What's goin on...

So, we've had a whole lotta nothin going on here lately.  Patrick is back on 2nd shift which means a lot of naps and tv time for me, not that I'm complaining!  We spent Father's day with our families.  We also celebrated Harper's 4th birthday which I have no pictures of.

Patrick with his baby on Father's day.  Don't they look happy.
Ally needs a haircut but she's just so cute.  She won't let me cut the hair out of eyes so I'm pretty sure she can't see anything.This week I had dinner with Amy and Elizabeth.  I hadn't seen Amy in months so I was glad to catch up with her.  We ate a the Little Donkey and it was yummy.  I'd been hearing about Steel City Pops and it happened to be right next door so we wandered over after our meal.  I had the strawberry & cream one and it was delicious.
  So we've been around, I've got to get better about taking pictures.  I kinda fell off the wagon but I'm slowly but surely getting back to it! 

1509 13th Street

Friday my mom, dad and I loaded up and headed to Tuscaloosa.  It was a bittersweet trip.  We were going to pack up our house.  The time had come that it just made since for my parents to sell the house.  It had actually been on the market for a while so they were excited to finally make a deal but it was so much more sad than I thought it would be.  My sister had already cleaned out her room and bathroom.  It all seemed so final.  I immediately started thinking about the night we moved into the house.  It was one also filled with laughter and tears.  My sister and I shared her room the last semester I was there.  It was probably one of the best semesters, probably because I thought it was going to be the worst.  We've made a lot of memories in that house since July of 2007.  It was time for us to let go and let another group enjoy it.

So, here's a walk down memory lane, in no particular order...

Freshmen cousins at a tailgate.

My first tailgating season as an alumni.  

Two of the "movers".

The bathroom I got ready for my college graduation and my sister's wedding day.  It was fun on gamedays there'd be a herd of us in here right before we headed to the stadium. 

I also fixed some hair here. 

My sister's room.  My little twin bed was in this corner when we shared, we called it the slave bed.

Liz and Amy before a ball game.

Love these kids.

In the process of packing it all up.

This was my desk that I bought for $10 at the thrift store when we moved into my first house.  Kristen and I painted it white and apparently tagged the back but I didn't remember until I saw it. 

This article was in the CW my junior year.  My roommate called me to tell me I was in the CW, I was so excited then I saw the picture.  I'm the one in the back in the pink.  I look way less than thrilled to be helping the kids.  We've gotten a good laugh out of that for years.

Taking a break for a game of darts.

All through school my roommates and I had dinner together once a week and watched tv, we called it "Family Night'. When I moved in with my sister and cousin we continued to have "Family Night".  This was the last one before Clay and I graduated.  We all look so young!

My graduation day.  One of the proudest days of my life to date. 

I have a million other pictures I could share but I think you get the idea.  We've had a blast these last few years.  I wish we'd kept a sign in of how many folks we've had tailgate with us.  I know it's been a few.  We celebrated a lot of wins in this house including two National Championship seasons and mourned a couple of losses too. 

We were sitting around late Friday night, I was looking around and thinking that this was the point in our reality show they'd be showing clips of all the memories we've made in that house.

I've had that video playing in my head ever since.

Big Changes

When Patrick was 16 he got his "dream car".  It was a beautiful bright red 1998 Z71 pickup truck.  Brand new, it had 8 miles on it.  He had bagged groceries at the local Delchamps and saved enough money for a down payment and his parents helped him.  He bagged a lot of grocerices to get to drive ole red and he couldn't have been more proud.  I remember him bringing it to my house to show my older brother and I thought he was so cool. I also thought cheoreographed trampoline routines to Celine Dion were cool, I was 12 what did I know.  Never in a million years did I think he'd be taking me out on dates or that he would ask me to be his wife in that truck.  So it's funny how something so special to him eventually became something sorta special to me too.  I think that was his plan all along :)

Washing his new truck when he was just a 16 year old baby ;)

Well some 250,000 miles later, Red wasn't running quite like she used too.  We've been fortunate that nothing major has had to be repaired but all the little things were starting to add up.  It was time for a new ride.  I knew Patrick really wanted a new truck but I could tell he just wasn't ready to give this one up yet.  The final straw was a few weeks ago he was trying to leave work, it was raining and the windshield wipers would not come home.  He sat there for a good 30 minutes waiting for them to decide to work so he could get home.  I think it was the next weekend he drug me all over central Alabama looking at trucks.  He had been researching them online for months and was sure he knew what he wanted. 

Finally, he wanted me to go to yet another dealership and I said I'm not going unless you're buying a truck. I was tired of looking at hundreds of the same things on different lots. So we went and he did it.

He found his new "dream car" and it is beautiful.

2012 GMC Sierra Crew Cab, this one had 12 miles on it.  It has a few more bells and whistles than his old ride.  Sunroof, XM, heated/cooled seats just to name a few.  He is smitten.  I have to admit, I love it too.  

Posing in the same driveway he brought red home too.

We still have old red, she's sitting in our front yard, like a monument to the last 16 years of Patrick's life.  I'm hoping we can at least move the monument to the back yard, but I'm not sure that's going to happen.