Crazy Is As Crazy Does

About a year ago, when we gathered at my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving, Gregg was talking about the most recent Nebraska game that we'd attended that season. In mid-sentence, one of his cousins interrupted him and said "you went to that game?" When Gregg answered in the affirmative, his cousin continued on.

"You drove all the way to Nebraska?" he asked. "For a football game?"

Gregg looked at him like he'd lost his marbles.

"Yes," he replied. "Yeah . . . it's only 8 hours."

His cousin continued. "Let me get this straight . . . you leave on a Friday morning . . . you D-R-I-V-E all that way, go to the game the next day and drive all that way back on Sunday?" he asked, shaking his head. He muttered, "I wouldn't even do that for Purdue" (which happens to be his alma mater).

I waited for my husband's response.

"Then you," he sniffed, "are not a true fan."

I stifled my laughter. It wasn't the first time we've been called crazy for driving 16 hours within the span of 48 hours for the Huskers. A lot of people don't "get it" and think that we're crazy-truly crazy. The funny thing is that there are a lot more people out there who are even crazier than us.

So, we went crazy again last weekend . . . Friday morning out, Sunday afternoon in. Midway into the eight hours, we started noticing a problem with one of the tires on the car. Undeterred, we got back into the car, drove a little slower than normal and discussed our game plan. As Gregg drove, I got the laptop out and researched tire businesses located in Omaha. As only the dear Lord could do, a quick search of "get-you-in-and-out-quickly" types of places revealed a location right across the street from Husker Hounds. Want to buy a shower curtain or use grilling tools emblazoned with the Husker logo? Husker Hounds is your place! Want to kill some time while waiting for tire service? Husker Hounds is your place! I'm pretty convinced that as I yelled out a "woooooohoooooooooo" of glee, I heard Him laughing at me.

I hate to brag, but I'm pretty sure that our conversation with the nice man at the tire place led to a nice discount for the service portion of the bill. When we gave him our address and it quite obviously revealed that we were out-of-towners, he motioned toward the red attire we were both wearing and asked if we were fans. (ahem) "Yes sir, we most definitely are fans AND we drove all this way to attend the game tomorrow."

He high-fived us both and I'm happy to report that we were on our way again within 45 minutes of our new tire purchase. (clapping hands)

Game day arrived and we headed to Lincoln-confident of a Husker win. Sadly, things didn't turn out that way and by the end of the game, fans were quiet. That's never a good thing-especially in a stadium that seats 80,000+. Nebraska lost to Iowa State (7-6) and actually had more turnovers than points. Ugh! But, we remain faithful. True fans take the good and the bad with the ugly. That much was ingrained into my upbringing by D.K. Meyer himself (aka Poppop) and I went a step further and congratulated a young Iowa State fan as we headed back to our car. He gave me a thumb's up, after which Gregg tried to convince me I'd traumatized him by approaching him with congratulations. I'd like to think otherwise. Hopefully someday he'll remember that encounter and that at least one Nebraska fan in his path played nice and was a good sport in light of the defeat that day.

On a brighter note, I have one more autograph on my Husker jersey. Pre-game, Gregg and I visited the Nebraska bookstore, where former Husker player Zach Potter was signing autographs. I was reminded again of just how big some of these guys are. Wow!



And while I'd like to think I'm not superstitious, I have to say that I'm still a little "wigged-out" by the new culmination of Nebraska's famous "tunnel walk." Rather than tear out onto the field in a full-out run from the tunnel, they now w-a-l-k four across, linking arms. It was too low-energy for my liking. I'd like to see them eat raw meat or something as they attack the field but that's just me and for some reason, none of the coaching staff saw fit to consult me about this new phenomenon. (shrugging)



Sunday found us driving home-still shaking our heads in disbelief. Crazy. 7-6, 8 turnovers. Just crazy. Onward and upward.

