School's back in session

A few weeks ago we drove all of Alissa's "stuff" up to University of Oklahoma and dropped it off at her new apartment. Her apartment is so much nicer than the dorms, and it's less expensive, which is an added bonus. She'll be living with 3 other girls, 2 of which she knows from last year, one of which she went to high school with.

Here's the new place.

Here are some of the other roommates organizing the kitchen.

And here's her new room.

All 4 girls share a common kitchen and living area. The apartment complex provides the TV, furniture, WIFI, and cable. Not a bad set-up. Much nicer than anything I ever lived in at school.

And Taylor started her senior year this week. 

Here she is getting ready to head out for the first day of class.

And here she is making fun of her mother who is lamenting the idea of sending our youngest off to the first day of school, for the last time.

Ready to roll.

We went to the first football game of the season last night. Here are the Drum Majors leading the band to their place in the stadium. It was 103F at the start of the game, so the students were allowed to wear their hot weather uniforms (smart move band director). We've had some unseasonably hot weather lately, and there have been a number of kids who have passed out from heat stroke during practice. I think the ambulance has only been called to the practice area twice in the past week. Believe it or not, it's been a good week.

Getting ready for the football players to run the gauntlet onto the field.

During the game the band occupies the south end of the stands. The Drum Majors are placed throughout the band to conduct the various school/fight songs while the football game is underway. Taylor is standing in the middle (gray shirt).

The Drum Majors getting ready to lead the band onto the field. Taylor is on the left.

Another view. There's a lot of kids out there.

Here are the Marquettes (drill team) and backed up by the band in the "M" formation. 

Every halftime show starts this way.

And here is the band getting ready to start their show. Taylor has been given the honor of starting off every show this year. She's under the arrow. After the start, and while the band is marching/playing, she makes her way to the front of the field to conduct throughout the rest of the performance.

Just before the show I turned over our latest foster dog to her new family. It's the first dog we've ever fostered that has become attached to Jen, so Jen couldn't bring herself to be there when I turned the dog over to the new owners. Aside from that, work continues on the Wanderlust house. Between me and Alissa we've repainted almost the entire interior, gutted and rebuilt the girl's bathroom, textured and painted the kitchen, installed all new plumbing and electrical fixtures in the bathroom, kitchen and dining room, and are getting ready to finish the build out of the master bathroom. We had to hold off doing a lot of the interior work until the foundation had completely settled after having the foundation work done. I'm thinking in about another month the entire interior will be finished and then it will be time to bring in the carpet installers. Before that happens I have to lay about 1,000 square feet of hardwood flooring, but that should go pretty quickly since I've had some experience with that before.

And that's what we've been up to lately.