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!

How Bout Them Tigers!

....heard all over town this week....

Well we've made it to Round 3, the unofficial midway point of the playoffs. The last time a team from THS completed this feat was in 1999, last century! I actually know someone who was on the team....a hard-headed 10th grader who thought he was pretty bad @$$, but lucky for me he turned out pretty great!

Yes I am talking about Eric, and now - 17 years later - he is coaching this team in their 3rd Round Playoff Game. It's crazy to think that the seniors playing in the game Friday were just turning a year old the last time this happened. Side note: we're old!

This is only the 5th time the school has advanced this far in the playoffs, and they've gone on to the 4th round only 2 times.  It's been 25 years since that happened. Needless to say there's a lot of excitement in our little town....the stadium is going to ROCKING (or should I say ringing) Friday night!

Unfortunately, most of our band is going to be in Chicago performing at a parade, but they've called in reinforcements from none other than Eric's and my Alma mater Huntingdon College (ironically HC is playing their first round playoff game in Chicago this weekend, too, but I am guessing the band is not making the trip), and hiring a DJ to amp up the atmosphere!  I can't wait!

The game this past Friday could not have gone any better than if we'd planned it.  After a tight first half we started piling on the hits and the points and the other team just couldn't handle it.  We recovered 2 squib kicks from the exact same spot, scoring on both possessions, and 2 other times when we kicked off to them, they threw an interception on their first play from scrimmage.  It was just one of those nights, and we came away with a win 42-14.

I am hoping we can get things to go our way again this coming week....the team we're playing is good, so we're going to have to play hard. That's the thing about this team this year though, they are a tough group of kids.  They have guts, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.  It's been really fun to be a fan of the team this year because they've really given us something to cheer for!

...and to think we almost weren't a part of it.

This is the best I could get of the scoreboard....they cleared it as soon as the clock hit 0:00

GOOOOOO TIGERS!

On to Round 2!

Well we're on to Round 2 of the playoffs! We had a wild and crazy ride Friday night but we pulled through at the end to win 29-26! We started off the game really strong and had a 21-6 lead at halftime, but things went south from there.

The pre-game spirit line was on it!

We couldn't do anything on offense or defense during the 3rd quarter and by the end of it were hanging on to a 1 point lead 21-20 going into the 4th. They scored quickly early in the 4th and by the time the clock got down below 3 minutes I had started rehearsing my sympathetic-wife comments in my head for after the game.

However, a blocked punt that just happened to bounce right in front of one our kids proved to be all we needed, as he scooped up the ball and ran it back for a TD...and miraculously no one was called for a block in the back! We completed the 2 point conversion to go ahead 29-26 with 2:22 left in the 4th! An interception sealed the deal and we ran out the clock for the win!

Coach Cagle giving some last minute pointers to his D-linemen.

I can honestly say my nerves were shot by the end of this one.  I think I went through nearly every emotion I have in the last 3 minutes of the ball game.  We are headed just down the road for Round 2 against a former region foe who we've played a lot in the past several years.  So we'll have to see how this one plays out! You never know what might happen in the playoffs!

By the time we made back to the house we were elated but absolutely exhausted! Eric was on a hunting trip in South Dakota all last week and got back into town at 3:30 AM Friday morning so the first time I actually saw him was at the game that night. I am honestly not quite sure how he was still standing....it didn't last long.

Saturday was spent watching college football at various locations.  Eric headed over to a friend's house before the Auburn game to help him cook fish and shrimp and oysters for the game, and as much as I enjoy football, I had a few things to take care of around the house, so I got my stuff done, ran by Eric's grandma's house to show her how to use her new iPad, and stopped by some friends house to watch the rest of the Auburn game before we all loaded up Ethel and headed over to where Eric was.

Who is Ethel, you ask?  Well she is our friends' mom's conversion van.....like 90s mom van that you could fit all of your bedroom furniture in van, owned by most parents who had 3 or more children in that decade.  It even still had the TV and VCR in it.

