Iron Bowl Friday

Well you've probably heard by now that my team lost. Boo!  It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.  Our day started pretty early around 7:00!  The plan was to leave the house around 9:30 so we could be in line with the gates to the student section opened.  That didn't exactly happen.  It was so hard to leave the house since all of our tailgaters were just arriving, but we had to.  I packed up my gallon of margaritas and my plate of chicken fingers and headed out the door.  (Yes I took a gallon Ziploc bag full of margaritas into the game.  We were going to be there 3 hours before kickoff.  How you might wonder?  I had Amy duct tape the bag to my undershirt on my back, under my coat you couldn't tell at all!)  We thought the gates opened at 10:00...they didn't open until 10:30 so we stood with he mob of people patiently waiting to enter the stadium.  We finally got in and Coach Saban came out to walk the field.  The entire lower student section was almost full!  Next the Auburn team came out to do their walk through.  They were pumped they came out full of energy jumping around...then over the loud speaker in Bryant-Denny Stadium I heard Steve Miller Band's Take the Money and Run.  I have never laughed so hard.  All the students joined in a sang their hearts out.  The next song was Son of a Preacher Man.  You could tell the Aubs weren't expecting this at all.  They quickly calmed down and weren't near enthusiastic as they were.  (Let me add that I wasn't exactly proud that my University had stooped to this level but I did find it very funny! Come to find out the music selection was not approved and a kid lost his job because of it.  Totally worth it in my opinion!)

It was finally game time.  I was so nervous and excited!  We got the ball first and came out strong.  We scored touchdowns on our first three possessions.  We were all smiles at this point.  I was trying not to get to excited but I'd be lying if I said I didn't!  Auburn finally scored in the second quarter.  We went into halftime  up 21-7! We were feeling good.  It was all downhill from there for the Tide!  I've blocked out a lot of the second half but it mostly included Auburn scoring and Alabama not.  I was heartbroken.  I went into this game knowing we could beat Auburn but not expecting to win.  When we came out as strong as we did it looked like our team from last year.  Our offense was clicking and or defense was strong.  This gave me hope.  The worst part was hearing Rammer Jammer being sung to us...actually it makes me sad for Auburn that they don't have their own cheer to celebrate a victory.  I walked back to the house by myself.  I felt better once I got to the house and vented with the rest of them.  After most of our tailgater friends were gone we had an impromptu dance party.  Nothing helps me burn off some steam quite like dancing!  It was a blast.  It was mainly just my parents, me and my little brother doing all the dancing but we had a ball! Around 11:00 we packed up the tailgate for the season and headed back to Gardendale. 

Final Score...

Alabama 27- Auburn 28

We finally got a shot of us outside the stadium. 

  

The guy behind me had the awesome gloves Mark Ingram wore in the National Championship game.  So I had to ask him if I got borrow them for a picture doing the pose. 

Me and my gallon of margaritas. That was probably one of the best decisions I made all day!

I can't believe football season is over.  I know we still have a bowl game but that won't be for a month or so.  I'm sad it's over.  I'm still proud of our team.  I know this is not the results we were expecting for the season but I'm still proud!  I miss going down there every few weeks.  I am planning on taking Ava to a gymnastics meet in the spring so I can ge tmy Ttown fix for a while!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thursday, Patrick, Ally and I went to my grandmothers for lunch and everything was so good! Patrick and I finally got a picture for our Christmas card and I got those ordered yesterday! After my grandmothers we headed home because Patrick had to get ready for work and I had to pack my bags for Tuscaloosa! We went to Patrick's parents for dinner and everything was so good! Melissa cooked for an army (like always). We had turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, mac and cheese, dressing and gravy, salad, coleslaw, and rolls ( I feel like there was more but I can't remember!). I wanted to take a picture of all the food but I'd left my camera in the car and was to lazy to go get it! She made 4 desserts. My favorite was the banana pudding with nutter butter cookies! Patrick had to go to work around 5 and I left shortly after that to head to Tuscaloosa!

