ready for some football

i meant to post this last week. last saturday was app. states home opener. unfortunately we lost to mcneese state in a close game 40-35. app. state is 0-2 for the season. we still have faith in the mountaineers. aaron said they started the season last year 1-2 and still had a winning season. fingers crossed they do great next weekend and the rest of the year.

we do have season tickets but for the first game we switched seats with dr. stanley's family and got to sit in the new, posh club section. my fanny appreciated the padded seats and i'm sure when it starts to get cold i'd love the overhead heaters. for the rest of the season we'll be in our regular seats, which are a little closer but not nearly as luxurious. it's hard to believe this is the stadium for a small I-AA school. it's pretty pimping! ;)

aaron get's back from vegas/zion tomorrow. i'll be posting pics of his trip in the next few days. sounds like he's had a great time and has some great photos to share. stay tuned.

on the outs

here are the pics from our long weekend to the outer banks. so we started our summer with a trip to the beach and ended it the same way. unfortunately the weather wasn't so cooperative this time around. we did manage to get at least one day of sunshine. we had a fun time hanging with jill and jerome and pretty much the rest of their family.

tomorrow is the first home game for appalachian state football. hopefully i can somehow maneuver my tshirt to cover the belly. it'll be a little too warm to sport the sweatshirt this time around. i'll post my latest belly pic tomorrow although you can see from the beach pics it's grown a bit! ;)

hamburrrrrger

i made these little sliders for a super bowl party we went to on sunday. yep, they're cupcakes. i saw them on a crafting site and thought they'd be perfect for the party. after screwing up the first batch (forgot to add water to the mix) they were indeed quite simple to make. one batch of yellow cupcakes, one batch of chocolate, icing, food coloring, a little cutting and assembly and presto you have burgers! they were a hit at the party and a lot of people liked them cause the weren't drowning in icing. i've even eaten a few. here's a little tutorial if you'd like detailed instructions on making them.

nate and fiance

nate and katie came out to see us this past weekend. (hence the lack of posts) the main reason for the visit...to show off katie's new ring! ;)

here are a few pics from their visit. we were able to get some drinking, good food, wii fitting, football, shopping, tubing and basketball in. yep, it was pretty jam packed.

turkey day in review

my parents came down wednesday evening and with them came our new/used table and chair set. i was a little worried buying something sight unseen but when they pulled it out of the truck, my worries were for not. it's actually in better condition than i expected. we set it up and were soon enjoying a chili dinner around it that night. i am contemplating painting the chairs, there's a little too much brown for my taste. maybe a nice blue to match the backsplash we're eventually getting.

no matter how big a house is, my mom can make it seem like it's too small. as soon as she arrived we didn't have enough refrigerator or counter space. we didn't have enough dishes or pots. serving utensils - needed more. somehow we managed to make a delicious turkey dinner in spite of the lack of everything. afterwards the guys watched football and mom and i ended up starting a craft project.

friday i had a doctor's appointment in charlotte at 8am so mom tagged along with me. i told her we'd go shopping afterwards, big mistake. got up at 5, left here by 6, arrived in charlotte by 8. saw the doc and was out of there by 9. the first and last store we hit up was target. if there's an economic crisis going on, it sure didn't seem like it this day. i went up and down aisle after aisle looking for a parking spot. when i finally scored one we had to wait for a shopping cart. after dodging the gazillion shoppers in every aisle and waiting in the checkout line that was the whole length of the store, i was done. i looked down at our cart and there wasn't a single "sale" item in it. i told mom, if we're not getting any "deals" than we don't need to be shopping today. waking up at 5am was starting to show. i asked if she cared that we headed home after we paid and she was fine with it. i felt kinda bad for dragging her down there with me for nothing, but she was fine with it. we got a little mother/daughter bonding time in.

we got home around mid afternoon. aaron and dad had gotten the christmas tree. it's a little smaller than last years. (unfortunately the guy that gave us our tree last year isn't selling trees this year.) they ended up getting the tree from the church up the road and it was one of the largest ones they had. we set it up in the foyer sunday and it still looks good despite it's dwarfness. :) i'll have to take pics when it's all decorated which will probably be tonight. in the evening we all settled down in the basement and watched "tropic thunder." a good night.

saturday aaron and dad went to watch app. state play in their first playoff game against south carolina state. luckily the weather somewhat cooperated as they watched the mountaineers beat sc state to advance to the next round. unfortunately siu lost to new hampshire so there's not going to be a match-up of saluki vs. mountaineer like we hoped two saturdays from now. it would have been great to see. while the boys watched football, mom and i did some shopping. despite our town being so little, we do have a fairly decent sized mall. and with a majority of the town at the football game, it wasn't too crowded. we were able to pick up a few things. afterwards, i picked up dad and aaron from the game, came home watched some more football then we went out to dinner. all in all it was a great visit. luckily they left before the weather got too bad. had to brave through some rain but at least it wasn't the 3 inches of snow we got yesterday. yes, more snow. unbelievable.

are you ready for some football?

