November Recap: Football, Thanksgiving, and Gum Grafts

To say that the month of November was a whirlwind was a complete and total understatement.  I actually realized on Dec 1 that I made it the entire month without working a single Friday, not that I was complaining at all.....but that first 5-day week in more than an month was rough.  Actually having to come back to work on Monday after only 2 days off was probably worse than having to work 5 days last week, just saying.

Coach Cagle getting the boys ready to go.

I have lots to recap, so let start where we left off October.  Football season went out with a bang.  We ended the regular season 9-1, and headed into the playoffs with a 2 seed in the region.  After a thrilling OT win where we got a huge goal line stop (the only time we stopped them all night on 4th and 1) and kicked a field goal to win, we ran into a giant brick wall dressed like high school football players. The team we faced in the second round was the biggest team we had ever seen, and our kids came up short (literally). 

We were so sad to see the season end because it really was a special one, but as all good things do, this season did as well.  This team was only the third team in school history to win 10 games, so this team had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.  They'll go down in the ole THS football history books as one of the best to come through.

The field was stormed my a mob of kids after the 1st round win....BTW he kicked it on the other end of the field and made it to the 30 on the other side before the rest of the team caught up with him and tackled him.

We closed up the season just in time for our Turkey Day Holiday.  Thankfully I was able to partake.  I had 2 gum grafts done the first week in November that seriously hampered my eating abilities (and kicked off my pre-holiday diet), for a few weeks.  It's kind of hard to explain without getting too graphic but basically, they cut 2 pieces of gum from the roof of my mouth and sewed them to my gums that were receding on the outside. I didn't get any good pics of the bottom because I was instructed not to pull on my lip so all you get is the view of the roof of my mouth where the took the pieces of my gums....

The first picture is 10 days post gum removal. I had no idea what it looked like prior to this because they put a layer of connective tissue glue (superglue for your mouth) over it so my tongue would not hit the stitches.  The second picture is 14 days post procedure.  I was completely shocked at the improvement that was made in that short amount of time and was extremely thankful I could not see what it looked like at the beginning.  I have a feeling it would not have been pretty. 

My periodontist told me the graphs on my bottom teeth looked like Franken-mouth due to the mass of stitches involved. I was down for a few days but never had major issues. I'd heard horror stories about recovery from the procedure, but I was never in excruciating pain. I'll chalk it up to 48 straight hours on the couch and a liquid diet that meant minimal movement in my mouth.

My two takeaways from the entire ordeal were 1) I never realized how much my tongue hits the roof of my mouth: talking, swallowing, eating....it's constant, and more importantly 2) It is possible to brush your teeth too hard.  This is why I had to have the procedure done.  However I highly recommend having it done as a preventative measure rather than waiting until you start losing bone and getting infection....I've heard that's part of what can make it so bad.

I went back the Friday before Thanksgiving to get my stitches out and then went immediately to Publix and bought a Thanksgiving Turkey Sub, which I promptly took home and cut up into pieces to eat.  It was soooooo good. I'm basically recovered now.

Turkey Day 2017

Our Thanksgiving was full of turkey and family time with all of Eric's family.  We all headed over to his grandma's house for turkey and every Thanksgiving side you could think of.  I think I cooked less for this Thanksgiving than any other I have as an adult.  When I called Eric's grandma to ask what we could bring I was told buttermilk pie before I could even finish my question.....his grandma LOVES my buttermilk pie.  By the end of the conversation we were in charge of frying the turkeys and I had also volunteered to make Oyster Stuffing....I won't touch the stuff, but Eric loves it.  The things we do for love... 

Somehow we managed to leave with more food than we came with.  I wasn't complaining though because I think thanksgiving leftovers might be my favorite meal.  I ate turkey sandwiches topped with cranberry relish on Sister Schubert's dinner rolls for the next several days.

Obligatory plate pic.....I was just a bit excited to get to eat this. 

