Grandpa Phil's Birthday

Today is my wonderful Dad's birthday.  He is turning 82 and is as sharp as can be.  I drove down to Orem and we met at El Azteca restaurant.  We have met there quite a few times and we order and then just go in the corner and sit and eat and visit.  It is usually quiet and we talk and talk.  He is another great blessing in my life.  He is a wonderful father and was a great husband.  When my mom was diagnosed with Colon Cancer, he was so good to her and was constantly looking for ways to prolong her life.  For this I am very grateful.  His health is good and he can still quote poems and things he memorized 60 years ago. Happy Birthday Dad!

Braces

Today Kylie went to one of her final orthodontic appointments.  She is scheduled to get them off on December 3rd.  She can hardly wait.  I had braces 38 years ago and I remember it very well.  Tyler, Melissa, and Alex all had braces too.  I was always very grateful that I was able to have braces.  It would not have be pretty if I lived in a time when they were not invented yet or my parents could not afford them.  I have had 8 teeth pulled from my mouth (including wisdom teeth), and I can't begin to see how they could fit back in.  So braces are one of the many thing I am truly grateful for!

TCU Game Day

I don't feel much like writing anything, but someday I might want to look back on some of my various life experiences-the great ones and the hard ones and everything in between.  This whole week leading up to the TCU game had more stress than usual for me.  I certainly would not listen to sports radio-I don't know how they could think of what to say about Utah football for so many hours of the day.  Their job is to get reactions out of listeners, I don't need that! The newspaper, the TV, just everywhere I would turn.  Kyle had daily interviews from ESPN, Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, etc.  So he definitely had a lot more things going on.
I went to Game Day with Kylie and Melissa.  Alex was there with his friends in the mass of people.  They camped in a tent somewhere up on campus.
It was my 2nd experience with game day, the first being at TCU last year.  They were very similar, except of course the fans!  You stand around a bit and cheer when the cameras come on.  We had a lot of fans there and they sounded great.  Kyle and his brother were a block or so away getting a work out in before the game and they said "the fans sounded like thunder" it was so loud!  It is a unique experience that does not come around often.
Leading up to the game was more stressful than usual with the increased ticket request on Kyle and I.  Well, he gets the requests mostly and I deliver them. So when the game finally starts and everyone has a seat it is a big relief!
I don't need to say much about the game except that it was a beautiful fall day with the temperature about 70.  We lost 47-7.  As difficult and disappointing as it is to the fans and players, no one can begin to understand what the head coach goes through in the privacy of his own mind.

 

Tyler and Kyle during TCU game

TCU Weekend

There was a great article in Sports Illustrated that talked about Kyle.  I thought the writer did a great job.

http://sportsillustrated.asia/vault/article/magazine/MAG1176702/1/inde


On Friday night Kylie and I went up and ate dinner at the hotel with Kyle, 2 Reps from Under Armour, and 3 of the military men for the Wounded Warrior project that was sponsored by UA.  The 3 men had been injured in a road bomb in Baghdad in 2005.  Several people with them died and they were critically injured.  Talking to them was heartbreaking.  It makes me so grateful for the sacrifices being made by all service men and their families.
Melissa came over to the hotel after the dinner. Kyle had an interview with Erin Andrews from College Game Day, who I am familiar with from watching Dancing with the Stars on TV last season.  So I wanted to meet her.  She was so incredibly nice and talked to Melissa and I for a while.  She showed us pictures on her iphone from Dancing with the Stars and told us a few stories from her experiences.  I asked her about different people on the show and she was so funny telling us different things.  She sent me a number from her cell phone of someone I could call Saturday morning if I needed any help at Game Day.  She said if I wanted tickets to DWTS (as she called it) then to call her. 

I don't know why I was not smiling more

Salsa Recipe

1 can or box diced tomatoes (this one was 26 oz.)
1 can diced fire roasted green chilies (7 oz.)
1/3 cup chopped Cilantro (give or take depending on how you like Cilantro)
Garlic Salt  (I never usually add salt to stuff so 1/2 tsp for me on this)
1/4 cup Brown Sugar (I have a sweet tooth)
1/4 to 1/2 diced onion

I had some really good salsa at a Mexican restaurant and thought it looked simple enough I could make a similar one.  So these are my ingredients.  I like using this boxed tomatoes because seems more tomato sauce to me with fewer big chunks.  I chopped up my green chilies a bit more so my kids don't say "what are those green things?"  Then I just seasoned to taste, added some onion and cilantro.  You can make it as chunky or runny as you like.  The ingredients will taste the same.  If you don't like it too sweet then don't add so much.  I just guess on the amounts every time but it is always good!

TCU Week

It is Thursday before the big game and I am up at the stadium giving out Candy Bars.  It was unusual to see the opposing team's bus there already, but there it is.  Ashley Chapman and I decide to give it the thumbs down.  It is a lot bigger than our bus that brings the equipment across country.

              

Life as a Coaches Wife

I was reading Sara Hill's blog (http://ontopofthehills.blogspot.com).  She had a link to this article that I thought described so many familiar feelings and experiences that I can relate to.  So I wanted to include a link also.  Being a coaches wife is something that is hard to understand unless you live it. 

NY Times - Being a Coaches Wife

Air Force

The traditions at the Air Force Academy

This whole week before the Air Force game I have been so nervous.  Melissa, Alex, and Kylie all stayed home for work or Halloween festivities.  Tyler was on the travel squad for the team.  So Helen was again my favorite travel-buddy.  We have so much fun.  We went with the team to the movie 'Red' and pigged out on buttered popcorn.  It was a fun time.  The room we had was a nice big suite and so Helen stayed on the hide-a-bed in her own connecting room.  Then then next morning we went for about a 4 mile walk.  The hotel was on a golf course so we walked around the lake there.  The weather was beautiful.  The mountains remind me of Utah.  I will not miss having to play Air Force but it is always an experience to be in their stadium and see the traditions and the Cadets marching on the field (they do a sudden run to the seats before the game), the falcon doing its diving flight around the stadium and most of all I love the F-16's that fly over right before game time.  They come and go so fast you have to pay attention or you miss them.

 

Showing Respect after the game for school song

You take an already stressful game and add some more stress and you get this kind of game I don't enjoy sitting through.  I was so glad when it was over!  We won 28 to 23 but it should have been 35 to 10 for us if we had not made some costly errors.  Winning makes the bus ride, the flight, and the whole week better!!

College Game day coming next week for TCU game!