Texas stepped up once again this year to take out OU 28-10. I was pretty worried at half time. Texas wasn’t looking very good in the first half and OU was winning 10-7. Mack Brown must have said something good at half time because Texas came back out like a new team.
Is it me or is the instant replay in college football this year the most annoying thing ever. It seems like every play is being reviewed. It slows down the game. Just let the kids play the game. There were a few controversial decisions in the game. Is Bob Stoops going to complain about this game as well and get these refs fired too? College football needs to go back to the old way or at least do it the same as NFL: two coach challenges and booth challenges in the last two minutes.
I used to change Frenchville orange, but the theme that I have doesn’t support that all that easily, so I’m going to be changing the header to a Texas logo for a win.
It’s been a while since I’ve written, so I thought I would do a “month in review”. For the most part September was pretty much another ordinary month in the French household.
After the Knight of the Week event, the Longhorns ended up loosing to Ohio State. The defense just looked terrible. I thought Colt McCoy still looked good under the circumstances, for a red shirt freshman. We have him for four more years and he can only get better. After the loss to Ohio State, the Longhorns went on to beat Rice, Iowa State, and Sam Houston State. If they can continue to win out the Big XII, they can still be in the hunt for a BCS bid and a chance at the National Championship once again. But first they have to beat Oklahoma, which is next week.
On the subject of sports, it was a good and bad day for Houston sports. Today the Astros lost the last game of their regular season which puts them out of the playoffs this year. It was an amazing last year getting to the World Series and all, but it wasn’t meant to be this year. On the good side, the Texans finally won. They beat the Miami Dolphins 17-15, in a very exciting game. They are now 1-3, which isn’t a great start to the year. Their number one pick in the draft, Mario Williams, got his first sack in the game. So far, the Texans have looked terrible. I’m hoping that they can turn it around, but I’m not holding my breath.
On the 8th, I went in for a “touch up” on my Lasik. My left eye wasn’t 20-20, so they offered another session. It was really easy, much easier than the first time. Apparently the “flap” that they cut in your eye doesn’t heal in six months. So, they reopened the flap and re-lasered the eye. Immediately after the surgery I was seeing much better. It’s amazing.
On the 9th, we went and witnessed our first shuttle take off. We discovered that the place the shuttle takes off from is only about twenty minutes from our house. We just parked on the side of the road and walked up to the bridge that goes out to the Kennedy Space Center. Someone had their radio tuned into the countdown and when it reached zero, there was a brilliant light and the shuttle was lifted into the sky. It was amazing and can only suggest that if you haven’t seen it you should come to Florida to try and see the shuttle take off. Currently the next shuttle is schedule to go off at night. We are thinking of making a trek out for that one as well.
In other news Jennifer was named Abby’s “room mom”. So, she helps out and coordinates parties for the class. This week she went up for Apple Math and Science Day. They had four different stations and Jennifer manned the “less than or greater than an apple” station. She would name an object and then the kids would have to say whether it weighed greater than or less than an apple.
Abby’s doing really good in school. She got her first report card this past week. She got all “Satisfactory” grades. They don’t start getting letter grades until second grade.
Well, from earlier in the week, Tropical Storm Ernesto was a bust. It barley rained when the storm moved over us. We got more rain and wind on Friday will after the storm was long gone. The most frustrating part was the local news blowing it out of proportion and because of that Abby and Emily’s school was canceled.
Today was the first game of the season for the Texas Longhorns as they took on the North Texas Mean Green. Needless to say, it was a blow out. The Longhorns routed North Texas 56-7. The new Texas quarterback, Colt McCoy, looked good. The first pass he threw was a touchdown, although North Texas wasn’t much of a test. It’s going to be a tough battle next week when the Longhorns take on #1 Ohio State.
All the girls were dressed in their Texas outfits. Today’s picture is me posing with Emily and Isabelle. Emily learned how to do “Hook’em Horns” all by herself.
Wow, what a game. Well worth the price we paid for the trip. To be there in person for the Longhorns’ coming back from a 12 point deficit and winning the National Championship is priceless. Frenchville will be burnt orange for some time. I was feeling a little bleak when Reggie Bush scored that touchdown to go up by 12. But Vince Young showed everyone how good he really is. His passing was spot on and his scrambling ability was amazing. To see him in person and how fast he moves on the field, it’s so different from seeing it on TV. On the last score he ran into the end zone right where we were sitting. I saw it opening up and he was running right through where I thought he should go. Everyone in the stands erupted and were all jumping around. It was amazing.
Yesterday we realized we were almost out of diapers for Isabelle and knew we were in trouble. First, the stores were closed yesterday because of Thanksgiving. Second, tomorrow was the media named “Black Friday” where the hordes of shoppers flood the stores.
So, we roughed the storm and headed to the store. First we had to head to Old Navy because Abby has been having a lot of pants problems. She’s tall and skinny, so all the pants we buy her fall down and she whines a lot it. Old Navy had pants with adjustable waste bands and they were only $10, so we had to go there first.
What was going on inside of Old Navy could only be turned a mad house. There were tons of people with a huge line waiting to get checked out. We found a couple of pairs of the pants that we were looking for and then headed to the front of the store. If you have young kids, you will know that they are incapable of waiting in a line, especially one of this size. So, I offered to wait in the line while Jennifer and the kids headed to Target. I have to hand it to Old Navy, though. Even though the line was long, they had every register open and they were pumping people through the line at a fast rate. Kudos to them for having it well organized with one line which approaches all the registers. That’s much better than having eight different lines that you have to guess which one is moving faster.
