It's Game Day!

Today's the day.....the first official game day of the 2017 football season, and I am PUMPED!  I walked outside this morning and there was a dare I say cool crisp feeling in the air that immediately put me into a football Friday state of mind.

We had our first team dinner of the year last night....Italian Night.  I have never seen so many pasta dishes in my life, although the dessert bar, conveniently located right behind where we were sitting, was fantastic! I am convinced if you want to feed 50+ football players, 25+ dancers/cheerleaders, coaches, and families that pasta is the way to go.  As much food as we had, there were still plenty of leftovers.  I know Eric isn't complaining that we had some of my homemade spaghetti sauce leftover. He was eating it with chips the other night for crying out loud.  I am off the hook cooking dinner for at least a couple of nights.

Last year I was no where near ready for the season since Eric was "retired" until after the first week of practice, but this year I am ready to go!  I've already got a new game t-shirt, my football themed cowbells (they're amazing), my season tickets, and I was able to do some sleuthing and get a copy of the roster so I have a stack of laminated pocket rosters sitting with my game stuff pile ready to go!

My pocket rosters always are a hit, although I can't claim originality for them. My brother played lacrosse in middle and high school and Mom would type out basic rosters with the players' names and numbers for all of the parents. They were extremely handy since helmets and the lack of names on the jerseys made it hard to tell who was who on the field, and very convenient because they could fit in your pocket.

A few years ago I decided to take the football roster and do the same after one too many games of everyone asking "who was that" or "who's number so-and-so" over and over and over throughout the course of the game. Side note - I realize that I can use a program for this but when you have a pompom in one hand and cowbell in the other for the entire game, there is no room for a bulky program even though I do buy one every year to support the team. I now have an excel file that's formatted to exactly what I need, and all I have to do is update the names every year.  I live for organization like that.

Last year we (the coaches wives) decided instead of having to print new copies every week, we would make them long-lasting for the whole season by laminating them.  This was a turning point in the life of the pocket rosters for sure.  So for the first time we will have laminated rosters (done with these) ready to go for the first game.

All that to say I am so stinkin excited about the season starting tonight that I almost can't stand it!

GOOOOOOO TIGERS!!!

Tis the Season!

Our official THS program picture for 2017

I am completely aware that it is not quite the holiday season--yet, but there is a new season taking shape around here.....football season!  The past two weekends we've been pre-season prepping with team pictures, the 5th Annual Football Coaches Cook-Off (which Eric won after 4 years of coming up short), and Tiger Night this past Friday.

Tiger Night is a tradition in our town where all of the football teams from the 5 and 6 year olds to the varsity team get to scrimmage on the big field.  They introduce all of the players and the cheerleaders and they get to run out on the field before their "game."  It's a really fun night for the whole town and it's always packed!  This week is the real deal as we open up our season on Friday night. I have my cowbells ready and I am pumped!

Post-scrimmage pep talk 

Aside from our season I am so ready for weekend cookouts and spending time on the back porch watching college games all day on Saturday. We pre-gamed a little this weekend as we hosted the end-of-the-year party (fish fry of course) for Eric's Crappie Fishing Club.

Cute, right? And I will never willingly admit the amount of this that I ate over the weekend....let's just say it didn't make it 24 hours. 

It had been a minute since we'd thrown a good ole fish fry, and the menu didn't disappoint: fried crappie, hush puppies, coleslaw, seven layer taco dip, and even a cookie cake....let's just say I was in heaven! My diet for 24 hours from Saturday night to Sunday night consisted of hush puppies, coleslaw, taco dip, and cookie cake...and I am not even halfway sorry about it.

 One half of the anglers of the year team....Eric and his fishing partner ended up winning the points race for the club this year....he was a little proud of his accomplishment! 

