Homecoming Weekend Recap

When we finally sat down last night around 8:30pm, all I could think was thank goodness Eric didn't have a football game Friday night.  I really don't know how we could have fit it in. It was one of those weekends where I can look back and say that we really lived it up.  I took advantage of the free Friday night and got a quick run in when I got home and I am so glad I did because this was my backdrop:

If that doesn't say "you've made the right decision this evening" I don't know what does.  We tossed around the idea of going out to dinner, but ultimately went with steaks on the grill, which were much better than anything we would have had to wait for at a restaurant.  We called it a night shortly after dinner because we had plans bright and early on Saturday morning for Homecoming at Huntingdon!

This is seriously one of my favorite weekends of the entire year because we get to see all of our college friends and since nearly all of us are married we don't have as many opportunities to get together (weddings were our other get-togethers).  We left the house at 6:45 [yikes] to make it to Montgomery because Eric hates to be late to anything.  I did convince him that we should stop and pick up breakfast for our friends who we were meeting because normal people don't get up that early on weekends.  The boys took off to meet up with the rest of their buds and the girls hung out at my old teammate's apartment until it was time to go to the Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. This year one of my old teammates became the first women's basketball player to receive this honor, and one of Eric's old roommates was receiving the honor as well.  It was a wonderful ceremony made even better by an inductee from the c/o 1966 who told some absolutely hilarious stories from when he and his buddies were students.  I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Me with my teammate who was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Coach Smith who recruited me to play basketball at HC, and another one of my old teammates.  

Eric with some of his old teammates at the pre-game tailgate lunch.

Eric and I at the game.

The game was great and HC ended up winning 51-14.  It really could not have been a more beautiful day for football.  After the game we headed home and got caught up on the goings on in the SEC and oh my did things get a little crazy this weekend in the world of college football.  Who would have thought that the only game that wasn't close or an upset would be the Auburn-LSU game?  Since that game ended up being a blowout so we opted to sit around the campfire instead of watching the 2nd half.  Combined with the chili I whipped up for dinner it really felt like fall!

Sunday was back to our normal routine: church and grocery store for me, football film for Eric.  I spent the afternoon whipping up some goodies [I had a weak moment at the grocery store which resulted in some mini pumpkin spice cakes with cream cheese frosting] and getting ready for my Monday night classes because dance classes are back as of today!  I cannot wait!

45 degrees on Sunday morning = BOOT WEATHER!  And a little bit of pumpkin spice goodness!

I'm not going to lie, this morning was a struggle to get out of bed.  With the days getting shorter, it's dark outside when I leave which doesn't help me whatsoever. BUT, I got a treat this morning that made it all worth it:

Sunrise over the cotton fields....it doesn't get much better than this!

High Five for Friday

Woohoo Friday!  I'm so glad we made it through another week...the first week of October no less.  Time is flying by! It's been a minute since I've done a High 5 for Friday Day post (probably because it's been that long since I've had anything interesting to talk about !), so I figured there's no time like the present to talk about a few things.

1. Twinning

This happened on Monday:

During a shopping trip while my parents were here a couple of weeks ago, Mom and I picked up nearly identical bright green sweaters as we were perusing the Talbots Outlet.  We were on different sides of the store, and when we met back up we realized what we had done.  Mom asked me what I would wear with it and I told her I would surely pair it with navy, she agreed.  We laughed about it and continued on shopping.  Fast forward and entire week.  We're having one of our afternoon phone calls while I am driving home and Mom casually mentions that she got lots of compliments on her bright green sweater that day.  Jokingly I tell her that I hope she wore it with navy.  Turns out she wore it with a knee length navy dress.  Guess what your's truly had on that very day....my bright green sweater over a navy dress.  We got a kick out if it.  I've always known I would eventually turn into my mother, but I guess I never thought the change would be so literal...lol.  Great minds do think alike!

2.Raspberries 

I received a large box in the mail this week from my grandparents.  I was curious considering I was not expecting anything, so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find a big bunch of raspberry plants!  I brought several home with us from out trip to Indiana this summer, but only one of them made it...I might have waited a little too long to get them in some dirt.  I am hoping our newest raspberry additions will thrive so we can have LOTS of raspberries next year!

3. Brazilian Food

The father of one of our friends who is from Brazil has been here visiting for the past couple of months.  He speaks very little English and we speak no Portuguese so it has made for some awkward but endearing conversations while he has been here.  Sadly he had to head back to the Southern Hemisphere this week, but we sent him off with a big cookout Tuesday night.  I have discovered over the past couple of months that I LOVE Brazilian food.  It is super light and flavorful, kinda tex-mexy but so much better.  I am sure I have mentioned the Brazilian Potato Salad once or twice around these parts,  It looks like a Shepard's pie, has the flavor of the bacon ranch boxed pasta salad you can get a the grocery store, but is filled with delicious things like carrots, olives, and even chicken!  This stuff is amazing.  At the cookout this week we had this delicious dish, as well as several grilled meats and of course fresh pico de gallo with rice and guacamole.  It was sooooo good!  As much as I hate to see our friend's dad go back home, I am so glad we got to send him off with a bang!

