Permian Football Game

So, last Friday night Nick scored some free tickets to the local high school football game, the Permian Panthers. This is the team that the Friday Night Lights movie was based off. High school football is a pretty big deal around here...okay, it's a really BIG deal!

The east side of the stadium from the road.

Notice the oil derrick and tanks right outside the stadium--nice!

So the bands travel to all the games, and obviously need a whole truck for their stuff. My high school definitely didn't have a truck for our band when I was growing up, that's for sure!

Warm ups...

The band before the game.

The seniors lining up for the coin toss.

The whole team busting through the HUGE banner.

The score board before the game...

I forget what the final score was, but our team won!

Gabrielle enjoying some nachos with Nick.

The final picture of the night...

a plaque that was in the "walk-way" area of the stadium.

Five Quirks

I have been tagged by my friend, Julie, to name 5 of my quirks. A few of them were easy for me to come up with. Of course when I ran out of ideas, Nick was willing to point out some of my quirks. I think he's got some interesting ones too--may be he'll have to do a post some day about himself too. Enjoy! :)

1. Numbers come in evens. So whenever I change the numbers on something (whether it's the air in the van, the sound on the TV, the radio, thermostat in the house, etc.), I always turn it up or down two notches so that it's on an even number. I know that it doesn't make any difference what the number says, I just like it to be on a nice even number.

2. Toilet paper and lids. I totally have to agree with my friend Kim who said that the toilet paper MUST go on the roll so that you can take the sheet off the top. Otherwise it just gets stuck behind the roll the other way. Luckily for me, Nick agrees with this method, so I don't have to mess around with the roll too much at our house. I also think that all lids on the toilet should be down before flushing, and stay that way until the next person uses the toilet. This is especially important with an 18-month-old in our house who still just loves to play in the water, wherever it is (gross)!

3. Organization in some form. Okay, I admit that I am an organized person. I prefer that my closet (and Gabi's for that fact too) be organized in rainbow order. That way, all the clothes of one color are together, and I can make an easy choice of which shirt to wear with what pants. Also, if you can believe this, our CD and DVD collections are in alphabetical order. Nick actually did this one, but I totally appreciate it!!!

4. Daily can of pop. I like to drink one Dr. Pepper each day with my lunch. Of course, I am the type of person who likes to savor the drink and make it last. So, I don't like putting ice in a cup and pouring the pop over the top because by the time I finish it, it's watered down, and that's just gross in my book. So, I use a red koozy (coozie--who knows how to spell that word?) every day around my pop so that I can finish drinking it even after I am done with my lunch.

5. Separation of food. Okay, so I know a couple other people who agree with me on this one, so I don't feel so bad telling you that I don't really like the food on my plate touching. This is especially true when it comes to mixing the salty-foods with the sweet-foods. Breakfast foods can be a problem in this area because I definitely don't want my eggs and bacon to get syrup on them from the pancakes or French toast. So, when we make breakfast at home, I get two separate plates. When we go out to eat at say, IHOP, I just have to be very careful where I pour the syrup. And, please, don't put any butter on top of my pancakes...you can't taste it that much, and it just adds extra fat and calories that I really don't need! :)

I tag Kristi, Jill, Tanya, Jennifer, and Amy. Keep those quirks comin'!

Kim and Joe's wedding

Kim Nollette married Joe Gessler October 18, 2008 in Wichita, KS. I was honored to play piano during the ceremony, and here are some of the pictures that we took at their reception.

Sorry the picture's a little dark...for some reason the lights were really low, so I didn't get very good pics of them together.

Just Kim and I for a moment.

Gabrielle and I doing the "Shuffle" together.

Gabi watching me be silly during the "Chicken Dance".

And of course, on more fun dance...."YMCA" (one handed)!

Just acting silly for the camera...

Gabrielle dancing with the two flower girls,

Lexi and Brooke (both Kim's nieces).

Lexi took Gabi's hands and tried to get her into a "groove".

