2014 In Review

The time has come for another annual recap.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by; I feel like I've just gotten used to writing 2014 on everything and now I have to change again!

I started out 2014 in survival mode which sounds terrible but it was so true.  We had a killer basketball schedule with tied me up 4 out of the first 5 weekends of 2014 with back to back Friday/Saturday games.  But we did manage to slip in some fun. Eric turned 30 and since I was tied up with basketball I sent him to Las Vegas for a weekend of shenanigans with his best friend.  While he was gone Mom came and stayed with me for the weekend and we made my quilt rack for the beautiful quilts my aunt and great-grandmother made.

February was a lot more fun for us with a 3 days snow/ice in thanks to the polar vortex that brought a beautiful blanket of snow to the south.  We rang in my last year in my twenties by heading to Steamboat Springs, Colorado [part 1, part 2, part 3] for a few days of fun playing in the snow with our friends.

In March I got to take a business trip to Arkansas which meant I got to spend the weekend prior in Memphis and even took a trip over to Waldron to visit my grandmother.  The end of March was a wedding whirlwind as one of my good friends finally tied the knot.

In April we got to take in an Auburn baseball game and watch 2 of our hometown kids who are best friends square off against eachother and ended the month with the first of many beach trips we took this year.

We kicked May off with our Dance Recital, which is always one of my favorite weeks of the year and my BIL and SIL announced they were expecting (though we'd known for a few months but I was so excited I could finally start talking about the arrival of our nephew)!  We finished off the month of May with a relaxing Memorial Day weekend with my parents in Destin.

I need that tan back stat!

I stayed on the road in June heading to Memphis to perform in my old dance studio's 50th recital, and then got to spend a few days in our Nation's Capitol for a work conference.  It was my first trip to DC so I did as much as I possibly could in our spare time! We also celebrated Peanut's 7th birthday. However, June ended on a not so happy note as our Hollow puppy went missing.  I am holding out hope that he found a new family to love him.

We celebrated the 4th of July at the beach with my BIL and SIL and the boys' cousins and did some serious blueberry pickin which yielded some delicious treats! We finished up the month with a 4th Anniversary trip up north to spend sometime in my childhood hometown with my grandparents and some time in Chicago with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins which included a surprise appearance of my brother and a bike race.

August brought the beginning of another football season and the end of our major travels for the year, but we ended it on a high note by hosting a Baby Shower for my BIL, SIL and soon-arriving nephew! We also celebrated Hawk's 7th birthday with peanut butter milkshakes from Diary Queen (his favorite).

September brought a low-key Labor Day on the river with just Eric, myself, and our river dogs since football was in full swing at this point. We ended the month with a fun weekend at the Yokohoma Tire LPGA Championship with my parents.

We kicked off October with Homecoming at Huntingdon which is always one of my favorite weekends of the year since we get to see all of our college friends. This October marked my first October in 3 years not coaching which was a little bittersweet, but mostly sweet. =)  I still got to play in the Lady Hawks Alumni Game with is always a blast.  However, the best part of the month was the arrival our nephew, Wyatt!

November was full of family time for us: getting to meet Wyatt for the first time, spending several fun but very cold Friday night with our football family, and hosting Thanksgiving again this year for both of our families.  I also moved in to my new office...with a window...and a door.  It's the little things I tell ya!

This brings us to December.  The family theme continued, although for difference reasons with Eric's Dad and Aunt both being in the hospital.  It was stressful, but it really brought this family together more than I have ever seen in the time that I have known them.  They both improved enough for us to get away to Memphis for a few days to see my family for Christmas and we finished off Christmas with his family.

I know I say this every year but it really does blow my mind when I sit down to write my year-in-review post because I can't believe everything we pack into one year's time. This year certainly turned out to be a trying one at times for us, but overall it was a wonderful year.

Looking ahead to 2015, it's going to be hard to top.  With it being my 30th year I am expecting BIG things!  Cheers to to 2015!

