Tailgating is Exhausting!

Grandaddy and Roper took a break from tailgating for some zzzs on Saturday afternoon...

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted...I've had good intentions but time has gotten away from me! I don't expect that to change any between now and the end of the year! Ready or not, the BUSY holiday season is upon us! I really love it though -- it's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Roper had his surgeries...all three of them...about a week and a half ago. I can't believe I'm going to post a picture of me sans makeup...but give me a break, we had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am which means I was up at a ridiculous hour. Thankfully my mom stayed over the night before to look after Mason while we took Roper to the hospital.



He looked so cute in the hat & scrubs & slippers that the nurse had us dress him in...but they didn't last long...he is not a morning person (wonder where he gets it?) and he was stripped down to just the pants in no time.

The day of the surgery was pretty miserable for him. We had a hard time getting him to take the pain medicine the doctor prescribed for him, which was tylenol with codeine. He spit it out every time...so finally I switched to plain tylenol, thinking it would be better than nothing, and it made a huge difference! 24 hours post op he was back to normal...pretty much...although there is a long list of things he's not supposed to do for 2 weeks, so we're still trying to keep that under control, which is hard since he feels perfectly normal now.

He has about a 2" incision just below his hip from the hydrocele repair, but he only complains about it when he sees it. Out of sight, out of mind! During a diaper change or bath time, he will point to his "big ole boo boo" as he calls it, but he says it doesn't hurt anymore. But he's quick to remind us that the "mean ole doctor" cut him. In addition to the hydrocele repair and another procedure related to that, he also got tubes in his ears. We are so thankful that the doctors coordinated their schedules so that he could get everything done at once!

Mason made it to his third football game this season...



At the end of the game on Saturday, Mason announced that he wants to be a quarterback when he grows up, but he wants to play for the blue team! Sounds good to me -- my grandfather went to the Citadel so it holds a special place in my heart! And I agree with Mason that the blue and white uniforms look pretty good!

Another Mason "funny" that I have to share...he has really been "into" the Bible story lessons from Sunday School each week. He comes home talking about them and asking questions and then most nights he will ask that we read him whichever "story of the week" from our children's Bible. For a while he was stuck on the story of David & Goliath (which, by the way, is hilarious if you ask him to tell you the story). And thanks to David the Shepherd Boy, Mason now has a sling shot on his Christmas list!

The most recent story that he is fixated on is the story of "Joseph and his Very Colorful Coat." Over the weekend Mason told Graem that he thought it would be a good idea to sell Roper to slave traders, just like Joseph's brothers did to him! I was re-counting this to my friend Leslie, who's mother happens to be Mason's SS teacher, and Leslie responded that perhaps Mason should be reminded of how the story ends -- with Mason grovelling at Roper's/Joseph's feet for mercy! HA!

Knoxville

It seems like forever ago, but weekend before last Graem and I headed up to Knoxville for the Carolina game. I won't bore you with all the details of the weekend...details would mean that I would spend most of this post complaining, and I know yall don't want to read that! Instead, here's a quick recap:

Knoxville is nice, especially if you like hills (they don't call it rocky top for nothing).

Neyland Stadium is the pits (this is where my complaining could get really out of hand...suffice it to say that I'm thankful that rocky top is not home sweet home to me!).

We won (yay!).

I ended up sick on Sunday, and I'm still not entirely sure if it was a reoccurence of really bad morning sickness, or we overdid it on Saturday, or I picked up a GI bug.

The leaves on the drive up and drive back were beautiful.



Tailgating on the water looks like fun!


We tailgated most of the day with our friend Blake, who works for Colonial Life in Nashville. This picture of Graem and Blake cracks me up...


All in all, it was a nice little getaway and I know the boys were glad we took a trip, because they had a blast with my parents at the farm. We try to do one away game each year and I'm glad we went to Tennessee this year, but its not at the top of my list for future trips! The ironic thing is that Vanderbilt, also in Tennessee, might just be my favorite road trip for a game!

First Game

I know I document all sorts of "firsts" on my blog...last weekend Mason had a "first" that he was very excited about -- his first Carolina football game!

We kind of made a big deal about it & really talked it up to Mason. By the time Saturday rolled around he thought he was going to be playing football for Carolina! Maybe that has something to do with why he was trying to play tackle during his soccer match on Sunday afternoon? :)

The boys have tailgated with us but we have deliberately not taken them into any games yet...mainly because I want them to be old enough to appreciate the experience. I have heard age 7 is the magic age that they really "get" the games...so maybe Mason was still a little young. Nonetheless, he had a great time and made it all the way to the end of the game!





Now that I'm posting this picture I realize you can only see "Navy" on Mason's fleece...which of course was the opponent for this game. Oops...at least the color is right. (For the record, we were playing the Naval Academy, not to be confused with Old Navy).

Beat Navy

Best Seats in the House

We headed up to Charlotte last weekend for the first Carolina football game of the season...we tailgated in high style, this "tailgating spot" even included a swimming pool! I never got my camera out during tailgating, which might have ended up being a good thing since my phone went for a dip drowned in the pool. I was due for a new phone anyway...but if my camera had ended up in the pool that would have been a different story and would have probably resulted in a withdrawal from a certain 2-year-old's college savings account. :)

By the end of tailgating the boys (and I) were whipped so I was glad that we made the decision from the get-go not to try to take them into the game. After tailgating, we met up with my parents and they and Graem headed over to the stadium. The boys and I went back to the hotel to watch the game from our comfy room.

We ordered room service...they thought that was really neat, especially the miniature ketchup & mustard bottles. :)





Roper only saw the worst part of the game (the first quarter) before nodding off...Mason made it through halftime. He was so funny talking about the players and listening to the commentators. He heard them mention "Mr. Clowney, the man-child," which I think was equally confusing and hilarious to Mason. We were behind at halftime but had momentum going...and then I think I fell asleep sometime in the third quarter. Thankfully we ended up with quite a decisive victory! I can't wait for our first home game next weekend!