roll tide and gig 'em

we took off friday and flew into alabama thursday night for a fun weekend of family, friends, and football.  my dad was awesome enough to get us tickets to the alabama/texas a&m game, and we planned to tailgate on campus with my brother and sister and their friends.

before football, we spent all of friday with family at my parents' house.  aunt beth, uncle john, wesley, hannah, and maw came to visit and play with brendan (and us, but we all know the real pull ;) ).  lee got his zaxby's fix and brendan got lots of undivided attention from the family.  my aunt was also awesome enough to bake me a birthday cake and extended that celebrating a little longer.  lots of laughs and fun catching up with all of them friday night.  maw even stayed the night to extend her playtime with brendan a little bit longer!

saturday, we woke up to finish making the food for the tailgate, loaded up the car, and headed to one of my favorite places.  the weather was gorgeous (although a tad bit too warm) and atmosphere was just as i remembered it.  after a 3-year lapse since my last football game, i was ready to be inside bryant-denny.  we got to visit with rachel and tyler which was great, as well as meet some of their friends who stopped by.  i also got to catch up with a couple of my old friends from college and some of our friends from our first married small group.

then, game time came.  i loved the pregrame hype, videos, and tradition that comes with that, but i should have known sitting next to the aggie section was a bad sign for what was to come.  you all know the results of the game so i will not dwell on those.  i would have obviously enjoyed a win more, but it was kind of cool watching lee and the other aggies celebrate such a huge victory.  we met back up with the rest of the family, grabbed a quick bite to eat, loaded up the tailgate and headed back to prattville after a long, fun day.

we have taken it easy this morning, recovering from the past few days, but brendan did create a new game to entertain himself this morning.  he got tickled closing himself into the pantry and playing peek-a-boo with us.

 can't wait for a week-long visit at christmas!  love you all!

after the storm

while in alabama last week, we made our first stop in tuscaloosa. we realized on this trip that we both love tuscaloosa for different, but equally good, reasons. i love tuscaloosa because of all of the memories of going to school & living there for six years, as well as the friendships made all along the way. lee loves it because of the friendships we made during our first year of marriage there. so not only do we visit campus when we are in town, but we also often drive out to our first apartment. not that we can go inside, but it is still fun to think back to everything that happened that first year and has happened since.

on this particular trip however, we had our nostalgic moments but shared more moments of shock and awe as we drove through the storm-ravaged city that we hold dear. for the first time, we got to see the devastation in person from the tornado that passed through one month ago. i could not even remember some of the businesses that used to be along 15th street because there was nothing left of where they once stood. so many houses were destroyed. so many lives have been changed forever in that city and state. i pray our little package helped a few people. the city has so far to go to recover. i hope we can continue to help in some way.

one last positive note...we did conclude the day in tuscaloosa with lunch at city cafe and a long afternoon visit with our dear friends, adam and coriell, as well as their two cuties. such awesome, awesome friends.

quite possibly the craziest student quotes ever

this is a very similar shirt to the one i wore to school on friday. you know, just supporting my team...no biggie, right?!

crazy quote #1
4th period student: your shirt is missing the O.
me: what?
same student: your shirt is missing the O. you know, the O in obama.
all students then erupt into hysterical laughter.
me (pointing to the alabama flag on my wall): it's bama. as in short for alabama.

crazy quote #2
6th period student walking into class walks all the way around me (i'm standing on the other side of the door from where she walks in) to read my shirt and says: "oh good, i was making sure you shirt didn't have an O on it"

i guess i need to get a new shirt that fully spells out ALABAMA.

roll tide roll

due to unfortunate circumstances and living several states away, the 2009 football season was the first season in almost 10 years that i had missed an alabama football game in person. that streak did not continue for two years.

i made it tuscaloosa a few hours before the first game of the season. i met up with my family, spent some time on the quad, saw some friends tailgating, and got to see the crimson tide take the field against san jose state. i know, just a no-name team, but it was still alabama football. i will not be able to make it to any other game this season so i took it all in.