Christmas Recap Part 2

Look out world...back to back posts and 3 posts in 4 days.  Say wha??? I'm on a roll!

Where were we on the Christmas recap?  Oh yes, on our way back to Bama on Christmas Eve.  We made it back in time to see Eric's brother, his wife, and our nephew before they headed up north for a few days. We did Christmas with them and then Eric actually had to run a call so someone could have a working stove on Christmas...have I mentioned how sweet he is?  Did he have to drive to Montgomery Christmas Eve afternoon? No but he did.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was pretty fancy if I say to myself.  I mean BBQ nachos are like the creme de la creme right? Ok maybe not, but they are certainly one of our favorites and that's what the holidays are all about amiright? We finished off the evening with only the best Christmas movie ever made..."You'll shoot your eye our kid!"

As I mentioned a few days ago, Santa made it to our house and boy did he do well this year!  I am still in love with my new camera and Eric racked up on hunting gear.

You know you love your Christmas gift when you have a hint of crazy in your smile...don't mind me. =)

After another viewing of A Christmas Story (thank goodness for the 24 marathon on TBS!) we headed to his Mom's house for Christmas #3 and a delicious French Toast and mimosa brunch.  We left there and headed up to the hospital to see his Dad for our fourth and final Christmas in 3 days. His Dad is doing so much better.  They have moved him to a rehab floor for a couple of weeks to regain his strength before they send him back home.  Thank you for all of the prayers.  They have worked!

We got his Mom some Carpenters piano books for Christmas and she serenaded us after we were done opening presents.

We decided that we would cook Christmas Dinner and invite everyone over since we hadn't hosted a meal yet, so Eric smoked a Boston Butt and some ribs with some of the Makers Mark 46 barrel wood my parents gave him for Christmas.  I can't even begin to explain how amazing and delicious that wood made dinner taste.  I tried out a new coleslaw recipe I'll be sharing next week and threw together a delicious tater salad.  After we stuffed ourselves silly (again) we settled down for our 3rd viewing of A Christmas Story before we drifted off to sleep.

Want to know what the best part was?  Since Christmas was on Thursday we still had 3 days left to play!  Eric made the most of his time fishing and hunting, while I busied myself with my camera, a little after Christmas shopping, and an impromptu de-Christmasing of the house....which I am totally ok with now.  In fact I'm so glad I did it then and don't have it still looming over my head!

Christmas Recap Part 1

On the Saturday before Christmas we decided that Eric's dad was improving enough for us to leave town for a few days to spend some time with my family for Christmas. Since Eric had a few things to wrap up Saturday afternoon, we decided to leave early Sunday morning which left us free to attend the 3rd Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party. It was an interesting evening of tacky sweaters, drinks, fun, and general craziness that ensues with our crowd.  But this party also had Santa Claus, two of them actually.  One was my husband and the other was his best friend.  They were channeling more of the Bad Santa character than the Santa most of us know.  Somewhere along the way we came to the decision that everyone who came into the party had to get their picture taken with the Santas.  They set up two chairs right by the door and made sure everyone took a picture with them.  It was hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

We're a motly crew.

I'd like to think that peoples' reactions to the Santas was indicative of their feelings toward Santa as children.  Some were happy to pose with them while others looked slightly terrified. 

We called it a night as soon as Dirty Santa ended because we were up and on the road bright and early the next morning to Memphis!

We had no choice but to take the truck because there's no way all of this stuff would have fit in my car!

 For the second time in 24 hours I got to don my homemade light up reindeer sweatshirt as we competed in the Ugly Sweater 5K. It was a blast!  I was just glad that despite the fact I had not run since daylight savings changed back in November I was able to run the entire race.  They weren't keeping track of places but Eric said they were calling them out to the early finishers.  He finished 28th and we started in the 3rd heat! He didn't have a tracking app going to time himself, but I finished in 29:51 and I know he beat me by at least 5 minutes. As soon as we finished, we headed over to claim our reward....free beer! I can't think of a better reward for running!

