A Nina Doubleheader

Pablo and the Silver Panthers Win a Blowout

Forty-six

Forty-six birthdays now, twenty-five with me. This year my principal contribution to the birthday festivities was to cajole the kids into writing out a list of 46 things they love about their mama. They did a good job. There was also a book gift ("Amsterdam" by Russell Short) and another gift on the way. We finished the birthday with two chocolate molten lava cakes at Chili's: one for the boys and one for the girls. The relatively mild smiles on their calm faces apparent here in this pre-lava cake photo do not fully reflect the collective enthusiasm of the group for the eating experience they were about to undertake.

Nina Rides Alone

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Nina and Pablo would be on different soccer teams for the first time. Nina is on an all-girls team; Pablo is on an all-boys team. Saturday we learned that though Nina is 8, and rightfully belongs on the all-girls U-9 team, she has been called up to the all-girls U-10 team because they needed players. She started her first game at right forward. I think it was the hottest game any of our children has ever played in--hot, humid, no breeze, and Nina's team only had one reserve. Most of the game was played in the forward half of the field as the U-10s dominated gameplay. After her team built a big lead in the first half, Nina's coach moved her to defense in the second half.


Nina hustles to the ball, redirects it to the middle of the field and gets off a shot on goal.

Club Level Frogs

Dad's friend Chad Cline hooked us up with four club-level tickets to TCU's season opener against South Dakota State. On the advice of Scott O'Leary, we parked at McKinney Bible Church on Hulen an hour-and-a-half before the game and rode the shuttle to the stadium. The last time Emilio and I went to a TCU game (September 7, 2013 against the Southeastern Louisiana Lions), we tried to park at Paschal, but the lot was full, and we ended up having to walk all the way across campus to get to our first row seats. It was only after we got to the stadium this time that we learned that our club passes gave us access throughout the game to an ample buffet that included sushi, beef tenderloin, grilled asparagus, spicy cheese grits, barbecued meats, hot dogs, burgers, pizza, veggies, corn on the cob, cookies, ice cream, and popcorn. We quickly adjusted our gameplan to make sure we fully exploited the culinary opportunities.

When Emi and I went to the home opener in 2013, kickoff was at 11 a.m. and it was HOT, and after a couple of hours of eating popcorn and dippin' dots and then trekking back through the heat to our baking van, Emi lost his lunch. The temperature in our shaded section for the evening kickoff was pleasant, and though both times, we struggled to beat our FCS opponents, we also won both games (we won this one 59-41). Quarterback Kenny Hill got the win in his Frog debut (though he may have been outplayed by the Jackrabbits' Taryn Christion). Our favorite player to watch was sophomore wide receiver Kavontae Turpin.

Nina and Pablo decided that while Nina would go to the game, Pablo would spend the evening as the guest of honor at Grandmother and Granddaddy's house. He later reported that he also had a good time.