All of the club members who were able to make it on Saturday. I just took the pictures since I am not fishing enthusiast and therefore not a club member.  My hat goes off to all of the wives (and kids!) in this pic who fished those weekend tournaments with their husbands.  They were telling stories about one of the mornings back in February and how it was so cold riding down the lake to the fishing spots, and all I could think was I am sure that I was at home in my nice warm bed that morning!  #sorrynotsorry

If you need me this afternoon, I'll be outside Eclipse viewing.  I bought a couple of pairs of eclipse glasses at Walmart a few weeks ago and now I am kicking myself for not buying more....I could have sold them for $10 a pop this weekend! We're supposed to get around 90% totality, and it's looking like it's going to be a good day for viewing so I'm pretty excited!  I remember viewing an eclipse in elementary school on the playground with our homemade viewers...we didn't have fancy glasses available...and I do remember teachers telling us not to look at it directly, but it didn't keep them from letting us go out on the playground to see it.  Clearly we all survived.  

Happy Viewing!

One Last Summer Hoorah!

At the beginning of the summer some of our good friends who lived 2 houses down from us relocated to South Alabama.  Lucky for us they are not too far from our family who live down that way, so we knew it was not a forever good-bye, but more of a we'll see you next time we get down that way.  With the summer being as busy has it has been this year the only time either of us had a chance to make it down that way was when I went to PCB my mom and dad a few weeks ago, so had not seen them all summer!

The closest we came to a group picture....the guys never did cooperate like we wanted them to!

Lucky for us the boys had been scheming the past few weeks and this past weekend we were able to sneak away for a few days before the official start of football. We left Friday after lunch and headed down I-65 ready for some R & R.

We spent the weekend relaxing and enjoying each others company.  Another couple came too, and Eric's brother and his wife drove over one evening for dinner, so we got to see them while we were there.

I am pretty sure all of the kiddos enjoyed the trip as much as we did!

Saturday while the guys golfed, the girls headed down to a little town called Fairhope.  I'd been there before but it had been several years.  We walked around the downtown area that was lined with shops and restaurants.  After we found several things we could not live without we settled in for some wine and sushi (great combo if you ask me!) at a restaurant call Master Joe's.  I had a Titanic Roll with shrimp tempura and cucumber, stopped with crab, shrimp, avocado, spicy mayo, eel sauce, and tempura flakes.  It was fantastic and I wish I had one right now!  As with all good sushi meals we all got something different and passed the rolls around so we could try a bite of everything.

My Titanic Roll (soooo good!) and Kenzie kisses!

Sunday the guys went with Eric's brother to try their luck snapper fishing.  We decided we weren't in a rush to do much of anything so we piddled around the house before packing up the kiddos to head toward the beach.

The plan was to go to Orange Beach where the guys were so we could meet up with them when they got back, but we never actually made it to the beach.  After making a pit stop at the outlet mall (because it was there of course!) we were headed to the beach until Eric called and said they were coming in from fishing.  Instead of going to the beach we detoured to the marina to see what they caught....a few red snapper, not too shabby.

I would have loved to have continued on to the beach, but Eric and I had to hit the road to get back home, so we jumped in the truck, went back to their house to pick up our stuff (and Beau), and headed north.

The only pic I got of us all weekend....he just loves pictures so much!

Why did we have to get home Sunday night? Well because football season officially started at midnight, and the team was having a midnight practice.... Yes midnight practice. I think he got maybe an hour of sleep from the time we got home until the time he had to leave for practice, and then got home about 2:30 a.m.  Although the public was invited, I told him just to let me know how it went because I had to be up at 5:15 a.m. the next day. He said it went well and that they had a nice little crowd, so I guess it was a success!

Sunshine selfie...we need to get the two littles some sunglasses!

Now we are officially in football mode for the next 4 months.  We're really kicking things off with our 5th Annual Football Coaches Cookout at our house on Saturday. For the 5th year in a row Eric is going to attempt to beat our head coach's ribs. He has come extremely close every year, but has come up short.  He's been scheming how to win this year, so we will see. As for the ladies, we've done potato salad and mac and cheese contests before, but last year we did dessert which turned out really great!  Since the only classic BBQ side dishes that were really left were slaw and beans and none of of want to deal with the aftermath of eating large amounts of either we deiced to do desserts again.Who doesn't want a table full of desserts to sample?!?

