Our family had to find a new rhythm this fall as there are only three of us at home now. We found lots of ways to stay busy though. Here's a very long post of some of the things we were up to from late August through November.
Decker and Sully play tug-of-war a lot! It makes us laugh to watch them play with each other. It typically ends with Decker being something of a bully; he barks really loudly at Sully who then drops the toy and Decker takes it.
Ryan took Mia and Olivia Pearson to a Braves' game one afternoon. They had club seats which always makes the game more fun. Olivia had never been to a Braves' game before (or had a hot dog!) so this was quite the treat for her!
Ryan and I went to the Georgia Mountain Fair up in Hiawassee one evening to see Molly Tuttle in concert. She was fantastic! Her own music is incredible, but her cover of The Beatles' "Octopus' Garden" blew us away. The Grascals band opened for her; we had never heard them before, but they were really great too. This was such a fun evening!
Panhellenic Rush starts over Labor Day weekend at Samford which is just a few days after school starts. It can be such an incredibly stressful process! Lily ended up pledging in Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII), and I am absolutely certain God has placed her here so her gifts and talents can best glorify Him. I pray that she will make lifelong friendships and enjoy her time with these girls. I am still so thankful for my Zeta sisters, and I am confident Lily will find similar happiness of her own here.
I was so glad to be there on Bid Day to give her a big hug and see the beginning of this new adventure!
After all the girls run home to their new house, there are lots of pictures taken and then they all go off-campus for some activities to get to know one another. AOII went to play mini-golf and then to a drive-in theater where they watched Mamma Mia.
I ordered a package that Smith Variety delivered on Bid Day for Lily. It was filled with all sorts of fun AOII goodies to help get her started with all sorts of fun merch.
Back to the Future came to the Fox! This is such a fun show. I've seen it a few times, and each time I think it starts out so hokey but then it just gets better and better. I like this one. Ryan and I went on Wednesday night and enjoyed a date night then Mia and I took our friends Jackie and Gabby Fogas on Sunday night. This is about the time that Jackie and I realized we were both Zetas as Samford! She was a senior when I was a freshman. I can't believe we're just now figuring this out!
My client, Baker Jenner law firm, sent me these beautiful flowers to commemorate my 20th anniversary. How kind was that?!
Just as I'm getting one child settled into college, it's time to start looking more earnestly for my next child's best fit! Mia and I took a day trip to Knoxville so she could visit the University of Tennessee. Mia wants to have a pre-audiology/Communication Sciences and Disorders degree, and UT is one of three schools she wants to consider along with Samford and University of Florida. It was a beautiful day in Knoxville, and the two student guides gave a great tour. I can really see Mia excelling and doing great here.
My most favorite cookie in the world is from a bakery in Knoxville called Ham'N Goodies. They are lemon cookies, and they are unbelievably delicious. They usually just have a white icing on them, but in honor of UT's upcoming football game, they had them in the famous checkerboard white and orange. I couldn't resist buying a dozen!
We headed over to Birmingham for Family Weekend in mid-September. It was so incredibly hot! Even still, it was great to see Lily and catch up with her. All the Greek houses set up tents on the quad before the game, so that was fun to be together there. We got to catch up with Jeff and Elizabeth Smith as they were there visiting Eliza that weekend too.
There were all sorts of activities going on that weekend, but it was really cool that we got to see the ribbon cutting on the new AOII house. They have bounced around to a few different houses over the years, but this will be their new permanent home. It's a brand new building (along with KD who had their ribbon cutting across the yard earlier in the day), and while the outside fits right in to the Georgia architecture at Samford, the inside is stunningly gorgeous. I'm so jealous Lily will get to live here!
There were several vendors selling fun merch on Ben Brown. There was one very talented artist, Bella Taylor, was was there who is also a Samford grad. She had several beautiful pieces but we were immediately taken by this one of the outside of the Daniel House, Samford's property in London. We both say that our summer abroad studying there was our favorite part of our Samford experience, and she captured the property so well. We had to buy it. We told her we'd love to buy it, and she immediately turned around to look at her mom and say "they want to buy this one!" She then told us she kinda hoped it wouldn't sell because it was so special to her too. This is one of those times I want to say sorry, not sorry. I hope she will paint another one for herself!
