Adventurous

I hope everyone had a festive 4th of July although the holiday was in the middle of the week and left us all going back to work on Thursday. Well, Michael and I had to go to work. I don't know about everyone else! We didn't let that stop us, and we were a little adventurous on Independence Day. Or let me say that we were adventurous according to our standards ;)! We traveled to Georgia where our friend Lindsey's parents live, and we hung out at the pool and cooked out before going to our first Braves game. The Braves lost to the Cubs, but it was still a great time. They had an amazing fireworks show after the game that was better than expected! After the game, the adventure felt a little less adventurous and a little more irresponsible as we drove back home and didn't get into bed before 2:30 am only to get up a few hours later!



Michael and I at the game!

Baylee, Lindsey, and me before the game. I love these girls, and I'm glad we work together!

Now an even bigger adventure for Michael and I began today! This one is big!!! We drove half way to Arkansas and met my mom, two aunts, and my little cousin Steven who they handed over to us for the week. Yep, Michael and I are parentals for a whole week to a 9 year old boy. I don't know who needs more prayers, him or us! I am happy to have him here to visit, and we have a lot of fun things planned for him. It was also nice to see my mom and aunts. We ate at this great place in Holly Springs, MS called Philips Grocery. It is a converted nineteenth century saloon turned grocery store turned hamburger joint, and we enjoyed it!

My mom and her two sisters Donna and Paula at Philips Grocery

After eating lunch, we drove back to Birmingham with Steven. We went grocery shopping then came back and headed straight for the pool before dinner. I think he's having fun!

We Survived Talladega!

Yesterday, we journeyed into unknown territory with our first trip to Talladega. You've all heard the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Well, when in Alabama, you do as Alabamians do. Go to 'Dega!!!

My friend Cassie is a volunteer at the track, and she gets two free tickets for the race. She heard me say a while back that it would be fun to experience Talladega at least once while we are here, so she made it happen and gave us her two extra tickets.

This is the only sporting event that Michael has gone to without knowing a single thing about it, and it goes without saying that I was totally lost! With no time to read Nascar for Dummies, the only preparation needed was deciding whether Michael should wear his cutoffs or not! Thankfully, he wore khaki shorts instead. We were prepared to see lots of drunks with rebel flags and women clad in bathing suit tops and daisy dukes with cowboy boots, but the atmosphere was pretty tame and I don't recall seeing one rebel flag.


We did however see a lot of Skoal tents!!!
Driving the flag during the National Anthem



My favorite part was seeing how fast they change out tires on Pitt Road
Having fun at the race!

The next race is in October...we've got five months to prepare ;)

Game of the Century

Last night, everyone in the South were glued to their televisions to watch what was touted as the "Game of the Century." Never have the #1 & #2 teams gone head to head in the SEC during the regular season, so this was a big deal for Alabama and LSU fans. Heck, it was a big deal to all SEC fans I think. Unfortunately, now that the hype is 24 hours behind us, I don't think it lived up to being the game of the century. The two Alabama kickers may disagree, but for a completely different reason.

Michael and I watched the game at my friend Lindsey's house. Some other girls from work were there as well. I didn't watch the game as much as I should have, but I was too busy socializing!



Lindsey, Madeline, me and Jamie. You can tell I was apathetic to who won by my lack of team spirit. What can I say, blue is my color. ha!




I love me some Madeline!!!






Me and Lindsey. I love this girl too. She has a crazy sense of humor, and she is hilarious.




Look it's Michael! He's not working on a Saturday night!

Why Oh Why Do Weekends Fly By?

It's Sunday evening, and another great weekend that has flown by once again is coming to an end. Boo! Our weekend started out with adventures in babysitting. Yep folks, Michael and I successfully made it through our first babysitting gig. We technically babysat for an hour, but it was our own little adventure with a very very cute little boy named Eli.



Eli is almost 6 months old, and I cannot believe how this little guy's life has already flown by. Jamie and Eric went out to eat while we hung out with him and took him on a walk. I love this picture of he and Michael. It's too bad that my camera didn't catch the sweet potatoes that Eli spit up on Michael just after I snapped this. 10 minutes in, and Michael was already gagging and changing into his second shirt!



Eli is so sweet! He was perfect the entire 60 minutes! Scarlett loved him too, and he had a lot of fun with her. She of course loved to get in his face, and he laughed every time she came close.
She snuck a kiss while I was taking their picture.



