What does "Rock Chalk" Even Mean?

Rooooock Chaaaaalk Jaaaaayhaaaawk, K.....U.....

Rooooock Chaaaaalk Jaaaaayhaaaawk, K.....U.....

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU

Rock Chalk Jayhawk,KU

Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU!

Everyone's heard it...the eerie {incredible!} Rock Chalk Chant that Jayhawk fans initiate in the final two minutes of a game when it's clear that KU will win. It'll give you goosebumps every time!

If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.  {Especially likely on mobile devices}

It's one of the most well-known chants in college sports, but lots of people wonder what it even means. I decided that today, the opening day of the 2016 NCAA tournament for my beloved Jayhawks, was as good a day as any to give a little background on the famous Rock Chalk Chant.

There really isn't a formal meaning/definition for "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!" beyond it being the battle cry for the University of Kansas. However, there is a story/rationale behind the phrase. The original cheer was "Rah Rah Jayhawk, KU." It's important to understand that the KU campus is built on a limestone ridge {Mount Oread}, and limestone is commonly referred to as "chalk rock." Given that the university is literally built on "chalk rock" {and both words rhyme with Jayhawk}, these words were transposed to replace the "rahs" in the original version, resulting in the current Rock Chalk Chant!

It's more than just a chant though...it's a universal way to connect with other Jayhawks. Living in Texas, I get super excited when I see anyone with any type of KU emblem and always give them a "Rock Chalk!" as I pass by. My friends and coworkers used to always ask "Do you know him/her?" but they soon came to realize that the exchange of the "Rock Chalk" expression is just a signal of camaraderie among Jayhawk fans worldwide.

Here's to hoping we'll hear the sweet sound of the Rock Chalk Chant all the way through April. #RockChalkInHouston #Final4

Rock Chalk, friends...ROCK CHALK!

For the Love of Friday

Happy Friday, Friends! 

One: NCAA Basketball Preseason Rankings

My beloved Kansas Jayhawks are ranked No. 5 in the USA Today preseason men's basketball coach's poll. The Jayhawks have three home games before traveling to Indianapolis to face the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic on November 18. Rock Chalk! 

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Two: Rock 'n' Roll Denver Marathon

I'm sending well wishes and positive vibes to Kelli, my sister-in-law, as she runs her first full marathon tomorrow in Denver. She's worked so hard and been so dedicated in her training. I have no doubt that she is well-prepared to conquer 26.2 miles...but I know she's a little nervous {if nothing else, just from the thought of losing all of her toenails!}. I'm so proud of her...and very excited for her to accomplish this HUGE goal!

Good Luck, Kelli!

This precious little guy {and his daddy} will be cheering for his momma along the way...

Nais, 10 months
Photo by Jolies Images

Three: Napa Valley Recommendations???

I mentioned earlier this week that we're going to Napa in a few weeks to celebrate our first anniversary. SO.EXCITED...but a little overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of wineries and restaurants to choose from. Do you have a favorite? Any and all recommendations are welcome! Please and thank you! 

Four: Kansas City Royals

I can't say I'm much of a baseball fan...but I'll hop on the wagon to cheer for the Kansas City Royals. It's pretty exciting that they're headed to the World Series for the first time since 1985! I even found this little gem in my closet...

#BeRoyal

Five: Blog Love

• Healing Heels

, by Aimee @ Aimlessly Elegant. Aimee shares the story  of two friends who are raising funds to create a line of "kick-ass shoes for women battling cancer."

Say something. Please for the sake of all that is holy, say something, by Amber @ Mr. Thomas and Me. Amber is an incredible writer...I'm a big of all of her posts. This particular post totally changed my perspective on the song "Say Something" {A Great Big World/Christina Aguilera}.

Have a great weekend!

Today I'm participating in lots of Fabulous Friday link-ups: 

"Oh, Hey Friday!" {hosted by The Farmer's Wife and September FARM} 
"5 on Friday" {hosted by A.Liz Adventures, North Carolina Charm, The Good Life, and Hello! Happiness}

"Friday Favorites" {hosted by All the Joys}

"Friday Favorites" {hosted by Meet at the Barre}

"Friday Favorites" {hosted by Momfessionals} 

Thanks so much to all of these ladies for hosting fun Friday link-ups!