She is a pretty sweet ride!

We figured why take 5 cars over to where we were going when all 7 of us could fit in the van. I knew Eric was over there so I could ride back home with him and we could get my car later. Needless to say we all spent 20 nostalgic minutes riding through town in the van, and probably gave people something to talk about when we stopped at the gas station and a bunch of 30 year olds came tumbling out.

After several hours of good food, music, and football Eric and I peaced out at halftime of the Alabama game. We made it home to watch the second half on the couch, although I dozed off and missed the entire 4th quarter, and woke up to find out they'd won when Eric woke me up to go to bed.

Sunday was full of church, laundry, household chores, and chili-making because the temperature dropped below 80, so I decided it was time for comfort food. I feel like this is where I should insert my obligatory daylight saving gripes......but I will spare you all of my reasons I think daylight savings is dumb, and just put out there that the dogs were up at 6:30 AM (like they usually are), however, due to the time change my clock read 5:30 AM....on a Sunday. Don't worry they managed to get caught up Sunday afternoon.....

Hello There Fall Weekend, Nice to See You Finally

What a difference 36 hours can make....When I wrote this post last Thursday we were in a must-win situation to make the playoffs with an upcoming game against our biggest rival.  By the end of the night Friday, we were sitting in 2nd place in our region getting ready to HOST our first round playoff game in 2 weeks.

Don't worry, we were all sitting there wondering exactly how all this happened, too.

First, one of the 2 teams we lost to during the season lost their 4th region game on Thursday night, which meant with only 2 region game left and only 2 region losses we were automatically in the playoffs. Second, we beat the P!$$ out of our rivals on Friday night 56-22, and third - the team we beat the week before beat the only other team that beat us in region play. I am not exactly sure how all of that works out because that meant the 2, 3, and 4 ranked teams all are 5-2 in the region, but I was told that because of how the tie-breakers work we get the 2 seed.....and I'm not going to argue because that means we don't travel first round.

Clockwise from left: 1) Indulging in a fried Oreo at the game...totally worth it! 2) Coach Cagle doing what he loves best (other than fishing) 3) Final score....Tigers win big!

So now we are going to enjoy our off week (finally) and get an extra week to prepare for the game!  And by prepare I don't just mean the team.  I might have order 2 dozen purple cowbells to hand out to anyone who wants to be loud and obnoxious like our cheering section at the game.  Did I mention I can't wait for the game!?!

Eric was up bright and early the next morning to head to his fishing tournament....and by bright and early I really mean he woke up in the middle of the night to be there at 5AM, which meant the puppies wanted to wake up at 5:30AM like a normal weekday....not cool dogs, not cool.

They ended up doing really well in the tournament, coming in 2nd.....by .02 lbs.  Eric was happy they won 2nd, but unfortunately the dime-weight loss has only left him hungry for more.

That would be his

While he fished I enjoyed my morning at Trade Day. They have a fall festival of sorts in our little town where they block off a street and fill it with vendors and entertainment for the morning.  Our dancers were performing so I went to check things out. I only brought $20 cash and it's probably a good thing because I feel like I have to buy everything at those kinds of events!

Our Zombie Cloggers and soloist were great!

The pups and I vegged and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather (FINALLY!) all afternoon.  We finished off our evening cooking out with the neighbors, but excused ourselves early and were in bed by 9PM on Saturday night....because that's how we roll these days.  I'm not complaining one little bit!

Sunday we headed out to Eric's grandma's house for a bit and then he took his Dad fishing...because apparently he hadn't had enough of it already. When he got back the house Sunday night he asked me to help him clean fish....  I have helped him one other time about 10 years ago, but he politely asked me to stop because I was squishing the filets and I have not been asked since. So like the good little wifey that I am, I cut rib cages out of freshly skinned fish for an hour.  It wasn't so bad.  I had gloves and good company so I didn't mind too much.

I am pretty sure this earned me Wife-of-the-Year Status...