Football Friday

With football season right around the corner, and the draft for the fantasy football league I will be competing in quickly approaching, I decided to share my top 5 favorite football movies. You do not have to "like" football to enjoy these movies.

1. Facing the Giants... "Coach, I weigh 160." That's from one of my favorite scenes. I've included the clip from youtube below. You have to watch the whole thing to hear the line.

2. The Replacements... Keanu Reeves at his dumb jock best.

3. We Are Marshall... Matthew McConaughey-- enough said. Oh, and it's based on a true story.

4. Remember the Titans... Can you believe that girl is Hayden Panettiere??

5. Brian's Song... Be sure to have at least one box of Kleenex when watching this movie. Based on a true story (and get the original starring a much younger James Caan.)

Thursday Thoughts

Yesterday I was checking out some of the blogs that I keep up with and decided to see what The Thrifty Chick was up to since she recently had a baby in July, and I figured she probably wouldn't be posting for a while. Sadly, when I clicked on her site, there was a message from her sister that Stacey, The Thrifty Chick, had passed away from a stroke just weeks after the birth of her fourth child.

I didn't know Stacey personally, but I did follow her blog being the thrifty person I am, and always found so much inspiration from her ideas. She dabbled in a lot of things, like photography, sewing, crafts, scrapbooking, recycling thrift store finds, however, unlike my at least 80% left brained self, she actually was great at all of it. There were many of her ideas I had yet to attempt so I hope her family keeps her blog up in her memory.

Anyway, please keep her husband and their children in your prayers. Thanks.

The Government Can

This is Tim Hawkins' latest song parody. It is definitely one of his best. If you are not familiar with Tim Hawkins, he is a Christian comedian from the St. Louis area. We have seen him twice, and he brought us to tears with laughter both times. He will be appearing on a Disney cruise in 2010. For more info. on Tim visit www.timhawkins.net and enjoy the video.

Kindergarten Carlie

So excited to be eating lunch at school

We have survived Carlie's first week of kindergarten. So far she really likes it. Her favorite thing is climbing on the dome monkey bars at recess and hanging upside down. It puts a frightening picture in my head, so I just pray for her safety. I will probably sign up for Room Mom again because I like to know all the kids in her class and who she is hanging out with, especially once all the birthday party invitations start up.

Her own desk

Noah and I are adjusting well. I try to plan my days so all of our errands can be done after we drop Carlie off, and we aren't going back and forth to the house. (This allows us to reduce the carbon emissions we are putting into the atmosphere.) We spent this morning at the Y, then headed to the library and picked out some new books. It was nice to just hang out there a while and look at magazines as well.

Scenes From Rams Training Camp

Yesterday we enjoyed the beautiful weather by heading out to the final day of Rams Training Camp. From the looks of things, it's going to be a long season. Kyle Boller was looking less than crisp considering the season starts in two weeks. I think Noah summed it up best. While we were sitting there watching he said, "I don't like the Rams, I like football." So what exactly were the Rams playing?? (All photos by Mike & Rachel.)

WR Donnie Avery- I question the "fractured foot" claim that will keep him out of the first few games. Both feet look pretty good to me. He's very fast by the way.

Gotta get me one of these

RB Steven Jackson

Nice of Bulger (#10) to make an appearance since he's hurt.

Two words of advice... Hair Product

He's thinking, "I play for such a sorry team."

Getaway Mystery Revealed

In less than 3 weeks we will be off to...




The Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. I have never been to Phoenix before so I am looking forward to it. I am hoping it will become the new Vegas for me. Meaning, my only real attraction to Vegas is the weather. Not that we will be doing much sightseeing since everything is so spread out, and cab rides are pretty pricey. It will be strange to go somewhere and just stay in one place, as I usually play tourist at least part of the time. Relaxation will be key and with 8 swimming pools to choose from, it shouldn't be too much trouble.



As for the clues... Ronald and Nancy Reagan spent their honeymoon at the Biltmore, Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas sitting poolside, and Kurt Warner, obviously, lives in Phoenix.

UE Alumni Event

We just returned home from a UE Alumni event at the Missouri Athletic Club. It was an event to welcome the incoming freshmen from the St. Louis area to the University of Evansville. The guest speaker was Dr. Zimmer who was my favorite Economics professor. His wife, Molly, was also in attendance. She was my Statistics and Computer teacher, then I became her teacher's assistant for both classes.

He gave a brief welcome to the students and spoke on the current economic situation and gave insight into the root cause as well as future predictions. Glad to know my education hasn't left me (and I'm not crazy) since I have been thinking the same things for a while.

My fellow Economics buddy, Scott, was also there. It was great to get back in touch with him. I even ran into another UE grad, Joni (can't remember her last name), who worked in child care during my Bible study this summer with my MOPS group. She said she would be working for MOPS this year too so that was cool.

Hopefully we can get a little more involved with the alumni chapter here. We don't have any extra funds to be giving to the school right now, but I do support the basketball team so that counts for something (and my parents donate, too.)

A lot of genius going on in this photo ;-)

Getaway Guessing Game Clue #2 and #3

Okay, so here are your second and third clues as to where Mike and I will be off to in a few short weeks. It's no exciting, exotic locale, but I am still excited.

Clue #2: Maybe Berlin wasn't such a bad guess after all...


Clue #3: This should give you a pretty good idea of where we are going...

Getaway Guessing Game

One month from today, Mike and I will finally go on our first extended weekend getaway without the kids.  This will be the first time we have done this in over five years.  A little scary, but I know the kids will be in good hands with Grammy and Pawpaw coming to watch them.  I decided to make it fun and see if you could guess where we were going.  (Mike, you can't play.)  

I will give you a clue each week, and you can just put your guess in the comment section.  You have to figure out the exact location though, not just city, state, or country.  Grammy and Pawpaw can play too since they surprisingly haven't even asked where we were going.  Here is your first clue...