Friday Night:  Texas State Fair

Saturday:  Southwest Classic – Arkansas vs Texas A&M – Cowboys Stadium
Go Hogs!!!

2009 was quite a year.  The most important and exciting thing that happened to me this year is that I bought my first home.  I’ve looked and talked and planned for several years.  The pieces all fell into place very quickly at the end of July for me to officially begin my search for a home.  The house I bought was the first one me & the realtor that assisted me looked at together.  Greg (my realtor & Lindsey’s father-in-law) found me the perfect house.

My other major purchase of 2009 was a Nikon D90 camera.  I’ve had fun playing with it this year.  Although, I haven’t ventured far from the automatic settings yet.  One of my goals for 2010 is to learn more about what all my camera can do.

Lindsey, Kelly, Hayley, & I saw the Paisley Party Tour stop in Tulsa in January.  It included Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker.

My mom’s birthday in January marked the beginning of a very bad ice storm.  I don’t remember ever having weather like that.  The ice was crazy.

In March, Kelly & I went to San Antonio for a few days.  We saw a bit of a history at the Alamo, had dinner on the top of the world, and even visited the beach.

In April, we took our annual trip to Dallas/Fort Worth for some NASCAR.  While down there, we visited the Sixth Floor Museum & Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  Jeff Gordon finally won a race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Charlotte, NC to visit Penni and go to the NASCAR races that weekend.  It was a weekend full of rain but it was a great weekend of visiting old friends and meeting new ones.

In June, I went to a couple of concerts.  The first one was Casting Crowns at the Church at Pinnacle Hills.  The second one was Chuck Wicks at the Poultry Festival.  I got to meet Chuck in person twice (once by accident) that evening.  It was great!  He’s hilarious and very down-to-earth.

Lindsey, Shelby, & I made last minute plans to go to Junction, TX in July to our cousin Lacey’s wedding.  We made Mom come too.  We took our time going down to visit Mom’s brother (our uncle) Mark and also to visit Dublin for some wonderful Dr Pepper.

In the beginning of October, Shelby & I traveled to Dallas.  The University of Arkansas Razorbacks played the Texas A&M Aggies in the new Cowboys Stadium.  Shelby, our uncles Mark & Rod, and I went to the game.  It was an awesome game in an aswesome stadium.  I’m hoping we get to go again next year!

In mid-October, I traveled to Phoenix with a couple others in my department for an SAP conference.  Besides the conference, we took some time to do some sight-seeing.

The last trip I took in 2009 was with Shelby the first weekend of November.  We went back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NASCAR race.

Here are the blog entries I wrote this year related to my year in review.

January 3, 2009 10:57 pm - The Nikon D90
January 4, 2009 5:54 pm - New Camera – Day 2
January 10, 2009 10:32 pm - New Baby
January 11, 2009 2:38 pm - The Red Coat
January 24, 2009 8:56 am - Tulsa Bound
January 26, 2009 6:40 pm - Family Tradition
January 28, 2009 1:34 pm - Be Still!
January 29, 2009 6:32 pm - Tulsa Time
January 29, 2009 8:27 pm - Ice Storm
February 1, 2009 12:02 pm - Ice Storm Aftermath
March 5, 2009 9:00 am - San Antonio Bound
March 6, 2009 9:25 pm - Where’s Dad When You Need Him?
March 7, 2009 8:31 am - 173 Years Later
March 14, 2009 3:03 pm - Life is like a box of chocolates
March 14, 2009 3:59 pm - A bit of history
March 15, 2009 6:38 pm - The San Antonio Zoo
March 15, 2009 6:57 pm - The Texas Beach
March 15, 2009 8:03 pm - Sea World
March 21, 2009 2:40 pm - Tower of the Americas
March 21, 2009 4:15 pm - San Antonio Re-Cap
April 18, 2009 4:05 pm - Who Dun It?
April 18, 2009 4:45 pm - He finally won
June 20, 2009 3:58 pm - Chuck Wicks Times 3
June 27, 2009 4:47 pm - Casting Crowns
August 9, 2009 4:58 pm - My New House
August 23, 2009 5:42 pm - My New House – Before
October 7, 2009 9:52 pm - Long Wait
November 6, 2009 3:32 pm - Shop a Little, Race a Little

