afternoon. I work doctor's clinic on this day and our doc usually gets here around 5:30ish. If Rex needs us for class then I stay and work that until about 8:30. Friday is another day to sleep in. At work at 9, pretty much a boring day at work until my girls finish with their weights at 6. Thankfully my weekends are free right now so that is nice.

I have taken advantage of having a few days off and been to visit Emily & Kyle twice in the last month. The last weekened in January I went home with Tara on Friday night to help her celebrate her birthday with some friends back home, then drove over & stayed with Emily & Kyle on Saturday and Sunday. (Tara's parents and Em & Kyle live about 20 minutes apart so it's nice to see everyone at once.) This past weekend I went back to visit Emily & Kyle for the whole weekend. Saturday Em & I went and got our hair trimmed and did homework that afternoon (exciting I know), and then on Saturday night we celebrated Kyle's birthday with some of their friends at Dave & Buster's. Sunday we went to church then ate lunch with the James family, which is always enjoyable. I absolutely love the James family, they are flat out awesome and always make me feel so welcome. Then I headed back to Columbia because Emily & Kyle were headed to Atlanta with the leadership team for a church planters conference.

At work, we have had our first wave of graduate assistant interviews, which kinda makes me sad because I know my time at Mizzou is coming to an end. I've thoroughly enjoyed my experience here, although I am excited to get back to Texas. I'm currently looking for high school coaching/teaching/athletic training jobs in Texas. I'm somewhat picky on where I want to live, but I feel like I have enough things to offer that I can be picky. We will see how that goes. I'm super excited to go to the boys state tournament in a few weeks with all the guys that spoil me. We should find out this week if Cooke got a suite again this year. I'm also pumped that Katie has decided to spend part of her spring break in Illinois & Missouri. She is flying into St Louis on a Wednesday and staying with Kyle & Emily until Thursday night, then she is coming to Columbia and hanging out with me on Friday. Rather than flying back she is going to ride with me back to Texas---I know she is thrilled for that 11 1/2 hour drive. I'll spend my spring break back in Texas and hopefully I will have some job interviews set up. If you hear of a coaching job that's open--let me know!!! :)

What A Game

2009-02-10T09:21:00.011-06:00

Once I found out I was coming to Mizzou for school and work, I really really wanted to see a Mizzou-Kansas basketball game. Most of you know I LOVE basketball (maybe because we lived and breathed it growing up) and it's a rivalry game. Doesn't get much better than that. Last year I didn't get to go, but really didn't miss much, as we weren't very good last year. I would still love to attend a game at Allen Fieldhouse, but last night was quite an experience. (And I'm still holding out for Duke vs North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium.)

Last night was a history night in Mizzou Arena. #17 Mizzou vs #16 Kansas, first match up of two ranked teams ever in Mizzou Arena. THANKFULLY, Coach McGuire cancelled our class so that we could go to the game or watch it on tv. THANKS COACH!!! The game was absolutely amazing. We started out slow, couldn't buy a basket to save our lives, and only scored 16 in the first half. We average 84 points a game and only scored 16 in the first half, holy toledo. The halftime score was 16-30. We fought back several times cutting the jayhawks lead to 3 several times, but before you knew it we were down 11 again. The fans of Mizzou Arena never lost faith though. With 49.6 seconds the Tigers took the lead 60-58. KU scored to tie the game, but with 1.3 seconds to go Zaire Taylor came up with a HUGE basket to make the score 62-60....which ended up the final. Taylor has come up with game winning baskets in two big games now. He is also the one who scored the game winning basket at Texas. JT Tiller may have only finished with 3 points, but he played his heart out. Coming up with two tie balls in the last 2 minutes of the game to help us out. That makes us 21-4 on the year and an amazing 15-0 on our home court. WAY TO GO TIGERS!!!!

A few pictures for your viewing, ok a lot but it's so hard to pick just a few. You can tell which ones I took and which ones I got out of the paper.

Truman after he repelled from the ceiling

Up by 2 with :50 seconds to go.

Tara & I enjoying the game

Part of the student section.

Tie game

Up by 2 playing some D

TIGERS WIN!!

Celebrating

An AMAZING game

The rushing of the court begins.

Truman repelling again

Great play by J.T. (and an AWESOME picture)

Demarre celebrating after hitting a 3

Coach Self wasn't very happy.

Great guy, I had the priviledge of meeting him and hanging out with him a few years ago at a coaching clinic in San Antonio.

Zaire hitting the winning shot.

Mixed Martial Arts

2009-02-08T19:23:00.007-06:00

Normally I am not a big "fight" person, never really have been. Now I have definitely seen my fair share of wrestling matches. I grew up watching and loving Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, etc... When Emily & I would go stay with my Aunt Karan when we were younger, we always rented old wrestling matches on VHS and turned the living room into our own wrestling ring thanks to my cousin Nathan & his friends. I have many memories of those days and it's a wonder no one ever ended up hurt. Then when I was in high school every Sunday night someone got PPV wrestling matches and we would all chip in to help with the cost. These days UFC fighting is huge. I've watch a few matches on TV, but never really gotten into it.

Last night two former Mizzou wrestlers were making their profession debut in Mixed Martial Arts fighting, so Tara and I decided to go. It's something new and different to do so we jumped at the opportunity. I was excited to see two people who I personally knew get to fight. And we ended up getting in FREE--thanks Ben! (It's nice to know people in high places.) The amateur fights were ok. Nothing special, but we enjoyed them. Then the professsionals started. There were 6 professional bouts and Tyron was 4th & Ben 5th. Ben was considered the co-main event. A little background info: Tyron (aka T-Wood) was Mizzou's first ever Big XII Wrestling Champion and a two time All-American in his weight class. Ben is a little more well known. He was a 4 time All-American and 2 time National Champion Wrestler while at Mizzou. This past summer he competed in the Olympics in Beijing. The fights were great. You can really tell a difference in the amateurs and the professionals. All of the fights were fun, but T-Wood's and Ben's were by far my favorite (of course!). They did amazing. T-Wood won in Round 1 by TKO in 1:09. Ben won in Round 1 also by TKO in 1:25. Here are a few pics from their fights. I hope you enjoy!

25 Random Things...

2009-02-02T07:39:00.001-06:00

I was tagged on Facebook to list 25 random things about myself, so I thought I would just copy & paste it to my blog as well. It may not be very interesting, but it was the best I could come up with off the top of my head at 6:30 in the morning. Enjoy!

1. I LOVE Texas and everything about it. This becomes way more apparent when you move to another state...4-5 months and I'm moving back!
2. I've been able to travel all across the United States thanks to collegiate athletics.
3. Sports are my life, I never stood a chance being the daughter of two coaches.
4. I miss coaching a ton and can't wait to go back to it.
5. I love collegiate football, but it doesn't get much better than Friday Night Football in Texas.
6. I miss hearing Texas Country on the radio, it is by far my favorite genre of music. (Do you notice a Texas trend yet?)
7. If I could have any profession in the world I would be a professional singer.
8. I love to dance, although I have never taken a dance class in my life. (Other than what Coach Cole taught us in 6th grade PE)
9. My sister is my best friend, we've never lived more than 2 1/2 hours apart...I'm not sure how I will handle her being in Illinois and me in Texas when I move back.
10. I am one of the biggest Daddy's girls you will ever meet.
11. My biggest fears in life are failure and dying alone.
12. I bleed red & black *Wreck 'Em Tech* but love my Tigers *MIZ-ZOU*
13. Most people don't understand how I have so much love for 2 teams in the same conference.....and never will.
14. I don’t have a certain style...I go from tomboy to cowgirl to athletic to girly in a matter of minutes.
15. I am stubborn beyond belief.....meet the rest of my family and it becomes clearly apparent why I am this way.
16. I am addicted to Dr. Peppers....especially from Sonic.
17. One of the greatest feelings I’ve ever felt is knowing I’ve made a difference in someone else’s life.
18. You're always 17 in your hometown has more truth to it than most people realize or want to admit.
19. I love taking pictures and would love to take up photography.
20. I miss playing basketball.
21. I enjoyed high school, most people hated it, I loved it.
22. I really need to be more disciplined about working out and losing weight/toning my body.
23. My life wouldn't be complete without my DVR...I rarely get to watch TV shows at their actual time, which is fine with me, it's frustrating when I do because I am so accustomed to fast fowarding through the commercials.
24. I love traveling. I really want to visit Sweden before I die, mainly because I am an 1/8 Swedish, my great-granddad snuck on a ship to come to America.
25. My closet has to be color coordinated. It is also divided into short-sleeve, long-sleeve, Mizzou clothes, pants & dress clothes. I am pretty sure I am a tad bit OCD.

Everything You Need Right in Texas

2009-01-22T14:28:00.002-06:00

Not a lot is going on right now. It's been a pretty slow week at work with everyone getting settled into classes and schedules set. My days at work are pretty boring other than 2 post-op rehabs (had 3, but one is already released--YEAH :) and she did all her rehab at home over Christmas, I love compliant athletes). We started classes on Tuesday. I only have classes on Monday & Tuesday nights (well technically Thursday nights as well, but it is my boss' class, so I only go on nights that I have to teach) so only had that one night this week :)

I received this in an e-mail and thought I would share it. I think people from Texas and Missouri (and whoever else reads my blog) will all enjoy in. Pretty humerous actually. All of these places are actual towns (can't quite say cities for most of them) in Texas, they even provide zip codes for most of them.

Need to be cheered up?
Happy, Texas 79042
Pep, Texas 79353
Smiley, Texas 78159
Paradise, Texas 76073
Rainbow, Texas 76077
Sweet Home, Texas 77987
Comfort, Texas 78013
Friendship, Texas 76530

Love the Sun?
Sun City , Texas 78628
Sunrise, Texas 76661
Sunset, Texas 76270
Sundown, Texas 79372
Sunray, Texas 79086 (I actually lived here for 2 years)
Sunny Side , Texas 77423

Want something to eat?
Bacon, Texas 76301
Noodle, Texas 79536
Oatmeal, Texas 78605
Turkey , Texas 79261
Trout , Texas 75789
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
Salty, Texas 76567
Rice, Texas 75155
And top it off with:
Sweetwater, Texas 79556

Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all
Detroit , Texas 75436
Colorado City, Texas 79512
Denver City, Texas 79323
Klondike, Texas 75448,
Nevada Texas 75173
Memphis , Texas 79245
Miami , Texas 79059
Boston , Texas 75570
Santa Fe , Texas 77517
Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861
Reno , Texas 75462

Feel like traveling outside the country?
Don't bother buying a plane ticket!
Athens , Texas 75751
Canadian, Texas 79014
China, Texas 77613
Egypt, Texas 77436
Ireland, Texas 76538
Turkey, Texas 79261
London, Texas 76854
New London, Texas 75682
Paris, Texas 75460

No need to travel to Washington D.C.
Whitehouse , Texas 75791

We even have a city named after our planet!
Earth , Texas 79031

And a city named after our State!
Texas City , Texas 77590

Exhausted?
Energy , Texas 76452

Cold?
Blanket , Texas 76432
Winters, Texas

Like to read about History?
Santa Anna , Texas
Goliad , Texas
Alamo , Texas
Gun Barrel City, Texas
Robert lee, Texas

Need Office Supplies?
Staples, Texas 78670

Men are from Mars, women are from -
Venus , Texas 76084

You guessed it..it's on the state line..
Texline , Texas 79087

For the kids...
Kermit, Texas 79745
Elmo, Texas 75118
Nemo, Texas 76070
Tarzan, Texas 79783
Winnie , Texas 77665
Sylvester, Texas 79560

Other city names in Texas, to make you smile.....
Frognot, Texas 75424
Bigfoot, Texas 78005
Hogeye, Texas 75423
Cactus, Texas 79013
Notrees, Texas 79759
Best, Texas 76932
Veribest, Texas 76886
Kickapoo, Texas 75763
Dime Box, Texas 77853
Old Dime Box, Texas 77853
Telephone, Texas 75488
Telegraph, Texas 76883
Whiteface, Texas 79379
Twitty, Texas 79079

And last but not least, the Anti-Al Gore City
Kilgore, Texas 75662

And our favorites...
Cut n Shoot, Texas
Gun Barrell City, Texas
Hoop And Holler, Texas
Ding Dong, Texas
and, of course,
Muleshoe , Texas

I'm sure there are more that could be added, I just put what was already in the email.

