Christmas Recap Part 2

A couple of days after Christmas I set off for Christmas #2 or #3 or #4 depending on how you're counting, in Memphis with my parents and brother. There was more food, more relaxing, a puzzle (of course), and even a trip to IKEA! Unfortunately Eric had to coach a wrestling match that weekend so he had to stay behind for practice and the match.

Jones Family Christmas pic 2017

I am pretty sure LG and Maggie had the most fun of any of us while we were there. They played constantly, to the point that they both slept the entire day after we left.

And still shots of them were next to impossible to get (the dogs, not Mom and Dad)

Maggie taught LG how to dig holes and then got mad because 

all LG wanted to do was dig said holes.

Mom got a new cookbook for Christmas so she and Matt made quick work of trying out a few new recipes.  The Banana Roll was the winner....think pumpkin roll but made with banana bread....YUM!

Perfecting the roll

Top: the finished product; Bottom: Cheesecake Factory dessert one day included Vanilla Bean, Godiva Chocolate, Red Velvet, and Tiramisu cheesecake slices. 

Of course no trip to Memphis is complete without a trip to the Three Dog Bakery.  Since Maggie gets to go often, she begrudgingly let us take just Peanut and LG.  They're becoming pros at the bakery.  They jumped out of the car and ran right up to the door like they knew exactly what we were there for. Treats....duh!

 Getting their complementary treats.

LG said we were taking too long so she laid down to start on her bone.

 Side note - I found the winning combination for driving long distances with dogs: new bones + a 45 minute walk prior to leaving.  They didn't get restless until we were about 30 minutes from home.

Another highlight of the trip was our outing to the IKEA store.  I've only been to an IKEA once so I was pretty excited to go back.  We found a few things we could not live without (many we had no idea we needed), but one of my favorites were kitchen drawers that you can open with your hip (or knee if your tall like my family)....they were pretty amazing.

I am ready to schedule my kitchen remodel like yesterday....but we can't do white cabinets. Keeping those suckers clean with 4 dogs in the house??? Ain't nobody got time for that!

Minus Eric not being there, it was the perfect ending to our Christmases.  I packed up the pups on New Years Eve and headed back to Alabama because we had NYE plans that actually didn't involve a large group of people at our house.....(that never happens!)...I promise to have a full recap on that soon!

Mom and Dad's tree is the tree that keeps on giving (yes it's decorated with Lottery Tickets!)

Christmas 2017 Part 1

It's hard to believe that another holiday season has come and gone...no seriously it flew by so fast this year I felt like I hardly had time to enjoy it. I usually spend the weekends leading to to Christmas on the couch watching Christmas movies and admiring our tree but I am pretty sure that happened all of 3 times the entire month of December.  However, I stayed up way too late every night and worked a few extra hours the week before Christmas all so I could say sayonara suckers on December 22 until the New Year.  I really needed some time to recharge my batteries for 2018 and I although I am only a few days in I think it worked.

Our beautiful tree and our 2017 ornament.  We have one for every year since we got engaged and since we did mot of our traveling via our camper this year, I thought this one was perfect!

So what did our Christmas break look like?  Lots of fun, lots of time with family and friends, and waaay too much good food!

We started Christmas weekend with a birthday/Christmas party for one of our friends.  We ended up with a houseful of folks and played Dirty Santa and had a blast!  Great way to start things off!

Our crew....complete with random mutts running through the picture.

Eric checking out the Dirty Santa loot....he insisted on wearing his ugly Christmas sweatshirt I made several years ago even though we said nothing about wearing ugly Christmas attire. I added a little something extra to it this year.  The ornaments have fallen off over the years so I replaced them with beer bottle tops.

The next day was Christmas Eve.  Since Eric is a notorious last minute shopper, we braved Wally World for a few last minute gifts before heading to have Christmas with his family.  Our nephew stole the show this year, and was the most precious little elf handing out everyones gifts and opening his own of course.

 Christmas with our favorite elf!

              We all know who is in charge here....                             What are those? "pliers"

         dad and uncle are putting his toys together           What do you do with them? "squish things"

          while he doesn't have a care in the world!

