the old blog has taken a back seat to life the past 2 months. i'm not even sure where to begin to catch up, so i'll just start where we left off and hit the high points!
grandparents. my grandparents came in early december to stay with my parents. they usually come for a month or so every other year. i absolutely LOVE IT when it's time for them to come. it's always good to spend time with them and hear stories. my grandfather brought pictures with him of his one-room schoolhouse he went to as a child. he and my grandmother went to see it a few months ago. they added onto the schoolhouse and turned it into a church! i haven't gotten the pictures from him, but i'm working on it! computers, e-mail, downloading files, uploading files, etc., etc. aren't really his thing so getting them from his camera in michigan to my computer in alabama is going to be quite a challenge!
mac. we finally took the plunge and made the switch. we got an imac and haven't looked back since. i can't believe we've had it for over a month and this is my first post! we love it and so far are very happy with the change. the most noticeable difference as we were taking apart the dell and unpacking the mac was the cords. the dell cords were a complete rat's nest behind the tower. the mac has 1 cord. we've run into a few things we couldn't quite figure out, but we're learning quickly!
christmas. i absolutely love everything about this holiday. the real holiday. you know, the one with mary & joseph and the most amazing gift God has ever given us. Jesus. i love the music {yes, i'm that person that starts listening to Christmas music in early november!}, the stories, the excitement of the children. we were of course overwhelmed with the gifts we received from our families. thank you to everyone!! my parents really outdid themselves this year. which leads me to my next high point.
auburn. there are no words to describe our feelings for our beloved university. mom and dad sent all the kids {and spouses of course!} to the big game. dad ordered the tickets in the fourth quarter of the sec championship game. they were pricey, y'all. my sweet husband spent the better part of the next 2 days debating our decision to go ahead and order tickets & book flights -- what if the price goes down? could we have found a better deal? he continued to check the website we ordered from until he realized the prices were continuing to go up. and up. and up. little did we know that ordering the tickets would be the least stressful part.
and now the story.
dad booked charter packages for the game, meaning our schedule would look something like this: fly out early monday morning. get to phoenix early afternoon. tailgate. go to the game. celebrate auburn's big win. fly home late monday night/early tuesday morning.
and then winter storm '11 hit alabama.
and the town shut down.
schools closed because they mentioned the "s" word on the news. snow. side note: grocery stores were completely out of bread. as in, not one single loaf on the shelves.
as anticipation of snow mounted, we fell into the trap. i hate to say we panicked, but we did. we got ready for the game at 9:00 sunday night. we then hopped in the car and drove to the airport. that's right, 10 hours before our flight. we decided we would sleep in the airport. we were afraid the roads would ice over and we wouldn't be able to make it to the airport. there was no way we were missing that flight. after a very long, rather sleepless, night at the airport it was finally time to check in and get our boarding passes. all was going smoothly. the flight was scheduled to be about 20 minutes delayed, nothing we couldn't handle. then all flights that weren't charter flights were cancelled. then our flight was delayed again. and again. then we found out our plane had already been to the airport that morning, but was sent away because our airport wasn't open. there was no ice on the runways, the temperature was several degrees above freezing and the airport isn't even open!! words cannot express my disdain for our airport. we watched them attempt to shovel snow off the runways with a bobcat. yes, you read that right, a bobcat. {i know all of my aunts, uncles & cousins are laughing hysterically at this point!}
so after about a 30 minute conversation with our pilot, who was completely disgusted with the airport, we finally got word that our plane had left louisville and was heading back to pick us up! everyone who was on our flight, including the little old man who snuck 4 mini's through airport security, had their noses glued to the glass waiting for visual confirmation that the plane was coming. we gave it a big waaaaarrrrrrr eagle as the plane touched ground!
we finally boarded the plane and were bound for phoenix. we got to the stadium 2 hours before kickoff so we had a little time to walk around and tailgate. we got in the stadium about an hour before kickoff and the place was incredible! i've heard various percentages, but i'll put on my orange & blue tinted glasses and tell you it was 70% auburn, 30 % oregon. the game was awesome. i screamed so hard my throat hurt before the 1st quarter was over.
i am way too passionate about auburn football. i know that, but i love it. i get chills thinking about the game! it's an emotion i can't describe. it you went to auburn, you get it. you know what it's like to wake up on game day {because there's no sleeping on game day!} as a student and tailgate all. day. long. and what it's like to be in the stadium 2 hours before the kickoff just to hear the announcement "it's 2 hours til kickoff" from the stadium announcer. you know what it's like to watch the eagle fly.
our tigers did it. they won the national championship. and we got to be there to see it happen. it's something we will never forget. i hope there will be more championships down the road, but none of them will compare to this one.
so thanks mom and dad! you gave 6 children an experience we'll never forget!!
once we returned home from phoenix it was back to work. or so we thought. turns out winter storm '11 was still wreaking havoc on alabama. school was closed again so reed and i both stayed home and spent the day lounging around the house being lazy. which drives my sweet husband crazy!! he absolutely hates wasting a day sitting around. me on the other hand, i love it. a big pot of coffee & the today show and i'm good until 11!
this led to a 3 day work week before i set off an yet another trip.
nicaragua. this past saturday "the crew" and i left for nicaragua. a blog post is coming with a full recap of the trip. we had a great time singing and praising the Lord with the kids!
you may notice that school has been noticeably absent from my life lately. partly due to Christmas break, but with a little help from the weather i managed to do all of this and only miss 4 days of school. yesterday, i went back to school and prepared myself for my first full week of school in 2011. it really hasn't been bad. tomorrow is already wednesday which means the week is almost 1/2 over. i have an exciting weekend coming up, but i'll share about that later. it's making me tired thinking back on everything we've done the past 2 months and this little girl needs some sleep!
one last thing before i go. have you tried
diet sierra mist cranberry splash? my sweet friend, brooke, introduced me to it and i'm in love. she said they only sell it this time of year so i bought 5 cases at wal-mart to stash away. i bought another case today at target. if you haven't tried it yet, put it at the top of your grocery list. the stuff is delicious!!
