HC Homecoming Weekend Recap

...and just like that it's Monday again. This week should be one heck of a lot less crazy than last week was, but I can't make any promises because if I do then something crazy will come up and I will go all MIA again. I don't want to start thinking about the week ahead yet though because I am still reliving the amazing-ness that was our weekend.  Seriously.  It was so much fun and I want to do it all over again this coming weekend.

1. HC Football Onesie for Baby Wyatt
2. Delicious Brunch at the Baby Shower
3. Ice cubes with babies in them in our Mimosas?  It's only fitting at a baby shower, right?
4. A beautiful day for a Hawks WIN!
5. T-shirts we had made for a fundraiser for a dear friend.
6. Sunday night supper...Creamy Tortellini Soup
7. The Lady Hawks Basketball Team being recognized for their achievements last season!

Our weekend started out a little crazy.  I got home late from a work conference late on Friday and had to wait for some friends who were staying with us for the weekend so we ended up not getting to the THS game until the second quarter.  It was a close one; one of our 3 running backs hurt his ankle and another started having full body cramps in the second half which left us with one.  And when you run the ball 98% of the time the other team knows exactly who you're giving the ball to when only one of your running backs is healthy. We squeaked out a win 27-25 over the #5 ranked team in the state thanks to some GREAT defensive stops and some gutsy plays by our running back who was having full body cramps.  It was one of those games where I didn't realize how worked up I was until about 15 minutes after it was over and I had a headache.  This coming week is Homecoming for THS and it's gonna be crazy!

Our Saturday was centered around another Homecoming celebration... our Alma mater, Huntingdon College's Homecoming. It's one of my most favorite weekends every year because we get to see our HC family. The day was jam packed with things to do and we had a blast!  The girls started out the day with a Baby Shower.  There are 2 wives who are having babies in the next few months and since these are some of the first babies any of us have had we knew we had to celebrate. While the girls brunched and celebrated babies, the boys showered the daddy-to-be....with wings and a beer tasting....at 10AM.  Would you expect any different?

Love these girls!

After the shower we all packed up and headed to the field for the game.  I wanted to get there a little early because the Lady Hawks Basketball Team was being recognized before the game for winning the GSAC (their conference) and advancing to second round of the D3 NCAA Tournament for the first time ever!  I can't ever begin to describe how excited I am for those girls.

To be honest I couldn't tell you much about the football game itself.  I love football but there's so much other stuff going on and so many people to talk to that I only get to see once a year that I didn't realize it was a one touchdown game in the 3rd quarter...I though we were up by 3 or 4.  The Hawks pulled away with a 56-35 victory and we decided to call it a day.  We headed to the house and finished up the evening watching Alabama destroy Ole Miss. I am pretty sure we were in bed asleep by 10:30pm, because that's what happens when you get old. Sunday we were up early to see our friends off.  After they left I went to church while Eric took a nap, then we had lunch with his grandma, and he headed to film shortly after.  I decided vegging and a easy dinner were in order (between loads of laundry and puppy walks of course).

Since I don't want to think about having to go back to the real world I will leave you with some more pics from the weekend.

Cheering on our Hawks

Top: Alumni Row....those boys get just as excited about it now as they did when they played!
Middle: The girls at the game.  We may only see each other a couple of times a year but I am so thankful to call these girls my friends.
Bottom: The boys.  There was some major bro-mancing going on all day Saturday.

The whole crew supporting #TeamShelby.
The wife of one of the boys' teammates has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and has undergone 2 brain surgeries since March.  We had shirts made for a fundraiser to help with her medical bills.  Please say a prayer for the two of them and their 3 year old son.  She has a long road ahead that includes chemotherapy and radiation treatments for the next year, but she tackling this with such optimism that we know she can win.

