Rammer Jammer

I can finally cross something off my bucket list because I have now "seen the light"of the magnificence of Alabama football.

I strategically picked my first friend in nursing school for her access through her boyfriend to Alabama season tickets (she was really the girl I sat two seats away from the very first day, and after I bravely stroke up a conversation with her, I asked her if she wanted to sit right next to me...the rest is history). This is her below. Nursing school would be AWFUL without her.

My friend Katie texted me on Wednesday afternoon that I needed to immediately leave the gym and come back to the nursing school building because she had a surprise for me. At the same time, her boyfriend Zach (who is in law school at U of A) called Matthew to tell him that if we wanted we could come down to the game with them on Saturday. Hallelujah! Needless to say, Matthew and I talked of little else from Wednesday night to Saturday morning, and disappointed our BFF (best friend forever) Geoff by going to buy Alabama t-shirts to wear to the game (Geoff is an Auburn fan).

Who doesn't love free tickets to college football games? Who doesn't love free tickets to one of the most storied programs in the history of college football? Who wants to choke the athletic director of the University of Kentucky in 1953 for letting Paul "Bear" Bryant slip away? Answer: Andrea and Matthew and about a handful of other people who actually care about UK football.

Anyway... we got up Saturday morning to get some things done around the 'Ham before we left for Tuscaloosa around noon. It's only about a 45-50 minute drive so Matthew and I passed the time in our usual fashion on road trips by playing Famous People 20 Questions. The game was at 6, so we hung out at Zach's place for a couple of hours before heading the stadium.

Now.. I have tailgated at football games before, even at a UK football game. Nothing compares to the madness we experienced. There were RV's everywhere, with 50 inch flat screens on the outside, massive generators, more people than I knew fit into that stadium, enough food to feed an army, and if I never see another houndstooth article of clothing it will be too soon... it was like the Grove at Ole Miss on steroids. Or quite possibly it's about the same but I haven't been to Ole Miss since my freshman year of college... in 2004.

Zach is the one with the white hat..not looking at the camera. His roommate Scott in the blue shirt and their friend KT in the Bama shirt in the middle.

The game wasn't all that great, but neither of us cared. Alabama looked awful in the 1st half. We were just happy to be there. It completely fulfilled all of my wildest dreams of what I thought it would be. It's like a tractor beam, pulling you in to experience all of it's glory. So, when the Iron Bowl comes around... I may have to lie to Geoff when he asks me who I'm cheering for... Bama or Auburn?

Allens and Hardisons

Note to readers: Recaps of weekends are my least favorite blogs to write. They seem repetitive to me, thus I get weary of them. So, my apologies if they sound as bland to you as they do to me ;)

We had the upmost priviledge of having our good friends Adam and Katie Beth (KB) come visit us this past weekend over Labor Day. We were PUMPED. I was creating food menus weeks in advance, while Matthew actually got excited about cleaning. It's always a pleasure for me to have a good excuse to deep clean the apartment as opposed to it just being a Saturday (growing up you always cleaned on Saturdays!)... it always convinces the spouse a little more easily.

Adam and their dog Wallace..

We took them to our favorite pizza place Davenports Friday night after they got into town. We love this place for it's hole in the wall atmosphere, it's no shame policy of only serving pizza and salad.. no breadsticks here folks, and the fact that it's been owned by the same family since the 1960's. Matthew and I like to do our part supporting locally owned businesses. These people are the heart of America! It's one of the reasons we try and avoid large chains... with a few exceptions. It still pains me that I shop at Wal-Mart for groceries.

KB and I cleaning up after a pancake breakfast. No, she is not on stilts... I am extremely short and she is extremely tall.

We played some Trivial Pursuit at the apartment after dinner. The Allens made a terrific comeback to claim the win.. not after Matthew impressed us all by knowing way too much about everything. No 26 year old male born in 1983 should know all of that! I'm still thoroughly convinved that my husband was born in the wrong decade.

Saturday. We were all more than happy to spend the day watching college football. The only downside, it rained ALL DAY! Saturday we had moved over to the "The Manor" (Matthew's bosses house) because Matthew and I were house sitting while Ed was gone giving a talk in Memphis. We had originally planned to spend the day by the pool, playing some corn hole, etc... Bummer. I hate Birmingham weather. It rains ALL THE TIME.

We were sad to see the Adam and KB leave on Sunday (our anniversary). We so love having people come visit us, and it really means a lot to us when they do! 417 Oaks Drive is always open to guests, if you ever need a weekend away, and think "Birmingham is the perfect place to go" (which I would never think that, so I dont know why anyone else would) but regardless, CALL US!

