Are you ready for some football??

Well nothing very exciting to post today! I can see this is going to be a real exercise to come up with anything of any interest to post here compared to what some are doing!!

I do have to admit that I am sitting in front of my 52 inch tv screen watching Michigan State work their butts off to beat Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl. What a player Cousins is going to be in the next couple of years!!! I had the pleasure of spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon a few weeks back watching Mich State clobber Western Michigan and it was heartbreaking as I sat there with my daughter who is usually down on the field with the Western Marching Band. She was recovering from a horrible bought of the Swine(H1N1)flu, and not well enough to march. As I had dropped a cool $100 on tickets, and the weather cooperated being in the mid 60's and sunny, she could however sit with me in the upper deck and watch the stomping. Now for me it was bittersweet, because I have been a State fan, longer than she has been on earth, but once your child is a member of a college, you find your loyalties shifting a little!!

This was her second year in the Western Marching Band, and I have not missed a game that she has marched in since she started in high school! Since I am a BIG college football fan, I have made the effort to take her to at least one huge away game every year as well. Last year at this time, we were all returning home from watching Western take on Rice in the Texas Bowl in Houston! Cassie got to march in Reliant Stadium, and even if the football team didn't do so good, the BAND won everyone over!! Their marching band is over 300 people including staff, and their sound is out of this world!! My husband and I were standing next to a camera man from FOX during the Western spirit walk, and our BAND prepared to welcome their team to Reliant Stadium for the game. When they played their tuning notes, the camera man jumped and uttered "WHOA". I couldn't resist turning to him and stating, "Wait till you hear them play for real!" And he wasn't disappointed!! If you'd like to hear a sample, here is a link http://www.youtube.com/user/rachauskas#p/u/23/Tc40cZqMV2w

She had the pleasure of marching at Ford Field a few weeks earlier that year when they played a Big 10 school for her first time, the Illini (Illinois) and beat them!! A MAC school beating a Big 10!! Hoo Wah, what a game!! And since that is the Detroit Lions home field, they were fond of saying they were the only Michigan Team that won on that field in 2008! The crowd was around 15,000 and respectable enough. Then on to the Reliant Dome for a crowd of 80,000. Then this year, the Big House at University of Michigan, in which the Wolverines blistered them as well, but the BAND marched for a crowd of 107,000+ and then the great game at MSU, not a sell out, but still a BIG game for these kids. In two weeks she will get her college letter for marching at their band banquet and I am just tickled to death for her. I see many more football games in our future, whether watching her march, or sitting side by side comparing the plays with her, we have developed a great love of the game, and will be forever fans!!

Here are some images of her and the gang!

Here is my girl in mid march!

Here she is at attention ready to go!

Here is part of the trumpet section prior to the Texas Bowl outside of Reliant Stadium.

And last but not least, here she is just being a girl!! Not bad out of uniform either!! LOL!!