Falling in love with Fall

So this past weekend was a ton of fun – perfect weather and a bunch of fun activities make for one of those fall (well almost) weekends to remember!

Friday I went to the big rival high school volleyball game to see some of my YL girls (playing on both sides!) in action! It was a very intense game that came right down to the final set/match/whatever this one out of 5 is called?! My family was there as well as we have a family friend that plays, too, so it was a lot of fun to have YL there, the family there, and to float in between the two crowds.

Then we headed out as a family to go to dinner as Dad had just gotten back from an overseas trip that afternoon and he and Mom were turning around for Germany the next day, so that means… Marco’s! Whoop! For whatever reason Curt is still not over the moon about Marco’s, but me and the rest of my family totally are so oh well… it’s the enchiladas, though, they seriously are the BEST in the world!! A good family friend that has known my dad for years joined us as he’s in the process of moving his family back to town, so he had some funny stories from the old days that cracked us up!

Then Curt and I went home and I dropped him off, got on some warmer clothes (it was chilly!) and went to the local high school homecoming football game. It is also my alma mater which is doubly appropriate so killed two birds with one stone (going for YL and for me) and it was a lot of fun as well… gotta love football! We won which was great, and it was a great night!

The next day was Aggie football day, and we were playing Army! I remember from back when I was in school that when we played Army the last time they had parachuters jump from a helicopter and chute into the stadium, and I LOVED it, so I was REALLY hoping for a repeat performance, and I got it! First they did an amazing fly over with some very intimidating helicopters, and then they said to look higher into the sky and there was another helicopter poised very high up and I knew it was coming! Man, talk about those jumpers being the luckiest guys out there. Can you even imagine how *cool* it would be to jump out of a helicopter with a HUGE field as your target and land right smack dab on the center A&M logo (which they all did artfully, it was incredible!), I mean what a lifetime high!

Flyover... think Apocalypse Now song!

One of the 4 parachuters coming in (with an American flag!)

On the field after the drop

It was so cool… and it was a great game. We weren’t perfect, but thank goodness we won, and thank goodness they finally put Lane in – geez! The weather was so sunny, a little hot at times but sometimes breezy and we all reapplied sunscreen like 8 times each. I ended up with a perfect tan and no burn as a result which made me so excited, but by the end of the game we were so pooped that I took a deep nap on the way home (Kendyl drove this game) so I was refreshed when I woke up as we were pulling into home.

The First Lady of A&M at her second football game debut (she's such a cute puppy!)

The *enormous* American flag being unfurled in honor of Military Appreciation Day... there were goosebumps EVERYWHERE!

And my favorite... an old Ag that stayed til the end of the game and wheeled himself on out of there - the shirt on his seat says "Old Army Tailgate Permit," I mean can we be any cuter please? Note that this will be me in 60 years, I promise!!

That night for dinner I made my famous chicken casserole (made famous by my mom, originally) and Curt and I watched Netflix movies and had a low key evening.

Sunday I had to be outside… it was just so gorgeous. I went on a another long rollerblade, then when I got home I still wanted to be outside so Curt and I decided to take his motorcycle out for a ride which was a blast.

Then we did miscellaneous things until it was time for a YL leader’s meeting at our house, and then we watched some TV and another movie, then on to another week!

We had our first YL club of the year last night and it went so great… we had a lot of new kids there, the songs were fun, the games were hysterical (I love being a leader, it is a blast), so I’m looking forward to this year with everyone.

Should be great…

Hope everyone has a great day!

Much love,

Extreme Rollerblading

Ok, so since the hurricane rollerblading has been a bit hazardous and I decided to take a couple of pictures of my adventures on the bikepaths... the weather has been gorgeous lately in the low 80's and sunny with gorgeous sunsets, etc. so I haven't been able to resist enjoying it before the winter comes.

Here are a couple of my favorite points along the way...

This field is gorgeous, especially with the sun setting on it as it shines the grass a beautiful gold and the lake (which you can't see in this pic) is a nice gray blue.

Coming over the lake on the bridge... the best is when there are tons of shells and rowers (I so wish I knew how to do this!) with a few sail boats, kayaks, families at the park and people sitting at the picnic tables.

My favorite downhill - currently covered in trees, leaves, sticks, everything so I have to go precariously slow to avoid completely eating it (see the tree at the end?)!

More trees...

More leaves...

The tree where the mosquitoes attack!!! I climb over and under this one with amazing speed!

And finally I get to the lake!

The ducks were all sleeping in the shade before I got there!

Rollerblading is the best... just can't wait until it's all clear again but I'm fine with that being a very low priority considering everything that's out there at the moment. So I'll be improving my dodging skills until then!

Ike, yikes!