We got up early on Saturday and drove to Atlanta to spend the night. Michael had the weekend off, and we thought it would be fun to take a little roadtrip. First things first, we went to Ikea for some shopping. My mission was to get a new mirror for our dining room, but I came up empty handed. Instead, we left with a new colander and silverware. Very exciting, huh? We left Ikea, checked into our hotel in Midtown and walked to Tin Lizzy's Cantina, which is where the University of Tennessee Alumni meet to watch UT football games. I can't tell you how great it was to see all that orange in one place! We met some really nice UT fans who let us sit with them, and although we lost, we had an amazing time!



This morning, Michael took me to Atlantic Station so I could do some more shopping at H&M. I scored some really cute fall clothes for cheap, and even better, I used my Visa gift card I won last week at our company picnic. I only paid $3.16 for 5 tops!

We ended our little trip with brunch at The Silver Skillet. Michael and I have made it our mission to find dive restaurants that have been featured on the Food Network's Triple D. The Silver Skillet was delish!!! It's a tiny diner with some major soul food, and no one can go to this place expecting to stick with a diet!

After eating, we headed home to see our little baby in Birmingham, and we have been chilling out at home ever since. It's 12 hours until work tomorrow, and I just can't help but wonder why weekends have to fly by so dang quickly!

It's GAME DAY!

It's finally that time of year that we all look forward to! The 2011 College Football Season has officially started! I would give anything to be in Neyland Stadium tonight cheering on the VOLS, but it looks more like I am going to be sitting in front of the tv tonight instead. Michael kicks off his season at Samford against Georgia Southern today. I don't see him too much these days, and there is no chance of that changing until the season is over.

It doesn't matter if I'm laid up on the couch watching football or yelling my face off in the stadium, I love this time of year! The VOLS are who I cheer for first, but I will always love the Razorbacks. The Hogs have a chance to play a winning season again, and I can't wait to see what both teams can do this year!

I'm just happy to decorate my front door with a little team spirit!



It's nothing special, but I think it's cute! Just wait 'til I pull out next year's wreath when I have a year of crafting under my belt :)!

Cheers to a fun and exciting football season! I hope this year proves to be exciting as always!

The Move...and Life After

I am so sorry about the long blog hiatus, but this boy and girl have been super busy!!! We finally made the big move after three weeks of worrying over whether we were finally going to sell the house. And it went fast! We closed on the house at 4:00 pm on June 30, I began packing and giving furniture away on Friday around noon, and we moved into our new place on Saturday July 2. It was a big move to do so quickly, but it was really great to have friends and family help us out. We now live in a cozy two bedroom apartment in a great location in Vestavia Hills, and I couldn't be happier. I love our new place because we have the best neighbors, tons of walking trails right outside our door, and a little village in front of our place where we can shop, go out to eat, and go work out all within walking distance. It's going to take some time and organization to get used to the white walls and smaller space, but that will give me a few projects to take on. I love projects!!!

After only working three days this week, I was still so exausted on Friday. I got home and organized the rest of my stuff I wanted to drop off at The Salvation Army. I think we were in bed by 10 pm, so I didn't get as much accomplished as I wanted to.

Yesterday, we finally finished putting everything away and donated the rest of our things. I had a huge box of books we took to the used book store, and I ended up with $9.33 in book credit. I spent it right away on a new treasure!



I love The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond! Wife, mom, blogger, cook, and photographer, Ree has an amazing love story with her husband, and she has a beautiful blog that lets you into her great little life. When I spotted her cookbook on the shelf, I had to have it! The neatest part of her cookbook is that she provides step-by-step directions for her recipes. That's exactly what I need. Her homemade recipes are Wild West meets Prairie meets Cosmopolitan California. They are hearty yet healthy, and I was happy when Michael looked through the book and seemed happy about my new purchase!

Today, we got up early again to watch church online and clean the house before heading to our friends' Chris and Nicole's home for our first ever "Backyard Olympics." The guys have been planning a field day of sorts for a while, and it finally happened today...with a little backyard redneck twist! I joined in the games, but I left my redneck attire at home. Michael...not so much!

It's a wonder that some other lady didn't snatch him up this afternoon after seeing those sexy legs!

