Momma it's cold outside!

When I got home last night I was greeted by the dog children living it up in jail. They LOVE to be inside and could care less if it entails being in our tiny kitchen behind several baby gates. Drew is highly allergic to dogs and I am highly anal about dog hair so the poor dudes are rarely in. As you know, we built them a giant dog house/3 season porch so they wouldn't have to come in. Well another thing that I wish I could go back and SLAP myself for b/c it certainly isn't any warmer on the porch! Last night Drew was working so I made a sandwich and had dinner with my dogs.

JAIL!

Can I please have a bite of that sandwich you are eating? And yes I did Clorox the counters.. .

The good dog child who just sits and gives you a sweet face. I love him!!!

South Carolina Homecoming

Last weekend (a little late to post) we went to Columbia for the SC Homecoming festivities. Drew is on the board for his college so went to a fun party on Friday night that his college hosted. We met some great people and got to have yummy food and drinks. On Saturday we got to tailgate in one of the Cockabooses!!! They are old train cabooses that people decorate like little houses in all SC stuff. They outline the right side of the stadium. I have always wanted to go in one and since we don't have any wealthy friends that own one (they cost $300K) we were thrilled when we were invited this week. We had a great time at the game and all the festivities!

the coolest ice sculpture I have ever seen!

cute decorations at the Friday night party

the students had a BBQ contest


Drew had to greet people as the came in since he is on the board. I was making fun of him for his dorky name tag. :)

Tailgating...

Cockaboose!

The view from the top of the Cockaboose!

Went you are in the "high rent district" you run into some high society folks. Here is Drew shaking the SC basketball coach's hand.

We did park in our normal low rent place and hung with our "normal" friends for at least a few minutes.
Jake wasn't so sure about Maddie lovin' up on him :)

The game...

Drew and Jake
Micheal Phelps made an appearance. Why? We have no clue. He has no ties to SC as far as we know???

Shopping for a new bed... KING SIZE!

We closed on our house one year ago this week. At the time I thought it would be fun to buy all new bedding and furniture. Well now I wish I could go back and slap myself! Drew and I are not sleeping so well in a queen size bed these days. Either we have gotten so FAT that we just don't fit or I am just over waking up with a arm in my side. I guess part of it is my fault. I sleep in hotels 1-2 nights a week and get my own KING SIZE bed to myself. I love to sprawl out and sleep right in the middle of the bed. I come home nowadays and try to do the same and Drew is about ready to throw an arm and a leg into me every night. So needless to say we are on the hunt for a KING SIZE bed. I hate the idea of sending all my new bedding and my adorable headboard to the closet but we simply cannot take it anymore. We went shopping last week and from the pics below you will see I am going to have to figure this out on my own. Drew was like a 13 year old jumping from one bed to the next. He had so much fun playing with the beds that went up and down. I kept reminding him those were for 80 year olds, but he didn't seem to care. After 20 minutes his ADD kicked in and he decided to take a nap. I sware! The man was no help and I am the one that needs 101 opinions before a make a decision! Oh this bed thing has got me all in a tizzy....

He ate the thermometer???

One reason we built our porch was so that the dogs would be warm at night. I was tired of putting them in "jail" (kitchen) last winter and constantly cleaning up 100 pounds of dog hair. We bought a digital thermometer at Target last weekend to make sure the temps even on the porch were not too cold for our babies at night. Well smart Drew tried to adhere the sticky tap that holds the thermometer to the brick outside. Brilliant! Of course it fell off and guess who found it? Tyrone!

Drew explaining to Tyrone that we do not eat thermometers!

The destruction

Perfect angel Jackson whose only problem is an obsession with tennis balls.

The dreaded TN vs SC game day pictures!

Drew has been asking me all week why I haven't bothered to update the blog. I wonder why? I still cannot believe we lost and on top of that they fired Phil! I know he wasn't doing a great job this year BUT look at all the years in the past. Drew couldn't believe I was crying during his press conference. I felt so bad for the guy and gosh did Vicky look exhausted and sad. We had a great time at the game despite the turnout for me!

Our 2 flags-- one on each side of the car. Boy did we get looks. As we drove into our tailgate spot Drew rolled down his window. hehe! Luckily for him he could jump out and get it! I tried to run over it :)

In SC you have Low Country Boils for tailgating! SOOO good! In TN we have moonshine!

Drew knows every word to his Alma mater. I think that is strange or am I just dumb for not knowing mine? We had it written on our large game day cups for years. Why in the world did I need to learn it if it was on a cup!

At this point I was cold, annoyed, and covered my orange with the below sweatshirt!

Of course Drew had to have a picture for evidence. Ridiculous!

I did not get in trouble for leaving the game, becoming MIA, or texting this time around. Instead I got in trouble for wearing these shoes to a football game....

For now I will still say GO VOLS!!!!

Seriously?

Could they have played any worse? Half way through the game I put Drew's USC sweatshirt on over my orange jacket. Enough said..

Let the rivalry begin...

It's that time of year in the Cawood house that Drew and I have a yearly argument or three about who is going to win the Tennessee vs South Carolina football game. Luckily for me that has been the VOLS for the last 2 years we have been together. Drew and I were driving home from the movies on Sunday night and he looks over at me and this is how our conversation went:

Drew: Hey Babe

Me: Yes

Drew: I have 2 words for you

Me: Ok

Drew: GO COCKS!

