My fantastic husband was hired for his first teaching job 2 days before he officially graduated from Texas State University in 2008. He went to work in a small town nearby and - to our delight - it's a really wonderful community. The people embraced Elvis for all his wonderful qualities, and then extended that embrace to me and eventually to precious Henry. We love being a part of the community, and to that end our little family loaded up and headed out for our annual High School Football (I think that's the grammatically appropriate reverance required from a Texan) season opener last night.
We got there in plenty of time to get good seats, up at the top of the stands near the band. The weather was absolutely beautiful for a football game: cloudy and warm, but with a pleasant breeze. Especially as the sun went down, it was just a lovely evening. To nobody's surprise, the band sounded fantastic. One of Elvis' best students is a drum major this year, so it was great to see her leading the better-than-ever 2012 band.
The actual surprise of the night was the football team itself. They had a whole new energy about them. Nerves and excitement, of course, but also a confidence that they seem to have lacked in years past. They went out there and got down to business, and scored their first touchdown within a few minutes. At halftime, our guys were up 21-6. What a great first half!
Henry freaked out a little bit at the overwhelming crowd response to that first TD, but that was the only moment of the night he didn't love. For most of the first half, he sat happily in my lap or Elvis' and clapped along with the band, or sucked his beloved thumb and watched the game. Around the middle of the second quarter he started to get a little squirmy, so we decided to walk around a little bit. On our way out of the stands Elvis stopped to talk to a few people, and we ended up standing around the fence near the entrance to the stands, greeting teachers and students as they came in or went to the concession stand. There are a lot of new teachers and administrators this year, so it was nice to meet some of the cool new co-workers E's been talking about, and their families. Everyone was so nice, and so pumped for the year. And, of course, they had such wonderful things to say to and about Elvis. He's getting to be kind of a Big Deal there. At the very least, he garnered rave reviews as the MC at yesterday's pep rally. :-) Oh, and of course everyone oohed and ahhed over each other's babies. Henry was praised many times over for his handsome face and sweet nature, and his adorable dancing & clapping along with the crowd. Fun times were had by all.
We got to watch both bands at halftime, and they were both good. I myself was in the marching band (and - for one magical year - the Feature Twirler), and I still love seeing the band. It's always cool to see what they're doing these days. The Eagle band was, like I said, better than ever this year. They added a dance element for some surprise showmanship, and it was really fun! I can't wait to see the show when they're all uniformed, and not in their casual jeans-and-band-tee getup for opening night.
As the band finished up we decided it was probably time to go. It was already about half an hour past bedtime, and we still had a 30 minute drive home. Rather than risk a fussy baby, we cut our losses. Henry was still in a good mood, and stayed awake long enough to eat dinner and drink 3 glasses of milk before falling asleep.
What a night! Ahh, I do love Game Night!
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