I love our dogs so much! I never thought I'd be a two-dog mom, but here I am, and I absolutely love it.
Always near one another.
Sully has zero sense of personal space.
Sully pops up in our windows when he is outside, and it cracks me up. One of these is our kitchen window while the other is one of the basement windows.
Lily got her big sister in AOII! For the last few weeks she's been going on "panda pal dates" (AOII mascot is a panda) to meet several different sophomores who could potentially be her big sister. She connected really well with a couple of them. After a couple of weeks, all the new members list out who they would like to have as a big sister, and all the big sisters list out who they'd like to have as littles. Then they get matched up. For several days, the bigs give gifts and hints to their littles, but it's not revealed until the very end. Each of the families has a theme that all comes together at the big/little reveal. Lily was absolutely thrilled that Lily Kate Nicholson is her big! Lily said she felt really connected and admired her when they met. I think this is going to be a fantastic match! Lily also found out she has a twin named Kaitlyn Goodman. How fun to have a twin!
The whole family on bid day! Lily Kate is actually a triplet with Anna Kate and Mary Tippins. Anna Kate took on Ella Claire as her little while Mary Tippins brought in Maddox and Lauren. They have a grandbig named Anna and a great-grandbig named Greggy (Emma Grace) and Ann Claire too. Whew! What a group!
Lily's birthday actually fell just a couple of days after this, but I posted that separately.
Ryan and I went over to a game night at Michael & Jackie Fogas' house. Amanda and Will Cox were there too, and we had a great time together. I think Michael liked getting to whack Ryan on the head during Poetry for Neanderthals! Reverse charades had us cracking up too. What a fun night with friends.
Happy 10th birthday to Decker! We love this guy to pieces.
Sandy Betts has been an employee of mine since I bought a firm at the end of 2011. She's been part-time for awhile now, but she's decided it's time for her to retire. She's not only a great accountant, but I truly value her friendship too. I'm going to miss her greatly! Thankfully, she lives down the street from me, so I'm hopeful we will continue to get together. I was more than happy to throw a little retirement party for her. Mary and Stacy were there of course, and we were all thrilled that Leah Hedrick came back to celebrate with us. Leah left at the end of July to pursue a degree in counseling, and we miss her too. Dave was able to be there for a bit, and I loved that her husband, Howard, and son, Bobby, were able to come too. The office won't be the same without her!
Sully again showing off his lack of personal space. Who are we kidding? We don't mind at all.
I love when we are all together!
It's astounding how quickly Sully has started to dwarf Decker.
How does he even sit like this comfortably?
Ryan and I took Mia down to Gainesville for a visit to the University of Florida. This school is really impressive, and the Hooks have quite a family legacy here. I bet Mia would do really great here.
We bought Sully an adorable little Sully costume when we first brought him home; it kind of hung off of him because it was way too big. We decided to see if he would wear it for Halloween. Now it's laughable how snug it is on him! Here's a little now and then comparison; there's about 7 or 8 weeks between these two pictures.
I love making my jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers at Halloween!
These two boys love being outside in this beautiful weather together. Sully's superman resting pose makes me laugh.
In late October, Ryan and I over to Samford for Homecoming Weekend (Mia stayed home to care for the dogs). It was absolutely gorgeous! I love any chance to get to hang out with Lily. She's made so many new friends since Family Weekend about 6 weeks ago, so it was really great to meet them and put faces with names. I love seeing how comfortable Lily is on campus too. Samford is such a great fit for her!
Oh man, it's ridiculous how bad Samford's football team is this year, but we still went to the game for the first half.
Lily is a part of two groups that made huge banners for homecoming. AOII and Beta (fraternity) made one together while the University and Micah Fellows made one too. It was fun to see all of these.