What started out as beginning of the season cookout has now become a tradition that we all look forward to every year, and I can't wait for this year's edition!

Beachin' It

A couple of weekends ago I snuck away to the beach for a few days.  Well I didn't actually sneak, it was planned, but still...  Eric had fishing trips to run that weekend so he opted to stay home.  As much as I hated to leave him, I needed some beach time desperately, so I joined Mom and Dad in Panama City Beach for an extended weekend.....and it was just what the doctor ordered.

Beach bums!

We got down there on Saturday evening and after spending hours in the car we opted to walk down the beach to grab dinner at Sharkey's for some delicious seafood.  You really can't beat fresh gulf seafood.  I never really ate fish until Eric and I started dating and now I can't get enough of it!  Of course it probably had something to do with the fact that we lived in Memphis and the seafood there wasn't exactly what you would call "fresh."

The next three mornings looked almost identical.  After donuts for breakfast (there was a new place right across the street from us) Dad headed off to golf while Mom and I got in a 4+ mile walk where we window shopped in Pier Park and solved ALL of the worlds problems....we get a lot done on our walks.  After we got back we'd head to the beach and stake out a spot to lay our chairs and sheet, and R-E-L-A-X. Dad would call when he got home and we'd meet him upstairs for lunch.

Sunsets, good company, and a wall of donuts....makings of a great vacation!

Our afternoons varied slightly, one day we beached all day and one day it rained so we checked out the Panama City Beach Winery and sampled some delicious fruit wines before beaching in the later afternoon.  We absolutely LOVED the winery.  The owners were really nice and very helpful!  I think we tried nearly half of the wines on the menu, and there were a bunch.

This is the third year we've been to PCB (Year 1, Year 2), so we're learning our way around, and discovering the best ways to enjoy the city. One thing we discovered last year is that going away from Front Beach Road is a good thing, especially if you want some really delicious local food. With traffic as bad as it is on the beach road, it takes just as much time to go elsewhere.

After dinner sunset at Uncle Ernie's

On Sunday we opted to head back to a restaurant that is becoming a favorite of ours called Uncle Ernie's.  It was recommended by a concierge last year, and did not disappoint!  It's on St. Andrew's Bay in Panama City (next to PCB).  We fell in love with this place last year when we celebrated Mom's birthday there.  They have a-m-a-z-i-n-g fried crab cakes (which was had to get again), and really delicious seafood dishes.  And the view from their outdoor patio is incredible!

Right: Crabcakes and grouper from Uncle Ernie's; Left: Southern goodness from Boondocks

Monday night we went for some southern seafood fare in the form of a little place called Boondocks. It's on West Bay - just north of PCB. We heard about it on a local tv program about hole-in-the-wall local restaurants and had to try it.  You can get just about any kind of seafood one of three ways: grilled, steamed, or fried.  We went all in and got everything fried because we could, so we shared platters of grouper, shrimp, crab claws, deviled crabs, and scallops, and then waddled home. I almost forgot, we did get one thing that was not fried - their Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.  I could have made a meal off of those alone!

The view and some of the local residents at Boondocks

I had to head back after lunch - perks of living 3 hours from the beach - so I did not get to partake in dinner that night at Shipyard Grill on St. Andrew's Bay, but some little birdies told me that it was amazing, too!

Besides the good food and beach I had some fantastic company in my parents! Whether we were on the beach, at dinner, sitting on the balcony in our condo watching the waves roll in, or sitting in the car trying to turn on to Back Beach Road watching all of the vehicles roll by (you have to catch it at the right time or you wait forever), it was so nice to get to spend some time with them.  The only thing that would have made the trip better would have been Eric and Matt there......next trip guys, next trip!

Until next time Gulf!