To Have and To Hold

Congratulations to these two:

After several years of dating, two states and a new house Mike and Missy have decided to make it official! Mike proposed last weekend with this beauty:

and plan to make it official March 6, 2010 at The Houstonian.

Congratulations Mike and Missy!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

This past Saturday Matt’s parents took all of us (Sammy, Diana, Robby, Stephanie, me, Matty, Sara, Blake) down to Lake Charles to do some major fishing.  For anyone who has ever met Matt or Blake you know this somehow turns into some sort of “Extreme” adventure of one kind or another, so of course there were alligators mixed in amongst the fish.  Yes, alligators (or aldergators if you are a fan of Jon and Kate Plus 8, courtesy of Alexis Gosselin.)

So we drove into Lake Charles on Friday night for our hop over to the Grosse Savanne Lodge the next day  for our fishing trip.  Hurricane Ike tore apart their lodge they have on their property, which they open up for fishing, hunting, etc, and they are currently working on getting the lodge back up in working order.  They should be up and running in September, fingers crossed!  We woke up at 4:15 in order to be at Grosse Savanne by 5:45.  It was an early morning!  If only the McDonald’s next to our hotel been open for breakfast at the hour, right Sara!

The biggest bug I have ever seen in the parking lot of our hotel

The family at about 6am but ready to fish!  

So for our fishing trip we were split up into 4 boats each with our own guide.  Matty and I lucked out with Mr. Bert, fishing guide extraordinaire, who took us to the best hot-spots around the marsh for good pickin’s.  We ended up being the only group to catch flounder, thanks to Mr. Bert! Mr. Bert

We fished for about 4.5 hours, mostly for red fish.  The beginning of the morning when the sun was coming up was pretty cool, especially being on the water.  But it got hotter as the morning went on and by 10 or 10:30 I was ready to go in!  We started with Bert taking us to catch our live bait which was as easy as him throwing a net into the water and pulling the net in.  Then we stayed in that spot and cast our first reel’s out to see what we would come up with.  We caught a few mullet but no keeper.  Then we moved down the marsh a bit to start our red fish extravaganza.  It was slow to start but once we hit the hot spot Mr. Bert could barely keep up with the red fish Matty and I were reeling in!  We caught our limit in about 20 minutes but stayed in that spot for another hour or so just for catch-and-release fun. 

After our red fish we decided to go for some flounder.  This proved to be very difficult!  For flounder you have to keep your bait hopping along the bottom of the marsh where the flounders go to eat.  So you are constantly casting, reeling, hopping, and re-casting.  Matty and I got a few nibbles here and there but were never successful in the flounder hunt.  But look what Mr. Bert dragged in:

On our way back in Mr. Bert drove slow so we could get a few pictures of the alligators.  They were RIGHT next to our little boat, very scary!

A big THANK YOU to Mr. Sammy and Mrs. Diana for taking us on this adventure with  you.  And another big THANK YOU to Blake for staying awake to drive us home while we slept in the back.  Anyone up for a fish fry??? :)

THSCA All-Star Game

I need a moment to be obnoxious and brag on my husband (something I do not do enough.)

Words cannot adequately express how proud I am of my husband. All of the work and separation we face that goes along with his job is completely overshadowed when it comes down to the amazing things he is able to do with his kids. I love you honey and I am with you every step of this amazing journey we are on!

For those of you who did not get a chance to watch the game the South All-Stars beat the North 48-21! Up until the last minute of the game it was actually 48-14 but I think the defense was distracted by the sidelines pouring Gatorade on Coach Joseph's head in celebration and forgot there was a game going on. We forgive you! I think at the half it was something like 26-0 and the north had only earned 1 first down. Needless to say, WE DOMINATED!

Not only that, but the defensive MVP came from the south and was one of Matt's secondary guys! He was from Livingston and played corner and is headed up the road to Texas A&M. WHOOP! Not only did he have the best coach and earn MVP, but he also had almost 300 yards of offense alone. Yes I said offensive yards for a defensive player. 1 int, 1 punt return and 1 ko return will do that for you. :-)

Congratulations Matty! Again I am so stinking proud of all you have done and will continue to be your biggest fan! I love you forever!

Here are some of the pictures I was able to get before my camera died. Most are from the convention hall and during pre-game. Hopefully Julie can send me some of hers she got after the game and I will post those too.

