Sunday, August 26, 2007

Weekend Recap!!

Friday--

Well, now that school is in session we are getting a peek at what our Fall will look like!! High school football games every Friday night until late November! McKenna's in the Color Guard, so we will be at all of them. (It's a good thing that I love football so much, isn't it?)

HHS had its Jamboree Game on Friday night, getting ready for the season which will start next Friday night. We played at home against Sylacauga and won 37-0. I hope we can play like that all season!

The band performed two of their halftime songs, since they're still perfecting it and were just giving us all a "preview." The show this year is a Jazz show, with songs like "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Stars Fell on Alabama." They did a great job--sounded great! And the color guard did excellent. McKenna was on time and didn't drop her flag. Yay!!

Here she is as we got ready to head out (they have a different show uniform, but wore this because the entire band was wearing shorts and t-shirts because it's been so hot!)...

Delaney found a friend at the game and proceeded to cheer with her, and then wander around the field for most of the game (this, apparently, is how middle school kids entertain themselves during football games!. I almost didn't let Delaney wander around, but Gary assured me that I needed to loosen the reins and let her "be a preteen" with her other friends. Ugh! It's beginning again...


A picture from the halftime show. I know it's dark, but I was way up in the stands and my flash didn't do a great job. McKenna's in there somewhere...

Sydney takes her purse with her EVERYWHERE she goes and it usually contains Polly Pockets and her tea set. So, yes, she had a tea party at the football game!! . . .


Saturday--

Oh...My...Gosh!! We had the BEST time and the BEST food when we went out for our Girls Night Out on Saturday night!!! We ate HERE and it was so yummy!! Some of the culinary highlights? Fried alligator for appetizers (surprisingly tasty!), seafood gumbo (delicious!), beach martinis (really good!!), catfish pontchatrain (a delicious catfish stuffed with a shrimp and crab mixture and covered in a gooingly yummy sauce and cheese; and it was spicy, which I love!), and fried green tomatoes as a side dish! (Plus, samples of everyone else's dishes. Of course!) How could I have been any happier?

Here are four of us (me, Franki, Angi, and Allison)...


Then we went HERE, which is one of the best bakeries inBirmingham! (I'm telling you--click on the link and just drool over the stuff there!) It happened to be Franki's birthday, and also mine is this coming Friday and Angi's is on Saturday. So...we had a lot of birthday celebrating!! So...obviously...an ENTIRE cake was in order!

We had actually ventured down to Edgar's while we were waiting for our dinner table. While there, we basically ogled the beautiful cakes (they taste so good, but are also SO pretty!) and all the other yummy baked goods; we decided that we would forego dessert at the restaurant and come back to Edgar's afterwards for a slice of cake. Well, imagine our surprise when we got there and a sign said, "All cakes on counter $11.00" (these cakes sell for around $30 regularly). Apparently, Edgar's is closed on Sunday so they reduce everything on Saturday night. So, we got a WHOLE cake that we promptly sat there and sliced and ate! We also got-- "buy-one-get-one free" rugalach, cookies, cheese straws, wedding cookies, and cupcakes! (I'm telling you...anyone who lives in Birmingham needs to pop by on Saturday evening and you can get some yummies for the next week for almost nothing!)

Here is the cake we bought. (Chocolate with buttercream frosting.) It was almost too pretty too eat...but not quite! LOL

Chris, Birthday Girl Franki, and Allison getting ready to indulge in it...


After eating so much that we were literally waddling out the door, we went on a shopping spree and then home to the husbands and kiddoes. (Gary called me at least four times during the night asking, "Does Sydney ever stop talking?" Ha!! This is why GNOs are SO important; they appreciate the work it takes to spend so much time with the children, even if it's just to listen to Sydney's non-stop jabbering for six hours!)

