100 Days and Counting…

In recognition of today marking the official countdown to college football, I’ve decided to list my predictions for the SEC here. See below for how I voted in the Bham News’ poll. If I’ve offended anyone, I’m sorry. I just call them like I see them.

My predictions in summary: Tennessee and Auburn are going to struggle, Ole Miss will be a contender, and somebody (please, anybody) better beat Tim Tebow and knock Florida off their high horse. Their time’s up. (Though I don't think it's going to happen - at least not in the East.)

Season Finales

Now that school's out for the summer (at least for me), I have to confess that I've turned into somewhat of a TV junkie. It actually probably started with the advent of Direct TV into our lives (which we claimed we needed for football season) and the wonderful capacity to DVR shows. I typically haven't been a huge TV watcher. Generally I'm more consumed with cleaning or yard work or school or some random project I've taken on. But DVR has allowed us to actually have favorite shows and follow them.


So this spring semester we've been huge fans of Chuck (Yes, NBC, I'm still mad at you for almost canceling it and only committing to start it mid-season in 2010. That's just lame. But the season finale was pretty awesome.)


How I Met Your Mother (which I am convinced is the new Friends. They hang out in the pub below their new york apartment and talk about life, and it's hilarious.)

30Rock (Which is also just hilarious. Who doesn't love Alec Baldwin? Kenneth and Tracy are definitely my favorites through.)


And, of course, The Amazing Race. (No surprise here for regular blog readers. By the way, I'm so glad Tammy and Victor won. Luke turned out to truly be the "sinister deaf kid." I was not a fan.)


We even managed to catch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, which I must say was the only episode we saw all year and the first I've seen in several years. We had no clue about the back story on any of the characters and didn't even know who some of the new folks were, but five minutes from the end when Robert said, "It's O'Malley!" we were just as shocked and devastated as those who tuned in faithfully each week. What a gut wrencher!


Lately with all the rain, zero school responsibilities, and having hit a serious roadblock in selecting a fabric for the headboard I plan to upholster for the guest room, I've had a chance to watch more shows I haven't watched in years, namely The Bachelorette. Seriously, it's probably been since junior year of college that I sat with my roommates faithfully each week to watch this show or its predecessor, The Bachelor. I know, I know, it's just not that great of a show, but there's nothing else on TV during the summer, so what's a girl to do?


So last night Robert is slaving away on his paper after a long day of work and class and I'm talking to Jullian on the TV about how cheesy or trashy so-and-so guy is and that she better be smart enough to not even give him a chance, much less a rose. But who are we kidding? She's on the show to begin with, which puts her aptitude seriously in question. (At least I'm ironing some of Robert's dress shirts while I'm doing this, so my time wasn't completely wasted.)

GLS BBQ

Yesterday, my dad hosted his company's annual BBQ, and I think every plumber in Birmingham was in attendance. They had a huge crowd! But who wouldn't be attracted by the allure of free, lip-smacking-good BBQ. They had quite the spread of ribs and Boston Butt pulled-pork, along with all the fixins. So Robert and I, being the supportive (and hungry) daughter and son-in-law we are, dropped by to join in on the festivities.

This is dad's purchasing manager, Matt, working the grill. (Which you should note is made out of bathtubs! I'd say GLS is going green with that bit of recycling.) I had to stop and tell Matt congratulations because his wife just had a beautiful baby girl. They are quite the Alabama fans, and he was telling me about his new daughter's houndstooth burp cloth with "I drool Crimson" monogrammed on the front. Love it!

My brother Kyle was fresh off his plane trip home from Ireland (landed in Bham at 6:30 p.m. the day before after an all-day flight) after a 9-day hiatus that involved lots of pub hopping and eating of potatoes, among other things I haven't yet heard about. I can't wait to see his pics this weekend. He traveled with my Canadian cousin Lydia and her friend, and it sounds like they had a blast.



More pics of the crowd chowing down. Mom, David, and Ryan pulled up just as we were heading back for meetings so I didn't get a chance to grab a pic with them, but everyone had a great time. Thanks, dad!

More Lake Pics

I was able to borrow some other pics from the lake which my father-in-law and sister-in-law took, so here's Mother's Day at the Lake Blog Post #2.

We'll start with the classic family pic. This one's of the whole clan, with the kiddos actually cooperating.

Sans grandparents.

Just kids and spouses.

And the crazy shot. You can tell which of us are the goofballs.

Tallon helping Mimi open her mother's day gifts.

Of course there was lots of yard football.

Liz and Mike.

Liz and her dad.

Bec with Tallon in the boat.

Us with baby Tess. From the dazed looks on our faces, I think this shot was taken literally seconds after we rolled out of bed and into the kitchen for breakfast (which they are cleaning up behind u!). The baby was wide awake though.

Mimi and Tallon. He's quite the outdoors man and pretty much preferred every living minute to be spent riding in the boat.

Rob and Reeves doing crazy, tricky (probably dangerous) things on water skis. They actually did swap ropes several times.

More boat rides. Did I mention he likes to drive too?

Liz with baby Tess.

Cute Baby Tess.

Classic PaPa.

PaPa doing what God made him to do - fry fish, glorify God, and enjoy him forever.

The boys.

The girls.



The lake house at sunset.

Baking cookies with Mimi and Aunt Liz.

On the porch swing. One of my favorite places to relax at the lake.

Mother's Day Lunch

Today I had my mom and Big Mama over for a late Mother's Day celebration. We had a great lunch together with just the girls. I was also able to give them the flowers I picked out for them for Mother's Day. I actually made them pose with their flowers, and they were really good sports about it. I thought the arrangements were gorgeous. I got them at the Garden Shop in Homewood just down from our house. I love that place, and the staff is so helpful. We also got Robert's mom a beautiful pink rose bush there for her Mother's Day gift. I ended up having to run back to the office after lunch but my sweet mom stayed and worked on some of my plants for me. Thanks mom!

Weekend at the Lake

This past weekend we were able to travel to South Carolina to surprise Robert's mom with a Mother's Day visit. We had a great time relaxing at the lake, catching up with family, and playing with our nephew and niece - who are both getting so big and are just too funny.



As you can see from the pics, we spent lots of time riding in the boat, water skiing, and riding in the boat some more.


Tallon brought his jeep from his house and loved driving it around the yard.

And here's his sweet baby sister Tess, who I somehow only managed to take this one picture of while she was napping on the way to church Sunday morning. She's growing into such a big girl and has the sweetest personality and the best smile.

I actually ended up taking more pics with Rebecca's camera, so I'll have to get some of those and post them here. Robert's dad also got some good family shots with the entire clan. It was great to see everyone and enjoy our little mini summer vacation since Robert hit the ground running on Monday with his May term class and life jumped back into full swing. Thanks for your hospitality Adams family! We loved seeing you guys.

Comparison

I had to post this pic taken a few weeks ago at small group when we started comparing the size of Helen and Luke. Helen (for my non-small group readers: the baby on the left in case the pink outfit didn't tip you off) is a very healthy 14 month old. Luke is a ginormous 4 month old. As you can see, they're nearly identical in size. At 3 months, Luke measured in the 95th percentile in height and weight. I'm always curious to see how much he has grown each week. He's a hoss!