quick weekend recap. friday aaron got home a little early and we were able to make the 5 o'clock showing of "choke" at the dragonfly theater. boone's first brew and view. we've been meaning to check it out but there really hasn't been a movie we've both wanted to see til now. this might be the way we do movies on the big screen. we were very impressed with the setup. you can eat and drink full meals in the actual theater. there are about 10 rows of chairs and tables and the front row is lined with couches. we ate dinner while we watched, pretty neat.

as far as the movie goes, very sexually graphic. i'm a big fan of chuck palahniuk novels and had read this one a while ago. i kinda forgot what it was about, but it all came flooding back as i watched. i'd say the movie is a pretty close representation of the book. so if you like the book, you'll probably like the movie.

saturday we headed over to watch a little app state football. rarely do i go. but since jerome was out of town, i caved and went with. i actually had a good time despite the 40 degree temps. here you can see josef the mountaineer riding in on his hog. we were just waiting for that head to come flying off. surprisingly, it didn't.

aaron doesn't mind explaining the game to me which he pretty much did the whole time. it was a good game to watch, app. state beat furman 26-14. i probably won't be going to any more games this year. the weather plays a huge factor in if i'll attend. i just really don't like it enough to endure the cold, snow, rain, etc. the next game is friday night, halloween. aaron and jerome plan on dressing up for it. now we're scrambling to find costumes. i've got an idea...now to make it happen...hmmm.

yesterday we did a little geocaching and started to attack the basement storage mess.

and as you can see, aaron did bring home a copy of the als walk team.

riding out the storm

after watching asu get spanked, 16 hours of driving, and sleeping in his rental car, aaron finally made it home. he was supposed to fly out of new orleans today, but of course that wasn't going to happen. he scrambled to find a mode of transportation to get out of louisiana. train, bus, car-his attempts were almost futile. he finally found a rental agency open on the holiday weekend that wasn't charging an arm and a leg for a car. ($1 a mile=outrageous!) he took off as soon as he could, and braced for evacuation traffic. he called while on the road and told me he planned on stopping in birmingham, alabama. i offered to book him a hotel online so it would be waiting for him when he arrived. imagine my surprise when every hotel along the route was booked. i told him he might have to actually pull off and check for himself. he said cars were pulled off along the road and he was sure people had decided to sleep in their cars and not hassle with looking for lodging. so he ended up in a hotel parking lot for the night. poor aaron. after atlanta, most of the traffic had thinned out and he made it home tired and ready for a shower. what was supposed to be a four day weekend ended up being one. again, poor aaron!

asu vs. lsu

aaron left this morning to hopefully watch the greatest upset in college football history tomorrow. i'm not much of a football fan but i did get a little knot in my throat when watching the video. he just called and said the game was moved up to 10 a.m. instead of 2 because of tropical storm gustav, which is not expected to hit the gulf coast til monday/tuesday. while it might not effect the game, it may interfere with his travel plans. we'll just have to watch and see.

biggest upset of 2007

of course i have to post this: biggest upset of 2007

AND appalachian state won the national championship for the third year in a row on friday. go mountaineers!

making the lists

in case you missed it. an article was recently brought to my attention. thanks, aly. read more here: america’s 10 best outdoor towns

"the mountaineers are a win away from an unprecedented third straight national championship." aaron almost had a conflict of interest. it could have been siu vs. asu in the championship game. unfortunately siu lost to deleware last night. not much of a football fan but go mountaineers!!

"...these towns have not only back doors to some of the country’s best adventure terrain, but also lively, livable communities that are dedicated to playing in and preserving the great american playgrounds."

bookmarked

i received a small bag of bamboo tiles in a supply swap a few months ago. i honestly didn't have a clue what i was going to do with them. after some brainstorming, here's the end result. fashion bookmarks. supplies: bamboo tile, paper scraps, hemp cording and plastic beads. great stash-buster.

this was the first time i used a high-gloss varnish. it took longer than i expected to dry but it was well worth it in the end. i also made a few pin-up tiles that i couldn't bear making into bookmarks. i think they would better serve as some type of jewelry. what type...i have no clue. i'll have to ponder on that one a bit longer. next project: criss-cross coasters. i think i'll alternate between sewing, crafting and home improvement projects.

i just dropped aaron, jerome and patrick off at the asu football game. i really don't think it's gonna be much to see. they're playing the worst team in the conference. jerome and his buddy patrick came over a few hours beforehand, had a little tailgate at the house. i did have to drop off three very drunk football fans. maybe the alcohol will keep them warm cause it's a bit nippy. go asu!

go mountaineers!

michigan (ranked 5th in the nation) paid appalachian state $400,000 to pad their win record. boy, was that a mistake. we got a call from jill and jerome on the road today. "you got your yellow and black on? app state just beat michigan!" *insert hooting and hollering!! unbelievable! yesterday, i was watching the weather channel and even the weather guy mentioned how it wasn't gonna be much of a game. yeah, i'm swelling with pride. i don't even like football, but i'm glad the little guy prevailed.  here's the espn article. way to go mountaineers!

btw, it's a seven hour drive from boone to baltimore. so we're almost halfway between the westphals and the richs. thought we'd be a little bit closer. oh well. we're here, kicking it with the fam. can't wait to get my grub on.