Attitude of Gratitude

Today I am grateful! 

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Grateful for so many things, including...

Christopher Columbus

I'm very grateful that Christopher Columbus found America...and very happy that the bond market is closed today to honor Columbus and his fabulous discovery! Thank you, Christopher Columbus, for sailing the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria across the ocean blue in 1492.

Weekend with my mom

My mom spent the end of last week and the weekend with us in Dallas. I love love love having her in town. Her only request is to have as many meals as possible on a patio, weather permitting, of course. 

I'm often told how much I look like my mom. That is such a compliment to me. I can only hope I age as beautifully as she has. I love that lady so very much...and I am beyond grateful for the close relationship we share!

Upcoming Anniversary Trip

We {finally} decided where we are going to celebrate our first anniversary...and our trip to Napa Valley is officially booked! SO EXCITED! Just a few weeks away...

This Guy

Speaking of our anniversary trip, I'm grateful for an A-MAZing husband who makes this journey through life worth traveling. I'm thankful he loves me even at my worst {pretty much any morning before 8:00 am!}

Jayhawk Basketball

Last Friday night, "Late Night in the Phog" marked the official kickoff of the 2014-2015 basketball season! ROCK CHALK!

I'm so grateful that I'll be meeting several of my college roommates in Lawrence the last weekend in January for the KU/K-State basketball game.  Can't wait to {Re}live the college life...for a weekend. Or just one night.

March 2013: the last time we were all in Lawrence together! 

For what are you most grateful?

Today I'm linking up with Emily from Ember Grey for "Grateful Heart Monday." 

Five on Friday

It's been a busy week! A good busy week though! Summer is in full swing...love love love the warm {hot!} weather! The "Five on Friday" link-up is taking a summer break, but I'm a creature of habit and really like posting about five things going on in my life each Friday, and so it continues in my world...

One: Livin' on Tulsa Time

I've been in Tulsa since Wednesday for work meetings. It's been a good trip...I work with some pretty fabulous {and brilliant} people...but I'm ready to go home!

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Two: The NBA Draft

I've gotta give shoutouts to my beloved Jayhawks who were drafted last night...as the FIRST and THIRD picks overall!  CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew Wiggins, #1 pick and going to the Cleveland Cavaliers.  And another big CONGRATS to Joel Embiid, #3 pick and headed to Philadelphia to play for the 76ers! So proud {as always!} to be a Kansas Jayhawk! ROCK CHALK!

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Three: Weekend Visitors

My sister-in-law, Kelli, has meetings in the Dallas-area this weekend...and guess who she's bringing with her! Only the cutest nephew on the planet! I'm so excited and literally can't wait to see this lil guy and his mommy...

Nais...I love him just a little bit!

Nais and his mommy {Kelli}

Abbey is playing in some important golf event next week in Dallas, so she's coming down early to work with Ryan and play some practice rounds. I'm super excited that she's bringing her sister {my BFF} with her! Yay for having Lindsay and Abbey staying with us for the next few days!

Abbey & Lindsay

Four: Work, Work, Work...

Lil Midget Max has been really busy this week...responding to emails and surfing the internet. How flippin' cute is this pic?

Sure makes this godmother proud! I'm in search of a BIG calculator...gotta get him started on 10-key training soon!

Five: Restoration Hardware

Restoration Hardware is obviously trying to make a B.I.G. {heavy} statement with their recent 11.6-pound shipment of catalogs. Yes, I weighed it.  11.6 pounds. No joke. AND it was shipped via UPS. I can't imagine how much it must have cost to send out these pretty lil gems...

Maybe one of these days I'll find the time to browse through this stack of novels.

Thanks for stopping by for my "Five on Friday!"

Have a great weekend!

Jayhawk Basketball: {More Than} A Decade of Dominance

Last night, with a win over the Oklahoma Sooners, my beloved Kansas Jayhawks clinched {at least} a share of the Big 12 regular season men's basketball conference title for the TENTH.YEAR.IN.A.ROW! 

Take a moment to wrap your head around that: a true decade of dominance!

