Last Weekend's Football Frenzy

I really don't know why it has taken me until now to write up a recap of last weekend's activities, except for the fact that since we got smart phones, I rarely turn my computer on. So I can check facebook and twitter, and even email now, but typing or adding photos to a blog post cannot be done on that little tiny screen and keyboard. Oh yeah, and I've been kind of busy with continual setting-up-house stuff. But alas, it's Thursday night, Bobby is at a session meeting and I have finished all of my chores so that I can sit down, watch Grey's & Private Practice and type.

Football Frenzy Day 1: Saturday, October 10th - Oklahoma Sooners vs Baylor Bears




















After 7 days of clouds and rain, we woke up last Saturday morning to sun & cool air - perfect football weather. We got dressed in our crimson and cream shirts (and jeans & jackets) and drove down to Owen Field, with no tickets, but planned on buying some near the stadium. On the way there, we talked to a friend from church who offered us free tickets that he wanted to get rid of, which was AWESOME. Driving down there (the whole 4 miles) and parking was a breeze. We walked nearly a mile to join some of the OU RUF college students for a little pregame tailgate. They had hamburgers, pop, chips, corn hole, washers, and ladder toss. Then it was gametime. And guess who decided to dress in his uniform and start... SAM BRADFORD!


















Oh yeah! We got to see a little heisman-in-action. (in case you don't know, sam won the heisman award for being the most awesome player last year, decided to return to college for another season rather than going in to the NFL, and got hurt during the first game of this season.) The place went crazy when his name was announced.

I especially loved pregame also. but then again, I'm sort of a band geek...



















Overall, the game was great. Well... they could have played a lot better. The receivers were really making me and Sam mad - they dropped a bazillion perfect passes that he threw to them. He would have had nearly 600 yards passing if they would have caught the stupid ball more, and the score would have been a lot worse/better than it was... but in the end, the Sooners won 33-7. Awesome!

Here's a little recap of our day...

Parking "near" the stadium.................................... free
Food at the RUF tailgate......................................... free
Tickets to the game in the south endzone............ free
Seeing Sam Bradford lead the Sooners to victory..... priceless!


Football Frenzy Day #2 - Sunday, October 11th - Pittsburgh Steelers vs Detroit Lions
Unfortunately we did not get to watch this game in person like the day before. And unfortunately we did not get to even watch this game from the comfort of our own smoke-free living room. This was the first week since we moved to Oklahoma that the game was not televised in our market, so we had to go on the road, and watch the game at Buffalo Wild Wings in Moore. It was either that, or Hooters in Oklahoma City. We chose BWW. It's closer.

This time, dressed in our black & gold, we parked in a jam-packed parking lot and were pleased to see several cars that had steelers memorabilia, then even happier when we walked in and saw lots of people dressed in steelers clothes. We could have chosen to sit in the dining room where the steelers game was on one of the little tv's. Or... we could go to the bar where it was on the BIG tv. duh! We endured the smoke to enjoy the large view of our team and enjoyed hearing all the cheering and shouting of "c'mon ben!" when we had the ball, or "get 'em! get 'em!" when we were on defense. It was another nail-biter at the end, but I'm happy to report that the Steelers pulled it off 28-20. Another awesome victory!

Here was the screen we watched the game on. Photo was taken on my phone after the Steelers scored their first touchdown.

Don't Step There

Yesterday was the first time I was ever really in an attic. For real. Attics just really aren't that necessary in pennsylvania because everyone has basements for storage. But here in mid-america, the ground is clay, therefore, no one can dig down to build basements, so everyone has attics - thus, the mushrooms. More on that another day...

When we looked at this house before we bought it, we thought the attic space was great and had tons of storage area. Well, it turns out that it actually just has a lot of attic space potential. The previous owners only laid boards on a small portion of the attic so the storage space was limited. But we figured that was probably an easy fix, just get some more boards and finish it off, which is what Bobby and Wes (a guy from our church) did last night.

Before they could start on their pounding, I needed to get up there and move some boxes around that we had haphazardly thrown up there - mostly empty moving boxes - to give them more space to move around to work. I hate climbing ladders, but I got up there and it wasn't so bad. I was proud of my job of packing and stacking those empty boxes so well that they took up just a mere fraction of the space. I even called Bobby to come check out my handy work. He peeked up and was impressed. He got down and waited for me, thank goodness, because as I made my way over to the opening where the steps are, I stepped where I will never step again...(for obvious reasons) a spot where there were no boards, no cross-beams, no support... and my leg went through the floor!


















I knew not to step there and I really didn't "step" there. I barely put any pressure there. I think I just momentarily lost my balance and just barely set my foot on that spot for a second, and bam, there went the floor. Fortunately I was holding onto something and was able to catch myself and did NOT fall all the way through to the garage. That would have been terrible. I can't even imagine. So it's funny and I'm slightly embarrassed, but mostly feel badly that we know have to repair this spot. But hopefully it can be done quickly and will not be too expensive.



















Surely I can't be the first person to nearly fall through their attic, right?!

By the way, here is a picture of my neatly stacked boxes. There are probably 50 or so boxes there.



















And here is some of the progress the guys made last night. My Christmas decorations can't wait to sit on those boards.

Steelers & Sooners

This week Kelly is highlighting favorite sports team, traditions, and tailgating on her Show Us Your Life Series.













I am highlighting my two favorite football teams - the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Oklahoma Sooners.













