Friday Night Lights

Written By: Justin Backsmeyer


I have always been a football fan. More NFL than college in large part because I did not attend college. I suppose if I would have, I would spend my Saturdays in front of the TV or making weekend trips to the ‘ole’ alma mater for a little tailgating and debauchery. Over the last couple years, 7 to be exact I have been working on Saturdays and Sundays during football season. So suffice it to say I have not followed football as much as I would like.

Go back to my high School days, it was all about Friday Nights! My love for Friday Nights began when my brother played football for Parkway South as attending games would be the highlight of my week. It of course continued as I would attend Friday night games at my high school, DeSmet however, at the time…. DeSmet football was a lack luster team. A friend of mine would refer to it as a Mickey Mouse operation! I wouldn’t go that far, but it was still exciting to go to the game watch your boys play hoping for a school victory as you socialize with friends and make plans for post game activities. Good times!!

Now as I am a husband a father of one almost two, I still love Friday Nights…Friday Night Lights that is!!!! The NBC show that follows a small town Texas football team, the Dillon Panthers!

I have known many people from Texas and the one constant is they all have their passion for high school football. This is evident in the show as they depict a small town that follows their team through thick and thin. Brittani and I have become obsessed with the show. Every week we order a couple of dvds as we are renting them since we haven’t followed the show while it has been airing. Our nights usually consist of feeding Hudsen, playing with Hudsen, and finally putting her down around 8pm. We both know what time it is….2 episodes, exactly 80 minutes of great television. We have never been big into following television dramas, which is why it's so surprising how fast we got addicted to this show. Between the hard nosed head coach, Coach Taylor and their all star team that consist of Jason Street, All-American quarterback and All-State running back Brian ‘Smash’ Williams it is easy to get excited about what is going on in Dillon! They also take you on the journey of a number of relationships that transpire through-out the show….Tim Riggins (my personal favorite character) and Tyra Collette….Jason Street and Lila Garrity and finally the best story line back up quarterback, soon to be QB-1 Matt Saracen who ends up dating Coach Taylor’s daughter. This show covers everything from being a wholesome family to using steroids and your usual teenage temptations.

If you watch the show, it is easy to know why we love our Friday Night Lights, so much that it has inspired me to take the family to our nearby high school Lafayette to experience Friday Night lights Wildwood style. This of course would also be Hudsen’s first time taking part in one of America’s great traditions! As a family we enjoyed watching the team walk out to the field arms interlocked proud to play and represent their school, something very inspiring about that.

Knowing these young men are making memories of a lifetime and that many of them will hang onto those memories for the rest of their lives, eventually, one day watching another group of young men take the field with their children as I did with my daughter that night. As I never played a down of football it did remind me of time of my life that I was so proud of. I suppose that is why the tradition of high school football is still around.

We are now reaching the end of Season 4 waiting for Season 5. The anticipation is killing us! Until then, I suppose it is our equivalent to the off-season waiting for the the town of Dillon to come alive!!

Hudsen's 2nd Birthday(s)

Hudsen's 2nd Birthday was a HUGE success! She had the most fun and I really hope she will always remember it! It was a 2 night celebration....First celebration on her actual birthday, and the 2nd celebration that weekend.

On her birthday she and I hit the park for a little while during the day and later our families got together at my parents house for some presents, dinner and cake. Hudsen had blast opening a few gifts and showing off everything she can do in front of both sets of grandparents, and my brother. It was pretty funny to see how she thrived on all of the attention!

Here are a few pics from the day!

Fun at Anniversary Park...

Opening Presents at Carmi and Popi's

2 Proud Grandmothers

(Carmi and Mimi)

Checking out her Birthday Cake (she may look excited, but she actually would not be eating any due to her pickyness....and her egg allergy) :)

PARTY DAY!

We decided early on that we wanted to have her Party at MyGym....for a few reasons.
1. We knew we were either going to have just moved into a new house, our house would still be on the market, or we would have just taken it off the market and would be getting it ready for Baby #2. Well, it ended up not selling, and was in such chaos that it was a good choice booking it at the gym.

