Halloween Costumes

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting Show us your life: Halloween Costumes this week. We don't have kids yet, but that certainly hasn't stopped us from subjecting Rocky and Boudreaux to the craziness of Halloween.

These are their costumes for the last two years:

2007

2008

I wouldn't go so far as to say they were always willing participants, but they tolerate their momma and daddy's craziness for the most part. They lucked out and won't have to get dressed up this year b/c their daddy will be in Oklahoma for a football game and their momma will be at work. Next year though, they will definitely be sporting some sort of costume!!!

Buffs Win!!

Well, our seniors won their last game at the Bro. We beat Angelo State 43-15. We FINALLY looked like ourselves last night. It was a good win for both the players and coaches. I was sad that I didn't get to meet my friend Erin, whose hubby is the DC for Angelo, but thought it was funny that the only thing our husbands talked about after the game Saturday was how we knew each other and talked and texted all the time!! I have loved becoming friends w/ other wives in our conference, but it makes having to play those teams just that much worse!! It's also nice though, because we have all been in that spot before where we were either on the winning or losing end, so we understand what the other one is going through.

Saturday was senior/parent day, so we recognized the seniors before the game and had the parents meet and greet also. It was sad to see all of our seniors lined up out there b/c most of them were Freshmen Billy and I's first season, so we have gotten to really know and love these kids. It's always bittersweet to see them leave, but at the same time, we know that they are going to be on to bigger and better things. I was hoping that with Ioane and J'Marcus leaving our grocery bill to feed the guys wouldn't be so big, but I'm pretty sure that that is wishful thinking. It was lots of fun to see these guys get recognized and to see the appreciation the fans had for how hard these guys have worked the last couple of years. It will be weird to see different numbers lining up for us next year and for sure will be odd to know that Keithon and J'Marcus aren't coming back. Hopefully we will be watching them play on Sunday next year though.

My friend Stine was here for the weekend. We didn't do anything just really exciting, but it was nice to just hang out and get to spend time w/ her since we haven't seen each other in awhile. Friday we really didn't do much except cook for the boys and take our Christmas card picture and then on Saturday we went and helped my mom w/ her craft show for a little bit and then came home and went to the game. Poor Stine, she's been out in the wilderness for the last six months, so she was WAY over stimulated at the game Saturday, but we had fun and took a cute picture (which I will post once I get my camera back from my husband...). Saturday night after the game we had our after game party at the Carthel's and it was a lot of fun. There was lots of laughing and cutting up and the team chiropractor came and was doing adjustments on everyone. I was still so sore from my adjustment on Friday that I opted out, but it was fun none-the-less. She left to head to Sanger on Sunday morning when I left for church. I get to see her again in December, so that date can't get here soon enough in my book!

I thought I was going to have to work on Sunday, but as it turns out, I didn't, so I ended up getting to go to the Haunted House after all. It was not scary to me, but then I think I just automatically go into the frame of mind that it's all fake before I even walk in the door, so it doesn't bother me (however, the toilet that splashed us w/ who knows what and the vine that hung down that we so lovingly named the swine vine did disgust me a little bit). Billy's freshmen guys on the other hand...they were freaking out and it was hilarious. They fought the whole time over who was going to lead the way and then when I ended up in front, they were moving so slow that I kept having to stop and wait. I gave up and went to the back of the line and then spend the rest of the time laughing at all of them. It was a lot of fun and I was proud of myself for not freaking out when the guy w/ the 9 ft. python came and stood next to me. I don't do snakes and was NOT impressed. Billy didn't believe me that it was real until after booster club yesterday and he heard everyone else talking about it being real.

This week the guys go up to play Northeastern Oklahoma State. I am not making the trip. I will instead be at work(hopefully) taking care of kids and trying to watch the game at the same time. Pretty sure that I am going to have to break the rules and wear "non" NWTHS apparel to work under my sweatshirt so as to show my support for the Buffs!!

