these are the days

A hairy couple of days

2012-01-30T07:00:00.003-05:00

I seemed to get into some hairy situations at the end of last week.

First off - on Thursday night, Marsha and I talked our friend Sean into Skyping with us at 11pm. I'm pretty sure he was about to go to bed and I was about to go home, but we had the brilliant idea and before we knew we were all chatting face to face.

Oh, and eventually this happened.

As it turns out, Sean's Skype/computer could do a lot more cool things than Marsha's iMac. It allowed him to change his identity (as seen above) and it also allowed him to talk to us is a myriad of different voices - including but not limited to the voice of a woman. (Actually the title of the voice was "Emotional" but it came out sounding like a woman - go figure).

This voice in particular made for quite a few laughs (you know how funny things get after midnight) and it even ended with a youtube video that I won't post in efforts to preserve my friendship with Ariel....I mean Sean.

Marsha was quite disturbed that her computer did not have these features and we went searching to find something that would be cooler than what Sean had. The only thing we found was some tab that called "Bonjour" in the File Menu.

She clicked and we immediately started saying enthusiastically to Sean - "HEY! ARE WE TALKING IN FRENCH NOW?!?"

(We get even funnier after midnight if you can even imagine it.)

Friday afternoon Marlee and Collin rolled into town and things continued to be hairy. Actually, things got a lot LESS hairy as little Marls decided to get crazy and cut all of her hair off!

Her appointment with the darling Alexis (who also is in charge of my hair these days) was at 4:30, so I headed over to the salon when I got off work.

I arrived just in time for the fun part.

So cute!

Alexis did a great job and Marlee absolutely loved it - and she only went into shock for a few minutes after running her hands through it for the first time.

Just when you think the Marls couldn't get cuter.

And speaking of cute...

Just a little Marsha Hagan Photography action going on. I love this picture and these goons.

We really had our appetite worked up after all that hair cutting and luckily Greg was at home cooking up some yummy food.

As a special treat, the Robelos joined us for dinner! It was SO great to see them. And I mean that literally. They are hott and we like to look at them. :-)

We had fun listening to all of their funny stories and their tales from back home in Honduras. It was so fun just to hang out after not seeing them for so long.

It was quite an entertaining night!

And a fun way to end the week!

My view tonight

2012-01-25T22:38:00.005-05:00

Just another random night at the Hagan's house.

Things that happened:

-Helped Marsha scan pics for a birthday slideshow for her brother-in-law

-Talked to Jake about the woes of having moles biopsied (he fell victim to such yesterday)

-Was taken to the brink of insanity when my scanner decided it was too good to scan pictures

-Rejoiced when I finally talked some sense into it

-Ate a granola bar and drank some water...and thought about how happy I am to start working out again tomorrow

-Discussed with Marsha about how I had my hand on the doorknob of crazy land (regarding the super fun body issue struggles)

-She said I was already in the door

-Listened to youtube videos of the songs Sean is going to play at Becca's wedding

-Told Marsha the tale of my experience at the plastic surgeon today and how it made me aggravated the whole rest of the day

-Discussed how I need to be more confident and proactive in questioning when I don't understand things that way I don't leave doctor offices aggravated for the whole rest of the day

-Watched a video about a guy who has taken a picture of himself every day for the past 12.5 years

-Messed with Phoebe

-Fed Phoebe milk with a spoon

-Laughed at Jake (he's funny)

-Received a tweet from Marlee with the news that she will be coming home this weekend!

-Called my parents to see if we could go see my dad's play Saturday instead of Friday so I could hang with the girl and her red-headed boy

-Took a call from Deb telling me to be careful because there were lots of deer jumping out in the road tonight

-Thought about how I should leave and go home to bed starting at about 9:30 and continuing til now (11:00)

-Decided to take pictures of what I was doing so I could be more like that 12.5 year picture guy

-Typed an exhaustive list of the complete randomness of the night for the blog

-Hit publish

-Headed home!

Lately

2012-01-23T07:30:00.006-05:00

Life has been full of it's usual shenanigans, and every day when I write the date I think something along the lines of "How is already January 5th? (10th? 20th? 23rd?)"

I guess it really is true about what they say about what happens to time when you're having fun! (Or just being incredibly boring). :-)

Honestly, most of my time has been spent here at office 1116F.

1116F makes me happy. (This picture was actually taken in the first weeks of my new job before papers scattered across my desk at an unbelievable rate and that window sill filled up with stacks of folders and plants and such.)

When I haven't been working, I've really just been hanging around. (Phoebe demonstrates).

There has been the usual randomness.

Catching a movie here and there.

Gaming at the Hagan's kitchen table.

And missing little to no meals and snacks along the way.

There was some medical excitement around the beginning of the month. Back in October, I had 3 suspicious moles on my back biopsied. And because apparently my skin is an overachiever, they all came back abnormal.

No real cause for concern, but basically off they had to go! In order to keep my back from looking like a mine field, I enlisted a plastic surgeon to do the job of removing them completely. And because I have, in the past, had a tendency to pass out during these types of things - I went armed.

