KENTUCKY WINS!!!!

27-2, although that 2 was really courtesy of our QB throwing it away under pressure for your 2 point safety.

As a Kentucky fan, it's a very strange but blissful feeling to beat your in-state archrival two years in a row, in FOOTBALL. I could get VERY used to this! Thank you Myron Pryor!!! Thank you Defense! Thank you coaching staff, and THANK YOU to the Football Gods for giving Kentucky two wins in a row against lil' bro.

Test photo!

Go Big Blue

One hour and 38 minutes until the Kentucky Football season kicks off. I'm already unbearable to be around, and the waiting is sheer agony.

GO BIG BLUE!!!!

That pesky little thing called life

So, just after I get motivated and start this blog the real world decides to distract me. Nope, not the Olympics although I've been overloading on them. This time it's the annoying cancer cells growing inside my mom which apparently are deciding that they want to cause all sorts of problems for her. Stupid, nasty disease wants to win and make my mom miserable in the process. Yes, I know it's eventually going to win, considering we think she's already outlived the original prognosis from a year ago. However, I'm not a fan of the "miserable" part because I hate to see her suffering. Stupid, nasty cancer indeed.

My favorite distraction lately has been the Olympics. Which leads me to a bit of a rant. Michael Phelps is really good and all, but could NBC shove him down our throats any more? While I'm at it, what about Jason Lezak? Come on, Phelps needed Lezak for two of those golds, especially in the 4 x 100 free relay. Then there's the rest of the relay swimmers...Aaron Piersol...Ryan Lochte...Cullen Jones...Garrett Weber-Gale...and the always interesting Brendan Hansen. They all have gold medals too, but it's all about Michael Phelps. I mean, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson went GOLD and SILVER in the women's all-around, the first time the USA has ever been first & second in AA. I love the swimming events, but enough already.

As far as I'm concerned, Phelps should take a slice of his upcoming endorsement money (come on, you KNOW we'll be seeing Phelps everywhere soon!) and cut a check to Lezak. He earned it.

Off to watch whatever is airing right now, which is probably volleyball or handball or some other ball. Go Team USA!

WVU visit

Well, West Virginia University has fallen out of consideration for the oldest. I think as we drove through Wheeling and got closer to Morgantown he realized he'd be in the middle of nowhere. Strike One. Then, the opening speaker sounded like she was reciting from a script in a monotone instead of connecting with the crowd. Strike Two. It went down from there. I felt for him, because I think he wanted to give it a real chance but it just wasn't the right environment. Oh well, now off to some in-state schools!

The highlight of the day was a sign outside the main doors of the WVU Coliseum. We meant to get a picture of it before we left, but forgot until we were 25 minutes off campus. Considering I paid $.30 more a gallon in WV for gas than at home I wasn't going back, either. I was tempted to do so, it was that good. The sign said "No Street Hockey or Dogs". Really. Especially bad since oldest plays street hockey and loves dogs.

At least it was a nice trip before the insanity of his senior year starts.

First Bento!

I've been reading about Bento for a while, and either I'm jumping on the bandwagon or really trying to commit to packing lunches. Usually, my lunch routine when I'm working my regular hours consists of:

1. Hitting the drive through for breakfast on the way to work, then eating lunch after I get home in the afternoon, or
2. Stopping somewhere for lunch on the way home from work.

Neither option is particularly healthy for the bank account, or for me. Therefore, if I start now by the time I'm back to working the normal schedule I'll be used to Bentoing (is that a real word?) So, my first foray into the world of Bento lunches, as pictured here.



I made up some fried rice, thanks to the good ole Pink and White plaid Betty Crocker cookbook. Middle son swiped a bite and said it was good. There's also some snap peas, baby carrots, crackers and one of my new loves...a Laughing Cow light cheese wedge. Those Laughing Cows are delicious! I'll probably add a vanilla yogurt and something sweet, maybe a banana if I don't eat one for breakfast.

Now, to keep it up, which is where the blog comes in. Let's call it Blog Motivation!

