Bowling Pin Beer Bottles!!

Tigers Game at Minute Maid Park

Matt bought us Tigers tickets before I moved down here (as a bribe of sorts). The season doesn't officially start til Monday, but it was a real game at Minute Maid Park and we figured we could see our Tigers in person! According to the weather forcast it was supposed to rain today so I asked Jessica what to wear and she said a raincoat...so Matt and I got our raincoats and headed downtown to cheer on our Tigers.

We parked on Caroline Street!


We walked up to Minute Maid and realized....it is an indoor baseball field....we looked like idiots with our raincoats...it is not going to rain inside the ballpark...
We had seats WAY up on top, and the place was 75% empty, but it was a cool venue to be at.

My Tigers lineup - Guillen was in! He hit a homer!!

This is Guillen up at bat, I kept waiting for him to swing and they walked him because he hit a homer last inning! Oh well.

Since this game was empty too we moved down from the 4th level to the 3rd level. I had fun, the Tigers lost by a lot, but oh well. This was not our weekend in sports (although Michigan hockey won!)

Go Tigers!
On the way to Minute Maid Park on Highway 10 (we were going east) westbound wasn't moving, so we decided to be smart and take the HOV lane back (Matt's first time ever in the HOV lane). Needless to say we got on and westbound was moving, but oh well so was the HOV lane, and then we got closer to our exit and we were suck in the HOV lane, and then we past our exit and we are still stuck in the lane, and then we went past the next 2 more roads and we were still stuck in our lane...Matt wasn't happy with the HOV lane. Haha. But we made it home!

Maybe we will cheer on Texas tomorrow in the Elite 8, but whoever I cheer for tends to lose, so I haven't decided if cheering for Texas is a good thing or a bad thing. Good night for now.

Sweet 16 at Reliant

Friday I met Matt (coming from Mexico) at Reliant Park to watch the two South Region Sweet 16 games. On the way there I drove past welcome banners... (and a Tiffanys for Jessica!)

Saw a fellow State fan with his truck all decorated on the highway (which, btw wasn't moving so it took me FOREVER to get there).

Here was the proof that MSU was there.
The entire place was a sea of ORANGE because Texas played in the first game. I believe the guy a few seats over from me thought he was the coach of all the things he was yelling at the players. Here is State warming up...
About 5 minutes into the State game all the Texas fans realized this wasn't going to be a fun game to watch (State down 30 at half time) so they left. Matt and I migrated to the very front in front of the basket MSU was shooting at, and that was kinda cool. It was EMPTY by half time, except for some obnoxious Memphis fans talking about how overrated Neitzel was (well, he didn't have any points until the last minute or so of the game...but still).
Needless to say traffic on the way home wasn't bad because...everyone had already left... The second half of the game was fun - MSU went on a 17-0 run, that was exciting. We came back, went to bed to get up for our next sports fan day...

Teaching Cindy to use a Camera

Cindy wanted to borrow my camera and had a practice shot before hand...which turned out to be a good picture!

Teaching my Nephew Good Manners

Me and Jake!
Two feet on the table!! (Matt must have thought this was funny...either that or Aubrey SCREAMING in the background). Hey Jake likes mashed potatoes...who can blame him?
I tried so hard to get Jake to look forward (Aubrey was calling him the other direction as punishment for the above "incident"), that when he finally did Jess wasn't paying attention!
So as Jessica's punishment to Aubrey...."oops he got on the table...'Bad Dog Jake!'" hahaha.

Ring

GO STATE GO!

Since the Mountain West sponsored Rounds 1 and 2 of March Madness, my family had tickets to the games in Denver at the Pepsi Center. My Dad celebrated when he found out MSU was headed to Denver, so we gathered up all the Michigan State shirts we had and headed off to watch the game Saturday night agaist Pitt. (THEY WON!)

Not sure where Jeff is in this picture.

This picture was taken just for Chris. (Jon looks excited on the end there...the real reason he was in Denver that weekend, although I am sure Matt would like to take credit for that part).