Warning: Ironing can be Hazardous to your Health

Seriously it can be, but we'll get to that in a minute. Hi there.  Yeah I know it's been a minute, but I am still here.  To say this week has been crazy is an understatement, and it's only just begun.  Today starts my office move, which I will hopefully have complete by tomorrow afternoon because I am out of the office all day on Friday so I have to be done.  I have yet to pack a single thing, so today's going to be so much fun.  This is one of those weeks that I wish I was one of those bloggers who put together posts en masse so that I could have random craft and recipe posts [that I've been meaning to put up for weeks] to put up here instead of nothing.

However, this little tid bit of my day yesterday deserved a PSA about why ironing is a very dangerous activity. If you don't believe me, then explain to me how I dropped my iron not once, not twice, but THREE times while I was ironing four pairs of pants, narrowly missing my foot twice (not sure how I didn't drop it on my foot-divine intervention perhaps?), and catching it once.  Since I am moving my office today I wanted to wear khakis so I could move around a bit easier.  The only problem is that I had no ironed khakis.  I own 3 pairs, and if it weren't for basketball (I wear them to away games usually when I am coaching) I am pretty sure I would only own one. All three of my pairs were in the laundry room where I'd hung them to dry since they'll shrink if I dry them in the dryer. #tallgirlproblems  I am pretty sure that 2 of the three pairs had been hanging there since the end of LAST basketball season (aka February). See?  Me no likey the ironing.

Last night I finished ironing pair of khakis #1 and noticed my favorite black work pants were hanging up as well.  I forgot they'd been washed this weekend and I knew I was going to want to wear them to my conference on Friday, so I decided to just go ahead and iron those bad boys to save me some time.  At this point I was riding high thinking I was getting myself ahead in this little game of life and would not have to stay up late Thursday night cursing as I was ironing pants that I could have already ironed. And then life decided to knock me back down a peg.  I was halfway done with the black pants and reached over to set the iron down and turn my pants over to do the other leg when I heard and felt a crash on the floor (it was that close to me).  I looked down to see my iron and a bunch of little pieces of black plastic.  Awesome. I picked it up to examine it and it looked ok structurally, the back plastic just filled in the space between the top of the iron that you hold and the hot part at the bottom which was still hot.  I finished up pair of pants #2, and then I got the wild, crazy, insane idea to keep ironing and just finish the last 2 pairs of pants that had been hanging in the laundry room since February.

After drop #1

I get halfway through pair of pants #3 when I had a little deja vu and the next thing I knew the iron was on the floor again.  This time my knee hurt, and I realized that at some point when the iron was falling I picked my foot up off the floor, hitting my knee on the washing machine.  Did that quick reaction prevent the iron from hitting my foot?  Not sure, but I will say it did. On the second drop, the front tip of my iron was bent back, BUT it still worked.  I just have to make sure not to press down too hard on the front tip because it will add lines to my pants.

Consequences of drop #2

After drop #2 I considered throwing in the towel, but decided to suck it up and finish ironing those stupid pants.  I finally got to pair of pants #4 (and last pair for a long time), and the SAME thing happened again, even though I was trying to be really careful NOT to have it happen again. However this time since I was being so careful as the iron started to fall my hand was barely off the handle and I was able to grab it quickly to prevent it from falling, again.

And that my friends is why ironing is hazardous to your health.  You could narrowly avoid breaking/burning your foot 3 times in a span of 25 minutes.

The moral of this little story is when it comes to pants you can a) hire someone to iron them for you, b) buy pants that don't wrinkle easily or don't show wrinkles (my personal favorite tactic), or c) wait for the unkempt/wrinkled look to make an appearance in the office arena.  And you can throw irons on the floor multiple times and they won't break.

You're welcome.

High 5 for Friday

I made it...woooooooo hoo.  I think this is the first week I have been at the office for 5 days in about a month.  Oh the life of a rockstar or something like that. =) Let's get right to it because being at the office for 5 days totally deserves a High 5!

#1  

I long ago accepted that I am that crazy dog lady who posts more pictures of her dogs than herself, but hey since we don't have children yet they are our kids...just a little more convenient because we can leave them home alone all day. These were some of the shenanigans they were up to this week.

