What a Weekend

What a weekend it was. It was a busy one that was full of fun...with the exception of a few hours on Saturday evening. But at least both Florida and Tennessee lost too! Friday night some of us tailgated at our house before the Raider game. Andrea made some excellent Taco Soup. After packing up and heading to the game, we settled in our seats. We hadn't been there more than 30 seconds when the rain began to fall. We hadn't brought umbrellas or hoods or anything! So, we headed back home. Jack played for a bit before heading to bed. Here's a shot of him playing with his new laptop from Cissy. In case you haven't noticed in my last couple of posts, he's pulling up on just about everything these days. He's a big explorer.

We waited up for the Walshs to arrive and were excited when they rolled into town. They got a tour of the house and even a sneak peek at sleeping Jack. We hadn't seen Mike & Liz since they got married over a year ago; so we did some serious catching up before finally letting them get some rest. After all, we both had a big day in Athens on Saturday.

Early Saturday, the Walshs got to meet Jack before heading down to Athens for their full day of tailgating. We took a little more time getting ready and leisurely made our way to Athens. We ran a few errands before joining most of the family for lunch. Jack enjoyed the moose at Loco's. He wore a new outfit for gameday :)

Later we headed downtown for an afternoon with food and friends. We had a great time tailgating with the whole Carr clan, my family and the Walshs. It was a big day for Jack too. He loved Ms. Mickie's mac 'n cheese and banana pudding. There are tons of pictures with the group. The food was great, and the fellowship was even better. Here's Jack getting some banana pudding from his Aunt Lisa.

My mom took Jack home with her and the rest of us headed to the game. In case you were in a cave all weekend, we lost...BIG. It was painful to watch, but we stayed till the bitter end. I have to admit that if I had been at home I would have quit watching.

Sunday morning we went to church with my parents and then all went to lunch afterwards to celebrate my dad's birthday. We also dropped in on a shower for Terri and John, who are getting married in less than 2 weeks. Then, we headed home. It was a long day, but we enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Here are a couple of cute photos of Jack waiting on his daddy to get out of the shower tonight b/f Josh headed to work.

Look What I Got!

On Thursday I spent the morning cleaning while Jack was at preschool. Afterwards, we went by and had lunch with Josh since he had to work late and wouldn't see Jack before bedtime. Following lunch I carried Jack all over running errands. We went to Lowe's & CVS. He fell asleep twice. So, he got a much needed nap when we finally arrived home. As I was unloading the truck I noticed a big package on the front steps. I was thinking, "did I order something?"

Then I discovered the package was for Jack from my friend Kristie a.k.a. Cissy. She had mentioned in an email recently she had a couple of goodies for Jack. So, I opened the package to find not one, but two really cool toys for Jack. One was a laptop, which he loves. His favorite thing is for me to open it so he can close it. The other was an activity table. I put it together and had it ready for Jack when he woke up.

He loves the new activity table. He will kneel at it or pull himself up to standing and lean over it. It makes so many fun sounds and has lights for him to enjoy. We are so grateful for friends like Cissy. We are going to do our best to get over and see her soon. Thanks so much, Cissy! You're the best!

This & That

Last week was incredibly busy around here. So, hopefully this week will be a little more relaxed. On Tuesday, I had a meeting at the hospital. On Josh's afternoon off we had the car brakes replaced and ran a few errands (including a house call :) Then, I finalized the Wednesday Whirl (an email newsletter that goes out to our MOPS moms b/f each meeting). Wednesday brought the hospital golf tournament. My great friend Andrea was kind enough to watch Jack for a few hours while I helped set-up and get golfers registered. After they teed off, I picked Jack up and brought him back to the course for the conclusion. We raced to church for Wednesday night supper and then set-up the tables for our first MOPS meeting.

Here's Jack in between crawls. Yep, he's crawling. He's been doing an army crawl for several weeks now, but a week or so ago he figured out how to keep his belly up (although he still doesn't do it most of the time). So, needless to say he's keeping the floors clean with his shirts.

On Thursday morning, we decorated for our MOPS meeting and then I had to take care of some hospital ads before picking Jack up from Early Steps. We headed over to Andrea & Andrew's, where we all piled in the truck and headed to Buford for a trip to Babies R Us. It was hectic, but an incredibly fun trip to break up the craziness of the week. We also managed to squeeze in a stop at Chick-fil-A and Ann Taylor Loft. After returning home, I dropped Jack off with Josh and headed back to our church to have a prayer meeting about MOPS. Then, I zipped back home to feed Jack before heading to BUNCO...another fun time! We laughed and carried on a bit too much I think! After returning home, I started on my breakfast items for the MOPS meeting and also put together my nametag, which I should have made weeks ago!