I headed out early Friday morning, as usual to check out the Black Friday Deals.  I refuse to go on Thanksgiving Day but I love heading out around 6AM on Friday...the crowds from the night before are gone and everyone else is still sleeping off their turkey comas so the stores are only moderately crowded and the lines are not bad at all.  I made it through one mall before meeting Eric's Mom and the other mall.  We hit up a couple places before she headed back to her house and I stayed around to try to go a few more places, but it was starting to get crowded so I headed home myself.

I'd love to say that was the end of our grand holiday weekend, but it wasn't....not even close, 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! 

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!

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.....

Hello There Fall Weekend, Nice to See You Finally

What a difference 36 hours can make....When I wrote this post last Thursday we were in a must-win situation to make the playoffs with an upcoming game against our biggest rival.  By the end of the night Friday, we were sitting in 2nd place in our region getting ready to HOST our first round playoff game in 2 weeks.

Don't worry, we were all sitting there wondering exactly how all this happened, too.

First, one of the 2 teams we lost to during the season lost their 4th region game on Thursday night, which meant with only 2 region game left and only 2 region losses we were automatically in the playoffs. Second, we beat the P!$$ out of our rivals on Friday night 56-22, and third - the team we beat the week before beat the only other team that beat us in region play. I am not exactly sure how all of that works out because that meant the 2, 3, and 4 ranked teams all are 5-2 in the region, but I was told that because of how the tie-breakers work we get the 2 seed.....and I'm not going to argue because that means we don't travel first round.

Clockwise from left: 1) Indulging in a fried Oreo at the game...totally worth it! 2) Coach Cagle doing what he loves best (other than fishing) 3) Final score....Tigers win big!

So now we are going to enjoy our off week (finally) and get an extra week to prepare for the game!  And by prepare I don't just mean the team.  I might have order 2 dozen purple cowbells to hand out to anyone who wants to be loud and obnoxious like our cheering section at the game.  Did I mention I can't wait for the game!?!

Eric was up bright and early the next morning to head to his fishing tournament....and by bright and early I really mean he woke up in the middle of the night to be there at 5AM, which meant the puppies wanted to wake up at 5:30AM like a normal weekday....not cool dogs, not cool.

They ended up doing really well in the tournament, coming in 2nd.....by .02 lbs.  Eric was happy they won 2nd, but unfortunately the dime-weight loss has only left him hungry for more.

That would be his

While he fished I enjoyed my morning at Trade Day. They have a fall festival of sorts in our little town where they block off a street and fill it with vendors and entertainment for the morning.  Our dancers were performing so I went to check things out. I only brought $20 cash and it's probably a good thing because I feel like I have to buy everything at those kinds of events!

Our Zombie Cloggers and soloist were great!

The pups and I vegged and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather (FINALLY!) all afternoon.  We finished off our evening cooking out with the neighbors, but excused ourselves early and were in bed by 9PM on Saturday night....because that's how we roll these days.  I'm not complaining one little bit!

Sunday we headed out to Eric's grandma's house for a bit and then he took his Dad fishing...because apparently he hadn't had enough of it already. When he got back the house Sunday night he asked me to help him clean fish....  I have helped him one other time about 10 years ago, but he politely asked me to stop because I was squishing the filets and I have not been asked since. So like the good little wifey that I am, I cut rib cages out of freshly skinned fish for an hour.  It wasn't so bad.  I had gloves and good company so I didn't mind too much.

I am pretty sure this earned me Wife-of-the-Year Status...

Football Update: THS Senior Night and Homecoming at Huntgindon

You didn't think I'd make it through and entire football season without a post, did you really? But seriously, things have been crazy super busy (in a good way!) around here lately.  I had not one but two grants get funded at work (yay!), plus dance has started back up, and I had forgotten how much energy puppies have [so so so much energy to burn off every day!], so unfortunately this little blog has taken a back seat for a bit. However, I am here today so let's get to it!

Football is still going strong for us.  We started off the season 4-0, but hit a giant bump in the road on week 5 after a rough game and some injuries and have since gone 1-3.  We have a must-win game this weekend against a very good team to get into the playoffs, so be thinking happy purple and gold thoughts for us on Friday please!

