Last day for the B&B works giveaway! and super fast weekend round-up

I will be notifying the winner of my Bath & Body Works 'summer isn't over" goodie bag giveaway tomorrow, so make sure to enter by midnight! For details, read the official giveaway post.


I've had a super busy but awesome weekend!  I visited my fam and hung out in Huntington Friday evening thru Saturday Morning, for the Friends of Coal Bowl.  Marshall lost to WVU in OVERTIME!  It was a complete heartbreaker, and I totally whimpered and cried about it.  Aside from the WVU fans who sat at home and watched it on tv, then harassed me on Facebook when it was over, it was a great game - so great that the WV governor renewed the Friends of Coal Bowl contract for another 10 years!  It's going to take me a whole year to recover from that experience.  My husband still has a sore throat and no voice, two whole days later!

 

Saturday evening we hopped off our home on the hill, down to Peden Stadium and watched our Ohio Bobcats play the Toledo Rockets.  I was completely moved and teary-eyed when the Bobcat football players came running onto the field carrying an American flag before the game started.  September 11th has touched everyone in a personal, emotional, mental, or even physical way.  I must mention that I really enjoyed everyone's September 11th memorial posts this weekend - I didn't get time to comment on them, but I loved them all - especially the "where were you?" posts.  Great writing!

September 11th Memorial
Marshall University Campus

Today is a lazy NFL Sunday.  I just watched my Tom Brady with his flowing hair, and the rest of the awesome Pats team beat the Bengals!  I also ate an entire box of Great Value brand chocolate filled cupcakes and two mini sized Edy's ice creams (i'm super PMS-ing, ok?!?) I'm feelin' a little rough, I've watched way too much football, and now i'm ready to read, write a little, and perform my duties at the ironing board.  


I'm looking forward to the VMAs tonight!  I hope you all had a great weekend!

It's Friday!

Some good advice :)
{via}

First of all, Happy Friday!

So, I survived the night - my Herd got trampled by the #2 ranked college football team in the nation, and you know what? I think I'm ok. When the Buckeyes scored twice within the first 4 minutes of the game, I thought Marshall may very well go scoreless. I wondered, "is it possible to beat a team into a negative score?  Like 50 to -20? Thankfully, the Herd scored - just once the entire game, but they scored a touchdown.  I cried tears of joy.   It would be really easy to just jump on the fan bandwagon of some super awesome amazing winning team, but I stick with my alma mater, and my husband's current school. Our education from Marshall and Ohio University help us to put food on the table - so Herd and Bobcats, it is!  And it's a hard, heartbreaking football loving life sometimes! ha ha :) Anyway, I'm in good spirits. The Bobcats play tomorrow night here in Athens, and I'm ready to cheer them on!

I was tagged with a Q&A game by a fellow Chocoholic earlier this week - she asked some fabulous questions, and here are my fabulous answers.  After I answer these, I get to come up with eight of my own questions and *tag* some of my readers with them! 

My Questions to answer:

What is your favorite family tradition/ritual?

Thanksgiving - tons of food, naps, and football! My husband & I spend Thanksgiving Day with my in-laws, and the next day at my mom & step-dad's.  We eat an early afternoon dinner, nap, and watch football all day at both houses.  I usually get sugar drunk off of my mom's homemade desserts.  It's about the only thing I keep going back to West Virginia for! ha ha :)

What do you like to watch on TV?

Dancing w/the Stars, re-runs of my favorite movies on TBS even though I have them on DVD (Legally Blond, Miss Congeniality), and sports.  Sports, sports, sports.  Reds baseball, NFL, College Football, and NBA - love just about all of it! I love having it on in the background at all times.

How many calendars do you have?

Four- A "Zen Cat" wall calendar in my kitchen, A Michael Jackson wall calendar in my office, and my planners for work - 2009-2010, and of course, my super organized self already has a 2011 day planner for work, too. Five calendars, if you count the one on my phone. The Michael Jackson one is my fave!

What is your favorite chocolate concoction?

Too many to choose just one!!!  Starbucks hot chocolate, Starbucks Iced Mocha, and my mom's brownies are all winners. The richer, the better!

What's your favorite dinner to cook?

Anything homemade but simple and tastes good.  My favorite dinner out is italian or seafood, or a combo of both (like a creamy shrimp alfredo)

What's the best place you've ever been?

My honeymoon in Vegas.  It's the best place I've ever been b/c everyone is happy and having a great time, and you feel like a rockstar! Seriously! I love it - so much color, so much food, so much life :) Growing up in the mountains of WV, you can imagine how I felt when I caught my first glimpse of the strip from my window on the airplane!

What is your dream vacation?

A month-long European adventure! Culture, Art, Food, Photos... Italy, France, England, Germany... I would love it! I've never been overseas!

What is your talent?

