Pretty Princess Purple

When we purchased our house 6.5 years ago every wall was drab boring shade of egg shell.  I don't know if the previous owner painted it all neutral colors so it might sell faster or perhaps they just liked boring walls.  I don't know but it's not my style.  The only thing we actually did to the house in the 2 days between closing and moving (which we did in 1.5 days and is a whole other story that involves having to stay in our new house because a certain boy who I live with got the water shut off at our old place, but I've clearly moved on, right?) was paint the living room and our bedroom because I had to have some color on the walls.  Since then we have painted the hall area, the kitchen, and the laundry room.

The two rooms I have wanted to paint for quite a while now are the bathrooms.  They were both definitively seashell-themed, due to the seashell borders that adorned both bathrooms.  I wasn't crazy about it but someone gave us some seashell bath towels for a wedding gift and I had a random collection of seashells laying around so I went with it.  It's just the bathroom after all, right?

The only thing keeping me from taping everything up and painting were those darn borders.  I dreaded having to pull them down, so I just left didn't bother with them.

About a month ago Eric randomly brought up painting the bathrooms so I jumped at the chance to change things up and bombarded him with Pinterest images of color schemes for the guest bathroom.  I have been wanting to paint it a dusty purple color with copper and white accents for the last few years, so I was pumped for the chance to make my vision a reality! Finally.....NO MORE SEASHELLS!

This is the picture we settled on.  I actually wanted the bathroom to be a plum color but he talked me out of it since the bathroom is somewhat small and he was afraid to paint it such a dark color.

It's light, it's bright, it's airy, and I could totally visualize our new guest bathroom oasis!  

And then I came home the next day and saw this.......

Now before you tell me it doesn't look all that different that the picture above, trust me it does.  The color is quite vibrant in real life.  It has almost a pinky undertone to it so it assaults your eyes every time you go in there.

Eric assured me that he took the picture above to the paint store and had them match it, but I am not so sure.  Purple if a very tricky color and if you aren't careful, your dusty purple all of a sudden becomes a pretty princess purple.  Purple's tricky nature is the precise reason I did not have a plum/silver/black wedding....one wrong step in choosing colors and my bridesmaids could have ended up looking like purple people eaters, and I wasn't willing to do that to them.

You tell me....does this look like the same color when they're next to each other?

Me thinks no....they are most definitely not the same.  

Because of my feelings about the color, I have made ZERO efforts to decorate this bad boy.  The towels that came out of there went right back in, and will stay there until the next time Eric goes out of town and I am home alone for the weekend.  The borders are gone so it won't take near the effort it would have to repaint the walls.  I think he thinks I am kidding about it, but I am most certainly NOT.
So the moral of the story is to always always always go with boys to pick out paint colors so that your beautiful dusty purple bathroom does not end up pretty princess purple.  For the record, I finally got Eric to admit he was not wild about the color either, but he doesn't care hate it enough to repaint it....and this time I have actual paint samples.....

Football Update: THS Senior Night and Homecoming at Huntgindon

You didn't think I'd make it through and entire football season without a post, did you really? But seriously, things have been crazy super busy (in a good way!) around here lately.  I had not one but two grants get funded at work (yay!), plus dance has started back up, and I had forgotten how much energy puppies have [so so so much energy to burn off every day!], so unfortunately this little blog has taken a back seat for a bit. However, I am here today so let's get to it!

Football is still going strong for us.  We started off the season 4-0, but hit a giant bump in the road on week 5 after a rough game and some injuries and have since gone 1-3.  We have a must-win game this weekend against a very good team to get into the playoffs, so be thinking happy purple and gold thoughts for us on Friday please!

Senior Night was this past week....yes already...and with it came all of the Senior Night activities.  Eric escorted one of his D-Linemen onto the field again this year, which is quite an honor.  Each student gets to pick a teacher or coach who has meant a lot to them over their high school career, so it's pretty special.  Eric coached this particular kid to a couple of state appearances/championships in wrestling in addition to football.