My Small Town Tour

2009-01-14T20:06:00.003-06:00

I must pre-warn you....this will be a lot of rambling, but hey my life has been VERY uneventful lately.

Yesterday, my dad and I were supposed to go watch Canyon & Palo Duro play at PD, but he had a meeting come up in Lubbock and our trip got cancelled. (Side note: the game was a great one, PD was up at half, Canyon ended up winning by 3....87 straight wins in district, pretty impressive if you ask me). So me being the bored and random individual I am, I called Laine and asked her what time her girls played that night.

So a little background information would probably help in this story. Once upon a time before my parents were married they both were coaching & teaching in a little town called Hamlin. Well they both showed interest in each other--my mom showing much more than my dad. Well there was this couple in town, David & Janice Wade. Being a small town, everyone knows everyone and there aren't many secrets. Well my mom and Janice would be considered "stalkers" at the time and would drive around town in different vehicles searching out David and my dad. So maybe it wasn't as stalkerish as it sounds, but long story short, they finally started dating and got married, so David & Janice have always gotten partial credit for my parents being married. Well nearly 2 years later I was born. David & Janice have a daughter named Laine, who was in high school at the time. In fact, my mom told Laine she was pregnant before my dad. So needless so say, we are very close family friends, and I have always considered David & Janice my other set of grandparents and have spent a considerable amount of time with them. Laine married her high school sweetheart Brad, and they have 3 children, Wade who is in his 3rd year of college at Angelo State and twin girls, Samantha & Shalaina who are seniors in high school.

So now you are caught up. I called Laine about 2:30 and she told me that the girls played at 6:30 in Stamford, so I do the math and figure out I can be there in time for the game, so I ask my parents if they care if I head that way and they look at my like I'm crazy. So I pack my bags and head out the door. Now this is a 3 hour trip and while driving I realize I am definitely on a small town tour....so just bear with me through this. Most people in Texas don't even realize some of these places exist. So here's the list of the booming metropolises that I traveled through:

Tulia (pop 5,117)
Lockney (pop 2,056--random fact: their high school burned down on Sunday night....keep them in your thoughts, 2 15-year-old students of the school have been charged with second-degree-felony arson....they were hoping to get better equipment & facilities; the school was still smoldering when I drove by today)
Floydada (pop 3,676--this is the largest town I pass through)
Cone (no pop listed & no school)
Ralls (pop 2,252)
Crosbyton (pop 1,874)
Dickens (pop 332---no school here either)
Spur (pop 1,088)
Gilpin (no pop, definitely the smallest "community" I pass through, there is one little tiny farmhouse thing between the two signs; obviously no school here either)
Girard (no pop, no school....)
Jayton (pop 513)
Swenson (no pop, no school, biggest building in town is the First Baptist Church)
Aspermont (pop 1,021)
Sagerton (no pop, no school, biggest building is the Faith Luthern Church--or the school that has been turned into the community center as with most of the towns where the school has shut down)
Stamford (pop 3,636)
Hamlin (pop 2,248)

Not a Sonic to be found other than in Tulia and my somewhat final destination of Stamford, have no fear I survived. It was great to spend some time with David, Janice, Laine, Brad, Sam, Shakey (even though she will alwyas be Laina to me) & Mercedes (she's friends with Sam & Shakey--her mom used to work for David & Janice and she has an older sister that is the same age as Emily & they lived across the street from D&J for several years, so we grew up playing with them). To my surprise this morning Wade had come into town the night before and I got to spend some time with him today. All in all it was a GREAT trip. I hadn't seen any of them in about 2 and a half years so the trip was long overdue. The girls won their game so that was a plus. I got up early, ate breakfast at Drew's (a long standing tradition with David), who has watched me grow up, spending time with Wade, morning coffee break with Janice and the ladies she works with, lunch with Sam, Shakey, Mercedes, Jaylen, David & Janice; going up to school to see Aaron (Drew's son, who is a few years older than me, that I grew up with and went to undergrad with) & finally getting to see Laine & Brad's new house (it was finished like 2 years ago). It was a quick trip, but definitely worth it.

And I made it back in time for date night with mom, so that is always a plus--can't skip a great meal at El Sarape. Tomorrow I am headed to Lubbock to hang out with Katie and go see my friend Jeri & her precious baby girl Jorja (and maybe her hubby Clay). My time at home is nearly to an end, which is bittersweet. I am bored out of my mind & ready to see my friends in CoMo, but know that when I leave I will miss my parents.

Well the game...

2009-01-04T17:30:00.002-06:00

didn't quite turn out like we would have liked, but I had a great time while in Dallas. When we got to Dallas we headed to an alumni pre-game party on Thursday night. It wasn't anything spectacular and we hadn't eaten, so we decided to head somewhere else and watch the games that were on tv. So we ended up at a Hooters eating wings and watching football. Before the game on Friday we did a little tailgating as we joined up with Tate, Kelly, Tyrell, their girlfriends and some other friends. It was good to hang out with those guys, they are always fun. At the game I got to see several of my friends who I hadn't seen in a while. I met up with Valerie, one of my good friends at halftime. While talking to her, I ran into Danny Amendola, who was a receiver while I was at Tech. He was on the practice squad for the Cowboys this year and is headed to Philadelphia soon. During the 4th quarter I looked up and saw Toby Cecil, a former offensive lineman from Tech who I was a good buddies with. It was great to see them all. After the game we headed to a place called La Hacienda Ranch. It was soooo good. I highly recommend it. Saturday we slept in, then Becky, Debbie & I headed shopping. We didn't have a lot of time, but went to World Market and then to Southlake to shop. My friend Becky from undergrad met up with us and then joined us for dinner. We decided Pappadeux was a great choice, so we went and got everyone else and headed there. It was so great to see everyone that I hadn't seen in a while as well as hang out with some special people for the weekend. Like I said, the game didn't turn out like we would have like at all, but it was a fun weekend.

Headed to the Big D

2009-01-01T10:28:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year to you all! As for me, I am headed to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl. My other loving family, the Chapmans, have invited me to go with them to the Cotton Bowl this weekend. How could I pass up a basically free vacation especially to see my alumni school play?? Free ticket, free ride, free place to stay (we are staying at Becky's brothers house, he won't be there)...and hopefully see a great football game. I am so excited to finally get to watch Texas Tech play in person this year. It is extra special for me because this is really the last year that I will know numerous guys on the team. Many of the seniors were my good friends in undergrad, so I am happy to see them play their final game at Tech. And I will get to see several friends from undergrad, some of which I haven't seen in several years.

I know the weekend will be a blast (duh, I'm going!!). Richard, Becky, Katie, Mike & Debbie Criswell & I are haeded out in about an hour for the Big D. Tonight we are going to an alumni party which I am pretty excited about because I expect to see several people that I know and haven't seen in years. Tomorrow morning we are headed to an alumni tailgate I believe and then it's game time. GO TECH! Saturday I think the girls are going shopping and the guys are just relaxing, then it's back on Sunday.

So it's back to my Red Raider blood this weekend...GUNS UP!!!

Whew

2008-12-29T23:24:00.002-06:00

Whew....that was a close one, but how 'bout them Tigers!!

We pulled out a close one, but it was definitely an exciting game. For those of you who missed out, Mizzou beat Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl in OVERTIME 30-23. YEAH GO TIGERS!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2008-12-25T12:25:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!

MMMMM...Allsups

2008-12-24T09:45:00.002-06:00

Those of you who aren't from Texas, specifically West Texas, won't understand this post at all...

You never really appreciate Allsup's until you haven't had it for an extended period of time. When leaving Abilene to go to Breckenridge Saturday night we passed an Allsup's and Emily said..."We should have gotten an Allsup's burrito." I offered to turn around but she said we would just wait 'til Breck to get one, becuase nearly every small town in West Texas has an Allsups. So what did we do when we got to Breck?? Stopped at Allsup's of course, and Emily just couldn't pass down the photo op.

Now let me share with those who are not familiar with Allsups---yes it is a gas station, a 24 hour one at that, but they food is, hmm, how do you explain it, your typical gas station food. Not great for you...all fried in grease, where everything is fried together, and it may have been sitting in the warmer for several hours (doubtful though, people love this stuff) but it's just one of those thing you really enjoy, especially when you are starving and it's the only thing open for miles.

MMM..Allsups burritos & spicy chicken bites (I prefer the regular). Of course we had a Tallsup Dr Pepper to complete the meal.

YUMMY....also I don't suggest trying to take pictures while driving down the highway...it's hard to get a good one.

Emily with her Allsup's meal

Emily's New Camera

2008-12-22T23:14:00.019-06:00

My sister got a new camera for Christmas from her husband, so while at my granddad's house we decided to take advantage of his "treasures" (mainly old junk...but hey we found use for it) and take a few pictures. Now we are definitely not photographers by any means, but we tried to replicate some things we have seen done. I thought they turned out pretty good for our first photoshoot. We just had the camera set on auto settings and were out freezing our hineys off at 2 o'clock in the afternoon so the sun wasn't cooperating in some of the pictures. I love all the pictures of us in the barn doorways and with it in the background. That barn is one of the first things that comes to mind when thinking about my PawPaw's house. We took nearly 200 pictures that afternoon, so I decided to share my favorites. There are quite a few, but it was just too hard to pic which ones to post.

This combine still works!! It is one of the ones my mom would drive when she was in high school and college.

Emily wasn't a huge fan of the "serious" pictures but I thought several of them really turned out good.

Emily started laughing right after this picture. She told me to turn around and when I did below is what I saw. Every cow and donkey in the lot was lined up staring at us taking pictures.

Miller Christmas

2008-12-22T23:00:00.007-06:00

This past weekend we had Christmas with my Dad's family. Unfortunately my cousin Shane and his family weren't able to make it, but it was great to see everyone else. Emily & I haven't seen them since July so just spending the day with them was great. They cooked us a wonderful breakfast on Saturday morning of biscuits, gravy, bacon, and eggs. It was SOOOOO good. Then for a mid day meal we had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cream corn, homemade mac & cheese, green bean casserole and rolls. It was AMAZING. Then we had our traditional slush and of course red velvet cake, homemade candy, some sort of chocolate dessert that my Memaw used to make and peach cobbler. I am pretty sure I gained 5 pounds on Saturday alone.

Rather than everyone spending money on each other, we opted just to buy presents for Ashton & Seth (cause they are still kids) and then my Aunt & Uncle got me something because I am the only unmarried grandchild and I don't have Christmas with another family. Ashton got lots of hair & nail stuff that she was very excited about and Seth got a disc golf game and a table top foosball game. We were all impressed as Emily helped Seth put it together. Of course they both got Missouri t-shirts from their favorite cousin (that's me!!). I got socks and money :) I was super excited and really didn't expect it.

I have nearly 200 pictures from the day because I stole Emily's new camera and snapped pictures all day long, but I decided to spare you all the randomness and just post our family picture above. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Harper at the Christmas Party

2008-12-14T19:23:00.005-06:00

The Mizzou Athletic Department Staff Christmas Party was Thursday night. We always get raffle tickets for different prizes. After calling out several numbers our athletic director just started calling out people's names for prizes. Well we decided to enlist Harper's help for winning a prize. She was amazed everytime someone would talk on the microphone, so we had her start waving at Mike Alden, our AD, to try to win a prize, because really, who can resist this...