My mother swears that if you eat a Snickers and drink a real Coke, you will not pass out. I don't really know if this works or not, but I can't imagine why I would turn down such a combination.

I also threw in some anti-anxiety meds for good measure and I will tell you - that combo worked like a charm.

Thankfully all 3 of the spots came back with no cancerous cells. The bad news was that after the surgery I realized that one the moles my doctor (whom I love) removed was actually not the correct one. Because of this, I had to go back to Savannah and get a fourth removed. (My back currently looks like I got attacked from behind at knife-point. It's cute!)

The good news is:

1.) I got the buy 3, get 1 free special!

2.) The 4th one came back clear as well

and

3.) I once again did not have any trouble staying conscious (and I didn't even take part in the Coke/Snickers/Drugs trifecta.)

All this made me and Phoebe very happy! (Phoebes keeps her emotions on the inside.)

This month I also kept busy by texting back and forth with my new little buddy, Casen. I send him pics of myself with heartfelt messages.

And then he gets him Mommy to send me pictures of him like this:

It's a pretty legit arrangement we have going. Especially when shots like this pop up on my phone.

On January 14th, my dear father celebrated his 57th bday!

He celebrated with lots of birthday love, with Connie and Tom (who shares the same bday!), and with cards like this one from my sister-in-law.

That girl CRACKS me up.

On January 17th, GSU started back to school and I experienced life in the Advisement Center on the first day of classes! It was crazy but oh-so-fun!

Other high points of the month involve the pleasant weather. It's been perfect for many evening and weekend walks around the neighborhood.

Night time can look many different ways around here. There seems to always be something fun popping up!

For example, one night me and my handwriting were enlisted to help address wedding invites by our darling bride-to-be Becca!

The invitations - which feature many pictures from the critically acclaimed Marsha Hagan Photography - were awesome, and it was an honor to assist in getting those babies sealed and delivered.

The groom-to-be was hard at work stamping the return addresses on the envelopes. He would stop periodically to ponder how lucky he was to be marrying such an amazing girl.

We kinda love her, too.

Another night was recently spent with a table full of sweet women celebrating our dear Connie's birthday!

We did have one really cute fella join us as well!

Well - all of that pretty much brings us to present day. 2012 is flying by at record speed - and we're just trying to enjoy it one day at at a time!

When one year ends, another begins

2012-01-03T07:00:00.004-05:00

I am happy to say that Christmas Break was so great! It was the perfect mix of everything. Relaxing and fun-filled. Good times with good people.

I thought it would fly by, but honestly it feels like forever ago since we got out. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was not at all dreading coming back to work. (I have found that dread slows down work days and accelerates time off.)

The biggest blessing of 2011 was definitely my new job, and even though I would never turn down more days of freedom and fun - I'm excited to get back into the swing of things.

Per usual we found some fun to end out the year and bring in 2012.

I returned Friday night from visiting Linds and the babe, and I had another cutie boy in my house. Risa, Joel, and Jayce stopped back by to spend the night with us on their way home. Saturday morning we did Christmas with them!

While we waited on Uncle Alan to get home, Jayce joined Santa in a little entertainment via his Mama's iPad.

Debra D likes to keep no more than a 2 inch gap between her and Jayce at all times.

Jayce is a huge fan of Alan's gameday commercial so we showed him the latest one.

Then the real live Big Al got home and the fun began.

My fave present!

Jayce and his parents just moved into a new house, so the Tysons hooked the boy up with fun stuff to decorate his bathroom.

My godson thinks outside the box at all times. He's a genius, you know.

This kid's laugh makes me so happy. I squeeze his little leg chub as much as possible in efforts to hear it.

After everyone got on the road, we piddled away at the last day of year and then eventually I ended up at the Hagan's for a NYE celebration.

These guys were there.

We ate some yummy food, played some cards, went on tumultuous journey into the country to pick up Jake, and eventually rang in the New Year!

My first food item of the new year went to: Chocolate Delight.

Starting the culinary year off right is important to me.

It was fun to ring in the year with these crazy kids.....

.....because by the next morning they were packing up and hitting the road for Passion 2012!

Phoebe knew something was up when all the bags started appearing and everyone started shuffling around and hugging and saying things like, "DON'T GO! STAY FOREVER!" She's a perceptive pup.

She was quite forlorn at the reality of it all.

A couple pics and a few more laughs with Mar Mar and Collie K....

....and they were off!

Goodbyes are exhausting.

New Year's Day night we had a few more fun visitors.

We struck up the fire pit and our sweet Becca and Kayla (and their betrothed) roasted some hot dogs.

As I have learned in life - where there's smoke there's fire, and where there's fire there's s'mores.

Bringing even more fun to 2012, Becca and crew busted out the sparklers.

And then we decided to try and have some photographic fun.

(That was the first attempt.)

Everyone got the hang of it, and we had a little fun with words that pertained to these two sweet couples.

This was the pictorial representation of engagement rings. I think Kayla's (left) might have ended up being more like a bracelet.

"We Do" (That one got all the sparklers a little too excited.)