Senior Night was this past week....yes already...and with it came all of the Senior Night activities.  Eric escorted one of his D-Linemen onto the field again this year, which is quite an honor.  Each student gets to pick a teacher or coach who has meant a lot to them over their high school career, so it's pretty special.  Eric coached this particular kid to a couple of state appearances/championships in wrestling in addition to football.

R to L: 1) Escorting his D-Lineman (64) on the field to his family.  2) Coach Cagle doing his thing...he's the little white dot in the middle of the clump of purple and gold. 3) The team came back out of the locker room to watch the band perform their halftime show after the game.  It has been a great show this year, complete with majorettes juggling batons (I am still super impressed at this) and the entire band dancing through part of the show.  

As much as I would have loved to stick around for the reception for the seniors and their families after the game, we packed up and headed home because we had some friends from college heading to our house to stay with us for the weekend because it was Homecoming at Huntingdon! It's only one of my most favorite weekends of the year!

This one was a little out of the ordinary for us, but we had a blast!  Why was it out of the ordinary?  Well because Eric was skipping out on the game this year for a fishing tournament. He finished a respectable 4th place in the tournament, and made it to Montgomery shortly after the game ended to hang out with everyone.

I on the other hand had no desire to miss out on any of it.  One of my teammates was being inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, so I walked the pups, whipped up a quick breakfast for out guests, got ready, and told our friends I'd meet them at the game.  Host of the year right here.

I made it to the ceremony with about a minute to spare and got to see her accept her award!  She's the second women's basketball player to receive this honor in the NCAA era (which started my freshman year in 2003).

Some of the oldies (front row) with the current team after L-Bo's induction ceremony.

After the ceremony we headed over to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants from our college days and met up with a few more of my old teammates. There were several girls there this year who I had not seen since our wedding so seeing them all after 6 years was awesome!

Parts of my Lady Hawk Family.  I'd like to point out that in the picture on the left I am the Senior....all of these girls graduated after I did.  In the picture on the right I am the freshman....these girls made me want to be a part of their family and taught me so much over the years! 

We made it back to the school just before kickoff and I headed over to the football tents to mingle with all of those friends who I see once a year at the game...and answer the question, "Where's Cagle [Eric]?" about 4,000 times. Needless to say not a single person was shocked when I said he was fishing, and were glad when I assured them he'd be there later.

The wives (and some future Hawks). I feel like these girls are as much a part of my HC family as anyone even through most of them didn't go to school there.  

Huntingdon won big 48-27 and we all headed back to the one couple who still lives near the school's house to watch the end of the UT/Texas A&M game (ugh) and the Alabama/Arkansas game.  To be honest there was not a ton of game-watching going on.  There was significantly more telling old stories and laughing and just soaking up the moment with people that I miss like crazy all year long and am so thankful that I get to call my friends.

At the Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony that morning Coach Turk (the AD and head football coach) said something to the current student athletes in the audience that really stuck a chord with me.  He said that once it's all said and done and your career is just a memory, you may remember bits and pieces of the games, but the times that will stick out in your mind are the times in between the games: the 5AM practices, the road trips, the tough times you went through with the help of your teammates, the dinners in the dining hall, and just random nights in the dorms.  He said that those things that you will really cherish and when you come back years later and see your old teammates, those are the times you'll recall and laugh about. I found myself nodding along and knowing that the girls currently on the team who were all sitting behind me at the ceremony had no idea how special what they are a part of right now will become in their lives, and how lucky I am to have a family of Lady Hawks that I can always lean on.

