ARRGGHH!

so we had a busy rest of the week as i recovered from my cold and finished up with my clients. i was able to do a photo job on friday night, and we got all geared up for the game on saturday, with tailgating pics beforehand and then going to the game.

let me say that tailgating is an art form in greenville. there are many many people who take their tailgating quite seriously--so much so that the paper has started a contest this year and has enlisted the freelance photographers to take pictures of the biggest and best tailgating set-ups. this was my first home game that i'd been able to attend, and honestly, i had a great time visiting all the tailgaters. it was awesome to just drop in to these parties, have them brag about the best food or the coolest set-up, and then walk down a few cars to the next elaborate tailgate and do it all over again.

(the entertainment factor is also increased by the fact that many of these folks had been "tailgating" since around 10 am and we were visiting them at 1 or 2 pm. they were feeling good and were willing to talk to just about anyone who came by. this is also the reason that justin has said i will be accompanied on all my tailgating shoots--i got hit on by more drunk college guys than my whole time at ecu.)

so i got to do some cool stuff besides take pictures, like...

ring the ship's bell!

and try out some chicken feet! (we didn't actually eat them, but we were certainly made aware of their presence.)
and after a wide circle around the tailgating fields, we headed into the stadium for the game. i was ready to get up to our seats because i hate missing pregame. being in the marching pirates was such an important memory to me, and if anything, i can't miss the star spangled banner. we grabbed some sodas and barbeque sandwiches and made it just in time to see most of the pregame show and the team's entrance on the field.

the band did a great job, and i reminisced about the good ol' days...

plus, it was band day and they had over 1,200 high school students there to participate from 23 different bands!i will say that that's about where the positive stuff ends for the game, though. number one--it had been a rainy, somewhat chilly week up until this point. then, saturday comes around and it's easily in the mid 80's by the afternoon. it was HOT. i was sweating through the tailgating and guzzling water and powerade to keep cool. then, we got in the stadium, crammed into a sold-out crowd with no breeze or shade and it was just miserable. i was afraid my sunscreen was going to be completely sweated off and i would end up with a sunburn on top of that. i had to go down about midway through the first quarter so i could cool off in the shade, and the second half of the game was slightly more comfortable. however, this is when our team began to self-destruct and made some stupid, sloppy mistakes. we left with a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when the other team was ahead by two or three touchdowns. what happened to our ranked pirates?

we hightailed it home and showered quickly before heading over to scott and melissa's for destiny's birthday cookout. it was great to see everyone and check out the work they've done on the bonus room above the garage. we got home with enough time for me to upload my photos from the day and crash.

sunday was church, cleaning up around the house, laundry, errands, choir practice, dinner and small group. i couldn't believe how quickly the day went by, but we got a lot of stuff done and i felt much more in control. with our busy weekends and trading off sicknesses for the past couple of weeks, our house had definitely suffered. i was so relieved to finally feel caught up on housework and the other things we'd neglected over the past several days.

this week actually looks like it will be fairly laid-back. we're in a great spot at work, but i'm doing intake on a couple of new families soon so we'll have a full schedule when they get started up. i also have the craziest weekend coming up, but that'll just have to wait for another post.

pepper is doing well. she's had great vet visits (man, if taking a cat to the vet was as easy as taking this dog to the vet, it would make my life a lot easier) and is a joyful addition to our household...95% of the time. then there's the 5% of the time where she is a demon-possessed puppy with razor sharp teeth, a stubborn will and so much energy that you think she'll never stop running circles around you. we're trying to work on all of these things, but we also chalk up a great deal of it to the fact that she's a puppy and she's got a strong personality. puppy training classes are not out of the question, though...

okay, that's all i can think of for now. later, y'all.