In addition to it being Homecoming weekend, AOII made it father's weekend, so Ryan and Lily enjoyed getting to have dinner together and then going to cheer on the Bulldogs in basketball. Thankfully, their basketball team is much better than their football team. I know that Ryan absolutely treasured this time with her. While they were hanging out together, I was excited to go have dinner at Tay Drescher's house. Tay was my roommate for 3 years at Samford, so this felt appropriate! Our Zeta sister, Becky Richardson, was in town for homecoming too, so she also joined us. Another sister, Emily Whitehead, lives in Birmingham, and she came over to hang out after her son's football game was over. It was so great to catch up with these three!
Ryan and I decided to try something completely different, so we went to see the opera La Traviata at CEPAC one evening. We weren't completely sure what to expect, so we read the storyline in advance which was helpful since it was completely in Italian. They did have subtitles to translate on the sides of the stage, but honestly, it made me a little motion sick to keep looking different directions. The singing was outstanding; these actors are truly talented. The sets were fairly basic, but the costumes were lovely. We were a little surprised that it didn't start until 8pm because we knew it wouldn't end until about 10:30 since there were also two intermissions. I hate to admit it, but we ended up leaving at the second intermission. We were both tired, and we felt like we had the experience of the opera. It was an enjoyable evening, and I'm really glad we gave something new a try!
I gave Ryan tickets to go see Nate Bargatze one evening. We had dinner beforehand with Jeff and Ali Pennington at Little Rey's which was delicious. Then we drove down to State Farm. Ryan didn't know just how good our seats were. We were on the 5th row which really made it so much more fun. He had three openers; two of them were hilarious (one was awful). Nate then came out and put on an absolutely fantastic show. He had us all laughing so hard. I really can't remember laughing this much. This was a really great night!
We had another fun date night out though we didn't take any pictures. We went to a "Candlelight Concert" at the Wimbish House. We went to a Beatles one last year, and it was a lot of fun, so I'd been keeping an eye out for others. This was presented by a string quartet called Listeso, and they were wonderful. The theme of the concert was 90's Unplugged. They played a dozen top songs from the decade which was really cool. Some of our favorites were Everlong (Foo Fighers), Ironic (Alanis Morrissette), Wonderwall (Oasis), Enter Sandman (Metallica), Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley), and Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana). Lots of memories around these songs! It was a fun evening for sure.
Sully and Mia getting a little nap in together.
Apparently these dogs are comfortable napping near one another.
Lily celebrated Thanksgiving with her AOII family. I love what a big group they have!
We loved getting to go see Hadestown at The Fox together as a family one Sunday evening. We all love this show.
AOII had their Red Rose Ball formal this fall, and Lily took our long-time family friend, Parker Henderson. The President of the sorority wears a red dress while all active members wear white; any alumna there were black. It looked a like a beautiful and fun evening.
We were all excited that The Outsiders came to The Fox! Ryan and I went for a date night on Wednesday. We enjoyed going to the Marquee Club beforehand; that was something new for us, and it was fun. A couple of weeks before the show, I received an email that the orchestra pit was removed for this show, so anyone could switch their seats for free. It was first-come, first-serve. I was able to switch our seats for the second row right behind where Ponyboy comes into the audience. It was so cool to see this show upclose again! On Sunday night, we went back to the Marquee Club and show with the girls and had our regular balcony seats. It's so good from here too!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Macy's Parade in the morning and then at the Conn's in the afternoon. I am thankful for my family!
The Friday after Thanksgiving, the 11th grade boys came over to watch the Georgia/Georgia Tech football game with Ryan. These boys absolutely love Ryan. He can't wait to teach them again in the spring!
Lily invited all of her Stonehaven class over for a Friendsgiving celebration the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Every one of the kids was able to come which was great. I love these kids, so it was really great to see them again. They enjoyed a great meal together and then watching the Iron Bowl outside around a firepit. It was a lovely evening.
Lily and I went to watch Ellen Hanbury in The Nutcracker. The three Hanbury girls love Lily; she's babysat them for several years. It was fun to surprise Ellen with Lily coming to see her.
Lily and me before the show.
My absolute favorite picture of our pups. They're the best!
It's been a great fall!