The fam jam ready to run!

Pretty typical =)

Enjoying our post-race reward!

The remainder of our trip consisted of Christmas, family time, games, and a trip downtown to see the Peabody Ducks and eat at Rendezvous...of course.

Clockwise from top left: The Peabody Ducks waddling to the elevator to go home for the night; The Rendezvous and the Peabody in downtown Memphis; Our "Christmas Morning" breakfast was Gibson's Donuts including their Maple Bacon donut; we played several games over the course of a few days inlcuding Mexican Train which is probably the only domino game I know how to play.

.....and we did all of this before Christmas Eve!

Why?  Because we were up and on the road again Christmas Eve morning for Rounds 2, 3 and 4 back in Alabama, but we'll save that for another day.

Christmas Pre-Recap

I did something I have never done in my life last night....I took down our Christmas Tree and started to de-Christmas our house on my own free will.  I tend to leave our tree up way longer than it needs to be up most years. Usually until Eric gets tired of walking around it and tells me I should have cleaned it up by now, but I got a wild hair yesterday afternoon while he was hunting and decided to take it down.  I was quite proud of myself until a little while later when I realized I missed having it up. I know it was going to have to come down eventually, but maybe I jumped the gun a little too soon. I still have our wreaths and sconces and Christmas cards up but no tree and no nutcrackers. I know I will be happy I did it next week when I'm not cleaning up pine needles for the umpteenth time, but for now I'm just going to have to settle for the pictures.  It really was a beautiful tree...

Perhaps the rush to take the tree down was just a continuation of our rushed holiday season this year. It has been so crazy with Eric's dad being sick, family in town, visiting family out of town, plus oh yeah-everything else we normally do, I feel like I've been running a race.  The past 2 days have been quite a slow down for us now that Christmas has come and gone.  I know things are going to pick back up sooner rather than later, but these few extra days we've had to sit back and relax have been wonderful, especially since both of us have developed cough that has become quite the royal pain in the you-know-what.  We took advantage of our free time and had date night to the movies to see Unbroken.  I highly recommend it!

Plus we got to use our re-fillable popcorn bucket and sat in the biggest movie theater I've ever been in!

Since neither of us has had to work we've had to find other ways to occupy ourselves. Eric has fished and hunted to his little heart's content, despite the rain we've had for 24 hours and counting. Aside from regretfully de-Christmasing our house, I have been playing with my Christmas present from Eric....

Oh yes, that would be my brand spankin new Canon Rebel T5 in my hands here.  So I guess this means I no longer have an excuse for less than stellar pics on here anymore right?  I am loving my new camera so far! I don't know that Eric thought it all the way through because he got tired of me snapping pics of him very quickly in the car yesterday afternoon.  I can only take so many pictures of the dogs and I have several of them already....but they sure are cute!

My mom got the stuffed pig in the above picture for Peanut for Christmas and he totes that silly thing around like a baby doll.  Amazingly he has yet to attempt to shred it, which might be a new record in this house.

I'll be back this week with a full Christmas recap which will probably take several posts.  Our Christmas week included a Christmas party, an Ugly Sweater 5K, Christmas in Memphis, Christmas in Alabama, and a BBQ Christmas Dinner that was delicious!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

High 5 for Friday: Pre-Christmas Edition

I hope you have all of your shopping done (or most of it at least) because you're down to 6 days before Ho-Ho Man -as my brother used to call him- comes to town!  Since this is the last Friday before Christmas I'm going to do this High Five for Friday Christmas style, which means it will be mostly about food. =)

#1

As of today I have all but one Christmas gift in my possession.  It's funny because I had said gift in my hands last week, but thanks to some canine residents at our house last week (we are still not 100% sure who the instigator was) said gift now has several holes in it, hence the reason I had to reorder the gift.  Thankfully (for the dogs) I was able to reorder and have it here by Christmas.

