Weekend Recap

Being a natural-planner, I usually try to have an idea of what the weekend will hold for us by at least Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.  Based on the time of year I usually have an idea of what we have in store, usually.  This weekend was no different.  With the birth of our sweet nephew last week we had decided we would go down for a quick visit to meet him and see his parents, too!  Thanks to Hawks extended vet stay, those plans were starting to look a little dicey by Thursday afternoon.  Friday morning we found out Eric's Dad would not be able to go (he was supposed to ride with us) because of an illness, however our plans were still to head down Saturday morning.  And then Friday night happened...I ended up staying home from the football game (it was an away game about an hour from us) because I had just picked up Hawk and did not want to drop him off at the house Friday and take off Saturday morning.  The first half was back and forth and ended up and was tied at 28 at halftime...too close for comfort if you ask me.  And then the bottom fell out.  In the second half we only scored one more TD and kept on ending with a final score of 49-34.  Eric was exhausted and beat down by the time he got home.  He takes losses very personally.  I don't know that I've seen him that upset about a loss since he played.  To make matters worse, when we woke up Saturday morning (early because we were planning on heading out pretty early) he had a horrible cough; on top of every thing he caught a cold.  That was the last straw because the last thing we wanted to do was bring nasty cold germs into the house.  Cue a sad auntie and uncle.  We called and told them we would have to reschedule our visit for another weekend, that will be in the very near future because I do not want to miss out on little bitty baby time!

1. Right after I sprung him from the puppy hospital...so happy to be outside!

2. So glad to have both my boys at home.  

3. Apparently he missed being able to sprawl out on the bed...can't to that at the vet!  You can see where they shaved his face to attach the drain in this pic.  I have to call to get the culture results today, so send me happy thoughts and prayers that they've kicked the infection please!!!

So at 8am Saturday morning we were faced with something we had not been faced with in quite a while....a wide open weekend with zero planned activities (well until 1pm Saturday when Eric had to be at football film). We started it off in due fashion with a breakfast trip to 1220 Cafe, duh. After that Eric and his buddy headed out to the hunting land to do some work.  Apparently the state of Alabama went and changed the first day of hunting season on me to Oct 25 this year, but only for half of the state.  Basically if you hunt south of I-85 or Highway 80 in West AL where there is not I-85 (with a couple of exceptions) they've moved deer bow hunting season back 10 days. Eric is in a unique situation because we live north of 85, but the place he hunts is just south of it, meaning they can't start hunting until Saturday the 25th.  As much as I am sure he would have liked to hunt, I know he was glad to have another weekend to prep everything.

Once he headed off, I figured I needed to find something productive to do, so I called up Eric's buddy's girlfriend and we headed off to the booming metropolis of Loachapoka (population 135, normally) for Syrup Sopping Day 2014. It's basically a giant arts and crafts fair in the middle of no where.  The website claims the population can reach as many as 20,000 that day.  I am not sure there's THAT many but I will say there were several thousand people there for sure. The only thing I had on my list was a bag of kettle corn per Eric's request, but I managed to find a few other items I've stored away for Christmastime, which is by the way less than 10 weeks away!

Fun day and Syrup Sopping!

I made it home just in time to watch the kick-off of the Texas A&M slaughter at the hands of Alabama.  It was so bad that I left somewhere during the 2nd quarter to get the stuff to make some potato soup for dinner.  We finished off the night with another fire pit and a few more football games.  It was a glorious fall evening and apparently my tater soup hit the spot because there was barely one bowl left for my lunch Sunday afternoon.

Loaded potato soup and a campfire...it doesn't get much better than this!  

Eric did manage to get a little bit of hunting in this weekend.  He went hog hunting Sunday morning and brought home a HUGE one.  He hung it up, cleaned it, cut it up, and threw it on the grill for dinner.  It doesn't get much fresher than that ladies and gents.  He chopped the butts up when he got home from film last night and we had some delicious nachos with fresh pico de gallo for dinner while we watch Peyton Manning break Bret Favre's TD record...so awesome!

High Five for Friday

We made it to Friday!  This has been an absolutely jam-packed crazy week, which has been perfectly fine with me because it made the week fly by!  I'm just going to hit the high points today because there's lots to talk about!

#1  

We have a new addition to our family and I am now officially an Aunt!  My BIL and SIL welcomed their sweet baby boy into the world on Wednesday afternoon.  He was 7lbs 13oz and 21 inches long...thankfully for my SIL not as big as they were expecting him to be! I am so excited for them and I cannot wait to meet their sweet little man this weekend!

#2 

An update on our Hawkey Dog...Our sweet puppy is STILL at the vet as of this morning.  I thought I was going to get to bring him home yesterday afternoon but when I called to arrange picking him up, I was told they wanted to keep him another night to give him one more round of an injectable antibiotic this morning.  The trade-off being that he won't be sent home with a drain in his neck like we were planning on.  To be honest, I would rather not have to deal with the drain and kenneling him so I reluctantly agreed. I told them they'd have to keep him all day and I would pick him up on my way home if that was going to be the case...they just better hope he's ready to go when I get there this afternoon, otherwise they're going to have to deal with an upset Mama.

#3 

I am really really hoping that fall is here for good! It has been nothing short of absolutely beautiful here this week.  I am really hoping that this means fall is here to stay. Because I am loving this weather right now, and not coaching means I actually get to enjoy my afternoons outside. =)  It's the little things, I tell ya!

