34-17. Deal With That!

November 28, 2009. GREAT FREAKING DAY! :)

I got up SUPER early (second day in a row...thought I was on vacation, but whatever) to get ready to meet Krystle and Mama Childers. Once we all made it and Krystle got her jeans dried, we were off to Williams-Brice for the last time this year.

Before I go any further with this amazing day, I should say that we have had a wonderful year of football at Williams-Brice. Victories in all games except Florida, and we played hard against them. Great tailgating, great times with friends. I will miss our Saturdays.

Back to this day...We made it to Columbia, grabbed breakfast at McDonald's, and headed to our parking lot. Krystle tried to get us killed blasting Patrick Davis's "Just a Big Ole Cock" at top volume while we sat in traffic. We parked, ate our breakfast, and headed over to the ETV building to hang out with Chris and Lee Ann and their ginormous tailgate. Pretty quickly it was time to head to the stadium.

We met Tracey's daughters, Nicole and Meredith, outside the gate to give them their tickets. I'm glad we were able to see the extras to them. They were fun to sit with! Then we made the climb to section 306 one last time.

The game, with the exception of the first 20 seconds and the (stupid) CJ Spiller kickoff return for a touchdown, was AWESOME. The Gamecocks wouldn't let the silly old Tigers do ANYTHING. Fumbles, interceptions...fabulous. The energy in the stadium was amazing. There were a few Tigers in our section trying to talk smack at the beginning of the game, but they got awfully quiet awfully fast. We screamed, we yelled, we jumped up and down, we cheered, we chanted, we were so loud we confused the Tiger offense a time or two.

And at the end of the game, the Gamecocks were victorious. Sweet, sweet victory. It was hard to leave the stadium. We stayed for awhile, celebrating. I was dancing like a crazy white girl. Here are some pictures:

Carolina Girls...BEST in the World!

Here they come!!!! C-A-R-O-L-I-N-A GOOOO COCKS!

Final Scoreboard. Isn't it beautiful??

Cocky. Midfield. Waving our flag proudly. Doesn't get better. :)

Of course, we've had to listen to the others' excuses this week...Spiller had a tummy ache. We were looking ahead to the ACC Title Game. We have to let you win every once in a while. The Gamecocks would have to win every game between now and 2037 to even the score. Whatever. On this day, in this stadium, in this year, it was the Gamecocks who took home the Hardee's Trophy and bragging rights for the year. And I wouldn't mind winning every game between now and 2037. Sounds like a perfect world to me...

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It makes me super happy. :) Here's a recap:

Wednesday: I was sick. Fail. But not one to be kept down, I met Tracey for lunch and to deliver her son-in-law's birthday cake. We had a good time catching up on all the latest events! I spent the rest of the day cleaning and putting up my Christmas trees. :) Woot!

Thursday: Still sick. Mega Fail. I finished a few cleaning odds and ends, watched the Macy's Parade, and decorated my tree. After that, it was off to York. We had a great dinner and great night with family. I love it when we're all together. :) After dinner, Aunt Nelle, Damon, Marian, and Lucy came over for a visit. It was so great to see them!

Black Friday: Sick. I woke up at a ridiculous hour, only to find out that Mom and Mere were trapped in Target. Coulda slept another hour. Oh well. They came and picked Deborah and me up around and we were off for a long day of shopping. It was fun. :)

Friends

Around mid-November, the Packs came home for a visit. :) I was very lucky to get to see Chalica twice while they were in town.


On Monday the 9th, I was home, recovering from the plague. Having not eaten anything in 3 days, I was pretty hungry. I met Chalica for lunch at Tequila's. It was super nice to have that time together to catch up on all the things that have happened in the almost year since we've seen each other!

On Thursday the 12th, I went to Jason's parents' house to have dinner with the Packs, Kim, and Annabelle. Dat wasn't able to make it because of a toilet emergency. :( Chalica made a great Mexican dinner for us and we had a great time catching up and playing with the kids. Chalica even brought us cool prizes from Korea! :)

I don't have any pictures. :( I didn't take any and Chalica and Kim haven't posted any for me to steal. :) I did steal this one of me and Emma from Jason's sister, Michelle.

Way Behind...

I am a bad blogger. Good grief. I will try to catch up now.

Some Enchanted Evening (despite all efforts to the contrary)

Tuesday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that ended in a wonderful event. :)

School was just stupid on Tuesday. No other word for it. 8-3, kids all day, no break, no time to do anything, teachers were early to drop off their kids, late to pick them up, all around ridiculous day. And to make matters worse, the remnants of Tropical Storn Ida took up residence in our area with all of her yucky wind and rain.

The only thing that got me through the craptastic day at school was the idea that if I could survive, Katie and I were going to see South Pacific. WOOT!