And the trucker hat!

The backyard Olympics consisted of ladder ball, horse shoes, baggo, and the egg toss. The eggs must have been mutant because they would not break even after being dropped, so the guys finally came out to the front yard and tossed the eggs in the street for the final game.

The Backyard Olympians!

Now that we are all moved in and life is settling down, I hope to have more fun topics and events to blog about. I am looking forward to less stress and more fun. I am pretty sure that life post-move is going to be much better!

Michael Talks Boston: Harvard & Fenway

Thursday in Boston brought us to the oldest university in the United States and the oldest ballpark in use in Major League Baseball. I guess one might say the overall theme for Boston is old. From our wonderful location in the South End, we hopped on the orange line of the “T” at Mass Ave and connected to the Red Line across the Charles River to Harvard Square. We started the morning by walking around Harvard for a little bit trying to take in the academia amongst the other tourists. The students had already finished exams, so the only real action on Harvard Yard was the facilities crews preparing for graduation and us tourists walking around snapping pictures.

This stone is just outside the main gate and tells the story of how Harvard and the city of Cambridge were founded. And just because it’s Harvard, it has to be in goofy Olde English.

This statue is of John Harvard, who was one of the University’s first donors. Brandi said that I shouldn’t touch the statue's shoe because the Harvard kids pee on it at night.

Cream of the crop indeed.

I do have to say that the Library was pretty impressive to see.

After having lunch at Au Bon Pain (which means Place of Good Bread in French, Au Bon Pain is a Boston based café and was a delicious and fancy version of Panera Bread) in Harvard Yard, we headed back to the South End to take a nap before the Red Sox Game.

After Brandi took a nap and I went for a jog in the South End, we walked toward Fenway Park in rainy conditions. Thankfully, the skies cleared just as we approached Fenway, and the game would go on without any rain delays.

The pre-game atmosphere around Fenway was pretty cool to see and featured a lot of people having beers and sausage dogs. There were bands outside the stadium on Yawkey Way, and people were excited to see Josh Beckett and Justin Verlander pitch that night in Fenway.

First pitch of the game from Josh Beckett. Beckett pitched well before leaving the game in the 7th inning with an injury. Justin Verlander pitched better than Beckett did that day, but the Red Sox came through with more clutch hits.

Despite the modern touches of the mega videoboards and marketing genius of $8 beer nights, Fenway still has the charm of days gone by, and we really got to see Bostonians in their element at Fenway. Whether they were calling J.D. Drew a bum or belting out Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" in the 8th inning, everyone was excited to be at the ballpark.

After Neil in the 8th, it was Papelbon time in the 9th. I am not sure how many other closers have entrance videos, but Papelbon’s video is awesome and the crowd went crazy for his entrance to the Dropkick Murphy’s hit “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” He made it interesting by loading up the bases in the 9th, but he got out of the inning with the score 3-3.

In the bottom of the 9th, Carl Crawford earned his monster 7 year $142 million paycheck by hiting a bases loaded single to win the game for the Red Sox. It was an awesome scene at Fenway, and we are so lucky that Jack and Emily were able to get us tickets to a game while we were in town.

New Orleans and Baton Rouge

This weekend, Michael and I and our good friends Eric and Jamie took a trip to New Orleans to celebrate Eric's birthday by going to the UT at LSU football game. Eric's family is from New Orleans, and he is a LSU fan, but this was his first time in Tiger Stadium. Michael and I had wanted to go to New Orleans when we saw the 2010 UT football schedule, so it was perfect to spend time with our friends and make a weekend out of it and celebrate Eric's birthday! We arrived on Thursday night, and stayed with Eric's awesome aunt and uncle who live is such a beautiful place right on the water. They were so great to us, and it is always nice to stay in a home rather than a hotel! They took great care of us. On Friday, we headed to the French Quarter and walked through the french market, ate our shrimp po boys, and walked down Bourbon Street of course. I actually think Bourbon Street is the lowlight of the beautiful french quarter. But what do you do...when in Rome I guess! We did stop in a bar to get a drink while on Bourbon Street, and Eric and Michael got girly hurricanes, and I ended up with a big beer I didn't come close to finishing. We just thought it was funny that I had the big beer and they had the fruity drinks! Saturday, we woke up at 6 am and headed to Baton Rouge to do some morning tailgating. It was a beautiful day, and a great day for football! I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Mike the Tiger though, but the excitement was all about the game. This was the craziest game I have ever seen in my life. I'll spare you the details, and if you are reading this, you probably already know them, but we should have won this game! 7 seconds until the end, both teams were confused due to some crazy coaching, and at the end, we all thought Tennessee won...but a flag had been thrown after the game was over. LSU was granted one more mercy play, and they made it to the end zone! The heart of every UT fan sank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted UT to win so badly, and I feel so bad for those boys who played their hearts out! They should be proud of themselves! Though we didn't pull a W, this was a great weekend in NOLA!