This is the only picture I got on Thanksgiving.  I know I'm lame!

We ended the night with lasagna and Christmas Vacation at my sisters house in Tuscaloosa.

Up next...Iron Bowl Friday...

I'm back

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.  (Although at some points this weekend I would have liked too!)  I have had the busiest four days in a while.  We had Thanksgiving Thursday, The Iron Bowl on Friday and threw a 50th Anniversary party for my Babo and Papa Saturday night.  By threw I mean we did all the decorating and food for 200+ people.  Talk about stressful!  I didn't get any Black Friday shopping done and I have a feeling I'm going to regret that!  But the holidays are in full swing!  The inside of the house is almost completely decorated however it also looks like a Christmas bomb went off so when I get all the debris cleared I'll try to take some photos for you all to see!
Wednesday, I still had some things I needed to get for the party and I wanted to find something to wear!  So I went to Hobby Lobby and people were nuts in there.  You would have thought that was the last day to buy anything to decorate for Christmas!  After that I went to the mall with Kristen!  I finally got home around 11 and still had to do laundry!  So I finally got to bed around 2:30! 
Hopefully, I can get caught up in real life as well as the blog world pretty soon...

We have so much to be thankful for and are blessed well beyond what we ever deserved!  I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed holiday. 

Wordless Wednesday

 This week my aunt and uncle (We call them Babo & Papa, Babo is Slovak for Grandmother, that's what her grandkids call her so now that's what everyone calls them!) are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  They are more like grandparents to me and I'm so excited to celebrate this huge milestone with them.  We're planning a big blow-out Saturday night with 250 of their closest friends and family! It should be a great time.

I love these pictures.  They are so classic and timeless!  (The little girl above is my momma!)  I've had so much fun looking through pictures of the last 50 years.  I can't wait to share all about the party!

Slumber Party

No decorations yet...they're slowly going up.  I wasn't as motivated as I'd hoped!  I'll have it all finished by next week hopefully!
Now to the slumber party.  Ava, Harper and I had a blast last night!  I picked them up then I had to take some pictures of some friends for their Christmas card so they tagged along and were so good.  When we were on our way home from Amy and Sean's, Patrick called and his parents were having trouble with their printer so I stopped by there to see if I could help.  It was taking me a little longer than I thought it would and the girls were being really shy.  Mrs. Horton offered them some candy and they acted like they'd known her for years!  It was really sweet.  We left there and finally made it to my house.  We ate hot dogs for dinner.  I think Harper only ate ketchup.  After the movie we watched Beauty and the Beast.  Which is my favorite Disney movie.  They quickly went to sleep after the movie and slept till 8:00 this morning when Ally woke them up.  We ate breakfast, took baths, got dressed and made it to church 10 minutes early.  I was pretty proud of myself!

Those are just a couple of the shots of Amy, Sean and Chloe.  I thought they turned out so cute! 

Getting ready to watch Beauty and the Beast!

I told them to make a funny face. I was the only one who listened!

We had a great time.  I love getting to be an aunt.  It was so sweet to hear them laughing this morning when Ally went in to wake them up.  I think Ally loved having them here!  It's been a great weekend!  I'm so looking forward to this week.  We have lots going on!  I have a feeling it's only the beginning of a very busy holiday season!

It's Saturday! Yay!