As far as 2010, I don’t really have any plans for any major traveling.  I know we’ll go to both NASCAR races in Texas in April & November.  Other than that, this may be a year that I take it a bit easy as far as traveling goes.  I do need to catch up on here with some blog entries.  I really want to share what my house looks like now that I’ve gotten it painted and decorated.

I have been looking forward to this past Saturday’s football game since the series was announced in March of 2008.  The game?  The University of Arkansas vs Texas A&M in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium!

Shelby & I went to the game with our uncles Mark & Rod.  None of us had seen the new stadium up close, much less inside, so we were very very impressed by the whole experience (well, exit traffic not so impressive).

The stadium was unbelievable to see in person.  I’ve never even been to an NFL stadium so that made this stadium that much more impressive.  Here are some of the better shots from in & around the stadium.

On to some football…The game was fantastic!  Arkansas beat Texas A&M 47-19.  The game started with 2 scores by A&M so we were a bit worried in the beginning but then the offense and the defense hit their strides and off we went.  These three shots are from the 2nd touchdown (1st at our end of the field) Arkansas scored.

I love watching good marching bands.  I’ve been lucky enough to have a high school (Springdale High School) and college (University of Arkansas) alma mater with great marching bands.  Texas A&M’s is like none I’ve seen.  Their precision marching was unbelievable and the crowd gave them a great standing ovation when they were done.

The only negative about the whole evening was the traffic getting out of the stadium and back to Mark’s house in Dallas.  We had no problem getting to the stadium and into our parking spot.  We literally did not move within the parking lot for 30 minutes trying to get out.  We finally gave up that route and turned around to try another one.  It still took us another 30 minutes to get to I-30 (a mile from the stadium) and on our way to Dallas.  It then took another hour to get back to Dallas.  The great stadium and game made up for the traffic issue getting home.  It’s just one of this Grrr! moments that we won’t forget.

Here is a slideshow of several of the photos I took outside and inside the stadium before, during, and after the game.  Enjoy!

Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

The 2009 football season has officially started.  The University of Arkansas starts their season this Saturday in Little Rock playing Missouri State.  I’m planning on attending several games this year.  (You can see the list over on the right-hand side of my blog.)  The game I’m most excited about, though, isn’t here in Fayetteville.  It is in Dallas at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Arkansas & Texas A&M will be playing in what is being billed as the Southwest Classic.

Go Hogs Go!  Woo Pig Sooie!  Here’s to a great 2009 football season!

We (Mom, Dad, Shelby, & I) attended the Arkansas-Texas basketball game Tuesday night.  Arkansas beat Texas by a score of 67 – 61.  This was the 2nd time in 2 weeks that Arkansas beat a top 10 (Big 12) team – #4 Oklahoma last week & #7 Texas Tuesday night.

We got our tickets somewhat at the last moment so we literally sat in the top row.  There isn’t a bad seat in the arena, though, so we had a great view.  (Plus, my new camera zooms wonderfully even in the poor lighting of the top row and without a flash.)

It was a GREAT game.  There are just no words to explain the atmosphere in Bud Walton Arena when the fans are completely involved in the game.  It is loud and ridiculous (in a good way).

Former Razorback head coach Eddie Sutton was even in attendance.  (I’m pointing to him above.)  We were quite oblivious to this fact, though, until John George announced him as being there (which required him to stand and wave to the crowd).  I made sure to glance over at him across the way a few times after that to see what he was doing.  (Was he clapping?  Was he calling the hogs?  Etc, etc.)  Shelby says she saw him clap but I never witnessed it.  I don’t think it was lack of liking on his part of the Razorbacks.  I just figure the coach in him was watching the game too intently.  He did get a good workout having to stand every couple of minutes while we cheered and carried on, though.

