October 31st

Clemson homecoming happened to fall on Halloween this year and how perfect is it that Clemson's color are orange and purple. The Tigers were matched against Coastal Carolina. We wore our orange jerseys and they wore their black jerseys -- very festive. The game was a victory for us, but extremely wet victory. It didn't just drizzle during the game, it poured. Around halftime I wimped out and left to change clothes, but Danny stuck it out.

After the game Tiger Band piled into activity buses and headed to perform at the 1A/3A State Band Competition. It made for a long day but it's fun to see how excited high school bands get when they see Tiger Band perform.

Here are the only two pictures I took because it started raining too hard to have the camera out:

Danny with Kerri's batons

me and my bestest Shannon

October 29th

Some cute pictures of my puppy Shiloh...who knew she loved apples!

October 25th

I have found a new scrapbooking partner! While my bestest Shannon will always be my main squeeze when it comes to craftiness, her location (being Atlanta) keeps us from being together as often as we would like. My new local partner in crime is my coworker Marsha. We got to talking at work one day about photo albums and scrapbooks and everything just started to come together.

We spent the afternoon in my craft/sewing/office room working on our projects. It was so nice to have someone there to talk to as I scrapbooked and actually setting a specific time to work on it really helps out. I'm really bad about jumping around from project to project without someone there to keep me on track. I'm hoping we can do it again soon.

October 24th

You know how they say, “a sucker is born every day”? Well on April 18, 1986 that sucker was me. While at the fair this past week, Danny and I were walking around the booths looking at all the products you can buy. We had stopped at a booth that sold concrete flower pots, benches, bird baths, etc and the booth next to that was the Rainbow Vacuum booth. They were having a contest to guess the amount of money they had flying around in a container and while Danny and I were filling out the little form to drop in the box the salesman started his spiel about how amazing this vacuum is. Normally I can count on Danny to be my rock and tell sales people to buzz off, but when they asked if we would like to sign up for a home demonstration he answered, “Up to you sweetie.” Ugh! Seriously?? You’re putting this on me?!

I couldn’t say no. I can never really say no. At 10am this morning the Rainbow people were at our front door with vacuum in hand. Six hours later they left, we had a new vacuum, and I experienced my first anxiety attack. If you know what a Rainbow Vacuum is and you know what they cost then you can understand, if you don’t, Google it.

It is an amazing vacuum and I do love it, but it still pains me to know I spent that much…on a vacuum. The worst part of it was when they took our old vacuum with them. Apparently it’s part of the whole “deal” you’re getting. I see where they’re coming from because you’re not going to really need the old one, but that was my vacuum! I had just gotten it (well maybe almost a year ago, but still). I could have used it for outside or the garage or sold it for money to help pay off the new one...I guess I need to just let go.

After that whole ordeal I went to my parents’ house to clean out the attic. My mom had been saying that since I’m all grown up now with an attic of my own she would really like some of her attic space back. We crawled up there to start pulling all of my stuff down. Holy that's a lot of junk, Batman! I was such a sentimental pack rat as a child. I kept every stuffed animal, every doll, every little trinket ever received and shoved it all into my parents’ attic. Mom and I completely filled my car and there’s plenty more for a second and maybe even third load. I’ve got a lot of organizing to do...

October 22nd

Mrs. Boozer came to dinner tonight. My good friend Lindsay and I went to high school and college together. We now live in the same town and yet I really hadn’t seen her in over a year until recently. This girl is harder to nail down than a gummy worm. We managed to connect (through Facebook) and set a date for dinner. We had so much to catch up on that we are trying to do dinner more consistently now, except for the fact that her and her husband sold their house and are now moving. So much for that plan – haha! They are living at her parents’ house in Chapin while they build a new house so we’re going to try to get together after they settle down.

October 20th

I'd been hearing the commercials on the radio for days now. It's fair season! And with the fair comes the fair food. How's a girl supposed to be on a diet when everything is deep fried? Did you know they now have deep fried bacon? That seems like a bit much for me (and a bit disgusting).

Tonight we went to the fair with Tara, Michael, and Riley. Riley was a hoot. They had purchased a bracelet for him so he could have unlimited rides. Riley would come barreling out of the ride and run right back to the start to go through again. It made it easy for us to talk as he just kept doing laps through the ride.

So let's talk about the food we all consumed that night:
turkey leg
hot dog
corn dog
lemonade
cotton candy
caramel apple
milk shake
popcorn
funnel cake
fisk fries...

I did not eat all of this by myself (thank goodness) but I did have entirely too much. Pretty sure it was enough calories for an entire week, but it happens only once a year!