R to L: 1) Escorting his D-Lineman (64) on the field to his family.  2) Coach Cagle doing his thing...he's the little white dot in the middle of the clump of purple and gold. 3) The team came back out of the locker room to watch the band perform their halftime show after the game.  It has been a great show this year, complete with majorettes juggling batons (I am still super impressed at this) and the entire band dancing through part of the show.  

As much as I would have loved to stick around for the reception for the seniors and their families after the game, we packed up and headed home because we had some friends from college heading to our house to stay with us for the weekend because it was Homecoming at Huntingdon! It's only one of my most favorite weekends of the year!

This one was a little out of the ordinary for us, but we had a blast!  Why was it out of the ordinary?  Well because Eric was skipping out on the game this year for a fishing tournament. He finished a respectable 4th place in the tournament, and made it to Montgomery shortly after the game ended to hang out with everyone.

I on the other hand had no desire to miss out on any of it.  One of my teammates was being inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, so I walked the pups, whipped up a quick breakfast for out guests, got ready, and told our friends I'd meet them at the game.  Host of the year right here.

I made it to the ceremony with about a minute to spare and got to see her accept her award!  She's the second women's basketball player to receive this honor in the NCAA era (which started my freshman year in 2003).

Some of the oldies (front row) with the current team after L-Bo's induction ceremony.

After the ceremony we headed over to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants from our college days and met up with a few more of my old teammates. There were several girls there this year who I had not seen since our wedding so seeing them all after 6 years was awesome!

Parts of my Lady Hawk Family.  I'd like to point out that in the picture on the left I am the Senior....all of these girls graduated after I did.  In the picture on the right I am the freshman....these girls made me want to be a part of their family and taught me so much over the years! 

We made it back to the school just before kickoff and I headed over to the football tents to mingle with all of those friends who I see once a year at the game...and answer the question, "Where's Cagle [Eric]?" about 4,000 times. Needless to say not a single person was shocked when I said he was fishing, and were glad when I assured them he'd be there later.

The wives (and some future Hawks). I feel like these girls are as much a part of my HC family as anyone even through most of them didn't go to school there.  

Huntingdon won big 48-27 and we all headed back to the one couple who still lives near the school's house to watch the end of the UT/Texas A&M game (ugh) and the Alabama/Arkansas game.  To be honest there was not a ton of game-watching going on.  There was significantly more telling old stories and laughing and just soaking up the moment with people that I miss like crazy all year long and am so thankful that I get to call my friends.

At the Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony that morning Coach Turk (the AD and head football coach) said something to the current student athletes in the audience that really stuck a chord with me.  He said that once it's all said and done and your career is just a memory, you may remember bits and pieces of the games, but the times that will stick out in your mind are the times in between the games: the 5AM practices, the road trips, the tough times you went through with the help of your teammates, the dinners in the dining hall, and just random nights in the dorms.  He said that those things that you will really cherish and when you come back years later and see your old teammates, those are the times you'll recall and laugh about. I found myself nodding along and knowing that the girls currently on the team who were all sitting behind me at the ceremony had no idea how special what they are a part of right now will become in their lives, and how lucky I am to have a family of Lady Hawks that I can always lean on.

The Post in Which I Put my Foot in my Mouth

Four days....thats how long it took for my husband to make a liar out of me and decide to go back to help coach football again this year after I posted about his coaching "retirement" last week. Despite him pulling a Jay Leno, I can't be mad at him.  I could tell he missed it, like missed it a lot. The reason he stepped down was because he has several things planned/going on this fall that will keep him from being able to be at every practice and game, so the desire is still there (unlike it was for me when I hung up my whistle), he just didn't want to let the kids down by not be being there.

