ACU vs. Eastern New Mexico

Anna and the Wildcat

Layne & Destiny

ACU won again on Saturday 45-20. The game was very boring. The other team ran the option and I think that is the most boring offense!! I think they only threw it one time (can you tell Ken likes to pass!!). So, had lots of time to take pictures during the game. Layne does not like the Wildcat. Wants nothing to do with him (or her???). In case you are wondering, no I did not french braid Anna's hair. That would be LeAnn. She is trying to teach me, but I am a very slow learner :) You can read about the game here: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2007/sep/30/wildcats-whip-enmu/

Balloon Fest - NOT!!

After dinner Friday night, some friends of mine had planned to attend the Abilene Balloon Festival. It's a hot air balloon festival that everyone had said was really neat. When we got there we were told they were not going to launch because it was too windy. So, what do moms do to not disappoint our kids? We go to the park!! It was right beside the festival and the kids were not too disappointed because they did get to play together.

Our weekend

The highlight of Layne's night is to go out on the field and play football. Doesn't he look cute standing beside his daddy?

Layne in the post game huddle

Ben playing soccer

The Collums' cousins: Molli (14), Ben (12), Jaci (8), Anna (5), & Layne (3)

Okay, this is my nephew, Ben. Yes, this picture is correct. He is upside down. He has a new trick that he runs up a wall and does a back flip. CRAZY!!

We had another busy weekend. It started Friday afternoon. Me, LeAnn, Anna, & Layne took off to Vernon, TX (Ken's hometown). ACU played about 2 hours from Vernon, so it cut our roadtrip to the football game in half. We woke up Saturday morning and went to watch Ben, our nephew, play soccer. He is a great soccer player!! After lunch at Bevos (hometown burger place that is one of our favs), where were off to Weatherford, OK, where ACU played Southwestern Oklahoma State. We won 50-14. We didn't get back to Vernon until about 12:30 am. We got up this morning and headed back to Abilene. No more overnight road trips! Whoo Hoo!!!!

God had favor upon me

Okay, I had to share this praise! Here's the story. At the football game the other night, I took my credit card out of my wallet b/c I wanted to buy a t-shirt and didn't want to haul my entire wallet/purse into the game. Well, on Sunday I remembered it was in my pants pocket on my way to the van to go to lunch. I got it out and hurried to the van (Ken was in a hurry b/c he had to go to work). I didn't put it in my wallet right away b/c he was waiting on me and we were in separate vehicles. I thought "Oh, I'll just put it in there when we get to the restaurant". Well, you know the rest. I didn't think about it again, until about 5:30 last night. I was checking out at the grocery store and opened up my wallet. Guess what? No credit card. My heart sank. I immediately remembered the last time I saw it was when it was in my lap. LeAnn (my sister-in-law) was with me and she dumped out my purse while I called the restaurant to see if anyone had turned it in. I then went to this restaurant's parking lot to see if it was still on the ground. Then we both turned the van upside down looking for it. When I returned home I checked our online statement and nothing had been charged to the account. That was great news, but still knew it was out there somewhere. After the kids went to bed I again emptied out my purse, my wallet, and looked in the van again. Nothing. This morning I had decided that I was going to look one more time in the van and then call and cancel. I went to look in this compartment above the steering wheel and I accidentally hit the wipers. They start moving and I see something. Guess what? My credit card!! Someone must have found it right beside my van at the restaurant and placed it under the windshield wiper. I still can't believe it. I just wanted to share because we often don't hear about the good and positive things that people do for others. It was an answered prayer!

Happy Birthday Ken!