2. Hudsen LOVES MyGym. It is such a fun place for kids, especially at her age! Usually we go once a week to a fairly structured class...this would be structured event...but it would be all about the Birthday Girl, and the sweet MyGym instructors would follow her lead. (which was usually following her into the balls, on the swings, or from one rocking toy to another :) )

3. We knew we would have quite a few kids there, and what a great way to keep everyone entertained!

We arrived about 10 minutes early to help with any set up, and there was no set-up....even better! Just a come-on-in and play situation....loved that! If it would have been at our house, I would have had so many things to worry about....probably would have spent a day wrapping utensils in napkins and tying them with a bow...and another day working on centerpieces...and another day blowing up bounce houses for our non-existent back yard. MyGym took all of that work out of my hands. And instead, all I had to do was:

1. Send out the invitations to our family and Hudsen's 10 best friends (Thank you Courtney Winet for the cute custom invites!)

2. Bring the Cupcakes and Cookies (made by Erin Civey of Lizzie Jean Cookies) - Loved how she kept with the gymnastics themed party with the leotards on the cupcakes and cookies :)

3. Bring some party favors (the one thing I did do myself) :)

4. Bring our camera - to obviously take TONS of pictures! Of course, our battery died about 30minutes in but luckily all of the other parents took so many pictures and were able to share many with us! THANK YOU - especially Lindsay, Sarah and Kim! :)

Here are some pictures of the birthday girl and all of the cute kids.

Sweet Abigail stayed VERY busy!

Harper sees something

fun ahead!

Pretty sure Millie was

smiling the whole time!

Harper, Grant, Hudsen, Bo, Jackson, and little Millie

all enjoying the ball pit!

Cute Caden and Mike

Ashley and little Mack

DOLPHIN SWING!
(this is her FAVORITE!)

Daddy lending a helping
hand to his little princess.

1/2 way through the party, Hudsen was snuck back into the secret storage area and dressed up in a boa and and birthday hat, and then made a GRAND re-entrance back to her Party. They put her on a sled, and swung her around the circle for what felt like days....as she had the most terrified and uncomfortable look on her face the entire time. It was so funny and we captured it on video too. Luckily, this was the only traumatic experience of the day :)

All of the cuties participating in circle time :)

**Amazing birthday celebrating an Amazing 2 years!**

SCATTER-BRAINED!

SCATTER-BRAINED!
So.....................it has been awhile since these old bones have contributed anything to my blog. It's unlikely that anyone has been sitting on the edge of their seat waiting to see what I may write about next, or more importantly, what JUSTIN may write about next....as he is starting to outdo me on here - it's like, Hey Justin - GET YOUR OWN BLOG! Ya know?! :)



Anyways, I have so much to say, so many experiences to document, and so many things to look forward to, that I have been completely SCATTER-BRAINED, and it has been quite frightening to attempt another post with so much going on in my head. It's quite ridiculous actually. Last year at this time, I was stressed about all of my real estate deals.....will the inspection go ok? did their loan get approved?, etc, and was casually planning a fun 1st Birthday for Hudsen.....and fastforward to today......my worries consist of trying to sell our house, getting the baby's room ready, getting Hudsen's NEW room ready, organizing the entire house (literally from the basement up), potty training attempt #1, and planning Hudsen's 2nd Birthday Party, which I have sadly put so much time into, you would think I was planning her wedding. In actuality, I am planning a very simple get together with 9 other kids at her gym :)






This summer has been the BEST summer of my life and we have definitely enjoyed everyday. So many fun days spent at different parks, the pool, the zoo, many playdates with friends and alot of fun family get togethers.











