September 2011

If I thought that things would've slowed down once Devin started into the fall semester, I was wrong.  You'd think I'd know my husband by now. 

Devin was in charge of a booth at school for the Institute of Transportation Engineers.  He stayed busy with ITE clear up until the end of his term as President of the Texas A&M chapter of ITE.  He's not in these pictures, but you can see some traffic simulations and signals - too bad you weren't there to get the free candy they handed out. 

I went to book club this month, and it was fun even though we're not really so profound or inspiring about the books we read or our comments on them, usually.  It's just nice to have some adult female social time.

Thanks to Dad Moore, we got some tickets to the BYU vs. Ole Miss football game.  The fact that it was in Oxford, Mississippi made it even more appealing to Devin:  this way we could add the Memphis Tennessee temple to our list on our way to the game! We brought Alaire along for company and to babysit Becca while we were attending the temple.  It was a long drive from College Station to Oxford, but we had some fun along the way.

We stopped for lunch behind a little church on a country road.  Devin told us to look hungry:

The Moore's in front of the Memphis temple - number 31!

We stayed the night in Memphis - in a "steal of a deal" motel (which is a hilarious story, in and of itself) - and the next morning went to breakfast at The Arcade Restaurant - one of Memphis' oldest and most famous restaurants, where Elvis was a regular!  The meal was delectable and the decor was diverting.

If there's one thing Devin really loves, it's anything involving mass transit.  He was excited to see some old trolleys in the downtown area, and Central Station.

And here I throw in a random picture of Becca getting her diaper changed in the backseat of the car.  That's not a real hat, in case you were wondering.  She was a peach during our trip.  Most of it.

Driving around town we see another trolley,

the Jazz District,

and a sign with Elvis' face.  We elected to skip the outrageously priced tours of Graceland.  Maybe next time, Mr. Presley.  (I was actually flabbergasted that Devin's frugality even trumped his love of The King).

Instead we visited Mud Island, a tiny peninsula in the Mississippi River.  It has a monorail ride over to it, and the main attraction is the "riverwalk" - a scale replica (in length and depth!) of the whole Mississippi River that takes up most of Mud Island.  An added bonus was the good laughs we got out of people-watching, as it was "Pirate Day", which brought some interesting characters to the Island. We ended with their museum, which was pretty fascinating.

Oh, my lucky stars! I still crave Steak 'n Shake to this day.  Frequently. I'd never heard of it, but I'll be eternally grateful Devin found it and stopped for our lunch break on the way to the game.  They had the best burgers I've ever tasted, and some mighty tasty shakes too! I'd better quit drooling or I'll short-circuit our laptop. (Becca also enjoyed her first crayon, and some paper pancakes).

Now for the whole purpose of the trip!  The Ole Miss Rebels have some very devoted fans, I'll give them that much for sure! I'm pretty sure I've never heard louder cheering in my entire life, but that could also have been because we were sitting smack dab in enemy territory.  Being the foolish first time parents we are, we brought Becca - and no earplugs. You couldn't even tell she was crying at the top of her lungs unless you looked at her; she really did not enjoy the game.  So, Alaire and I took turns taking her down to the concessions/bathroom area; I watched probably half the game from those little TVs they have down there, and even then the game was still intense and exciting.  I got to see the entire 4th quarter from my rightful seat, however - and with hardly a peep from the Rebels around us (because they were now losing)! The Cougars turned things around and squeaked out a 14-13 win.  Go BYU!

Like the crazies we are, we drove straight home after the game, arriving as the sun was coming up.  That was a painful experience, but fortunately it was bad enough to help me convince Devin that we should never do it again.  We napped for a couple hours until church, then came home and slept some more.  Lucky for us, Becca learned how to pull herself up to standing that day too, so she had some difficult nap times.

That night, our friends from church, the Sawaya's, invited us over for dinner with them and their four kids, and we had tons of fun eating good food, having intellectual conversations, and playing Pass the Pigs and Carcassonne, which I never did figure out - but I'll blame that on the sleep deprivation.

Here's Becca at 8 months old:

8 months old, and still such a messy eater. Tsk, tsk. (It's peas, not boogers, I promise)

Becca and I went to Texas A&M's Infant Cognition Lab.  For about half an hour's worth of effort, we received a fun, free outing that Becca enjoyed, a nice change of pace, $5 cash, and a t-shirt for Becca.  Plus, I always love psychology/child development sort of stuff - I almost majored in that at BYU-Idaho.  Of course, we had to deck Becca out in maroon and white to show Daddy he has a little Aggie fan buddy.