#2

As I was wrapping gifts last weekend I came across an old gift box.  How did I know it was old? Because it had Christmas 1997 colored on the back of it.  Every year my family takes a Christmas picture in front of the tree with the year written on something so we know what year it was, and apparently that year I markered it onto a gift box. I clearly wanted to use the majority blue on the sign since it's always been my favorite color, but it looks to me like I realized it was not Christmas colors at all when I finished, hence the red/green/silver tri-colored "C" that covers up the "hr." My 12 year old self had clearly been working on my bubble letters and numbers because the bubble letter/number work is spot on. This gift box means 3 things: 1) They don't makes gift boxes like they used to because this one is going on it's 18 Christmas wrapped up under the tree; 2) I don't thrown anything away ever, if it weren't for Eric I would probably be a candidate for Hoarders; 3) I come by it honestly because I was not officially living somewhere other than my parents' house until 2007ish, meaning that my mother saved and reused this gift box for at least 10 years before it ended up in my possession.

#3

Don't be fooled by the pictures, that baby was at least an inch and a half thick!

We had a surprise on our door step when we got home last night in the form of a large white Styrofoam box.  Of course I was intrigued, because anytime there's a large box at the house I get excited...BTW I owe our mailman BIG TIME for all of the online orders he has had to deliver to our house this year.  I know he's tired of having to drive up in our drive way and finding creative ways to stuff packages in our mailbox.  Anywho, back to the box. Naturally I opened that bad boy up because it said perishable on the side and I was greeted by a glorious site.... 2 deep dish Chicago Style Pizzas from Gino's East from my aunt and uncle and cousins in Chicago.  And if you think I was excited, you should have heard Eric's reaction.  I texted him a picture, and I'm pretty sure he came home from his fishing trip a little early because of it.  He even had the oven preheated and the oven racks adjusted by the time I got home from the dance studio.  Trust me folks, Eric cooking anything that isn't on a grill, a fryer, or eggs in the skillet is a big deal. We both went to bed with happy and full belles last night.

#4

I have officially removed all of the Christmas Crack Crunch from our house as of last night. I ended up making 2 batches of it this year, which is substantially less than the quintuple batch I made a few years ago.  I may have to up it to 3 batches next year.  It seriously blows my mind how much people love this stuff.  Eric says it's the white chocolate sweetness mixed with the salty flavors that people just aren't used to that makes it so good.  I start getting requests at work for it in November and I even got a call from someone last night asking me not to make it anymore because their waistline couldn't handle it.  I'll take that as a compliment.  Since we are out of it I plan on trying out a new recipe from Mom that involves peanuts, almond bark, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips this coming weekend.  No worries, I'll have a full report on it on Monday.  I have a feeling it's going to be good though!

#5

I tried a new snack recipe last night that is totally worth trying out if you're a fan of somewhat spicy things.  I am not a huge fan of spicy but this recipe also involves ranch dressing mix which makes any and everything delicious (you can adjust the spiciness to your liking). I've decided I am a fan.  They're called Spicy Ranch Crackers and they're the easiest things to make.  I actually had everything on hand already: Saltine Crackers, Ranch Dressing Mix, Cayenne Pepper, and Canola oil.  They are seriously addicting.

I hope you have a fun, happy, stress-free last weekend before Christmas!

Our Halls are Decked!

My favorite view of the Christmas Tree of course!

I'm most definitely a traditionalist when it comes to our Christmas decorations.  While I love seeing the new different colored and themed trees, I prefer my real Christmas Tree with all of our ornaments that we've collected over the years on it. We have a silver star that's sat on top of our tree since I was in college but I've wanted something that stands out a little more for years.  This year I decided to add a big bow on top of the tree (in addition to the star of course because the start HAS to go on top). I attempted to wrap the tree with ribbon, but it looked ridiculous so I scrapped that idea.  I guess I did it wrong....who knows.  Other than that our Christmas decorations were pretty standard for us.