Katie sent me a text at about 3:15 to tell me she was leaving Anderson and should be at my house by 5. Super. I came home and got ready and was waiting on Katie, only to find out she had been delayed by bad drivers having stupid accidents just because it was raining. So we changed our plans a little. I went to grab us some food so that I could eat and Katie could eat on the road. When she made it to the house, we took off (in the pouring rain) for Pineville to hop on the light rail. Alas, foiled again. There was another stupid accident on Celanese and traffic was backed up and people were being jerks and not letting people over. UGH. We finally made it past that , got stuck behind an idiot that wouldn't drive more than 45 miles an hour, but eventually made it to the light rail station and hopped on the train. After a short ride that seemed incredibly long because we were running much later than planned, we made it to our stop. We walked the three blocks in the pouring rain and gusty wind. FAIL. But at least we made it in time.

There was an adorable older gentleman sitting in our box with his family. They were very friendly. He was a Navy veteran who had been in service when South Pacific was new. He was very excited to see it in person. He was so cute talking about all of the songs and scenes and sometimes singing along. :) It was a very neat experience to be able to share the show about seabees and nurses with someone who knew about it firsthand.

The show was AMAZING! I've loved this musical since I was a little girl and I was thrilled to see it live. :) Carmen Cusack was amazing as Nellie, just as she was an amazing Elphaba last spring. The music was phenomenal, the sets were very cool, and I think everybody left the theatre singing or humming.

After the show, it was another three blocks in the pouring rain and wind back to the train stop. We were cold and wet, but it was worth it. I love love love love love every trip I make to the Blumenthal. I can't wait for the next show! :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween. Woo Hoo. I usually get a little more excited. But I'm tired.

Halloween fell on Saturday this year. Thank goodness!!! Stephanie does not enjoy being in an elementary school on Halloween!! This particular Saturday happened to be the first Saturday since August that I didn't have anything to do. No football game to go to, no cakes to make, no carnivals, no trips to take. Nothing. Just a day at home. Ahhhhhhhhhh. :)

I made a quick cake delivery and made my way to WalMart. I got Colin and Brenna's trick or treat goodie. I was also on a quest for pumpkins. But WM didn't have any. :( I went to the Farmer's Market. No pumpkins. I went to the other WM. No pumpkins. :( I finally found pumpkins at the church on Cherry Road. Hooray!

I came home and cleaned up my kitchen. Boring. I made a pot of chili so I wouldn't have to go out in the rain with the crazies for dinner.

Meredith and Corey came by with Dorothy and Boba Fett (AKA Brenna and Colin). They were so stinkin' cute. I love those kids. :)

When they left, I started working on my pumpkin. It took a lot longer than I thought. While I was carving, Mom and Dad came for dinner. I thought they could help me eat all of that chili. :) I carved for a little while longer. We ate and watched the stupid Gamecocks hand Tennessee 21 points. I finished the pumpkin. I think it's pretty cool, even if they did lose.

Mom and Dad left at halftime. I was not impressed with the rest of the game. Gamecock. Fail. They'd better get their act back together. For real.

I didn't have any trick or treaters. Perhaps because I didn't have my lights on. :) Oh well....more candy for me. :) Now that Halloween is over, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas! Woot!! :) I love the holiday season!!

Northern Exposure :)

I had a northern adventure last weekend!!! :) WOOT!

On Wednesday night, Patti and I left for the Frozen North at midnight. Patti emailed me a couple of weeks ago and told me that she had to go to New York to see her brother and help out and asked if I would like to ride up there with her. I took a couple of days off and away we went! Like I said, we left at midnight. It was a very long, very dark, very rainy, very crappy drive. We had plenty of time for great conversation on the way up! I managed to stay awake (thanks to a very large can of something from Starbucks) until about 5:30am. Then I napped for about 45 minutes. We were slightly delayed on the way up by the weather and a road construction malfunction. At any rate, we arrived in Erie, Pennsylvania at around 10:30 on Thursday morning. It was very cold and raining, but Steve was waiting there for me!! :) WOOT! Patti and Steve met, we transferred my stuff to Steve's car, and then we went inside HealthSouth to meet Patti's brother, Bill. I am so glad he is doing better. It was very nice to meet him. After a brief visit with Bill, it was time for Steve and me to head for Dunkirk.