Today is Ken's b-day. When I was thinking about what to write about him, I realized that his life can be put into the four F's: faith, family, football, and fly-fishing. His entire life is about those four things. Sometimes they are not always in that order (like now, its football season!). I finally got to experience fly-fishing with him this summer. He had been wanting to take me for several years and I finally went with him on Father's Day. It was really fun. Here's some pictures of our trip. The waders were NOT flattering at all! The boat pictures are of us in our friend George's boat. He is a fly-fishing buddy that Ken met a couple of years ago. He took Ken on a guided trip once and they hit it off. Now Ken gets to fish with him everytime we go back to Arkansas and its free!! He was very patient with me that day and we all had a blast. Ken is even putting his birthday money toward a new kick boat for our next trip to Arkansas. Be sure to wish Ken a Happy Birthday, he is feeling old now b/c he had to make a visit to the chiropractor this week :)

Anna's follow-up appointment

Anna had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Emily today in Fort Worth. As most of you know, she had surgery to remove a spot on her right index finger about 6 weeks ago. The pictures are after the surgery, her finger before/after shots, and Dr. Emily & Anna. Her finger looks great!

Dr. Emily is a plastic surgeon in Ft. Worth. Her office is the only doctor's office that I have ever been to that everyone dresses up. And when I say dressed up, its not just khaki pants and a cute top; it is a skirt, slacks, dress, and HEELS. Everyone is in heels from the doc, nurse, receptionist, and even the insurance lady. It really caught me off guard the first time we went, but then I realized that her business is all about appearances, so they all have to look good!! The firm that does her advertising won an award in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for her ads. I wrote her ads down b/c they crack me up and thought I would share (they were each framed in her office):

• Save the wave for the football game
• Turn molehills into mountains
• Turn your ta-tas into ta-das
• Get some new headlights before your vacation
• Go from ho hum to oh baby

Yea ACU!!!!

ACU had a huge win on Saturday. They beat a DI-AA team (ranked 19th) on the road. The mood is good around here!! Here's the article that was in the paper:

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2007/sep/08/san-marcos-shocker/

Go Bulldogs and Cowboys!!

Anna gets to wear her cheerleader suit to school on Fridays. During kindergarten registration, everyone told me to be sure and buy one b/c all of the girls wear one on Fridays. I am glad I did. When I dropped her off this morning, there was purple everywhere. Girls had on cheerleader suits and boys had on football jerseys. The teachers even had on their purple shirts. I just think is a ploy for parents to spend more money :) The campus consists of K, 1st and 2nd grade. If they don't have an older sibling, they have NO idea there is a high school football team playing tonight. Oh well, at least she attends a school where there is LOTS of school spirit. The varsity cheerleaders were on campus selling tatoos for, get this, 75 cents. Of course we had to get a purple pawprint tatoo. When I was in high school we sold these banner/ribbon things. I think they were only a quarter. Wow, how things change. By the time she gets in HS, the tatoos will be 2 bucks!!!

I added a picture of Layne in his Dallas Cowboys football uniform. I know Anna's Conway Wampus Cats cheerleader suit is a little small, but she insisted that she match Layne's outfit.

Superheros

Anna & Layne found some very old Superman costumes and wanted to play superheros. As you can see, they are a little small, but they didn't care!

Anna is in kindergarten

Anna started kindergarten last week. She absolutely loves it. She was upset that she did not get to go to school on Saturday. I just smiled because I knew that would not last forever. Random tidbits from her first seven days at school:

• When I picked her up the first day I asked how she liked kindergarten. She replied "It is very long".
• The second day of school she said a boy in her class asked her if she would go on a date with him to Red Lobster. Her daddy did not think that was funny.
• She likes the cafeteria. Today they had pizza and she said "it was very good and I ate my peas".
• She has gotten up extremely well and is exhausted at night.
• Yesterday when I asked how her day was she said, "I do not feel like talking". I asked if everything was okay. She replied, "everything is good, but I have talked all day and my breath hurts". I don't think she really talked all day b/c she did not get in trouble for talking. I just think she gets tired of me asking a million questions on the ride home.

We have a blog!!!

Thought we would get into the 21st century and get our own blog. Hope you all enjoy!!