Friday morning was our MOPS meeting and everything went off without a hitch. We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to be excited to be reunited with one another after busy summers. We even finished on time! The Steering Team celebrated afterwards at Zanzo's. Joni agreed to take Jack home with her while I went to the newspaper to see about a special section on the hospital that will run in October. Joni is such a wonderful friend as well. After picking Jack up we fueled up the truck and went home to do a load of laundry before our road trip to Rome.

Yes, we left town! After an exhausting week, we packed up the truck and went to visit friends and family. Josh's buddy invited him to camp out at the lake. Jack and I slept at Josh's parents house, which was much more comfortable. We met Josh and his friends out at the lake on Saturday for lunch. Josh had smoked a bunch of ribs and we all enjoyed a wonderful feast. (They were even better the second time around - when we ate leftovers last night.) Jack mostly napped at the lake. Before long we had to pack up and head home so Josh could catch a nap before the late UGA game...he had to work on Sunday. He napped a little on the way home...unfortunately Jack did not. Anyway, we were glad to be home and enjoyed watching the game with our feet up. I almost dozed off a couple of times. I hope everyone stayed up to watch. If you did, you got to see TK make a great catch towards the end of the game. I wish he could have stumbled into the endzone. We were so proud for that Habersham County boy! Now, we have a week to prepare for a dangerous Alabama team. Apparantly a blackout is planned and GameDay will be in Athens. What a day it will be!

Orange You Glad?

Any of my close friends or family members can tell you that orange is one color that has not been a part of my wardrobe for quite some time now. I'm just that much of a die-hard UGA fan...orange is the enemy, whether it's Auburn, Clemson, Florida or Tennessee. Well, last fall I bought an orange golf shirt from the Motherhood Maternity store in Commerce to don on Friday nights. Mind you it was off the clearance rack, but it still signified a big step in my life.

Fast forward one year and I own 3 orange shirts (2 short sleeve and a sweater for those chillier games). Josh still refuses to wear an orange shirt, but he will wear an HC shirt with orange on it. Luckily, he doesn't object to Jack wearing orange. He looked so cute in his orange and navy shirt with blue jeans this Friday night.

It was the third Raider game of the season, and Jack enjoyed his time there. We left at the half to meet Josh's parents. They came into town to watch Jack for us on Saturday. Josh and I traveled over to Columbia to attend the UGA-SC game with Chandler & Sara. It was so great hanging out with them and seeing little Noah, who is just 6 weeks older than Jack. It was a scorcher of a game and the Dawgs barely eeked out a win. It wasn't pretty, but as they say, "It's a W."

Fair or Foul?

There were definitely no fouls around here on Tuesday as we ventured out to the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair at the Habersham County Fairgrounds. We met the Shaws and 2/3s of the Yorks there. It was great fun and wonderful food. We saw animals in a petting zoo...and no this one is not kissing Jack although it looks like it.

We also watched a really cool bear show. They even rode around on a motorcycle. It was fun watching Tate & Britton on the rides, although at times they seemed a little unsure about why they agreed to ride. I think they had a lot of fun. We also ran into Jennifer & Davis and Erin & Gus. They were celebrating Davis turning 2. What a fun place to celebrate your birthday! Apparently, it was his second night in a row at the fair! Lucky boy!

The night concluded with everyone enjoying a funnel cake and the big boys enjoying glow-in-the-dark swords. Very cool!

Lunch Date

One of the neatest things about us ending up in Habersham County is that one of my best friends from high school moved just a couple of counties from us and just had a baby of her own a few months ago. We have been trying to get our little ones together and catch up ourselves as often as possible. We got together early this summer so I could meet her daughter, Evelyn Grace. Monday we found a chance to meet up again for lunch and browsing at the outlets.

It was great to catch up and both Jack and Evelyn Grace are old enough to sit up and interact. So, I got some good shots of the two of them entertaining one another. It was great seeing Becca and E.G.

On the way home, I stopped by a friends to drop off something and walked away with a crate full of clothes for Jack...thanks, Sarah! Doubt you're reading this...you're probably still tagging!

Big Bulldog Weekend

We had a busy bulldog weekend, and there are plenty of photos to prove it. The fun kicked off Thursday evening when some friends of ours rolled into town. Ben, Wendy & BJ joined us for a long weekend. We gave BJ his birthday present, which you can see he loved. A Stafford jersey and football. The Pucketts brought Jack a jersey too.