Arkansas starts SEC play on Saturday with a home game against Mississippi State.  While I’m very, very excited about our starting 12-1 record, I’m also holding out my extreme excitement until we’ve played an SEC game or two (or maybe even a road game).  I did see someone mention today that the last time we started this well was in 1995, which is when we made it all the way back to the national championship game (after winning it all in 1994).  There have also been several “experts” already predicting what seed we are going to be in the NCAA tournament.  I guess we’ll see how the SEC schedule pans out for us.  Go Hogs!

Here is my collection of photos I took at the game.

Don’t forget to vote for Casey Dick’s pass to London Crawford in the final seconds of the Arkansas-LSU football game as the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the season.  If Arkansas wins the final vote tally, the $100,000 prize money will be dedicated to US Veterans scholarships at the University of Arkansas.  Click here to vote.  Thanks!

(The slogan I used as this post title was taken from a t-shirt for sale in the Hog Heaven store prior to the basketball game.)

After you vote…I’ve had this blog entry from the Fayetteville Flyer in my favorites since earlier this month and thought this would be a good time to share.  It’s a very good article about the Razorback Hog Call.  It also includes the following video of a little girl who seems to have it down pretty good.  So cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th97vOlP_Bw

2008 was a year of traveling, or so it seemed at times.  (You can read all about my travels this year, if you’d like, by visiting my My Travels page.)  I added 5 new states – Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, & Georgia – to my list of states I’ve visited in my lifetime.  My mom, sisters, and I took a great unforgettable trip to North Carolina in June.  It was full of sight seeing, family history, and even a bit of NASCAR.

I went to 3 NASCAR races.  Shelby & I went to the race in Texas in April.  Penni & I went to the race in Michigan with Sarah & Andi in August.  Then, Penni joined me in November for the Texas race.  As far as 2009 and NASCAR goes, Shelby & I will be attending both NASCAR races in Texas (April & November).  (Penni may even join us in November.)  I’m also currently considering going to the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC in May.

I also went to Las Vegas for a week in September for a work conference (plus some sight seeing, of course).

Besides attending the NASCAR races, I watched some baseball & football in person this year.  2008 was the inaugural season of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (Double-A affiliate for the Kansas City Royals).  Because of that, I decided to get season tickets.  Shelby & I went to several games.  I think Shelby & I both learned a lot about baseball this year.  Plus, we’re already looking forward to 2009.  As far as football goes, I got my season tickets for the University of Arkansas football season.  I didn’t make it to all of the games but I went to several.  This was head coach Bobby Petrino’s first year with the Hogs.  While the Razorbacks didn’t finish with a good enough record for a bowl game, they definitely showed us what is to come for the football team (i.e. Miracle on Markham Part Two).  I can’t wait for Arkansas Razorback football 2009.

I got to attend some great concerts this year as well.  I attended the Poultry Festival in June where I got to meet & see Blake Shelton in concert.  I saw The Black Crowes in concert while I was in Las Vegas.  Don Tyson sponsored a special concert for Tyson Foods employees in October with Willie Nelson headlining.  Joe Nichols (Rogers, AR native) returned to northwest Arkansas for a concert in October.  I flew all the way to Atlanta, GA to see New Kids on the Block with Penni.  (That was my crazy trip of the year, I must say.  I was in Atlanta for less than 24 hours but it was well worth it.)  Finally, Shelby & I saw OAR in concert at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville in November.  I already have at least one concert lined up for January 2009 – Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker in Tulsa.  I’m also hoping to find a Benjamin Del Shreve show that Shelby & I can go to at some point in 2009.

I slept through the first 2 earthquakes I’ve ever been “in” this year.  They were both in the Dallas/Fort Worth area the weekend Penni & I were there for the NASCAR race.  One was centered in Irving where our hotel was.  They both happened in the middle of the night and neither of us had a clue.  We can at least say we’ve been in 2 now, though.

