AP Top 25
1. LSU (33) 5-0 1,593
2. USC (32) 4-0 1,591
3. California 5-0 1,475
4. Ohio State 5-0 1,420
5. Wisconsin 5-0 1,271
6. South Florida 4-0 1,203
7. Boston College 5-0 1,172
8. Kentucky 5-0 1,143
9. Florida 4-1 1,031
10. Oklahoma 4-1 992
11. South Carolina 4-1 900
12. Georgia 4-1 885
13. West Virginia 4-1 861
14. Oregon 4-1 837
15. Virginia Tech 4-1 639
16. Hawaii 5-0 586
17. Missouri 4-0 561
18. Arizona State 5-0 497
19. Texas 4-1 449
20. Cincinnati 5-0 377
21. Rutgers 3-1 299
22. Clemson 4-1 265
23. Purdue 5-0 218
24. Kansas State 3-1 214
25. Nebraska 4-1 198

When my daughter was in school she had to interview my parents about what they remembered in certain years. I found these on the computer today and figured I would share them. Short memories from her Grandparents, interesting how times have changed.

1950

Amanda's Grandmother:

In 1950 I was in the 4th grade. I grew up in Louisiana so the schools were segregated. As a child I thought this was the norm as I had never known anything else.

I was a tomboy as most of my friends were. The "neighborhood gang" spent many hours playing cowboys and Indians. We also formed a club and we all belonged. You had to be a neighborhood kid to belong and guests were not allowed. The club consisted of boys and girls and anything that went on at the club meetings was supposed to be secret - even from your parents. We had secret codes, handshakes, etc.

We were a family of four, but had a large extended family. We had large family gatherings often so we were very close to all of our relatives. Many good times and of course all family gatherings meant lots of good food and treats for the children.

-(Grandma)

Amanda's Grandfather:

In the early 1950’s, my grandfather was in his preteen years. He remembers seeing hundreds of headlines about the Korean War in newspapers, and he remembers the ending of the war in a stalemate at the 38th Parallel. When MacArhtur was fired, my grandpa believed that he deserved it because he defied the president. He lived in New Roads, Louisiana in a house that by 1954 had a brand new garage complete with a hot water heater that had its own thermostat and was self controlled. The kitchen stove was gas and had to be hand lit. New Roads had 2 schools, a public one and a private one, that went from first to twelfth grade. For fun, my grandfather would play games with friends. They didn’t have TV yet. His family believed that separate but equal did not work and that it was not equal.

Fall

Summer is officially over :-( That is the worst feeling for me. Fall means winter is coming and I'm definately not a winter person.

Signs of the changing season....
... the pool isn't used anymore even though it still hot
... Allergies are kicking in full
... days are getting shorter, baseball practice is done by 7:30. A month ago it ended at 8:30.
... Football is in full swing. Cowboys are on top again, my Saints are on bottom again. LSU is poised for greatness
... Baseball is heading into the post season, always exciting. And free Rangers tickets this week are everywhere (we went Sunday and are going tomorrow).
... the pumpkins are delivered to the Flower Mound pumpkin patches
... School for the kids is starting to get into the grind
... Classes are going at the church (I'm doing Old Testament Review)
... People at work are starting to figure out how to burn off the built up vacation time that has to be taken or lost by Dec. 31.
... New season TV shows are starting. The Office has our attention.
... The weekly golf twilight group has disbanded for the year
... The year is now 3/4 gone and 2008 is almost upon us, 2008! Yikes

what else?

Immigrants

The picture you see is an immagrant from Europe. This Mediterranean Gecko is an introduced species to the US. His most liked habitat is on walls with lights on them in urban areas.

When I moved in my house years ago I did not have Mediterranean Geckos. A couple of years ago I spotted one once in a while in the garage. This year they have expoloded and my house is crawling with them. The front porch light is on the brick wall next to the door. On any given night there are about 5 of these critters under neath it. There are also tiny little offspring all over and have taken to getting in the house. Its this part about getting into the house that is not good. The sudden population growth scares me too.

A little gecko here and there I can take. But these guys are multiplying like crazy and taking over the place! So I've had to resort to extermination with the fly swatter. After several weeks of taking the big ones out there is no noticable sign of the gecko population being reduced! Yikes!

Doesn't it seem bizare that a European lizard who thrives in the suburbs has found his way to Flower Mound, TX? And even worse is now taking over my house! I know they are little harmless lizards but I'm afraid I may have to turn to professionals.

You

Happy Birthday my sweet.

You do so much for all of us and you get so little.

So thank you for all you do,

enjoy your special day,

and know that I'm thinking of you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

911

I was driving to work. At that time we all had two way pagers. My pager went off and it was from Ony. He said a plane had hit the world trade center. I remember thinking that was odd in this day and age. But I was thinking a terrible accident had happened. It never dawned on me that it was on purpose.

Then I got a second page 15 min later. A second plane had hit the other tower...

Everyone at work is gathered and talking. People are watching the internet and video. Everyone is calling home. Its just utter shock. No one can believe its happening. No work will be done. I called home too, I just couldn't believe it. And I was scared. Nobody knew what was going to happen next. I don't think I have every been scared like that in my entire life.

Thats is true terrorism.

Road trips

Just got back from the second road trip over the last 2 weekends. 2200 miles total, ug.

Last weekend we were in Louisiana for the traditional Labor day weekend visit. Fishing, badmitten, hanging out on the pier, eating, laying on the hammock, and pretty much just family time. All the kids but one made it so it was almost perfect.

This weekend we went to Nashville (sans kids). Joan's little brother was getting married. So the Lesters gathered for the festivity. Joan and I left Flower Mound at 5am Friday morning so we could be there for the rehersal diner that night. 700 miles and 10 hours later we made it. Had a little down time then off to the diner.

The next day was the wedding at the Hermitage. We had time to kill earlier in the day so we headed downtown. Joan is a Vanderbilt alum so she really wanted to go so see the 'dores play the crimson tide but we couldn't really squeeze that in. We did go down to the statium and bought the kids Vandy shirts. The game was sold out with 40,000 tickets sold and 25,000 of them to 'bama-ites. It was a sea of red everywhere we went. So instead of seeing Vandy and Bama we went to see Joan's nephew's football game. He is in 6th grade. It was fun to watch, the feel of football is in the air everywhere!

The wedding was great and reception followed. All the usual wedding traditions were completed. Then we returned to Joan's dad's house. We were in time to watch a lot of the LSU game. That was a blow out pretty much (yes, LSU!!) so watched Auburn instead. Southern Florida was really putting the hurt on the other tigers. The field goal misses were tough to see but thats college football. Tough loss for Auburn. I didn't know Southern Florida was the nation's 9th largest university....

Sunday morning we got up and left Nashville at 7am to get back home.

Exhausted but good to be home. Now watching the Cowboys Giants game. Its definately football season.