1. Hawk refused to eat his dinner standing up so I plopped his bowl down in front of him on a towel (so it wouldn't slide away-he just stares at me until I move it back toward him when that happens) and he ate the entire bowl.
2. King Peanut on his pillows....because they bed itself isn't quite soft enough.
3. I was folding laundry and found Hollow laying under the pile when I pulled Eric's jeans off the top.  I had NO idea he was down there.
4. The joke ended up being on him because he got stuck in my sports bra.  Being the sweet nurturing doggie mom that I am I left it on him, laughed and took pictures of him trying to get out of it.  That is until he decided to try to chew it off, then I stepped in and freed the little guy.

#2

Tonight is an away game for THS and the game is 2.5 hours away.  Needless to say I will NOT be attending.  I plan to get my craft on this evening.  I am going to a baby shower next weekend and have some cute things I want to put together.  I will probably also do a little baking so we have some goodies to munch on during the games on Saturday. 

#3 

Speaking of Saturday...Hello Fall!  It is supposed to be descending on us in a hurry!  The cooler temps will be accompanied by rain showers (which we need) but that's ok because we have a screened in porch to watch games on. =)  Again, why didn't we screen our carport in 3 years ago when we moved into the house?  Fall has brought with it some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.  Like this one I saw coming in this morning:

#4

My moving day for work is officially set.  This time next week I will be sitting in a different cube on a different floor.  I am super sad to be leaving my window and my incredible view of the river, but it's just one of those things.  It will give me a reason to visit my friends on my former floor. =)

Can't beat this view!

#5

I found this recipe the other day and it looks just too good to share.  I have not made it yet, but I am pretty sure I have found the front runner for Eric's birthday cake this year (if I don't give in before then).  I know it's still several months away, but seriously.....Chocolate Pecan PieCake?!?!  Who comes up with this stuff?!

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Happy Friday!

Pause

I was pulling out of my driveway this morning and when I looked up at the sky I stopped, backed up and pulled out my camera to take a couple of pics of the sky.  We've had some of the most beautiful sun rises and sunsets around here lately.  The pinks and golds and blues in the shy are just gorgeous.  They seriously make you stop in your tracks and just stare, this morning's was one of the prettiest ones I have seen.  I am going to take this as a sign to slow down today and really notice what is going on around me.  I feel like this year has gotten away from me,and with only a few weeks left until basketball and dance start up I don't have much down time left.  I am going to make it my goal to be more deliberate with my time for the next month, and really try to be present in what I am doing.

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Fun Family Football Weekend

Weekends with family are always my favorite, which is why despite a THS loss I am still calling this one a success.  My parents came in town late Thursday night for a visit this weekend, and we had a great one!

1. Football Cheese Ball
2. and 3.  One of the best games ever....put the treat in the paper bag and let the dogs find it.
4. Houndstooth labels for our outside garbage cans. So cute!
5. What do you do when you don't have a counter top?  Put things in the drawers anyway!
6. Our outside spread.  I will be sharing some recipes later this week.  We found some winners!
7. Our inside/ dessert spread.  Mom out did herself on the desserts she brought.  They were delicious!
8. and 9. My cleaned up garden. I had plant pieces all over the place. We dead-headed a bunch of plants and staked up a few others and it's much much neater!

We were up early on Friday morning ready to go .  The boys went golfing so naturally the puppy dogs were up early and since there was no going back to sleep mom and I took them on a nice morning walk. We then headed out to get a few things for our football spread on Saturday.

Friday night we went to the first home football game of the THS season. They were playing the 2nd ranked team in the state. The same team we beat at the last minute at their place last year, so they were out for some revenge. Our guys played great and we were ahead most of the game, but we had a fumble at a crucial time giving them got a burst of adrenaline, and they won 26-21. Eric said although the loss hurt, they learned just what kind of team we have this year....a pretty darn good one. I think if we had them again we could beat them.  Hopefully we'll get a change in the playoffs.