Drawing.  I love sketching - pen & ink is what I do best.  I love sketching cartoons and creating special little projects for my friends and family!

I'm tagging Ashley, Aubrey, the Green Eyed Lady, Brittany, Jessica, Heather, and Rebekah!

Questions for my ladies:

1. If you had an extra $200 bucks, what would you do with it?

2. What color in the crayon box are you?

3. What's your favorite thing to daydream about?

4. If you had extra time and the desire to, where would you volunteer?

5. What's your favorite snack food?

6. What song(s) always puts you in a great mood?

7. What's your favorite scary movie (totally stole that line from Scream ha ha!)

8. What's your idea of the perfect day?

...so whenever you get time and need something to blog about, girls! :)

I hope everyone has a great Friday and a wonderfully long, enjoyable weekend! I've got some serious catching up to do with just about everything in my life, so my time off should be jam-packed full. Of course, I'll probably just spend most of it on the couch, staring at the tube with my hand shoved down a bag of Pretzel M&Ms! Now that's the Life.

Play until the whistle blows!

3 days.
I will be excited - and nervous.  
I will  be wasting my agency's money by surfing the web for the latest college football stories during office hours.
I will be nervously toying with my green and white football charm bracelet.
I will be wearing a collegiate tee with a black blazer, black dress pants, and heels.
I will be holding on to some kind of hope that my team, the Marshall Thundering Herd, can "play until the whistle blows" and avoid the embarrassment that the opposing team could possibly serve them - but, I have a feeling, it's not going to be as big of a beating as some of my Ohio friends suspect.
I will hope that grandpa Lou Holtz has something nice to say about the Herd, a young team with a brand new coach and a brand new outlook.
I will be defending my team to no end, as Ohio State fans badger me with ignorant, bold and disrespectful comments at the office (I'm exaggerating here - really, they're nice people.)
I will hold my head up high, because even though the Buckeyes are one of the strongest powerhouses of this college football nation, my Herd has soul, respect, and gorgeous kelly green uniforms. And awesome fans, like me.

Thursday, September 2nd, 7:30 pm

  vs. 

Say a prayer for me on Thursday night, will you? (At least I will be noshing on good food.)

A weekend in the steel city!

The coolest spur-of-the-moment thing happened this weekend! About ten minutes after I posted the "I love Football" piece on Friday, I was invited to this weekend's Pittsburgh Steelers v. Detroit Lions preseason game! My husband's aunt & uncle asked us to drive up and join them in a private box for the game - which i've completely totally never done and more than likely will never ever get the opportunity to do again!  His family is so awesome, I will never be able to thank them enough.  I ate great food, picked up some fun Steelers gear for friends, and had a super time visiting with the fam ! My husband and I had to borrow Steelers jerseys from the fam because our closets are full of Patriots gear, but hey - we had to experience the whole deal Steeler-fan style! And now, it's time to share the good time with ya'll!

Hillbilly in the Steel City!

Outside the suite - WHOA... gotta take a photo! ALWAYS w/the thumbs up

I always wondered what it looked like inside the boxes!
LOTS of great drinks and delicious grub!

Heinz Field

 

The Chocolate Banana-bomb and Chocolate Confusion
complete with Bailey's chocolate shots - HELLO!

(As you probably guessed, dessert was my favorite part!)

I love Football.

Sure, I'm a girl - and I totally don't know every single thing about the game, but I understand enough to know that I love it.  When it's not football season, I'm in mourning! Lucky for me, NFL preseason has begun and college practices are well underway.

I love the Marshall Thundering Herd!

When I was a freshman at Marshall University, Byron Leftwich was the star quarterback and the Thundering Herd was ranked 7th in the nation.  Sadly, I had no clue what any of that meant. I began dating the lucky man who is now my husband, and joined him at Marshall games with an extremely open heart and open mind my first fall at MU; this is how I learned about the sport, and I fell in love - with both him, and football.  The rest is history.

I love the hype.  Excited fans and media coverage get me going!

I love the clothes.  Buying team gear is my favorite thing to do to get ready for the season (I'm a girl, remember?) If i'm going to a game, the team shop is always my first stop! You can never have to many spirit beads.

I love getting sunburnt on only one half of my face during those late afternoon games. It's worth looking stupid the following week!

I love fall Saturday mornings - I know a day full of football is coming, and the guys on ESPN are the best at building the anticipation! 

I love mascots.  So hilarious - they kill me!  I'm like a kid, I have to get my picture taken with 'em when I'm at a game.  If i don't get to, I POUT!

I love spirit beads.  Did i mention that already?

I love halftime - I'm a sucker for a great marching band performance.  (Ohio University's Marching 110 is AMAZING! You tube them!)

I love cozy autumn Sundays filled with NFL madness.

I love Tedy Bruschi.