Nothing else exciting going on really. I'll post pictures from this past weekend once I get my camera back from Billy and hopefully the rest of the week will go as smoothly as the first part has gone. Still waiting to hear anything about the truck. The guy that is working on it for us went to Abilene and got it for us on Saturday and I talked to him at booster club yesterday and they were going to start breaking it down yesterday afternoon, so hopefully in the next couple of days we will hear something.

Oatmeal Chocolate Bars

So these are the oatmeal chocolate bars that I got attacked over 2 weeks ago for and then again this week!! I've included pictures since I actually thought to take some tonight. They were super good and definitely one of my new favorite desserts.

Oatmeal Chocolate Bars
Mix:
2 eggs
2 sticks of softened butter
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda

Blend well then add:
2 c flour
3 c oats
Mix well and press 3/4 of mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. (I put parchment paper in the bottom of my pans tonight and I would definitely recommend doing that. It made the clean up easier and they were much easier to get out of the pan and cut.)

After you have that in the bottom of the pan, in a small sauce pan over med. heat, melt together
6 oz. chocolate chips
1 stick of butter
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1 tsp of vanilla

When that's all melted, pour it in the pan over the oatmeal crust. Then take the remaining 1/4 of the crust mixture and crumble it up over the top of the chocolate. Bake in the over on 350 for 30-40 minutes. You don't want the middle to be runny when they are done. I bake mine for 37 min. Let them cool for at least an hour before you cut into them, that way if the chocolate is still a little gooey, it won't run every where. Tonight I just pulled them out of the pan using the parchment paper and then cut them on the paper and it worked great.


To finish off the post I'll leave you with a preview of our Christmas card. This is NOT the picture we are going to use, b/c of course, not everyone is looking at the camera in this one, but the one we are using is a great one.

My friend Stine is here for the weekend, so I'm going to go finish watching Drumline w/ her. Still don't know anything about the truck and my shoulder feels a little better...we'll see if it survives a whole game of ringing my cowbell tomorrow night! Have a great weekend everyone.

Congratulations!!!

Congrats to Keithon, Shad and Crowdry. They were named the offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week for the conference. So proud of these guys. They all 3 played huge parts in our win on Saturday.

We Won!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update: The chiropractor thinks I partially tore my rotator cuff...so excited about that, let me tell ya. Just thankful that that's all it is.

I was so proud of our guys yesterday. They stuck it out in a well played game and beat the #1 team in the country in ACU. The final score was 32-21. It was definitely a battle of defenses. Both teams lost a lot of firepower on offense last year, but both of our defenses are much improved this year which is evident by the fact that the score was only 32-21 and not 93-68 like it was the last time we played!! It is the first time we have truly seen our guys smile after a game this season. As I predicted we were in t-shirts and shorts getting sunburned. The weather channel said it was only supposed to be 72, but I'm pretty sure it made it into the 80's.

Saturday didn't start out so well. I had a wreck in the truck. I ran a red light and hit a guy. Thankfully no one was hurt. Now hopefully they will be able to fix the truck and not total it out b/c if they total it out, I am afraid we are going to end up upside down on it and be in trouble. I am definitely feeling the effects of it today though. I am sore from head to toe. I'm going to the chiropractor in the morning and the team doc wrote me a prescription for a muscle relaxer yesterday, so I am going to try and take one tonight and see if it helps. The true test will be when I go back to work tomorrow night.

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. In the last couple of months I have become friends w/ several wives from other teams in our conference. I am the person who always asks the Lord, why did you place this person in my life? Why did I have an encounter with them and what is the purpose for this relationship? Well, I know why I am friends w/ Whitney (whose hubby is the DC at ACU). I was actually going to meet her for breakfast yesterday morning when I had my wreck. She was so gracious and came and stood w/ me while we took care of everything and then came and got me and took me to lunch and let me hang out w/ her and her sweet girls until time to go to the game.

