Grieving for Tech

The face of Tech football, our quirky pirate coach, has been scammed. Here are some published comments because I don't even feel like coming up with my own words to express my thoughts about all of this. I am so depressed.

1. I will be adopting whatever school Leach ends up at. I encourage everyone else to follow.

2. Hello 3 -- 9 seasons, we missed you.

3. Bust out the All-American Bowl t-shirts...not even that. Maybe the Uncle Joe's Pizza Parlor Bowl shirts...at best.

4. I'm not only stunned, but a bit near teats. This is very upsetting.

5. I'm turning in my guns, and walking away from a program I've loved for forty plus years. Tech wrecked him!

6. Man, if this had happened during the semester I would expect the streets of Lubbock would look like those in Baghdad. It's gonna get ugly in West Texas.

7. It's official. I'm not getting any work done today.

8. Good Lord, we even have Aggies on our side!

9. Back to being a women's basketball school...and they're not even that great.

10. The highwater mark for Tech football will be visible somewhere in the empty stadium expansion.

11. Can Marsha Sharp coach football?

12. Just think, season ticket renewals are coming out in 6 weeks...Maybe they already printed Leach's face on them!

13. Coogs, lock up Sumlin now!

I'm just glad I didn't sign us up for the Alaskan "Cruise with the Coach" this coming summer. Maybe he'll still go! It would be a great trip. Wherever he ends up, sign me up as a fan! Looks like we'll be getting a new slew of t-shirts! Oh, I am so depressed.

Cockrell Butterfly trip with Michael

One of my favorite places in Houston is the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Nick wanted to take Nathan to the Planetarium, and I knew Michael would be more interested in watching plants grow than being in there...sooo, I took him down the hall to see the butterflies.

Nancy Grieg is one of those people who I'd like to befriend. I met her just a couple of times and I instantly liked her! She is head curator and entomologist at the Cockrell Butterfly Center. Back when the neighborhood around West 11th Street Park was trying to SAVE the park, she guided my students through the park on a walking tour. It's an easy walk to this park...so why do we not do that more often? Darn testing. She was so kind and kid-friendly, and really made the nature walk come alive for all of those urban kiddos--and ME! What a neat lady! Anyway, she was at the Cockrell Center yesterday. Except yesterday, she was patrolling the center carrying around a giant orange IGUANA! How cool! Michael stepped right up for his turn to see the iguana AND pet it! He had no reservations, no skiddishness, no fear. I am proud of that quality in Michael. The butterflies, by the way, were SUPER COOL too. I was so jealous of this woman sitting in the butterfly center just sketching little butterfly scenes in her sketch book. I'm going to put that on my bucket list...Sketch butterflies at the butterfly center instead of chasing after a preschooler! HA!

Big Boy Bed

I love that my Michael is growing and changing into a big boy. And, I hate it at the same time. Our house looks a little bit different than it did last month. We donated the high chair. We bought a full mattress. We converted Michael's crib into a full size big-boy bed. Gone is the crib. Well, some of the crib's skeletal remains are again tucked up in the attic. Today we packed up more baby clothes. They're up there too.
When we packed up all of these things when Nathan was growing up, it was sad for me. Yes, it was sad. But, there was more of a chance then that those things would eventually come out of their hibernation at some point than there is now. THAT is the sad part. Will I someday bring out these things again for a third go around? Or are they retiring for good? Why did my years with babies in the house go by so wickedly fast?
Right now, my sweet little boy is sleeping in a monster of a bed. I remember when his crib seemed huge compared to the itty bitty newborn swaddled inside.

Christmastime Brunch