I have only had the great privilege to go to a few Steelers games in my life, most of which were when I was in grade & high school, so I don't have a bunch of photos from those experiences. That was WAY before the digital camera era anyway. My most recent game that I attended was in late November 2007, it was cold and rainy, otherwise known as the mud bowl game. But fortunately we had seats under cover so we stayed mostly dry.
















You may remember that Bobby & I tried to go to a game in 2007 for my 30th birthday, but that didn't turn out too well... we didn't have tickets ahead of time, so we just went to the stadium hoping someone was selling some at a good price, but we were not so lucky. Instead, we ended up watching the game from a really nice condo in Pittsburgh, just across the river from the stadium.



















Before I move on, here are a couple of quick facts about my beloved Steelers:

• they have won 6 super bowls - that is more than any team in the NFL
• they have won 7 AFC championships
• it's the fifth oldest franchise in the NFL
  
• they are still owned by the same family that founded them in 1933
• they are the only team that has the logo on only one side of their helmet

As far as gameday traditions at home, we are always decked out in black & gold, usually game jerseys, we drink out of our Steelers cups which set on our Steelers coasters. For special occassions (like the super bowl, which they won TWO of this decade!) we pull out the special steelers paper plates, napkins, and plastic ware. We're so fancy. And of course we have our Terrible Towels handy for cheering for those touchdown catches by Hines Ward, or those sacks by James Harrison.

'dem Stillers are da best!

Oh, and speaking of the Super Bowl and Steelers, I can't leave out a picture of the cookies I made for the grand event this past year.





































Now on the other hand, my Sooner traditions are young. Just 7 years old, in fact. I didn't really have a college football team that I followed growing up, so when I met Bobby, (who is from Oklahoma and therefore a lifetime Sooner fan) I quickly joined Sooner Nation. We attended our first game together in November 2002, just shortly after we got engaged. It was awesome. I couldn't believe how many people were there! I finally realized why college football gets so much hype. I loved the marching band, the Sooner Schooner, the echoing "boomer" and "sooner" from opposite sides of the crowd, and the "oooooooooo......... U!" at kickoff. We went to one other game when OU played Mizzou in Missouri (we were living in St Louis at the time) and that was a lot of fun too, but our seats were in the Mizzou section and they weren't too hospitable to people dressed in crimson.

OU-Mizzou, October 2006
















Now that we are living in Norman, the home of the university, we are living in the hype. There is OU stuff EVERYWHERE, and the only thing anyone talks about is the football team. It's great! Unfortunately the team is without a few of their starting players this year due to injury (hello?!?! Heisman winner Sam Bradford! I'm such a name dropper, I know.) so they have already lost two games. I'm a little disappointed because I moved here to watch a winning team, but apparently they don't care what I think.... haha.

We will (hopefully) be attending our first game together as citizens of Norman this week. Tailgating and game pictures to come. Boomer Sooner!!!

FYI

Earlier today Bobby and I saw our "new" $10 rug for sale at Walmart tonight for almost 90 bucks! oh yeah, that made me feel good. I looked for it online to gloat a little more, and it is listed for $79 there. Still pretty good!

Terrible (cat) Towel

Last night during the Steelers game, we were trying to keep our cats awake because they tend to sleep in the evenings and then play, pounce, and wrestle on us while we are sleeping, all night. So we locked them out of the bedroom and made them stay out in the living room with us. They played and roamed around for awhile, but then soon settled on a chair next to the tv we were watching. I just happened to have a Terrible Towel laying there, and I like to think that they chose to lay there to show their support for America's football team.

First it was just Paisley sitting there.




















Then she got down and Shadow got up there.




















And then Paisley decided to get back up there and snuggle with her sister. Aren't they adorable?!?

Super Saturday

Yesterday was a lovely day. The weather was perfect: cool in the morning, sunny and warm in the afternoon. I went to lunch with a friend from church, Liz, on Friday (Cheddar's) and we were talking about garage sales and our husbands being away Saturday mornings, so I asked if she wanted to garage-sale'ing with me and she said yes. We decided to go around the neighborhoods near her - Moore & South Oklahoma City - and it was no slim pickins' - there were a ton of sales. But we hit the jackpot when we found a storage center sale. It was like the garage sale mecca! Together we ended up with some good stuff.

I bought these cute little white bowls for a dollar.




































I am such a sucker for things that nest.

Got these two books for $1.25.



















This suitcase for $5.
























The last thing I need is more luggage, but this one is the size I was lacking. It will be great for all of our/Bobby's overnight trips to Dallas.

I found these two shirts - the OU shirt for $1 (for me) and this blue military/work short for $2 (for bobby.)





































He thought it would be a cool guitar-playing shirt. I agree.

And my big ticket item was this area rug for our living room. It is not exactly what I wanted, but because the echo is so bad in there, and the floor is so bare, I was so happy to find this. The colors match pretty well, it is in really good shape, and it was only $10! Here's a picture of it laying on our backyard table. Once we clean it and put it in place, I'll show a picture of it in action.



















Later that night Liz and her husband came over to watch the OU game. We were so excited to host our first football game gathering in our new house, even though the house isn't quite ready for entertaining yet... They promised to look past the bare walls and floors, and boxes, and unfinished bathroom, oh, and the turtles in the bathtub.

Bobby waiting for the game to start - red shirt on the red couch - nice!



















Me giving the #1 sign. Unfortunately OU is far from #1 this year... :-(



















And you gotta have two kinds of salsa - red & green



















We're so glad Liz and Jarod came over. And they brought their adorable dog, Cooper!