4. Dance Starts Up Next Week!

I am getting really excited because the 2014-2015 dance year kicks off next week!  I feel like it's the first week of school or something (which is guess it is the first week of dance school).  I cannot wait to get in the studio and work with all of the little darlings this year. I am going to get to work with 3rd graders-7th graders this year which will be lots of fun!  I will be tap-tapping to my little heart's content and I can't wait!

5.  No-football Friday/Homecoming?

We get to switch things up this weekend for football.  THS has a bye week [WHAT?!] which means we are footloose and fancy free this evening!  We considered going out to eat and then we both laughed and remembered that we are anti-Friday night date nighters.  We have never had luck trying to go out to eat on a Friday night.  It never fails.  We gave it up when we were in college.  Having football and basketball games on those nights normally keeps us from going most of the time, but when we have a free night we tend to momentarily forget about it.  My vote is for some Little Caesars and catching up on this week's NCIS episodes that we have yet to watch.  Whatever we do it won't be too much because we are going to be up bright and early to head to Montgomery for Homecoming at Huntingdon!  It's going to be a full day of fun and friends, most of whom we haven't seen in a year and I cannot wait!  It is supposed to be in the upper 60s and sunny all day which is going to make for an absolutely beautiful day!

The picture on the left was taken during Eric's last football season (fall 07) and the picture on the right is last year at Homecoming. 

Happy Friday!

Best Marinade Ever

This recipe has been a long time coming.  We first had this past summer (I can say that because it's fall now!), during a trip to the beach to visit my BIL and SIL. My SIL made some pork chops for dinner for us one night and they were marinated to perfection; absolutely delicious.  Of course I asked her for the recipe and she told me she found it on Pinterest...I mean seriously is there any other place to get a good recipe besides an old family cook book these days?  I found it and I pinned it and the rest is history. So far we've had it on pork, steak, and chicken and it tastes wonderful on all three.
So why haven't I shared thus far?  To be honest, we inhale what ever we make with it so quickly it took me 3 months to get a "cooked" food picture....and heaven forbid I share a recipe without a finished product picture, right?!  So without further ado:

adapted from this recipe

What You Need:

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder

3 Tbsp fresh basil

1 1/2 Tbsp parsley 

1 tsp ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

How to Make It:

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl until thoroughly mixed.

Pour marinade over desired meat (chicken, steak, pork, etc.). Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. I prefer to marinate the meat over night. Cook meat as desired.

Yes it's that easy and have I mentioned it's delicious?!

One

Two

 Three

Hungry yet?  You're welcome. =)

King Me

Our lives haven't been completely football consumed for the past few weeks, 75% consumed yes, but we've carved out a little bit of time for other things.

We had a little bit of excitement in the form of a new bed a few weeks ago, but it's taken us both a little time to adjust to it and we're both finally coming around.  I used to be able to go from sleeping in a hotel to the floor of a bus and then to my dorm bed in a couple of days and sleep like a baby all three places.  Now it takes me several nights to adjust to a new bed.  I think this means I'm getting old.  I never thought I'd miss our old sunk in mattress, but I guess it molded to us just right.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our new mattress, it's just taking me some time to get used to it.

We upgraded to a King sized bed last month, which is actually something we have been talking about for a while. I had been fighting it, but I caved in the middle of the awful late heat wave we had in Alabama last month.  Our bedroom has always been warmer than the rest of the house, even with 3 fans blowing on us.  It was an exceptionally warm evening and I was very tired but could not get cool enough to go to sleep.  To make matters worse, my sweet hubby who has recently taken to sleeping on his back with a pillow under each arm (I'm guessing so it feels like he is sleeping in his recliner) had one of his arm pillows right up against my back.  I'm not saying I would have been cool enough to fall asleep without the pillow in my back, but that night the pillow is what sent me over the edge.  In my sleepy state I remember trying to pull the pillow away from me several times and then getting quite upset when I realized that one of our extra fans (the one that usually points at me) was not in the doorway, which only made my internal temperature rise even more.  I finally found the fan in the bathroom (where I had moved it the day before), turned it on and drifted off to sleep, but not before deciding that we were indeed upgrading our bed.

We took the plunge a few weeks ago and come hell or high water we were going to sleep in it night we got it.  Long story short, after a comical trip to Montgomery to purchase the mattress and box springs (which only solidified the fact that Eric and I have no business whatsoever shopping together) we arrived home to set the bed up at 9:00pm.  Luckily I have a handy husband who has handy friends and they had the old bed broken down and removed from the house and the new bed set up in 45 minutes. I was impressed but really too sleepy to care.

Please excuse the state of the pillow, this is why Eric is not in charge of decorating the house.

The boys gave it their approval and nearly a month into it Eric and I are finally getting adjusted to it. 

Despite the larger bed, they still crowd my side. Thankfully they do not stay there all night.

My only problem with it now?  The fact that it takes twice as long to put the pillow cases on all 9 of the pillows than it does to put the sheets on the bed after I wash everything. Eric having a bad case of poison ivy this week has only made my disdain for washing and changing sheets even greater. I told him he's putting the sheets on tomorrow.

#pillowprobs