Riley running through one of the fun houses, lap 5 or 6 probably

bumper cars

Danny playing with Riley

being a monkey

Riley, Tara, and Michael

standard picture

me and Tara

October 18th

Danny took me shopping in Greenville. I adore shopping in Greenville. I feel like there is just so much more in Greenville than in Columbia. We had been talking about the new boot trend this season and both agreed that I should have a pair of my own. After a little hunting I settled on a pair of Willow boots by Baker and I absolutely love them!

I love them so much I now really want them in black and grey as well. I'm a size 9 for anyone considering getting them for me for Christmas *wink wink*. With the new boots I also got two pairs of skinny jeans from Victoria's Secret (of all places). I had always thought that the skinny jean was reserved for the skinny girl, but Danny has me convinced otherwise. He says that the skinny jean flatters a girl's curves, and I've got plenty, while on a stick straight girl it just doesn't look right. Anyone else feel this way?

We finished up the shopping with a trip to my favorite place for cheap home decor, Garden Ridge. If you have never been here I highly suggest it. I was introduced to the marvelousness last Christmas season and have been counting down till we could go back since. Unfortunately we were still a little early for holiday decorations, but we did get a new rug for the living room. The current one that Danny's mom had given us was nice, but was long past its prime. Besides, I always love change!

October 17th

Danny and I once again made the trek to Clemson for the Wake Forest game, and once again it was raining...boo! We did manage to tailgate before the game and make some breakfast but it was a little more rushed than I had hoped for. The game itself was fun. I stayed on the field during the game because I just didn't want to fight for a seat up in the stands. It also happened to be Twirler and Dancer for a Day which includes keeping track of (what seems like) millions of little girls.

Tiger Guard at 90 Minutes Before Kickoff

pregame

feature twirler, Kerri

Tigers waiting at the top of the hill

the Tiger doing push-ups for points

Tiger Dancers

Tiger Twirlers

Danny lighting Kerri's fire batons

the student section loves when she twirls fire

Tiger Guard

Tiger Dancers

After the game ended we met up with a friend of Danny's, Amanda, to meet her two little boys. We had dinner at Golden Corral, which I had never been to. It wasn't bad, but I thought kind of expensive for a buffet.

When we got home my niece Ashley and I made Halloween cookies. I had brought cookie cutters, sugar cookie dough, Halloween themed sprinkles, and orange icing. Making holiday cookies with Ashley had become a little mini tradition between the two of us. We've made Christmas cookies for the past 3 years now I believe. It's getting more and more fun as she gets older and can do more on her own. Hopefully we'll continue this for years to come.

October 8th - 10th

Shannon came to visit and to also help me host a stamp-a-stack. I haven't had one in ages, actually since the day Danny proposed. For those of you that don't know what a stamp-a-stack is, I will explain. Shannon is a Stampin' Up rep (very similar to someone that sells Mary Kay or Pampered Chef) and instead of just having a party where she shows off the products and then you buy, you get to create and take something home. Specifically, a stamp-a-stack is where you get to make cards.

At mine we made 3 different cards at 5 of each. It did cost $15 dollars, but you took home 15 cards. A dollar a card is cheaper than Hallmark and they are hand made for that extra special touch. I've become a little obsessed with them and hate to buy cards now, lol. I just love being creative!

After my party ended I headed over to Lexington to celebrate a friend's little boy's fifth birthday. I didn't get to stay long for reasons I won't go into, but Riley is just the cutest five-year-old I know. He's big into Thomas the Train so I happened to find Thomas fleece and made him a blanket. Hopefully he was as excited about it as I was.

October 7th

We (and when I say we, I mean I) have finally finished painting the kitchen cabinet doors! They are all hung and gorgeous. My kitchen now looks exactly like how I had envisioned it. The breakfast table has also been fixed and painted. Mom gave me four chairs to go with it that I will (one day) recover and paint. I can't believe it took 6 coats of red on each side of the doors, but it's done now and I love it.

October 1st - 4th

Danny and I traveled with the band this weekend for the Maryland game. I was so excited because we got a whole day in DC and I had never been before. The drive up there, the game, and the drive back were no fun, but I had a blast during the day we spent in the city.

We saw tons and I swear walked nearly 6 miles (maybe more)! We went to some of the Smithsonians, saw the memorials during the day and lit up at night, saw the White House, and went to Arlington. All were very impressive. Oh yea, and we saw a stinky football game as well.

hole in the wall restaurant in Lynchburg, VA

I had this

and Danny had these

Hope Diamond!

the ruby slippers (I secretly hate this movie)

Julia Child's kitchen!

my great-grandparents are buried in Arlington

JFK and Jackie

soldier at the tomb of the unknown soldier

the cheerleaders were more interesting than the game

baby Dabo