A Thanks Filled Weekend

I'm just going to lay it out there today and say that I am absolutely 100% exhausted today. However, it's not from the hustle and bustle of a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  It's from trying to escape the earthquakes I kept dreaming about last night....Word to the wise: If you would like to watch the movie San Andreas, watch it because it's a really great movie.  However.  If you are like me and tend to have vivid dreams about after watching movies that tend to be adrenaline-inducing (action-packed, scary, etc.), do NOT watch this movie right before bed.  I woke up in the middle of the night exhausted from running in my sleep and scolded myself for letting that movie get to me, but it didn't help because I went right back to dreaming about earthquakes. =(

We had an absolutely fantastic Thanksgiving weekend that was jam packed with family, delicious food and so much fun! Eric started the long weekend cooking 7 of the 11 turkeys he had to fry this year, needless to say our kitchen sink looked like the frozen meat aisle at the grocery store.  My BIL, SIL and nephew arrived Wednesday and my SIL and I spent most of the day cooking for Thanksgiving. Eric fried fish that night and we had a crew over to eat fish tacos.  Thankfully the night didn't go to late because we were up and ready for Turkey Day the next morning.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Eric's family, that [of course] included entirely too much food.

One of my most favorite smells in the entire world...fried turkey =)

Clockwise from top left: 1) Our Thanksgiving spread. It was enormous as you can see and everything was delicious!  The there were a couple of platters on the stove behind Eric, too. Eric and I were talking that night and we could not think of a single thing that was missing from our spread.  2) Our dessert table included Buttermilk Pie, Pecan Pie, Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake, Lemon Coconut Cake, and Pineapple Upside Down Cake. And yes they were all amazing.  3) The obligatory Thanksgiving plate photo (this was plate #1). 4) The most delectable Thanksgiving leftover sandwich, complete with turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing....yes stuffing. I've eaten 3 so far and will probably polish off another one tonight. #noshameinmyleftoversgame

We washed our meal down with Apple Cider Mimosas and were really excited about it (as if you couldn't tell).

My SIL and I decided to venture out Black Friday shopping on Friday morning. Neither one of us had anything major on our lists, and as luck would have it we both found what we were looking for as soon as we walked in to the first store. Thank you J.C. Penney's for having a great sale on boots and for having several pairs of larger sizes left!  [I'm looking at you, Belk's.] We figured we found what we were looking for so quickly anything else we bought would be bonus.  We hit up 2 different malls and were back home before noon. To be honest I think we spent the longest amount of time in Penney's trying to find $5 worth of something so we could get a $20 off coupon.

Saturday was the Iron Bowl, so we put together some delicious hors d'oeuvres that morning and  footballed all afternoon. Alabama pulled out a win, and half of the crowd at our house was happy, the other half was sad they lost the game, and one guy was beside himself because we had a $2/square football board and had Derrick Henry not scored Alabama's last touchdown with less than 30 seconds to go in the game he would have won $80.

 Leaf piles are the best when you're 1 year old, in case you didn't know.

I am so glad we got to spend a few days with these guys (plus our husbands who were in the woods when we decided to have this little photoshoot, but I promise they were around all weekend.) =)

See?  Little man was loving sitting on his own little perch with the big boys!

We were up early again on Sunday as my BIL, SIL, and nephew headed back home.  After they left I had every intention of cleaning up the house and getting things back in order, but the night before I was informed about the Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies by my SIL and a couple of friends, so I decided to see what they were talking about.  6 hours later I had watched 3 fantastic movies and had only dusted because the majority of the dusting was in the living room where I could watch movies. I ended up forcing myself out of the chair around 3:30pm and managed to walk the dogs twice, wash my car, and finish cleaning the house before 6pm.  I can only imagine how productive I could have been had I not watched movies all day. This is why I don't watch movies....they suck me in and I get absolutely NOTHING done. The purpose of cleaning was so we could go get a CHristmas tree but that didn't happen Sunday, but hopefully we will have one in our possession before the end of the week (or before Costco runs out). I know what I'll be doing this coming weekend!

A Weekend in T-Town

Finally!  It finally feels like November around these parts! It might be a little rainy but I can deal with that because it's finally not hot anymore. =) =) =) *cue happy dance*  

We had quite the weekend around here. It was absolutely spectacular and so much fun, mainly because we spent a good portion of our weekend in a little town called Tuscaloosa....you may have heard of their football team, the Crimson Tide. If you haven't what rock do you live under?