Have a fabulous weekend! Matthew and I are headed to T-Town (Tuscaloosa) tomorrow to go to our first home Alabama football game! Roll Tide! (My father may disown me for writing that)

1 Down... 59 to go

Well since I have not exactly been carrying my weight around here (in the blogosphere) I am getting to write the anniversary post commemorating our first year together as husband and wife. I know, our dedicated readers are probably wishing that Ann would have retained the duties for this important entry but fear not! I promise a delightful read.

I could bore you with all of the mundane details of exactly what we did for our anniversary (Flemings, ate our 1 year old cake topper - still tasted awesome!, watched the slide show from our rehearsal dinner, listened to the audio cd of our ceremony - ann cried more this time than at the live event) but I think a more appropriate post would be to reflect on the first year of the rest of our lives.

In the word's of Lou Gherig (a nickname I had for Andrea way back in the beginning - her initials were ALS) today i consider myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth. These last 33 months with Andrea Lynn have been the happiest of my life, especially the last year when we began our life together. There are so many aspects of Andrea that I am thankful for and love and I have been thinking about them a lot leading up to our first anniversary. I know the stereotype is that men dont care/forget anniversaries but that does not apply to me. I had been looking forward to yesterday for a long time! I am so blessed to have a wife who loves me, makes me laugh, challenges me in so many ways, makes me a better person, cooks amazing meals, has an eye for decorating (no matter what she may tell you), and who is a caring, truly beautiful (i know its a cliche word but if you have seen her you know there is no other appropriate) christian woman.

I have so many memories of our first, eventful year together, taking an impromptu trip to Atlanta in the fall, decorating our barely-unpacked apartment for Christmas together, going to the Killers concert, going to umpteen weddings, family vacations, Barons games, the Alabama theater, but these are all memories that you have heard before on this blog. The memories that are most important to me are the ones that would be the least important to you, the small, boring insignificant details that make up our every day life. I could pick one and share it, and in fact already had a couple of sentences down before I back-spaced them away. But I think I will keep them special, keep them between my wife ( a wonderful phrase I still love to say) and me. There is a scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan where Ryan is asking Tom Hank's character about his wife and Hanks replies "No, no, that I keep for me." Well who am I to argue, the little things, the important things, the things only I know, I keep for me.

I love my wife more than anything, and more than I thought possible, thank you God for her and please bless us with many more years together.



Please enjoy the slideshow we compiled for our 1st year of marriage.

Autumn Love

Fall is just about the best time of year. It's the season for college football, NFL football, Thanksgiving, white chili, pumpkin carving, the beginnings of college basketball, need I say more?

There is nothing better than the crisp feeling of the air as it starts to get chilly... which is like the end of November for Alabama, playing some corn hole outside, grilling out on a Saturday and never leaving your spot on the couch as you mindlessly watch game after game after game, while yelling "War Eagle" or "Role Tide" depending on who we are watching it with. Matthew and I have found we can adapt easily.

Not too many people appreciate our UK attire down here, not to mention that in Alabama pro football does not exist, if it's not college, it's a waste of time. I spend countless Mondays gleaning the paper for any piece of info about the Titans, which is definitely a waste of time. If there's anything in the Sports page about them, it's about a paragraph, right underneath an article a page long on what Nick Saban ate for dinner.

Regardless, fall is the best. Here are the things I am particularly looking forward to this year:

1. UK- Vandy game in Nash (thanks Dad!)
2. Getting to see Bobby Flay do a cooking demonstration in Lex ( yes it's true)
3. My 23rd birthday (although as I get older, birthdays are getting a lot less exciting)
4. Possibly going to an Alabama game in Tuscaloosa.
5. My Fall Break girl's trip with all of my best friends... cannot wait
6. Finishing my 3rd semester of nursing school!!
7. Thanksgiving- the BEST holiday
8. The return of all our TV shows. Who can't wait to see what happens on Grey's? Not to mention that Jim and Pam are pregnant on The Office!
9. The Blink 182 concert we're attending :)
10. and my favorite: the leaves changing color

It cannot get here soon enough.

"Now baby I hear the blues are calling, tossed salad and scrambled eggs"

So avid readers of this blog should know that Frasier is our favorite show. What we haven't told you is that as our relationship (mine and Matthew's) grew, so did my love for Frasier and Niles Crane. Matthew grew up watching this show a lot, maybe because J and M share some commonalities with the Crane boys. I, however, never knew about this TV gem until my parents started watching it, and I made fun of them for liking such a weird show. Little did I know...