In my unbiased opinion, "Decade of Dominance" might be the understatement of the century. Kansas has been amongst the top-tier dominating programs in college basketball since...well, pretty much FOR-EV-ER. These statistics¹ {as of February 25, 2014} are proof:

• All-time win-loss record is 2,123-818 (W-L%: 0.722)
• Kansas is 2^nd (behind Kentucky) for # of all-time wins.
• 57 Conference Titles
• Kansas leads all Division I schools for # of regular season conference titles.
• 42 Tournament Appearances
• Kansas is 4^th (behind Kentucky, UCLA and North Carolina) for # of NCAA tournament appearances.
• 14 Final Fours
• Kansas is 5^th (behind UCLA, North Carolina, Kentucky and Duke) for # of Final Four appearances.
• 3 National Championships {excludes Helms National Championships won in 1921-22 & 1922-23 seasons}
• Kansas is 6^th (behind UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana and Duke) for # of National Championships.

Sidenote: I had all the above data in a neat little table, but I was afraid you might realize think I’m a total number-crunching nerd if I included it. My calculations are legit, I promise...and the data source is noted at the bottom of this post in case you don’t trust me. {I told you transparency is my middle name!}

Anyway, since I’ve clarified that I believe Jayhawk Basketball is actually better/stronger/more than this “Decade of Dominance” phrase indicates, we can now get back to the topic at hand:

Below are a few of the tweets and quotes from news articles that I came across after last night’s win:

• “Three of KU's ten straight Big 12 titles were won without a single returning starter from the prior year. Wow.” Tweet from ESPN's Jay Bilas
• “Only five teams in history have won ten straight league titles. UCLA, UConn, UNLV, and now, Kansas. Amazing accomplishment.” Tweet from ESPN's Jay Bilas
• “Since the Big 12 has existed (1997 season), KU has won (shared or outright) 14 of the 18 possible regular season men’s basketball titles.” Tweet from Kansas-Sports.com
• “The streak is long enough that Mario Chalmers wasn't here for the beginning of it, but now has his jersey hanging from the rafters.” The Kansas City Star
• “Bill Self has more conference titles than losses in Allen Fieldhouse.” The Kansas City Star

Let’s talk about Bill Self for a moment. You can’t have a conversation with my brother about Coach Self without the phrase “Class Act” being said. He represents the University of Kansas well, there’s no question about that. And it just so happens that he’s accomplished quite a lot during his tenure in Lawrence:

• John Wooden was only in Westwood for the first nine of the Bruin championships, which means Bill Self is the first coach from a major conference to win its regular season title for an entire decade.
• Big 12 Coach of the Year {four times}
• Sporting News National Coach of the Year {two times @ KU, once before}
• Naismith National Coach of the Year
• Adolph Rupp National Coach of the Year
• AP National Coach of the Year
• ESPN.com National Coach of the Year
• 17 players from Self’s recruiting classes have played in the NBA {15 drafted + Russell Robinson and Sherron Collins}

And he’s just a good guy {a real 'Class Act'}:

The main point of this post was to congratulate the Kansas Jayhawk men’s basketball team for TEN.CONSECUTIVE.YEARS of regular season conference titles. {Sorry for straying off on my statistical tangent!} It sure does make it easy to be a Jayhawk fan! ROCK CHALK!

¹ Data source: Sports-Reference.com

Rock Chalk: Kansas Beats Baylor

A tinge of anxiety hits me every time my beloved Jayhawks play the Baylor Bears.  Not because I think Baylor is going to beat KU...definitely not the case...but because my mind flashes back to four years ago when I lost a bet associated with this game.  {Don't worry, my Jayhawks won the game...they just didn't quite cover the spread.}

A couple of guys I worked with at Moody's are Baylor alum, and they were always harassing me about my Jayhawk fanaticism (ROCK CHALK!).  They wanted to bet on the KU/Baylor game, but they didn't believe in their team quite like I believe in mine...so a win/lose bet was out of the question. Thus, I {somewhat hesitantly} bet that Kansas would not only win, but also cover the spread.  I'm not so great with bets when spreads are involved because, to me, a win is a win, right?!!? Wrong.  I think the spread for that particular game was 7. KU won by 6.  My Jayhawks won, but I still lost.

The deal: if I lost the bet I had to wear the exact same outfit to work two days in a row. This was a BIG DEAL for a girl who tries to not wear the same outfit twice in one season. I've definitely gotta give them credit for creativity in coming up with the betting stakes.  I followed through and paid my debt, thinking it wouldn't be that big of a deal for our small Dallas office to see me in the same attire two days in a row. Oh, but news travels fast! I'm pretty certain everyone in public finance at Moody's--from San Francisco to New York--knew of the bet I lost and the fashion consequences I suffered.  

