Who IS this person?

For the last 12 months or so, I have been a recluse of sorts, and now, my only excitement comes from family oriented things, and I couldn't be happier about it. Let me give you an example. Next weekend, my sister and I are going on a road trip to Knoxville to see the Vols play. We're staying in the hotel room with my parents and we're taking Carter with us. I have a feeling that this tailgate will be different from my tailgates past and I am super pumped about it! Another example, I spent the evening (Saturday night, mind you) purchasing gifts for my friends' kids' birthdays and watching football and Sex and the City reruns with Carter and I could not have picked a better evening for myself (except, maybe, if Billy were here and we were watching football or a movie together, but he is out with a friend in town from Florida). I was text messaging with another of my mommy friends whilst shopping for the kids' birthday gifts. We have been friends since high school, and we lived together for a year in college, so to say that we have seen some fun times together would be an understatement. We've been to a million football games, traveled the tropics on spring breaks and spent countless nights partying together. Tonight, however, we were discussing how fun the next child's birthday party was going to be because there will be a lot of our friends there. That's right. We are looking forward to a three year old's birthday party. I asked her if she thought our 20 year old selves would even believe it if they saw our nearly 30 year old selves. I am pretty sure I would not believe it. Ha!

A lady I work with always says, "the name of the game is change." I am starting to believe that is true. I wonder what we will be like when we're 40? I wonder if our kids will EVER believe that we were once cool? I doubt it. I barely believe it myself, now.

Project Gold-be-gone

We are currently up to our ears in home renovations at our new house. I am not sure if I have blogged about it in its entirety so I will give a quick recap. Basically, we had our master bathroom tiled. (It was carpet, which is gross). When they pulled the facing off of the bottom of our shower, we found out that our shower pan was cracked and we had mold and mildew underneath it. That explained the funk-ish smell that we had previously attributed to sulphur in the water. My apologies to Bartlett water for questioning its cleanliness.

Anyway, this disgusting discovery led to our decision, or, rather, forced our hand into taking out our somewhat ghetto shower and replacing it. We are taking out the porcelain facade shower (think re-bath) and replacing it with tile. In the process, we are trading out our super brassy gold shower faucet and nozzle. They are atrocious. Although this was an expense that we were not prepared for and did not expect, I am at least glad that we are getting new and nice shower products. We totally forgot, however, that we also needed to replace the handles and spout on the tub. The only one in the finish we like is SO SUPER expensive that we will have to wait on that one. Boo :( Bathroom faucets and the like are ridiculously expensive. It's offensive, really.

In further renovation news, I am also replacing lights throughout the house, one by one. As we speak, my husband and sweet dad are replacing the hanging light in the entryway and after that, they are headed into the dining room to replace that one as well. I am pumped! To say that I hate the light fixtures that came with this house is an understatement. All of this renovation is also really helping me to make this house my own.

I will post pictures soon!

Monday: 1, Holly: 0

Everyone hates Mondays. It's universal. Lately, however, my Mondays have seemed worse than usual. I don't know what it is, and I am sure my total dread of Mondays that begins the Saturday night before plays a part, but I have been having some truly dread-worthy Mondays recently.

Let's look at today, for example. Carter woke up a little early, so he wanted to eat again before I had to leave the house. That threw my schedule a little off, so I was in a huge rush to drop him off at the babysitter and fly to work to make it in time for my morning consult. I got in the car, only to remember I had ZERO gas. I could not have been more annoyed. I always need gas on Monday mornings. It is like some sort of cosmic curse. I practically threw Carter at the babysitter and zoomed to the nearest gas station as there was no way I could've made it all the way to work without filling up.

Of course, I stopped at the pump that does not allow you to pump and leave, meaning, I had to stand there and hold it. Meanwhile, my phone was bleeping away in the car and I could not get to it. I got back in the car and had about 8 minutes to make the 20 minute drive to work. Of course, I got stuck behind the slowest driver in the universe trying to make my way around Shelby Farms. Then, I hit every light on Germantown Parkway. Once I got to work, there were no parking spaces anywhere near my office, so I sprinted, files in hand, worried that my poor potential client would be waiting on me. She wasn't. She was a no show. People are so @#$#$%$ rude! I risked life and limb to make it to my consult on time and she didn't show up! Note to readers: it is incredibly inconsiderate to make an appointment with a lawyer and not show up for it.

The day has calmed down a little and I am halfway through yet another Monday I did not think I could bear to face. For now, I will make the same promise I make (and break) each week: next Monday, I will have a better attitude.

Heartbreak

Owwwweeee my heart is still hurting! As I have made abundantly clear in my previous blog posts, I am an avid Tennessee supporter and my beloved Vols suffered a heartbreaking loss yesterday to LSU. This was no ordinary loss, though. The circumstances surrounding this game created the perfect storm of heartbreaking loss. First of all, LSU was ranked #10 in the country when we headed down to Baton Rouge to take on the Tigers. (I say "we," but I was only there in spirit. I watched from the privacy of my own home and that turned out to be for the best). Second, my Vols are having a really tough year. We are on our third coach in as many years, and fresh off of the sting of betrayal from the coach who must not be named. Sweet Derek Dooley (aka Superman to my sister and me) has his work cut out for him. He has a team full of players who were recruited by other coaches, a young offensive line, and an inexperienced quarterback. To say it is a rebuilding year would be an understatement. The Vols struggled to beat the University of Alabama at Birmingham the week before, so they were expected to take a true beating in the Bayou. As if the aforementioned circumstances did not make for enough of an uphill battle for the Big Orange, our star kicker, Daniel Lincoln, suffered some sort of leg injury, so our poor little true freshman backup kicker was thrown in the game with virtually no notice!

On the Tiger's very first play, they ran nearly the length of the field for a touchdown. Things did not look good. Surprisingly, though, and largely due to the sloppy play of the LSU offense, the Vols hung in there and even led for almost all of the game. As the clock wound down, UT was up by 4 and had the ball. The Vols were faced with a fourth down situation, and with the star kicker out and the freshman backup with one miss under his belt already for the day, Coach Dooley chose to go for it to try and convert to first down. We didn't. LSU had a little more than 2 minutes to drive down the field and score a touchdown. Time and again, they moved the ball down the field. Finally, the Tigers had one last chance: a fourth down and goal, had to score or the game was over play. THE VOLS HELD THEM! WE WON! WE BEAT LSU! Wait...what? WTF? Is that a flag? Surely it is on LSU. Their last play looked like a hot mess. What? No way. No EFFING WAY! The Vols had 13 players on the field and the Tigers get another chance at a score and a win.

I think it is pretty obvious that they scored on the last play of the game...hence the title of my blog. Dang it.

Despite the loss, the losing record, and the overall frustration of the season thus far, I am still REALLY proud of my Vols and could not have been more proud at the persistence they displayed on Saturday. I really like Derek Dooley and am impressed with his class and honesty. He seems like he really respects the traditions of Tennessee and SEC football and that is very important (and something that was lacking in our last coach). Plus, he is kind of dreamy in a serious, driven, ambitious sort of way :)

Sidenote: I saw some backlash against Dooley on facebook this past weekend and I think those people should be punched in the face. Let's give the guy a flippin chance before we go on yet another frantic search for a coach before football season begins! Geez he is not a miracle worker, you fairweather a-holes!

Go Vols!

(Sorry for all of my non-football-loving followers. I will keep my sports blogs to a minimum, I promise).