the truth about football

Last football season my lovely neighbor and I exchanged treats on game days (not all of them though, just most). I gave her blue treats (because we're BYU blue over on this side of the street) and she gave us red stuff (because sadly, she's rooting for the wrong team). It's all just for fun, of course.

I hope she didn't feel too much pressure to keep our little game going. I liked the excuse to be creative and try to come up with blue stuff to bake. It's not easy. That's why I had to resort to candy sometimes. I think that top loaf was some kind of blueberry bread that I gave her. The bottom middle was some yummy toffee stuff with blue frosting drizzled on top. It was a stretch. That little envelope had some awesome blue and white confetti inside that spilled all over when she opened it. Heehee.



Remember the glitter pumpkin I made last year? I'm excited to do it again. This picture just makes me happy. I think I'll even make one for my kind neighbor in her team colors this year.

BYU played their first game of the season a few weeks ago. To celebrate, I made a special dinner. A BYU blue dinner. I don't know where I come up with these crazy ideas.

First on the menu, chicken cordon bleu. Get it? Chicken cordon {BYU} BLUE. Bleu. Blue. Same thing when you say it out loud. Plus, where was I going to come up with a blue main dish? Yuck.

I used the same recipe for chicken pillows but changed it up a bit. I added chopped ham and shredded Swiss cheese to the chicken mixture inside. Then I sprinkled more Swiss cheese on top before baking. I am quite proud of myself actually. (I don't really know for sure if it's supposed to be Swiss cheese in chicken cordon bleu but that's what sounded good to me. It's probably supposed to be some kind of fancy ham too but I just chopped up some lunch meat. Whatever.)

Here's the inside. It looks like I just ripped that sucker open doesn't it? I'm no food stylist, that's for sure. It sure tasted yummy if I do say so myself.

Also on the BYU blue dinner menu (but not pictured):

BYU blue juice (blue Kool-aid)

Salad with bleu cheese dressing

Blueberries

Green beans in a BLUE bowl (that wasn't very creative but I do my best)

Leftover rice (nothing blue about that one, just trying to clean out the fridge)

And for dessert:

Blueberry frozen yogurt for Dan and me and ice cream for the kids. Blue Bunny brand of course.

We ate off blue plates and the kids had their drinks in their BYU cups.

BYU won the game. Of course they did. I didn't bring my neighbor any treats because I knew she was out of town. On the day of her team's game last week she brought over a little treat for us. "Utah's on a roll." She's so clever. Too bad her team lost their game.

The next day the kids and I brought over a little treat for her to enjoy while watching our favorite team. I wonder if she does watch BYU play. Dan watched the Utah game so maybe she does. It was a good excuse to make these big chocolate chip cookies for the third time in one week. Somebody stop me, please. Sheesh.

Last year BYU's first game of the season was on a Saturday. They won. For church the next day I dressed our little family in BYU colors. Cate's was easy. She wore her awesome BYU dress. Wasn't she adorable? She kills me. The rest of us wore combinations of blue and white in some form (maybe a little khaki thrown in to balance things out). I think we looked quite smashing. Nobody else had letters on their clothes, mind you. Just Cate.

We came in and sat down in a pew. The lady in the pew behind us said something along the lines of how cute. you don't really care that much do you? I wasn't really sure how to take that comment. She didn't say it with any kind of mean tone so I just smiled and said, "Go Cougars!" Just kidding. I don't remember what I said. I have been thinking about that little comment for a good year though.

Here's what I think my answer is now.

The truth about football (according to me).

I don't care about the actual sport. I don't sit down and watch the games with Dan (if it's a close one I'll sometimes sit and watch the ending but mostly I get too anxious and can't handle it...I'd rather just know the final score). I encourage the kids to watch. I let them help me hang up our BYU flag on the front porch. I remind them to wear their BYU t-shirts on game days. I sing the fight song and they join in. Sometimes I even catch Danny humming it to himself while he's playing with Legos. I've been known to take the kids away for a few hours just so Dan can watch a game in peace and quiet. I look up the game schedule online and write the dates and times (and even tv channels if it's provided) on my calendar so that I can try to not plan stuff during the games and make Dan miss out on watching them.  I dress my kid up in a BYU dress with BYU ribbons for her hair for cryin' out loud. I go with Dan to a game when we score free tickets (even though I pretty much just sit and watch the crazy fans instead of the actual game).

So I don't really care about football.

What I do care about is having children who know that getting a college degree is very important to me. I want it to be important to them too. Because it just is. Some of the best years of my life were the ones I spent at BYU. Besides the important stuff about learning how to be a teacher, I learned how to load and unload a dishwasher. How high a stack of garbage can climb the wall before someone actually takes out the trash. How awesome it is to be roommates with someone with a severe case of OCD because she takes cleaning checks very seriously and will probably just go ahead and do everyone's jobs all the time. I discovered Ben & Jerry's my sophomore year. Life changing. I made friends. I laughed. I grew up. It was great.

I want that good stuff for my kids too. So for now, we sing the fight song. Cate wears her BYU dress to church. We hang up the flag. We wear our t-shirts on game days. We walk around campus when the students are gone. Sometimes we watch football. And we eat chicken cordon BLUE.

Rah rah RAH RAH RAH!