Neitzel and Izzo shaking hands after the game. My dad got Matt and I tickets to go to the sweet 16 game down here in Houston against Memphis on Friday. And you thought you'd seen enough pictures of Reliant Stadium before...

We're Engaged (part 3)

Read part 1 and 2 first.

Andrea, Jessica, Danielle
My Dad giving a toast, Matt laughing about it (not quite sure what was said...)

THE GIRLS!! (I made Jessica let me be in the middle). Jessica, Kim, me, Andrea, Aubrey. (you will see that picture again I'm sure...although I wouldn't be surprised if Jessica was in the middle)

hehehehe I know I know I'm a loser.

Matt and I with Cindy and Rick. I don't know why I don't have this picture with my parents, but oh well. Cindy was crying, but that is nothing new! I am very glad Rick burned the midnight oil to come out and celebrate.

On another note, I called my friends in Michigan and left a million messages, but both Mike and Jake called from Iraq. Mike said to plan around his schedule, so who wants to get married in Iraq? hum...not me.... Jake said that if Matt didn't treat me well he would beat him up, so there you go Matt...you're warned :)

We're Engaged Part 2

Read Part 1 first....

The dealership wanted one for their wall - I heart Malibu. Matt informed me after that it was only a wakeboard boat store and this boat was a Corvette not a Response, but at the time I didn't notice...they were boats and they were pretty and I mean...I was getting proposed to :)

Here is a picture of one of the TVs the other is directly behind it facing the other direction.
As I believed everyone was meeting again for dinner for Jessica's Birthday (they all knew), everyone (My parents, my brother and his gf, my sister, my friend Kim and her bf (that was another perfect surprise!!), Cindy and Rick, Aubrey, Julie, Jordan, Jess' Aunt, Balfour, Jon, Mary and Jessica (after they picked up those roses). There were balloons that got lost in the fan haha and it was a great party. (I btw had made Jess and Aubrey cupcakes earlier in the day!!! We did get to sing happy birthday).

Cindy, Mary, Me, Mom, Andrea

The Girls!!! (Kim, me, Jess, Andrea, Julie, Aubrey)

We're Engaged! (part 1)

Friday March 21st is Jessica's birthday and the following day is her brother Jordan's. So all week she has been bugging me to go out to dinner with them on Friday and right after go out to dinner with everyone else (family etc). This didn't make sense and I kept trying to get out of it. Then Kim was in town and I wanted to hook up with her and Matt and Jessica were getting very mad that I was being difficult. At 4:30 Jessica gets a call from her friend Julie and Julie says her bf cheated on her and is upset and Jessica has to go console her (a very believable story, it wouldn't be the first). I tell her this is dumb, but she leaves anyway and Mary has to give her a ride to her car. I am forced to promise to meet Jess and Jordan at 6:30 in South Denver - she gives me the address and runs for it. "South Denver" turns out to be "North West Denver" and I am NOT HAPPY. At about 5 I start nagging on Matt go leave and he pulls a Jeff and IS SO SLOW so I wasn't happy about that. We put the address into GPS and off we go, me complaining the whole time about Jessica and Julie and North Denver. Matt is texting the ENTIRE drive (over an hour) and he tells me that its his brother and he is getting scores. I didn't even think games were on...but I went with that one. I don't know what Matt would have said when I asked who was winning the game. Anyway, we pull up to this SHADY bar and Jessica calls all upset and says she will be late and I tell her to drive safe and she immediately hangs up! Matt goes hey look there is a Malibu dealership next door lets go kill some time. I go with that and we walk over there. All the lights are off and the girl says they are having a power outage (I bought it, believe it or not) and I go oooh Matt look at the rash guards. He looks like he is going to pee in his pants and I'm talking about rash guards. He "yells" at me to pay attention and then goes "this whole thing was made up" and I'm like "huh what" and he makes me look to the left where you see: (the lights were off)