I love the new Victoria's Secret Pink Loves the NFL clothing line! (I'm already rocking the Patriots gear for preseason!)

I love Lou Holtz.  Seriously.  He's like a grandpa to me.

I love a good backstory.  I enjoy learning about team history, legendary players and coaches, and school rivalries.
I love watching Ohio University head coach Frank Solich wander around the gym - he seems so lost in thought, probably thinking about football, and seems to forget where he is and what he's supposed to be doing.  I almost fall off the Eliptical giggling at him every time.
I love cute kids dressed up as football players and cheerleaders. It makes me want one. (A kid, I mean.)

I love gameday snacks.  It's the perfect excuse to indulge in dangerously delicious unhealthy food!

I love those crazy, exciting, rare plays.  This is my favorite (it's only 38 seconds!):

Yes, folks, Byron had a broken shin.  He left the game to go to the hospital, then came back and played in the game later.  This video is also part of the football clip montage at the end of We Are Marshall - it brings tears to my eyes every single time I watch it!

Most importantly, I love a good game.  A win is great, but a loss followed by a strong team performance is fine, too - this is especially the case when I'm watching two teams that I have neutral feelings about :)

Did I miss anything?

Oh, and I love the Marshall Thundering Herd. I even love the scary looking Marco!

My favorite Lou Holtz Quote

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 
 90% how you respond to it."

-Lou Holtz

legendary NCAA football coach and

ESPN college football analyst

It was spring 2006.  I was just finishing up my undergraduate degree and my fiance (now husband) was completing the final requirements for his M.A.  We were preparing to graduate from Marshall University, get married in two short months, and start our lives together.  Early in the winter, he had thrown a hail mary and applied to a Ph.D. program at Ohio University.  After waiting a few months and hearing nothing, he hit the WV public school teaching job market, hoping to find a job as a junior high or high school english teacher at a decent school somewhere reasonably close to family.  Big dreams of becoming a doctor had nearly vanished.  And then...

the call came.

One minute, we're planning to settle for a life in our home state of West Virginia, close to family, where we could buy a home and start our own family immediately. The next... the possibility of more school, a hold on babies, another few years of renting, and a new state were knocking at our door.

The familiar vs. the unfamiliar.
The known vs. the unknown.
The easy vs. the challenging.


So, we jumped into the car -my husband was in the driver's seat, I held a printout of Mapquest directions - and we headed two hours north, up to Ohio University's campus in Athens, Ohio. We spent a rainy day on the road, a rainy day on campus, I ate my very first Turkey Ranch & Swiss sandwich from Quiznos, then I cried like a baby all the way home.  I hated Athens because it "wasn't like Huntington."  "OU's campus isn't like Marshall's campus."  Basically, I'd lived in WV my whole life, and was terrified to move somewhere else.

I spent three weeks fighting with myself.  My husband had a huge opportunity within his grasp, but all I could feel was fear of the unknown.  He was over the fear, ready to chase a dream, and I was holding him back. After three weeks of confusion and something that felt a little like heartbreak, I suddenly woke on a Sunday morning with a positive outlook and new attitude. "Let's go", I said.  "Let's go to Athens."


That is how I dealt with one of the most important occurences in our lives. When I think about what could have been had we not moved to Ohio, I shudder.  The last five years of my life have been so full, so fun, and so exciting.  Life definitely is 10% what happens, and 90% how you respond to it.  What would my life be like had I responded to what happened in spring 2006 differently?  What would my husband's life be like?  Would he be teaching 7th grade english but still be dreaming of becoming a scholar?  Or would he have let that dream go by now?   Would I be as brave, as goal-oriented as I am now? Or would I have settled for simplicity in the West Virginia mountains? Would we have traveled as much, explored as much, and experienced as much together living in WV as we have while living in Ohio? Judging by the person i was then, I think I would've continuously sold myself short and held back on living LIFE if we had stayed in our home state. Moving away has changed me.  I've learned that it's safer not to plan anything - what happens is going to happen.  As Lou says, life is mostly made up of how you handle the things that happen to you - and I completely believe that. 

Lou Holtz is an amazing motivational speaker, with great character and an impressive life story.  Even if college football is of no interest to you, Lou's story probably could be.  He's a very positive person, and I love listening to his commentary during ESPN college football games - he'll make you feel good about your team, even if they're getting pounded on the field! He also makes you feel good about life - good ol' Lou.  I love him like a grandpa! 

He's a quote machine, and his books are full of them.  My personal favorite is Lou's autobiography, "Wins, Losses, and Lessons" - such a great story, and truly motivating!  He's the best at inspiring others to face a challenge head-on, defy the odds, grab life and GO. I'll take Lou's advice over Oprahs any day (no offense, Oprah fans! I love her, too!)

I squealed with delight when Lou's Quote was one of Mama Kat's writing prompts this week. I seriously love him.  My grandpa!