Weekend Recap

I'm now sure why but for some reason it hasn't really felt like football season is imminent around here to me.  It could have something to do with the crazy humid summer weather right now, which is typical for this time of year.  Eric's been at practice every day like normal, but before this past weekend for whatever reason it had not hit me yet.

After the weekend we just had...I am ready!  I mentioned Friday that we were having a cookout/cooking contest with all of the football coaches and their families like we've done the past couple of years and this year's event far exceeded the previous years' events. We had a house/carport/yard/pool full of folks having a blast!  As for the BBQ Rib Contest and the Potato Salad Contest, Eric and I both came in 2nd, which is just fine with us. We are so fortunate to have a group of coaches and their families who all gel together so well.  I am pretty sure all of the wives and kids enjoy being around each other as much as the coaches do.  It's like our own little football family.  I completely failed at snapping pictures because we were having so much fun, but I did grab a couple.

Aside from the company, the next best part of the night was the music.  The gentleman with the guitar in the picture above is the extremely talented Kevin Adair.  He is a local musician who plays around the Auburn area, and he is great! This was my second time to hear him play live, and it won't be the last.  You can find his music here.  The gentleman on the drums is one of the coaches.  He brought his drums over and the two of them who met that evening, played all night long.  It was a treat for all of us because none of the other coaches had ever heard him play!

It was a wonderful night with some really awesome people and I can finally say that I am ready for football season to start!  Although I don't really have a choice in that matter. =)

High Five for Friday

Another week down. I was surprised that it went pretty quickly, considering it had been a few weeks since I'd had a 5 day work week due to vacation. Let's get right to it, shall we?

1. I tried something new this week for dinner. Instead of racking my brain [aka scouring Pinterest] for recipes and trying to put a bunch of stuff together, I marinated a bunch of chicken Sunday afternoon and grilled it on Sunday night. Each night this week I pulled out a container of chicken, heated it up and combined it with spring mix and about 10 other salad toppings.  I think this will continue for at least a few weeks to come.  Delicious, healthy dinner in 10 minutes?  Yes, please. Being a creature of habit [I'm the girl who ate a turkey sandwich and Cool Ranch Doritos for lunch for at least 5 years straight in school], I am completely on board with this.  I was afraid Eric would want more variety, but I switched up the toppings and had three different chicken marinades, which seemed to work.  I ran out of chicken last night, so we had Naan Pizzas of the Gouda/Turkey Sausage/Prosciutto variety instead. It was a delicious change of pace.

2. Staying with the changing things up, I tried something new with my hair this week.  I had worn my hair curly on Sunday and for whatever reason did not wash it Sunday night/Monday morning. No biggie, my hair can handle it but I tend to only do that when it's straight. With the insane heat and humidity we've had this week, I have not been feeling heat-straightened hair. My solution to unruly second day curly hair was a ginormous inverted poof bun on the top of my head.  To my surprise I got a ton of compliments on my hair from coworkers.  I guess I should wear dirty hair poofs more often...they certainly take a lot less time to fix than straight hair!

3. I am getting really excited about a Baby Shower I am throwing for my SIL in a few weeks.  Being the planner I am, I've already started working on some decorations, and decided to experiment with one of the treat decorations I wanted to make. I saw some really cute blue-dipped Oreo Pops on Pinterest that I wanted to recreate.  I told a friend about it, and she suggested adding mini-pretzels as antlers to go with my very light hunting theme.  I tried it and they came out sooooo cute!

4. While at the grocery store getting supplies for my deer pops, I was reminded of why I don't go to the grocery store when I'm hungry.  Not only did I end up with Oreos (which will NOT make it until the shower...who was I kidding), but I ended up with these in my cart.

FYI they were completely worth it...and I justified my purchases because they were both BOGO and that meant I could get one of each for half price...so there. 

5. Our Saturday is going to be super full and so much fun!  We're hosting the 3rd Annual Coaches Preseason Cookout, which will feature the 2nd Annual Coaches BBQ Rib Contest, and for the first time a Potato Salad Contest which yours truly will be entering.  I was shocked when I realized I will have at least 4 challengers! We've always had the cookout on picture day as a nice little get-together right before the season starts.   I've been looking forward to it for several weeks, and I am so glad it's finally here.

