We Will, We Will

In Juju speak "Bock tyou!"

While walking through the park, one child turns to Joseph and says, "You have mud on your face!"

The older girls in unison respond, "You big disgrace, Kicking your can all over the place!"

Dh replies, "It really says something about what you are teaching our daughters when they respond to such statements with refrains of Queen."

This sort of thing only happens during college football season :)

Almost Wordless Wednesday

**Game Day Edition**

Gratuitous Cuteness

Our Ohio attempt minus one little boy

He was "helping" his dad make the chili :)

The Great Cable Debacle

Last year, at the close of college football season, we canceled our cable subscription. We only watched three channels, The Food Network, EWTN (the girls especially enjoy their cartoon shows), and any station broadcasting a college football game. Dh had these grand plans of watching all these things via the Internet. So, with all the money we were saving, we (he) purchased more and more equipment to hook our computers to the tv. All of this is a little beyond my technical knowledge (and for that matter-- interest), and I simply observed as packages started arriving. Cordless keyboards, little doohickeys with cords, new hard drives to hold the downloads, etc. Countless evening he spent on this endeavor.

The girls could indeed watch their EWTN shows. They also started the Leave It To Beaver series. We have simply done without the Food Network, which has given us less screen time. Dh and I also watched downloaded shows, which we enjoyed. We could watch them on our time schedule and the quality was really pretty decent. I should note we own old, ancient tvs and none of them are HD so our expectations are low. All in all, we were happy not paying that cable bill.

Then college football season began. Dh had done quite a bit of research and the Thursday night season starter approached. That night we had a tailgate dinner, we were all dressed in our game day gear, revved up for the start of the season. He couldn't get it to work. We missed the kick-off, and most of the first quarter. He did eventually get it working, but the quality was not there, even with our low expectations. By half-time he was on the phone with the cable company discussing our options.

Since we were going on vacation (blog posts forthcoming), he scheduled our installation for cable (and Internet) in late September. And since we didn't need double coverage Internet coverage, he canceled that as well. We would use our city's Wifi coverage for the few days without Internet access. Unfortunately, dh did something more typical of his dw (me), he scheduled the installation for late October, not late September as he thought.Here we are, using the city Wi-fi which is h.o.r.r.i.b.l.e, I can barely get logged into the girls' school, and every page required 2-3 refreshes before it actually comes up.

I have all these great vacation pictures to post and a few other posts in the works, and none of it matters because I can't get to anything. Even this post will be long and dry, without pictures, because I have to disconnect and reconnect and deal with a poor connection to get to them.

After much wrangling and many, many, many calls, my wonderful dh has somehow managed to get an overbooked cable company to come to my rescue. They will be installing this afternoon. I will be able to get the girls' school back on track, able to catch up on email, hopefully able to get out a few posts, and most importantly able to watch this Saturday's Big Ten opener.

Two More Days

It's almost that time of year again and everyone in this house is getting excited...


Some new members of the family aren't quite sure what to make of the refrains of Carmen Ohio (all the older girls are well-versed in OSU fight songs) being sung at the top of little lungs. Others are doing their best to imitate the I-O response to Mom's O-H shouts...


With three new little Buckeyes this year, this house will be rocking with even more loud cheering (or at least screaming and crying because Mom is glued to the tv screen).
Little Gabe, while excited for the quickly approaching college football season, must have some sense that he is about to lose Mama's attention on Saturday afternoons.

Two more days!
O-H!!

Buckle Up Buckeye Fans

Subtitled "Are you ready for some football?

I am!! We've waited months for this day to arrive.

I l.o.v.e college football. I could easily spend every Saturday, all day, watching games. I like to stay up ridiculously late watching games. I turn my radio dial to sports radio (my kids think there are two radio stations, ESPN and Catholic ESPN -- which is really EWTN).

This college football season I probably won't be able to do all of that. The school schedule is tighter which means I have more house work on Saturdays, JuJu requires more attention, and this little one in utero saps most of my extra energy. I had been feeling a little down about it.

Then some dear friends reminded me of how blessed we truly are. Blessed to have children, blessed to be able to sacrifice for them, blessed to have such good friends. I may not be able to watch all the football I would like, I may not be able to stay up late and tune out on Saturdays... but this Saturday, thanks to these friends, dh and I will be at the game!

