A packed week

The pace really picks up as the holidays approach, doesn't it?
I can feel it, and definitely see all that there is going on when I look at my calendar! Its so fun, and I love having things to do, places to go, and people to see.

A little while ago, my friend Meredith asked if us gals wanted to attend her mom's annual church event, the Christmas ladies' dinner at Smoke Rise in Lilburn - the same church where Meredith was married during the summer of 2010.
The dinner was a huge event with ~200 women all sitting around beautifully decorated tables. The guest speaker was Middle Georgia's own Gena Knox.

Meredith and her mom, Mrs. Kathy, did a beautiful job on our tablescape! It was so pretty! And we had a fantastic table. Lauren M, Mere, Lauren G, Mayer, Meghan, Hollie, and me!

After a dinner of pork loin, green beans, potatoes, salad, rolls, and cheesecake for dessert, Gena took the stage to give a talk on her philosophy of {Keep it fresh, Keep it simple}. She did a great job! Can you believe she is 8.5 months pregnant here??? She looks amazing!

Here's a photo of Gena visiting one of the many farmers she writes about in her second cookbook, Southern My Way

On Thursday night after work, I hopped in the car to head home for the weekend. Asa was playing football in the semi-finals, we were celebrating my and Amy's bdays belatedly, and my friend Shelley was having a baby shower. Surprisingly, Shelley and Mitch's baby girl came way early! So, little Ansley is an early Christmas gift, and her shower was cancelled. I got to see daddy Mitch, and all is well with mommy and baby too!

On Friday night, the fam gathered at Tattnall Square to cheer Asa and the Hornets in the semi-finals. Don't you love the sibling and Gman support in our green and gold?

Getting ready for the run through!!!

Can you spot Dad?
Sadly, we didn't win, and were put out of the GISA playoffs. Gladly, Asa is just a junior, so hopefully his senior year will be complete with a State Championship!!!

On Saturday, Mom, Abbye and I stopped by Mistletoe Market to see my aunt Jill who's store Kimberly's had a booth, my friend James Farmer who was signing books, and meet up with my friend Linsey and get some sugar from her baby girl Faegan!

If you missed it this year, be sure to come next year! Its great to visit lots of vendors and to see lots of familiar faces!

Since heading off to college back in 2002, Amy and I have made a point to celebrate our November birthdays closer to Thanksgiving when everyone is home for the holiday. We managed to get together this past Sunday. I love spending time with Amy, and am always thankful when we can get together. We met Becca for a little icecream cake and a quick visit before dinner.


On Sunday, I had a belated birthday dinner with my fellow bf Scorpio, Amy. While in high school, we spent many dinners at Applebee's in Perry, so in honor of our long friendship, we headed there and treated ourselves to our favorite dessert - a blond brownie!

 My Monday was busy with a client delivery and my attempts at getting my house Christmas-fied. Its getting there, slowly. :) But, on Tuesday after leaving my day of work at Heery's Too, I had to capture the trees lit for the holidays.

When leaving work last night, I was crossing Clayton Street and was struck by how lovely the night was. The sun was setting, and the lights are on all the trees. The yellow leaves of the Ginko tree are still hanging on and its so pretty!

Homecoming pic

Here's Asa and his girlfriend Sydney with Sydney's brother Sam, his girlfriend Hallye, Evan, and Carrie Margaret before Homecoming. They all look great!

Did you see my post about Asa's Homecoming Game?

And the funny one about my Homecoming years?

And last but not least, have you VOTED today?
Voting ends Friday, so you will just have to bear with me and my annoying-overenthusiastic-big-sis-excitement for 2 more days. :)

HAVE YOU VOTED?

Hey blogger friends!

My brother Asa is up for the Houston Home Journal

Player of the Week!

He had a great game on Friday night with 120 yards, a 72 yard touchdown, and 8 rushes.

I'm a proud sister!

Please take a second to vote for him as many times as you can this week!!!!!

Only one vote per day per IP address...