She worked soooo hard and they finally called Casey's name. It was so cute to watch her wave and try to get his attention.

I was trying to get a picture of her with her prize, but she already put it down, I thought the picture was cute anyway.

They had a craft room where the kids could make things, so we decorated a cookie for her to eat. She was very proud....and green from the icing.

Really isn't this one of the cutest faces you've ever seen??

Christmas with Kyle

2008-12-09T21:10:00.006-06:00

This year is my sister & Kyle's Christmas with Kyle's family in Oklahoma, so since Kyle isn't getting to come to Texas and my parents were in town we decided to go ahead to celebrate Christmas with him early. Emily is getting to come to Texas for our Miller family Christmas on the 20th, so we all decided Kyle could open his gifts from us and then we each opened one...we didn't want him to feel too special. Emily decided we needed to take pictures in front of the tree. The pictures were very entertaining, especially when she wanted one of all 5 of us. Thank goodness for timers on cameras. It was the only full group picture we took and we thought it turned out pretty good.

I wasn't very thrilled to be taking pictures at first, so I started out being goofy.

The Sister Picture

Just the Millers (yes I know Emily is a Parker now, but she will always be a Miller)

The Whole Clan

Big 12 Championship Game

2008-12-08T07:54:00.009-06:00

My parents came up for the Big 12 Championship Game in Kansas City this past weekend. We played Oklahoma, and unfortunately lost 62-21. Above is the 4 of us in the car before the game. It's a little hard to get all of us in the picture with everyone bundled up and 2 in the front and 2 in the back. You will notice no Kyle in the picture....he went deer hunting with some friends. Thank goodness, because I didn't want to hear him yell Boomer Sooner the whole time. Everyone in the car is dressed in Black & Gold. Emily did wear her Texas Tech Football shirt underneath all her clothes. She said the most important one should be closest to her heart. I do think we will have to get her a new Tech shirt though...the one she wore was nearly a grey shirt instead of the originally black, as it has faded from washing it so much. I wish I had a picture of what she showed up in my house on Friday night. For those of you who aren't aware, my brother-in-law, Kyle, is a HUGE Oklahoma fan. Well he has one of those ski hats with all the crazy "strings" coming off of it. Emily walked in my apartment wearing this ugly crimson and cream hat, but she was also wearing a Mizzou shirt I bought her, so I told her I wasn't buying her cheering for OU. Thankfully she left it at the house on Saturday.

We had great seats at the game thanks to the Mizzou Athletic Department offering half price tickets to the staff. Sherri Moeller was kind enough to take a picture of the 4 of us at the game. If you look in the upper left corner somehwere up by the Sprint sign is where our original tickets were at. I definitely think our lower level seats were much better. We all had a great time even though the outcome wasn't what we were hoping for.

Yet Another Reason...

2008-12-03T13:20:00.005-06:00

why I miss living in the middle of nowhere in West Texas. I know previously I have expressed why I LOVE living in the Panhandle/West Texas, but Sunday night I was especially missing my wide open spaces.

Emily & I went shopping in St. Louis on Sunday afternoon. We started at the Galleria, but they didn't really have what we were looking for & Kyle had just got to the AmeriStar and was busy playing poker, so we decided to go to the St. Louis Mills Mall. So after we got some quick shopping done, Kyle came over and met us and we ate supper at Chevy's. About 7:45 we finished and started our seperate ways. Now normally I can make it from that mall to Columbia in about an hour and a half, give or take 5 or 10 minutes (it's all interstate from where I was to Columbia...good ol' I-70). Well I noticed traffic was going a little slower than normal, but didn't really think that much about it, we were moving along at a pretty good pace and it had been snow flurrying all day so I thought well people are just being cautious.

Then I hit Warrenton, which is about an hour from Columbia for those of you who aren't familiar with Missouri. Right outside of Warrenton I went from 65 mph to less than 10 mph rather quickly. And we creeped and creeped and creeped along. At one point I called my mom to express my frustrations and looked at the mile marker I was at. (Missouri has mile markers every .2 of a mile, so you always know where you are) 10 and half minutes into our conversation I looked at the mile marker I had gotten to and I had only gone 1.6 miles. Needless to say I wasn't happy and just wanted to get home. At one point I came around a curve on top of a hill and all I could see down the hill and up the next hill were red tail lights. So since I was sitting still, I pulled out my camera and tried to get a good picture. This was the best thing I could come up with.

Yes those are solid tail lights, in both lanes, for as far as you can see. Two and a half hours later I finally got home to Columbia. I kept thinking I would come upon a wreck or something that was causing the traffic jam but never did. Just a bunch of people trying to get from one point on the east side of the state to somewhere on the west side of the state. Last year I traveled from Illinois to Columbia on the same day and didn't have such a problem.

Now, never in my life have I see such a traffic jam on I-27 in my life where there is no apparent reason for the roads being packed. We might have sat there for a wreck, field or cotton modules on fire so you can't see to drive, or even dirt storms, but never in my life have I seen I-27 stopped because there is so much traffic....it's just never going to happen. I guess one plus to the whole ordeal was I got some dang good gas mileage on my way home, because for most for most of the trip I would say I averaged 40 mph (and that is definitely generous for the amount of time I sat or went less than 20 mph).

An End to the Season

2008-11-29T15:41:00.002-06:00

Volleyball is officially over. We hosted Texas & Texas A&M this weekend. Unfortunately we lost to both in 4. Texas was Wednesday night. We definitely didn't lay down and die, and fought to the end. Unfortunately we couldn't pull out the win, 25-21, 16-25, 15-25, 23-25. It looks like we didn't play well in games 2 & 3, but it was just a few breakdowns that really cost us.

Friday night we hosted Texas A&M. A win over them would have put A&M at .500 and limboing for them to get into the tournament, but a loss put them above .500 and they should secure a spot. We played hard in all the games, but things just didn't seem to come together for us; 21-25, 20-25, 25-20, 16-25.

I am sad for the season to be over, but at the same time, I am ready for a break. It was a long & hard season, with lots of ups and downs. Thankfully, we had no major injuries, so that is always good on my part. We have several aches and overuse injuries, but that is expected. We finished with a record of 13-17 and 7-13 in Big 12 play. Depending on how other Big 12 games finish today, we will either end up tied for 8th, 9th or 10th.

Thanksgiving Break???

2008-11-25T22:24:00.002-06:00

I'm not really sure who came up with the term "Thanksgiving Break" but clearly they weren't involved in sports, school, a job, etc...must be a bum with nothing else to do.

Last week was an unsuccessful one for the volleyball team. We hosted Kansas State on Wednesday night and lost in 5, 25-21, 19-25, 25-12, 20-25, 12-15. We played well for the most part, just had some let downs in games 4 and 5. Saturday we traveled to Baylor for our last road trip of the year, after leading 2-0, we lost in 5, 25-22, 25-19, 17-25, 23-25, 12-15. We have mathematically eliminated ourselves from the NCAA tournament, but then today at practice Wayne told us it is not impossible to make the tournament, simply becuase if we win out our record will be 15-15, 9-11 in Big 12, and we could possibly finish above a team that has qualified for the tournamnet, and if they take that team that it would be hard not to take us. So I am really not sure exactly what all is going on. One day he tells us we can't make the tournament the next it's still possibility. Either way, we host Texas & Texas A&M on Wednesday and Friday and both will be tough games.

Sunday I spent all day at Hearnes working the Missouri Open, which is our huge wrestling match/tournament. They put 12 wrestling mats out in the fieldhouse, with 2 divisions, and start wrestling at 9am. We actually finished rather quickly this year, with all the matches done by like 6:15. We were cleaned up and out the door by about 7:15. Overall Mizzou wrestled well. They don't actually declare a winner, but if they would have, we would have blow everyone out of the water. I don't completely understand wrestling, I have figured out a few things, but it is fun to watch our guys because several are ranked rather high nationally & we were ranked #5 in preseason rankings as a team.

Monday I slept in for the first time in who knows how long. Practice was at 1, then I headed to the Lake of the Ozarks to do some Christmas shopping. I was a little disappointed in their selections, but picked up several gifts. We had morning practice today, then I went to the mall to finish up shopping. I am glad to report that all of my Christmas shopping is done except for my sister, who for some reason this year I can't find anything for her.

Adam (Football GA) and his parents cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for the GAs that are still in town tonight. So Adam, Drew, Shane, Adam's parents and I enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. I can barely move at the moment. It was great. Now I am in the process of wrapping the presents I bought. I was really hoping to get my tree up and decorated tonight, but it's looking like that isn't going to happen. I am just hoping to get the tree up and will worry about the ornamnets tomorrow. I've got another full day with Texas practice, our practice and then our game. Thursday we have practice in the morning, then I am going to Thanksgiving with Casey & Neisha's families and whatever GAs are still in town. Friday A&M practices in the morning, we practice then our last home game. Friday night after our game I am headed to Kyle & Emily's house to hang out with them. Saturday morning I will be glued to the TV watching the Mizzou-ku football game, then hopefully we can get the Tech-Baylor game at 2:30....then OSU & OU play at 7. I am officially an OSU Cowboy fan this week, as a Tech win and an OSU win puts Tech in the Big 12 Championship game.

Sometime this week I need to work on my 2 finals that are due in 2 weeks. I would really like to have them completed by the time my parents get here next week, but at the rate things are going around here, I may be writing papers all of next weeekend.

Another Busy Week

2008-11-16T19:44:00.002-06:00

This week was another busy one. Wednesday we played at Nebraska. We got swept 25-19, 25-22, 25-14. We played really well in games 1 & 2 and pretty good in game 3, just a few low spots hurt us. We had our best hitting percentage of the year so that was definitely a plus. This Saturday we played at Colorado, which hasn't been very kind to teams visiting there. We had a 2 pm MT game so we went out Friday morning (something with the charter company we couldn't leave Friday afternoon). We practiced as soon as we got there then went downtown to eat. We spent a little time walking around Downtown Boulder. It's a very cool place if you ever visit there, lots of specialty shops and boutiques. We got per diem for dinner so Laura, Lauren, Jules & I went out looking for something to eat. We found a place called Beau Jo's pizza. It's a great place to eat if you are ever in Colorado, I highly recommend it. Anyways, we had a very successful weekend in Colorado, beating them 25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 25-20. That was only our 2nd road win in conference and it put us in a 3 way tie for 5th in the conference, our best position in the league all year. It was also the program's 600th win. That brings our overall record to 13-13 and conference record to 7-9. In order to be considered for the NCAA tournament we have to have a record above .500, so we must got at least 3-1 in our remaining games. We host #14 K-State on Wednesday, travel to Baylor on Saturday, then host #4 Texas and Texas A&M the following Wednesday & Friday. It's a tough stretch still left to play.

BIG 12 NORTH CHAMPS!! Football beat Iowa State 52-20 on Saturday evening to clinch the Big 12 North Title for the 2nd year in a row. Texas beat kansas early on Saturday, so a win at Iowa State sealed the deal for us. We made it back from Colorado in time for me to catch the 4th quarter, so I was excited to watch it. I realized Friday morning when I got on the plane I forgot to set my DVR :( so I don't get to watch the game, unless I can catch the game on Big 12 No Huddle this week sometime.

Soccer hosted NCAA 1st & 2nd rounds this weekend. They beat Evansville 2-0 on Friday night. Today they played Illinois and lost in a PK shootout, 4-3. The girls had a great season, with a record breaking record of 16-5-2.

