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.

NOLA

This weekend we hit the road to wonderful New Orleans. Our trip served several purposes - A.) We haven't been in a year, so it was just time. B.) We wanted to see Ole Miss play, and they happened to be playing Tulane at the Superdome on Saturday, and C.) We were lucky enough to get some free tickets to Sunday's Saints game. What a fun weekend!

We went with our friends Katherine and Paul, and we really had a great time. We ate at this great little restaurant on Friday night near Frenchman's Street that we just stumbled upon. It was a speakeasy theme with traditional New Orleans food. SO GOOD. Saturday we watched the Rebels whoop the Green Wave 39-0 and then wandered around the French Quarter for most of the afternoon and evening. It was a perfect day.

Then Sunday Derek and I met up with Uncle Rusty, Uncle Sib and Aunt Terri (and our old friend Ziggy) for brunch before walking to the game. Our seats were great, and it was so exciting to be in the midst of all that action.

 

Too bad the Saints lost it in the end (they were winning by a good bit when we actually left the game), but it was still fun.

Those NOLA trips will wear you out though. We're just now recovering two days later! But it was worth it for the memories. :)

A Visit with Mickey and Harry

Please pardon my recent absence... last week I went straight to a work conference when I got back into town, so this is my first chance to tell you about our trip!

Derek had a conference in Orlando last week. I told him when he went a few years ago that if he ever went back that I would have to go with him. And I also told him that we would talk divorce (kidding, of course, but I would be very sad) if he visited Harry Potter World without me. Sooooooo we worked out a way for me to do both! It was my early birthday present. :)

We flew out really, really early last Sunday, a day before the first sessions of his conference started. When we got to Orlando about 11 a.m., it was UGLY. Rainy, muggy, nasty weather really doesn't put you in the magical Disney spirit, but it actually worked in our favor. We dropped our bags at the hotel and took a cab straight to the Magic Kingdom. Apparently the weather scared off all the other visitors because we really might as well have had the whole park to ourselves! The weather cleared up and cooled off, and we waited no more than five minutes for any ride we wanted to check out. How amazing is that?

It was such a fun day, and most of Disney World was just as magical as I remember it being when I was a kid. The only thing I don't remember being as great this time was Space Mountain. But really I think I'm just old, so the rough roller coasters just hurt a little more on the ole bones.

We finally left the park as the fireworks were starting at 9 after riding every single ride (minus the little kid rides) that the park had to offer. Eight long hours at Disney World will wear a girl out.

Monday morning Derek went down to register for the conference, then we hit Universal Studios as soon as the gates opened at 9. First stop: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course!

This was just as cool as I had hoped and dreamed it would be. Very, very cool. If you know us well, you know that both Derek and I are big Potter fans, so this was so much fun for us to visit together. The only thing negative I can say about this park was that it wasn't bigger. I just loved every bit of it, and to be such a small part of the overall park, we spent about 90% of our visit there. We even were able to ride their big Hogwarts Castle ride twice. WE. LOVED. IT. (Nerds, I know...)

Here we are enjoying some Butterbeer (tastes like cream soda) at the Three Broomsticks.

After a little more exploring and a LOT of sweating (it was bright and sunny on Monday and about 90-something degrees), we again wore ourselves out and headed back to the hotel. Derek went to the conference that afternoon while I spent some down time at the huge pool. It was quite relaxing after the two days of trucking it through theme parks.

Monday night we went to a really nice steak dinner with some of Derek's co-workers then called it a night pretty early. I left Tuesday morning just as his conference got in full swing. It was a quick trip, but so much fun! I'm so glad I got to go, and I'm especially glad I got to nerd out at Harry Potter World with my favorite Potter fan. It was priceless.