Eric made the football highlight show on Friday night after we scored! He's famous now! Ok not really but doesn't he look cute?!

Saturday the boys headed to the golf course extra early because Eric's best friend got them free passes to play the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Opelika....one of the nicest courses in the state. Once again the puppies were up early and so were Mom and I, so we leashed them up for a walk. Saturday was so pretty here. Seriously nice fall weather. The humidity that took up residence down here for the past several months moved out and it was actually chilly enough to wear a long sleeved shirt. Saturday afternoon and evening were full of football. Alabama got revenge on Texas A and M for their lone loss last year, but it wasn't easy, which made for an interesting game. Auburn squeaked out a win (their first SEC win in 11 tries) over Mississippi State making it a great day for football in Alabama. The only thing that could have made the day better would have been if Purdue could have held on to their lead over Notre Dame. They were sooooo close. However the best part of the day was the food. Oh the food. Mon and I out did ourselves and I am afraid that spreads for the rest of our won't live up to this one.  I am just glad we made a ton of food so we have lots of leftovers.

Sunday the boys golfed again so Mom and I did a little flower garden work. She helped me stake up some unruly plants and they look so much better now. After lunch everyone parted ways. Mom and Dad headed back to Memphis and Eric headed to the field for film. And me? I plopped my butt on the couch for a nap with the puppies. Well they napped while I caught up with a few shows on the DVR.  I did get a wild hair and worked on a Cricut Project for a little while.  We finished off the weekend with leftovers and movie night.  I made sure to make my opinion on the movie known so we would not have a repeat of a few weeks ago, and we rented Now You See Me.  Great movie.  Lots of twists and turns, and I didn't pick up my ipad once.  You won't regret renting it!

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Today I am back to the grind.  Lots to do this week including an impeding cubie move....hopefully I can postpone that for another week!

Ice Cream Night

Is there really anything cuter than dogs enjoying a milk shake?  There are few human snacks that will make these three more excited than ice cream.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they might get more excited about ice cream than meat, might.  How many dogs do you know that get excited when the ice cream carton comes out? Bring a DQ cup to the house and it's over with.  Hawk knows exactly what is in that little blue cup and will not leave you alone until he has inspected it to make sure it's empty.  And by inspect I mean lick it clean.  We loaded the pups up last night for a DQ trip and as a treat they got to split a milkshake.  Can we say spoiled?  A car ride AND ice cream?!  They were on doggie cloud 9.

They don't even know what's in store for them this coming weekend.  Their favorite house guests will be here tonight and are staying for the weekend....I can't wait!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Pecan Cheesecake Bars

I dare you to try to say that mouthful 3 times fast.....

Last week I mentioned a dessert recipe that I tried over Labor Day Weekend that WILL be made again at our house....over and over again.  It was probably one of my most favorite desserts that I've made in a long time and it got 2 thumbs up from Eric. I actually set out to make one of my Mom's recipes that is similar to the one I made but she and my Dad were on the road and the recipe was in a cookbook at home.  I did what any rational woman would do....I plugged the ingredients into my Pinterest search bar and found a recipe - the Pinterest search has become my new "google" when it comes to anything handy, crafty, or recipes.  A few hours later I had a culinary masterpiece.

original recipe here

What you need:

For the crust-

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup butter melted

Cheesecake- 

1-8oz package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose four

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup caramel sauce

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping-

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

12-15 Kraft caramel candies

1 Tbsp milk or heavy cream

1/4 tsp coarse sea salt

How to make it:

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together crust ingredients: graham cracker crumbs, pecans and butter; and press into the bottom of a foil lined and lightly greased 8" by 8" baking dish.   Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

In a mixer (I used my KitchenAid Mixer) beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Combine sugar and flour in a small bowl and gradually add to cream cheese. Beat until just blended. Add sour cream and caramel sauce and beat until just blended.  Add egg and stir in vanilla extract and beat until combined.  Pour mixture over crust, spreading evenly to cover the entire pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until set.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle pecans and chocolate chips over cheesecake.  Cover and chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Place caramel candies, salt, and milk (or cream) in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth, stirring after each 30 second interval.  Drizzle over cheesecake and serve!