That about wraps up the week. Exciting I know, sports, sports, sports....it's all I ever do right now. Two more weeks of volleyball, maybe more depending on the NCAA tournament. I'm excited for the holidays though, so I can spend some time with my family and friends and going back to Texas! Thanksgiving will be spent in Columbia, but my parents are coming up the next weekend for the Big 12 Championship Game and we're having Christmas with Kyle that day since it's Emily & Kyle's year with his family and we won't get to see him around Christmas.

Tech Video

2008-11-09T19:09:00.002-06:00

Most people here in Missouri, heck even in other parts of Texas have no idea why I love and miss the Texas panhandle.....but this video pretty much wraps up my love for Lubbock & the Red Raiders

Remote Lubbock the Perfect Home for Red Raiders

TIGERS WIN! TIGERS WIN! TIGERS WIN! & TECH TOO!

2008-11-09T16:25:00.007-06:00

Well that pretty much sums up the weekend. We had a bye for volleyball on Wednesday so the week has been pretty long and boring. The biggest win for the Tigers this weekend is in Mizzou Soccer. They won the Big 12 Championship Tournament in San Antonio this afternoon 1-0 over Colorado. They opened up the touney on Wednesday vs Texas winning 3-1, then played Kansas Friday night. They advanced to the championship game on penalty kicks after they tied the game 1-1 and winning the PK shootout 4-3.

Volleyball had a big win today against OU. We swept them, 25-15, 25-17, 25-20. That was a huge win after they beat us in 4 to start Big 12 play there and they upset Texas last week at Texas. Lauren had a career day with 19 kills. We play at Nebraska on Wednesday & at Colorado on Saturday. Both will be tough games. CU has been playing great at home and not so well on the road, so that is a big road game for us.

Now rewind to Saturday night football. Mizzou hosted Kansas State for the final home game of the year. (The Kansas game is a home game for us, but we play it at Arrowhead in Kansas City). Emily came over for the game and we had a great time. It was a little chilly, but we survived. Temperature at the 6 pm kickoff was 34 degrees (windchill of 24), it never got above 40 yesterday I don't think. It was an emotional pregame for all, as they began by honoring fallen senior teammate Aaron O'Neil, who is Forever a Tiger, and the other 22 seniors who are the winnningest class in Mizzou Football history. After a slow start the Mizzou Tigers pulled out the win 41-24. Jmac had a GREAT game, scoring 3 touchdowns. Chase Patton got in and threw a his first touchdown pass, which was special for his last home game, especially because he is a hometown kid. The only downside of the night was that the Mizzou game was at 6 and the Texas Tech-Oklahoma State game was at 7. Between Dad & Kyle we got scoring updates and shared with all those around us--all of which were pulling for the Red Raiders. After a scary fumble to start the game, the Red Raiders pounded the Cowboys 56-20. They have a week off and then will play a very tough game in Norman vs OU.

Emily & I all bundled up before the game.

All smiles before kickoff.

Emily was trying text with her huge ski gloves, I thought it was entertaining.

I couldn't resist taking this picture, it was late in the 4th quarter & everyone around us had left. Emily said she now knows what she would feel like if she weighed 100 pounds more. She couldn't even get her jacket zipped because she had so many layers on. She can still see the game through the tiny crack between her scarf & toboggan. (Yes, toboggan for you MidWesterners!)

Happy Birthday!

2008-11-05T12:53:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday to my little sis, Emily

From all of our goofy moments,

to the most special,
you'll always be my best friend!

I Love you!!!

P.S. You're lucky I deleted all the pictures from when we were little off my computer, otherwise we would have some great ones on this post!

Carving Pumpkins & Halloween

2008-11-03T10:43:00.007-06:00

My trick-or-treating monster pumpkin

Several of our pumpkins from our pumpkin carving party

Melissa's top fell through her pumkin

Shane's amazing free-handed USA pumpkin...I'm pretty sure he won the contest

Warning: If you've never played Rock Band, don't try it...it is highly addicting!

We had a few concerts post-pumpkin carving

Adam getting into it

Tara rocking out

Tara dressed up as all her soccer girls' injuries for the soccer Halloween party at her coach's house

Tara as a boxer and I'm a rhinestone cowgirl...

I'm a poor grad student, so I made a costume with things I already had, you can't see them, but I am wearing the green high top cowboy boots as well.

At some point in the night I became the Mexican Rhinestone Cowgirl

The costume is not complete without the rhinestone slap bracelet

An Amazing Weekend

2008-11-02T16:55:00.003-06:00

WOW, what a weekend....

Friday night I helped Tara with the soccer game. The girls beat ku 6-0. What a great start to a winning weekend. Any time you can beat kansas it is great, and to top it off it was their senior night. They ended up 3rd overall in conference, but now travel to San Antonio for the Big 12 Tournament. They start off the tournament avenging their loss to Texas at 1:30 on Wednesday.

Saturday was a busy, busy day. Big 12 Cross Country was this weekend. Our men's team finished 5th and our women's team 12th (they are really young, all freshman & sophomore so look for them to improve!) Women's Swimming & Diving hosted ku as well....which they won. So we're currently leading the Border Showdown 7-2.5 (KU's only points are from 1/2 of the volleyball and women's cc). Wrestling traveled to Lindenwood University in St Louis for matches, Shane said they wrestled alright, that was the extent of his description. Football pulled out at win at Baylor's homecoming 31-28...and closed out the game with Brock intercepting Robert Griffin (his first interception throw on the year). They moved up a spot to #13 in the AP poll.

As for volleyball, we have to backtrack a little. We traveled to kansas on Wednseday for our game. Unfortunately, we didn't play consistant and lost in 5, 12-25, 25-18, 25-15, 13-25, 14-16. Just by the scores you can tell there was inconsistent play. Wednesday was upset-day for volleyball in the Big 12 though. Colorado beat Nebraska (at Colorado) in 4; OU beat Texas (at Texas) in 5...an interesting note about that game, OU won game 1, Texas came back and beat them 25-9 in the 2nd, but ended up losing in 5; Iowa State beat Baylor (that could have gone either way, but ISU is playing great right now); and K-State beat A&M (which should have happened) in 5 at Manhattan. Big 12 volleyball is CRAZY, kinda like football right now I guess. The loss at Kansas has really diminshed our NCAA tournament hopes, but we are still hoping to get in. Saturday night we hosted Texas Tech. What I wouldn't have given to be playing that game in Lubbock (we'll get to that later). We beat them in 4, 25-15, 21-25, 25-14, 25-17. That brings our overall record to 11-12, 5-8.

Now if you didn't watch the Texas Tech-Texas football game on Saturday night you really missed out. I am so very proud to be a Texas Tech alumni and to have worked with quite a few guys currently on the Tech football team. WOW WOW WOW, what a game. I missed the first half because our volleyball game was at 6:30 and the football game started at 7. I made sure to clean up fast and get home for the 2nd half though. Tech started out with an early lead and the persistant Texas fought back. Thankfully, Texas scored with enough time left of the clock (to take the lead for the first time all game) for the Red Raiders to score again. Jamar Wall had a great kick-off return to the 40 yard line that allowed Graham & his troops to get 1st downs and score. Texas had their chance to put away the game, but thankfully the Longhorn player dropped the ball. If you missed the game winning touchdown, just turn on ESPN, they have been playing it all day. Even with all the unsportsmanlike penalities, Tech held on in the last second for their kickoff to seal the victory. People criticize and say that the students should act like they have won before, but that is the first time Tech has ever beaten a #1 team (they were 0-7 previously) and it was the school's 500th win. Pretty amazing if you ask me. I worked the game in 2002 when we beat Texas at home and would have loved to be there last night. My parents were there and said it was amazing. Tech actually jumped to #2 in the AP polls, which kinda surprised me, I thought they would end up #3, but the voters didn't think so. Tech has a real test to see if they are truly #2, with Oklahoma State playing in Lubbock on Saturday @ 7 pm on ABC. GUNS UP!

We have a bye on Wednesday for volleyball and actually don't play until Sunday vs OU....wow 8 days without a game, such a difference from our 3 in 6 days. Football plays K-State on Saturday at 6 pm on FSN. It's the blackout game and senior night. Emily is coming to watch the game with me. I am so super excited to spend some time with her. It's her birthday on Wednesday, so I thought giving her a ticket to the game would be kind of me (haha, it free for me too....cheap birthday gift!) Don't worry I'll be getting her something else as well! GO MIZZOU!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T12:20:00.001-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I hope everyone has a great day

Update, Update, Update

2008-10-26T19:41:00.004-05:00

I should really be working on my mid-term for my Motivation class, but I really have no idea what I am doing on it, even if my professor says that there are no right or wrong answers...I have to somehow come up with 5 page answers for 3 essay questions. I read my mom the questions and she thinks they are ridiculous. One essay is to discuss what our final paper is going to be about--of which he informs us some people use as their dissertation--good lord what have I gotten myself into? I am a NON-thesis master's degree student and we could use this for our dissertation...I have a feeling the 4.0 in grad school might be gone after this semester. Hopefully I can pull it out though.

We hosted Colorado on Wednesday & swept them. 25-18, 25-23, 25-17...we played great and the game was so much fun! Saturday wasn't as joyous for the Tigers. We got swept at Iowa State, 18-25, 15-25, 20-25. Iowa State is on a roll right now, as they beat K-State in 5 on Wednesday. This week we travel to ku on Wednesday and host Tech on Saturday.

Football had a HUGE weekend! They shut out Colorado 58-0. Colorado had the third longest streak for not being shut out, 243 games which dates back to November 1988. HUGE HUGE HUGE for the Tigers! It is Mizzou's first shut out in Big 12 play. Chase Daniel matched his school record with five touchdown passes and Chase Coffman set a career record for receptions by a Division I tight end. We moved up in the rankings to #14. Football travels to Baylor on Saturday, but the game isn't on TV. I guess I will just have to watch GameTracker at the Hearnes on Saturday.

Soccer beat Baylor on Friday night 2-0. Unfortunately they fell to Texas today 1-2. I'm not sure where they stand right now, because soccer has ties and such..so I am not sure how to interpret their standings on the website. There are 3 teams with 6 wins, but OSU has 1 loss & 2 ties, Colorado has 2 losses & 2 ties and we have 3 losses & no ties. I do know that A&M is 7-2-1 and doesn't have a game this upcoming weekend, so their record is final. I guess we will just have to wait and see how things end up. Soccer closes out the season on Friday vs kansas at 6:30.

Alrighty, back to the mid-term, maybe I can make up some stuff that will make me sound like I know what I am talking about! Have a great week. :)

I've Received an Award!!

2008-10-21T17:27:00.004-05:00

That's right I have received a blogging award. Quite honestly I didn't know these even existed and once you read the description hopefully you will understand it, because parts of it really confuse me. Thankfully I am not the only one...Adriene says it doesn't make a lot of sense either, anyways here it is. Here is the award that Sherri from The Barnes Crew gave me:

Here's the translation of the award and the meaning behind it:
“This blog invests and believes, in ‘proximity’ [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] "They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?" Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to eight bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.”

So thanks Sherri!!!

The Eight Bloggers I award are:
1. Emily
2. Melissa
3. Trey
4. Doug
5. Andreia
6. Alisha
7. Tandy
8. Bruce & Amanda

Thanks for reading my blog--and enjoy your award!

The Weekend Revisited

2008-10-21T17:02:00.005-05:00

This blog will be short and sweet. Most of us who work in the athletic department at Mizzou do no wish to re-live the past weekend (except the soccer team who did phenomenal this past weekend). UT as a whole wasn't very kind to the Tigers this weekend.

Friday I flew to Austin with the volleyball team for our game against the University of Texas. They are ranked No. 3 in the nation. Needless to say it by far wasn't our best game ever. We were swept 13-25, 20-25, 12-25. That brings us to 9-10 on the year and 3-6 in Big 12. Good news though, our destiny is in our own hands. We are currently tied for 9th out of 11, but only 1 game out of a huge tie for 5th and 2 games out of a tie for 4th, and we have a fairly easy schedule compared to most teams the next 5 games. We still have a chance to make the tournament.

