despite my professed love for nebraska in my last post, i am currently in norman, oklahoma. longtime football rivals. what could make me journey to this barren wasteland of the sooners?

these people. the lentz family.

there was an bond forged between us while we were in ethiopia bringing home our baby girls. it's like being in the delivery room with someone. you have shared such a beautiful and intense experience together. and i am so glad that our friendship has continued to grow. so, though my computer is currently experiencing the black screen of death and i can't post any pictures yet, my kids and i are having a blast in "enemy" territory.

since i can't do a decent post of my own, i guess it's a good thing that i'm am guest blogging for my friend mindee today. her theme for halloween week was things that are terrifying. and the thing that terrifies her the most right now is stupid things teenagers do. i love her blog. it, like its author, is witty and insightful. though if you go to it today (please do), you won't get her insight. instead you will read a post that i could only publish since my parents are both gone about a few of the foolish things i did in my youth. don't worry, i saved out a few for my tell-all book.

reason #281 why i love where i live

i think i lost some readership over the whole posting pix of poop thing. so i am going to take the higher ground in this post. the last post was about stuff i don't like, but this post is going to be about something i like. very much.

i like where i live. one thing i like about where i live is the intensity with which our fans love our football team. now i have had a lot of people in the past tell me that they understand our fans because their college has the same kind of fans. and, though i do not doubt the passion of any other fans, i must submit that there is something that makes us pretty unique. we have one team. one football team for an entire state. no pro teams. no other college teams in the state competing for the affection of the fans. we are united as one. we are cornhuskers.

i love that i can go into the bank on any given football saturday and all the tellers will be wearing red. i love that i can go into the mall and most every store will be playing the game on the radio. i love that i can get my haircut on a game day and the stylists will be having a passionate discussion about the players and games. i love that i can go into my grocery store on saturday morning, even the week after a disappointing loss, and find more than just everyone in husker shirts. i can find these...
donuts with team spirit. behold the power of red. and of fried dough. after several disappointing days of being sick, i cannot begin to describe to you jack's giddiness regarding the "husker donuts"...
lulu doesn't quite get the husker part yet, though we are indoctrinating her you can be sure...
but she was plenty excited about the "doh-doh's"...
can you feel the husker (and donut) love?
just to be clear, i am not saying that our fans are any better than any other college fans (though maybe i am implying it). i'm just saying that there really is no place like nebraska...
and i love living here.

p.s. strangely enough, i must say when we lose as we did a week ago to Texas, there is something almost sweet about it to me. despite how i love this team, a loss is always such a good reminder to me not to put my hope in a team. after i get over the pit in my stomach, i remember that only god can truly satisfy.

stuff i don't like

in no particular order

1. lice
2. candy corn
3. my dog's breath
4. unsightly chin hair
5. ingrown toenail infections (jack came up with that one.)
6. my husband being out of town all week

he gets back tonight and that makes me very, very happy. i miss him when he is gone. the kids miss him when he is gone. so do the dishes...
the recycling...
and one of the dogs. but we carry on as best we can. thankfully, it was red ribbon week at school which meant free pizza and pop, a cookie and ice cream for jack and em each day of the week. i call that dinner...
i folded a little laundry while watching "the time traveler's wife" and "date night"...
jack was home sick. again. which means he missed one of only two parties they have at school each year. again...
ugh. but emmie's was fun. as usual, i did the games...
sweet meghan (one of our students and a dear family friend) came to help me out...
lulu ate her weight in candy corn...
the kids liked my orange wig...
though it looked way better on lulu...
we also had a big event at our house. this is lulu's poopy in the potty...
only she didn't put it there. i did. after i found it on the floor of my bedroom...
note to self, don't wait too long to put a diaper on a baby after bathing her. ewww.

since i already posted those gross pictures, i might as well take it one step further and tell you that our recently inherited dog ate a poopy diaper while bill was gone...

{dear gunga,

is it too late to change my mind about this arrangement?

love, missy}

if you ever come to our home, please remember this: don't EVER let that dog lick your face.

and lastly, lulu yanked a key off my computer...
see, when bill is gone i lose all...
counting down the minutes, babe.

Middle-aged Groupies

We are fans of...
Like big fans. We got their first cd when they looked like this...
Back in the 90's when Bill had parted hair and I thought overalls looked cute on me. When the kids were little, we didn't really have them listen to kiddie music. We had them listen to what we liked so that we would not lose our minds on our frequent 12 hour car rides. They knew all the words to Switchfoot songs, but none of the words to "Twinkle, twinkle little star".