I did pull out all of my nutcrackers again this year.  I've posted about it before, but I have a ridonkulous collection of nutcrackers.  I think I counted over 40 one time, but who knows.  It's always a challenge every year to figure out where to put them so they are visible but out of the reach of a certain chocolate lab's super destructive tail that always wags when there is something to be knocked over. Who am I kidding that tail is always going which is the reason there are only coasters and magazines on our coffee table.

Our pretty front door

Another addition I made this year was sewing our names to our stockings. "Wait, didn't you already have your names on your stockings?" Why yes I cross stitched our names for our stockings the year we got engaged, however for the past 5 Christmases our names were pinned to said stockings. As an avid crafter, I am completely ashamed to admit it, but it's true.  I folded the fabric up and pinned them on, with safety pins no less. When my parents were here over Thanksgiving helping me decorate, Mom mentioned it so I decided it was time to make our names on our stockings permanent and stitch those bad boys on.  I got about halfway done with Eric's stocking and remembered why after stitching our names, I put my needle and thread up for 5 years....it might be one of the most tedious things I have ever done in my life.  I'm not even doing intricate patterns this time around, just sewing a big square around our names to attach them to the stockings. I started the weekend after Thanksgiving, and nearly 3 weeks later I'm about 80% done. I am hoping that maybe by Christmas they'll both be complete. We'll see.

Yes I am aware that our stocking are in fact mittens and not socks, but I found them several years ago and I thought they were the cutest things I had ever seen, plus there's no toe part for stuffers to get stuck in.

No worries the tree has been Peanut approved for hiding gingerbread man dog treats!

Life Update

To say that the past couple of weeks have been chaotic would be a total understatement around these parts.  I know time flies when you're having fun, but it also flies when your totally completely 100% out of your normal routine.

The day after I last posted my SIL and BIL came into town for a couple of days, unfortunately I had to travel for work and the day afterward I had not only a nail in a tire, but in the time between I realized had a tire problem (Friday morning) and when I could get to the tire place (Friday afternoon) I had a tire blowout (of another tire) on the interstate near my office.  It was awesome.  Luckily some of my wonderful coworkers helped me change it while I kicked myself for not paying closer attention when my Dad tried to teach me when I was 16...sorry Dad!  However after watching one of my tires be changed for the second time in a month, I think I could do it (with supervision of course).

Friday night Eric and I went to see his Dad in the hospital because he had a staph infection on his stump and thought he had pulled a muscle in his back, or so we thought.  He was doing alright, just waiting for test results to come back. We headed back home hoping that he just had a kidney stone or something along those lines.  We were completely wrong and things deteriorated rapidly.  They ended up moving to ICU so he could be watched closer the next evening, and on Sunday morning they called Eric to tell him he had a staph infection in his blood and to tell the family they needed to come right then.  It was beyond scary to hear the nurses say that, and it was the beginning of our marathon Sunday at the hospital. Within 2 hours most of the family was there and his condition improved.  Come to find out when they called us his heart rate was up around 150 and he was taking 30+ breaths per minute, which most people cannot sustain for any period of time.  By the time we got there, they'd put an oxygen mask on him and his heart rate was down in the 105-110 range and he was taking 18-20 breaths per minute and remained there all day.  By the time we left the hospital that night he was still very critical but stable.  We arrived home to a houseful again, as Eric's brother and his wife and baby who had just left our house on Friday came back to stay with us so they could be closer to their Dad. I will say that the one upside to this week has been getting to see our nephew, among other family we don't see nearly enough. I just wish it was under happier circumstances. The rest of the week we tried to return to as normal as we could with the boys taking daily trips to the hospital to see their Dad.

In the meantime, we found out last week that Eric's Dad's sister who we saw that Sunday and thought had a bad double ear infection that was causing vertigo, in fact has a brain tumor.  They admitted her to the hospital (not the same one his Dad is in) on Monday and she had surgery on Thursday.  Unfortunately the outlook for her is not great, but we are hoping and praying that chemo will shrink it!