Cassidy celebrated spirit week at her school. Wednesday was "Crazy Hair Day." I think she hit the mark pretty well. Even funnier is that the once-orange hair spray had turned nearly hot pink by day's end.


And have I mentioned Thing 2 and preschool lately? They're doing SCIENCE!! Seriously. I don't think I did science until I was 12. Last week she greeted me with "Mommy! Today we learned that magnets attract iron, metal and steel AND it even works through a glass of water!" I looked at her in amazement.

"Do you know what steel is?" I asked.

"Nope," she replied.

Science. In preschool. Now THAT's crazy. But fun too-just look at what they did yesterday during the Halloween party . . .


Gigantic bubbles result from building up pressure with a mixture of dry ice, warm water and soap. Pop them and you get smoke. Cool stuff. I want to go back to preschool.

And last on my blog update is Halloween . . . below is Hermione and her little cat Crookshanks.




And here's a look at Trio-Times-Three of Alaina (as Word girl), Chloe (as Captain Huggyface) and Mackenzie.



They're cute AND crazy . . . about each other!

Happy Fall, Happy Harvest, Happy Halloween and everything in between!



And as always, Go Big Red!

Catching Up

It's been a busy few weeks in our corner of the world . . .

We've been celebrating the grand opening of our new addition at church,



enjoying football season (in spite of the Texas Tech game),

praising God that we didn't need a new transmission for Gregg's 4Runner after all,

taking field trips with Mackenzie's preschool classmates,



discovering that nearly ALL the winter clothing that fit the girls last year does not fit this year,

getting Halloween costumes ready,

cheering on Cassidy for her winning entry in a t-shirt design contest,



keeping Walgreens and our doctor busy and in business for another month,

and enjoying the last of the roses . . . at least until next summer.



Perhaps life will slow down a bit . . .

until I suddenly realize that there are only 66 days until Christmas.

Seriously.

Who Wants a Freebie???

This post has been relocated to the following page:

http://awordfromkari.blogspot.com

From the Mouths of Babes

Me: (moaning and holding head in hands)

Mackenzie: "Mommy, what's wrong?"

Me: (more moaning) "I have a bad headache."

Mackenzie: (stricken look on face) "Is it from me?"

Never Say Never

I love football.

Let me clarify. I love college football. Professional football is fine too. In fact, as I write this, I'm watching the Chicago Bears play-mainly because former Husker Zach Bowman is starting today. but give me a college game and my Nebraska Cornhuskers and I'm a happy girl.

While growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, I thought that certain members of my family were a little uhm . . . over the top when it came to "the ways of the Husker fan." Don't get me wrong. I was a fan back then too, but the passion I observed in others was lost on me. At times it even seemed a little (dare I say?) silly.

Case in point: on football Saturdays, if it was an away game and my grandparents weren't among the throngs of red people trekking to another state, we would sometimes go to their house to watch the game all together-provided, of course, it was televised.

There was NO missing any part of the game if we were at Nanny and Poppop's house. There were at least 4 televisions all tuned into the game and at least one radio. You could be in nearly any part of their house and be tuned in. When the action proved to be too much for someone to handle and pacing was necessary to withstand the agony (usually Nanny), the anguished individual (Nanny) was encouraged to get out of the current room and go to a different television. If people (Nanny) wanted to speak at an inopportune moment, they were given a finger . . . pointing straight in the direction of a different room with a different tv. Television screen too small for comfortable viewing? No problem. A quick nudge in the direction of another tv location took care of it. By the end of a game, family togetherness was laughable. And if you were a kid who wanted to talk or make any noise (like breathing) during a game, forget it.

As a kid, I knew I'd never get like that when I grew up and became an adult Husker fan.

So yesterday, my mom called me. We had about 1 1/2 hours 'til kickoff.

"Hi Honey! Do you want to come over for the game? We're not televised, but we could at least listen together."

Me: "Uhm . . . Gregg said it might be available online at ESPN360. I don't know . . . "

Mom: (excited) "Oh wow! So we could actually watch it together?"