Yes at first glance it looks like a long, complicated recipe, but it's far from that.  I am the queen of passing up a recipe because it has too many steps or a ton of ingredients.  This one is VERY easy to make and only takes a while because the cheesecake has to be refrigerated before you can drizzle the caramel mixture on it.  Trust me when I tell you that you will NOT regret making it.  The only suggestion I have would be to DOUBLE the recipe.  Since it only makes and 8" by 8" pan it will not feed a large group. We had a group of 6 adults and a few kids over when I served these had we had a few left, but I cut them into really small pieces so they would go further.  If we'd had 10-12 adults plus kids we would have run out quickly!

Enjoy!

Weekend Recap

As much as I wish I was sitting on our back porch with coffee in my hand, puppies at my feed, and the Today Show on, alas I am back at work.  These cooler mornings (I use the term cool very loosely) are getting me really excited about fall.

So the weekend, it really just went too fast.  The first part was pretty football-centric, which is how all good fall weekends are.  I opted to skip the football game Friday night.  The game was an hour away, they have really crappy visitor stands, and Eric assured me the game should be a blowout and I would not miss much.  I am so glad I took his advice.  We were up 42-0 at the half and they did and 8 minute running clock for both the 3rd and 4th quarters. The boys ended up winning 55-6 and they were home by 10:30pm...from an away game.  I think I made the right choice.

Saturday Eric had a full day of helping a friend move and a dove shoot, so I did what any normal southern-dwelling girl would do.....turned on College Game Day and started cooking for the game that night.

We had a spread of Buffalo Chicken Dip (Eric's favorite), First Down Hot Fiesta Dip, Pepperoni Pizza Rolls with Pizza Sauce and Garlic Dipping Sauce, and wings. 

The boys got home from hunting about 30 minutes before game time only to discover that we did not get the channel that the Auburn game was being carried on (Bama was off this week).  Eric did what any rational football fan in the state of Alabama would do....he called Dish Network and added the Sports Channel Package to our account.  We had the game on 5 minutes after kick off.  I was going to get mad at him for adding it but then I realized that the package includes the Big 10 Network which means I get to watch Purdue game so I am a happy camper!

Sunday Eric was off and running again.  I think I saw him for about an hour between fishing, football film, and running to Montgomery to put up some tvs in the HC Football Alumni Lounge he was going all day.  I kept myself busy with church, a nap, walks and pool time with the puppies (of course), and a big ole sewing project.  It's literally a huge project.  I was working sans a pattern so there was a lot of guess work and I have a few adjustments to make to it before it's done. I didn't finish it until 8pm, and was exhausted so adjustments and showing the final product will have to wait for another day.

1. My Friday face.....ready to listen to the THS game on the radio.
2. Since I can't just sit and listen to a game I made cookies, too. Oreo Pudding Cookies to be exact. They were delicious.
3. Peanut said he didn't need a bowl to eat, I could just pour the food in his mouth instead.
4. Our Hawk feeding solution on Saturday morning.  Peanut would not leave Hawk's bowl alone so I put it up where only Hawk could reach it.  Peanut still sat there and chased Hollow away from it every time he got close.
5. Pretty Morning Glories in all of their glory on Saturday morning.
6. My adorable neighbor. She brought her play-dough with her on Saturday when she came to watch the game with her parents.  I love love love play-dough, so naturally I played with her the whole time.  This was the island we made.
7. My sewing project....fabric was everywhere.  That happens when you have 3.5 yards of it!
8. Hollow and Hawk just lounging around on the porch Sunday night while they waited for their Dad to come home.
9. The fall decorations are out!  I changed out my wreaths Saturday afternoon because despite the 90+ temps outside, I was feeling fall-ey.