SILS on Christmas Eve

We had Christmas morning at our house, complete with breakfast casserole and presents for each other that were actually given to each other on Christmas Day (an anomaly for us). Eric got me a robot to clean the house....and it does such a great job! It's perfectly polite, too.  If one of the dogs gets in it's way it will stop and go around it....and it only chased one of the dogs one time. LG was not amused. 

I did your typical Christmas Day hibernation, but Eric was itching to try out his new Go Pro so he braved the cold, windy weather so he could. You can watch their first GoPro Video HERE. I am amazed by the quality of video he was able to get with it all while he had it strapped to his head.  Stay tuned ...There are more videos to come!

Headed to Christmas Lunch at his grandma's house

Christmas in Memphis was up next.  I headed out with LG and Peanut a couple of days after Christmas (Eric had a wrestling match so he stayed behind with Hawk and Beau) to spend a few days with Mom and Dad and Matt while he was in town. But that's a post for another day.

Nobody Does Homecoming Like Us

Nothing like an occasion-appropriate Snapchat filter, right?!

As Homecoming Week approaches in our small town each year, and people start getting excited about the upcoming festivities for the returning 20-year reunion class there's a phrase that you hear every year, "Nobody does Homecoming like our town."  Since I am not from this town originally, and didn't attend high school there I feel like I can objectively assess the festivities without having and biases.

In years past I would have said yes, this town throws a pretty awesome homecoming celebration, but I don't know that I would call it the greatest Homecoming celebration ever.  But that was before....before I was actually engrossed in all of the festivities...3 full days worth of activities.

Full disclosure I did not actually participate in all of the scheduled activities because some of us still have to work while everyone else played.  A typical Homecoming Weekend starts on Thursday night with a candle light ceremony with the returning 20-year reunion class and the current graduating class that is followed up by a bonfire behind the school.  I've never been, but I've heard it's lots of fun with the band playing, cheerleaders cheering, and the crowd getting pumped up for the game that weekend.  It's the kick off for all of the festivities, and I am sure it went late into the night for those who went.

But you can't stay out too late because the next morning is the Homecoming Pep Rally that starts at 8:00 A.M.....no rest for the weary.  It's part regular pep rally put on by the school and part nostalgic pep rally put on by the returning class. Once again I was not in attendance but I did watch parts of it that were live-streamed, which included several games and dance-offs to 90s classics.

After the nearly 2 hour pep rally, the reunion class was treated to a tailgate lunch. All three schools let out shortly afterward, and the entire town decended upon the "downtown" area for the Homecoming Parade.  I have never made one of these parades, but I hear they are quit ethe specacle.  Lots of floats, lots of fun, lots of candy being thrown.  My SIL said my nephew had at least 10 suckers, which is probably the only thing that kept him going all day long with no nap.

This little town of ours showed up and showed out for Homecoming this year!  We have an enormous stadium...the only 2 level high school stadium I've been to...and it was FULL Friday night! 

I finally joined in the Homecoming festivities that evening before the game started: the annoucement of the graduating class and annoucement of Homecoming Court/Queen for 2017, before cheering our Tigers to a 36-21 victory over the 4th ranked team in the state!  How's that for a Homecoming opponent?! This was also a HUGE region win for us that puts us in good shape to host a first round playoff game in a few weeks -- as long as we take care of business this Friday night. 

One of the highlight of the game was a bobbled snap on a PAT, that our holder (who is not a QB) picked up, rolled out to his left, pump faked twice and hit one of our receivers in the back of the endzone.  I think some people thought it was planned....coach said no, but that they practice what to do in a case like that every week.  And that kiddies is why you practice. It was a huge momentum swing for us!

Post-game smiles! That would be my infamous cowbell in my hand with my shaker. That puppy starts ringing as soon as the game starts and doesn't stop until it's over...especially when the defense is on the field.  Nothing makes my heart happier in a game than watching our opponent struggle to hear a play being called in from the sideline.....don't worry we bring earplugs for anyone who sits around us. But if you want peace and quiet, you should probably stay home and listen to the game one the radio.  You'll still hear the cowbells, but they don't have the same punch they do live.