Entering the convention hall

South jerseys

They had a bunch of Katy Tiger stuff all over the convention hall. Here is just some of what I found:

From Herff Jones, the ring people. All of the Katy rings in order from L-R: 2000, 2007, 2008, 1997, 1959

Katy banner at the Herff Jones booth

Random Katy Tigers sign I found on the floor in front of a booth

Katy helmet at the DSV booth

Here are some shots I got at the game before camera died:

Entrance of DKR, Texas Our Texas

Scoreboard

Coach McDaniel and Coach Garcia talking game plan

The greatest coach I know

Coach McDaniel and Coach Miller

The South All-Stars lined up to get their All-Star watches

Matt very happy to be taking a picture before the game

Warm-up

Breaking it down (#44 is from Katy, Chris Roberson)

I love the look of a winning scoreboard!

All-Star Football

Hello from Austin! For those of you who do not know the KHS coaching staff was elected by the other football coaches in Texas to coach the south team for the North/ South All-Star game. The game will take place tonight here in Austin at DKR Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas (as I type that I can't help but sneer...guess that's normal for Aggies.) Currently in Austin they are hosting the annual Texas Coaches Association Coaching School where coaches from all over the state from every sport come to Austin for the convention. There are speakers and seminars for everyone to go to (I think Mack Brown spoke yesterday) and a convention hall for everyone to walk through and talk to people. There are also All-Star games in basketball and football for seniors who just graduated to play in. Matt is coaching the secondary players from various schools across the south part of the state. He is having a great time and really enjoys working with his kids here.

Can you imagine being 25 years old and having won a state championship in high school, 2 state championships coaching and now coaching in the Texas All-Star game?!?!? We just can't believe how blessed we are and thank God everyday for his blessings. Matt gets another ring for this so now he actually has 4 football rings he can wear! And if we win state again this year *fingers crossed* he will add a 5th ring and actually have a whole hand-full! :-)

Anyway, the game is tonight at DKR and will air on FSN tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1pm. Please set your DVR's and look for Matt in pre-game as he will be in the press box during the game. Also cheer for the south!

Babies R Us

Nooooo, not what you think. At least for me that is. But for Emily and baby Ella this is their new home! After landing in Houston from NYC I drove straight to my friend Ally's house in Humble to see her and Emily (and baby Ella!) and her son Micah.

The three of us (well, four if you count Ella) spent most of the day on Saturday at the Babies R Us in Kingwood setting up Emily and Eric's baby registry for Ella. If you thought wedding registry's were intense that in NOTHING compared to baby registry's. Babies need so many things! We have everything from bottles to bobby's to bedding on that thing and I'm sure as we speak Emily is at home adding more to the registry. Lucky for her she has the two best friends in the world who are throwing her a shower in October so she can hopefully get most of the things she needs before baby Ella arrives.

This was the only picture I could snap over the weekend before my camera died of Emily and Ally taking a break from registering on the rocking chairs.

Boy do I wish I had gotten a picture with little Micah man, Ally's little boy. He is just too cute for words and so very well behaved. We went to eat at Papasitto's for dinner and Micah entertained himself the whole time and ate all of his dinner. What a good boy! I hope I can be half the mom that Ally is one day.

Up next....coaching school in Austin!

New York City Girls Trip 2009

This past week Mrs. Diana, Sara, Mrs. Joseph, Julie, Mrs. Beckendorff and myself ventured to the Big Apple for a mid-summer vacation. It was a wonderful trip that was jam-packed with walking, Broadway shows, shopping, riding the subway, Canal Street and much more.
Some highlights of the trip include:

• Times Square
• Macy's
• shopping!
• Empire State Building
• Canal Street and our friend Sam
• Shaffer City Oyster Bar (by far the best meal of my life)
• The Spotted Pig
• Serendipity
• foot massages
• Magnolia Bakery

This is not an all-inclusive list but you get the drift. We did our best to walk everywhere we went and according to Julie's pedometer we averaged 9 miles per day walking! WHOOP! Hopefully that made up for all of the eating we did. :-)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip:

Late night trip to Magnolia Bakery

Rats in the subway...ick!

With my HP friends

My view of ballet class outside Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre

Foot massages during a brief break from Canal Street

Subway

Drinks at the Spotted Pig

Story of my life courtesy of the Nike Store on 5th Avenue

M&M Store

McDaniel girls in NYC

Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity

Dylan's Candy Bar

Pretty flowers on the street

Mrs. Melinda and her Ginkgo Biloba tree, the oldest tree of all

Fried oysters over a creamy spinach sauce at Shaffer City. MY FAV!!!

Shopping ladies

My BFF Sam on Canal Street and Mrs. Joseph's new bag in the background

View of Times Square and our apartment from the top of the Empire State Building

Julie's new BLING!!!

Dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

My fabu new shoes from our 3 hours Macy's trip

Times Square

A big THANK YOU to Aunt Debbie, Aunt Lisa, Trent and Max for letting us invade their space for a week. We love you!