We got into target and shied away from the toy department, where all the chaos was. (Actually, I dived in there solo and picked up Call of Duty 2 for my Xbox 360, a quick in and out operation). We got our diapers to keep Isabelle’s hiney dry.
I knew the Aggies would give us a run for our money, but the Longhorns went to Kyle Field and defeated A&M 40-29. The Longhorns did a great job of not panicking when the Aggies went up by a point a couple of times in the game. They just stuck to their game plan while the Aggies’ trick plays started wearing thin. There’s one more game that the Longhorns have to win in order to make it to the Rose Bowl: The Big 12 Championship, which is next Saturday in Houston. Right now it’s unknown who the Longhorns will be playing. The Colorado Buffaloes lost today so if the Iowa State Cyclones win their game tomorrow, then we will be playing them. Both teams are un-ranked, so I’m hoping that the Longhorns will be victorious and the Rose Bowl tickets that I have won’t go to waste.
Today’s picture is from Abby’s Birthday party again: all the kids playing on the new play gym.
Today was the annual Fall Festival at our church. You purchase tickets and then you use the tickets to do different sorts of rides and activities. This is the thirdtime we’ve gone since moving to Orlando and Abby and Emily love going. They did the bounce house, rode a train, and Abby bought a giant tube of colored sugar to eat.
The Longhorns were victorious once again this time against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. I was biting my fingernails during the first quarter. Actually, it was more like yelling at the television screen. But, the Longhorns regrouped after half time and ended up crushing the Cowboys 47-28.
I can’t believe it’s been exactly a month since my last entry in Frenchville. It’s been a wild ride at work. A whole lot of extra hours for many days in a row. It’s been: go to work, come home for dinner (sometimes), go back to work, come home and go to sleep. It’s finally letting up. We aren’t done completely (I had to go into work for four hours today), but it’s slowed down. I don’t plan on going back in for the next two weeks unless I’m called in.
Let’s see. Month in Review…
We were having our shower re-tiled since I found water underneath the old tile. We had door problems, but that finally got resolved and we are back into the shower in our bathroom.
Abby and Emily finished up their swim lessons. They are both now “expert swimmers”. I haven’t actually taken them swimming yet, so I don’t know how well they are doing. Next week we are planning on going camping at Disney World. They have a swimming pool at the camp grounds and we will probably be swimming there.
The whole family had coughs and more recently fevers. Currently Isabelle has been sick. She’s had a pretty bad runny nose and you can tell she’s been pretty miserable.
The Texas Longhorns defeated OU and then took on Texas Tech and crushed them today. We went ahead and bought tickets to the Rose Bowl, where the National Championship is being played this year. Hopefully the Longhorns can keep up their winning streak alive. The tickets include a tour of Pasadena and tickets to the Rose Parade. Jennifer has always wanted to go see the Rose Parade and so we got the tickets as our anniversary gift to one another.
The Houston Astros have finally made it to the World Series for the first time. I remember watching them against the Mets in 86 and of coarse last year against the Cardinals and making it one game away from the Series. It’s too bad they lost tonight’s game, but hopefully they can come back and win the next four.
It’s good to be home and to finally have a couple of weeks off. Now that I have more time, there will be more and more entries in Frenchville.
All of a sudden everyone at work was telling me that they were going to root for Ohio State just because they wanted to see my head shaved. That just made me more determined and I’ve never watched a Texas game more closely. It’s a whole different game when you have your hair on the line. Fortunately Texas pulled it out and won in the last seconds of the game 25-22. The Buckeyes did a great job of shutting down Vince Young and I was really worried most of the game. If Ohio State would have made that last 50 yard field goal, it would have been a whole different ball game. And to all those people at work who all of a sudden became a Buckeye fan: HOOK ‘EM HORNS!
I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I’ve made an entry in Frenchville. Last weekend was pretty busy. Jennifer’s parents, sister and her husband, Mike, and grandparents all visited. They were here for Isabelle’s Christening at church. Everyone is doing good and they had a good time visiting. Isabelle’s Christening went off without a hitch. No crying and even Abby and Emily behaved during the ceremony. Jennifer did a great job cooking each meal for so many people. Needless to say we were all pooped when everyone left.
Today is a big game for the Texas Longhorns as they take on a pretty tough team in the Ohio State Buckeyes. It has a little more meaning for myself because I’ve made a bet with the Lead Programmer on Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360, Ryan Burnsides, who went to Ohio State, that the looser must shave their head. #2 clippers, so not completely bald, but if my Longhorns don’t pull through then I will probably be nearly as bald as Isabelle in this picture.
Happy New Year! We spent the switch to the new year here in the Central Time Zone asleep. I guess roasting all the marshmallows made us a little groggy.
We went ahead and celebrated Emily’s second birthday while we were here in Houston. Abby and Grandma made a cake with sprinkles on top, of course, and some more homemade ice cream as well. We sung “Happy Birthday” and she blew out her candles with some help. She was much better than Abby on her second birthday who cried when we started singing.
What a great showing by the Texas Longhorns in the Rose Bowl today. They defeated Michigan in the last seconds of the game and showed everyone that they did belong in a BCS game. Vince Young and the offense looked great. It was the defense that I wasn’t too happy with. The secondary kept giving up the pass over the middle and it was getting very frustrating. They marched down the field in the last seconds and kicked a field goal two win with two seconds left in the game. Very exciting. HOOK ‘EM HORNS!
Frenchville 