I had fun hanging out w/ my sister on Friday and the bus ride home last night wasn't so bad. It was a little uncomfortable just b/c my adrenaline had worn off and I was starting to feel the effects of the wreck, but we watched Any Given Sunday, a Mike Tyson documentary and The Longest Yard on the way home. The Mike Tyson documentary was quite amusing I must say.

Now for another week back at work. I'm not really very excited about it, but hey, who is excited to go to work everyday. We play our last home game this weekend against Angelo State and my friend Stine is coming to stay w/ me for the weekend so that will be fun. I'm sad that I have to miss the annual trip to the haunted house next Sunday with the team. I'm not a big fan of haunted houses, but I love to stand outside and watch all the guys go through on the video camera and to watch them come out the door. It's always hilarious to watch. Two years ago, our offensive coordinator crawled through part of it he was so scared. It was quite amusing to watch. That's about all that is going on with us, so here's a few pictures from the weekend.

Our HC wife Cindy, their daughter Courtney and her daughters Kylee and Kyler at the game on Saturday.

The final score!!

Me and Camille soaking up the sunshine after freezing last week!!

All my o-line guys celebrating after the game.

The I Don't Wannas

I have a serious case of the I don't wannas this week. Not exactly sure what the problem is, but it's BAD!!!!!!!!! I usually leave for work at 5:40 every afternoon. Today, I didn't even get out of bed until 5:45. I don't know if it's because I have gotten my bootie kicked at work everyday this week or what, but my motivation level is zero to none. Hopefully tomorrow I'll sleep well during the day and it will get better. At least that's my goal. I have lots of laundry to get done, and apparantly I'm the only person in my house who knows how to load and unload the dishwasher, so even though I haven't eaten at home all week, I have a ton of dishes to do. I realize it's football season, but it doesn't take anymore effort to open up the dishwasher and put your dirty stuff in it, than it does to pile it in the sink. At least I get to go paint pottery tomorrow night. It's girlfriends night, so that's definitely something to look forward to. Then on Friday I go to Abilene to see my sister and paint some more pottery and on Saturday I get to have breakfast with Whitney.

I'm so nervous for our guys for the game this weekend. We have to play the #1 team in the country for the 2nd time this season. We started out the season playing the #1 team and then they got beat last weekend and the team that we play Saturday is now #1. I've felt sick all week long, and I'm 99% sure it's from thinking about Saturday's game.

Does anyone watch the Biggest Loser? I DVR it and I watched Tuesday's episode yesterday afternoon after I woke up. I was so angry. I don't like Tracy to begin with and then for her to act like she did on this week's episode and pretend to be upset that she split up other teams made me want to punch her in the face.

Well, I gotta go take another blood sugar. Maybe we'll be a little closer to having my patient's blood sugar where it needs to be...guess we'll just have to wait and see. And hopefully tomorrow my case of the I don't wannas will be resolved b/c I have lots to do!

Seriously...

I ran my tail off last night w/ 3 hourly babies and I can't sleep today. How on God's gracious green earth does that happen? I need a good stiff drink I think.

Homecoming 2009

Update: I added more pictures at the bottom from the weekend...enjoy!

Well, we survived last night. Thankfully one of the other coaches wives offered to let my great niece play at her house w/ Huston and the babysitter while we were at the game, b/c I don't know that Emaree would have made it through the whole game. As it was, all the big people were frozen by the time it was over and done w/. I'm pretty sure that it was right at or below freezing for the entire game. As you can tell from the picture, we all look like little abominible snow people. We laughed b/c when we first got to the game, we didn't know who any one was b/c everyone was so bundled up you couldn't see anyone's face. What is going to be really funny, is when we are all in tank tops and shorts next weekend b/c it is so hot when we play. Nothing like the good 'ol Texas panhandle for ya!