Sunday--

We are starting a revival week at our church and the visiting pastor preached this morning and it was wonderful! My favorite message was his comparing us to thermometers. He said we are too often like thermometers--when outside conditions change (crises, challenges, worries), we tend to go up or down. When we have our finances under control, when we are happy with our children, when we are healthy...we're up! When we are struggling in our relationships, when we are sick..we're down! He said that we need to devote ourselves to being thermostats instead. Thermostats remain the same temperature, despite the conditions outside. As Christians, we can have joy and love and peace despite the circumstances. That really spoke to me! That is definitely a challenge, but I know it's true. I cannot control so many circumstances (some things just suck because, well, that's life!), but I can certainly control my attitude about them!

We spent (well, I spent) the rest of Sunday afternoon relaxing and doing not much of anything. McKenna went with some friends to the dollar theatre, Gary and Delaney went to practice, and Scout and I watched tv, ate leftover cake (oh yeah, half of that cake is in my house for some reason! lol), had tea parties, ate a few cookies (oh yeah, six of them came home with me!), and surfed around online. A good way to spend an afternoon!

And, now I'm getting ready for one of my favorite weeks EVER!! Friday is my birthday and I will admit it--I LOVE birthday celebrations and get a kick out of opening presents and eating a cake made just for me. I have no problem with celebrating me every once in a while! We will have several celebrations, which I am really looking forward to! And then next Saturday is opening day of Alabama football. I have been wating expectantly FOREVER for this day and it's almost here!! (Oh, and also, Bunko is this week. Yay!!)

But...amidst all this excitement and anticipation of fun things...I have a ton of work to do. So, you'll notice that this Weekend Recap is being posted on Sunday evening instead of Monday morning. This is because I will be hiding away all day tomorrow getting two articles written and turned in. So, it's a blogging mortatorium for tomorrow and tomorrow night until they get done! So, forgive me if I don't pop by your blogs until Tuesday. That will be my reward for getting my work done!

In the meantme--

I hope you all had a great weekend and that you're looking forward to an awesome week. See you all soon!!

22 comments:

Mandy said...

Ok, let's start with the important things first. That cake looks seriously yummo, and what a deal at $11.00! I love Syndey's tea party at the football game. I can remember taking a few Barbies to an away football game and dropping them through the bleachers...probably NOT the best idea. And, I'm counting the days right along with you...I can't belive we're less than a week away.

Dawn Bibbs said...

Before I comment on anything else, and before I forget..hee hee. I have to comment on the sermon you heard today. That sounds pretty cool and very interesting. I would love to have heard that as I would consider myself to be up and down depending on the circumstances. I'm a very emotional person and unfortunately, 90% of the time, I function on emotion.

ANYWAY...McKenna looks so cute. She's such a pretty girl. I miss the HS football games. The last game we went to was before Jayla was born...so that tells you how long ago THAT was. And if we did go, I bet Jayla would take a purseful of stuff just like Scout...including her 4 Princess cell phones :-).

Oh well, I'll miss you tomorrow. But happy writing!!! Talk to you soon.

Dawn Bibbs said...

Oh shoot...I forgot to comment on the GNO! I LOVE those and really NEED one right about now. I love my friends and we have such a good time when we go out. That's why we all look so forward to our weekly scrap nights. That cake looks YUMMY!!!

Renee said...

I love the cake. It looks too pretty to be real. And your girls all looked so pretty for the football game. Do they really have a game every night? Geez, I don't know if I could handle that!
Happy Birthday, in advance, although I'm sure I'll be back later on this week to wish you a real Happy B-day!

Adrienne said...

Glad you guys had a good weekend...Now I am UPSET because you made me want some strawberry cake from Edgars! LOL

Anonymous said...

That cake looks wonderful! I will be making a trip to Edgar's on Saturday night. (I love pretty cakes, one of my fav shows is Ace of Cakes) I know McKenna is loving colorguard! Oh, and I know you are a huge Bama fan, but I have to tell you GO DAWGS! We will see you on the 22nd!

~Telah said...

Sounds like a great weekend! Love the pics, especially of the football tea party! Too cute.

TK Angels said...

