In the news.

A friend sent me this link because it's about her friend's grandson. It's yet another reminder of how blessed we are that Ryan "just" has hemophilia--and that we knew his diagnosis before he was born.

USA Today article

(The hemophilia Q&A sidebar is pretty informative, too.)

We'll be praying for Lance's full recovery!

Must See TV.

I've always had a weakness for certain movies or TV shows, a weakness that compels me to watch if I happen across them while flipping channels. This compulsion has nothing to do with rarity, and the shows in question are almost always ones I own on DVD or video. So why do I do it?

In college it was Dirty Dancing. The first summer my roomies and I shared an apartment, we had free HBO with our cable service. That was the summer of '88, and Dirty Dancing seemed to be on all. the. time. Because we were goofy college kids (who just happened to admire Patrick Swayze's--umm--acting skills), we felt like we had to watch that movie every time it was on! We learned all the lines and knew all the dances. Good times.

Overboard is another oldie but goodie. TBS used to play that movie quite a bit, and if I happened to have the TV on, I couldn't help but watch. Why would I feel compelled to watch it? It's certainly not because of the Oscar-quality screenwriting, cinematography or acting!

Singin' in the Rain is another one I can't pass up. Ryan and Katie really love this one, too. We caught it on PBS right before "Good Mornin'" and the famous rain scene--i.e., the best part! What an amazing musical! Whenever I see Gene Kelly swinging around that lamp post, I'm filled with joy, and being able to share that with my kids is so much fun. At dinner tonight, the kids were talking about returning to school today after their long Thanksgiving break. BOTH kids mentioned that they had "Good Mornin'" running through their heads as they walked the halls! Gotta love that!

And then there's White Christmas. It was on WGN and Turner Classic Movies this weekend, and you betcha, I watched as much of both airings as I could. All the songs, the dancing, the end when they open the big doors to reveal the snow... just awesome. I'm just in love with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, and I'll never get tired of this movie!

This compulsion isn't limited to movies. A few times lately, I've noticed that the Texas-USC Rose Bowl game was on ESPN Classic, and even though I own the DVD, I just couldn't change the channel to something else. Every time I watch, I get nervous; every time I cry when we win. (And amazingly enough, we win every time!) When Ryan catches me watching the game, sometimes he'll join me, but usually he'll just ask me to let him know when Vince is about to score the winning touchdown.

So why do I feel compelled to watch these? Several times during the break, Ryan or Brett would notice what was on TV and ask me, "Don't you OWN this?" Well, maybe my compulsion has a logical explanation. As busy as we are, I can't imagine setting aside two hours to play my White Christmas DVD, but if I'm folding laundry and it happens to be on, VOILA! I know these shows well enough to watch them while getting some chores done, and they all bring back some fantastic memories. They provide an escape, but it's an escape to a familiar, safe place. I guess all of these are the video equivalent of comfort food!

Now that we're back in school, I doubt I'll be doing much channel surfing, but come Christmas break, watch out! If I hear just one note of "Make 'Em Laugh," "She's Like the Wind" or "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," I'm there!

The agony.

As much as it pains me to lose to A&M, that's not the real reason I'm sad tonight. Sure, I'm disappointed with this game's outcome, and yes, I'm worried that my team's future is not as bright as I'd hoped. That's a bummer, but that's not it. The sadness I feel this time of year has one cause: the end of football season. I won't miss dropped passes or porous defenses or injured quarterbacks or LOSING (THREE TIMES!!!), but I will miss the tailgates, the camaraderie of our Section 1 fans and that unmatched gameday atmosphere.

Tailgates have been a great addition to our gameday ritual. Before this year, we'd usually eat somewhere and then drive somewhere else to find a place with TVs showing the early games. Now we get to our lot early, eat some great food and sneak peeks at the other games thanks to our neighbors' TVs. With tailgating has also come the added benefit of getting to know our Section 1 friends better. It's been great to have an hour or two just to chat with them, to find out how their families are doing and to "talk shop" about that day's game. I'll miss that time, and I'll miss seeing our friends every Saturday or so.

I'll also miss the gameday atmosphere. There's nothing like it! From Bevo to the band to the Godzillatron, I love it all. I love "The Eyes of Texas" and "Texas Fight" and spelling out T-E-X-A-S to "March Grandioso." I love the intro video and the players bouncing and the team's big entrance through the smoke tunnel. I love yelling my head off when we're on defense and crossing my fingers when we've got the ball. I love high-fiving my friends (and sometimes strangers) after really good plays, and I love having others to gripe with when the refs blow a call (or unfairly take away a touchdown!). I love knowing the best time to use the restroom and which stalls to avoid. I love recognizing the women at the concession stand. I love using first person pronouns like we to refer to my Horns. And even though I hate losing, I love being the type of fan who stays to sing "The Eyes of Texas" at the end of the game--no matter the score.