We have seen Switchfoot in concert 5 times in 4 different states. the first time we were definitely the oldest people at the concert. And we also had the youngest person at the concert with us since Emmie was only a year and a half. We are fans who mean business, people.

When Jack was 3, he was all-rocker, all the time. You know how most boys turn everything in their hands into a gun? Well, everything in Jack's hands became a guitar. Pencils. Sandwiches. Pieces of gutter. So we had to buy the kid his own guitar. And then, it rarely left his side. We had to give him strict parameters that he couldn't play guitar until 8am so he wouldn't wake mommy anyone. Instead of watching Dora the Explorer, he watched Switchfoot concerts and Behind the scenes dvds. His "imaginary friends" were Jon, Tim, Chad, Romy and Drew. He would call them routinely and invite them to come over for jam sessions. He was a true fan. And we LOVED it!

This was precisely when we went to the Bro-Am concert and Surf Competition in San Diego. Wow. Switchfoot and the beach in San Diego. Jack was mesmerized...
It doesn't get much better than that. Except it DID. Because we waited after the show a bit, even though security told us the band had left and who should wander out but the guys of Switchfoot. Jack, with his guitar, was in awe. A crowd of young women quickly descended on Jon Foreman, but he made a beeline for the little guy with the red guitar. He knelt down and patiently listened to Jack tell him about his guitars and (huge) picks...
Because of that experience, we ended up with a treasure...
a guitar signed by our favorite band.

So this year's slightly self-serving birthday present to Jack was a 6th Switchfoot concert for the Kollar family. The Kollar family minus one...
The concert started at 8pm. The opening band had great hearts, but an ear-splitting sound. I guess it would have helped if we weren't in the front row directly in front of all the speakers. But the thing that really ruined it is that their Jon Bon Jovi mini-me lead singer kept spitting onto the stage. Seriously? Ever heard of water bottles, dude? I wanted to call his mother and bust him because I know she wouldn't want her boy doing that.

It was after 9pm when Switchfoot came out. 9pm is Jack's bedtime. This greatly affected his ability to enjoy the concert. He still watched in awe and sang along, but was much more subdued than normal. And by the end, he was a little zombie...
Still, it was a fun family memory...
A not-as-fun a part of the memory was arriving home at 1am on a school night...
Okay, maybe not the most responsible parenting move ever. But what else are middle-aged groupies supposed to do?

Sadly I have no pictures from the amazing show since apparently cameras with detachable lenses are a security risk. From our front row "damage your childrens' eardrums forever" vantage point, I would have had some sweet shots, I tell ya. They will just have to be burned in my memory.

Along with the songs that have captured our hearts for over a decade. Chem6A. Only Hope. Company Car. This is Your Life. Meant to Live. Gone. Stars. Awakening. Faust, Midas and Myself. This is Home. Mess of Me. And so many others. Switchfoot's music has been with us a long time. From a young couple without kids to a family with young kids. To a family adopting a baby from Ethiopia. To a graying couple with jacked up backs. In many ways, Switchfoot has been the soundtrack of our lives.

thugs like us

ya gotta love college students. they came up with a gangsta theme for our fall "ghetto-way" this year because "god loves thugs like us". so we loaded up our homies and headed to the hood. which was, incidentally, in the country. and it was dope.
(here ends my attempt to sound gangsta-y)

we had a special guest this year. my niece sarah who is considering attending college here next year, which would be a dream...
throughout the weekend, jack was obsessed with fire...
lulu was obsessed with chickens...
everyone was obsessed with lulu...
and i was obsessed with taking pictures...
but what else is new?

tate pwned the high ropes course...
do you know this phrase "pwned"? apparently it is slang for "dominated" and we hear it around our house all the time. i find it to be rather dumb, but i'm sure my mom thought "totally rad" was pretty dumb too when i was saying it all the time in middle school.

the gangsta dance was fun, although i had to drag emma away in tears at 11pm...

(i think my billy looks simultaneously hot and hilarious in a 'fro)

as much as we love college ministry, the late-night schedule can be hard for kids and middle-aged folk to sustain.

still we love every opportunity we get to be around these students. they are so sweet to our kids and they impact us with their faith. below is a picture of two sophomores praying over the freshmen class...
i say it all the time, but it bears repeating. i love what we get to do. good thing god didn't listen to me when i told him i would NEVER go on staff with campus crusade for christ. speaking of dope, i guess i was one!