After the game we were tired but still pretty excited so we headed over to hang out with the reunion class for a little while.  We have several friends in that class, and Eric's brother graduated that year so Eric knows everyone...he was the manager for the football team all those years since he was just a punk little brother back then. After a few hours we finally packed it in about 1:30 A.M. and crawled into bed after 2 A.M.

The next morning we got up and I headed to Pioneer Day (used to be Syrup Sopping) in the booming metropolis of Loachapoka, AL (population 180) with my BIL, SIL, and nephew.  This tiny town puts on a huge fall festival each year that draws 20,000 people to its downtown. They have vendors, music, food, and activities for the kids, too! It had been a few years since I'd been (2012, 2014), but we had a blast! We brought home some delicious Amish Cheese and Kettle Corn, and my nephew rode a pony.  It was great time!

Riding all by himself!

I took the afternoon off...aka I sat on the couch and vegged. I tried to pull Purdue through but they did not have the success that THS did with their 2-point conversion to send the game into over time.

So you'd think that after all of the activities that had gone on, Homecoming would be done by Saturday night, right?  Wrong.  The c/o 98 had a dinner planned for that evening that just so happened to take place in the reception hall right behind our house during the Auburn game.  A few concerned Tiger fans mentioned this the night before, so Eric told them we'd have the game on at the house, and invited folks to come watch the game when they finished up across the street. Famous.Last.Words.

The reunionees started trickling in at first, until one point when I ran inside to check on the dogs and came back out to 50+ folks in our yard! I guess the official party had ended and they needed an after party space.  It was a bit overwhelming, but they were all great!  I am glad we were able to help them prolong the weekend's activities a little longer.  There was a lot of laughter, dancing, and talking about the old days that went on all until the wee hours of the morning again. 

I think they were all feeling the effects from the previous 3 days, so they started trickling out earlier than they had from the other party we went to the evening before....they are almost *forty* I guess....says the girl who is still 5 years away from her 20 year reunion. I realized at one point that I was among the younger ones in the crowd all weekend.  It doesn't happen much anymore so I surely enjoy it when it does!  And I document it too! Although I have made a mental note to mentally and physically prepare myself for Eric's reunion in a few years!

Recovery from the previous two nights was imperative on Sunday. My major accomplishments included: 4 loads of laundry, 4+ episodes of Gilmore Girls watched, and a 3 hour nap.  I wasn't the only one exhausted, either.....

All day long....

The little boogers slept until 8:30 A.M. which is unheard of at our house....they were loving all of the people at our house on Saturday to pet them and play with them. They slept most of the day, only waking up when I took them on a walk and feed them dinner. 

So yeah, after being more involved than ever with the reunion part of Homecoming, I can honestly say I get why people say, "No one does Homecoming like our town."  Take it from a transplant....it's true! 

Labor Day Weekend

What in the redneck?!?  Yes this really happened last week...

Don't you just love when someone hypes up a game and then disappears and never tells you what happened?  Yeah me, too, says the girl who neglected to update her blog last week. So here goes:  THS did in fact win game #1 of the season in a nail-biter that never should have been a nail-biter in the first place.  We also traveled down south this past Friday and came away with another big W to start our season out right!

Raising their helmets to the Alma Mater

This week is going to be a HUGE test for us.  We're playing the defending state champs who are #1 in 4A (THS earned itself a #9 ranking in the state's top 10 list last week), who we actually beat last year at our place.  We know they are going to be out for blood this year, so we have to come ready to play!

The view from one of the campsites...not ours unfortunately.

After our big Friday night trip and win, we kept the fun going this weekend, loaded up the camper, and headed up to the lake for some Labor Day fun! We ended up going to the same campground we went to on our maiden voyage (since it's a quick drive from the house), but we felt like seasoned vets this time around.

These seasoned campers knew exactly what to do with their afternoons.

We stayed in a different part of the campground this trip that had more modern amenities...aka sewage hookups on site...but I am not so sure that poop pumps make it that much better (says the girl who doesn't have to empty the poop pump).  It was nice but it felt a lot more crowded this time, as we had campers and cars as far as the eye could see.  Lucky for us there was plenty of football on tv this weekend so our attention was drawn to the outdoor tv area our friends set up, but we all agreed that we need to move closer to the water next go-around (i.e. the waterfront campsite pictured above).