We won 34-24 and it was great to watch the guys rush the hill at the end to pick up the wagon wheel. It was also nice to see them smiling after the game. The highlight for me was when one of Billy's guys picked up a fumble and ran it for a 5 yard gain. I love it when our o-line guys get to do fun things like that...I don't like the fumbles though...However, the highlight for the rest of the crowd was when they introduced Keithon in the starting line-up. He is a fan favorite and has been hurt all year and this is the first game he got to play in. The crowd went nuts when they introduced him. Next weekend we play Abilene Christian. It's going to be a tough game for sure, but I'm excited to go stay w/ my sister and paint pottery w/ her. It will be fun. Enjoy the pictures from our night spent in the sub arctic temperatures!!

My favorite float!! The sign in the back says "Future Sigma Nu"

All of the coaches wives freezing together!!

My sister-in-law and I freezing our tookis' off together!

Now tell me that that sweet face doesn't just melt your heart...it's my great niece Emaree who came to visit this weekend w/ Billy's sister!!

Me and Rocky on Sunday morning...tried to get one w/ Boudreaux, but of course he was freaking out and wouldn't hold still long enough to take a picture...typical Boudreaux.

My best effort at getting Emaree to smile. Note her morning after afro she's sporting!!

Dear Sweet Gussy

Oh mylanta--I almost met Jesus face to face tonight. I walked into the AC w/ my usual batch of Friday food for the o-line guys and little did I know, they weren't in their meetings yet. When I got to the top of the stairs I was met by all of my boys. I was pretty sure I was going to be attacked, so I just surrendered the food and took off back down the stairs. Apparently they all like it, b/c Billy said that they all said it was their favorite thing I've made on Friday night so far. We'll see...Next week I'm thinking I am going to be a little more ambitious than normal. Depends on how clean my house stays this week. Well, I gotta get to bed. Have to go to the stadium early in the morning and put out our "Reserved for the CWC" signs so that we get our seats we want...we decided to put CWC instead of Coaches Wives b/c then people don't know who we are...or at least we can dream that they don't know who we are!

Show us your life: Tailgates and Favorite Teams

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is hosting Tailgates and Favorite Teams and that is right up our alley!!

My husband coaches football, so of course I am a huge fan, however, my dad enstilled a love for sports of all kinds in me at an early age. Dad is a HUGE Cowboys fan and so I grew up watching football on Sundays every fall and grew to absolutely love it.

Billy currently coaches at WT. Our mascot is the buffalo and we have a real live buffalo that leads the team out on to the field for every home game. It's one of my favorite traditions at WT.


This next picture is a picture of Billy (the coach in the center) and all of his guys. I love that his guys make him look tiny!!

This is me and Miss Maci!! She got to cheer at halftime of one of Billy's games and I loved that I got to be there to watch her.

So, this was supposed to be our Christmas card picture last year, but thanks to a stingy photographer who wanted to charge me $6 a card it didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for paying a fair price, but $600 for 100 Christmas cards was a little excessive. We're going to try for round two this year...

Billy and two of his seniors and their families from last year. Devo (70) is Billy's grad assistant this year.

Because Billy is always coaching or recruiting when we are at games, we've only watched one game together that wasn't on TV. This was last year at the Tech/Baylor game. It was a lot of fun to watch Billy actually enjoy watching a game.


I graduated from UMHB, so of course I am a HUGE Crusader fan and being from Louisiana, Billy is a big LSU fan.

My favorite tailgating foods have to be fried Oreos and roasted corn. We have a huge tailgating area out at the stadium and I love to go visit with everyone and just people watch!!

GO BUFFS!!!!!!!!! Beat Eastern!!

It's Official...

...we are going to freeze at the game Saturday night. They are predicting a light snow by the time the game is over. HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!! I love the cold weather, but was really wanting a little more fall weather before the snow hit. I am prepared though. I bought some really cute leopard print rain boots at Academy last night b/c my feet seem to be the thing that always gets neglected when preparing for adventures in the cold/wet Texas weather. Hopefully it's not as bad as they are thinking it's going to get b/c my great niece will be here and she's not used to cold weather (they live in Louisiana) and so I'm not sure how well she will tolerate all of it.