Alabama won!  Yay!  63-7 to be exact.  I didn't watch much of the game.  I listened to a lot of it on the radio.  I was excited that so many guys got to play.  Eli Gold was saying how special it was that for some of those boys it will be the only time they get to play in a game. Now that that game's over it's officially Iron Bowl Week!  Yay!  I'm still looking for a ticket.  I'm not sure when we're going down there.  We'd talked about going down Thursday night and doing some black Friday shopping in Tuscaloosa but who knows what this week will bring. 
I'm putting up my Christmas trees today.  I am one of those people that hates to put them up before Thanksgiving but if I don't get them up this weekend there's a good chance they won't go up this year!  Next Saturday is Babo and Papa's 50th Wedding Anniversary party.  I'm getting so excited (and nervous) about seeing everything we've been planning come together. 
I got 3 new trees last night.  I'm so excited to put them out this year.  We have our main tree in the living room.  I'm adding a 6 foot Alpine tree in the foyer that I'm only putting ribbon and lights on.  I'm going to use it to display our Christmas cards using clothes pins and the ribbon.  I think it's going to be really pretty.  then I bought a 6.5 foot white tree for the den downstairs that I'm going to put our Alabama and Auburn ornaments on.  I think it's going to be cute too.  I'm not a themey person when it comes to trees.  (You can read about our decorations and tree from last year HERE.)  Even though the Alabama/Auburn tree is themed  I'm still not going to go out and buy a bunch of crap to put on it just to have it.  Patrick and I decided that we would add the ornament tradition and we would get each other an Alabama or Auburn ornament each year for that tree.  I also got a small 2 foot tree for the guest room.  Mainly just because my nieces are coming to stay with me tonight and I thought they'd think it was so fun.  I eventually want to get a pink tree for the guest room to put all of my Barbie ornaments.  (Right now if I put all the Barbie ornaments on one tree there'd be very few for the main tree). 
I guess that is enough rambling for one post.  I'll be back with decorations and my slumber party with Ava and Harper. 

It really is Gameday

VS

It's Thursday and it's gameday in Tuscaloosa.  Feels weird that I'm at work but I am.  I'm not going down tonight for the game.  I didn't want to miss my last boocamp this round.  So I'll be tailgating at home again.  It should be a pretty easy game.  I heard on the radio that this is the first time that a first year program has played a defending National Champion team.  Hopefully some of our young guys get to play.  Then it's focus, focus, focus for the Iron Bowl.  I'm getting nervous just thinking about it. 

Roll Tide Roll!

Wordless Wednesday

Teaching the Bulldawgs to Behave

Also known as Porter's first Bama game.

We had a great day of family, friends, food and football.  I also got to share my love for Alabama with Ava and Porter. Ava has been to a couple of games but Porter had never been.  He wasn't supposed to get to go Saturday but when he got his own shaker and insisted he was going to the ballgame we knew there was no denying him.  We started our walk to the stadium (mom went with us just in case we could find him a ticket) he was so excited when he saw the stadium.  We found him a ticket fairly quickly so he was going to the game.  I didn't get to sit with him at first.  Kristen, Ava, and I sat in our normal seats in the upper deck.  Half way through the first quarter we got a text saying there were some seats by my dad so we headed down there. Porter kept saying he saw a bear...it was actually the bulldog mascot.  I guess we need to work on his animals!  He quickly learned when to shake his shaker.  It was so sweet.  I know my dad was so excited to share this experience with him.  He finally fell asleep in the 4th quarter.  We had to take turns carrying him back to the house because he is so heavy. 

Here he is climbing the tree out front.

That smile melts my heart!

Me and Amy watching Georgia and Auburn.  (Georgia was winning at this point)

My sweet Ava.  She was so excited to go to the game and that Porter got to go!

He was not excited for me to be holding him, kissing him and having his picture made.

My bestest friends.  I love this picture of us!

My dad decided to take some random candids.  I love this one. 

Porter and his ticket. 

Ava was scared because we were up so high.

I asked a really sweet lady behind us to take their picture with the field behind them.  Porter was so shy he wouldn't show his face. 

Such a fun time.

He was out.  Dad was yelling and cheering and he never moved!

Ava, Benjamin, and Matthew.  Matthew is the oldest, Ava is 3 months younger than him and Benjamin is 3 months younger than Ava. 

It was such a nice night for football.  The team looked better than they have. One of my favorite parts of the game was when they showed the troops overseas watching the game live.  I couldn't help but get emotional every time they showed them.  We are so blessed to have men and women that risk their lives everyday for our freedom.  