I think it is amazing how God takes little sacrifices and blesses them. I know it is a silly football game, but I had been feeling overwhelmed. I had been so worried about all the things we won’t be able to do with six little ones and feeling (embarrassingly) a little sorry for myself. God used good friends and a silly football game to show me that He will always provide, even beyond our needs. Only with His grace will I make it through the next year or two and I need to rely on that instead of being so anxious and overwhelmed.

I have had to warn dh he must wear scarlet and gray. I have been scouring my closet for a good OSU t-shirt that will actually fit over my growing belly. The girls have even caught the spirit and have been decorating the house this morning. What a way to kick off Buckeye season! Go Bucks!!

It's Almost That Time of Year Again...

Regina reminded me... Not that I wasn't already seething in anticipation. There have been more than a few refrains of Carmen Ohio sung here in the last week or so. The little ones have broken out strains of "We don't give a DARN for the whole state of Michigan."

To further build anticipation, this video clip was sent to me on FB.

I'm all for the tribute, but I still expect to win!

I can't wait till kickoff! Go Buckeyes!!

My Weekend

I've posted before about how wonderfully DH's company has treated us. This weekend, we won tickets to a tailgate party across the street from the shoe (OSU Stadium). While I knew it was crazy to do this on an already busy weekend, I couldn't pass up the chance to watch a big game in style!

I come from a long line of Buckeye fans. My grandmother's buckeye necklace is one of my most treasured possessions. My two year old can sing the fight song. The first station plugged into my radio dial in the car is The Fan Sports Radio. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a dear friend who can understand my football obsession.

We are probably the only two women I know who can immediately recognize and name all three men on that bus -- the only exceptions being my mom and Aunt Rose! For those who are sports deprived, it's the ESPN Game Day crew who were set up next to the company tent.

Before the game we watched the players pass right by the tent as they walked into St. John's Arena for the Skull Session. There was a jumbo-tron set up outside the tent to watch the game and several big screen tv's inside. It was a college football fan's paradise.

Whenever DH goes to one of these parties, he's immediately drawn to all the s.w.a.g. (stuff we all get not sista with a gun) and we inevitably leave with all kinds of goodies. His biggest reason for going to these parties is the free food and all the loot. He wasn't disappointed! We came home with picnic blankets, camp chairs, gift certificates, and a signed Tressell football! He was like a kid in a candy store with all the give-aways.

UPDATE: We also joked about the photographer taking pictures of the event. It felt like we were lurking in the background of half his pictures. Here are a few he took. One of us is each of these pictures, see if you can find us.

Just can't help myself

Did you hear the news? It's just about the only good news we've had in quite some time.

USC LOST!!!

Now, I wish it would've been the Buckeyes instead of the Beavers, but I'll take it!

My lawn needs mowed too

I don't want to talk about this weekend's game... I just don't want to talk about it... I had resigned myself to the fact that we might lose, I just didn't want to be blown out. Well that didn't happen.

Mary's face says it all here:

Although, this was all she was crying about.

My favorite headline (I tried not to go to the sports pages at all) was

Showdown? No. USC Mows down OSU

Awful... Just awful.

Go Bucks

We are going up north this weekend for a little family trip so I won't be around for the first day of college football. This is a big deal to me, I have been looking forward to this day since January.It should be noted that along with a few favorite hymns and lullabies, Carmen Ohio is one of the first songs my girls learn. My 2 year old has been known to break out a "Drive, Drive on down the field..."

Now Saturday we play Youngstown State so I will be content listening to the game, unless I can convince my dad and dh to take me to a sports bar. Under normal circumstances I think I could convince my dad, but Saturday we are visiting a museum that has an exhibit of classic cars. We are going to see the Vatican Art, but my dad... well let's just say he has a thing for classic cars. Dh will also take convincing as he knows that all of us in a sports bar on a college football gameday means he is basically alone on kid duty. There is only so long 3 young girls can be entertained in such an environment. So for this Saturday, I will make the small sacrifice of only listening. This will of course have to be repaid on Sept 13 when we take on USC. I am off-duty that day!

OH--IO!!