Vote in the left hand side bar

http://hhjnews.com/v2/content.aspx?IsHome=1&MemberID=1275&module=Page&ID=4081

Thank you so much!

xoxo

...And Homecoming then

As I previously posted, David, me, and my family were at Asa's junior year Homecoming game on Friday night. It was also Alumni Night at Westfield, and it got me a little misty thinking about my baby bro being old enough to play Varsity ball, and how kinda old it makes me feel. Ten years ago, I was a senior, cheering on those same sidelines. Sometimes its hard for me to believe that Asa is 18 years old, and Abbye, at 21, is about to graduate from college. Time flies!
While at home, I took a few minutes to find a few pictures from my high school homecomings. Like most schools, we had spirit week leading up to the football game. Usually, we dressed up on Wednesday and Thursday according to a theme, and then Fridays were always green and gold day. Hope these make you laugh like they did me!

Obviously, this is on camo day. Too funny. Either my and Christen's 8th or 9th grade year. 

This is Amy and me (with one of the seniors, Allison) our freshman year on Homecoming court. Makes me laugh!

As freshman headed to the dance, we met at the Watson's house to take pictures before we got into our limo with our sparkling grape juice. We had so much fun that night - I think we felt really grown up.
L-R: Walt Brannen + Me, Eric Jones + Candice Blount, Griffin Hamsley + Brandi Robles, Amy + Spencer Shugart, and Christen with Clayton Lewis.
Its funny to look back...the guys' clothes are still the same, but short dresses are way more popular with Asa'a schoolmates now.

This was our sophomore year on Twin Day! Linsey, Me, Christen, and Amy were a tight foursome!

This is our junior year on Tacky Day. Christen, Amy (that dress cracks me up!), me Summer, and Lauren.

This is my senior year on Pajama Day.
L-R: Sarah Lipari, Candice Blount, Christen, Me, Olivia Murph, Blair Sexton, and Tammy Barfield.
We were all cheerleaders together, and somehow were all placed in Mr. Crosby's 3rd period study hall. Every day we spent the period in the Cheerleader Workroom, where we are in this pic. We had the best time in there!

This is also in the cheerleader workroom on Nerd Day. Tammy, Me, Christen, Olivia, and Candice.

We chose Haunted Hornet Homecoming as the theme for our senior year dance. Christen's dad, Mr. Draper, is a funeral director and got us seniors 2 hearse to ride in to the pep rally.

That's Chance riding shotgun. We slowly crept around the track until we got back to the home side. It was awesome!

My dad and I for senior homecoming court.

Amy and me with our driver, Nick. He had the greatest convertible and was so sweet to drive us around the track.

Before our senior homecoming dance, we met at Cole's parents' house where a limo took us to eat and then to the dance. Cole was kind enough to escort a bunch of us senior girls to the dance and we had a ball!

This was probably around my junior year, so Asa would've been about 7. What a cute little fellow!

This was the night of my 16th birthday party (remember the leopard ensemble I wore on Twin Day and those black hose? I kept them on for cheerleading practice, hence the weird outfit for the birthday girl). Asa would have been 6 and Abbye would be 9. Aren't they the cutest?

My senior year, Asa was a ball boy for the football team. Here he is wearing his big bro Brince's #14 jersey. I have no idea what he and I are talking about, but I'm probably trying to swipe some water.

And here is Brince in his junior year, and me in my senior year. I loved being a cheerleader while he was a football player!

Homecoming, Now...

On Friday afternoon, David and I scooted to Perry to meet the fam to watch the Homecoming game at Westfield, and of course to see Asa play. It was also Alumni Night, so we were able to see a bunch of the friends that Brince and I went to highschool with. Abbye even sang the National Anthem with her HS trio group - they won State 3 years during HS. Ten years ago, in the Fall of 2001, it was my senior year of highschool. It got me reminiscing on homecomings past, so stay tuned for a few of those funny photos...

The football team getting warmed up!

Beautiful sis!

The spirit line...

That's Asa running for the touchdown! We were all going crazy!

Woohoo! Proud sister!

That's our #4 coming off the field!

We're so happy we were there to see the game! And to celebrate the big win!

This is from earlier in the season, but this is Asa and his adorable girlfriend Sydney.

Thursday night football!

Last Thursday afternoon, I left work a little early to drive to Macon to meet my parents before my baby bro Asa's football game. Westfield's varsity team was playing at Tattnall, and I was so glad to be there. Asa plays running back on offense and corner back on defense. Westfield won by a touchdown and Asa played a really good game! Way to go Hornets!