I opened this blog on April 13th this year.  (I owe a big thank you to Karah for the wonderful layout she made for me.)  I’ve really enjoyed posting my stories and photos for you all to see.  I participated in my first Day of Blogs this year and am already planning on participating again in 2009.

I turned 28 this year.  It seems like I was just graduating high school or still in college but the planning began months ago for my 10 year high school reunion next summer.  It’s just crazy how time has flown by since May 1999.

Here’s to 2008 and to what’s to come in 2009!

Photo Courtesy: Wesley Hitt/Arkansas

The Battle of the Boot, as the annual Arkansas-LSU football game is referred to, is always a good game.  Based on the stats the commentators kept giving today, I’d say LSU is typically the winning football team.  When Arkansas wins, though, it’s big-time.  Below are a couple of examples (including today’s win).  Another example was last year’s win against #1 LSU (who went on to win the national championship after the loss to AR at home).

November 23, 2002 was the date of the original play Arkansas fans call the “Miracle on Markham”.  Matt Jones threw a “miraculous” pass to DeCori Birmingham with 9 seconds left in the game to beat LSU.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0TBOV2sn-o

Today is the date of the second “Miracle on Markham” (in my opinion).  Casey Dick threw a great pass to London Crawford with 21 seconds left in the game to beat LSU.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT0nmrNXIDQ

By the way…Markham refers to the street that War Memorial Stadium is on in Little Rock (where Arkansas plays 2 home games a year).

As a special video bonus, I thought I’d share this one.  The picture of Matt Jones dunking this football was my wallpaper for a long while after this game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKt9T-27ZIg

Houston Nutt’s first return to Razorback Stadium since the end of last season was definitely eventful.

Game Summary:

• The boo’s started before the first whistle was blown. We normally boo the team as they enter, and we sometimes boo when bad calls are made.  The booing was definitely stepped up a notch (or several) last night, though.  I’m not one that boo’s.  I was taught in junior high & high school that it wasn’t showing good sportsmanship so I’ve continued that practice into my adulthood.  Because of that, the booing always bothers me.  Last night, though, was horrible.  One example…Normally, the opposing team runs onto the field before the Hogs do.  Last night, they didn’t so Arkansas started running through the A.  Mid-cheer, Ole Miss ran out on the field and a lot of Arkansas fans stopped cheering for Arkansas to boo Ole Miss & Houston Nutt.  I just thought that was ridiculous.  It was like some fans were more concerned with tormenting Nutt & the Rebels than cheering on the Hogs.
• The black shirts/jackets were visible throughout the stadium. I took this photo of the student section.  You can see the black.  (Background…Last year, at one of the games, there was a group of people that decided to wear black in protest of Houston Nutt.  It was decided they would wear black again this year for Houston’s return.)
• Houston Nutt & his Ole Miss Rebels left victorious (and with multiple police officer escorts). Ole Miss won the ballgame 23-21.  Arkansas’ Tejada kicked an onside kick, which Arkansas recovered after referee review, with 63 seconds left in the ballgame.  Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time for Arkansas to score.  It was a very good game, though (minus the outcome).  Arkansas still makes mistakes and commits more penalties than I’d like but there are moments of greatness at times.  It makes me optimistic for future games this season and especially next season.  (Oh yeah…I think Houston Nutt had at least 6 or 7 police escorts to mid-field after the game was over.  Bobby Petrino had 2 or 3 but not near as many as Houston did.)

Huh? Moment: Arkansas’ Alex Tejada is from Springdale so I always enjoy it when he gets to kick PAT’s and/or field goals.  I found it really odd when he marched out onto the field for the opening kickoff (to kick).  His name wasn’t mentioned as the starting kicker so I was pretty confused.  I haven’t seen an explanation as to why he replaced the normal kicker so I’m actually still a little confused.  I’m not complaining, though!

Here are the photos I took during the game.