How to Have the Best Halloween Ever

1) Begin brainstorming months in advance with the fiance about what your costume is going to be. It has to be great, as the Ashland City VFW (a classy establishment, I assure you)'s costume contest is serious business. You were robbed last year, and this is the year you will get your revenge.

2) Throw out countless suggestions to your fiance. Spend countless time researching the best costume. Every suggestion you make will be met with "sure!" in the same, non-committal tone. This will ultimately drive you crazy, and your search for the costume will cease and be replaced with day to day activities.

3) Time will pass quickly. Soon it will be three days before Halloween, and you will not only not have a costume, but you will not have a pumpkin as well. The fiance will call in a favor, and you visit a pumpkin patch to retrieve three pumpkins. That ultimately, you will forget to carve and instead repurpose into a Thanksgiving centerpiece come November 1st.

4) After you go to the pumpkin patch, you will drop by Walmart to pick up some Halloween candy for your trick or treaters when you will stop in the costume aisle and inspiration will strike. Of course! The answer is so clear! All this time you've spent looking at Cowboy and Indian costumes, and what you really wanted to be was a shiny red guitar! With matching hat! You have made your decision. You instruct the fiance that he's going to need to trust you on this, and that he's going to need to find a mohawk. Panic ensues.

5) Your dear friend Katie will fly in from Baltimore to witness the fiance's football team's final game (and, unfortunately, a loss). You will drink hot chocolate and catch up on the news of the hour while you silently freeze to death. Such is the sacrifice one must make for football. At the same time, you get really giddy because fall is awesome!

6) You must prepare chili, grilled cheeses shaped like ghosts, and pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins. Else, Halloween doesn't really count.

7) Your future Mother in Law will insist you go with her to Adams, TN to see a play about the Bell Witch. This will terrify you because you don't mess with this stuff and don't really feel like taking the risk of being haunted. Fortunately, they let you stop at Beachaven winery first. This makes life all better. The play is good, but the good news is it's far, far too cold in the outside theater for you to focus on the play/freak out. Congratulations. You didn't cry like a little girl. Well played.

8) You will need to go house hunting, mohawk shopping, and Indian food eating with the fiance. The house thing will be a bust, but the other two end well! A red tipped mohawk and ensuing hair paint are purchased. This is going to be good. Your fiance hasn't quite bought into your vision yet. He will come around.

9) You break out the hair paint, and coerce the future husband into a chair. He will disagree with the way you do it, saying you're doing it wrong. He will enlist his brother's help, and then determine he, also, is doing it wrong. Eventually he will go into the bathroom to do it himself, and will come out with his sideburns, forehead, back of his ears, and back of his neck covered in black hair paint. You will then exfoliate the heck out of his skin to make it better. He will complain. And he will be bitter. But he will look great!

10) You then convince the fiance that he will need to let you put eyeliner on his eyes to perfect his look. The mohawk looks excellent, but he is not used to ducking down in doorways quite yet. Putting makeup on him will be surprisingly fun! He will fidget a little bit when it comes to the eyeliner, but you will prevail. Afterwards, even though he won't admit it, it looks sexy. You win. Well, actually, you come in second in the costume contest. But that's $25 you didn't have before!

11) Survive the next morning. And realize that you are no longer the rockstar you were in college and are now old. Staying out until 4am was a bad idea. A fun idea, but a bad idea.

RIP Lizzie Kitty

I know some people are going to think this is super lame, but I'm legitimately sad. Our beloved Lizzie Kitty has passed away.

We got her about a year ago, and rescued her from a shelter. Michael was the one who picked her out, and said we had to save her because the adult cats never got adopted. We took her home right after we had put up our first Christmas tree, and she thought it was the most interesting thing ever. That first night she wouldn't leave our side and slept in between our heads on the pillow.

Lizzie was a badass, but she was also really sweet. Every day when we came home from work she would greet us at the door and meow at us until we picked her up and cuddled her. She loved to play, and would attack Michael's feet under the covers to wake him up in the morning. She also loved to sit by the sink and watch me do the dishes, or sit by the shower to watch the running water.

She was just getting used to the dog when she disappeared. She enjoyed mocking him when he was in his kennel. Amos, however, did not enjoy that.

We had recently started letting her go outside because she kept escaping and then coming back. Last Thursday she got let out, and didn't come back the next morning. We looked for her, and hoped she was just lost or having an adventure. Then, today at lunch, Amos went in the woods and found her body and brought it back to us. We don't know what happened to her, but I hope she wasn't scared.

Here's some pictures. Rest in Peace, Liz!

Engagement Pictures

One thing people never tell you about Engagement pictures: they are a little bit awkward.

Well, maybe not for everyone. Maybe some people like to have a camera pointed at them 24/7. And have a fiance who trusts cameras. However, this is not an apt description of neither Michael nor I! And so begins our story...

