New Years Recap (and Roll Tide)

How 'bout them Bammers?!?  I'm am almost positive that at least 50% of the population of the state of Alabama is functioning on very little sleep and lots of coffee today after the incredibly exciting National Championship Game last night.  With it being a come-from-behind overtime victory, I am sure there were very few fans who switched off the game early.  I am glad Bama won, but I am also glad that it was a good game with lots of story lines to it: Coach vs. Former Asst. Coach, brothers going head to head on the field, Bama just barely sneaking in to the game thanks to an Auburn loss in the SEC Championship to make it an all SEC game, and Bama pulling their 25-2 QB at halftime to put in a true freshman to up against Georgia's true freshman QB (so many talented freshman played a huge role in the game!).  You can't make this stuff up. The die hard Bama fans are all wearing smiles today, but they're also not tooting their horns like they have in years past because they know how close they were to not getting this one.

So the real point of this post was to wrap up our holiday season, and the only thing I have left is New Years....Eve and Day because the two combined were quite a doozy, so let's do this.

If you recall from my last post I was headed back to AL on NYE.  I made it home around 2 p.m., and thankfully we were spending NYE at some friends' house so I didn't have to come home and host like I did last year. I managed to unpack the car, walk the pups, make dessert to take with us, and get ready all in a 4 hour span.  *pats self on the back for being Superwoman*

Our New Years Crew

Some good friends of ours were spending their fist holiday season in their new home after living in a rental while the waited on their old house to sell (out of town) for the past 4 years, so needless to say they were thrilled to get to host everyone!  It was an awesome dinner party complete with fancy tables, Moscow Mules, fireworks (jury is still out on whether the kids or the grown men had more fun with those), karaoke, and of course a champagne toast at midnight. 

 Believe it or not, this was a Pictionary drawing of Spongebob Squarepants, and yes someone guessed it correctly.

....and the best part?  I got to go home and not have to pick my house up afterward!!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hosting things at our house but our porch is not built for winter gatherings so it was nice having somewhere else to go!

We made it home in the wee hours of the morning, but were wired from the festivities so I made dips for the football games the next day.....at 2:30 a.m. I think I finally gave in around 3 a.m., only to be roused by the pups around 8 (such is life).  As hard as I tried (ok I didn't try that hard) I was not ready to go 2.5 hours later when Eric wanted to head back out to another friends' house to watch the football games.....12 straight hours of football games to be exact. I think I made it for the second half of the first game, went home to take a nap and try to at least unpack my suitcase from my trip to Memphis and got caught up watching the GA/OK overtime game, and made it back for the second quarter of the Bama/Clemson game.  Thank goodness the game had an uneventful second half so I could say "see ya" and head to the house. 

I think I was still playing catch up from Christmas all week last week, but I think I am finally there.  The house has been de-Christmased (which took me a week....gah!), and I am ready to take on 2018!

Bring it 2018!

I will leave you with one of my favorite puns I've seen this morning about the game last night:
"Thank goodness the QB change at halftime wasn't Tua little Tua late".....I know, I know, super corny, but still good.

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! 

Football Season 2017 Update

So I was just bee-bopping along so nicely with posts and then life happened and I looked up and it was October...October folks, as is 12 weeks until Christmas.  I honestly couldn't tell you what happened to September.  Well I guess I can, it's called football season, and fishing trips, and work, and....well you get the point. 

I have lots of fun posts to share....soon, very soon, but I figured a brief football season update was in order for today. So here goes.....

Football season is now in full swing and we're in the second half of our season already.  We're now 5-1 (2-1 in the region).  Last Friday went back to Brewton (where we were Labor Day weekend) to play the team on the other side of Murder Creek, T.R. Miller.  This was a huge game, despite the fact that it was not a region game.  Why?

THS has played T.R. Miller 6 times, and up until last Friday had lost every contest, one of which cost the 1984 THS team a trip to the State Championship....and you better believe those who were not that team have not forgotten; in fact some of them have sons on the team now. 