Me: (hesitantly) "You don't have wireless do you?"

Mom: (confused) "I don't think so . . . why?"

Me: "I don't want to have to share the screen . . . if I could bring my own computer and watch it, we could each have our own screen. Hey, I'll call Papa and see if maybe there's a way we could make this work."

When I hung up, I chided myself. I've become what I swore I wouldn't. I was turning down an invitation to my parents' house all in the name of not wanting to share a monitor. Duh. Oh well. No time to dwell on the issue. I had to call Papa Dean.

Sadly, the phone call resulted in no luck. No wireless. No splitter. Nada. I was relegated to watching the game solo (if it didn't fall victim to a blackout) or having to huddle with another person in front of the screen. Hmmm. Decisions.

You'll be glad to know that I chose the family togetherness option. And ESPN360 didnt fail me! The Huskers were not only audible but visible as well AND I never had to nudge anyone out of my way. Of course, I perhaps failed to mention that Gregg and Dean were both working-leaving only two of us to compete for viewing comfort yesterday.

If it weren't for the shushing and show of "not right now" in the form of my hand waving away the likes of Thing 1 when she appeared in the middle of some nail-biting action, I have to say that I did ok yesterday. I shared. I played nice. So did my mom.

Nanny would have been proud. Mind you, she would have been in a different room, BUT she would've been proud. :-)

Extreme Room Makeover

For anyone who checks the blog regularly (all two of you), you may have noticed a lack of attention to it lately. Call it paint fumes, frustration with the wallpaper steamer or overuse of Downy Fabric Softener (which, by the way, does NOT come out of throw rugs if you happen to spill it by mistake). Or . . . you can call it:

Extreme Room Makeover 2009-the Cassidy Edition.

After a lot of talking about the possibility of doing a new color on Cassidy's walls and giving her a loft bed, Gregg and I made good on our promise to "someday" do something different in her room and so below is our "BEFORE" photo . . .



followed by the "AFTER" photos . . .



Having chosen a new brown and pink striped comforter last fall (yep-that would be twelve months ago for those of you doing the math at home), she chose to have one wall painted brown with the remaining walls painted pink. Pepto Bismol Pink. (Actually, I think it's cute.)


Gregg, bless his heart, built her a long awaited loft bed. It's been wonderful to give her some extra floor space with the newly opened up area underneath her bed for her desk and beanbag chair. The board against the wall is the new spot for tacking up all those things that kids love to TAPE to their walls.



All in all, the whole project took about a week. In all honesty, a good portion of that week was about cleaning, purging and sorting through all sorts of treasures in her room prior to Operation Demolition. It's nothing short of amazing to experience the difference of opinion as to the definition of "keepsake" and also how many items really can fit under a bed.

I need to give a huge thanks to the folks at MyBlogSpark for helping out with this makeover. While I would have loved it if one of them had shown up at my front door with a paint brush and drop cloth and insisted on painting, I still GREATLY appreciated the arrival of a brand new Swiffer Wet Jet just in time for some extra thorough cleaning in the midst of our project. Initially I had some doubts about the whole cleaning system, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how well it did on our wood floors. I was even more excited to find out that the multi-purpose cleaner also comes in some other fragrances like Open Window Fresh and Febreze Lavendar & Vanilla Comfort. (And frankly, for anyone else out there with a 10 year-old daughter, we could all use a little comfort after sorting through collections of broken necklaces, mismatched earrings, dried-up nail polish and bottles of body glitter.)

So, from me to you, the Swiffer Wet Jet gets a "two thumbs up." So does the feeling of satisfaction at being done with this project.

Now, will someone please make Mackenzie stop asking "when are you going to do my room??"

After all . . . I need to find her a new comforter first. ;-)

Happy Anniversary To My Hubby!

16 years of marriage . . .
2 beautiful daughters . . .
artwork presented to us in honor of our special day . . .
Life is good!!!