Me: Seriously..

5 minutes go by.....

Drew: Hey Babe

Me: Yes Drew

Drew: The VOLS suck and the COCKS are going to win

Me: Enough Drew

5 more minutes go by...

Drew: Hey Babe

Me: Are you kidding me Drew? What?

Drew: I know where TN and Fat Phil can shove that Power T

Me: You need to be nice

Drew: GO COCKS!

Me: Get a life!

right before we go to bed..

Drew: 2 words for you

Me: I am over you

Drew: GO COCKS

Me: Go sleep in your Gamecock man room on the COUCH! :)

The last 2 years my sweet Drew has pouted, thrown a major fit, and not spoken to me after the game. Did I lose the game for SC???? I think not! Do we think he will do it again this year? We shall see. GO VOLS!!!!

CONGRATS DREW!!!!

I feel the need to brag about my husband! Drew just landed the College of Charleston today!!! Just 4 months ago he got Appalachian State University. HE IS ROCKIN' IT! GOOD JOB BABY!!! YEAH EPI!!!! Congrats...I love you and am so proud of you!

Girlfriends...

The one thing I miss a ton now that I live in SC is my girlfriends! I was in Knoxville last week and got to have happy hour with several of them. I miss you girls! Thanks for meeting me out for drinks!

Fall, Friends, and Football!

As you saw from my previous post I was in CT last week. Apparently I had perfect timing b/c it is was peak season for the leaves! I have NEVER, not even in NC or TN, seen leaves as pretty as I saw last week in CT.... Waterbury to be exact. That also happens to be where my Daddy Mike (as I have called him my entire life) grew up. Very cool to see his old stomping grounds.



Next stop was Washington DC for a presentation I had to give. Check out the Capitol. I took this picture from my rental car as I was driving to my hotel. Nice scenery I would say!



On Friday I stayed over and went to see Shannon in MD. Here she is in front of her NEW HOUSE!!! Congrats Shay-Dog and Elisha! They closed this Thursday so I only got to peak in the windows.

Hanging out at an Irish Pub in Annapolis, MD
I flew home at the crack to get home in time for the SC vs LSU game. Hmmm the game was at 8pm and I was at the airport at 6:30am. Makes sense to me! Had to make sure I wouldn't be late and make Drew a nervous wreck about missing the game.

a little tailgating..

the SC State Fair was going on next to the stadium. Only in the South do you get the joys of a state fair and a football game in one place. Can we say TRAFFIC!
Excuse me? Keg stands on the side of the road? We do not know these randoms :)

Joel and Tracy

Drew and I... do my eyes look a little sleepy? The adorable football cake Tracy made for the tailgate. I made Bojangles chicken... yep slaved over that for a long time!

it was FREEZING at the game

touchdown. You can see the fair in the background. Love the lights!

Letterman's Club at the stadium. I think everyone was freezing and had the same idea we did. WARM UP!

A fun ride in the SKY

Today I boarded a plane from CT to Washington D.C. When I checked in it looked like I would have the row to myself. Perfect I thought..I'll stretch out and relax! As always, I boarded with the mad rush of other frequent fliers and took my seat. After 10 minutes went by it looked like I was going to be lucky and have the seat to myself. WHEW! I know you all do that too when you fly... you just hope that person coming down the row doesn't sit next to you. I even go as far as putting my purse in the seat and stretch out so even if it is their seat they will keep walking and grab another. So my luck changed quickly, not only was I going to have to share my row but I was going to have to share it with a 350 pound HUGE man. I about died.. you have got to be kidding me I said to myself. Small plane, only 2 seats in the row, you get the picture. I got up (I was on the aisle) and let Mr. Chubby slide in. Not only did Chubbs slide in but he SAT on the arm rest, I heard a huge CRACK, and he said "well shit". Mr. Chubby broke the flipping arm rest right of the chair!!! He kept trying to fix it.. yeah right. He broke the thing clear off the seat, metal was dangling off the chair. He proceeds to put the whole darn arm rest in the back pocket of the seat in front of him. I about peed in my pants! So Mr. Chubby and I talk a little and then I look over and he has dozed off. Thanks Chubbs what I had to say wasn't that important anyway. He then proceeds to snore and start falling over on me. You know the kind of sleep when you doze and your head starts flopping up and down. Not just his head but his huge body starts falling onto me. I would cough loudly and he would wake up and move over. That would last about 2 minutes and then he'd doze again and then start falling over on me all over again. This happened for a good 30 minutes! I couldn't read my People magazine b/c Chubbs was in my lap! By this point I was sweating b/c if the 100 degree heat on the plane wasn't enough I had be a chubbster in my lap! To add to the fun the 2 men in front of me started to fight over one man's bag being in the other man's "space". Seriously! The jerk who didn't seem to have enough leg room then proceeds to yell at the flight attendant and tell her it was not fair that he have to sit with another man's luggage. She snapped back at him and then he stood up and took pictures of the bag. You go boy!!! You send those pics to US Air and see how soon they will send you a free ticket. Not going to happen! So there you have it.. a day and the life of a frequent flier. Oh the joys! Next flight I am going to sport one of these lovely masks and sleep through all the drama :)

Bless, Maddie, and Helen- our trip to Paris last February :)