Blessed

I love my job. Although it is not always easy, I can truly say I love my job. I love that I have the privilege of praying for countless families every single week as I take care of and love their children like they are my own. In nursing school they teach you that there has to be a line between you and your patients and that that line cannot be crossed at any point. "Don't get attached" they say...sorry folks, I think especially when you are taking care of kids, you can't help but get attached, and personally, I think I am a better nurse for it.

Last night I got to take care of one of my favorite patients...when we first started taking care of him I would have NEVER in a million years thought he would turn out to be one of my favorites. When we first started taking care of him, he was a smart mouthed, sarcastic 16 year old who had more than enough attitude to go around. I immediately started praying for he and his family, b/c I knew that they had a long hard road ahead of them. (Like I said, I pray for all my patients, but I pray especially hard for our cancer patients as they all have such a hard road ahead, and their diagnosis is always such a shocking and painful diagnosis for their parents.) He has cancer, a rare type, and it's a fairly aggressive type. Thankfully he is doing amazingly well both physically and mentally I think. I'm pretty sure we've gotten him addicted to Ambien, but that's nothing in the long run! S has had a total attitude adjustment since we first started treatment. It happened about 2 mo. ago and I don't know what triggered it, but I'm going to figure it out b/c I think it's made all the difference in how well S has done w/ things. Yeah, he's still that same sarcastic, smart mouthed teenager, but one who has a great sense of humor, can play the drums like nobody's business, and who, the more he lets us in, the more we are seeing that he is truly just a big teddy bear. For his make-a-wish, he got a SWEET laptop that has a program on it called Finale. For you non-musically inclined folks, that is an AMAZING composing program. He and I were talking about his computer last night and I told him I was just a tad jealous that he had Finale b/c I have always wanted it. I got to use it when I was in college and fell in love w/ it. (I was a Music Therapy major for a year and a half before I changed my major to nursing). He told me I could just go buy it since it was only $400 and I was in shock b/c it was like $3500 when I was in school. And then he said, "or you could just get cancer and then you could get it for free!!!" I told him I thought I would just stick w/ saving up my money. It was a HUGE relief to me to hear S joke about having cancer b/c for so many teenagers...boys especially...they simply live in denial and don't cope period. I think that that is the road S chose for awhile and now he has made the turn. I cried all the way home this morning, it was worse b/c I was exhausted, but b/c while S has started to cope and is doing amazing, his parents are not. His mom just had a baby, and while I totally understand that that has to be her focus for awhile, she can't forget her other kid either who spent all night puking his guts up b/c of his "kool-aid" cocktail, as he likes to call his chemo b/c it's bright red!

Work has been a little rough here lately, just as far as my fellow employees go. There are a lot of them that are not happy in their home lives and that shows up in their attitude when they come to work. I've been struggling w/ why do I keep working in a place where, I love what I do, but for the most part and fairly miserable while doing it (if that makes any sense at all...). Last night was confirmation of why I do what I do. It's so that kids like S have a second chance at life and have a chance to go and make something of themselves and make an impact on the world. And like my title says...I am truly blessed to be able to work where I work and have the opportunity to do the job that I do.

Accountability

Okay girls--I am putting this on the blog, so hopefully it will help me to stick with it. I have been doing Weight Watchers since February and have lost 20 pounds so far, but I'm kind of at a plateau...partially b/c of the craziness of football season and partially b/c I just seem to have lost all my motivation. However, I am ready to get back on track. My goal is to lose another 20 pounds by Christmas. I am supposed to weigh in on Saturday mornings, so please if you think about it, ask me how I did at some point during the weekend. I also am going to try to get back in the gym at least 3 days a week. With winter and all it's craziness at work right around the corner, I know that it is not realistic to think that I will be able to consistently workout more than 3 days a week...I'm just too tired a lot of times, so 3 days a week is my goal.