So yeah, I'm disappointed we lost to the aggies, but mostly I'm just sad that another regular season at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium has come to an end. We still have a bowl game to go, and of course I'll be cheering for my team whenever that game may be. But the countdown has begun to Sept. 1, 2007, when once again we'll be hiking up those stadium steps to Section 1, Row 52. (It's just 280 days away, you know.)

And for the record, 73-35-5 is the score I'm taking with me tonight. A&M will have to beat us 38 YEARS IN A ROW just to tie us up!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scenes from Nana and Papa's house:

The Bird.

The kids' table.

The hoops.

The spread.

The memories.

The Memaw.

And the one and only KATIE!

Our Thanksgiving dinner with Brett's family reminded us of how blessed we are! We missed Kelly (who was working) and Chris and Cara (who will be in Texas for Christmas), but it was nice to enjoy good fellowship, food and Cowboys football!

'Twas the day before Thanksgiving...

OK, so I know the Christmas season isn't supposed to start until AFTER Thanksgiving. What can I say? I just love all the trimmings! Because it's so much trouble to get everything out and up, I'd like to enjoy the decorations for as long as possible! Usually I like to decorate right after Thanksgiving, but I'm on my way to Austin this morning (Friday), and I couldn't wait until Saturday to do it.

Brett spent part of the gorgeous Wednesday morning cleaning the gutters, so he helped Ryan and Katie onto the roof to check out the view. Our deck makes it easy to get up there, and he was oh-so-careful to help them climb.

Brett also unloaded all 17 of our Christmas boxes out of the shed so I could get to work on the decorations. ChaCha, who usually spends her days outside, meandered into the sunroom to see what all the fuss was about.

It took me a while, but I finally got the tree put together. The kids helped me decorate it.

We brought in boxes and hung ornament after ornament, and ChaCha just "watched."

It wasn't long before we just got goofy about how much we love our tree!

And Miss Santa Claws kept "watching"...

As the goofiness (or delirium?) continued, Ryan imagined what it would be like if his attempts to reach the highest branch were unsuccessful. Here is his action sequence from that imagined fall:

Even with all that drama, ChaCha kept "watching."

By the time I ran out of daylight, the outside decorations still weren't up and the kitchen had yet to be stocked with the Christmas dishes, but the sunroom, fireplace and piano were decorated. Whew!

Here's the sunroom BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Katie's turn.

Duck on the Front Porch

by Katie_Dub

The boy likes movies.

Correct that: Ryan LOVES movies! He enjoys old and new films, but he tends to veer towards sci-fi and disaster flicks. Here are just a few of his favorites:

R.I.P. Lucky Shirt.

We are gathered here tonight to remember my lucky shirt, a T-shirt that had never seen defeat, never witnessed the Horns' utter humiliation...until tonight. A good shirt, it was purchased on sale at Kohl's last summer and had hopes of seeing another Big 12 championship and maybe--just maybe--another BCS championship.

This shirt's predecessor was undefeated through last year's championship season and was worn during the Rose Bowl. That old shirt was retired in January until Sept. 9 when it was put back in action for the Texas-Ohio State game. After we lost that one, it was re-retired, and this shirt, with its arched Texas, appliqued design, returned to action.

After surviving the close calls against Nebraska and Tech, this shirt seemed to have what it would take to go the distance. Alas, it could not overcome the loss of Colt, the physics-defying disappearance of our secondary, and the massive case of the dropsies that plagued our receivers and backs.

So rest in peace, lucky shirt. You'll live to be worn another day, but you will never be worn on gameday again.

Bible Bowl 2006.

Heritage hosted this year's Bible Bowl, and our team placed first in our division! Congrats to our kids!

We've been to Chick-fil-A lots of times...

...but this was the first time Chick-fil-A came to us!

We had a special guest at our tailgate Saturday:

The Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" Cow!

He was walking past our tent but stopped to toss the football a little.

Then he walked up to our tables and started helping himself! The Chick-fil-A promo people were all over the tailgating lots Saturday. Before we even arrived at our tailgate, someone had dropped off two bags of free Chick-fil-A sandwiches and a gallon of sweet tea. Sweet!

Fortunately for Mr. Cow, he was long gone by the time we started grilling, ahem, hamburgers.

The Horns won again, this time 36-10, and this week without the need for a scary come-from-behind victory!

Super Scary.

This year's costumes: Katie was the "Whassup?" guy from Scary Movie, and Ryan was the Man of Steel. KitKat was, um, a black cat.

Fun was had, candy was collected and eaten, and another memorable Halloween is in the books!