Highlight Reel

Monday Night Football with the Dallas Cowboys

Last night, I attended my first “real” NFL game ever. In case you wondering what a “fake” NFL game is, I’ve attended two Pro Bowls and the Hall of Fame game, neither of which counted for anything other than pride/practice so I don’t consider those legit outings.

My company just happens to have 4 season tickets to the Cowboys inaugural season at Cowboys Stadium and last night, those tickets were mine. William and I thought long and hard about who to bring to this exciting event with our two extra tickets and decided that it was only fitting that we bring the men that brought us into this world and gave us a love of the game, our dads. My dad drove in all the way from Amarillo, TX to attend the big event with us and Mr. Mark Spencer came in from Tyler to share the evening as well.

From the mega-huge-monstrous-enormous HD video screen to the very posh “Cowboys Club,” the new stadium makes you feel like only the Highland Park elite are Cowboys fans, until the fan cam scans the crowd and reveals the same drunk, tatted up couple in Romo jerseys and foam cowboy hats dancing uncontrollably in the mid-upper deck.

Here’s a truly horrible picture of William and I down the aisle from our seats…did I mention that they were 2nd row on about the 47 yard line? Oh, yeah, they were. I am now spoiled for all future Cowboy events where I have to sit anywhere but on the 1st or 2nd row.



The afore-mentioned video board…this turned out to actually be kind of distracting. When you’re sitting that close to the players, you would think you’d rather watch the action going on right in front of you rather than up above you on the screen. My dad said once he caught himself watching the screen and then looking down at the field for the replay…oops.

We were actually pictured on this board sometime during the 2nd quarter for about 5 seconds. We appropriately smiled and waved and watched ourselves on the giant screen.


A couple of little offensive plays (these were probably not the 2 that actually resulted in a gain). Despite the lack of offensive charisma, the Cowboys won their first regular season game in the new stadium 21-7, and we were there to witness history.




Just a note to fans planning to attend games in the future, please allow 2.5 hours to get back to Dallas from the stadium if you stay until the end of the game. Arlington and the organization could really use a good civil engineer to figure out an exit strategy for the 100,000 fans that attend games. Anyone know where I could find one of those?

Oink Oink

This past week I have had the great privilege of suffering through the swine flu. There have been a lot of questions and concerns about this so I thought I’d address some of those for my blog readers today. I hope this puts everyone’s minds at ease about the truths of this almost “pandemic” illness.

Question Number 1: Do you really have the swine flu?
Answer: Yes.

Number 2: How do you know it’s not the regular flu?
Answer: Because my doctor said “You have the H1N1 flu, otherwise known as swine flu.” He’s a doctor so I took that as a pretty solid diagnosis.

Number 3: Have you started oinking/grown a tail/is your nose looking smooshed? (All these questions were mainly presented by my boss)
Answer: My cough sounds a little bit like an oink sometimes/not that I can see/yes, it’s a little smooshed but that could come from laying face down in my pillow for 7 days.

Number 4: What’s the difference in the swine flu and regular flu?
Answer: Well I think it’s a little more contagious and harder to get rid of…but really I think people are just more afraid of you so you get more time off and less interaction with people.

But, in all honesty, it’s been a pretty nasty week and I hope none of you contract this illness. (If you do, you cannot blame me because I was under complete quarantine the whole time I was contagious. William would be the only possible person who might get it from me.) The symptoms started last Tuesday and today is the first day I’ve really been up and moving around the house. My boss had been really supportive and insisted that I work from home this week and not come back until next Monday. That has really helped as the strength comes back slowly after being sick.

MVP in my life this past week was definitely William. Even though he banished me to the downstairs guest room and forced me to carry a can of Clorox wipes with me at all times (“please wipe off everything you touch”), he was an amazing caretaker and nurse. He made me food every night and came home from work for lunch most days to make sure I was drinking fluids and eating when I could. He also made sure I was entertained and had our friend Russell drop off a sack full of movies and TV on DVD to keep me occupied during the down time. (Because of his kindness, I’d like to insert a free plug for Russell’s store, EntertainMart. This kind of advertising usually costs big time. For all your entertainment needs at lower prices, check out one of their 6 locations across the country. http://www.entertainmart.com/).

I would also like to put in a plug here for hand washing, disinfecting, and keeping yourself away from the general population when you’re sick. I have friends with confirmed cases of strep, mono, and flu. Please do your community a favor and stay home when you’re sick. Oh, and get a flu shot. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Living a cool life

On any given day, there are hundreds of words that could describe the emotions, events, and occurrences in my life. This weekend, a common thread of “coolness” ran through everything we did. Here’s why…(in a brief, list format).

1.Friday night we enjoyed an amazing rehearsal dinner with old friends and new and drank some “cool” margarita’s and paid tribute to a super Cool couple in our lives, John Paul Schulze and Katie Booras.



2.After that, we returned home for a more intimate gathering of some great friends and hung out on our cool new-ish deck and patio furniture. Very Cool.

3.I woke up early on Saturday morning (kind of not cool) but the weather was so Cool (71 degrees), I decided to go for a run and it felt so good outside, I did my longest distance in quite awhile.

4.Spent the day relaxing and running errands before heading out to the Booras/Schulze wedding, where my friends had given me the honor of singing a little number about Jesus. Again, Very Cool.

5.The reception after was one of the most fun ones I’ve attended…and they had my favorite, mac n’ cheese, on the buffet. Super Cool.

6.Sunday, went to the new Dallas Northway campus of The Village Church for the first time. We’re very excited about our new church location and obviously I am going to describe the first service as very Cool. (http://northway.thevillagechurch.net/)

7.After sweating through most of the summer in our NOT AT ALL COOL upstairs bedroom, William installed a window unit for us!


