Are you ready for some football?

It's that time of year again (thank God).  Time for falling leaves, meals in the crockpot, cooler temperatures and weekend after weekend of football.  Oh wait - we're in the desert formerly known as Texas.  There are no trees still living that have leaves to fall, between school, gymnastics and football I have no time to cook, and our temperatures are nowhere near cool (jeans and long sleeves are still way far on the horizon).  Thankfully there is one facet of autumn that remains the same.  FOOTBALL! 

Tonight is the start of the NFL season.  I don't really care about the Saints vs. Packers, other than the fact that Aaron Rodgers is on my team in a fantasy football league, and that I picked the Packers on a football board.  However, football is football and in this house, that word is golden.  We've been known to watch reruns of old Cowboys games during the off-season in order to get our football "fix".   With having to pick a winner in each of the sixteen games every week, playing in two different fantasy football leagues and watching as many games as we can every weekend, football is pretty much a full-time job around here!

In addition to professional football, we also try to catch UT games on tv (that's University of Texas, not Utah!), as well as University of Houston because their star quarterback went to Wylie where our kids go and we watched him lead our team to state championship!  Speaking of high school, we also have those Wylie Bulldogs to cheer on.  We missed the first game this year because it was a 4+ hour road trip and J had a scrimmage that day, but normally on any given Friday night you will find us in whatever football stadium the purple & gold are playing in.  

Wylie does this neat thing called "Adopt a Bulldog" where kids in grades kindergarten through sixth can "adopt" a varsity player.  They spend time with each other, exchange little gifts each week and are able to hang out on the field after their games.  We have been extremely lucky with our players the last few years.  We've been blessed to form relationships with incredible young men who it has been a pleasure to get to know.  Both Caleb (who we adopted two years in a row) and Derek were good guys both on and off the field.  They made a point to see J every week, were very thoughtful and friendly and we enjoyed spending time with them.  We've only seen Austin (this year's player) a few times so far this year, but he seems to be a terrific guy.  He's pleasant and unassuming and seems to really appreciate J and the gifts we give him.  Since my fourth grader obviously isn't going to have the time, inclination or money to present Austin with something each week, that task falls to me.  Unfortunately I'm not as clever as I wish I was and I'm constantly hounding friends and family for ideas!

As if our high school, college and professional football obsessions weren't enough, we also have another Wylie Bulldogs team to cheer for.  After two miserable (losing) seasons on the youth football Panthers, J switched leagues this year and now plays for the miniature purple & gold (or should I say white since his team is the Bulldogs white).  He has practice three times a week for two hours each, and then games on Saturdays.  His first game this past Saturday was a resounding success as they won 34-6.  I was proud of our guys and thrilled with the win, but as a soft-hearted mom of a child who played on a losing football team in the past, I was secretly cheering for the other team when they scored their lone touchdown.  It's never any fun when you're the team with a big goose egg on the scoreboard.

Aside from taking K to gymnastics on Tuesdays and actually cooking a meal for the family on Wednesday nights, our lives will pretty much revolve around numerous football schedules from now until it snows.  Or, given the weather this summer, at least until we can start wearing pants.  Maybe.