Our fabulous photographer, Josh Reeder, won us over with his cool ideas for our Engagement shoot! We wanted some traditional shots, but wanted to step a little outside the box too. We figured we would feature the harley in the shoot because it's something we love to do together, and we thought it'd be a little bit different. Josh took this idea and ran with it. This is how he ended up hanging out of the back of his car as we rode down the Trace at sunset. But more on that later!

I cannot overstate how brave my fiance is. I've seen him bravely charge at me when he thought I was choking, strike a pose against people he perceived as threatening as we were walking to the car. I've seen pictures and film of him playing football where he was nothing but intimidating and mean. And yet, who would have thought he'd be this unnerved by a camera? Alas, but he was. He had nothing to be worried about as he looked quite dashing in the new shirt and belt I had bought him (happy anniversary, honey! A month early), but his nerves would not be assuaged. Even as we were walking through woodland scenes, holding hands, smiling up at each other, he continued to look at me with a look of "Oh my GOD, Am I doing this right? Am I ruining the picture? If so, please tell me how to fix it!". He did get a little bit more relaxed as we continued, but I will say his grip on my hand was abnormally tight!

After we made it through the "pretty pictures", we changed, got on the bike, and headed to the Trace. Michael had bought us new helmets for the occasion, but I managed to convince him that our pictures would look better without them (for the record, I was right!). His initial reaction was "There's no way in hell you're getting on that bike without your helmet on", but when it was time for Josh to climb into the back of his car as his friend drove, he lightened up a little. Off went the helmets, and on went the bike.

I will say, I cannot WAIT to see the pictures. Michael was so much more in his element, and the views were absolutely gorgeous. Josh showed us some of the pictures as they were taking them, and they were incredible! Sunsets in the background, amazing fall foliage. Now I feel slightly like a little kid at Christmas waiting to see them!

Martin Trip!

This weekend was jammed pack full of adventures, but this time in West Tennessee! We went back to Michael's Alma Mater for Homecoming, but took some detours along the way!

A few months ago, while we were enjoying dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant with our friends Justin and Christy (who we had only slightly coerced into trying Indian despite their initial and evident hesitations), we had mentioned how much fun it would be to take a trip back there together since Justin and Michael roomed together their freshman and sophomore years. As fate would have it (or, rather, the high school football schedule) Michael's team was scheduled to play in Camden, TN that Friday before! Now, for those of you who don't know where Camden is (and quite frankly, why should you!) it's a little hole-in-the-wall town about two hours west of Nashville. And seriously, if I'm going to drive that far, we might as well have an adventure to show for it! Camden is about an hour away from Martin, so this was perfect.

So, we book a hotel room, and set off on our adventure! Justin and Christy picked me up, and we made the voyage to Camden Lion's Stadium. Who are the number one team in our district. Who the Cubs played point for point until we lost one of our best players on both offense and defense to three broken foot bones. Who then beat the stuffing out of us and won 43 to 27. We're not going to dwell, but I have two points to make: 1) How on earth do we get a stadium that nice and that big? and 2) Those children need to be corralled and sent to military school. Seriously. Seven year olds were mouthing off to me. Not one. All of them. Where were their mothers?

It took some coaxing to get Coach Jackson to be in a better mood. To do this, we forced him in the car and then bought 2 six packs for the ride up! (Christy is awesome and drove us!). This improved his mood dramatically, and he was super adorable when we drove into the campus. He hadn't been up to the campus in about five years, and memories were flying! We checked in to our hotel room at midnight, and then immediately went to a bar called Cadillacs (which, for those of you from Tuscaloosa, was like Harry's only in the town and had more pool tables). Michael has yet to walk into a bar (be it here or in Nashville) without seeing someone he knows, and this was no exception! We had fun drinking and hanging out until Christy and I were too tired to stand and called it an early night at 2am. Justin and Michael closed down the bar, though. Good for them! I prefer sleeping. Good Lord, when did I get this elderly?

The next day came really soon, and we were off to explore the fabulous campus that is UT Martin. It reminded me a lot of Auburn, only they had a quad like Alabama's and everyone had set up tents and were tailgating. The campus was beautiful! We also got to go inside the football building and the locker rooms while the boys reminisced about all kinds of things. I love hearing stories like that!

Because MJ played football, we also got to eat at the "Ghosts of the Grid Iron" tailgate, which featured players from Martin's past. EVERYONE knew Michael (he's kind of a big deal) and I got to meet lots of people whose names I quickly forgot (sorry!).

We went into the football game, but only stayed through the first half before we headed back to Nashville. We were having fun, but Arkansas was playing Auburn and we were ready to head back! It was a great weekend with great friends, and it's always fun to watch the fiancé get very excited and reminisce about his days playing football!

Other highlights of the weekend included watching the Alabama game at our favorite sport's bar (the Crow's Next), and seeing Lauryn on Sunday for a night eating lasagna and playing Taboo (once again, I am elderly. But Michael is also freakishly competitive, so I feel like this makes it a bit better).

