I have taken a couple of weeks off from blogging, since our weekend road trips managed to make us feel a little in over our heads last week at home...the laundry has piled up, along with the dust in the house, and we are actually looking forward to a quiet weekend at home to get on top of everything. This blog is kind of long since there is two weeks of stuff in it...so buckle down, here goes...
Two weeks ago, we went to the Auburn home game to see the last of our 17-victory winning streak. This weekend was extra special for me, because I got to spend some time with Hannah and Tori, who both moved away from Auburn like I did, so I feel like my visits with them are way too few and far between. Tori is a forensic accountant at a big firm in Atlanta, and Hannah teaches 6th grade in south Alabama. It's too bad that the game had to be at 11:00 because it made it nearly impossible to plan a tailgate. We had a small tailgate...the atmosphere for morning games just isn't as exciting as night games since there are much fewer tailgaters on campus. However, the important thing is spending time with friends, and so it was awesome that I had some brief time to do that. Sara even managed to swing by for a couple of hours, which really said a lot considering that she has been through hell the past few weeks with her mother being hospitalized...not to mention she even got a ticket on the way to the tailgate! I definitely wish I could have extended my time with Sara, Tori, Hannah, and Lauren x a million (I wonder if any of them are interested in moving to Columbus?) But I feel very lucky that no matter where our lives take us, at least we will always have Auburn in common to bring us together whether it's because of a football game or family!
Saturday evening, I went to Lauren's house where we enjoyed time with a partial assembly of the old crew (Lauren, Chase, Hannah, and Aaron), then Chris and I went to a party where we visited with Dusty, Marc, and other friends of his.
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| Girls Picture! Sara is in her scrubs because she came straight from the hospital after her night shift just to see us...what a trooper! |
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| Tired boys at the tailgate after the game |
Chris' grandparents on Tammy's side, Lavada and Bob (also known as Granny and Granbob) were visiting town for Granbob's birthday. It's always wonderful to visit with family, especially those you don't see very often, and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. Then, on Sunday, we had lunch with my family, including my grandmother, since it was Grandparent's Day. After lunch, we went to Martin and Virginia's house, and were able to spend some time with them, as well as Chris' dad and Lisa, before heading home. As you can probably see, this weekend (just like all weekends in Auburn it seems!) was very busy trying to visit with everyone, and I can definitely say I have been getting a taste of what it must have been like for Chris when he visited from the Academy...busy busy busy trying to see as much as possible of everyone we can fit in...the good kind of busy, but still verrrry busy!
Thank goodness we won the game, or else I would never have lived it down at work on Monday in Starkville. On the way out of town on Sunday, we had to stop by Big Blue Bookstore and stock up on Auburn stuff. This, of course, included a new ensemble for Mason:
In honor of grandparents day, we sent this picture to all of our parents (because Mason is their grandog). I'm sure they will all treasure his baby pictures forever! :)
We are so proud of Mason, by the way...he has learned the commands "sit" and "down". We want to teach him to stay (that is a hard one) and I am determined to teach him how to roll over and stand up on two feet. He can hold his balance on two feet for a long time, sometimes as long as 10 seconds, but he only does it randomly, not on command. So we are going to try to get him to walk around on two legs, we think it would be very amusing.
Sometimes it seems like my blog is just an excuse for me to talk about our dog and post a million pictures of him that I'm sure no one finds as interesting as me. When I am a mom (which, don't worry, is in the extreme distant future!!) I will probably be the most annoying mom ever who carries a photo album in her purse and brags about her kids all the time. If our children are half as cute as our precious wittle Mason, I have no doubt that everyone around me will be sick of hearing about them. But anyway...here is another adorable picture of Mason and Dubs hanging out in Mason's lair, eating their bones together. This was a rare instance when we got Mason to chew only his own bone. Mason doesn't like to share...I'm afraid he gets that from his mommy...and whenever he plays with other dogs, he always feels that he should get both his own toy, and the other dog's. Dubs continues to grow exponentially, so I'm not sure how much longer he will fit under our kitchen table.
Thursday night, we decided to have Jon, Autumn, and Dubs over to watch the MSU vs. LSU game. Since it was an SEC event, I decided it was a great opportunity to use all the Auburn serving pieces I have collected over the years. We grilled some chicken and veggies, and I made some Paula Deen specialties that included a Bleu Cheese Roasted Potato Salad (delishhhh!) and Fried Beer Battered Asparagus with a lemon dipping sauce. The fried asparagus turned out okay, but I think I could do better next time. That's only the second time I've fried anything, and the first time I've fried asparagus so there was probably some room for improvement.