When we left HealthSouth, Steve had a couple of stops to make in Erie. We went to the mall to return a few things. Then we stopped for Steve to check on some coins. Then he took me to Chick-Fil-A (because I was STARVING!) and we were off to Dunkirk. I was glad Steve was the one to take me into New York state. :) When we got to Kelly and Mike's house, we got my stuff into the house, I met Duke the Wonder Dog (who is very LARGE, but mostly a very good dog), and then it was time to rest. Steve had to go to the funeral home for his great uncle :( so I stayed behind to take a much needed nap. I woke up when he came back and then I got to meet Kelly, who was home from work by then. After I said a quick hello, I took a shower and got cleaned up for the evening. I felt MUCH better after a shower! We visited with Kelly and Mike for a few minutes and then Steve took me to meet his grandma. She is so sweet! I'm glad I got to meet her! After that, Steve took me to one of the clubs he belongs to and I got to meet a couple of his friends. They made me feel very welcome! After the club, it was back to Kelly and Mike's for dinner. We had pizza and the best wings I have ever eaten. Ever. They were so good. Steve's parents came by Kelly and Mike's too, so I got to meet them as well. I was very excited (and nervous) to meet his parents! We called it a night kind of early because I was so very tired from the trip. (No pictures from this day. I was brain dead. Fail.)

On Friday, we went with Kelly and Mike to breakfast at Demetri's on the Lake. I had yummy cinnamon french toast and bacon. SO good! We spent most of the afternoon just hanging out. Steve had made dinner reservations for us at 4:30, so we got ready and took off for dinner. I don't know why I didn't take our picture. We looked pretty snappy. :) We had a lovely dinner at The Colony. I had chicken and broccoli alfredo, if you're curious. It was very good! After dinner, we went back to change and then Steve took me ice skating! I'm not gonna lie. I was terrified. It had been at least 9 years since I had been skating and I was surrounded by people from New York who seemed to be very comfortable on the ice. Steve promised me he wouldn't let me fall, and despite my best efforts, he kept his promise. :) I am a spaz. Seriously. It's a wonder I can even walk. But somehow, he was able to keep me upright. I held tightly to Steve and the wall for a while. Later on, I was able to let go of the wall and just hold onto Steve. :) Despite the fact that I was terrified of returning to SC in a full body cast, I had a wonderful time! :) Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this skating adventure. I could barely stand up...I certainly couldn't have managed a camera!!!

Saturday was a very big day! The weather was a little better (no rain, just clouds), so Steve took me to Niagara Falls! I was very excited!!

Here we are in the Hoop, about to leave:

We grabbed some lunch on the way out of town and took off. When we arrived at Niagara Falls, it was VERY cold! I am so glad that Kelly let me borrow one of her big coats and one of her hats! Otherwise, I might still be a popsicle! We walked around for a little bit, and then decided to go on the boat ride. It was cold and wet, but I'm glad we did! It was so beautiful to see the Falls that way!


Here are a few shots of the Falls from the Maid of the Mist:

Don't we look adorable in our giant blue Maid of the Mist ponchos?

After our cruise, we walked around the park. We were seriously jealous of Canada. Unfortunately, because terrorists don't know how to behave, you have to have a passport to go to Canada now. Fail. And it's just right there....taunting you with all of its bright lights, fun looking places, and even a ferris wheel! We getting our passports so we can go to Canada next time. I mean it. Look how fun it looks!!!

Here are some people on the Maid of the Mist, getting ready to set sail (and get wet!)

The Falls were beautiful. I took almost 90 pictures.

I was doing my typical hold the camera out and take our picture thing and a nice lady stopped to take one for us. :)

We walked and walked and walked and looked at the Falls, I think from every angle possible on the American side. And I took more pictures...

I had such an amazing time at the Falls with Steve! It was wonderful to get to spend the day together in such a beautiful place!! :)

We headed back to Dunkirk for dinner with Steve's family. Since it was Saturday and game day, I had to go get my spurs up (or my Gamecock colors on)! I got dressed and we went for dinner. Steve's mom made a wonderful dinner for us! We had chicken (that I don't know how to pronounce, much less spell), corn, mashed potatoes, a cucumber salad, and rolls and a delicious strawberry dessert! YUM! Everything was so good and I really enjoyed spending time with Steve's parents, Kelly and Mike, and of course, Steve! They are all such wonderful people! After dinner, Steve took me to meet his grandpa. Oh my goodness, he was so hilarious. So very cute. :) After that, Steve and I watched the ill-fated Carolina-Alabama game. Gamecock. Fail. Oh well. It was a wonderfully marvelous day anyway! :)

Oops! I almost forgot Zeek! Heehee. Fat cat. :)

All too quickly, Sunday arrived and it was time to go. I got ready, said goodbye to Kelly and Mike, and Steve and I headed for Erie to meet Patti. The drive to Erie was beautiful. The sun came out and the fall colors were so pretty. Steve and I had a late breakfast at Perkins (blueberry pancakes and bacon) and then it was time to go. I hate saying goodbye. :(

Patti and I had a long, but uneventful drive back to SC. I am so glad glad she let me ride up with her. I had such a wonderful time. It was great to catch up with Patti in the car, to get to meet Steve's family, see new places, and most of all, to spend time with Steve! :)