Here's the conversation that took place when he told me:

I walk in the door from work Monday night and am playing with the puppies pulling the dogs off of me. 
   Eric: I have to tell you something.
   Me: Oh? wondering what the heck is he getting himself into now?!?
   Eric: I've decided to go back out to coach football again this year.
   Me: I knew it! I knew you couldn't stay away from it! Wait are you kidding me?
   Eric: No, I really am, but it's going to be just 3-4 days a week.
   Me: So you're going to be at practice every day Monday-Thursday like normal, and then just skip the
       games on Friday nights?
   Eric: No, I'll be at the games, just not down on the field.
   Me: So you'll be sitting with me?
   Eric: No I'll be up in the press box...that way I can coach but not get the kids used to me calling plays and
       being on the field because I won't be at away games.
   Me: Yeah right....I'll believe it when you're sitting here with me on an away game Friday night.

So yeah, we're back in the coaching game. To be honest I'm not mad about it. I was actually kinda bummed I wouldn't get to sit in the stands with the rest of the coaches wives this year, plus Friday nights just wouldn't feel right if we didn't spend them at the field. So if you need me this fall, you know where to find me....donning my purple and gold and cheering on the Tigers once again!

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Life Update: 6 Years, a Stuck Boat, Football, and Rio

Since things have been rather sporadic around here lately, I've decided that a life dump post is most appropriate to catch you up on what's been going on around these parts lately. July ended up bring a crazy busy month for us and all of a sudden it's August and kids are going back to school and I am wondering where is summer going, it just started?!? But the heat can take a hike because I've been over it since it started. So here's what life has looked like around here lately....

+ We celebrated our 6th Anniversary this past weekend with a lazy Sunday afternoon, and capped it off with an amazingly delicious dinner at Firebirds.  If you have one near you, go, and when you're there order the Blue Cheese Filet. You won't regret it, I promise. It was one of the best steaks I've had!

6 Years with this guy has been 6 years well spent!

+ Part of the reason we chose to take it easy on Sunday was because of the shenanigans that occurred on Saturday. We opted to spend the day at the river (as we have most recent weekends since it's been so hot). Unlike most of the previous weekends we actually had a rainstorm! But this was not your typical summer one-and-done shower.  This was a drencher that settled right on top of us and dumped buckets of rain for more than an hour. Unfortunately we were quite a way down the river and it was raining so hard that Eric could not see the currents in the water (the river is extremely shallow so you have to be able to see where the water runs), which meant that we either had to sit tight or slowly make our way up river. We did a little of both...and thanked the good Lord that the boat had a canopy top that kept us at least a little dry. After about an hour we were almost back at the boat ramp and Eric decided he had to "show what his boat could do" by running behind an island (which in his defense he had done a couple of days prior with no trouble). Unfortunately for us the water was about 6 inches lower on Saturday and instead of running through the shallow water, we got stuck...in the mud. The five of us managed to push the boat back around so that it was in the channel of water, but the boat was so heavy that we could not push it the 20 yards it needed to go so that the water was deep enough to float. As much as I know it hurt Eric's ego, he had to call some buddies to come help push us out. Thankfully, they rounded up a crew and after a couple of hours of being beached the boat was free and we were headed home.

 Thank goodness for good friends!  Although I am pretty sure most of them came just to see us stuck!

There's a silver lining to every situation though, right?  Ours were #1) that the rain had stopped just before we got stuck and #2) this amazing triple rainbow! Two in the sky plus a reflection in the water!   It was gorgeous!

+ Saturday night we are hosting the 4th Annual Football Coaches Kick-Off Cook-Off. This is going to be a bit different as Eric has officially crossed over in to "former football coach" status. I know he'd been saying all along, and I know he passed on summer practice, but it was finally real to me a couple of weeks ago when I met the new defensive line coach...aka Eric's replacement. Both of us have made the comment how different it has been having him home in the evenings, but as anyone who knows him would tell you he certainly isn't just sitting around.  He's been busier than ever!  Even though he is not part of the staff in an official capacity, I am glad we could still get together with everyone this weekend.  I'm going to miss all of the time I spend with the wives, too! Luckily, we're good friends with all of them so I know we just won't see anyone anymore, we will just have more time to do other things.


+ Tonight is the Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Olymnpics in Rio de Janeiro Brazil!  As a self-proclaimed Olympics Super Fan I am sooooo excited about it! I forsee A LOT of telelvision watching in my near future and a lot of cheering on Team USA!

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