PRECIOUS LITTLE BOOK

I love being a mom! I love days like today when I'm cleaning up and stumble across something so sweet and precious as this little book Camille made. Sunday at church she had a lesson on prayer. Here is some of what she wrote and it melted my heart:

"I thank thee for....heal me" with a picture of her in bed. She has had a lot of stomach problems over the summer. She is so much better now. Thank you all for your prayers and concern, by the way. But it touched me that she recognized Heavenly Father's role in blessing her with health.

Then she says, "I ask Thee for...helping my friend to be safe on his mission." The picture is of her favorite missionary...Elder David McClure, who went to the MTC yesterday to begin his mission in Texas. I like the bubble around Dave's mouth that says, "I safe."

This is Dave with the kids the night before he entered the MTC. He is such a great example to our family. The kids absolutely adore him and we will miss him coming over and hanging out with us. It touched my heart that out of all the things Camille could write on this little page, she wanted to make sure Elder McClure would be safe for the next 2 years.

The girls did NOT want him to leave!

I love the child-like faith my children teach me.

A MILLION DOLLAR DECISION

So last spring, as you will recall, Abby said she would rather play in her soccer game than go to Disneyland. I was horrified by her choice.

Then this past Saturday before her game, (She has her game face on and DID NOT want her picture taken) she made another shocking announcement. We asked her if she could choose between playing in her soccer game or have a million dollars and she immediately responded, "I would rather play in my soccer game than have a million dollars!"

WHAT? Are you kidding me? Then this girl chimed in and said she'd take the million and the trip to Disneyland in lieu of soccer. Glad someone is thinking clearly!

NOT HAPPY IN HAPPY VALLEY

Yeah...we are not very happy around Happy Valley tonight. Let's just say that we left the game at the start of the 4th Quarter with Daren contemplating whether he will ever go to a game again and swears he will NEVER check the Cougar boards EVER, EVER AGAIN. I don't think this will last long but it was definitely a long, quiet ride home from a humiliating loss to Florida State.

First item of business when we came home....the retiring of our new flag!

TIS THE SEASON

For This:

First home game is this Saturday

The LONG WAIT is finally over for these gems:

And This: (Yes, I still lay in bed at night thinking how I could get on this show)

And this inspiring show:

And the Grand-Daddy of them all:

I LOVE FALL!!! And, TIVO!!!

YOU COULDN'T PAY ME ENOUGH....

To put a snake on my head and smile!

THE BIG GAME

BEST GAME OF ALL TIME!

To say the weekend was amazing only scratches the surface. There are so many things that happened. I will break them into categories.

THE HOTEL
Okay, so I totally didn't get the memo about the OU team staying at our hotel. We entered the lobby to find this as well as the OU fightsong playing over and over again as if we were on the ride at Small World. I thought I was going to go insane if I had to hear that song ONE MORE TIME! I met Coach Stoops. He's not the friendliest guy but it was cool to meet him anyway.
This was the view from our hotel room. What are the chances out of all of the hotels in Dallas we would end up at this one? Our group was pretty much the only BYU fans there.

THE FRIENDS

WOW! These guys are SO MUCH FUN! We were all in the same ward when we lived in Las Vegas. Only 2 couples still live there. We all became good friends mostly in part to the guy's love of BYU Football. The first night we were there, I went to bed and I thought I had sprained a stomach/fat muscle from laughing so hard. I love being with this group and I love them all. I wish we all lived closer.

Pam, Me, Amy, Sandy, Tammy

Our little row of seats

THE STADIUM

This place is unreal! I have never seen such a large building. Everything about the stadium was amazing except for the sound system. When the announcer would speak over the loud speaker, he would sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. All you could hear was, "Wah wah...wah wah wah wah."

This stadium is so massive. However, everything is VERY expensive. A bottle of water is $5 and a hotdog is $6. But to play in this stadium....Priceless!

The jumbo TV is amazing. It is all in hi-definition. It pretty much spans the entire field.

THE GAME

Yeah, Coach Stoops can't believe this is happening to his Sooners. What the heck is a Sooner, anyway? I never could quite figure it out. And why do they say, Boomer Sooner? And why do they all hold their index finger up at the start of the game as if to say, "Hey...pull my finger?" There were quite a few things about this team I didn't understand.

But this I did understand. THE FINAL SCORE!!

And, our fans didn't leave the stadium until the players were off the field.

And, my husband looks like he won the lottery. Let's just say that after the game was over, he was up until 3am watching ESPN, College Game Day and anything and everything that pertained to the BYU/OU game.

TEXAS

I HEART Texas! I LOVED Dallas. Whoever said, "Everything is bigger in Texas" knew what they were talking about. Everything is SO big there! The food is amazing, the city is amazing, the shopping is amazing, the country music is amazing, the humidity is amazing for my skin, the bull riding is amazing. Yes, I rode a mechanical bull while in Texas. We also went and saw the site of where President Kennedy was killed. This is on the grassy knoll but there isn't any grass because over a million people visit this site each year and the grass has worn away.But here is the spot of where he was shot.

And here is the grassy knoll.

We were SO SO SO glad we went to Dallas for the game. Daren said it was the BEST BYU game he has ever been to. That is saying a lot since he has pretty much gone to every one since he was 6 years old and Marc Wilson was the quarterback. It is now Tuesday, 4 days since the game and he still has a hoarse voice from cheering so loud. We had such a fun time watching the game and spending time with our friends. We played games each night in the lobby of the hotel and laughed the entire time.

Now...if BYU can just keep this streak going!!!

NOTE FROM DALLAS

Last year when we went to the BYU/WASHINGTON game we were ran into this guy who I totally thought was Coach Willingham, the UW coach. I was so excited and made Daren take a picture with him. It wasn't until after the picture was taken that I was informed he is NOT Coach Willingham and sells concessions at the stadium. Oops!
So this year before we left for the game in Dallas, I asked Daren all sorts of questions about the OU coach. Daren told me his name is Bob Stoops and what he looked like. I secretly thought to myself that it would be so fun to get a picture with him to make up for my faux pas last year. Imagine our surprise and horror when we checked into our hotel only to find that the OU team was staying at the same hotel! Then when the CONDITIONS were right, I got a picture with the real Bob Stoops. Unfortunately for Daren, the CONDITIONS weren't right and so he missed this great photo-op!

We are having a fabulous time in Dallas. I LOVE TEXAS. I love the music, the food, the humidity (my skin has never felt so good). We went to bed at 1am and my stomach hurts from laughing so hard with our friends. It should be a fun game day. I think we are planning on being to the stadium like 6 hours before kick off. Crazy fans!

GO COUGS!