I guess that's a wrap.  One more weekend in the bag.  I am so ready for a home football game this weekend (finally!) and some special house guests who are coming to stay with us!  I am just hoping this week flies by!

Hollywood Trip Recap

 After rushing back into town after my reunion last weekend I had to unpack and repack in about 2 hours and head to the airport.  My job sent me to Los Angeles, Hollywood specifically, for a conference.

It got off to a bit of a rocky start with a plane delay. Not just any plane delay though. An international flight had to make an emergency landing in Montgomery and because the 6 gate regional  mini-airport doesn't have customs agents they had to "quarantine" the international passengers. This meant they wouldn't let anyone thought security. My fellow passengers and I had to sit and wait while they flew a new plane in to pick up the stranded international passengers and get them on their plane before they would let us into the terminal. At least we weren't on the plane that was coming to get us! That plane arrived in time, but they would not let the passengers off of it until the international passengers got on their plane. Makes a lot of sense, right? This meant we had an hour delay, which had me stressed out because I only had 1 hour and 30 minutes between my 2 flights. By the time we got there I had 30 minutes between flights and went running through the airport to get from one end of the D terminal to the other end of the A terminal in Atlanta. Thankfully my flight got delayed 20 minutes which meant I was on time and even had time to grab dinner.  Aside from the guy behind me who liked to push the buttons on the tv screen on the back of my chair really hard and occasionally drum on his tray table, both of which warranted me whipping around like I was trying to see what the heck was going on...like I didn't know. We got there about 11pm local time (1am my internal clock time), and I headed to find my shuttle to take me to my hotel.  By the time I laid down it was 12:30am local time (2:30am my internal clock time). I was sooooooo grateful that my conference didn't start until 2pm the next day.

1. A gorgeous sunset over my hotel.
2.  I'm in Hollywood y'all!
3. Pretty palm trees on Hollywood Boulevard. I felt like I was in a tv show. 

I slept in that morning, but not too late because I had some site seeing to do. Monday morning was the only time I would be able to, so I had to take full advantage of it. I realized Friday afternoon at work that my hotel was right around the corner from the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater (the one where the start get to do their foot prints and hand prints), so that was my first stop. I decided I wanted to try to walk the entire Walk of Fame....the whole 3.5 miles and I took and obscene number of start pictures.  Plus I got to see Vin Diesel get his start on the walk. Well I saw the crowd that was very dense around him. I tried watching from a staircase across the street but it was hot and I was hungry so I walked over to Baja Taco for lunch before the ceremony was over so I could beat the crowd. =) I took it back to my suite (apparently if you get to a hotel really late you get a room upgrade) and get ready for my meetings that lasted all afternoon and evening. By the time they were over I was starving. My hotel was attached to The Highland Center and had tons of restaurants in it. I settled on Travestre and enjoyed a pizza, tiramisu, and a glass of wine on the patio overlooking the mall so I could people watch. I don't usually go out to eat by myself, but it was kinda nice, although I would much rather have had Eric with me! I went back out to take some pictures of Grauman's Chinese Theater at night and ended up finding a dance studio performance in front of Madame Toussads's Wax Museum. I stayed at watched for a little while before heading in for the night.

1. The Hollywood sign from Hollywood Boulevard.
2. Grauman's Chinese Theater where the stars leave their foot and hand prints.
3. The Kodak Theater where lots of events have been held (most recently the 2013 Oscars!).
4. Stars, stars,everywhere!
5. The lesser known Grauman's Egyptian Theater.
6. Hollywood Boulevard from the middle of the street!
7. More Hollywood Boulevard
8. El Capitan Theater..."Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama"

Some of my favorite hand and footprints from in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater:

