My Thanksgiving was Egg-cellent!

WARNING: Long post ahead. Sorry for the cheesiness of the title, but I can't help it. I also can't believe we won the Egg Bowl, but more on that in a minute. A quick rundown of the Thanksgiving break: Monday- went to work and picked up papers in all four of my classes (what was I thinking?) to grade over the break.
Tuesday- chilled at home grading papers. I was proud of myself since I got a whole class grade :)
Wednesday- beginning of Thanksgiving festivities. We went to Thanksgiving over at Alan's cousin's house in Millport,AL. Usually, this is held at his Uncle Richard's, but he has been in poor health since his stroke last year, so please keep him and his family in your thoughts. After Thanksgiving lunch, we came back home and chilled (I graded another set of papers) I also made supper, Mexican, what everyone should have to get over the overstuffed feeling from too much turkey. Pregnant April and Robert came by the house later that night! Yea!! I haven't seen them since last March, but the four of us haven't gotten together for a relaxin' night probably since our wedding. It was so good to see them and see how cute and pregnant April has gotten :)
Thursday- woke up a 4:00 AM, yes, that is AM. For all who know me, you know I don't do the AM. It is with heavy heart that I wake up at 5:50 am to go to work, but I was a nice wife this Thanksgiving (which should be remembered for Christmas hint,hint) and dropped my husband off at my dad's deer camp in Scooba, MS. Then, I drove on to Mom's and went back to bed for another 5 hrs. We had the Belvin family Christmas later that night, which was yummy as usually.
Friday- Left Collinsville early, and we drove up to Starkville for the battle for the golden egg! It was a beautiful day for football. Nice and cold, but not sleeting. The game itself was uneventful (I wanted to go to sleep by the 3rd quarter) until there was about 8 minutes left in the 4th, which was unfortunate for all those fans who left with 10 minutes left to go in the 4th. That's when our guys finally woke up and played like they have been all season! I woke up the next morning and my biceps were so sore from ringing Alan's cowbell the entire time! It was beautiful.

Saturday- Graded papers (big surprise) and went to go see Beowulf with Debbie and Tommy. I did my student teaching under Debbie at New Hope. As an English major, I thought Beowulf was interesting, more like what really happens versus the story that gets glorified and passed down orally through the ages. Having the whole movie in CGI is very interesting also. It looks so realistic in parts that you'd swear it was a real shot instead of CGI.
Sunday- John Austin was christened in Starkville, so we went over for that and came back to, yes, you guessed it, grading papers and hoping to avoid going back to work!
Sorry for the long post, but it's always easier just listing everything out. As you can tell by the amount of grading that took place during the week, I'm ready for this semster to be through. I haven't even put up my Christmas tree yet! Maybe Thrusday. Hope eveyone had a great Thanksgiving!

It's Raining Babies!!

Guess who's pregnant (and IT'S NOT ME!)? This is how many of my conversations with people have started in the past few weeks. Suddenly, everyone around is having a baby or has had a baby. Something must be in the water, and no, I'm not drinking from it yet. Now, don't misunderstand me; I love children, and I'm SO happy that many of my friends have them or are now pregnant, but that train has not stopped by the Leonard household yet, thank goodness. One day, but not today, God willing. But two of my bestest friends are pregnant: Amanda Williamson Posey and April Frazier Wallis!! Amanda is a little over 2 months along, too early to tell if it's a boy or a girl! I found out early on that I'm going to be an aunt! I found out last week that April is four months pregnant and having a boy!! I'm so happy for April and Robert because she was pregnant before, but had a miscarriage. So please my few but faithful readers, keep my friends in your prayers.

Also on the pregnant list is Alan's friends, The Clarks, who already have a 3 yr. old boy, and my cousin Robert and Ruby, who have a 3 yr. old girl and who swore that was going to be the last, famous last words :) Friends that have had babies recently: JD and Rachel with John Austin; Tori and Bo with Brayden; Haley and Patrick with Grayson (that goodness he's doing well); Morgan and Tart are joining soon with Ella; my cousin Tori and Dusty with Cade; and my officemate from grad school Sarah is due in January with Austen. I'm swimming in cute babies everywhere and couldn't be happier! So if anyone has any cute or helpful ideas for baby presents, please let me know!

Also, I didn't get to blog last week, but my niece Meredith turned 4 last Sunday!! I can't believe how big she has gotten. It seems like just last week, she was 2. She truly is a miracle. For those of you who might not know, my niece was born a little over a month early. Of course, she went into NICU, but her artery running from her heart to her lungs was not completely formed or closed yet, so she was flown to Ochsner's Hospital in New Orleans, where she was in NICU for a couple of weeks. To see her now, you would never know that little Miss Diva was a preemie. The Lord definitely answered our prayers for her and Jackson (her brother, who was also a preemie).

Let's Go Bowling!!

Who would have thought last year at this time that we would be sitting around discussing the Bulldogs going to a bowl game?!! Heck, I was just hoping for a season where we won more than 3! Well, in case you've been off the planet, the MSU Bulldogs beat the ranked Alabama Tide 17-12 and are now in the running for a bowl game!! You couldn't have set it up better with us playing Alabama because if there is a team that most Bulldogs can't stand more than Ole Miss (or at least equal to) it is Alabama, especially if you are like me and live in Lowndes county. There are SO many Alabama fans. That's all we've been hearing, the miraculous turn around of the Tide. Blah, blah. That's two in a row Bama!! Yesterday was a great day! I haven't been to such a nailbitter, especially at home, in a while! Dawgs won in both football and basketball. Ohio State lost! All is beautiful in the world. I thought I'd include a picture sent to me by our friend Brock. I thought it would sum up the day nicely. Go Dawgs!!

Nashville and Willie!

It has been too long since I've posted, but here's some catch up! Our weekend in Nashville for Alan's B-day was fabulous! He had a great time, and even if I do say so myself, it was the perfect gift. It's been the first time in a while that we've just gone somewhere by ourselves. We first went to Country Music Hall of Fame, which was so cool, especially since this was my first trip. And while we were in there we got the awesome news that our Dawgs had beat Kentucky!!! Which only made the trip that much more fun! After the Hall of Fame, we went walking downtown and then drove out to OpryMills for supper before going to the Grand Ole Opry. I LOVE OpryMills!! So much fun! The Grand Ole Opry was a lot of fun too, much different than I expected. I didn't realize you got to see SO many performers in one night! Some of the highlights were Little Jimmie Dickens, Rissi Palmer, Vince Gill (loved him!) and Josh Turner (HOTTIE!), who was being inducted into the Opry that night.




On Sunday, we went to the Parthenon in the park in Nashville and then downtown to the Ryman. Then, before we left we stopped by OpryMills for a little shopping time! We can't wait to go back; it was a blast!! Then, last Sunday night, my parents came up to Columbus and we all went to the Willie Nelson concert in Tupelo. So many singers in so many days! I'd heard a lot of different opinions on Willie's concerts, but I must say that I had a blast! It was a lot of fun and beautiful music. Alan can finally cross Willie's name off our list of people to see before they die! P.S. I even got to see the Honeysuckle Rose.