Zach's Senior Swim Meet

Yesterday afternoon I dug my purple and silver out of the back of my closet and drove home to see Zach swim in his last home swim meet of the season (since he's a senior, it was his last home meet ever). However, there was some miscommunication and the other team never showed up. It actually turned out to be alright though; they still did all the senior night events and I got to take some cool pictures. Plus, since he wasn't swimming, I just got to hang out with my little brother for a while. He's only been on the swim team since last year, but he's team captain, and from what I hear, a "beast" in the water (I've never actually seen him compete). Watching him with the team yesterday, I couldn't be more proud. For those of you who remember shy Zach who wouldn't say more than two words to anyone he wasn't related to, you'd be shocked. He's become such a leader and such a people person and is growing up in so many ways (notice in the pictures that he's a good 6 inches taller than me). I'm so excited to see the man he is becoming; I am so blessed to have such an awesome little brother.

Bulls Win Big!

I feel as though this is rapidly becoming a blog about Bulls football, rather than a blog about my life, but whatever.

This weekend was fantastic! In case you didn't hear-the Bulls beat the Florida State Seminoles 17-7 this Saturday! It's by far the biggest win in the 13 years of our football program and we came in as the definite under dogs.

Why our victory was so huge:

1. Though we won our first three games of the season, it was always by huge margins because we've only really played less difficult teams. FSU was our first real challenge of the season.
2. On top of that, the Noles were ranked number 18 and are part of Florida's "Big Three." The last time we played a Big Three team was when we lost to the Miami Hurricanes in 2005.
3. Our senior starting quarterback, Matt Grothe, tore his ACL last week and is out for the season.
4. It was the first career start for our back up quarterback, B.J. Daniels, a redshirt freshmen who happens to be from Tallahassee.
5. We didn't play home at Ray-J, we beat the Noles on their home turf at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Our defense was unstoppable. George Selvie and newcomer Jason Pierre-Paul plowed into Noles QB Christian Ponder and the rest of the Noles offensive line again and again holding on to a 14-0 lead until the third quarter. Watching B.J. Daniels dominate the team he grew up supporting was fantastic. He made some rookie mistakes, which is actually kind of awesome because it means despite how great he was and the victory he brought us, he's going to get even better!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the game and had an absolute blast (though my throat kind of hates me right now). It was disgustingly hot for most of the game, but we barely noticed, and sometime in the third quarter the clouds rolled in and the rains cooled us down. To be honest though, it could have poured the entire time or been 30 degrees hotter and it wouldn't have mattered, the game was just that good. And it wasn't just good, it was CLEAN. I was thrilled by how the FSU fans acted towards us, and want thank all of them for their hospitality; it was great to be in Tally with you all. I'm just thrilled that pretty much everyone was able to have a healthy competitive spirit without being ugly about it.

A word from the head coaches:
Bobby Bowden (FSU): "Dangum, they're good. They beat the heck out of us today."
Jim Leavitt (USF): "It changes history."

Hanging out with our Noles friends (who were kind enough to let us crash on Friday night) before the game.

The Bulls enter Doak Campbell ready to play!

The final score! Bulls-17 Seminoles-7!

Paul and I after the game; we didn't want to leave!

Basically, I'm still riding the high from yesteday's game and looking forward to the rest of the season and watching B.J. Daniels come into his own as starting QB.

This Saturday we play Syracuse away, and our next home game is Cincinnati on October 15th! We also get to take on the Miami Hurricanes on November 28th.

Water, water everywhere...

The gang, before getting in the river!

Big splash!

This weekend I went tubing on Rainbow River with CSU. It was a really fun day! It started raining about midway through the trip all the way through until the end, and the river is spring fed, so it was pretty cold, but we still had a relaxing day.

Afterwards, some of us came back to watch the USF/Western Kentucky game. Bulls won, so we're 2-0!

Bulls vs. Wofford

BULLS FOOTBALL HAS FINALLY STARTED!

Saturday night we played Wofford and won 40-7! Our kicker, Bonani, is out with and injury, so our former kicker played last night and managed to go 5 for 5 (a serious accomplishment for the less than consistent Alvarado). Quarterback Matt Grothe will be graduating this year, so we got to check out B.J. Daniels (one of the possibilities for next year's starting quarterback) for a few plays. He looked pretty solid, so I'm excited to see how he does next year.

I had a blast at the game and yelled myself hoarse. My friends and I have decided that you can judge your fan-quality and dedication based on how much of your voice you have left after game day.

Also, we tailgated before the game, which I've never done. It was a blast. Tommy and I (along with Anne, for one of the games) won four games of corn hole in a row against John and Paul. It rained for a while, but passed quickly and didn't stop us from having a great afternoon.

After months of waiting for football season to start, I'm totally satisfied with the outcome of the first game and I'm so looking forward to the rest of the season. For those of you who don't know-we play both FSU and Miami this year, which we're all really excited about.

Next Game: @ Western Kentucky on 12 September

GO BULLS!!!

Just Livin' for the Weekend

I'm officially done with classes for the week and now I'm hanging out with my adoarble niece! Other exciting stuff coming up this weekend:

1. Babysitting for some of my favorite kids in Celebration
2. Washing and vacuuming my car (I'm far more excited about this than I should be)
3. Dinner and other birthday Celebrations with John and friends at Disney
4. Tailgating and the first FOOTBALL game of the season!!!!!!!
5. A homework/sleep catch-up day
6. Maybe ice skating on Labor Day

I know by next Tuesday I will have no desire to go back to class, but I have four days to enjoy before I have to think about that!

Let's See How Long This Lasts

I've decided to enter the world of blogging!

Now, knowing my attention span this may be the very last thing I ever post on here. But, knowing my love of talking about my life, you all could get sick of how often I end up posting. We'll see how it goes.

For a quick recap on what I'm up to these days: I'm living in Tampa and going to USF (that's the University of South Florida for all you non-Floridians, and yes, we realize that Tampa is not actually in south Florida, but whatever).

I'm living in a three-bedroom town house with 2 of my close girlfriends from church. Our place is called The Palace because, in the words of our friend John "princesses live there." Moving in was quite a process and had to occur in several stages due to summer jobs and such, but we're all settled now with pictures on the walls and food in the pantry. Here's a few shots of my bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and dining room, and the playground next door!

We've pretty much become the hang-out house for all our friends and I'm never quite sure who's going to be in the place when I walk through the front door.
Since I'm such a shy and reserved person, this is a little disconcerting.
The constant company rocks, but it makes things like being productive and sleeping a little difficult. I'm not complaining though.

Speaking of being productive, classes started last week, and so far they're...fine. I'm taking American Sign Language with my roommate, which is really cool. And in all honestly, my other classes are good too. I just wish I could go to collge without having to go to class. But, since that's not exactly possible, I'll live with what I've got, which is still pretty darn good.

And, now that I've started talking about homework, I should probably get some done!