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.

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.

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....

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!

A Man Walks onto a Camper Sales Lot.....

When Eric and his best friend were younger they'd do things like go get new dirt bikes or 4-wheelers together because heaven forbid one did something without the other one. Because boys will be boys that has held true in adulthood as they both got new trucks around the same time and as of last month they (along with their wives) are now the proud owners of campers.

Gassed up and ready to go!

Yes campers.  They even went together to make their camper purchases and were told by the salesman that he could not believe they were both able to select and purchase their campers without their wives present.  Lucky for them they picked out the right ones (wives and campers) because it would have been a shame if they'd had to return their new toys if they'd purchased the wrong ones.

I was actually sitting on a hill beside the 9th fairway of the U.S. Open when I received a text from Eric with a video of our new 5th wheel camper, and sat there in complete shock before calling him and asking if it was a joke.  I knew he was thinking very strongly about it but figured it would blow over like it has in the past. But clearly it did not.....

Our set up at the campground

It took me a week or so to warm up to the idea of camping because we did not camp when I was a kid, so I had no idea what to expect.  Once I started filling it up with all of the things we might need....aka shopping for it I really started to get excited. It was love at first sight for Eric and he and his buddies used it as a Saturday night hangout spot in the middle of our yard the first weekend we had it.

We took her our for her maiden voyage this past extended 4th of July weekend along with Eric's best friend and his wife, and another couple.  Somehow we were able to snag 3 lots next to each other at a state park on Lake Martin.....several of the people we stayed near were shocked we were able to get our slots, too.

We packed up the truck with everything I hadn't had a chance to load the night before when Eric closed the slides and headed up to the lake bright and early on Saturday morning.  Once we got there Eric set up the camper - I have no clue how to do any of the backing in and leveling and hooking up to water/power/etc so I played with some fellow campers' dogs....there were so.many.dogs there, it was awesome! We only brought Beau and Peanut this time but I am scheming how to get LG and Hawk included on the next trip.

Part of our canine contingency....our dogs did not win the award for best behaved all weekend....clearly

When he finished up his jobs he headed back home to get his boat - the campsite is only 30 minutes from our house so this was a good "1st trip" distance for us - and I got to work setting up the inside. It didn't take me too long so by the time he got back I was kicked back in a lawn chair reading a book.  (I am working on The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and so far I am really enjoying it).

We spent the rest of our weekend hanging out, reading (me), fishing (Eric), eating (all of us), and not much else.  It was probably one of the most relaxing vacations I've been on in a while, and as packed as the campsite was (there are over 600 camping slots there) we never felt crowded or like anyone was invading our space.  Everyone there was super friendly and helpful too! We did get called out as newbies because Eric's best friend left the warranty sticker on his window, but we all got a good chuckle out of it.

The guys in their gifted "camper shirts"

After such a successful trip we are chomping at the bit to go again!  The boys have been searching for a place for Labor Day already (the place we stayed is already booked), and spent the good part of Tuesday evening looking up campgrounds in AL and GA for our next trip!

Our crew!

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!