Like I said life has been quite chaotic. So please please please keep Eric's Dad, his aunt, and his entire family in your prayers. They really need it right now.

The good news is that this morning they were able to take his Dad off the ventilator!!!! This is huge because they tried yesterday and he couldn't handle it.  From what I understand it's a difficult process for the patient so I was ecstatic to hear that they was successful this morning!

I am hoping to be present here a little more than I have been before the holidays, at least that is my intention.  This being one such a wonderful time of year I have lots of pictures and stories I really want to share soon!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

I think it's safe to say that Thanksgiving 2014 was a success!  Thanksgiving is always one of my favorite holidays. Think about it, the day focuses on food and being thankful for the giant plate of delicious goodies that you get to consume and no one judges you for getting your second or third plate because they've already refilled their plates as well. Then you get to spend the remainder of the day watching football and planning out your Black Friday shopping strategy and of course, eat leftovers!  It's a total win-win!

Mom and Dad came down to spend Thanksgiving with us this year.  We ended up having a smaller crowd than we did last year, but it was still a great Thanksgiving and don't worry, we had plenty to eat.  It's totally normal to have 3 turkeys, a turkey breast, and 2 hams for 6 people, right?  In my defense I only planned on having 2 turkeys (I buy small ones for frying so we can have one to eat that day and plenty of leftovers) and one ham.  I did not know the other meat was coming until the day of. Long story short, we're doing our best but we still have a ton of leftovers in the fridge. I am going to attempt to grind up some of the turkey meat to make meatloaf this week.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Back to Turkey Day...Since we only had 6 for our Thanksgiving meal, I made the executive decision to pull out our wedding china and have a nice sit-down meal. I am pretty sure that's the first time we've ever used more than 2 of the dinner plates at one time...in 4.5 years.  It's not that we don't entertain (obviously), but we tend to not entertain on a fancy scale like ever.

Planning his Black Friday Strategy

Mom and I continued our Gray Thursday boycott, but were up bright and early on Friday to hit the sales.  We left the house at 6AM and didn't pull back into the driveway until 3PM.  We decided that although we don't participate in Gray Thursday, we like it because the early AM store crowds on Black Friday were non-existent.  It didn't really pick up until after about 10AM.  We only had a few major items on our list and were able to find all of those things and then some. We really did score some great deals and knock out a lot of Christmas shopping.  I think I have 95% of mine done as of today, which is a first for me.  Of course the year I am not coaching is the year I get everything done early....go figure.

They absolutely LOVE their costumes, don't they?!

Saturday morning Mom and I headed back to Montgomery for round 2 (sort of), while Dad headed to the golf course....Eric left Friday afternoon for a duck hunting excursion. The purpose of our trip back to town was for a Christmas Tree!  Being a live Christmas Tree aficionado my entire life, this is serious business.  We've gotten a Costco Christmas Tree the past 4 years and they are beautiful (and you can't beat the price!) The only kicker is that you have to get them Thanksgiving weekend or you are SOL because they usually only get one truck.  We snagged one and after meeting Dad for lunch (we were a bit turkeyed out after 4 straight meals of Thanksgiving food), we headed home to decorate. A few hours later the house was starting to look like a winter wonderland!  We barely made it through the Iron Bowl Saturday night...I think I slept through most of the 3rd quarter, but woke up in time to see the Tide pull out an uncharacteristically high scoring game.

It's officially Christmas Time at the Cagle household!

Mom and Dad had to hit the road on Sunday morning so I spent the rest of the day finishing up decorating and trying to psyche myself up for the week.  Five whole workdays where I have to dress in proper business attire for most of them is going to be tough, but I do have a couple of Christmas parties to look forward to so that should be a nice distraction.  Eric got home that night and we continued to power through the leftovers only with the addition of duck meat which I actually ate this time.

Happy December!