Saturday the football team played in Austin as well against the #1 Longhorns. For anyone that watched the game knows that the first half for the Tigers was dismal. Thankfully we came out the 2nd half and played much better, but we were already so far behind that we couldn't make up the difference. Sadly we dropped to #16 in the polls, but we should win out if we take care of business and still make the Big 12 Championship game. One game at a time though.

Soccer had a phenomenal weekend though. They played Francis Marion on Friday night and won 6-1, then they went down to College Station to play No. 6 A&M who they shut out 6-0! A&M was tied for 1st in the conference so that win was huge. If soccer wins their next 3 conference games, they will win the conference outright. :)

This week in the volleyball world we host Colorado on Wednesday and travel to Iowa State on Friday for a game on Saturday (bus trip, sad I know, but bus trips don't bother me at all). Good news, we get the "Rock Star Bus" which is the bus with the 12 sleeper beds and then couch like seats in the front & back. The major plus to that is that we can watch TV on digital cable, which is great because our volleyball game is at 2pm and the football game vs Colorado (Homecoming) is on FSN at 5:30 pm so we will be able to watch the game on our way back. Soccer has a big weekend with games against Baylor on Friday & Texas on Sunday.

I've Been Tagged

2008-10-18T17:18:00.002-05:00

I've been tagged by Adriene to tell 6 things that the blogging world might not know about me, so here is my attempt (as for family reading this, I'm sure you knew most of the already, but plenty of people don't):

1. I've always wanted to be a dancer. Maybe this was an inhereted thing becuase my mom always wanted to be one as well, but dancing just amazes me. I LOVE dancing, even if at times I have no idea what is going on. I never took dance as a child, as I was way too involved in other things, but I have always been intrigued by it. Dance movies always seem to be my favorite as well. Although, I guess after see dancers and their build, I don't think God built me that way.

2. I was a cheerleader from 8th grade until my junior year. My senior year I decided to be an athletic trainer so I couldn't cheer. I'm glad I made that decision because it lead to my future. (On a side note, I loved going to camp and learning new dances!)

3. I LOVE jewelry. I really miss living close to all the cheap jewelry stores in Amarillo & Lubbock. When I go home The Jewelry Box & Dustee's are always a MUST STOP for me. I have tons of necklaces and earrings, but always seem to find something that I absolutely must have--thank goodness I am content with the cheap jewelry, although I will admit I love the expensive stuff too, I'm just too poor to buy it. Every month I am so excited to get the James Avery catalog in the mail to see what new stuff they have.

4. I have always wanted to be a boys' basketball coach. I am such a Daddy's girl, he is truly my hero, and I since I was little I've wanted to be just like him. I've been a girls' basketball coach, but boys basketball is so much more interesting to me. Girls are just a different breed to deal with--soo much drama involved! Coach Cooke keeps telling me he is going to hire me as an assistant because I am so knowledgable (thanks Dad!), so maybe one day my dream will come true!

5. I love working out at my grandpa's farm or on any farm/ranch for that matter. Driving the tractor, putting out hay, working in the garden, working calves, moving cattle, painting fence, etc... A little crazy I know, but that's the tomboy coming out in me.

6. I am a lake rat. I could spend everyday in the summer at the lake, swimming, tubing, water skiing, wake boarding, laying out, and even occasionally fishing (but if I catch anything I won't take the fish off the hook). I love going to Possum Kingdom to our family lake cabin and spending time, and will even settle for going to tiny Lake Mackenzie in my hometown where you can only ski in one direction around the island in the middle of the lake.

I tag Emily, Andreia, Melissa & Tandy...have fun girls!

Down with the Jayhawks

2008-10-15T22:05:00.003-05:00

Yeah!!!! We beat the Jayhawks tonight in 4 games, 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, and 25-19. :) Anytime we get a win over Kansas it is a joyous occasion. That brings us to 9-9 overall and 3-5 in Big 12. We have one day of practice, then head to Austin to play the #3 Longhorns on Friday night.

Football plays Texas on Saturday night at 7pm on ABC. Be sure to tune into the game and cheer loud for the Tigers. ESPN GameDay will also be in Austin, so it will be a fun filled day. I wish I was staying overnight for the game, but instead I am going to cover the swim meet for Casey (aren't I nice) and then head to Em & Kyle's house for a relaxing weekend away! It was also announced this week that our Oct. 25th Homecoming Game vs Colorado will be on FSN @ 5:30 pm. Gotta love those TV games, especially since I will be in Ames, Iowa that day for a volleyball match.

Another Fan Vote is up! Go vote for Chase for the Davey O'Brien aware at http://www.voteobrien.org/register.asp. He is also a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award!

GO TIGERS!

Taking a Poll

2008-10-14T21:11:00.004-05:00

So I can't decide what I want to do with my hair....grow it out long or cut it short again, so I'm asking everyone else their opinion. Now I know many of you haven't seen my hair long like I used to wear it, so I'm posting pictures....and let me know what you think.

Of course, if I decide to grow it out, it will take what will seem like FOREVER for it to grow, but I am optimistic that I can be patient ;)

No comments on how AWFUL I look in the first pic below...Katie and I went and ran right before I got my haircut & I had literally just rolled out of bed when I went to the track.

Rough Weekend

2008-10-13T06:44:00.004-05:00

It was a rough weekend for the athletic world at Mizzou. The weekend started off promising as

soccer defeated Oklahoma 2-0, but it was downhill from there. With Texas beating OU, the stage was set for the football team to continue to move up in the polls, but unfortuantely, after a hard fought game we fell to Oklahoma State 28-23, dropping us to No. 11 in the polls. We have a great chance to redeem ourselves on Saturday as they travel to Austin on Saturday to play the No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns. GO TIGERS!

Sunday volleyball hosted No. 2 Nebraska. We fell in 3, but played well. We put up a fight with game scores being 25-20, 25-21, 25-18. This brings our records to 8-9, 2-5. We host Kansas on Wednesday--it's another regional TV game, so help us pack the Hearnes and travel to Texas on Friday. It's definitely a busy week. To close out the weekend, soccer played at OSU and lost in overtime. OSU was ranked a few spots ahead of Mizzou, but we were really hoping for the upset.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend. I have more pictures, but they are on my mom's camera and I haven't gotten them from her yet.

Purple People Eaters

2008-10-09T20:01:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to play K-State. We fell in 4, but it was a hard fought match. All the games were very close. We won the first one, 25-22, then lost the next three, 22-25, 23-25, 22-25. One of our sophomores, Catie, scored a team-high, season-high, and tied-career-high 12 kills. This brings our overall record to 8-8 and 2-4 in Big 12. We have 3 games in 6 days coming up. Sunday we host No. 2 Nebraska. It's "Can the Husker" day at Hearnes. If you bring 2 cans of food you get in free & we want to pack the Hearnes because our game will be broadcasted on Fox Sports Network. Then on Wednseday we host Kansas, another TV game on Mizzou Sports Network. On Friday we play @ No. 3 Texas. As you can see it will be a tough week. I wish I was staying the night in Austin and going to the football game on Saturday, but I can't seem to get that worked out.

My parents are coming up tomorrow and I am SUPER excited! They should be here around supper time. Saturday morning I have practice and then we have a sports medicine pre-game tailgate at Casey's parents house. Several doctors are coming into town and cooking for us. Nebraska also has practice, but I can work around all of that. Then it's off the football game. Kickoff is at 7pm and the game is on ESPN2. Go Tigers!

Ups & Downs

2008-10-05T00:27:00.003-05:00

Saturday was a day of ups & downs. I got to watch part of the Tech game while eating at Carino's for our pre-game meal. I still cheer for them to win (except last year when they played Mizzou) and they won big today. 58-28 over K-State. Graham Harrell threw six touchdown passes and became Tech's all time leader in yards passing. Graham surpassed Kliff Kingsbury's record, which Kliff set while I was at Tech. Michael Crabtree also tied the Tech career touchdown record today with 30 overall.

Unfortunately we didn't come up on the winning end in volleyball tonight. A&M beat us in 5, 27-25, 19-25, 18-25, 25-23, 4-15. That brings our record to 8-7, 2-3 in Big 12 play. We struggle to play consistently, which is really hurting us in conference. Mizzou has only won at A&M once since the Big 12 was formed. A&M is a very tough place to go play and they always seem to play great at home. Wednesday we travel to K State & the game is on FSN-Kansas City for those of you who live in Columbia. After that we begin our 3 games in 6 days series, Sunday against Nebraksa, Wednesday against Kansas & Friday at Texas. Nebraska & Kansas are on TV as well--so if you are in town, come pack the Hearnes for it!

Now the football team pounded Nebraska 52-17. We didn't get home in time to watch any of the game, but I am catching up on it right now. I LOVE my DVR. The 35-point defeat was the Huskers' most lopsided home loss in 53 years and fifth-worst in Lincoln in the program's 119-year history. Of course it was also the first time Mizzou has won at Nebraska in 30 years! Awesome job tonight Tigers! Next weekend the Tigers host Oklahoma State who is also undefeated with a 5-0 record. It sounds like it will be a great game.

My parents are coming up on Friday and going to the football game on Saturday & the volleyball game on Sunday. I know I saw them a week and a half ago, but I am so excited to see them again! It will be another busy weekend, but I will get to spend some time with them.

A New Look

2008-10-03T10:50:00.002-05:00

The Hearnes Center aquired a new look this week, and I must say it looks amazing. Sadly, I have no pictures, so you will just have to come check it out yourself (ok, I'll take pictures sometime and post them, but things are a tad-bit busy right now). We ordered 35 foot banners to go on the 4 sides of Hearnes. They are HUGE, but make the main floor look so much better. It was so nice to see the finished product after helping vote for the design and see all the work that went into it. One side of the court says Mizzou, the other side says Tigers, both have a huge Tigerhead watermark behind them, then on one end is a 43' by 35' Big 12 logo with gymnastics and wrestling accomplishments beside it, and on the other end is a 42' by 35' Tiger head with the volleyball accomplisments on the sides of it. If you live in Columbia and haven't seen them, it is definitely worth a trip to the Hearnes, and while you're there catch a volleyball game, wrestling match or gymnastics meet.

Anyways, enough about the banners, we hosted Iowa State on Wednesday and pulled out a 5 game win against them. We started out up 2-0, then lost games 3 and 4, but played a great game 5 to win the match. ISU actually has a high RPI ranking, so that win was really big for us. Saturday we travel to A&M to play them, football is @ Nebraska, and soccer's at home all weekend. I highly suggest watching the FB game at 8 pm on ESPN. It's gonna be a great one!

Go Tigers!

An Uneventful Weekend

2008-09-29T19:28:00.003-05:00

Well this weekend was pretty uneventful. Friday after practice Matt, Melissa & I went to Tequila's for dinner, but we so exhausted from the week that we ended up just going home and going to bed for the night. Saturday I spent most of the day at Hearnes. We hosted Southern Illionois University-Edwardsville in volleyball. We swept them 25-8, 25-21, 25-22. SIU-E is a team that is transitioning from DII to DI. They are a scrappy team and after game 1 played us pretty tough. Saturday night Melissa and I went downtown and met up with some other friends for a pretty low key night. Football had a bye this week, and from all the craziness that occured it was a great week to just sit back and watch games. We moved back up to #4 in one poll and #3 in another.

Sunday I gave the girls the day off, we didn't have practice and I didn't schedule any treatments becuase it was the first day since two-a-days that we haven't spent together. I figured after a 2 win week everyone deserved a day to themselves and sometimes rest is the best treatment. I got up and went with Neisha & Harper to church. It was so nice to go and worship and just spend the day reflecting. I got some house cleaning done and did some laundry. Sunday night we had family dinner at Melissa & Drew's apartment. Tara wasn't back from Nebraska yet, but Melissa made pepperoni and bbq chicken pizza for us all. It was great.