All in good fun.  And it was fun(ny)!  {I can say that now...four years later!}

Anyway, knowing all that, I'm sure you can understand why the match-up between KU and Baylor tends to induce a bit of panic for me.  My Jayhawks came through last night with a big win over the Baylor Bears....ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!  A few pics from the game below...

All photo credit goes to KUSports.com.

Embiid doesn't like those neon yellow uniforms in his space!

Fans react as Wayne Seldon dives into the crowd to save the ball...
This play made SportsCenter's Top 10 plays,
and one commentator noted it could be the Play of the Year!

Perry Ellis can fly!

Coach Self having a little chat with Andrew Wiggins.

Perry Ellis and Wayne Seldon with a little celebratory chest bump.

If you haven't seen the 26 Billion Pixel Interactive Photo of the crowd showcasing the "I am Crimson. I am Blue. We are Phog." scene from Saturday's game against Oklahoma State, click here to see it now. It's pretty cool to see the fans in color blocks of crimson and blue...and to be able to zoom in to see faces all the way at the top! Gotta love Allen Fieldhouse!

Jayhawk Style

The Jayhawks' alternate uniforms that will be worn
intermittently throughout the rest of this season
and the 2014-2015 season.

There are some pretty cool details associated with the alternate uniforms my beloved Jayhawks have worn the last couple of games.  The uniforms come in a cream color, CHALK {for Rock Chalk Jayhawk}, and a gray color, PHOG {as in Phog Allen Fieldhouse}.  The best part about these uniforms? Both versions include pinstripes that read:

Pay Heed.  The game you love began here.  Respect those who came before you.  Make their legacy your own.  Because destiny favors the dedicated.  And rings don't replace work.  In this game you don't get what you want.  You get what you earn.  We are Kansas.  Together we rise.  Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

I "re-grammed"this (or whatever it's called when you
re-post someone's Instagram picture) from @colouringku
last night after the game.

Andrew Wiggings wears the vintage look well....

I guarantee this isn't the last blog post you'll see about the Kansas Jayhawks!

ROCK CHALK!

Top 10 of 2013

This past year has been incredible! There's really no way to explain with words all of the joy and happiness that came in 2013.....epic, amazing, fabulous, superb....even those words fall short of describing the past 12 months.  The photos below reflect my Top 10 events of 2013.....

10:  Weekend at KU

My first trip back to Allen Fieldhouse since 2007...it had been way too long!
And it just so happened that we got to witness Ben McLemore break
Danny Manning's single-game scoring record.

A guaranteed good time with this crew!  

We spent the afternoon at The Wheel....

...and made appearances at The Hawk and The Ranch.

9:  George Strait Concert

We attended our annual George Strait concert in Oklahoma City in January.
There was a lot going on that could have caused us to cancel our plans to see King George,
but we followed through and it was fabulous to be together for the weekend.

8:  Max's Baptism

I'm so incredibly proud to be this little midget's godmother!

7: Ryan's 30th Birthday

6:  Pre-Wedding Festivities 

Engagement Brunch in Dallas

 Engagement Party in Garden City

Medicine Lodge Bridal Shower

Dallas Bridal Shower

Johnson Bridal Shower

Bachelorette Weekend in San Diego

Bridal Luncheon

Rehearsal Dinner

5:  Honeymoon in Aruba

The view from our hotel room....postcard worthy!

4:   Buying Our First Home

3.  Ryan Moving to Dallas

I don't have a very good photo for this one, but these are the drinks we had to
celebrate Ryan's first day of work in Dallas!

2:  Baby Nais' Birth

Nais Chipper
Born to Kelli & Landon
6 lbs., 9 oz. and 20 1/4" long
Absolute Perfection!

Proud Daddy

Proud Grandpa

Proud Grammy

Proud Aunt Lee Lee

Nais with Uncle Ryan & Aunt Lee Lee

Perfect Little Family!

1:  Our Wedding - 11.2.2013 - The Best Day!

We were blessed beyond belief in 2013!  The memories will last a lifetime.  We're so thankful for our A-MAZing families and friends, and we can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!