Matthew and I started watching Season 1 almost since Day 1 of our relationship. Whenever he was in Nashville, we would watch a couple of episodes, and every time I went to Bham I brought the DVD's with me. A lot of Saturday afternoons were spent having picnics in front of the TV and taking a half hour trip to Cafe Nervosa in rainy Seattle.

We finished the series a couple of weeks after we were married, and it felt like we had closed a chapter of our lives by losing our friends in the Crane clan. It will always evoke special memories for the two of us.

While there are several clips/episodes that are our favorites, unfortunately Youtube does not have most of them. However, we were able to find one of the classic Frasier moments.

PCB 09

I promised a post about the beach...I forgot, but I was "gently" reminded by my father that I hadn't fulfilled my promise. I will allow the week to be recapped by photos. Cause, at the beach, things are just blissfully boring.

I will say that I was tickled pink at the prospect of being able to read anything I wanted for pleasure as opposed to school. My favorite book of the week was Mockingbird, which is a biography of Harper Lee. If you know me, you know that To Kill a Mockingbird is my all-time favorite book, so I was excited about reading this biography. If you love her novel, I think you will like this book about her. It turns out that the novel was loosely based on her own childhood, and the character of Atticus Finch was modeled after her own father. She is a very interesting character to say the least, and I must confess that I thought she was dead until I read this book about her! Before you judge me, know that she has shyed away from the limelight pretty much since her book was published in 1960. I loved learning more about the woman who gave us such a compelling story of tolerance and justice with the moral lesson that "you will never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it".

We celebrated Matthew's birthday while we were there!

Little Buddy just started at David Lipscomb and he looked so cute in his uniform so I had to put up a picture!

I will leave you with the last line of the book that still gives me chill bumps when I read it... " He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning"

Happy Monday to all! 3rd semester starts tomorrow!

26 Candles

Today is my sweet husband's 26th birthday! Congratulations baby on making it these 26 years! May the next 26 be even better.

I tried to surprise Matthew this morning and make him breakfast in bed. Unfortunately, I married a very intuitive man, and he figured out my plan the night before. Bummer. Regardless, I dutifully set the alarm early (8:15 am :) to get up to make him sausage, eggs (fried of course), bacon, and his grandmother's Honey Bun cake that is just to die for. Matthew said I baked it exactly right, but you can never be sure if he's just saying it to spare my feelings:) I thought it was good!

Thanking me for breakfast.

Unfortunately, Matthew has this thing called a "job". So he had to leave to go pretend to work, although I am aware that most of his afternoons are spent doing the crossword with his boss! So...I became a busy little bee around the apartment. It's tiring being a stay-at-home mom...and I don't even have the mom part yet! I headed to Wal-Mart to get all the "fixins" for dinner, came home, prepped for dinner, made a homemade carrot cake, made homemade icing for the cake, cleaned the apartment, stuck in laundry, started packing, iced the cake, ran 4 miles, showered, cleaned some more, did more laundry, finished packing, etc... I know, you're just exhausted thinking about it. I honestly was more tired when I sat down today than I am when I finish a shift at the hospital! So thank you to my mother who has done this many more years than me.

So, I may be a little cheezy when it comes to birthdays. I decorated the apartment with streamers, balloons, and a Happy Birthday sign. No, I am not married to a small child, but on the account that we were not doing gifts this year to save money, I thought his birthday deserved a little extra pizazz, thanks to the Dollar Tree! I know that I am not very creative, but I should definitely deserve an A for effort and thoughtfulness! (Speaking of A... my Pharmacology professor wrapped one up and served it to me on a silver platter, considering that my average for the class was a 89.3. It's possible I may forgive her now for making me miss Katherine's wedding festivities, or I may name my first born child in her honor, Youngshook Hardison anyone?).

Even Lexi got Daddy a card.

Matthew and I made authentic Mexican fish tacos for his birthday dinner tonight. I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E. I felt like I was at Baja... without running into at least 5 Lipscomb people while I ate them. We were amazed at how good the recipe was, thank you Food Network. I am now so full that I may never eat again, at least until we cut into that carrot cake in 30 minutes!

yum.

Again... Happy Birthday Matthew. I am so blessed to have you in my life.

Alas, I almost forgot. I am beaming with pride and joy to tell you all that last night I beat Matthew in Scrabble. Take a look at that score. I slaughtered him. It's not like I'm competitive or anything :)