1. Gene Kelly; 2. Abbott and Costello; 3. Marilyn Monroe; 4. Jennifer Anniston; 5. Danny Kaye (one of my favorite stars from the 40s and 50s) Make "Em Laugh is still one of my favorite bits!; 6. Adam Sandler; 7. Will Smith; 8. Tom Hanks; 9. Roy Rogers, Trigger, AND his gun; 10. Gene Autry and Champ; 11. John Wayne; 12. Frank Sinatra; 13. Judy Garland...had super tiny feet; 14. Julie Andrews; 15. Yul Brynner and 16. Deborah Kerr (from The King and I)

I realized after my walk on the Walk of Fame that I took 250+ pictures of the stars....here's just a sampling of some of my favorites!

The "start" of the Walk of Fame and the newest star on the walk....the crowd was nuts!

The next day I had meetings all day, but that didn't stop me from running across the street to grab a donut from a little shop. They were delicious (yes they....I'm on vacation and it was only 2). I finally met the Alabama coalition rep on Tuesday so I had someone to do things with after that. For lunch we went to a Mongolian BBQ place in Highland Center, and then for dinner we went to a burger place. But no just any burger place, 25 Degrees, a super fancy top 10 burger place in the country. It did NOT disappoint. I had the biggest, juiciest burger I think I have ever had.

The food deserved it's own collage:

1. Dinner my first night there was at Trastevere....great Italian in Highland Center
2. My Salsiccia Pizza, bread and wine from Trastevere
3. Amazing Tiramisu for dessert at Trastevere
4. The second night I went to an upscale burger place called 25 Degrees
5. I went with their Number One Burger that consisted of ground sirloin, caramelized onions, crescenza (tart, creamy cheese), plelibato Gorgonzola, bacon arugula, and thousand island dressing....and it was amazing.
6. An explanation of 25 Degrees
7. Donuts from the Highland Donut (breakfast one morning)
8. Fries and Onion Rings from 25 Degrees....sooooo good!
9. Cupcakes from Crumbs....dessert on Night #2

I called it a night after dinner because I had to catch a shuttle to the airport and 5am..... Yeah early.  After a long day of traveling I made it back to Alabama around 5pm and headed straight to basketball tryouts.  I know, call me crazy, but our head coach didn't realize I was traveling that day when she set the tryout date.

I am going to call the LA trip an overall success.  Would I have rather had someone there with me to sight-see?  You betcha.  But then again it was kinda fun exploring on my own.  I surely would have cut down on the amount of awkward selfies I took.  It was really neat to get to see Hollywood and now I can say I have been there, but I don't know that I would jump on a plane and go back there tomorrow. I guess I am turning into a bit of a country girl after all! =)

Labor Day Weekend Recap

Well I'm certainly on a roll lately, aren't I?  I still feel like I am playing catch up from my trip last week.  But hey at least this week's weekend recap isn't coming on Friday like last week!  Plus since Monday was a holiday that means that the weekend was not over until yesterday morning which would mean its technically only one day late, right?

Oh Labor Day, you were so so so good to us.  Except for a small bit of house cleaning on Saturday, we did very little labor.  We started out the weekend with a little THS football action.  After a brief lightning delay in the second quarter we finished up the game with a 42-6 victory!  The only disappointment was that their band that is always entertaining was not there.  The team we play this week has a really fun band, not entirely appropriate but entertaining none-the-less, so I may get my fill this week if I go.

This is my favorite part of the football games.  The band plays the Alma Mater at the end and the players and coaches stay out on the field for it.  I love a good tradition! Of course it's much more fun after a win.

Saturday was the day everyone in the state of Alabama has been counting down since the end of last football season. We took the opportunity to christen our screened in back porch with some grilling, pool time (for the kiddos), and some football watching. The unanimous verdict was that we have the best football watching spot in town.  I forsee many many football watching afternoons/evenings on the porch in the future.