Of course Brooke didn't think that Gabi needed to get in the way...oops--a little jealousy between the cousins!

And finally, a little father-daughter dancing to end the night.

Traveling back to Texas

So obviously we've traveled a LOT this past year. I think it's almost been once a month for quite some time. I'll really be ready to stop packing and unpacking the bags after Christmas. Thankfully Gabrielle does pretty good in her car seat. We try to take small breaks every 2-ish hours, so that helps her get into the routine of taking little naps along the way too.

The last nap on the way home.

Precious daughter of mine.

Checking out my Parents magazine--
it kept her busy for almost 15 minutes straight!

Until she realized that she could rip the pages apart...
then unfortunately the fun was over.

Other Disney Resorts

Another one of the days that Nick was at his work conference, Gabrielle and I got in the rental car and drove around to several of the other Disney resorts (hotels) to check out their play areas and stuff.  For several of them we got out and walked around, but for others we just drove through and snapped some pictures.

Pop Century Resort--where each building is from a different decade.

At the front of the building...

Hot Wheels--I think I was in the 70's.

Computers...we were near the 80's pool.

Next we went to the "All Star" resort area.  Movies first...

A huge director's thing outside one of the buildings. 

Has anyone heard of the movie "Bucket of Soldiers"?  

I was a little confused by this one, but thought it was still neat!

All-Star Music resort...

Jazz!  There were also some HUGE conga drums that I couldn't get a very picture of...may be next time!  :)

All-Star Sports Resort

Tennis anyone?

Cheerleading--yeah!

Next we checked out the "Animal Kingdom Lodge"--obviously near Animal Kingdom.  It seemed that there was a place in the "backyard" of the hotel for animals to roam around (similar to what you would see at a zoo).  But, there were only a few birds out when Gabi and I were there.  I did get a great purse for $10 at their gift shop though.

These little lizards were everywhere at Disney World.  They ran really fast, so usually by the time I stopped to pull out the camera they were gone into whatever plants were around.  Luckily, this little guy thought that I couldn't see him, and I was able to catch a picture.  Funny that this one was brown, but the ones in our resort, Caribbean Beach, seemed to be more of a green color to blend in with all our green plants there.  I wonder what their really called!?

The inside lobby of Animal Kingdom Lodge--obviously a little more high class than some of the other resorts that Gabrielle and I checked out that day.

In the afternoon we took a trip down to the Boardwalk for a pizza lunch outside.  

It reminded me a lot of one of the boardwalks that I visited on the east coast when I was in high school.  

Gabrielle enjoying her pizza.

There were all sorts of fun shops...I went into the bakery to get a muffin for the next day's breakfast, and they gave Gabi a free one in the shape of Mickey Mouse--cute!  

We had such a good time on the Boardwalk that we came back here the last day of our trip for lunch at the Brewery/Grill--great hamburger meal!!!  Nick was at the hotels right around the corner, so we were able to head over to pick him up when we were done.

The Dolphin Hotel--one of the areas for Nick's meetings.

The Swan Hotel--another building where he had meetings.

Downtown Disney

So Gabrielle and I headed to the Downtown area one day after her morning nap to get some lunch.  We ate wonderfully-tasty sandwiches at "Earl's" while it was raining for a few minutes.

One of the entrances to Downtown Disney.

One of the awesome sculptures at the LEGO store.

A little closer so you can see the individual LEGO pieces.

A whole LEGO family!

This one was taken for Nick...Transformers!  And, if you notice the people in the background, you get an idea for how tall these things are!

One more LEGO grouping--some fish this time.

Probably the largest store of Disney stuff ever...

We went back to the Downtown with Nick one night, and I took advantage of him standing next to Gabrielle while I took a picture of her with one of the princesses.  There are sure a lot of things to do with "princesses" here, and I think that she'll enjoy them more when she's older.  Guess we'll have to start saving up our money so we can go back again some day!