T.R. Miller was no slouch in the 80s, nor are they now. They're a perennial powerhouse and hold the distinction of the "Winning-est High School Program in Alabama History" which is a big deal in Alabama....one of those teams that can help you assess how good your team is when you play them.....and guess what happened on Friday night?!?

.....WE WON! 

I thought the Handley game a few weeks ago was the best game I'd been to in recent memory, but the game Friday night was hands down the most fun high school football game I've been to.The game itself was absolutely insane....we were down 29-7 halfway through the third quarter and it seemed like every time they got the ball they ran a couple of plays and then scored a long TD. I remember thinking at halftime I hope they run the clock the second half....it was THAT bad. 

But something sparked in our kids out of no where and we scored, and then we kicked 3....yes I said 3 onside kicks in a row and recovered all three, scoring 3 touchdowns in the process to go up 33-27.  After a little back and forth and a little help from some zebras, we found ourselves on defending our endzone from 10 yards away with 9 seconds on the clock.  T.R. Miller tried to throw a pass in the endzone to score but one of our kids came around and batted down the pass as time expired.....

.....and then it was pandemonium!  We had a huge crowd that made the 2.5 hour drive (we had more people there than they did and that's saying something considering we live in a town of 6,000) including a sizable student section that rode a spirit bus to the game, so when time expired our stands erupted and the entire student section and several adults (a couple from the '84 team) stormed the field.

Post-game Alma Mater bliss!  

I've said it before but there's something different about this season.  The excitement that's brewing around this team is unlike what I've seen in the nearly 10 years I've been to games here, and it's so much fun!  Left on our schedule are 4 big region games, 2 of whom are against local rival teams that we have a lot of history with, so I hope that excitement just continues to build throughout the rest of the season! 

Tonight's game is one of those local rivals, and they are a very dangerous team.  They have some athletes who basically play backyard football - which is the opposite of what we play - so we have to be ready!  Hopefully we'll take care of business!  Go Tigers!!!

A Blustery Weekend Recap

via

Thanks to a crazy little storm named Irma, who decided to reek havoc on Florida and a few other southeastern states for the past week, we had an impromptu 3-day weekend.  To be honest, we weren't expecting it at all since Irma was supposed to hit Florida's east coast, meaning we'd get a little wind and rain from the western edge (the best side to be on in these storms), but Friday night/Saturday morning Irma decided to track a little more west that anticipated, which put us directly in her path.

Thankfully she had weakened to a tropical storm by the time she made her way up this way, but they still cancelled schools and closed businesses as a precaution.  We had crazy wind and rain all day, and a few places around town lost power for several hours.  We fared pretty well; there were several times I was afraid the tree in our front yard was going to snap and fall over, but we ended up with just a few small branches in the yard.

In fact, the most tragic casualty at our house was my phone that I dropped in my coffee cup that morning....don't drink and scroll facebook before you're fully caffeinated friends! I am happy to report that after spending the day in a bag of rice it is back up and running like new, albeit with a slight french vanilla scent.

We are certainly counting our blessings and praying for all of those who did take a direct hit from Irma and Harvey a couple of weeks ago.  I am sure I am not alone in saying that I am ready for hurricane season to be o-v-e-r!

Irma was far from our thoughts on Friday night though as we hit the road on Friday to take on the defending state champions at their place. We beat them last year at home, so we knew they'd be out for revenge this time around.

Gotta love those Friday Night Lights!

When I asked Eric about the game he said that if we were ahead or close at halftime, we had a shot at winning, so I hoped it would be a good ball game.  It ended up being a GREAT ball game!  It was a close first half, but we scored right before the half to go up 14-7.

I guess Eric knows what he was talking about because we pulled through with a 21-13 win!  It was one of the most fun games I've been to in a long time, and coming away with the win made it that much sweeter! This team is shaping up to be a really fun group to watch, and I feel like there's an excitement on Fridays around town like we haven't had for a few years.  I sure hope it continues!

Hoping for many more nights that end like this!

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!

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!

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!