Monday, October 20, 2014

{The Tide Rolled...}

And rolled. And rolled.  And rolled.  To the tune of 59-0.  

Let's just start by addressing the elephant in the room. Ha! Get it?? =)  I don't need to go on & on about how bad we sucked this weekend.  Nor do I need to be reminded.  I know...I was there & witnessed it in person {which is way worse than watching it on tv because you can't change the channel}.  I don't know who or what is to blame, but I certainly hope the issue is being addressed as we speak.  I didn't think that we would win on Saturday, but I also didn't expect us to be humiliated quite that bad.  I thought we would score.  At least once. 

Enough about that...onto the FUN part - the ROAD TRIP!  Debbie, Lynn, Gail, Connie & I left Thursday afternoon and headed to Shreveport/Bossier City, LA.  These trips can get LONG so we decided to break it up this year; do 1/2 the trip on Thursday & the other 1/2 on Friday.  We have talked about flying, but the road trip part of it is what we enjoy most.  We pack enough food, clothes & alcohol to last us a month if we would happen to get lost in the swamps of Louisiana or backwoods of Alabama.  We always say we are going to pack lighter the next time.  We never do.
We arrived at the Horseshoe Thursday evening, checked in & headed to supper around 8:00.  If you ever stay there - I highly recommend the Four Winds restaurant!  After supper, we hit the casino & gambled for a few hours.  I broke even so I considered it a good night {and yes, I spent most of the night at the penny & nickle slots...I just bought a house, remember?!?}
We got up Friday morning & started the 6 hour drive to Tuscaloosa.  Since we were driving right thru West Monroe anyway, we decided to make a quick stop at the Duck Dynasty shop.  I have only watched the show once or twice, but it was cool to see. Unfortunately, none of the Robertson's were there at the time.  Three states in one day...I was HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY when we finally crossed the Alabama state line!
We arrived in Tuscaloosa around 6:00 & stopped first to check into our hotel.  It wasn't the greatest, but what do you expect for $91 a night on game weekend??  Most hotels are $200+.  It served it's purpose & none of us got bedbugs so it's all good. =)  We drove thru campus to see where the stadium was & where we would park and then made the 45 minute drive to Birmingham for Midnight Yell!
Midnight Yell was being held at Chuy's so we decided to just eat supper there. The restaurant was awesome!  It sat on the side of a hill with a patio area overlooking the city.  The view was gorgeous; I so wish we could have seen it during the day.  The turnout for Midnight Yell was ok & we had a good time...just not sure if the 10 minutes of actual "yelling" were worth the 45 minute drive over & getting back to the hotel and to bed at 1:30am. 
Saturday was GAME DAY!!  We got there early so we could do a little tailgating & check out the campus...which is beautiful!  The Alabama fans were really friendly & welcoming and those people have their stuff together.  They have air conditioned porta potties with attendants in them!  Take note A&M.  Take note.
The atmosphere inside the stadium was ROCKIN'!  Those people come to have a good time for sure {and clearly their team came to play football...just sayin'}.  The weather was beautiful {although HOT!}...FINALLY no rainy, cold weather...guess we got that in exchange for a good game. =(  But at least I got to work on my tan in October...just trying to see the positive in all this people.
We all know what went down over the next 60 minutes.  I'll just leave it at that. I think the Alabama fans even felt sorry for us.  We stayed 3 1/2 quarters & then just couldn't bear to watch it anymore so once again - I admit - I was a 2%er and left the game early.  
We decided to drive back to Bossier City that night to get 1/2 of the trip home out of the way {plus, we wanted to get as far away from there as we could}.  For 6 hours, we talked football.  I am certain the 5 of us solved all of A&M's football troubles in that vehicle...if only they would listen to us. =)  We arrived back in Bossier City around 1:30am & got up Sunday morning and headed home.  

The game, well - wasn't a game at all - but I don't regret going for one minute.  The road trip & spending the weekend with these fabulous ladies more than made up for it!  Win or lose, we are Aggies & always will be.  No more road trips this year but plans for 2015 are already in the works!



