Hello Football Season!

What a fun and eventful week! I have a ton of pictures to share, starting with our official welcoming of football season, which began with my decorating the house with Auburn paraphernalia.

Entrance hall table

 

Table (with delicious meal on it!)

As you may have noticed on the picture of our kitchen table, we prepared a delicious meal last week using the grill given to Chris by "Santa Wilson" last Christmas.  Our patio really does have a lot of ambiance with the lanterns that we bought (which also serve as mosquito repellant--those who know me know that I am a mosquito magnet).  When we grilled last week, it was way too hot to eat outside.  However, we ate outside on the patio tonight and the weather was wonderful.  The rain from the tropical storm yesterday really cooled things off!

The vegetables turned out delicious but, note to self, grease the pan next time! The ones on the bottom stuck so bad, we had to throw it away.  Luckily, that pan came "free" with our house (i.e. it was here when we got here).

We love our patio with the torches!

The house continues to come together, little by little, and a couple of weeks ago, Chris' grandmother (Nancileigh) sent us this painting that she made that we have hung in our entrance hall.  This was a wedding gift we specifically requested.  Painting is one of her many talents, and we are happy to have this piece of hers in our house :)

 

This weekend marked the first weekend of Auburn's football season (hooray!).  Once again, we returned to Auburn, and got to spend some time with our families.  I was especially happy to get to see my  sister, since she has been busy with rush and visiting her boyfriend the last couple of times we went to Auburn.  We tailgated with friends, and I got to see Meredith and her husband Ryan, and Sara and her boyfriend, Aaron.  I was so excited to put on my game day dress and say hello to another football season! This one may not be as promising as last years', but I am proud to be an Auburn fan rain or shine.  Also, I am not one to start expecting the worst just because of a rough start.  Auburn has a tendency to play down to our opponents, and this week was (unfortunately) no exception, as we had our season-opener to Utah State. 

 Here I am with two of my besties, Sara and Merdith.  Meredith got married in December and lives in Birmingham with her husband, Ryan.  She just started an accounting job a couple of weeks ago, so we email eachother from work. Sara and Meredith were both my roommates during different parts of college.  Please keep Sara in your prayers...she found out hours after the game that her mom was in a terrible car wreck.  She is going to be okay, but she has a long road to recovery.  Sara has been like a sister to me, and I have known her and her mom for years and years, so they both need all the support and encouragement we can give them!

Here we all are in our game-day best, getting ready to walk to Jordan-Hare for the 16th Auburn victory in a row!

 Jordan Passmore, a friend and groomsman of Chris' that he met at the Air Force Academy, came down from his base in Charleston.  Jordan is a "converted" AU fan, and after having lived with Chris, decided to come to Auburn for the LSU game last year and, naturally, had to come back for more.

No game day victory would be complete without a trip to downtown Auburn and Toomers corner that night.  We headed downtown with Jordan to meet up with some more of Chris's friends (including Dusty, who was in the wedding).  Major surprise to me: Skybar (our most popular local bar) now has a VIP level...for those of you who went to Auburn, this seems slightly unnatural! I mean...Skybar isn't exactly the taj mahal of bars. It's basic to say the least.  I guess they are trying to make a more sophisticated image or something haha.  Anyway, I didn't really want to pay $100 bucks a person (let's face it...I couldn't if I wanted to! And believe me, I did not).  Sometime around my sophomore year of college, I managed to make it on "the list" at Skybar, and I suppose that helped my case, because I wound up just asking the owner if we could go up and he let Chris, me, Dusty and Jordan go up there for free.  I'm sure we weren't the only ones granted that privilege, but it was nice to enjoy the view and not have to worry about the crowd.  For those of you who are curious, here are some pictures:

You KNOW that times are changing when Skybar gets a VIP level! After it was time to leave, we stopped by good old Toomer's corner on the way.  As I am sure most of you are fully aware, this is probably the last year we will be able to roll our precious trees.  Who knows how many times we will have that opportunity this year, being a rebuilding year for our football team.  Hopefully many, but you never know.  I am glad we got some pictures.

Where better to meet new friends than Toomer's corner, the meeting place of the Auburn family? :)

Sunday we had to go home...I had so much to do around the house on Monday, and since we are travelling so much, it is basically impossible to get anything done on a regular weekend.  We missed the bad weather on the way home.  Monday, we did a good bit of cleaning around the house.  Mason saw us working hard, and decided to help us change the sheets on our bed.

 

 

We made plans a while back with Jon and Autumn to have Chris and Jon test out Jon's beer brewing kit.  The had used it before in Colorado, but because of the specific temperatures that the beer needs to stay at to brew properly, brewing in Mississippi presents a new challenge.  Autumn got this as a gift for Jon several months ago when the guys were still at the Academy.  They have really enjoyed it, and I've heard so much about it, I'm glad to get to participate!

First, you dip the grain into hot water.  You have to get a thermometer to make sure the water is exactly the right temperature at all times. The water, in this case, could not exceed 160 degrees.

You add the malt for flavor.

You use a tub to funnel the mixture from the pot we had on the stove into this bucket.  It looks like poop.  Ew. This bucket is submerged into a larger bucket that is filled with cool water.  You put ice in it every day to make the temperature drop over time.  We will continue this process in about 2 weeks, so stay tuned for the second stage!

No blog post would be complete without an adorable precious picture of Mason with his new BFF.  Mason also loves playing with Luke, our golden retriever at my parents' house.  I need to get a picture of them for the blog, because they are sooo cute! However, you really can't beat a picture like this:

Today begins another work week, but we are both thankful this one is a short one.  Chris has been working longer hours at his job, which has kind of thrown him for a loop, so we hope his hours shorten soon.  If not, he will surely adjust after a week or so.  There may be some changes for my job in the near future as well...I will keep everyone updated on that when I know more details, but for now, please cross your fingers that it al works out ;)

Today, Mason got fixed....poor little baby! Every morning when I leave for work, he tries to go with me.  This morning, when I took him with me, he was so excited...little did he know, we were taking a little pit stop at the vet! When I left him, I really think he knew something like that was happening...and he was not happy about it.  I felt incredibly guilty. However, when I picked him up after work, he was the same old Mason (albeit, a drunk version, from the pain meds).  Although he is decidedly less coordinated, I'm sure he will snap out of it by tomorrow and be just fine. 

This weekend, we look forward to playing (and hopefully beating) Mississippi State.  Since I work in Starkville, I am particularly hopeful that we win this one. We are planning on setting up a tailgate, and I am looking forward to spending time with some friends I haven't seen in a long time.  Hannah and Tori have both told me they will be in town, and I know I will get to see Lauren as well.  Anyone else who is coming and hasn't let me know yet...amphitheater, be there or be square, haha. Until then, War Eagle!