FOOTBALL!! WOW!!!!!

Hi!! from Jarod.

Today, I am going to talk about this whole KU-MU football Border War (Armegeddon at Arrowhead) concoction in perfect hindsight. For all you KU alumni (CCers) who are spread out across the globe and have been wondering what the heck happened this year with the football team since you all went elsewhere, here's my take on it.
MU did what they were expected to do. KU actually did, too. Although MU's schedule was slightly tougher, neither team played a schedule worthy of a top-10 team BCS team. KU's schedule would be considered tough for a Div.-2 school. Their toughest opponent prior to MU was Texas A&M and Colorado, and did either of them win seven games this year? MU did beat Illinois, but that was the first game of the season. I think half the teams in the Big-12 would've won that game, and NOBODY thought Illinois would be the one to dethrone #1 Ohio St. Then they beat Ole Miss. and lost to Oklahoma, followed by a win against Texas Tech. Those were their tough games. Big deal. They should go 11-1; the same for KU.
KU and MU got to their high rankings in a fashion that would be analogous to a company janitor rising to the position of company CEO in a year's time only because every other employee ahead of the janitor kept getting fired or quit. Every team ahead of KU and MU kept losing.
Missouri is good, but I think they'd get their JOCKSTRAPS handed to them if they played a PAC-10 champ this year. The reason they beat KU at Arrowhead is because KU had a really bad case of nerves. You could see it in their faces the whole first half. Suddenly, with #1 LSU going down, this was it: the janitor was being promoted to CEO; 'Do we really deserve this?' Arrowhead, with 80,000 college fans, might be the loudest sports venue in America. It was too much at first, too electric, so they screwed up early. But once they got used to it and settled in, Missouri couldn't stop them. Four consecutive TD drives in the last 20 minutes. If KU were given an extra two minutes, MU fans might have been calling for coach Gary Pinkle's job again. Face it, MU fans: KU misses two FG's, throws two interceptions, falls behind 21-0 and then 28-7, and KU still had a chance to win at the end? MU will either get beat by Oklahoma or get whooped by their BCS opponent.
It will be interesting to see how both teams respond to newfound success next year. Missouri faces three potentially tough games: Illinois, Texas, and KU. That's it. Other than that, they get to sit in the recliner against Southeast Missouri, Buffalo U., Nevada, Baylor.......they should go undefeated. KU, on the other hand will get plenty of battle scars next year: at South Florida, at Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech at home, then MU.

(rebecca wanted me to apologize for the length of this entry. i'm very passionate about football. guy, you know.)

Thanksgiving...fun, and bloating!!!

Here is a sampling of the kids...the four boys in the middle were all born within 6 months of each other! Yowza! :)

My gorgeous cousins Julia and Carolie! Someone actually asked us if we were triplets when we were kids...
The fam! We took about 100 pictures trying to get one with everyone smiling and looking at the camera. Didn't happen.
Brother Dave with his wife, Angie. David kept making stupid faces and Angie almost killed him...she's pretty tough to have put up with him for 12 years!
Timmy Tim with wife Carmen. Tim and Carmen are becoming old pros at this marriage stuff now...they celebrated their 1 year anniversary earlier this year!

The food was delicious...thanks so much to mom and everyone who contributed to the meal. The Erickson/Bass family sure can pack it away, can't we? :) Love you all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

Well, my baby girl is turning 2 in just a few days. It is a little sad, really. I think about my baby walking around, talking, and running around with the big kids. She doesn't act like a baby at all. In many ways, that is good. I obviously want to see her mature and learn new things. I don't really want her to remain a baby. But, I think every mother knows what I am talking about when I say that sometimes, you just get that ache to hold a baby, or maybe throw caution to the wind and see if you can get pregnant one more time. Realistically, I don't want to have any more children. They are expensive and Jarod and I want to retire before we are 90. But oh, if I were rich and had a nanny... I guess it won't do me any good to think about all the "what ifs" I should just enjoy what I have...which is a wonderful husband and 2 healthy, beautiful children!

Now, totally changing direction...we actually had Elizabeth's birthday party a couple of weeks ago since her birthday is right around Thanksgiving. I have included some pictures from her party...enjoy!

HALLOWEEN!!!! FINALLY!!!

Well, Isaac has been asking for about the past 3 months when Halloween was going to get here.

Well, it came. And so did the CANDY!!!! Every house we went to loaded the kids up with more candy than we could eat in 10 lifetimes. Apparently, trick-or-treating is getting less and less popular with the younger parents, who favor safe church or school parties. But not Jarod and I! No siree bob...we prefer good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating: walking around poorly lit streets in the chilly night, knocking on strangers doors and asking for candy, and of course the fun of checking for razor blades and/or drug-laced candy. I wouldn't trade it for the world! But enough about me...let's talk about the kids!!!

You would have thought that dressing up like a dinosaur is the equivalent of winning the lottery or something. Isaac loved that silly costume! In fact, he wore it almost every day for at least an hour or two for about 2 months leading up to Halloween. He wanted to sleep in it and wear it to Wal-Mart and stuff. Looking back, I should have let him wear it to Wal-Mart...I mean, who cares? :) My mom did take Elizabeth shopping at Kohl's on Halloween in her Ladybug costume and everyone loved her! I guess Elizabeth kept saying "hi" to people and pointing to herself saying "big bug" and laughing at herself. She was like a big drunk-acting ladybug.

So, to sum it up, my kids loved Halloween and Jarod and I had lots of fun, too. Yeah! :)