Josh grilled up some great steaks. The weather was great so we hung around outside and enjoyed catching up. On Friday, I had a MOPS meeting. It was our last one before our new year kicks off...yippee! Afterwards, I met the Pucketts at the park, which was fun. Jack again loved the swing...giggling as I pushed him back and forth (all while his hair is flapping in the breeze!)

Friday afternoon as soon as Josh was home we headed to Helen to walk around a bit and then enjoyed dinner at the Nacoochee Grill. Then, we joined the Raider football game already in progress. The Raiders beat Heritage 12 - 7. Jack lasted most of the game, falling asleep on Wendy some time in the 4th quarter. He was a trooper.

We got up early Saturday morning as we had an errand to run in Athens before game time. The Pucketts joined us later at IHOP for a delicious breakfast. Then we dropped Jack off and did a little tailgating before the game. It was a hot day, but there were some clouds in the area, which provided some much needed shade during the game. We were treated to an awesome game as Georgia drilled Central Michigan and Knowshon showed off his vertical. The photo here is was just after T.K. made the first catch of his college career. We were never prouder to be from Habersham County! We went nuts! Our evening finished with pizza at Peppino's.

Sunday was also pretty busy as Josh had to work and I had the ER Open House. The Bates graciously agreed to watch Jack for several hours while I greeted folks and showed people around. Then, Jack and I headed to church. He managed to stay awake until almost 9 waiting for Josh to get home. After they had a little time together it was off to bed! What a fun weekend!

Catching up from the weekend

What a great Labor Day weekend it has been. It's drawing to a close as I type this and I'm actually missing some college football to do this, but it's just UT v. UCLA. Anyway, our weekend began on Friday as we hurried down to Athens to take in the Habersham Central football game at Cedar Shoals. My mom met us there and enjoyed spending time with Jack. My dad does the play-by-play radio broadcast for the small high school I graduated from. (So small they didn't even have football when I went there). So, you'll notice mom listening to their game while she watched a different one!

Since the visitor's stands were packed we ventured onto enemy territory. Luckily, we happened upon Bo, Madeline, Derek & Tate. Jack enjoyed playing with two familiar faces. It was a pretty hot and humid evening and the night quickly turned unfortunate for the Raiders as they fell to Cedar 23 - 14. Jack was very well behaved for his first game, which is good news since we have season tickets to the home Raider games.

Saturday was the official start of college football for us because it was Georgia's home opener. The dawgs took on Georgia Southern. My mom happily watched Jack while Josh, Dad and I headed to the game. It was a pretty hot day. The temperatures hovered around 89, but it felt much hotter. We stuck it out and stayed for every snap. Next week kicks off at 3:30, so maybe we'll get a little bit of relief from the sun.

Saturday's game also signaled the introduction of UGA VII, the newest english bulldog to grace the sidelines at Sanford Staduim. He's a cute little guy, although I'm still partial to VI, who was a perfect looking bulldog. This photo of him on ice is pretty cute. Sometime in the second half they showed him on the big screen asleep in his dawg house. I guess he knew we had the Eagles under control.

After the game we joined my mom and Jack to visit my Papa, (Jack's great grandfather) who has just moved into assisted living. It was good to visit with him, but he's quite confused and pretty sad. Next time you say a prayer lift one up for him as well. My parents and uncle are working very hard to ease the transition, but it's just not that easy.

The five of us grabbed a quick dinner before Josh, Jack and I headed home. We got home in time to see most of Bama's derailing of Clemson. The ACC is not looking so strong this year. Oh, and we watched it in High Definition. Yes, I broke down and ordered the premium content. We've had a HD television for several months, but I just didn't think it was worth it to pay extra for HD channels. This summer I agreed to order it in time for football season, and not a moment too soon...they hooked it up on Friday afternoon!

Our Sunday was pretty normal. We had the nursery, so I managed to snap a few pictures of Jack in his class, which was neat. We just had 2 kids...our Jack and another Jack. Go figure...we picked the new most popular name for a boy! After church and a fun lunch at the japanese place, we all took a nap! Josh had to work, so then Jack and I headed to evening church. I subbed for KidzLife, so I missed our great discipleship class we've been participating in, Boundaries w/ Kids.

Monday was a pretty lazy day for us. Josh caught up on the sleep he missed while working all night in the ER. Jack and I just played as quietly as possible. Later Josh joined us to hang out. I was cleaning up after dinner, when I heard a lot of rustling in the living room. I found Josh reading the paper, and Jack in the floor destroying the sections he had already been through. Needless to say, he was covered in newsprint!