fans waiting for the "walk of champions" to begin outside bryant-denny stadium

my beloved denny-chimes standing tall over the tailgaters

the newly-finished endzone upper deck, bring capacity to over 100,000

i also got to spend the weekend with my sister. yes, for the first time, i spent the weekend with her. we had a great time, and she was a wonderful hostess...making biscuits for breakfast and letting me invade her apartment for a couple of days.

as much as i enjoy taking pictures, i completely forgot to take pictures with all of my wonderful friends i got to catch up with. sunday was a wonderful day for my soul with the opportunity to worship at calvary (a place always dear to me) and step into our former small group, spend time with the hendersons at their new house, and visit the proud parents-to-be and beth (also known as the weeks) at their new house.

rachel and i ended the visit with breakfast at panera and shopping in the bama stores for me to find a flag to represent with in my classroom. silly us realized we had not taken a picture together all weekend so remedied that quickly before i left. love you lots...thanks again for letting me stay!

the birthday girls (plus some happy times in tuscaloosa)

last weekend i took a solo trip to alabama. yes, sadly lee had to stay home and miss out on fun times in tuscaloosa and prattville, but we did what we had to do.

the main purpose for the trip was a final meeting with my research committee. aka "find out if i am graduating or not" meeting. and drum roll please.........i am all finished & a graduate (again) of the university of alabama! i must say i feel very accomplished and proud of what i did, particularly the bulk of the work that i did on my own here in houston after we moved last summer.

i also spent one night with kaylie & had panera for breakfast with her, had lunch with karly, dinner & a night at morgan's, breakfast with kimberly, and shopping at target with my mom in a matter of 36 hours. i know how to make the most of a trip, people!

saturday and sunday in prattville were the added bonus days of the trip spent with the fam! rachel and aunt beth have forever shared family birthday parties, and i was so thankful that my weekend in alabama coincided with their party. as always, everyone outdid themselves when it came to the food. i only got an after shot of the food spread, but as you can see, it was fabulous. also, isn't rachel's cake adorable? my aunt is the best cake baker/decorator ever.the gifts and blowing out of the candles were full of laughs at unexpected gifts and everyone's terrible but hilarious rendition of "happy birthday."seriously, have you ever seen anyone receive an icee sign for their birthday? this girl loves her some icees!

rachel's reaction to her awesome tickets to "little house on the prairie: the musical." she's quite the "little house" fanatic.
our beautiful grandmother :)
my aunt's reaction to the truly awful "happy birthday" being sung as she prepared to blow out her candles. ha!

easter travels (better late than never!)

thanks to the humble isd giving april 1 and 2 as days off, we took a 4-day trip to alabama!

first stop (after several delays at the airport), tuscaloosa. i was able to meet with my advisor/mentor and determine a very tight but doable schedule towards graduating in may! *quick disclaimer* the lateness of this blog post and updating the 365 are due to all of my time and work that MUST be dedicated to finishing research work before my deadline.**

tuscaloosa also included a trip to city cafe for lunch! hooray! thank you, caitlin, for enjoying such a wonderful meal with me and taking some time out of your day (aka skipping class) to catch up. we were so thankful to stay the night with adam and coriell, but sadly, i never even saw them due to our late arrival and my meetings. i promise that won't happen the next time i'm in town, guys! lee, however, got to go to lunch with adam and coffee with ben lee, visit his old school, and do a little golf shopping while we were town.

after these whopping 11.5 hours in tuscaloosa, we headed to prattville. our time in prattville was filled with awesome home-cooked meals, shopping, movies, golf for the guys, awesome pre-easter lunch & egg hunt at maw's house, and a great (but quick) Easter sunday with the family. i even achieved the perfect Easter family picture!

check out my wonderful grandmother and the awesome spread of food we had for "Easter lunch"...
this is the best one i got of hunter and rachel. the boys were not cooperating with taking pictures...
...as you can see, ours was no easy matter either. there were many, many more besides this one until we got the good one below

rachel was the winner of the egg hunt. she found a whopping 15 eggs (second and third place for about 8 and 9 a piece) and two of the three prize eggs!
we took a golf-cart ride through the field and found this little friend!
here it is, the awesome first and only try, Easter family picture!
yay for family...we can't wait for the beach this summer!!!