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Our patio really has a lot of ambiance ever since we added these citronella lanterns. We have enjoyed spending time out there so much, and plan to do even more work on it. This includes possibly rigging up some kind of stereo for out there, getting an outdoor rug, and some low maintenance plants that won't die when they come under my care taking. One addition that we are super excited about is the navy blue Auburn fire pit that Tammy and Greg gave us last weekend as a housewarming gift (you can see it in the left corner). We are going to go get some sand to fill it with this weekend when we are at home, and are looking forward to using it next week! The weather has really been cooling down, so it will be perfect!  |
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This potato salad recipe from Paula Deen's website was easy and sooo yummy! |
Those who know me know my weakness for anything festive, so I will continue to look for excuses to use my Auburn stuff, even if Auburn is not even playing. I'm so excited that October is nearing, because I get to decorate our home for Halloween!!
This weekend we attended the away game, and were fortunate that my parents provided us with tickets and a hotel. I was so excited to get to see my friend/bridesmaid Maryann's parents (although I wish she and her husband would have been there!) and we had an awesome time at the game until we lost. Even then, we found the opposing teams' fans to be very gracious, almost as nice as Auburn fans (if that is possible). Personally, I kind of knew that our winning streak would come to an end sometime in the near future (if you can "know" those kinds of things)...I had hoped it would be later in the season, but Chris and I are not fair-weather fans and a season that doesn't compare to last years still won't keep us from wanting to attend just as many games to show our support.
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| Doing a little pregaming...the weather was way colder than I expected, so I had to buy that jacket/wrap that morning after we came to campus. Then I liked it so much I wore it to dinner that night and home the next day! |
Our trip home was unexpectedly eventful. On the way home we made two unplanned stops. First, we stopped at a winery called "Chateu Elan" that we saw a random billboard for on the interstate. We spent over an hour here and had a lot of fun tasting some rather unusual wines. We bought two bottles of Peach Muscadine wine. I had never had muscadine wine before...I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I always like to try something new. It is super-sweet and quite inexpensive.
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| Chris posing with our Muscadine wine, next to the part of the vineyard where they grow the muscadine grapes. |
When we finally got hungry again after eating all the crackers at the wine tasting, we were near a favorite restaurant of mine in Phipps Plaza, Atlanta, called Twist. When I was living in Atlanta interning, my roommates (Tori and Rachel) and I frequented this place because it was always "happening" (can't think of a better word to describe it) and they have fantastic sushi, which we have been craving since moving to Columbus. Last time I ate there with my mom and Sara, there was some kind of up-and-coming boy band serenading the customers on the patio. I had never heard of them, but I looked them up online and I guess they are quite popular with the tween age group. Well this time, Chris and I sat right next to DJ Drama...maybe not the most famous of celebs, but definitely one that if you haven't heard of him, you have probably heard one of the songs that he arranged. The managers gave him some kind of special on his and his date's meal...I'm pretty sure that was his Maserati parked out front of the restaurant, so why they thought he needed a special price, I don't know, but we certainly did not get one!
Our last pit stop was at Publix in Tuscaloosa...even though I was rather irritated that the cashier there knew less about Publix's coupon policy than I do, I am proud to say that I spent $38 on this weeks groceries and saved $57. I am going to miss Publix while we are staying in Columbus the next few weeks!
The worst thing about traveling this weekend was that we had to board Mason for the first time! This made me feel extremely guilty because I am afraid he thought we were leaving him at the pound. When Chris picked him up from the boarder this morning, he sent me this picture in a text message with the caption "Mason is making himself at home already"
Well, I reckon that's about it for the past couple of weeks. Apparently yesterday's Garfield comic reminded Chris of this blog:
That is probably the reaction I get on my blog, but at least it's fun for me to get on here and share some pictures and let everyone know how much we miss them when we are away...so I at least know one person is getting enjoyment out of it! :) We are really looking forward to our weekend at home, but we have loved doing all this traveling and plan to pick it back up in a few weeks. We are excited a visit from my parents for my dad's birthday in a couple of weeks, and then a trip to Nashville the week after that..then, back to Auburn for the Florida game (and Chris' birthday weekend...25 years old!) Even though travel is exhausting, we really feel like that's what being young newlyweds is all about...there is nothing holding us back from having new adventures as often as possible, and we are so fortunate that we have jobs that allow us to afford a little spontaneity. As hard as it is to show up at work on Monday after a fantastic weekend, remembering that makes it a little easier!
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