College Visits

Yes, I'm making this a separate post due to the subject matter. We're off to WVU until tomorrow night for a college visit. So far, the oldest has looked at the following schools, in visit order:

1. Denison (was the early favorite, now not in consideration.)
   
2. *Kentucky (visited to shut me up, but he wants to visit again for Midnight Madness and Homecoming this fall. A slim chance, but I don't expect his diploma to say The University of Kentucky.)
   
3. *Vanderbilt (remains in his top three. Has the academics and setting he wants, but not his intended major of Sports Management. He'll probably apply just to see if he gets in.)
   
4. *Indiana (hated, and I mean HATED this visit. Based on his visit, IU has a School of Business and nothing else even matters in Bloomington. Major disappointment.)
5. Michigan (Oldest is a huge UM fan. He thought he didn't want to go to a big university, but he said he walked on campus and felt like he was home. It's the dream school. He's got the grades and the test scores, so as long as they accept my baby *and* IF they offer enough $ to make it attainable for him, I have no doubt he'll be in Ann Arbor in August 2009.)
   
6. Butler (surprisingly impressed here, and thinking hard about applying.)
   
7. Purdue (loved it, but doesn't offer his intended major.)
   
8. Northwestern (wasn't impressed. Yes, my kid was not impressed by Northwestern. I love this child!)
   
9. Ohio Northern (very surprised and impressed by this one. He's ready to schedule an individual overnight visit this fall.)
   
10. West Virginia (I know, it doesn't exactly fit with the rest of these, but something about WVU interests him, so we're visiting. Has the major and is D1. We'll see.)

He still wants to visit *Toledo , *Miami and probably *Bowling Green . We're insisting he check out a couple of in-state public schools because of the money thing. I mean, a full ride in state vs. a partial ride out of state will make his life a lot easier after graduation. We'll see, he's done his part with academics and such, now it's up to him to write applications and hunt down scholarship applications.

Oh, the schools with this ( *) just means that there's a collegiate chapter of my social sorority on campus. He could care less about the Greek scene, but as a mom, if it means there's someone I can call if my kid needs help it makes a difference. Just another unexpected but fantastic benefit of sorority membership!

Two More Weeks

Djokovic beat Nadal yesterday in straight sets. So, my youngest has to wait two more weeks before Nadal officially knocks Federer out of the #1 ranking. What's two weeks when it's only taken 235 weeks to unseat Federer, right?

While I'm at it, Sharapova won't be playing in the US Open due to injury. That means the two older boys won't be casually watching tennis in September. You see, a few years ago, the middle one called Sharapova "the hot blonde chick" when he caught her playing a match on tv. The nickname has affectionately stuck around this household. If that's what it takes to get the older brothers to show interest in the youngest brother's sport of choice, then so be it.

First Post

I've tried this a few times before, but perhaps this one will take!

About me: Full time wife and mom, work part time in the ISO/EMS field, full time sorority volunteer. Love to travel but limited to college visits with our oldest son for now, followed by #2 starting this year. Impatiently waiting for the college football, college basketball and NHL seasons to start. Fiercely loyal to the Kentucky Wildcats and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Will be watching the Olympics closely, not just because I'm a nerd for all things related to the Winter or Summer Games. I hate to say it, but I don't know if China really will pull these games off without at least one major systems failure--whether it's pollution related, or venue related, or sadly even human rights related. I think the news that gets out of China will be one thing, but once Matt Lauer and company get home from the Games we'll hear a completely different story.

Speaking of Kentucky (trust me, it comes like breathing to me!), UK has five athletes participating in the Olympics. Tayshaun Prince in basketball (believe it or not, he's the first BB Olympian since Sam Bowie in 1980, who didn't participate because of the boycott). Then there's current UK track & field team members Jose Acevedo for his home country of Venezuela and Mikel Thomas for Trinidad & Tobego; former track team member David Freeman competing for Puerto Rico, and current swimmer Elvis Barone of the Bahamas. Current Assistant Track coach Erin Tucker also will represent Venezuela. Go Big Blue!