Monday, October 13, 2014

{Weekend Recap}

It's Monday already.  Dang these weekends go by fast!!  Of course, this does mean I am one weekend closer to putting up my Christmas tree.  No, it's not going up yet - I am going to enjoy my pumpkins a little longer...but it will go up sooner than later.  I didn't get to put one up last year, remember??  I have to make up for lost time!! =)  Thankfully fall has finally returned today.  I was really over those summer-like temps in October.  High's this week in the 70's & lows in the 50's...this makes me HAPPY!

This past Friday night was the 13th annual Washington County Relay for Life.  With the exception of a year or two break, I have been involved in the event every year either as a team captain, committee  member or event chair.  I know from experience that putting the event together is a lot of work, and it makes me sad to see so little community involvement now.  Cancer affects everyone at some point in their life, either personally or thru a friend or family member.    Even though there may have only been 8 teams out there, we raised over $84,000...and every dollar counts.  I was the team captain for the Blue Bell team & we raised $7188!
{we were 1 of only 2 teams that stayed til it was over at midnight...but we aren't 2%ers - there was no going home early!!}
I took a "break" from house stuff on Saturday - no cleaning, decorating, unpacking or organizing...it was all about college football all day long.  Texas vs. OU, Mississippi State vs. Auburn, Baylor vs. TCU, Alabama vs. Arkansas...there were LOTS of good games on.  Unfortunately I probably got to watch the worst game of the day in person.  Seriously - there are no words for the way we played Saturday night.  I thought the Arkansas game was bad.  And then we played Mississippi State.  I thought that game was bad.  And then we played Ole Miss. I am going to chalk this up as a rebuilding year & hopefully next year will be better. It does make me feel somewhat better that Mississippi State ran over Auburn and that Alabama struggled with Arkansas.  It gives me a little hope that we might can beat bama this weekend.  We are roadtripping to Tuscaloosa so all I am hoping for is a good game...and NO RAIN!!

The good news is that I FINALLY got to see the new stadium and it's pretty darn awesome.  It's hard to even remember what it looked like before the redevelopment; I can't wait to see it completely finished next year...I think it's going to be incredible!
 
It is crazy loud in there now & despite the outcome of the game - it doesn't get much better than game day in Aggieland!
  
If things work out, I am hoping to finally be a season ticket holder next year & I cannot wait.  See those 2 seats in the very top corner in the new south end zone?  Or maybe the two below the giant screen that will probably cause me to go deaf & blind?  Yep, that's probably where I'll be.   But that's ok - at least I'll be there {and hopefully we will be having a better season}! 
But for now - BTHO bama!!


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

{National Night Out}

Last night, my neighborhood had our first ever National Night Out block party!  I hosted it at my house; I am kinda in the middle so the location worked out great {plus, I NEVER pass up the opportunity to host a good party}.  The weather was nice & we had LOTS of yummy food {these people know how to cook!}.  
{thanks Laura for the cute welcome sign!}
We had about 25 adults & 15 kiddos...not bad considering it was our first one & only about 1/3 of the residents are currently living on the street.  We had several families join us who haven't moved in yet, but are in the process of building so it was really nice to meet all of them. We discovered that if there is anything we need - we have the hookup in the neighborhood...we have {lots} of law enforcement, paramedics, teachers, lawyers, pie people, mechanics - you name it, we have it. =)
  
Living in the country for over a year was quiet & peaceful and I did enjoy it for a while. But I realized last night how much I missed living in town in a neighborhood surrounded by people. And GREAT people at that; despite age differences & marital statuses, kids or no kids - we all became friends instantly.  Several of us were discussing how we loved our neighbors in our old neighborhoods & how we were really sad to leave. For me, I was the last of the "original" neighbors to move so it made it a little easier, but I was very fortunate & lived by some pretty awesome people for over 5 years.  Someone said it perfectly when she said "it looks like we lucked out twice!"  

I did indeed.