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Sunday Eric went golfing in the AM and then to a football film session all afternoon, which meant I was left to my own devices...muahaha.  I started my morning off with church and then headed to Montgomery to the craft store.  I restrained myself, mainly because I had a specific project in mind and had to get the supplies for it.  I decided to sew  a cover for our porch tv.  So far I have 2/3 of the fabric cut and have just been starting at it ever since.  I plan on getting the guts to keep going on it this week.....wish me luck.

That night we declared a movie night, and then I made the mistake of asking Eric's opinion on the movies before I went to the redbox. See we have complete opposite taste in movies.  I like light, funny movies, I am a sucker for a good rom com.  I can do more serious action movies but nothing too gory, and absolutely NO scary movies....they give me nightmares.  Eric on the other hand loves a good bang bang shoot 'em up movie where body parts get cut off or someone gets an arrow through their cheek (that happened in one of the movies we watched this weekend and was the point I started puttering around the kitchen so I didn't have to watch the rest of it).  We ended up with The Killing Season and Flight.  Flight was a good movie, but long.  I feel like I wasted an hour and a half of my life on The Killing Season.  It is not my cup of tea.

Monday morning Eric had practice so I started working on the tv cover (cutting a few pieces) and then decided I wanted some cookies and made a batch because it was Labor Day, I was off work, and I could. =) We headed to his grandma's house for lunch since we missed Sunday lunch the day before and then spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool.  We finally had some real summery weather this weekend (i.e. no rain, not that I am complaining because it's been a great summer, I am just stating a fact), and got to enjoy some pool time. For dinner we decided to try another pizza on the grill.  We've done it once and it resulted in a broken pizza stone, that Eric swore was NOT because of the grill.  Mom gave us an old stone she didn't use any more to try and would you believe it broke in 2 pieces as he was trying to take the pizza off the grill.  Good news is the pizza was delicious, and I got to do my I-told-you-so dance. We're going to have to go back to the drawing board to figure out the best way to grill pizza on the Big Green Egg.

Here's a glimpse of our weekend in pictures:

1. I got to do my I-told-you-so dance twice this weekend, once for the pizza stone, and again for putting reinforcements on the screened in doors.  It only took Hawk one weekend to put his giant paw through one of them.  Just for the record, I suggested it initially and was told we'd do it later if it was necessary. Ha!

2. Football watchin' outside on a Saturday afternoon.  Someone tell me why we didn't think to screen in the carport earlier? We've been missing out. 

3. You can't watch football without a delicious spread!  Tex Mex Dip, baked beans, and chicken (wings, breasts, and thighs because multiple meats is how we roll). 

4. Being the little snuggle bunny he is (with Eric and I ONLY of course), Hollow decided his favorite place to watch the games was on my lap.

5. Football game dessert.....Salted Caramel Pecan Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake Bars....UH-MAZ-ING.  The recipe will be shared soon. I promise.

6. My lil Peanut.  He stole Hawk's ball and hid under one of the chairs with it.  

7. 24 hours after the game this is all the Tex Mex that was left.  I might have eaten it and only it for breakfast AND lunch and then had this last little bit with some leftover chicken dinner.  #texmexaddict

8. Our struggles with our picky eater continue.  We've discovered he prefers to eat when we're (specifically Eric) in the room, we have to stop what we're doing and stay in the kitchen so he will finish.  Sunday night Eric was grilling outside so I put his bowl on the porch and when I looked outside Eric was holding the dish and Hawk was eating out of it.  He might be the strangest lab I've ever been around. 

9. Our Memphis Style BBQ Pizza.  The stone may have broken on the egg, but the pizza was sooooo good! 

The best part is that this week's already halfway over so woohoo!  It's almost time for the weekend again!

On another note, please say a prayer today for one of Eric's college teammates and his family, specifically his wife who is having her second brain surgery in 6 months.  She has a tumor that the doctors thought they removed the last time but turns out it's still there and it grew.  This surgery is to determine the chemo/radiation dose she will endure for the next year. They are a wonderful family and have a sweet 3 year old son, so please please keep them in your prayers.