There is music (country :) ) playing and there are two big screens playing a slide show of pictures of us (all this I noticed afterwards) and I am like ummm whats going on... (ie where is Jessica....) (ie how did I not see this coming) (ie I still wanted that rash guard) and then we walked down the candles and roses and Matt was shaking like crazy and I was bright red (I can't hide emotion at all). He talked about how we started off just being ski team partners and then friends and then more than that and how he wanted that to keep going, (...yea thats a summary) and then he went down on one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket that was on a floating boat keychain. He did say he wished he could buy me a boat but that would have to wait. I said yes and the ring fit and its georgeous and then I was joining in on the shaking and then he opened a bottle of wine he told me to text Jessica and she came out of the closet!!!! (If you look at the above picture you can see it on the right, the door is open). My Aunt Mary was hiding in the closet too and both of them were crying! (I am sure they heard every word of what Matt said).

This is me, my boy and my boat. Okay okay, not the boat part, but still.

Then we got in the boat with rose petals everywhere and I was still shaking. Then I found out that he and Jessica have been planning this for weeks and I am SO DUMB! But I fell for it all and it was perfect and I am glad that I am just so predictable to my friends.

Here is Matt and I with his two little helpers, who have been lying to me for a long time!! And btw Julie's boyfriend is still there, but since Jessica came up with that lie its not fault for believing it!!

The Lone Star State

So cooler than Jon's tinted lights :)

Crawfish Boil

Shell Young People had a St Patricks Day party downtown at the local park, so we went down there to eat some crawfish and be outside - another 85 degree day. HOT. They brought four or five loads of crawfish out - basically eat til you're full.




Our leftovers. A lot like eating the crabs at Baltimore - except crabs give you 10x the meat! But it was still good and fun, and the corn and potatoes with it were really good!

I may not be as cool or exciting as Jon, but I certainly eat better than him! Ha. :)

I Shoulda Been A Cowboy... (Part 2)

So our tickets said for 6:45 and while I thought it was odd that Toby would start that early, I didn't really understand what was going on, so a little (too) early, we went into Reliant Stadium. This is what we saw - a totally empty stadium and a lot of horses riding around! I think they were all warming up, because the opening act for Toby was a rodeo! But before we get to that we have to have the National Anthem.



The lights went out (after a five minute video display showing the evacuation routes for all sections...not joking) and a woman on a horse came running out with the flag and around the stadium. It was really neat, and I was trying to take a picture right as she went past and BAM FIREWORKS. I jumped (also not joking).

At the end "home of the brave" fireworks came right out of the top of the flag - that was really neat too. I didn't know there were such indoor firework displays, but they really enjoyed them as fireworks were a main part of the rest of the night.
I tried to take pictures of the rodeo, but they aren't worth seeing, so... oh well. They had six acts (starting with the calf tie down which I tried to not be appalled at) going through to bull riding. They also had a calf scramble (picture musical chairs...18 calfs and 28 kids....ready go get one) that was pretty funny. The calfs are in WAY better shape than some of those kids. Anyway, then around 9pm (we got inside at 6...yea...we didn't know any better) they rolled out the stage, which revolved around in circles. (Side note: Since we got in there at 6 we went to buy a beer and they carded us, but all we have are these dumb pieces of paper that are like index cards for IDs...the lady wasn't amused).
Toby came out in a Ford truck (more pictures that didn't turn out) and both Andrea and I were wrong on our opening song guess. It just happened to be Military night (I guess they include NASA in military, so a lot of astronauts were there too, that was kinda cool).

Since they didn't sell tickets on the floor, it was kinda watch from afar concert, which wasn't as cool as the other ones I have gone too, but I like Toby's songs. Aside from the few crazies there wasn't much standing, but when Toby sang American Soldier and Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (his last two songs) everyone stood and cheered and that was pretty cool. His Ford then came and picked him up and he drove away.
Here is a picture of the Ferris Wheel as we came out of the stadium. We parked at the very front/back of the lot so we had extra walking but got the car out easily and got back almost 9 hours later! It was quite the adventure all for what we thought was just a concert.