These two have decided to give up city life to become full time glampers....clearly they have it all figured out. 

The good news is that is was still very relaxing, and all of our teams won (cough...Tennessee...cough), so we're calling the weekend a success.  And no we did not haul both the boat and the camper up in one trip, but we did test run this set-up through town and I'm pleased to report we did not take out anyone/anything with our caravan.  The looks and phone calls we received on our trip through town were quite comical though!

We finished up our weekend helping the Vols pull through their ridiculous excuse for a football game on Labor Day.  Of all the games to go in to over time, it had to be the Monday night game.  I am just glad the GA Tech coach decided to go for 2 during the second OT (although that would not have been my call), so I could go to bed.

Can you tell who went camping and who stayed home and rested this weekend?!?  

Happy 4 Day Week!

Cheers to 7 Years!

Today we hit big #7 on the anniversary log!  I still can't believe it's been that long.  I'd spare you the cliche "It seems like it flew by, but then it seems like yesterday" spiel, but it's true!  Some days it really seems like we've been married forever but the details from our wedding are always in the back of my mind...and several are in albums on facebook so I can relive them whenever.

Since our day fell on a Monday this year we celebrated over the weekend, on a boat - where else?! We set off for the Middle Pond so Eric could scout some crappie on Saturday. He said he wasn't leaving until he caught a fish.  Thankfully he caught one at the first hole he fished so we didn't have to stay all night.

We took the young pups with us - it was a little too warm for the old boys.  It was LG's first trip back to a boat ramp since Eric brought her home about 6 months ago. I wasn't taking any chances of her getting loose either.  As long as her feet were on dry land where she could run her little booty was on a leash.  But she did get to play off the leash and swim with Beau for a bit.

 She enjoys sunbathing like her Momma

They did a little fish spotting for us

I decided that a boat is no place for a hyper-active pup though.  She can't sit still on dry land, and the boat was no different....she was climbing and pacing the whole time, but I think she enjoyed it.

Sunday we celebrated with brunch at Springhouse, where we had some fantastic drinks and food!  This was our first time, but I think we both agreed it won't be our last. It was a really unique place with a ton of character near the lake.  It's kinda out in the middle of nowhere, so unless you're around that area of the lake you wouldn't know it was there.

When we got back from brunch we changed and headed down to the river for a few hours.  The cool water was just what the doctor ordered on a steamy afternoon. We even got to see an engagement on the sandbar!

It was a pretty fantastic way to kick off year 7 and I can't wait to see what it has in store for us!

Turkey Day Weekend in Indiana

I'm sure you've already guessed by the title that we did not win our 3rd Round Playoff Game the week before last. Our kids played so hard, but we were clearly outmatched and lost 51-7.  Eric said that if we played that team again 10 times, they would probably win all 10 games.  As much as I hate to lose, I would rather lose like that 100 times than "lose" like we did in 2012.

Since we weren't playing football on Black Friday in Alabama, we packed up Beau (the trip would have been too much for Hawk and Peanut, and Beau would have done more damage at home) and headed up I-65 on Wednesday to my grandparents' house and my childhood hometown.

...and saw this along the way.....somewhere in Kentucky

By the time we arrived, my parents had been there about an hour and my brother had been there a couple of hours, and we had a nice little family reunion once my aunt and uncle and cousins from Chicago arrived that night. As much as the people enjoyed seeing each other, I think the pups enjoyed it even more!

It only took 10 minutes and 50 pictures to get this shot!

I can't remember the last time there were that many dogs at their house, but it sure was entertaining! They all got along really well and we basically had a giant dog park going all weekend. They'd romp and play inside until it got too rough and then we'd let them out where they'd resume.  They even took a dip in the pond in the 40 degree weather, multiple times.

Our Thanksgiving Day meal was fantastic! We had all of the classics with all of the fixins and we ate until we were absolutely stuffed.....and then we ate dessert. It was glorious!

Friday morning several of us ventured out to find some Black Friday deals. We were out so early we beat Chick-fil-a's opening, so we headed to a store to do a little shopping before we grabbed breakfast and headed to the mall. We really did find some great deals and most everyone out was in the holiday spirit!