Another whirlwind week has already begun. We host Iowa State on Wednesday and go to Texas A&M on Saturday. A&M is an exciting trip for me because I get to see one of my former students & athletes, Will! :) Football opens Big 12 play at Nebraska. Mizzou hasn't won in Nebraska in 30 years, but we are fully expecting to snap that losing streak and bring home a Tiger victory. The FB game is on ESPN at 8 pm. I am hoping to catch the end of it when we get back, but no worries, I love my DVR and will be recording the game (I'm a dork, I know). Soccer's home all weekend, so I am sure I will be catching at least one of those games.

WE WON!!!

2008-09-25T11:57:00.004-05:00

Yeah, we got our first conference win! We swept Tech last night 25-18, 26-24, 25-15. It was a much needed win. We are now 6-6 overall and 1-2 in Big 12.

Going to Lubbock was GREAT!!! I got to see my parents and Katie and visit with some other people I used to work with. I was sad that I didn't get to see Pam, Robert or Rebecca. Pam decided she wasn't strong enough for the stairs, which I totally understood, but Mom & Dad were going to bring Robert with them. Unfortunately, he woke up Wednesday morning with a fever and throwing up and hadn't felt good for several days, so Pam took him to the doctor. While at the arena I got to visit with Jon who helped get me a job as a student trainer at Tech and kept me in the profession my freshman year of college. I spent many a days in his office, crying and wanting to quit because I wasn't happy mainly due to my supervisor, but he assured me that I was doing a great job and things would get better. Thankfully, I stuck it out and had a great experience after that. After our pre-game serve & pass, the parents, Katie & I went to Rosa's. I love that place and it was so nice to have GOOD Mexican food. I really miss that stuff. After that we went over to the football facility so I could visit with Buzz. Of course, Tech was in the middle of practice, but I walked out on the practice field fully decked out in Mizzou gear. Only a few guys who had no idea who I was gave me crap about it. When I explained to them I used to go to school and work at Tech and I was there to see Buzz they decided I was ok. It was so great to catch up with him and several other people that I worked with there. I even got 3 new pairs of scissors out of the deal (hey it's the simple things that make me happy, especially when one pair of my good scissors were stolen out of the locker room). In the middle of the game I looked up and saw another fromer boss of mine Ken (Jon's dad). It was so great to see him and talk with him. He is an amazing man that I have known since high school, who also helped me get the job at Tech. I told him I had no idea what I was going to do after this year, and he said, "Well let me help you when the time comes." It is so great to know that people at Tech still want to help me successfull. I still have a few months before I have to decide what I want to do after this year. I love Mizzou and everything that it entails, but everytime I go home I miss Texas even more. I know I have a tough decision to make in the future.

On a side note---GO VOTE for Chase. He has fallen to 2nd place behind the Georgia runningback in the fan poll, but he still leads most of the other predictions (SI.com, ESPN, etc...)

A Quick Update

2008-09-21T20:35:00.005-05:00

Just a few things to update the week. Pam won the battle and the baby's name is Rebecca Ann Cooke. There's a good chance I will get to see her on Wednesday when I go to Lubbock and I am SUPER excited about that. I got her the cutest little Mizzou dress for her to wear and of course I got Robert another Mizzou Tiger shirt. I'm very excited to spend part of the day with my parents & Katie as well. And Stephanie & Jake are coming to the game and brining friends to cheer on the Tigers. We might end up with more Mizzou fans than Tech has ;)

It's been a rough week for Mizzou Volleyball. Wednesday we played OU and lost in 4 and then finally played a home game today against Baylor and lost in 4. We travel to Texas Tech on Wednesday and then take a break from conference play and host SIU-Edwardsville on Saturday.

In the football world, Mizzou pulled ou another win over Buffalo 42-21. It was a sloppy game, but a win is a win :) Chase Daniel passed for a career high 439 yards and set a big 12 record with 20 consecutive completions. He even got a tackle in the game~Jmac had the ball stripped and fumbled it, Buffalo recovered, but Chase wasn't very happy about that and knocked the ball carrier out of bounds. It was quite the highlight all last night on ESPN, as the announcers claimed Chase could do it all. DWash (Derrick Washington) already has 9 touchdowns on the year as starting tailback, with at least 2 every game. We dropped to #6 in the AP poll, but stayed #5 in the USA today poll. Tech broke into the Top 10 this week, so that puts FOUR Big 12 teams in the top 10. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Football has a bye week, and then they open conference at Nebraska on October 4th.

I'm copying Sherri in putting a link to the 2008 Vote Heisman (it's on the right, under my picture). We've got two Tigers up for the award, Chase Daniel & Jeremy Maclin. Visit daily to vote. The player with the most fan votes will get one official vote in the actual Heisman voting. Chase is leading right now, so help him & Jmac out!

SHE'S HERE!!!

2008-09-18T21:48:00.005-05:00

After many months of waiting Baby Girl Cooke is here! She's still nameless, which none of us are surprised, as Robert didn't have a name for 2-3 days. Her name is still up for debate. Mom likes Rebecca Ann and Dad is pulling for Rebecca Dallas. So I guess Rebecca is pretty much set. I'm still pulling for Rebecca Brooklyn (Cooke said Rebecca Brooke didn't sound good, I personally think it sounds great!) Anyways, after an unexpected C-Section due to the baby's blood pressure dropping, she was born healthy at 6 lbs 9 oz and 19 inches long on September 17th. She is her mom through and through in the picture above, but they say she has her daddy's little legs.

The entire proud family :)

And for those of you who know Cooke, this is a historic picture. I held Robert before he ever even got close to him. My mom MADE him hold her and take a picture. He is so afraid she is going to break, even though we assure him that she won't break. Just by the smile you can tell she already has him wrapped around her little finger.

And We're Back...

2008-09-16T12:57:00.002-05:00

For a little bit anyways. This past weekend was spent in Reno, Nevada. Traveling there took forever. Nothing too exciting happened this weekend. We flew out of Kansas City to Phoenix, where our plane was delayed like an hour and a half, then finally onto Reno. We went 1-2 in the tournament, making our overall record 5-4. We lost to Nevada & Pepperdine, but finished out the tournament beating UC Davis in 3. We looked like a totally different team against Davis, definitely for the better. I think the girls are finally finding their place on the team. Sunday we spent ALL day traveling. We left the hotel at 5:30 am (PT), had a 7:25 flight, had an hour layover in Vegas (which I am sad I didn't get to ENJOY Vegas) then finally landed in KC about 2:15ish (CT). After getting our bags we headed home. We didn't get back to Columbia til like 5:30. I was WORN out from that day. I'll post pics of Reno later, I haven't put them on my computer yet, maybe I'll do that while in class this afternoon ;) (don't worry I take notes at the same time!)

Tomorrow we play at OU. Yet another road trip, only these are better, we fly there in the morning, practice, eat, play and fly home. Only one more overnight trip (ISU) until NCAA tournamnet. It's our first conference game, so that is always exciting. OU and Tech played last weekend in a tournament at Tech (long story...Hurricane Ike cancelled some tournaments and caused some rearranging) and the conference let them count it as their conference game. Tech took OU to 5, but OU prevailed and won. OU is 5-4 overall. We really need to go into Norman and beat OU. We were picked several spots above OU in the pre-season Big 12 rankings...so we are hoping to uphold those expectations. If you are bored on Wednesday night...get on GameTracker & cheer for us.

We FINALLY have a home game on Sunday vs Baylor. I'm not sure exactly what time we have practice on Saturday yet, but I am hoping for a morning practice so I can make it to the entire football game. Either way, I am super pumped about getting to go to the game.

Speaking of football, Mizzou put up another stellar performance on Saturday vs Nevada. We won 69-17. We broke numerous records on Saturday so that is always exciting! Polls came out and we moved up to #5. YEAH! GO TIGERS!

Oh yeah, my aunt & uncle are in Missouri right now--they spent the weekned with Emily & Kyle and are now at a cousin's house, but they are coming to see me Thursday afternoon :) I'm excited to see them and then I get to see my parents (and maybe Robert) next week!!!

Gold for a Friend

2008-09-15T09:44:00.010-05:00

This post is somewhat delayed---and stolen from my sister, but I am so proud of Jeremy as well, I had to make my own post! A good family friend of ours recently competed in the paralympics in Beijing. Jeremy has had a prosthetic leg since a baby but has never let it hold him back. He was an all-district athlete in basketball, football, and track for 3 years. He had the opportunity as a 17-year old to move to Seattle and begin training, but chose to stay with his family until graduation. (when he moved to CA to train full time) So now at 21 years old, he is competing in the pentathlon and discus in Beijing. In the trials he won first in the pentathlon and was 16 points off the world record.

Jeremy is the younger brother of Caleb Campbell, who if you watch ESPN at all I am sure you have heard about him. He played football at West Point for Army, was drafted by the Lions and then the Army changed their policy and Caleb was called back to West Point the day before camp started. Both are incredible athletes and I am very proud to call them my friends.

Now for the results....(drumroll....)

WOOHOOO!!!!! Check out the new gold medalist of the pentathlon and new world record holder
Long Jump - 2nd w/ 6.4m
Discus - 1st w/ 52.3m

Shot Put - 1st w/ 14.4m

100m - 1st w/ 11.56s

400m - 1st w/ 56.39s

BEIJING, China - After falling just 16 points shy of the world record in the men's pentathlon (P44) at the Paralympic Trials in June, Jeremy Campbell (Chula Vista, Calif./Perryton, Texas) came to Beijing with a plan to break it once and for all. Tonight he succeeded - winning gold and setting a new world record with 4,662 points (4,447, previous WR).

"I've been working so hard and was nervous this morning," said an elated Campbell. "To say that I broke the world record at my first Paralympics - there aren't words to describe what I am feeling right now."

So congrats to Jeremy!

Click here for a story in The New York Times about his win!

*~*~*~ THIS JUST IN ~*~*~*

I just got off the phone with my sister and she said she talked to Caleb earlier today and Jeremy won the discus as well in the paralympics! YEAH!!!

East Coast Adventures

2008-09-08T09:04:00.005-05:00

I must say my internal clock hates me right now. I've gone from central time, to mountain time, to central time, to eastern time, to central time, then on Thursday I change to pacific time, then back to cental time on Sunday. I am definitely ready for a regular schedule.

This weekend we traveled to Maryland to play in a tournament. Traveling with us is always an adventure. It was monsoon-like when we left Columbia and continued all the way to St Louis. Thanks Hurricane Gustav. Wayne decided to drop us off at the terminal because we were short on time (he was waiting on Susan at Hearnes, only to find out 30 minutes later she was driving her car after dropping off the kids), which we were very appreciative of due to the heavy downpour. Everyone gets out and we are unloading bags as fast as possible because the rain is blowing in the cover and Deng Yang locks her keys in her van, which is still running. We all check in (thank goodness she had given our tickets to Tom already) and she gets that matter taken care of. No real problems after that. We have to be the most directionally challenged team in America though. It's not a complete trip unless we do several u-turns. First we drive right by the hotel and somehow manage to get lost. Then going to the gym we take a wrong exit, finally get back on the highway, finally take the right exit, get an unexpected view of the UMD campus (very pretty though) before finally getting to the ComCast Center. We have a Garmin & paper directions, but apparently either don't believe the directions or just choose not to follow them. Now for me, this is beyond frustrating because I am super-organized and hate that we are never on schedule and can somehow manage to get lost EVERY time we go somewhere. Saturday we woke up to pouring rain--Hurricane Hannah had hit Maryland. Luckily we were in the ComCast Center all day, so we missed the worst of it.