Some pictures!! I have more, but I'm too lazy to find the camera cord. Instead, I stole these from Christy!

Playing the Next Play

There are perks to marrying a football coach:

1) You get in all the games for free
2) You actually get the inside scoop on what's going on
3) You get to go to Prom every year (!!!)
4) You get to hear pearls of wisdom that carry over into everyday life.

One of the many reasons I love Michael is that he continually inspires me to be strong and to fight harder. I am not a fighter by nature. In general, I worry way too much what other people think about me and try to please people to the best of my ability. If anything, this year taught me that that's a terrible idea. If you aren't meeting your own needs, there's going to be no way you're ever going to be able to help anybody or do anything. And, at the end of it, you typically come to find that regardless of whether you did or didn't do a good job, or you're right or wrong, someone isn't going to be happy with you. They'll always have their reasons, and ultimately it won't be up for you to decide!

Michael is always telling me to focus on moving forward, to not get caught up in what happened yesterday. Anything that is behind you, is quite simply behind you, and God put our eyes in the front of our heads for a reason. These past few weeks/months have been stressful for various reasons and in various ways. And I think now I'm ready to make a transition!

So, in the spirit of being incredibly vague, I ask for your prayers as I play the next play!

Adventures with Amos

Amos Puppy has been very busy learning new things and having adventures! These are the things he can do well:



1) Sit down
2) Shake
3) Lie down
4) Chew things into microscopic bits that somehow find their way into mommy and daddy's bed
5) Puppy Wrestle (he is the reigning champion!)
6) Chase the cat
7) Snuggling


This weekend Amos Puppy had several special adventures! These adventures were initiated with the sole purpose of wearing out the little monster who has boundless amounts of energy!

Friday, Amos and mommy went to visit daddy at work! I have Fridays off for the month of September (which has really given me a chance to enjoy fall!), so Amos and I have been bringing daddy a picnic lunch at work while we let Amos Puppy run all around the football field like a crazy person. He LOVES this. This Friday was particularly special because Amos also got snuck into Daddy's classroom! Shh, don't tell anyone! After this, Amos and mommy took a 7 mile walk through a park by our house. It was absolutely beautiful, and Amos finally met an animal he didn't like.

You see, I am one of those people that are generally clueless about my surroundings. I love to walk through the trees, see pretty things, look up at the blue sky, etc. I'm NOT very good with looking at my feet. So, when we encounter a crystal clear stream, I decide this would be a perfect time to detour and give Amos a drink.

While I was encouraging my dog to drink, I notice he's gotten very still, and very close to me. And he's looking at something in the water, then back up at me, then back in the water, then back up at me. I finally follow his eye sight, and what should be 3 feet away from me but a GIGANTIC snake. I mean, we're talking at least 4 feet long here. And it was doing that dance snakes do when they're about to attack. Needless to say, Amos and I ran away quickly. And I think it scared him, because after that he wouldn't go off the paved route at ALL.

Amos puppy was exhausted after this, so Mom and Dad got to have a date night with some friends!

Saturday was another day of adventure. When Amos was adopted, we were told he had some Redbone Coonhound in him. Naturally, I did some reading to learn more about the breed to help with training purposes. It was there, I read something that caused me great concern! Apparently, they can be very aware of the gender and/or ethnicity of their owners and be a little bit protective when greeted by someone who doesn't look just like their owner.

Yup. There's a strong possibility my dog will be RACIST. And that's absolutely unacceptable!

Naturally, we have to start early. So I decided that the "Celebration of Cultures" would be an excellent place to break this habit. It just so happens my boss was one of the guest speakers, and a lot of my friends were going to be present. So, MJ and I loaded up Amos and headed to Centennial Park in Nashville!

I'm a total dork about big festivals such as this one. I love just walking around and looking at all the different things to see. They had dancers from all different countries, floats, textiles, bags, and jewelry for sale. To top it off, it was a gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky.

I'm proud to report, Amos made a TON of new friends. He met all my coworkers, flirted with a dauschand named Abbie, tried to puppy wrestle with an older pit named Zoey, and was the cutest dog there. Michael and I grabbed some Indian food (our favorite!) even though with all the amazing food it was hard to choose!) and we had a picnic while Amos tried to dig a hole to China!

After the parade, we headed over to the dog park in Centennial. This was Amos's first time in a dog park, and I'm not quite sure he knew what to do with it. He didn't go crazy like we expected! Instead, he gingerly followed some dogs around until a good round of puppy wrestling surfaced, in which case he got himself involved in that. Michael laughed at me because I kept openly worrying about if he was making friends or not. I'm going to be an absolutely neurotic parent...

When we left the dog park after a good long run, we got some Italian Ice (YUM), sat by the lake, and tried to feed a duck with a broken wing (this bothered Michael to no end. You'd never know it by looking at him, but he loves ducks), and then loaded up our exhausted puppy dog and headed home! He was perfectly worn out, leaving us open to watching football!