Friday Night Lights N Sounds.

Last night found us at the high school football game. This is out of the ordinary for us given the fact that Austin, our 10th grader, does not attend the only public high school in town. We were there to watch Travis perform with his middle school band during half-time. They do that sort of thing in small town Texas. Pretty darn cool.

Trav had to be there early, so he and his daddy went in his daddy's car. Mom, Park and I went to McD's for dinner and then headed on to the game. As we were walking up to the entrance to the stadium, I ran into a friend I've haven't seen in awhile. She was connected to a ministry I used to be on staff at, but stepped down from when daddy was in the hospital. Her hubby is a police officer and was working another game in a different city. She had an extra ticket, therefore, and gave it to us. My hubby was at the entrance waiting for his girls and his youngest son.

We purposefully sat where we could exit right after half-time. This turned out to be good and bad. Good because we saw so many peeps from church as they came in. Bad because... well, people were coming and going - the concession stand was right behind us too. I couldn't help but have a blast watching people. I'm sort of funny that way. It was our last home game and so they announced the outgoing seniors and their parents/family. Again, more peeps we know. Funny how one can know what individuals are involved with and yet, not really get it until they see them in that context. Hmmmm

Austin's dad and Park had to leave before Trav got to perform. Austin needed to be picked up from work. Park was too cold. (He didn't listen when I said he needed to wear blue jeans. Can you say consequence?) So that left Trav's grandma and his mom to watch him during half-time. What struck us as funny about this is that this is the second time in just a couple of months that she and I have been the only females from our family sitting in the stands at a high school football game on a Friday night. Truth being told here - Boerne made the G look like it was asleep. I had my left hand up as I was waving to some friends when my mom said, "Wow. Aren't your rings beautiful. They don't out shine you though." If you remember.... they were her wedding rings for 44 years before they became mine. We side hugged and then had to laugh. We finally found Trav in the crowd as they came down on the sidelines. He just kept waving to us and pointing us out to his friends, who kept waving in return. What a smile on that kid's face..

Half-time was amazing. Watching Travman along with the high school band and the two middle school bands is something I will never forget. He was in-between the 40 and the 50 yard line, right up front. He struck a pose the whole time he was playing his heart out on his trumpet. Man, can that kid play....... As I was videotaping, my hand was kind of shaking... I was nervous and excited for my son. I wish I could have bottled the look he had on his face. As he was coming off the field, he looked back over at us and waved again.

We met Trav and some of his friends as they came out of the bleachers. They were laughing and high-fiving each other. When they realized we were standing there, Trav came and hugged me and then high-fived me. He then went on with his friends. Yep, that's our seventh grader! We finally got into the van and started driving back to the highly secure gated community on the other side of town. But first, we had to go thru McD's for some fries. Hey! The kid had worked up a hunger. lol

We hadn't been back home long when it was time for hubby and Austin to head to our local church building. We were hosting the 5th quarter. They said there were over 100 kids there. Several who were unchurched. They played video games, drank slushies and ate food from the food court, and just generally hung out. Hubby and Austin returned home at 12:45 a.m. They had a blast. Austin's dad and him had played some games together. Austin, who doesn't attend the only public high school in town, had fun hanging with the kids who do. None of them gave him a hard time about him attending a home school academy at our local church building. (Some of the reasons why they think it's cool, I'll save for another time.) They came home exhausted but with huge smiles on their faces.

Our team lost the game and yet I submit.... there were far more winners on and off the field.

There's A reason. And it's not called a football or a trumpet.