Maryland is pretty. Lots of tall trees, although, for a girl who grew up in flat West Texas with no trees, I hate not being able to see everything around me. I was sad that we were 10 miles from DC and didn't get to go tour it, but there was literally no free time.

Friday night we played Maryland and won in 3. Saturday morning we played Kentucky and got swept--bad game, we'll just leave it at that. Saturday evening we played St. John's. That was a long and hard fought match. We eventually lost in 5, with 59 lead changes and 27 ties. Complete craziness. It was great to finish the tournament out on a positive note with a record of 2-1. This brings our overall record to 4-2. The ComCast Center is AMAZING. It's HUGE. They house many sports in there as well as academics, their hall of fame and many other offices. I'm not sure exactly when they built it, but it's fairly new. Also in celebration of their 150th anniversary, they have 50 terrapins around campus, the town and neighboring towns that are all painted different. That's the one outside the ComCast Center. On it's shell are faces from the 2002 Men's National Championship Team. Pretty neat idea if you ask me.

Football won big on Saturday vs SEMO. 52-3. Lots of different people played so that is exciting. They are now 2-0 and still ranked 6th. Volleyball is in Reno next weekend at the University of Nevada, ironically, the football team plays Nevada this weekend at well, only it's in Columbia. We'll be cheering from afar, in the enemies land.

JMac

2008-09-01T20:17:00.003-05:00

My good buddy & Mizzou football player Jeremy Maclin has been nominated for Pontiac's Game Changing Performance of the week with his awesome 99 yard touchdown return for a TD!

Click here to vote for JMac & the Missouri Tigers to win! :)

He is also nominated for the AT&T National Player of the Week. If you text VOTE to 51234 you can vote for JMac to win (yes, I realize Graham Harrell is as well, but hey I'm a Tiger right now. Both are friends of mine though!)

M-I-Z...Z-O-U GO TIGERS!

Tagged-6 Quirks

2008-09-01T08:09:00.005-05:00

So Sherri tagged me...thanks a lot...to come up with "6 Most Interesting Quirks" about myself. I've known this since Thursday and have been trying to come up with 6 quirks. It's a lot harder than you think. So here goes nothing:

1. My closet has to be color coordinated. Strange I know, but I think it's inhereted...my mom's is too. It's even divided into short sleeves, long sleeves, work clothes, pants, dress clothes, etc... My work clothes are even divided into sports medicine, volleyball, Gatorade & everything else.

2. To go along with No. 1, I am a super organized person. Maybe even have OCD. Everything has a place and it drives me nuts if it isn't in its place. Whether it be my training kit---it drives me crazy when the girls get stuff out and don't put it back where it was---my desk, things at my house, etc...

3. I hate when people call me and don't leave a message if I don't answer. Clearly if someone calls they have a purpose, but if they don't leave a message I have no idea what that purpose might be.

4. I'm a creature of habit, I find something I love at a restaurant and I stick to it. Adam makes fun of me because I order chicken strips at 3/4 of the places we eat, but hey, I LOVE chicken strips. Maybe it's the little kid coming out in me ;) Or I find something I like to eat at home and I cook it all the time....I absolutely LOVE poppyseed chicken so I usually cook it every other week. (In fact, that's what I cooked tonight for supper)

5. No matter how bad of a day I am having a Dr Pepper and a big hug can always make it better. If it's a Sonic Dr Pepper that's a double plus :)

6. I love dance movies and could watch them over and over and over. I have yet to find one I dislike. I also love to dance, especially if I have a great dance partner. Oddly enough, I never took dance as a child, I've just always been intrigued by dance. Maybe it's another one of those inhereted things--my mom has wanted to be dancer since she was a little girl....and an athletic trainer.

I tag Emily, Melissa, Doug, & Andreia! Have fun!

Maybe There's a Hole in Your Gas Tank

2008-09-01T06:35:00.013-05:00

The title is much funnier to Wayne (VB head coach), Tom (VB SID), and me than anyone else. It's one of those you had to be there moments. Let's just say we had an adventure getting back from the St Louis airport last night. It was definitely a long weekend by the time we returned at 8:30pm. We left Thursday morning at 9 and headed east to St Louis. We had an hour layover in Albuquerque after flying through the worst turbulence I've ever flown through. Our flight was delayed, but only about 10 minutes, so it wasn't that bad. We landed in Salt Lake City about 5:45 MT got our bags and headed to the rental car counter. Of course this ended up taking about 30 minutes, they don't have the vans we have reserved and are completely unorganized. We finally end up with 3 mini-vans and a large car. We drive about 45 minutes to Provo, head straight to the gym & practice from about 8:15-9:30ish and finally get to eat supper around 10. The weather in Utah is amazing. The mornings were cool and the afternoons were hot (it was in the 90s while we were there), but there is no humidity, which I absolutely love. The mountains provided a beautiful back drop and there was little wind. Friday morning we practiced in the morning and then played Tulane. We won in 4, 23-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-14. It was great to get that first win. Saturday morning we had an early game vs Utah State, which we won in 4 also, 20-25, 25-19, 25-20, 26-24. A quick side note on that game, Jules (the girl who tore her ACL last September) had 23 kills in the game. That is only 3 off her career high. Saturday night proved to be a little tougher. We played No. 20 BYU. We ended up losing in 5, 25-20, 19-25, 25-10, 22-25, 17-15. Game 3 was pretty ugly as you can tell by the score, but we came right back at them in game 4 to push for a 5th game. It was exciting to see us fight back and put ourselves in a great place to come away with a win and heartbreaking to lose especially when we were that close. We finished 2nd in the tournament and Jules & Wendy were both named to the all-tournament team. Due to our late game time on Saturday, we stayed the night and flew back on Sunday. Things were going great, we got to sleep in, had an afternoon direct flight back to St Louis, no delays, turbulence wasn't bad at all, landed safely and had all of our bags. When we got to the shuttle for our parking lot, there was only one van and we were all so ready to get back all 18 of us (plus the other 3 people already on there) piled into the one van. This wouldn't be as big of a deal, but you must remember there are 18 people and all of our luggage. I claim the award for most bags though--my personal bag, training kit, equipment bag, game ready & my backpack. We make it safely to the vans and head out. We leave the parking lot about 6 pm in our 3 Mizzou Athletic Vans. In my van is Wayne, Susan, Tom & me, then in each of the other vans there are 6 players and 1 coach. They chose to ride that way, which was fine with me because I had a whole bench seat to myself. Well we are about in Warrenton when Deng Yang (assistant coach) calls Wayne. She says she has run out of gas. Let the laughing begin. We are all a little confused how she has run out of gas, because we still have half a tank left. So we ask if Chen Feng (her husband & assistant coach) is behind her and she says yes, he went to get her some gas. Susan is talking to Deng Yang and asking her all these questions and telling her to watch her temperature gauge and several other things while Wayne, Tom & I are busting a gut laughing about the whole situation. Then comes the ultimate comment, "maybe there's a hole in your gas tank or something." We lose it at this point. Susan is trying her hardest to not laugh and keep a straight face, but in the midst of all our comments, she got flustered and that was the first thing that came to mind. So we kept driving and told her to call if she needs anything else, because we are about 15 miles ahead of them. So about 15 miles down the road we get another call. The van won't do anything and there is no power. They have added gas, but still nothing. There wasn't even a click when she turned the key. The 4 of us are thinking battery or alternator. So the 7 people in the broken down van all pile into Chen Feng's van. They are headed our way, so we pull over at the Hermann exit and wait for them so some of them can switch vans. I still don't think the 4 of us had quit laughing when they finally arrived. It was pretty funny to see the van pull up with 14 of them piled in. Apparently the air conditioner wasn't working either; it was just blowing hot air. So they were all hot, sweaty, cramped & griping when they arrived. After a little rearranging we finally get back on the road and headed towards Columbia. We arrived at Mizzou Arena around 8:30 pm without further problems. I'm not sure about the other van, but we laughed the entire rest of the way home about the incident as well as the other travel mishaps we have encountered with the volleyball team. Hopefully next weekend will be uneventful as far as mishaps. Below are some pictures of the weekend

As for the football team---YEAH!! GO TIGERS! I didn't get to watch the game, because we played at about the same time, but did get to see a few drives on Tom's computer on media row, and got to watch about the last 7 minutes of the game. I did get to see Spoon run back his interception for a touchdown. I recorded the game and watched the first half last night before going to bed. JMac's 99 yard kickoff return was AWESOME! It's nominated for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance this week....so go to espn.com & search for pontiac to vote for us to win! I can't wait to actually get to see a game in person...just 3 more weeks :)

It's off to Maryland on Thursday to play Maryland, Kentucky & St John's. GO TIGERS!

The girls in the St Louis Airport

The view outside my hotel window

The BYU campus. Notice the Y in the mountain side. The middle picture is their fairly new athletic building housing mainly football & administration.

Getting some studying done in the Salt Lake City Airport.

On the Road Again

2008-08-28T07:39:00.003-05:00

Blogging two days in a row--WOW!--impressive I know, but don't get used to it. Today begins our (the vb team) travels all across the US. Today we leave for Provo, Utah for the Molten Classic Tournament at BYU. It's a two-day tournament, but we play late on Saturday night so we aren't returning until Sunday. Speaking of Saturday, it's also the kickoff of our football season as well. It's the Arch Rivalry vs Illinois in St Louis. I am so sad that I don't get to go to the game (I even had a ticket if I was going to be here), but it is nationally televised on ESPN beginning at 7:30 pm. They have changed our game vs BYU to 8:30 central time, so maybe I can find a TV close to check up on the beginning of the game, and trust me I will be getting text message updates :) Next Thursday we leave for a tournament at the University of Maryland, the next weekend at University of Nevada (in Reno) and then we open up conference at Oklahoma the following Wednesday. We don't have a home game until September 21st when we return to Home Sweet Hearnes (that's our slogan for marketing this year). 10 straight road games. I'm excited to visit places I have never been before, plus it's a lot less work for me on the road than at home.

And so we're off. I'll let you know how we did at the tournament later. This is the time where my blog posts become strictly about volleyball, but that's all that will be going on in my life. Hopefully I'll have great news about the football team as well! MIZ-ZOU! GO TIGERS!

Bezner Wedding

2008-08-27T10:19:00.018-05:00

This past weekend I made my 48 hour trip to Texas. I flew out of St Louis on Friday morning at 9:05 and returned at Noon on Sunday. It was a quick trip but I got to spend some time with some very special friends and got to see my parents. :) Friday night was the "non-rehearsal" dinner at Marty's in Amarillo and then after that most of the bridal party hung out. Saturday was a full day. We had pedicures at 9:30, bridesmaid luncheon at 11, hair at 1, arrive at Country Home Weddings at 5, girls rehearsal at 5:30, pictures and then on with the show. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. They were married at the first place they met. Jenny was attneding our friend Andreia's wedding, and Mark was there crashing the wedding with JJ's now husband, Jake. Jake & JJ introduced the two, and the rest is history. Mark & Jenny are perfect for each other and I am so happy for both of them. Here are some different pictures from the wedding.

The bridesmaids & bride at the "non-rehearsal" dinner

Matron of Honor, Elaine & Bride, Jenny

The girls hanging out

Getting pampered

All pretty & ready to go (minus Elaine)

This is how Presley Kate stands 95% of the time

Almost time!