These hats were probably the best Black Friday find EVER in the history of Black Fridays!

After shopping to our hearts' content we dragged our butts back to the house to relax, and stuff our faces....again!

Clockwise from top right: 1) Yard working; 2) My cousin in deep conversation with Beau ; 3) Mom and my other cousin cleaning the sun room roof 4) My cousin enjoying her coffee creamer....and I thought I loved the stuff!

Saturday was football day, and we managed to take in most of the important games....Ohio State/Michigan, Alabama/Auburn, Purdue/IU, etc., and we all began to part ways. We headed home early Sunday. As much as I hated to leave, I'm glad we went early so we missed most of the traffic and were only semi-zombie-like on Monday.

I always hate to see trips like this come to an end, they always remind me how blessed I am to be part of this wonderful, amazing family!

The grand kids with C & C! (We missed our NM cousins!)

The fam jam! (minus the NM fam)  

Side Note: Can you believe we got a picture with everyone smiling and all 3 dogs looking at the camera?!?  I didn't think that was possible!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

On to Round 2!

Well we're on to Round 2 of the playoffs! We had a wild and crazy ride Friday night but we pulled through at the end to win 29-26! We started off the game really strong and had a 21-6 lead at halftime, but things went south from there.

The pre-game spirit line was on it!

We couldn't do anything on offense or defense during the 3rd quarter and by the end of it were hanging on to a 1 point lead 21-20 going into the 4th. They scored quickly early in the 4th and by the time the clock got down below 3 minutes I had started rehearsing my sympathetic-wife comments in my head for after the game.

However, a blocked punt that just happened to bounce right in front of one our kids proved to be all we needed, as he scooped up the ball and ran it back for a TD...and miraculously no one was called for a block in the back! We completed the 2 point conversion to go ahead 29-26 with 2:22 left in the 4th! An interception sealed the deal and we ran out the clock for the win!

Coach Cagle giving some last minute pointers to his D-linemen.

I can honestly say my nerves were shot by the end of this one.  I think I went through nearly every emotion I have in the last 3 minutes of the ball game.  We are headed just down the road for Round 2 against a former region foe who we've played a lot in the past several years.  So we'll have to see how this one plays out! You never know what might happen in the playoffs!

By the time we made back to the house we were elated but absolutely exhausted! Eric was on a hunting trip in South Dakota all last week and got back into town at 3:30 AM Friday morning so the first time I actually saw him was at the game that night. I am honestly not quite sure how he was still standing....it didn't last long.

Saturday was spent watching college football at various locations.  Eric headed over to a friend's house before the Auburn game to help him cook fish and shrimp and oysters for the game, and as much as I enjoy football, I had a few things to take care of around the house, so I got my stuff done, ran by Eric's grandma's house to show her how to use her new iPad, and stopped by some friends house to watch the rest of the Auburn game before we all loaded up Ethel and headed over to where Eric was.

Who is Ethel, you ask?  Well she is our friends' mom's conversion van.....like 90s mom van that you could fit all of your bedroom furniture in van, owned by most parents who had 3 or more children in that decade.  It even still had the TV and VCR in it.

She is a pretty sweet ride!

We figured why take 5 cars over to where we were going when all 7 of us could fit in the van. I knew Eric was over there so I could ride back home with him and we could get my car later. Needless to say we all spent 20 nostalgic minutes riding through town in the van, and probably gave people something to talk about when we stopped at the gas station and a bunch of 30 year olds came tumbling out.

After several hours of good food, music, and football Eric and I peaced out at halftime of the Alabama game. We made it home to watch the second half on the couch, although I dozed off and missed the entire 4th quarter, and woke up to find out they'd won when Eric woke me up to go to bed.

Sunday was full of church, laundry, household chores, and chili-making because the temperature dropped below 80, so I decided it was time for comfort food. I feel like this is where I should insert my obligatory daylight saving gripes......but I will spare you all of my reasons I think daylight savings is dumb, and just put out there that the dogs were up at 6:30 AM (like they usually are), however, due to the time change my clock read 5:30 AM....on a Sunday. Don't worry they managed to get caught up Sunday afternoon.....