This stadium is impressive to say the least, especially when it's filled to capacity!

But we'll get to that later....We started our weekend off with Chinese Takeout and movies on Friday.  Because of the impending rain, THS (and most of the state of AL) played their playoff game on Thursday night. I sat this game out, since it was 3 hours away and an unlikely win for our kids. I'm glad I did because Eric didn't get home until 2am...there's no way I could have functioned the next day at work! The boys unfortunately lost, but on the plus side for me I get my husband back and now he only has 3 things to split his free time among: me, hunting, and fishing. Because anyone who knows him knows he had no desire to give any of those things up even with a busy football schedule.

Thankfully we were in bed early because we had quite a Saturday ahead of us. We got up bright and early to head to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama - LSU game. It was a 7pm kickoff, but Eric wanted to get up there early despite the rain. We arrived around noon and went in search of food and a tv to watch some afternoon games. We ended up at a little seafood place called Steamers on the Strip. It took an hour to get a table, but that was fairly quick considering it was pouring rain all afternoon and we had a group of 9 with us. We still had a couple of hours to kill after we ate so we went back to one of Eric's fishing buddy's son's apartments which was literally 2 blocks from the stadium to watch some of the afternoon games. We also got to park under the complex which was great until we were trying to leave after the game.

My SIL and I got to see one of our old teammates, too!

We headed over to the game about an hour before kickoff excited to see Bama dominate LSU! We had really great tickets in the lower level, but then one of the guys Eric coaches with offered us tickets with him and his wife in one of the Skyboxes......uh yes please. We ended up giving our tickets to Eric's buddy and his girlfriend and enjoyed the game from the comfort of the Sky Box where we didn't have to worry about the cold or rain, plus we had an endless supply of food and cokes.  In other words we were spoiled rotten and enjoyed every second of it.

Clockwise from top left: 1) My Crab Cake BLT from Steamers...delicious. 2) Sky Box food is absolutely amazing.  The Golden Fried Risotto Bites were delicious, plus we had Shrimp Creole and Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin....not too shabby. 3) We were greeted by and enormous dessert tabel when we got off the elevator which I had to back track to a little later for some Tiramisu, Red Velvet cupcakes, mini cheese cakes, and friend apple pie bites. 4) During the 3rd Quarter they brought in a bag of steaming hot ball park hot dogs, which were probably the best thing I late the entire time....no lie.  I wanted to eat all of them!

The view was spectacular and the game was fantastic!  Of course it helped that Alabama dominated the game. We headed back to the car after the game and attempted to make a quick exit. The only problem with that was there were 110,000 other people trying to do the same so it ended up taking us nearly an hour to to go .25 miles to get to the road to get out of town. This particular road we were on was directly parallel to the stadium so we had waves of people to watch that entertained us the entire time.

 This was the series where Alabama thought they had a safety but the refs said no....it was right in front of us!

 The post game celebration on the field. 

We eventually made it home around 2:30AM, as it's a 2+ hour drive without game day traffic.  But apparently we were making good time because Eric's brother and his wife who were also there with us, went back to Birmingham which should have been just 45 minutes away, got home less than an hour before we did.

Because of our late night, we slept in Sunday until 11:00AM. I couldn't tell you the last time I slept that late. I did have to get up with the dogs at 7:30AM for them to go out and feed them breakfast, but went right back to sleep. Once we did get up we spent most of the afternoon on the couch watching movies and doing as little as possible.  It was a perfect day for it with the rain and the cooler temps. Eric attempted to hunt Sunday afternoon and came home soaking wet and freezing cold after a few hours. I warmed him up with some potato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and he felt better.

So here I am again, Monday morning.  I am voiceless this morning since this awful cold I've been fighting for a week now has settled in my throat.  I started losing my voice after the game Saturday night and I am still waiting on it to come back.  It's going to be quite a challenge to yell over 8 and 9 year old girls in tap shoes tonight without it so please wish me luck!