We slept at a refreshingly COOL 68 degrees and, for the first time in our own bed(pictured below), were cool enough to use the comforter and cuddle a little.



8.Spent Sunday evening at the park where our REALLY COOL pup and I watched William play some soccer. My dog is undeniably cool, and my husband is as well.
(Berkley D. Spencer)


The only not so cool in my life is probably me, because of the cheesy-ness of this post. Oh well.

Calizona

If a state goes bankrupt and can’t see out of their deficit hole, shouldn’t another state be allowed to buy them out? I think it’s only fair. This is how American business used to run before we started relying on the Government to dish out more money to help those businesses who didn’t manager their profits well the first time.

My proposal? Let Arizona buy out it’s neighbor. They could tear up the tourism industry and their target demographic would be people who are really cold.

Defrost your soul in Calizona.

Finally!!

After 5+ years of dating, my good friends Alex Cammack and Kathleen Ross are finally engaged! Alex popped the question on Saturday morning during a beautiful sunset viewing at Kathleen’s grandmother’s house in Brady, Texas and then brought Kathleen back to Fort Worth for a day of celebrating with family and a surprise engagement party with friends that drove in from as far as Houston and San Antonio!


Because they are both little smartie pants, they will have to wait a little while to get married. Alex is in his 3rd year of dental school in San Antonio and Kathleen is starting her 2nd year of med school in Houston. The first time they will have a corresponding week off is July of 2011! We will all keep praying that an earlier window of opportunity would open up for the wedding but Kathleen has a great attitude about it and just kept saying "2 years isn't that long." I know the Lord will be faithful to them in this time!

The women of 408


Wanna Date 408? is officially out of business. Sorry to all the boys who never got their chance...



I love that we can share these exciting life happenings together! Can’t wait for the wedding celebration in 2011!!

Fourth and Long

Four months ago today, April 18, 2009, William and I stood together at the Church at Horseshoe Bay and promised to love honor and cherish each other for the rest of our lives. So, what have we learned in our 120 days (approximately, of course) of marriage.

First of all, time really does fly. It not only flies, it’s on one of those super jets attempting to break the speed of light. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 months, which is almost 6 months, which is like half of a year! (Reference here, one of my favorite Jessica Simpson quotes, “Twenty-three is old. It`s almost 25, which is like almost mid-20s!)

I would like to list a few of my favorite things about being married to William to honor this momentous anniversary.

1. He always cuddles with me in the morning. After he’s already been up, showered, eaten breakfast and read, he gets back in bed with me and cuddles for at least 5 minutes. This little routine is really helping me to fight back against my morning grumpiness (though it still gets the best of me some days.)

2. Praying together. We are easing into doing this more often but since we got married, it has really become a special time. My favorite is when we pray together right before falling asleep.

3. He takes care of the yard work. I’m not a big fan of working in the yard, but I do enjoy having a nice yard so before William came along, this was a catch-22 situation. Now, I can enjoy my nice yard without having to do too much of the work . (I do help, though. Sometimes.)

4. I’m really starting to enjoy our Sunday night routine, which (when we’re in town) usually consists of ordering a pizza and relaxing together. He’s even got me watching Entourage recently and I’m already hooked.

5. I love how he tries to pretend that my girly shows are so stupid but, when the finales come around, he has a favorite picked to win and tries to act very uninterested while inquiring about who wins (ex. He thought Brandon should win SYTYCD, even though Evan was really his favorite)

Most of all, I just love William and the fact that we get to walk through life together as a team. Because it’s verging on football season and it’s been the focus of my work lately, I am tempted to talk in football analogies. In my book, I got the number one draft pick in game of life and there’s no one I’d rather have at QB for our family than William. Thanks for being my husband and for sticking with me…four down and a LONG way to go!!

Weekend Recap

Better Late than Never

I know I promised a weekend recap from the Hall of Fame trip and I apologize to both of you who have been waiting anxiously for that :)

As I previously posted, I spent last Thursday-Monday in Canton, OH for the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction festivities. Overall, it was a great experience and something I would highly recommend that football fans do at least once in their lifetime.

I got in late Thursday night and settled into my less than clean accommodations at the local Comfort Inn. It wasn’t too bad but let’s just say I didn’t walk around without shoes on or lay on top of the comforters. There’s not a huge selection of luxury accommodations in Canton, Oh which led me to wonder where they were housing the superstars like John Madden and Roger Goodell who I’m sure never lay their famous football heads in anything less than 5 star accommodations.

We toured the actual Hall of Fame on Friday morning, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip. My favorite displays were of course the bust room( pause for definition: Bust—a bronze replica of the face, neck and shoulders), where the busts of all the former inductees are displayed.

Bust Room


A former Dallas Cowboy Great and my friend--Randy White, HOF '94


Mike Singletary--Sic 'Em Bears


We also attended a dinner where they introduced all the hall of famers in attendance that weekend. I was most excited to see John Madden, Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Bart Starr and Rayfield Wright.
There were tons of other events throughout the weekend but, since I’ve realized blogs are much more interesting when pics are included, here are some of the highlights from the rest of the weekend in pictures.

The Biggest Beef Rib I've ever seen. I could only finish half...


Cowboy Greats in the Hall of Fame


The Lombardi Trophy


So excited to see TO in a uniform that wasn't the Dallas Cowboys...and just a note, he was the only one not wearing the appropriate "throw back" Bills hat. Good luck New York.


Overall, I attended about 10 events and picked up a lot of good info for the job. I forgot to mention I was there for work, not play, but mostly just absorbed info and took mental notes on the events. Next year, I hope to return and take William with me. It would have been much more fun if I could have shared the experience with him.


Coming soon: The deck progression continues and a special tribute to the family pet.