#4 

Speaking of the little things, I know I say this every year but I really really love teaching dance classes.  It blows me away that these kids come in every week and really really want to improve and learn what I have to teach them.  And it's so rewarding to see them "get" a step that they've been trying so hard to perfect.  Last night I decided to attempt a couple of steps with one of my classes that I have tried to teach for the past 2 years, but have never had much luck with.  They try hard, but most end up super frustrated so I put it away for another day.  I guess something clicked this year (or it could be the fact that it was the 2nd or 3rd time most of them had attempted the step) because every single kid got it and a couple of them did the step perfectly.  I was so excited because they're some of my favorite steps to put together and I can actually put them in a dance this year!  Yep, definitely the little things.  =)

#5 

Samantha's Back  I realize this one is pretty up there on the random scale, but it's something near and dear to my heart.  I was a HUGE fan of the American Girl books and dolls when I was a kid.  I was reading them when it was just Samantha, Molly, Kirsten, and brand new Felicity. Samantha was my doll of choice, with Molly coming in a close second because she was a tap dancer of course.  I loved Samantha's stories and read them over and over again growing up.  I still remember getting my Samantha doll for Christmas one year and it was the best thing ever!  Of course my family indulged my love of Samantha. I am pretty sure I was the only kid I knew who had doll outfits and my size matching outfits that were made by my grandma.  We even had matching baskets from the Samantha Saves the Day book that my mom made.  Let's just say that Samantha and I dressed alike for many a book report circa 1992.  I promise this trip down memory lane has a point....a couple of years ago I discovered that Samantha had been retired and I was a little upset about this.  I realize they've introduced 9 more "historical" dolls as they're now called.  They've also introduced the annual "Girl of the Year" and the "My American Girl" dolls that you can get to look like you making the entire collection of dolls enormous, but I hated to see all of the original dolls I grew up with retired. I still get the annual catalog in the mail (due to a weak moment and free catalog offer) and I was delighted yesterday and I was flipping through it to see they are re-branding the historical doll collections and bringing back all of the classics!!!  They have changed up the outfits for whatever reason, but the most important things is that Samantha and Molly and Kirsten and Felicity are coming back for a new generation of girls to enjoy.  

That's all I've got for today.  Happy Friday to all and to all a good weekend!

Happy October 15th!

October 15th has rolled around again.  I have mentioned what this day has meant to me for so many years once or twice around these parts.  It will surely forever hold a special place in my heart because of all of the wonderful memories of basketball seasons past that truly were "the good ole days."  The girls I played ball with are still some of my closest friends.  They are the kind of friends you don't see all the time, but you know you can always count on them when you need them or you can drop in on them and pick up right where you left off.  We share a bond that is truly unique and I absolutely love all these girls so much!!!

The past three years I had my own little team of basketballers to coach and attempt to guide through the crazy thing we call life.  It was fun, challenging, exhausting, and rewarding all at the same time.  I enjoyed each season, but this year I decided to hang up my whistle.  They say you should do something for as long as you love it.  And as last season wore on I stopped loving it.  It became a chore and I knew that it was time for me to move on.  It seems a little surreal not bringing my practice clothes to work with me and rushing out of the office at 3:30 on the dot to make it to practice. But at the same time I am looking forward to free Friday nights and Saturdays (in 4-6 weeks) when football season ends and [hopefully] a less stressful holiday season.  Someday I may pick that whistle back up and coach again, but who knows.  I always said it was crazy that I was coaching because I was never one of those college athletes who planned on coaching one day.  I just kind of fell into it, and I enjoyed it so I kept going.  I am looking forward to catching at least a game or two this season because I've crossed paths with some of my girls already this school year and they made sure I got a copy of the schedule so I can come watch them play.

So Happy October 15th to all of you current and former NCAA Basketball Players!  And I guess I have to throw in a Happy October 15th to all of the bow hunters in Alabama, including my hubby who starting today will be spending most of his free time in the woods trying to get a big buck!

Weekend Recap

There's nothing like a 3 day weekend to get your sleep patterns completely thrown out of whack, right?  Just kidding, I would never complain about getting a 3 day weekend.  Plus my lack of sleep is more likely the result of staying up to watch the entire Dancing with the Stars Episode last night that I DVRed. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Apparently I don't learn from my mistakes very well because I did the exact same thing last Monday.

We had a jam packed weekend between Homecoming at THS Friday night (which we won), PEO for me on Saturday morning, and several very exciting football games Saturday afternoon/evening.  After  all of that, I was really happy to see Sunday afternoon. I caught up on all of my DVRed shows from the week and got a nice long run in, and did very little other than that.  I was hoping to work on some projects on my day off Monday, but those plans unfortunately got side tracked.  I mentioned about Hawk having to go to the vet for some swelling on his neck about a month ago.  We treated it with antibiotics and he was fine a few days later.  Well we noticed it again on Saturday night.  It was just a small spot so I gave him a little bit of the same meds I had leftover from the time before and decided we would get him checked on Monday if it got worse.  Well, it did. The pocket of swelling became hard and got bigger in a day's time. The whole side of his face started swelling so we took him to the vet in Montgomery who thinks he has an abscessed salivary gland.  They kept him over night to drain the pockets, and will probably have him another day or two just to make sure to get it all cleaned out. They are sending off a sample of what they drained to see what they need to give him to treat it further.  Hopefully we will have him back in a day or so as good as new.  The strange thing about this is that he has never acted like he was hurting or in pain.  I noticed Monday that he looked a little uncomfortable, but that's understandable when you have a swollen face.  So please say a prayer for him that he will get better soon because there are two humans and a little dachshund at home who miss him very much.

No that's not a second tongue, that's how swollen his face was Monday morning. 

This week is going to be a interesting one...we have lots in store and a lot of it is uncharted territory for us!  I just hope that it helps this week fly by!