Monday, September 22, 2008

GFC Homecoming 2008

Go Knights!

It's that time of year again! Actually, I recall homecoming a bit later in the season but I'm glad (as I'm sure Melissa is) that it wasn't snowing! ;)

Friday night was our Homecoming game - GFC (Grand Forks Central) vs. Wahpeton. It was a good game even though we lost by 4 - we all turned out in our GFC shirts and sweatshirts. I thought it was a bit too hot for the sweatshirt but when it got to be halftime, it was a little chilly.

Jacob and I joined the Booster club and we volunteered to work the consession stand. FUN FUN! Well, it was hot, hot anyway! Austin was with us (he was in charge of filling the bowls with chips for anyone who wanted nachos) and Melissa hung with her friends in the stands.

There were a few differences between football games here and what I recall of my time in high school. The most important bullet for me is #1 - the band. I love the band!

1 - BAND: When I was in high school, the band played throughout the 1st and 2nd quarters and at homecoming, the band did a little 'ditty' out on the field. It was something we looked forward to! Oh, and we had a little parade in the street. Here in GF, the band didn't play in a parade, didn't play at all during the 1st half and didn't have a little 'ditty' during halftime. RUDE is all I'm saying here.

2 - SPIRIT: School spirit was big when I was going to high school. At this game, there was hardly any cheering in the stands unless the team scored or something important like that.


3 - CHEERING: Okay, maybe it's because I was the co-captain of one of Melissa's cheer squads but the cheerleaders at GFC were totally NOT cheering ... they hardly said a cheer! I'm sure Jacob was sick and tired of my "why don't they do a cheer" comments throughout the night!


4 - DANCE: At my high school, the homecoming dance was after the game. Here at GFC, the game was on Friday and the dance was on Saturday. This is just weird to me.

Speaking of the dance, Jacob and I chaperoned the dance (Melissa is not to attend a dance unless it is chaperoned by one or both of us). The 'semi-formal' dress code was adhered by the girls, but most of the boys wore jeans/shorts and t-shirts. RUDE. You don't even want to know about the young lady in the go-go boots, fish net stockings and the very skimpy, tight dress (I'll call it a dress to be nice). Melissa went to the dance with her friend Amber. They got ready at our house and I took some pics of the girls before we left for the dance.

The dance was from 7:30-11:00p and, although Melissa had fun, the night dragged on and on for Jacob and I. Some of the music was acceptable (AC/DC, Joan Jett, you know - oldschool) but the other music was just that "rap-crap" I can't stand. When you play that kind of music, kids are going to get their grind on and frankly speaking, I don't need to see any of that. Most of the kids would shape up if they saw a chaperone coming but some of them ... YEOW!

Well, that was the homecoming weekend in a nutshell. Sounds like fun, no? :)

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

September 2, 2008

BOW WOW!
I thought it was about time that I posted some pics of the doggies. Pirate is growing daily and Gabby is loving the playtime! They get along so well ... they play 'mean dogs' and chase each other around the house. It's funny to watch because most of the house is not carpeted so they slide everywhere!


Yesterday, I noticed a bunch of birdie poopie (excuse the bad language) on the side of the house and looked up and viola! there were some baby birdies in a nest! I'm so ridiculous ... I had to show each individual in my home the nest of birdies. They really are cute. I can see them out the window and think that maybe I should put some bird see out, but then I think to myself, "don't feed them or they won't fly south for the winter" ... how ridiculous am I?

Monday, September 01, 2008

August 29-31, 2008

Mall of America ... here we come!
Well, Labor Day weekend = going somewhere fun, right? The original thought of going to Mt. Rushmore went out the window (we'll do that in the spring, I think) and so off to Bloomington, Minnesota for us! It's about a 5 hour drive but if you ask the kids, I think they'll say it was worth it! Austin declared that he would like to go there for his birthday! Kids ... they're so funny!

We stayed at the Fairfield right across the street from the mall - handy! We arrived around 10:30pm on Friday night and went to the room to relax, watch a little tv and just unwind.

After a nice breakfast, we decided that Saturday was going to be a shopping day - you know, get a feel of the land, so-to-speak. We eventually paired off, Austin with Jacob and Melissa with moi. The "boys" played a round of miniature golf, looked at the rides, checked out the Legos, raced a cool NASCAR in a race simulator (I hear Austin was a maniac!) and just looked around.

Melissa and I went to the clothing stores (fun fun). It is expensive to be decked out in all of the "name brands". Melissa had some birthday money that she could spend and I think most of it went to Aeropostale.

We met the boys at the Rainforest Cafe. The reason to go to the Rainforest Cafe was to enjoy the ambiance, not the excellent cuisine. What I'm trying to say is that the food was o.k.

Due to the chewing of an eyeball by Gabby, Austin got himself another snake from the Build-A-Bear at the Rainforest Cafe store. He named him "fangs"and he's a python. I have no idea why the photos from the cafe turned out weird - it must be from the low lighting.

After a busy day of shopping and fooling around, we went back to the hotel for a little pool action and a nap (at least I tried ...). It was pretty much R&R the rest of the night.

Sunday was the day we were to go on the rides so we braced ourselves and got up a little earlier. We ended up getting to the mall a tad bit earlier than the 10:00am opening so we decided to buy our wristbands from the kiosk and stand in line (if there was one) for the rides we wanted to go on. Actually, it was really nice at that time - hardly anyone around. Hardly anyone except the Fox News people!

The Republican National Convention is this week in Minneapolis and they (along with other news teams) were scoping out the mall. Of course, we saw Steve Doocy (the pic is a little blurred but his facial reaction is hilarious!) with - we assume - his son going on the rides. He smiled at Jacob and probably thought I was some stalker-person. It was fun to see someone that "famous", walking around the mall and going on rides!

Austin really enjoyed the day - he wasn't too short for any of the rides! Melissa got a little "roller-coster"-ed out after awhile. Comparing to a 'real' theme park, there really aren't that many rides but because of a malfunction at the kiosk where we bought the wristbands, we received a $14 per person discount! Yahoo!

All-in-all we had a great time. I'm not sure when our next outing to the Mall of America will be, but at least we can say that we've been there, done that! And ... don't forget ... friends don't let friends live in MINNESOTA! muah ha ha ha! :)