Presley Kate & Elaine--no doubt they are mother/daughter

Jenny looked absolutely beautiful :)

The big event

PK & Justin dancing...she had so much fun

What a Morning

2008-08-21T23:27:00.004-05:00

So today might have been the longest morning I've had in a while. I could have slept in, but couldn't, my body just hasn't figured out my schedule yet. So I got up piddled around, finished packing, checked in for my flight (gotta have A boarding), and I thought it was going to be a good morning despite the fact it was very steadily raining outside because Tara called and said there were 3 parking spots by the back door at work. So I hurry up and get everything together and head out the door. I get to the bottom of the steps will all my bags, unlock the door before walking out to the car in the rain, throw my raincoat over my backpack, head to the car, load my bag in the back, go to the front seat, put everything else in the passenger seat, reach over to get my car keys...and they are GONE. I can't find them in anywhere, I empty my purse, look through my raincoat pockets, look all over the front seats, under the seats, in the console, between the seats and console, in the backseat, get out unload everything out of the back, look in the parking lot, go back to the stairs (remember it's raining very steadily this whole time), back to the car, searching, searching, searching. I know that they have to be IN the car because I locked my apartment door, used the keys at the bottom of the stairs then got in the car. Seriously, who loses their car keys IN their car? Finally I get mad and leave for work (my extra set of keys just happens to be in my car) thinking that I will look for them later because they have to be somewhere in the car and I need to get treatment sheets done before the girls come in. So now about 20 minutes has passed, I get to work and of course not a single parking spot in the lot by our building. Cars are parked illegally EVERYWHERE, which is not surprising. The dorms opened 2 days ago so of course the lots across the street are packed as well. So I cross the street, unload everything out of my car, look again for the keys, finally give up, cross the bridge, get into work and realize I have left my cell phone in my car. Needless to say I am NOT happy at this point in time and beyond frustrated. So I decide I don't care, I really don't want to talk to anyone anyway. So I sit down and write treatment sheets & Kara reminds me that we are doing CPR/AED certification at lunch. Good grief, I studied that last week and haven't looked at it since, just add to my stress. I finish treatment sheets and decide I should go get my phone in case an athlete calls or texts me, so out the door into the rain I head again. I get to my car and lo and behold I have a text from our SID, asking about the girls' heights and saying "no medical waiver for Jules yet, correct?" Not what I wanted to read, so I begin freaking out thinking Jules' hasn't gotten her medical redshirt yet and I'm not happy, so I decide I have the treatments written, I have about 15 minutes before they start and my student is on her way so I am going back home to look for my keys. I call my mom in the middle of all this and she is laughing at me, sympathetic, but still laughing. This didn't help my mood at all--it's not a funny situation at all. Call Laura (my student) and tell her what I am doing and that I will be back shorty. So there I am walking through the parking lot a hundred different times, back sticking my head in places I never thought it would fit in my car, emptying every space possible, when Tara calls asking where I am because I have athletes in the training room and she can't find me. Finally while talking to her I see a single key reflecting in whatever light could possibly get under my seat in the overcast weather. I guess in the process of me moving EVERYTHING possible in my car it got knocked loose. They were stuck in the track that moves my seat between the seat & console. I was beyond happy to find them and didn't even care that I was nearly soaked and looked a wet dog that had been running aroudn in the rain. Finally I got back to work, did treatments, got the whole medical redshirt checked on---no worries there, it was approved several weeks ago, heights taken care of, CPR/AED passed, things squared away in the training room for me to leave town and off to practice. My afternoon was MUCH better and I was very excited to arrive at my sister's house in Illinois with no problems. Of course about an hour after getting here an athlete calls with a problem so I have to get ahold of Eric to take care of it in the morning.

I am SOOOOO excited to go to Texas tomorrow. Most of my good friends will be at Jenny's wedding and I am so excited to see them as well as see Jenny marry her true love. I am so happy for her and Mark both and excited to be a part of their special day. More on this later. I gotta try to get some sleep before the morning.

Cute New Background

2008-08-17T11:26:00.003-05:00

I found this site on Adriene's blog and I absolutely love their backgrounds. It was so hard to chose one for my blog because they are all so cute! To find your own cute background visit here http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/. I finally decided on this one for a while, but I'm sure I will be changing them all the time now--well when I have time. Today is a WHOLE day off for volleyball which is super exciting. I still have to go into work and do some treatments, but they shouldn't last that long. Sleeping in was amazing this morning, but I know those days are few and far between from now on. This week is our last week of two-a-days YEAH! Friday is our Black & Gold game, but I won't be here for it. One of my best friends from 4th grade on is getting married on Saturday. I am so excited to go home and see friends that I haven't seen in quite a while. It's going to be a short trip back to Texas, but will be well worth it. I missed the bachelorette party which was a day long event yesterday, one of the negatives of living 11 hours from home. I'm sure we will have a great time at the wedding though! Our first tournament is August 29th & 30th at BYU. I'm excited for season to start so I can watch games...practice is getting boring!

My Boring Life

2008-08-12T22:31:00.002-05:00

A certain someone (*cough* Sherri *cough*) keeps telling me I need to update my blog and is never satisfied with my answer of "my life is BORING right now." So Sherri here is your blog update ;) My life really is boring right now. The volleyball team reported for physicals August 8th and since then it's been two-a-day practices everyday. Since Saturday my schedule has been 7am breakfast at the dining hall, 8:30-11ish practice, cold tubs, then lunch at the dining hall, 2nd practice at 2:30pm, finish around 5:30 or 6, cold tubs again, finish the day with dinner at the dining hall. Talk about boring days, but that's my life right now. We do have tomorrow afternoon off which makes me SUPER excited because my parents are flying into St Louis tomorrow to come for a visit. Most of their time will be spent with Emily & Kyle, but I will get to see them a little. Tomorrow afternoon I am meeting Mom & Em at the St Louis Mills Mall to do a little shopping and then I think they are coming over Friday night to spend a little time in CoMo with me and go back to Illinois on Saturday after lunch. Like I said my time with them will be short, but I got to spend quite a bit of time at home this summer and Emily & Kyle didn't so the parentals decided to spend some time with them before Emily starts back to school on the 18th. Plus, I will be home August 22-24th for one of my best friend's wedding. I can't believe Jenny will be married in a week & a half. I'll post more about this after the wedding.

Luckily I am getting to watch a lot of the Olympics. It's on in the dining hall all the time and we have a TV in the vb training room so at least I am not missing a ton of coverage. So that's my boring life---have I proved my point yet???? haha

Time to Brag

2008-08-05T17:38:00.006-05:00

So I am going to brag just a bit. The athletic department was notified today that Missouri will be one of the five covers for the 2008 Football Preview that will be released tomorrow. How awesome is that??? (I'm a little excited~can you tell??) SI has picked as preseason No. 4. Other regional covers include Georgia, Ohio State, USC, and Florida, which make up the other top 5 teams.

What makes it even more exciting is that all 3 of these guys are good friends of mine. I know many of you aren't huge Mizzou football fans, so the guys are (from l to r) Sean Weatherspoon (aka Spoon), Chase Daniel & Jeremy Maclin (aka JMac). Spoon & Chase are both Texas boys :) Chase is from Southlake Carroll and Spoon is from Jasper. They are all amazing football players and great guys. All three have won many awards and I know there will be many more to come. Go to http://mutigers.com/ if you wanna read more about them. Just thought I would share my excitement with everyone else! I can't wait to get my copy!

Where has the summer gone?

2008-07-22T07:36:00.004-05:00

Wow, the summer has really flown by. Where did all the time go? We start back to work officially next Tuesday, July 29th to get ready for all the camps/2-a-days and the beginning of the school year. I can't believe it is already here. Working camps really makes the time fly. I have definitely gotten a wide variety of sports watching in this summer. I've worked volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling, baseball & softball camps this summer. For any of you who have never worked camps (in any capacity), they are definitely an experience. You get a wide range of children with all types of personalities and each wanting special attention. At times I think parents just send their kids to the camps for us to babysit rather than having to hire a babysitter or keep them at home themselves. Working camps can also be a joyous and rewarding experience though. You meet a lot of neat kids and come to love some that you spend so much time with and feel a sense of accomplishment when they finally master the task at hand. Although, I am glad to say I only have 5 more days of working camp left. I have three days of softball this week, an All-Star baseball camp on the 28th and a Father-Son baseball camp on August 3rd.

Last week I had a much needed week off and Emily & I spent it in Texas. I have been home several times over the past few months, but Emily hasn't been home since her short visit at Christmas, so we saw as many people as possible in a short amount of time. Tuesday we headed to my PawPaw's house to see him. He took us out to eat at Ken's and it was great as always. Wednesday after lunch we headed to Abilene to see all of my dad's family. Thankfully, most of my of family lives close to each other so we can see them all in our short trips home. We ate supper at Abuelo's and it was amazing. You truly appreciate Tex-Mex food more after living in the Midwest. The people up here just don't understand the great food they are missing out on. I laugh when we go eat Mexican food here, because on most of the menus there is a little box that defines what each dish is. Thursday I got to babysit Robert and Mom & I took him shopping in Amarillo. He is getting so big so quick and is a ton of fun to play with. I can't believe he is already 18 months old and in 2 months he is going to have a baby sister! I am so excited! Friday I got to eat lunch with Katie and then headed to Lubbock with Mom, Emily & Valinda to run some errands. That night I ended up hanging out with all of Emily's classmates at a small informal 5-year reunion get together at the country club. I felt like the old kid, but it was good to see all of them, because it was a lot of her good friends that were always around....as well as some of my old roommates from college. Saturday was the big Picnic Day in Tulia. As always I went to the parade and then headed down to the park to see everyone at the bar-b-que. It was great to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in a while. Mikey & Jill were there with their little ones, so it was great to finally get to see Camdon and see how much Mecailin has grown. Elaine was there as well as her girls. Presley is as cute as ever and Townli is precious. Of course the day isn't complete without attending the Ranch Rodeo. I had several friends competing on one team, as well as others on a few other teams. Sadly, Diamond A Cattle Company (Ewell, Allen, Brian, Justin & Seth) didn't win the whole thing, but they were fun to watch.

That about wrapped up my trip home. I know I didn't mention everyone that I got to catch up with, but I decided not to bore you with all of that information. One funny thing was that everyone kept calling Emily a Yankee all week because they say she has lost her Texas accent and has adopted the words you guys instead of y'all and soda instead of coke. Don't worry, I am staying true to my roots and keeping my Texas accent as well as my Texas words. It doesn't matter how mcuh people make fun of me, I am a loyal Texan. Well I gotta go get ready for softball camp. I am guessing we will be stuck inside all day because it's been raining (shocking I know) since about midnight and doesn't look to be letting up for a while.

Redbox

2008-07-02T18:50:00.003-05:00

I have a new obsession. When I was leaving Wal-Mart the other day, I noticed that they had a new Redbox. I have never previously used a Redbox, but knew that Emily & Kyle had and that movies truly are only $1 + tax for a rental. I took note of this and went on my way. The next day I went back and rented a movie. Now I am a Redbox regular. There are so many movies that I really want to see, but usually don't have the time or the money to go rent them. I can't tell you the last time I actually went to the theatre and when going to Blockbuster those $3.99 movies begin to add up rather quickly, but only $1 for a rental AND they have new releases--you can't beat that deal. I am in Heaven. This week is my "off" week for work. No 6 am workouts and no camps, it's been a glorious and boring week. I get up, go workout (the weight room is only open from 8-12), shower, go back to work for Wendy's rehab at 2 and then try to find something to do for the rest of the day. Perfect time to catch up on my movie watching. In the past couple of days I have watched The Bucket List, Fools Gold & No Reservations. There are many more that I want to watch, but am trying to limit myself to one a day right now. I am pretty sure I spend more on gas going to and from Wal-Mart to rent and return movies, but I usually need something at Wal-Mart or that way as well, so I try to clump those trips together. Just thought I would enlighten you with my new discovery. Sorry for those of you in Tulia, no redbox location as of now--I already checked it out for you :( My life is pretty boring right now, but I know in about a month I will be longing for a day off. Football physicals are August 3rd, soccer on the 6th and volleyball on the 8th. Have a wonderful & safe 4th of July!