We enjoyed our first Cardinals game together with Hudsen and that is something I know Justin and I will always remember.....not to mention I took about a hundred pictures to make sure I would ALWAYS remember. I didn't put the camera down, as I didn't want to miss her eating her first 'Ballpark' hotdog, and certainly didn't want to miss her expression when she saw her first fireworks! Needless to say, I hardly watched the game -although did 'fake' a picture like I was paying attention :)











Below are some pictures of just some of the Summer Time Fun the Backsmeyers had:



Playdates with all Hudsen's Boyfriends :)

Soccer lessons from Daddy - look how far he made her run!

Family Night Out

Softball Reunion....Hudsen is definitely a future Slugger!

Clearly she's a natural!

Checking out the family favorite at the zoo - the Giraffes!

Golf Lessons from the expert...

Oh, and during all this fun my stomach got HUGE!

(7 months pregnant)

Many hot summer days spent having driveway fun with bubbles and sprinklers...

Meeting Big Bird at Bo's Birthday

Relaxing poolside...

A little tired after the pool :)

Park Fun!

Justin and I also celebrated our 5th anniversary on Aug 6. We made big plans too! We planned a relaxing, 5 day, family vacation to Savannah, GA. Justin had lived in Savannah during his minor league days, and had always said I would love it there and that it would be a fun place to take Hudsen. We had planned to drive, as I would be in my 3rd trimester....SO, we booked it! Only to find out a few weeks later, that it would be impossible for Justin to get out of a few work things that had popped up, so we canceled.

Now what you may ask?

Ok, so lets just do a long weekend in Chicago. Easy enough....booked it! Only to cancel it 1week later, as Justin was unable to get out of 7hours of pitching lessons scheduled for that Saturday.

Back to square one.

What to do what to do? Well, the big guy decided we would enjoy a lovely dinner at PF Changs. We had celebrated there the night we got engaged so it was a PERFECT idea! Justin's parents volunteered to come over to watch Hudsen at our house, and so we walked out the door at 5:30p.......................... and walked back in the door at 7:30p. Ha! Sadly, our 5day vacation was cut down to a quick 2hour husband/wife dinner....but we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And we were thrilled when the check came, there was no check.....Carmi and Popi had called in and paid for it :) What a fun little surprise!

Unfortunately there are no mushy anniversary pictures to share....and hopefully some of you other moms can relate to the reason why. I am a pretty emotional person, can cry pretty much anytime, anywhere...but pregnant Brittani, literally cries ALL the time and EVERYwhere! So when we got to PF CHangs, and the waitress looked up our name on the reservation list, and immediately congratulated us on our 5th Anniversary, I was surprised she had known. How cute of Justin to tell them...right? No tears yet...the hostess then escorted us to our table, and wow...the tears started pouring. They sat us at the same booth that we had sat at the night we got engaged.....this was actually a coincidence....so the hostess was a bit concerned about my bright red, mascara smeared face (hence, no decent pictures to share). I tried to compose myself and told her why I was crying and tried to blame it on the pregnancy. She said she thought it was 'cute' that I was so emotional....yea right, we saw her go tell her hostess friends about me. Trust me, it wasn't cute! :) haha! But it was a very special night, topped off with dessert and a new fun ring for me!

I mentioned earlier that one of the things keeping me busy is our house being on the market. Well....that has kept me extremely busy since May. Now, with Sept 1st looming, we are both excited to take it off! Bummed of course that it didn't sell, but excited to know exactly where we will be living for the next few months :) as we hadn't found anything that we were interested in purchasing anyways. It was a nice thought....get pregnant again, and move before the baby comes. Things don't always work out perfectly, but we will be just fine here for another few months. Come February, when our daughters are 2 1/2 and 4months, I will be busting out of here! For sure! Be looking for the red light special on Sandalwood Creek Dr. in early 2011!

Hope everyone enjoyed their summer as much as we did! It flew by way to fast, and I am already looking forward to pool season next year. Not quite sure what type of swim wear I will be featuring though....it was kinda nice to be able to sport the 'swimdress' this summer....next year, will I be expected to be back in a two piece? Yikes!!