Here's to a great weekend and hoping that I can decide on an outfit and get my hair to look semi-decent in the sweltering humidity on the football field tomorrow morning for pictures.  Please send me non-poofy hair thoughts!

Back Home Again, in Indiana

I'm going to break this vacation recap into 2 installments because there's absolutely no way I could put everything into one post.

I've always been a fan of going back home, which is why I was ecstatic when Eric said he had a week off from football the last week of July and suggested we take a trip to my first hometown in Indiana.  My grandparents still live there and it had been a while since we'd been for a visit, and even longer since we'd been for a visit in the summertime.  So last Thursday, we packed up the car and headed north.  After several construction filled hours (of course the leg I ended up driving was nothing but construction), we made it!

It was one of the most relaxing trips I've been on in a long time.  We are always on the go, even on vacation usually so it was nice to sit back and relax for a few days.

 1. The first thing we did Friday morning was head up to the lake.  I have such fond memories of this place where I grew up swimming, tubing, skiing, and spending countless weekends having a ball!
2. My grandparents' backyard.  It is absolutely beautiful here.  The trees, the pond, the flowers, it doesn't get much prettier than this!
3. We managed to get a few projects done while we were there.  This one happened to be a new railing for the stairs in the background.  Eric and my grandpa had it up in no time!
4. The beautiful Indiana country side.  Driving through this part of the country in the summertime, there's nothing but corn and soybeans as far as you can see!
5. and 6. A trip to Indiana isn't complete without a trip to my all-time favorite restaurant....Arni's.  I've mentioned my love for this place before, but seriously I can't get enough of it.  The Jr. [the salad] is amazing, and I have yet to find any pizza that stacks up to theirs.  I even got Eric to admit how good it was.  We made sure to bring a few home with us and their waiting in the freezer to be devoured!...well the 2 that are left are still waiting to be devoured.

1. and 2.  Sprinkled in the corn and soybean fields, you will find several hundred [and probably more] giant windmills.  They were installed a few years ago and they are an interesting addition to the skyline in this part of the country.  These pictures don't do them justice, but they are enormous!

3.-7. My grandparents have always had an enormous garden at their house.  Every year they grow all kinds of delicious fruits and vegetables.  This year of course is not exception.  They have an abundance of grapes (3), spaghetti squash (5), and of course the reddest, sweetest raspberries you've ever put in your mouth.  There's nothing better than a fresh red raspberry picked right off the plant.  I am pretty sure I ate a pound or 2 myself. My grandma gave me a couple of raspberry plants to see if I can grow some down here next year.  I hope they make it because they are so much better than the ones you get in the store!

We took an excursion on one of our days there to the Fair Oaks Dairy Farm.  We'd heard about it from my grandparents so we decided to see what all of the hype was about.  It was extremely impressive!  I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it!  This place was enormous and what we saw it's just one of 11 smaller farms in the area that all make up Fair Oaks.  These cows are treated like royalty, and rightly so  beacause the farm is self sustained by the cows.  Their milk is the money maker and their other output [poo]  powers the farm.

1. One of the barns where the cows live.  From what they said the cows are very social animals and enjoy spending time with their friends in the barn stalls.
2. The visitors center.
3. This is where the cows get milked.  It's a 72-cow rotary that runs for 7 hours at a time, and is cleaned for an hour after that.  It runs 24 hours a day so the cows get milked 3 times per day.  The cows love it.  They load themselves on to the rotary without human help and even more impressively, they unload themselves by backing out of the stall while the rotary is moving. As someone who has a fear of rotating doors, the fact that cows can back up on a rotating platform without human intervention is beyond impressive.
4. While we were there we got to eat at their brand new on-site restaurant, The Farmhouse.  The food was amazing!  We had a cheese and cured meats platter...because fresh cheese. =)  For lunch I had a delicious burger and some of the creamiest mac and cheese I've ever tasted. For dessert we headed over to the cafe for homemade ice cream.  Eric said their Butter Pecan was the best he'd ever tasted. I opted for the Mint Chocolate Chip of course.  It was some of the creamiest ice cream I've ever had and I am really sad I don't have any right this second.
5. Our last stop at Fair Oaks was the Cheese Factory.  They make their own cheeses and have several cheeses that have won awards at the World Cheese Championships.  Being the cheese connoisseurs we are, Eric and I had to try several, so we took home the Championship Cheese Sampler.  Which is where the cheeses on my "I'm so Fancy" cheese and cracker platter came from that I made this past weekend.  Needless to say my after work snacks this week have been nothing short of amazing. =) Did I mention I LOVE cheese?