In front of St. Peter's Cathedral

Beniets at Cafe du Monde! Tailgating at LSU!

We hoped to see Mike, but he wasn't feeling social!

In front of Tiger Stadium

This was right after we though UT won! :(

It's Never Too Late...

To Cheer for a Team It's September 1, which can mean only one thing

It's 3 days 'til Football Time in Tennessee!

Hands down, college football is my favorite sport, and I love this time of year! There's nothing better than coming together with people from all over the US and enjoying great food and sports together! I especially love it when the weather cools, and we get into the heart of the SEC season when all the major teams play each other. It is so great to me that all of our friends cheer for different teams, but it doesn't matter as long as we are together, having fun, and cheering for the SEC!

I don't know how the VOLS are going to do this year, but I can't wait to head down to LSU and cheer them on! It may be the only game Michael and I can go to this year, so we are both eagerly awaiting October 2. I've never been to LSU, but I hear it's a great time!

The Razorbacks are still close to my heart, and I think they are going to do so well this year. I'll be cheering them on every week too! They deserve a good year!

No matter what team you cheer for, being a fan is fun! It makes life a little bit sweeter!

2010 UT Football Schedule 09/04/10 Tennessee Martin

09/11/10 Oregon 09/18/10 Florida 09/25/10 UAB 10/02/10 at LSU 10/09/10 at Georgia 10/23/10 Alabama 10/30/10 at South Carolina 11/06/10 at Memphis 11/13/10 Mississippi 11/20/10 at Vanderbilt 11/27/10 Kentucky

Cheers to a great football season!

It's Never Too Late to Cheer for a Team

Turn your attention outward.

Find a sport you love.

and a team you admire or pity.

Follow their fortunes.

Get on board

Lend your support.

Give them your passion.

Savour the highs and lows.

Enjoy the ride.

It's Never Too Late...

To Play Golf How ironic is it that for the last two years, I have been working at a private country club that prides itself on being the best golf course in east Tennessee? I knew absolutely nothing about golf before I began working here. In fact, just a few months ago, I learned that they change the holes on the course every day. I never would have thought! I write about golf and promote golf, so I know enough about it to be dangerous. I watched my first PGA tournament here last year, which was pretty cool, but it is the only golf event I have watched. That's about the extent of my golfing experience. If I was a fly on the wall in the Pro Shop downstairs, I would have no clue what most of our members were talking about when it comes to the game, except for Tiger and Elin of course. By the time I attempt to complete these 172 acts, I can guarantee you I will not pick up a golf club. So I am going to have to pass on this one. I see enough of golf every day to know that it is a special game in a league of it's own. I also know I have neither the patience, time, or money to even think about taking up this sport. But I will say, if any of you possess any of these virtues, you should consider golf as your next hobby! It's Never Too Late to Play Golf... It's a challenge of the mind and body. It's like life...it's not fair... and you never completely master it. ('cuz the holes are moved) But that's the lure... each round is a new adventure, a tantalizing test of your skill and patience. But don't expect too much too soon. Very few golfers are naturals. Take lessons or you'll just practice your mistakes. ($$$) One good shot will bring you back for the next try. Once you're hooked, you can play for the rest of your life. Doesn't Mr. Lindsay make golf sound so enticing?

Superbowl 44!

Last night, we celebrated Superbowl 44 at a party with our friends. I didn't care too much about the game, though it turned out to be a really good one for the Saints. I was excited about the commercials and the good food! There was plenty of good food, but I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with the commercials. I don't know about you, but I think the commercials have gotten worse over the years. Maybe my expectations are greater! Through the commercial mediocrity, I do think 3 stood out, and I wanted to share my favorites. What were your favorites?