 All in all the weekend was a success! 

Roll Tide Roll

Alabama 30 -  Mississippi State 10

Friday Night in T-Town

Friday afternoon I left work a bit early and headed to meet Kristen at my parents house.  We headed to Tuscaloosa.  I was so excited to spend the weekend with my sister and brother.  We went to dinner at Mugshots for one of the best burgers in town.  A good time was had by all, until Kristen spilled her cherry coke.  After dinner we headed back to the house for margaritas to plan out our evening.  We couldn't really decide where we wanted to go.  After much discussion we agreed Harry's Bar was our destination.  Harry's is not the most glamourous bar in town.  It's in a questionable part of town.  I've heard stories of Harry's from when my cousins were at UA in the '80's.  I'd never been in all my years at Bama neither had my sister.  So we loaded up the car and headed to Harry's.  The minute we got out of the car we heard gunshots.  I'm not even kidding.  The main reason we wanted to visit Harry's was to sign the "Welcome to Gardendale" sign.  (It's also been there since the '80's.)  We get in and immediately head to see the sign.  It's gone.  We started looking around the bar and couldn't find it anywhere.  I was so sad.  We got a "Harry's bucket", which is basically a liquor suicide, and hung out for awhile.  John and Hope came we drank a few beers with them and then decided we'd head to the Houndstooth.  While we were there John sent me a text saying the sign was still at Harry's.  We would have to go back.  (not until Saturday night though).  We left the Houndstooth and headed home.  It was a great night full of friends and fun!

Kristen, Me and Elizabeth at Mugshots.

Me and Kristen at Harry's

Me and the empty bucket.  I was trying to wink...I can't do it.

Me, John and Elizabeth.

Sister with the bucket.  (yes we all got a picture with the bucket)

So Saturday night we decided we had to go see the sign so we headed back.  We all signed the sign and took pictures.  Yes, we are that dorky.

Garedendale High School Alumni

Amy and Kristen with the Gardendale sign.  Amy lives there part time and Kristen just moved there.

Leaving Harry's Saturday night.

I've got a whole other post in the works for Gameday.  It was so much fun.  We took Porter to his first Bama game and Ava went too. 

It's Friday

VS

I didn't think Friday would ever get here this week.  I'm so excited, tonight I'm headed to Tuscaloosa to spend the night with my brother and sister. Then tomorrow me and Ava (I think) are going to the game!  It's another night game.  So a long day of tailgating is in store!  We're having hot dogs and corn dogs.  I feel like I haven't been down there in forever.  I'll be back Sunday or Monday with a full weekend recap!

Roll Tide Roll!

Tis the Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.  Well not here per sé but around town lights and trees are going up everywhere!  I love this time of year.  The anticipation can be felt everywhere.  I stand firm in not putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.  I don't mind seeing them around town but in my house Christmas doesn't start until after Thanksgiving.  Except for the cards.  I like for them to hit the mail the first week of December.  So I am thinking about those in August!  Last year one of my favorite cards we received was of one of my dads co-workers and all her granddaughters.  It was a very candid photo but the card quality was amazing.  It was a Shutterfly card.  I made a mental note that I needed to check them out this year.  So when I started my search a couple months back I immediately went to Shutterfly.  I am so excited with their 2010 collection.  I've actually had a hard time narrowing it down.  So here are a few that I love.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards/dotty-holiday-monogram-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

I love the red and green with the brown.  I also love the initial and polka dots.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/peppermint-dots-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

I love the classic look of this one. 

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/sweet-and-retro-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

I love the vintage feel this one gives. 

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/swirling-ornaments-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

I love the modern, bright, fun look this one has.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/perfect-paisley-christmas-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93479

They also have these precious 5x5 square cards that are beautiful!

So as you can see they have something for everyone. Let me ask you this?  Is it to much to put more than one picture of ourselves on the card?  I know everyone loves to see kids photos but how do yall feel about adults (and poodles)
Now for the most exciting part...

 Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010