Road Trip

I took the day off from work on Friday and headed out for a beautiful road trip to Birmingham to see my friend Brooke and do some Chrismtas shopping. The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS for my drive, and all the trees were a perfect array of fall colors. It was completely enjoyable, especially when I put in my old CDs and opened the sunroof. Great day!

We went to dinner Friday night then did a little shopping. Saturday we got our day started bright and early with the outlet mall, then headed over to downtown Homewood for lunch at my favorite Alabama sandwich shop, Momma Goldberg's. We walked around their cute little downtown and did some maternity shopping for Brooke, whose sweet baby girl is due in February. Then we stopped by the Summit to finish up some shopping before getting ready for dinner out with another B'ham friend, Wendy. Fun but busy day!

It was so much fun to catch up with old friends, and I'm pleased with the amount of shopping I got done. Two more good Saturdays like that and Santa will be done! I love, love, love girls' weekends, and I know I've said it before, but they're just so good for the soul. I love them so much that I've got another one planned for December! Girl time + Chrismtas shopping = perfect weekend. :)

Homebodies or Hermits?

What a wonderful weekend spent at HOME. We seriously barely left the house all weekend, and it was so nice.

We had some friends over on Saturday to watch all the great football games that were on, and we tailgated in the living room with hot wings, pigs in a blanket, and Rotel. We ate for about 8 hours straight, and it was ALL gone by halftime of the LSU-Alabama game.

On Sunday we kept a fire burning all day and just enjoyed being lazy. Derek read his book and watched some movies on HBO, and I read my book and watched back-to-back Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. Because of the time change, it felt like the day lasted FOREVER. I feel well rested today though, so I suppose it was worth it.

This weekend will officially kick off the holiday season for me as I head to Birmingham for a girls' weekend of Christmas shopping. I can't believe it's already two weeks from Thanksgiving week. Where on earth does the time go?

Watching those cheesy Christmas movies is one of my favorite holiday activities, so after yesterday's marathon, I'm completely in the spirit! Happy November 5th - only seven weeks til Christmas! :)

Happy Halloween from Hans and Heidi

We celebrated Halloween a little early this past weekend with by going to a fun costume party Saturday night. We decided to re-wear our costumes from last year since we were in D.C. for Halloween. I somehow lost my blonde wig between there and here, so I had to buy a new one this year. This one was even better! (I had a lot of fun being a blonde for the night!)

We met some friends at Nick's in Fondren before the party to watch a little bit of the State-Alabama game, then it was off to the party. We've been to this same party for a few years now, and there are always some super creative costumes there. It's always entertaining, and if you know Derek, you know that Halloween is like his Christmas. :)

We didn't win the costume contest... our friend Mark dressed as Alice from the Brady Bunch got third, Flo from Progressive and her husband, Mayhem from Allstate, won second, and a couple dressed as the Spanish Day of the Dead with incredible makeup won first. It was a lot of fun!

With Halloween falling on a Wednesday, I doubt we'll do much else related to the holiday. We might carve some pumpkins and watch some scary movies and hand out candy to the few kids who trick-or-treat at our house, but that's ok. Halloween is just three weeks before Thanksgiving, which is about four weeks before Christmas.

Here's to the official start of the holiday season!

SMTTT (even when we're at the bottom)

This weekend we went down to my alma mater in Hattiesburg for Southern Miss homecoming. We've gone every year pretty much since I graduated, and now it's grown to include a few babies and rugrats... my, how times have changed! I didn't take too many pics, but we had a lot of fun, even as  day trip.

It makes me proud to be a Southern Miss alum, even during their worst losing season in history. Ridiculous... I guess we should say SM(Tailgating)TTT!

This is what it looks like when we try to take a group pic... we were already missing two from our group, and this clearly didn't work well either. Goodness. Makes me laugh though. :)

Pitches Be Crazy

You might remember a post I wrote this summer about us playing in the inaugural season of adult kickball in Clinton. Well, our team (plus or minus a few) signed up for the first-ever FALL league in Brandon this year, and it's proving to be a much different experience than the summer league.

First, we changed our name after the whole LSU Honey Badger drama with the drugs, which was fine, because none of us were LSU fans to begin with. We had originally named ourselves after the YouTube video... So this fall we're Pitches Be Crazy. Why, you might ask? We wanted to fit in better with all the other cleverly named Adult Kickball teams: Red Balls and Vodka, New Kicks on the Block, To Kick A Mockingbird, and Kickelob Ultra, just to name a few.

Second, the teams in this league seem to take things more seriously for the most part. I thought a fight was going to break out on the field during the first game. Yowsa.

Third, while playing in cooler weather as opposed to a hot 100 degrees is much nicer, it's really hard to have the energy to play a game at 8:40 p.m. when it's been dark for two hours already. REALLY hard.

Fourth, we're undefeated (except for last week's game against the Sheriff's Department when we lost after three sudden death innings and a best-of-three Paper/Rock/Scissors game). Seriously. Does that even count as a loss?

And finally, it's still fun! We'll probably be glad to take a break from kickball in a few weeks once this season is over, but it's been a fun few months, and it's been good exercise. And there's a lot of fun to be had with the name "Pitches Be Crazy"... definitely an added bonus.

Fall

With the arrival of October this year comes the official arrival of fall weather. I love the cooler temps, I love the feeling of anticipation of the holidays right around the corner, and I just love being outside.

Yesterday after work I decided to take the dog on a walk around the neighborhood. Actually, he has only mastered our street by itself, so after we sniffed every piece of pinestraw up and down Pine Lane, I dropped him off at the house and kept walking for another 20 minutes.

There's just something about fall in the air that makes things a little bit clearer and a little bit crisper. I loved smelling all the different smells as I walked past through the neighborhood... laundry in the dryer, dinner cooking, fires burning (I know it wasn't THAT cool, but we clearly get excited about cooler weather in Mississippi). It was just one of "stop to smell the roses" moments, and I just enjoyed it. Of course, listening to Better Than Ezra playing on Pandora while I walked helped, too.

I just always get a little sad when fall actually arrives because I know it never lasts long. It's gone in just a few weeks, but in the meantime, I'll stop to smell the roses and watch the leaves turn. Like BTE sings, there's a feeling in the air... and it doesn't last long, so enjoy.

32

Yours truly turned the big 3-2 on Friday, and we've been celebrating all month long.

The month ended with a great birthday week including dinner on the patio of The Parker House with Drew and Kristin (and our own personal serenade by the talented Chris Gill seen below), birthday dinner with my family at Cotton Blues in Hattiesburg Friday night, then Meme Lou's 90th birthday party on Dauphin Island on Saturday.

We really have been crazy busy the whole month of September, and it was a lot of fun! I've always said the way you feel about turning a year older is all in how you celebrate it, so this one has been a good one for me. I feel very loved. (And not too old, although a little worn out!)

Welcome, 32. Let's do this.