So I’m a little behind – mostly because of Hurricane Ike but I’ll do my best to catch up!

Things have actually been pretty good despite the hurricane – overall it’s the aftermath of Ike that is still a hassle but we were very lucky so I feel very blessed! I was at the house for the actual storm, along with Curt’s mom, stepdad, stepbrother, and stepbrother’s friend so we had a house full! We lost power the night of the hurricane, and we all tried to tough it out, but they all left for Ledbetter and I followed about a day and half later (Curt’s grandparents place is there).

By the time I got to Ledbetter Curt’s mom and fam had gone back to Clear Lake as they had power, so I spent the rest of the week there relaxing and hanging out with Nonnie, PaPa, and Heidi (Curt’s Aunt) and they are just awesome. We watched movies, I slept a LOT (I also happened to get sick soon after Ike which was another wrench) to recover, and we went antiquing and exploring, it was a ton of fun! Maverick and Kinsley had a great time, too – Kinsley is their beautiful chocolate cocker spaniel and he’s adorable. They were fast friends!

Through the actual storm, though, I was totally scared… I kept listening for the freight train sound (signal of oncoming tornado) as hurricanes spawn tornados, and the wind was whipping HUGE trees around like they were noodles. The house shook from the wind and although I did sleep, I woke up often to check on things in general. The transformer blew at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday night so then the fun began… Like I said though we didn’t have any damage, just an oleander bush that was flattened to the ground, which is now tied and staked upright again and looks like it will be fine, so far!

Curt is now back from China (on Monday night) and has yet to get on the roof to make sure we have all of our shingles, etc. but we were definitely lucky!

And yes, Curt was in China the entire time, and I was in Dallas for training right before Ike – the Houston participants all rushed home on Thursday/Friday and I was SUPPOSED to go to China on Saturday morning, which of course didn’t happen because Ike was a big ol’ monster… by the time the airlines could get me out (Tuesday was the earliest) I would have only had a few days before it would have been time to turn around and hop on a plane back with Curt, so China didn’t happen. I of course was bummed but it’s not the end of the world as I’ll probably get another chance sometime this fall (I hope?).

So in the aftermath of everything I’m thinking it will take quite awhile to restock the fridge/freezer as literally everything had to go unless it was soda or something, and what is crazier is a lot of Houston is still without power so it’s hard for us to get back to normal. Traffic is awful, and the mood in the air is definitely still in recovery mode… some of the pictures are just unbelievable! My heart goes out to the many who lost anything and everything – how devastating. Here's a link someone forwarded me via email that has a lot of pictures to give an idea at how much destruction there is: Click Here for pics.

Besides Ike, all is well and things are beginning to return to normal. I’ve been out trying to rollerblade since the hurricane which is comical as there is so much debris on the paths that it really is hazardous. I am pretty good at rollerblading (no tricks or anything crazy) but I can go fast and I don’t fall (knock on wood) but I had some pretty funny recoveries over the past few days when I couldn’t avoid every single twig! LOL! On my “route” there are currently 3 huge trees that block my way so I literally have to climb over them… last night I got attacked by mosquitoes so I was trying to go super fast, swat my entire body, avoid twigs so jumping and swerving, and trying not to fall… sigh! But it’s fine which is why I do it…

Other than that it’s great to have Curt home and to start Fall activities… Fall is my FAVORITE season so I’m looking forward to everything that comes with it. Football has already begun (yea), Young Life is starting, Renaissance Festival is set for October, and we also have our anniversary as well as a trip to NYC. It’s gonna be great!

And as a sidenote, I have a few new favorite songs that I can’t get enough of:

Forever – Chris Brown
Come on Get Higher – Matt Nathanson
Famous in a Small Town – Miranda Lambert
Love Story – Taylor Swift

Love them!

Tasha xx

Lately

So am a little tired tonight but thought I would give an update...

Curt's in China (he left last week) but am keeping busy while he's gone. I enjoyed the holiday weekend and got a lot of relaxing in...

On Saturday me, Mom, Kendyl, and Carrie (Mother in Law) went on a girl's shopping trip at the new outlet mall which was a lot of fun! Then we headed out to see the first Aggie game of the season which, while a lot of fun and made me excited for the "events" of Aggie football season, wasn't the best game ever so that was a bummer... sigh... hope they get their rears in gear for the rest of the season!

Sunday and Monday I just lounged around really... got good workouts in (a 4 mile run and 1.5 of rollerblading which was GREAT!), watched about 4 movies, swam in my pool and read 5 magazines, baked, had dinner with the fam, and just hung out here at the house with Mav. So it was a fun weekend!

Besides that will be up in Dallas for training next week, and then to China for vacation after that, so will have lots to write about - stay tuned!

Love,
Tasha xx