On a different note, you've gotta love when you spend 30 minutes patting a kids back to get them to sleep at 2:00 in the morning so that mom and dad can sleep, and then mom and dad come bang around in the room, wake the kid up and put you back at square one...I mean come on...he can't have anything to eat or drink and you know that if he wakes up, all he's going to do is cry for his bottle, so WHY on earth would you walk in the room and start banging stuff around and wake him up...seriously!

Week in Review...

So I ended up making ice cream sandwiches for the guys. I bought the already made chocolate chip cookies at Sams and then put vanilla ice cream in between them. I usually only do dessert/snack stuff on Friday nights b/c it's 10:00 by the time they are meeting and so they usually are trying to wind down on the eating end of things by that time...whatever "wind down" means...pretty sure it's not the same in my vocab as theirs seeing as how J'Marcus and Shaun both had 2 Big Mac meals in their hands as they walked in the door for meetings that night.

When we have them over on Thursdays, their favorite meal is burritos. I have done chili, chicken spaghetti (easiest recipie in the world by the way...), hamburgers and hotdogs and BBQ over the course of the last 3 years, but burritos is what they always ask for if given the option. I would love to do something easy like a mexican casserole or something, but one casserole in an 11x17 pan feeds about 3 guys, so to feed all 26 that's a lot of casseroles and I can only do 2 at a time in my mini-oven. My neighbor and one of my players mom's are going to warm up casseroles for me this next time though, so we'll see how it goes. Then for the last one right before Christmas we are going to do BBQ. I have 6 racks of ribs and a brisket in the freezer so I've got to get one more brisket and then start stocking up on sausage. Always an adventure cooking for them. I still say that that is the reason that God put me on the kitchen staff my first summer at camp, b/c after cooking meals for 500+ people at a time on a daily basis, cooking for these guys is nothing! I'm excited for Thanksgiving to get here. I always love that meal, b/c it's not as many guys and they stay and hang out for a good portion of the afternoon and it's always a lot of fun.

We lost last night to Midwestern. It rained for a good portion of the game which always makes the passing game interesting. Injuries are eating our lunch right now. We have something like 10 starters out right now. Over half of them are gone for the season... This coming Saturday is homecoming which means Fair on the Square. I couldn't be more excited. Lots of shopping and good food...what more could a girl want!! Billy's sister and our great niece are going to be here on Friday and stay for the weekend. Hopefully we'll be a little drier than we were last year. It POURED last year at homecoming and so we were all soaked for the majority of the game. We play Eastern New Mexico so I'm going to make a cake w/ a wagon wheel on it for the big wagon wheel game. We've kept the wagon wheel for the last couple of years and I know that they guys really want to hang onto it this year.

We got to see Charly Martin last night at the game. He is on the practice squad for the Carolina Panthers and w/ this being their off week, he got to come to the game last night. It was good to see him, and as always he had us all laughing w/ his stories of training camp.

I am learning how to knit right now. I'm making a cute scarf for one of my "nieces". It's pretty dang cute if I do say so myself. It was a successful weekend for me in the grand scheme of things as I FINALLY got all of my pictures uploaded to my website and I gave myself a pedicure which I was in bad need of. Now I have cute toenails that look like candy corn.

Guess I need to get off of here and go to bed. I'm excited that it's going to be cool this week b/c that means that I can start making soups. First on the list is definitely a huge batch of tortilla soup. I LOVE that stuff and it's so easy to make.

Thanks--

Thanks for the suggestions girls...still not sure what I am going to do yet. They just eat so stinking much!! I am always amazed at the amount of food they eat when they come over for dinner. Without fail, I always think that I have made WAY too much food, and I have yet to have leftovers of anything. And then, after they leave my house, half the time they go to the Chinese Buffet in Amarillo and eat more. Look up bottomless pits in the dictionary, and there is a picture of my boys! Good Luck to everyone this weekend. Hopefully we all come out on top this weekend.