We kicked of New Year’s Day with Penn State losing the Rose Bowl to USC.  Bill and I had been lamenting the fact that due to me being 33 weeks pregnant we were not able to travel to Pasadena this year for the game.  But we know that PSU will be back there someday and we plan to be there to cheer them on, live,  next time.

On Friday January 2nd my friend Kristina, who lives in Minneapolis, gave birth to her and Jason’s first child, a girl named Lillian Kaye.  Kristina was a week behind me in her pregnancy and we were all hoping Lillian would be able to wait at least another two weeks before making her big debut.  However, this little girl is a force to be reckoned with and came incredibly early.  She was born at a very small 3 pounds 13 ounces and she has been in NICU.  From what I’ve been told she will need to remain there for about another four weeks. She has been improving and today was taken off oxygen and is breathing what Kristina deemed “room air” with minimal assistance.  Go get ‘em Lillian!

We are so happy for Kristina and Jason and we will keep their little family, and especially Lillian in our prayers.

In yet another surprise, tonight the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings to move on to the next round of the NFL playoffs.  We are looking forward to yet another weekend of football for one of our teams. E-A-G-L-E-S…..EAGLES!!!

Whew, that’s a lot in just four days.  I can only imagine what else lies in store for us this year.  We are very much looking forward to the arrival of Squirt and we think that Rylee is starting to somewhat understand things.  She still loves to lift my shirt and rub my belly.  Some days, like today, she likes to give the baby hugs & kisses too.  I hope this continues when Squirt is no longer in my belly!

I’d like to wish you all a Very Happy 2009.  I hope this is a year full of excitement & fun for you and your families.  Check in here to find out what the year brings for the Mas.

Sunday 1:47am: Carlos Ruiz hits an infield single to bring in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th to give the Phillies a 5-4 win and a 2-1 World Series lead.

Sunday 4:11pm: After a blown call, Brian Westbrook breaks open for a 39-yard touchdown to put the Eagles up by two scores en route to a 27-14 over the Atlanta Falcons.

Sunday 9:49pm: Ryan Howard hits the first of two home runs, scoring Jayson Werth and Jimmy Rollins to put the Phillies up 5-1, which would end up being enough to beat the Rays 10-2 and take a 3-1 lead in the World Series.

One more Phils win sure would make this 3-day stretch complete!

It’s that time of the year! Training camps for all NFL teams have commenced, so it’s a good time to start thinking about football again!

As many of you know, I’ve been running an annual NFL Survivor Pool since 2002. This will be the seventh year!

WHAT IS A SURVIVOR POOL?

For those of you that don’t know what a Survivor Pool is, another common name for it is a Suicide Pool.

The basic concept is that each week, you pick one NFL team to win their game that week (a tie is considered a loss since you’re picking a team to win — it’s happened once in the last five years). If your team wins, you move on. If your team loses, you’re out. The catch is that you can only pick each team once.

You can get the full rules on the pool’s website (see below).

You can enter up to five times, with each entry considered a distinctly seperate player. Each entry is $10.

If you lose during weeks 1 through 5, you have the option of “buying back” into the game for $15. Each entry has the option of buying back once. Buy backs are discontinued starting with week 6. I know buy backs are unpopular with some folks, but it also has the effects of increasing the pot size as well as prolonging the game if there are a lot of upsets at the beginning of the season.

THE REST OF THE DETAILS

…can be found on the pool’s website. There is a new address this year: http://www.zebrapool.com

Please feel free to forward this to anyone else that might be interested.