Since Becca was feeling so smart, she decided to show off some new physical skills and some sign language she's been learning:

Devin and his ITE clan had another Adopt-a-Highway clean up, and Becca and I got to join them at Cici's Pizza afterwards.  Later that afternoon, we left Becca at our friends, the Brimley's - the first time non-family babysitter, a big step for me! Devin and I drove down to Austin, for the next BYU football game.  We parked at a Walmart and took a bus to campus; as the only Cougar fans on board, we drew some attention.  The game was fun, but sadly, the Y lost.  That wasn't the worst part of the night though; the bus was about an hour late in picking us all up after the game! And still, Devin's love of public transportation remains faithful. 

September 11th is Dad Moore's birthday, so after church, we headed down to Sugar Land to be with the family and have cake and ice cream in Dad's honor. We stayed and played for part of Monday too, just getting Devin back to College Station in time for A&M's career fair.  Devin started looking for a job this month; he literally applied for hundreds of positions and I'm very proud of his hard work and grateful to him for taking his responsibility of providing for our family so seriously. 

Devin went to the TexITE meeting in Dallas for a few days - he became quite the talk of all ITE with his karaoke performance of "Rock This Town", complete with back-flip, 'cuz he's classy like that. 

And he did other very important transportation engineering stuff.  Since Amanda Brimley and I were both husband-less (Brad is in the same program as Devin), she and Annette (who is about Becca's age) invited Becca and me over for dinner.  I wish the Brimley's would've moved here a year ago - friends make life so much better!

While Devin was gone, Becca worked on pushing out teeth numbers 3, 4 AND 5:

The night Devin got home, we made some traditional Utah green jello salad.  It was meant as a joke for our friend's birthday party the next day - I had never made/eaten it before, and I actually didn't get to try it at all, so I still don't know if it's any good. After the birthday party, there was another BYU football game.  Did you know they have those every weekend during the fall???!?  I think I would enjoy them a whole lot more if they were half as long as they are.  Four hours seems to take most of the day...  Anyway, Devin has inherited #1 Cougar Fan status after his dad's tradition - and I guess I am only a spotty half true-blue, since that's about how much of the game I watched this week. 

Sunday I taught Relief Society, and the assigned lesson "just happened to be" about life after death; it was a pretty tender experience considering Dad Moore's recent passing.  I appreciated the chance to study the beautiful Plan of Salvation and to bear my testimony that we will all be resurrected someday and see our Heavenly Father, and that families can live together for eternity.

On Mondays, our local library has Storytime, which I love to take Becca to!  We meet up with Amanda and Annette Brimley too, which makes it even more fun.  They always end Storytime with bubbles; which, to be quite honest, I'm sure is Becca's favorite part.  I hope she loves to read someday.  

Devin discovered a TV show that we've become addicted to: The Sing Off, which we really like because it's all a Capella music! AND BYU's Vocal Point is on it this season! We're rooting for them to win.  Since we don't have a TV, we watch it online Wednesday mornings early, before Devin goes to school. 

It's so nice to be loved and to wake up to this sight in the morning:

Although this Friday video doesn't show it too well, Becca loves Patty-Cake right now:

I attended the broadcast of the annual General Relief Society meeting, which was even better than usual (in my opinion) because of this talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  It really spoke to my soul and made me feel  the peace and love of Heavenly Father.  It makes me want to get some forget-me-nots. 

Becca and I made a "picnic" and went up to Devin's work to eat with him one day, which Becca thought was so fun!

On the 29th, after we had the missionaries over for dinner, we took some cookies over to the Dahl's house to enjoy with them.  This was to meet and get to know their five kids, in preparation for babysitting them for an extended period of time next month.  My favorite part was the 3 year old's repeated (joking) exclamations to his siblings of "I DON'T APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTARY!" followed by his self-delighted cackling. 

Friday we made the drive to the Houston temple, to join our ward for Ward Temple Night.  Mom Moore met us to watch Becca, and we made our Friday video despite Becca's stony countenance:

After Devin and I finished, Devin stayed at the temple with Mom, and Becca and I headed to the Moore house in time for dinner with Flynn.  When Mom and Devin returned, I retired to bed for some sweet slumber whilst everyone else watched the BYU game until something like one in the morning.  I know, I know - what kind of Cougar devotee gives in to the weakness of wanting sleep? I do. I just couldn't "Rise Up", nyuk nyuk. 

And so passes another busy month in the lives of the Moore's.  Stay tuned for more adventures!