Heh-you just reminded me that I did not get a birthday cake for my birthday today. Nah- I did have ice cream *SMILE*

Loved the post. I enjoy a good sermon. One that will keep you awake.


Love the flag corp-you go McKenna!!

Take care,
Love,
Terri

Jeff said...

Happy almost brithday! That cake looked (and sounded) crazy good.

Pop by my blog when you get a chance and read the entry from last night. I think you will love the software I wrote about last night. A friend of mine has been working on the software, called Ript, that lets you rip stuff off the web in much the same way as you'd rip it from a magazine. I had a fun time with it, and I suspect you'd love it because it helps you created something that resembles a collage/scrapbook page. I thought of you as I was playing around with it.

Kimberly said...

That cake looks so yummy...i love me a big piece of cake. Have a great week.

Linda said...

Hey football queen. An early Happy Birthday to you. I think celebrating yourself is an essential, especially as a mom, wife, and everything else that we do. Besides, it's just good for the soul. I absolutely love the tea party at the football game. That rocks, and have fun with Football Season...My hubby is up and running, all tv's in the house will be turned to different games for the entire season, and while I'm in my scraproom, I get to keep tabs on all of the games at once.... Happy football season too. Hugs

Cassandra said...

Hi Cheryl - just popping in to say hi. My gosh...fried alligator. You are so brave - but that cake looks beautiful! Looks like you had a great time! Great pics of the kids!

Anonymous said...

OMG!! The Rugelah (sp?) that Allison brought home was SO good we LOVE it!! And I think I deserve a special husband award for NOT calling or even texting during the entire night.

Anonymous said...

Okay, how FUN does that weekend look? I'm with everyone else. I want some of that cake!!

Just Me Again said...

What a fabulous weekend! ANd I totally loved your Pastor's sermon...thanks for sharing some of the message here. I can totally relate and it makes complete sense. So totally part of what I've been thinking about lately.

Susie Q said...

Seriously great food...beautiful girls and I adore the sermon! So true!!!

I need to remember that as I often get far too emotional for my own good! : )

I always love your weekend re caps! You are a fun life!!

Love,
Sue

Mississippi Songbird said...

Great photos..Great blog..
I enjoy reading your blog so much. Have a great week.

Andy said...

when i saw the cake i knew it was Edgar's. i love that place. i'm sure it was wonderful. looks like a fun weekend.

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog - it reminded me that I wanted to come back over here and leave a comment about that bakery you've linked to. OH. MY. GOSH! That was almost cruel! I darn near got electructed licking my monitor. (How'd you like to have THAT on your conscience?) I mean REALLY. How fabulous can one cake look? How fabulous can 50 cakes look? It was almost sensory overload. But wow - so worth it. I've bookmarked their site. If I keep my monitor far enough away, I think I'll be safe to look at it again. I've got a cousin in B-ham. I'm sending her on over to fetch me a cake. I wonder how well they ship? lol

Kari (GrannySkywalker) said...

I just got an e-mail from one of 2 cousins I have who live in the B'ham area. It seems that Edgars made the cake for one the cousin's wedding! And she said it was DELICIOUS! I KNEW I should have gone to that wedding, I just knew it!

Dettao said...

There is just one more thing we have in common, lady. I LOVE high school bands. My oldest was in color guard her sophomore year in HS but quit when she made show choir. My youngest was in band all through high school. She plays the flute but marched cymbals. Our "cymbal chicks" were a part of our color in our band, too. I really really miss being a band parent and being part of the whole picture. My Friday nights are just not the same anymore.

Gretchen said...

I.Want.That.Cake. :)

Cheryl, do you ever sleep? I get tired, just "listening" to you talk about all your fun activities. I hope you have the happiest of b'days. We are only 6 months apart--I turn 39 in early March.

BTW, I'd love to link w/you, if that's okay. That way I can find you easier, and check in.

Great sermon. I so agree. Sort of like saying that happiness will come and go, but we have to CHOOSE contentment in Christ.

xxxoogretchen