We headed back home on Wednesday with our hearts happy and our batteries recharged.  There's nothing better than spending time with family to remind you about what's really important in life.  On our way home I kept thinking about how blessed I am to be a part of an such an amazing family.  They are incredible people who I love dearly.

So that's Part 1 of our trip. Part 2 actually took place a couple of hours north of Part 1 in the big city of Chicago!  I'll give you a little preview of some of the fun we had...let's just say one whole day looked like this:

No this is not just a really bad quality picture, these bikes were really going this fast and we were really this close to them!

Weekend Recap

I think I am going to suggest that 2 day weeks become the norm.  2 days at work followed by 2 days of weekend was absolutely wonderful!  This being our last [almost] football-less weekend for several months, we took advantage of our freedom.  Friday night we headed to our local Indian Casino to indulge in their crab legs and prime rib buffet.  I thinks it's safe to say that we won....we beat the buffet. Out table looked like an episode of Deadliest Catch with all of the crab legs on it.  I am not much of a crab leg eater [too much work for so little meat], but I made up for it with prime rib, mac and cheese, and fried shrimp.  We attempted to walk some of our dinner off around the casino and in the process won a little cash. Let's put it this way...I won back what my dinner cost. =) A win is a win, right?  We barely made it home before our food comas kicked in and we were done.

Saturday morning I did something I swore I was not going to do this weekend.....I braved tax-free shopping weekend.  I think I figured out the best way to take advantage of it without being completely overwhelmed....get there early so you can leave before the crowds get too bad.  I was in the Old Navy parking lot before they opened but decided to wait in the car instead of at the door like several other anxious shoppers.  The trip ended up being a success because I scored 3 pairs of pants for Eric and 3 shirts for me for under $100, and didn't have to pay the 10% sales tax we have in Alabama.   After that I headed over to Target and found 2 pairs of jeans for me, one pair for $6 and the other pair for $13.  I couldn't NOT get them!  I finished up my shopping trip with Costco and a stop at the Farmer's Market and I was in the car on the way home by 11:15am. That my friends, is how you do tax-free shopping weekend like a pro.  We spent Saturday afternoon lounging by the pool and cooking out with some friends....basically the way summer should be done.

Sunday I decided it was time to be productive so after church I hit the grocery store, cleaned the house, got the laundry going, and had 3 dinners for this week marinating by the time Eric got home from golf.  I had high hopes for a little garden work, but the couch and this week's episode of Girl Meets World were calling my name, which turned into a nap.  By the time I'd roused myself a few friends had made their way over to sit by the pool which seemed like a much better idea than gardening.  Sunday evening was a repeat of Saturday evening, just a couple of houses down instead of at our house.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

1. I had to walk to the post office and the bank on Friday while I was at work, so naturally I stopped at the new donut shop we have close by for a reward in the form of a red velvet donut with cream cheese frosting and chopped pecans on top....best $1 I've ever spent!
2. The reason we went walking around the casino floor after dinner.  We'd heard they had a shark tank inside, and had to see it.  Granted the shark was only about 3 feet long, but a shark is a shark.
3. The item at the buffet that made me shriek like a school girl....a cookie sandwich with frosting in between the cookies.  I think my friends thought I'd lost it at this point, it was the best thing I ate all night.
4. My fellow Old Navy shoppers who were a lot more hardcore than me.
5. I made a cheese and cracker plate for us for lunch on Saturday.  For some reason after I made it I could not get the Iggy Azelea song, "I'm so Fancy" out of my head afterward.  But seriously, it was the best lunch ever and Eric agreed.  The cheese came from an excursion we took while were in Indiana (which I will be recapping this week).
6. Peanut and his new BFF Bandit/Gizmo (depending on who you ask).  Our neighbors got a shih tzu puppy and he's only 7 weeks old.  He and Peanut chased each other around the yard and the puppy tried to chase Hawk, but his bunny hops in the grass only got him so far and he'd get distracted by a leaf or a crepe myrtle flower and start playing with that instead.

Even though neither of us are teachers, this weekend was kind of the end of the summer for us with [real] football practice starting this week.  It won't be long before we'll be spending our Friday nights under the lights as another football season gets rolling!