We ended the night with a movie, and then upon returning home - I took a few bites of leftover peas for good luck.

Last night I went over to Marsha's so we could watch the Passion livestream.

Marsha, in her infinite wisdom, managed to hook it up to the TV so we could enjoy it on the big screen with surround sound. It almost felt like we were there (minus about 40,000 people).

As for today, it's back to work I go! I'm thankful for a very, very fun last couple of weeks of 2011 - and looking forward to a great 2012!

Welcome to the world, Casen!

2011-12-31T19:00:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Brittany and I went to stay with our sweet mama-to-be friend. We had a great time at what I deemed as Lindsay's "Babe-lorette Weekend." :-)

Even though Baby Casen was.....

.....we still figured it would most likely going to be our last Girls Weekend before we added a little boy to our bunch.

As it turns out, we were definitely right on that!

In fact, Linds called me on Thursday afternoon to let me know that it appeared sweet Casen just couldn't wait til 2012 to come. Little buddy wanted in on the party and who can blame him!? His parents are pretty fun.

Superwoman Linnie went into full labor Thursday night, texted me in between contractions, and then in the early morning hour I got this!

Casen Ryan was born healthy, happy, and cute as can be at 4:44am!

And his mama and daddy could not have been more excited to greet him!

People came from miles around to love on this sweet family of THREE.

I hit the road that morning and made it into town around lunch. I couldn't wait to get that sweet boy in my arms. Aunt Bean and the babe!

I told him I had a lot of tricks to teach him but we'd get to that another time when he wasn't so busy sleeping and being an angel.

Actually, this is the aunt we really need to watch out for. She looks sweet, but she's always been trouble.

I was so happy to see these people. Aunt Bri and Uncle Earle!

It felt surreal that we there visiting Linds and her new baby! Weren't we all just hanging out at Merrywood Drive trying to decide whether to go to class or not?

And now we have our first Merrywood Babe!

And we can't get enough.

It was so great hanging out at the hospital and we got to see a ton of Casen's family whom we love!

Ms. Carol (Lindsay's sweet mama) with her first grandbaby.

Casen's cousin, Knox, also came to visit! These two little guys are only 2 weeks apart. I bet they won't team up and cause any trouble in the years to come. :-)

With Uncle Benjamin.

Linds hanging out with her sweet brothers Benj and Chad.

The proud grandparents.

It was so fun to see Justin and Linds gush over Casen. They are going to be such amazing parents, and it was sweet to see them transition into their roles so easily and with such excitement. Casen is blessed to have them!

I mean look - Linds can swaddle a baby upside down! Now that is skill.

It was sad when it was time to hit the road back home. But man! Newborns are exhausting! ;-)

I rode home thinking about how thankful I am for these sweet friends and all the life we're living together.

Sweet Casen opened up a whole new chapter here at the end of 2011. And we are greatly blessed!

Twenty!

2011-12-31T11:00:00.001-05:00

I am thoroughly enjoying this whole holiday situation that has come along with working in higher edcuation. I don't have to go back until the 3rd, so I have been living it up all week!

Tuesday and Wednesday were super fun days!

The 2 out-of-the-house Hagan children had been in town and I was excited to head over Tuesday to get a little face time (non iPhone edition) with Justin, Marlee, and the rest of the Hagan crew.

As usual, the kitchen table was the place to be. The game of the day: Chicken Foot.

There was also another something special brewing behind the scenes for this girl.

Her birthday was the next day and a certain red-headed giant was on his way to the Boro to surprise her.

In the above pic she is about 40% unexpecting. (She thought he might be coming but didn't know when or how). Bwhahaha.

What she didn't know is that the plan was for Collin to park his car at the end of the driveway and walk until Marlee saw him. (He would pass by the windows of the kitchen and we wanted to see how long it would take her to notice.) Fun, huh?!?!

Hott Justin dominating at Chicken Foot while we waited for the big reveal.

Thug Jake plotting his next move.

"Oh my what is that? There seems to be a large leprauchaun outside the window." (Not a direct quote.)

Scouting the room at the Surprise Organizational Team.

I know it's hard to believe even though you kind of knew it was going to happen - but go let the boy in already, Marls!

#thatawkwardmoment When everyone follows you and takes pictures of you greeting your boyfriend.

Blurry pics of the welcoming! (Loud clapping and obnoxious yells of glee could be heard for miles.)

Recounting the story and making fun of Marlee and her reaction. What a goon!

That night we went out for Japanese food to celebrate Marlee's bday!

We ended the night back at the house playing Poker and then later - Things! Playing well past midnight, we were able to welcome in Marlee's actual bday in style (mostly more yelling).

The next day, Justin had to go back to New York (so sad), but we made the best of it by all going with Marsha to take him and then spending the day with the Birthday Girl in Savannah.

We took Jake's car and ol' Jacob got stuck in the 3rd row seating. Otherwise known as "The Incredibly Cramped Space Where Body Parts Go to Fall Asleep."

He makes being smooshed up look good, doesn't he?

These two were the life of the party.

After we dropped Justin off at the airport, it was food time. We went to a fave.

Interesting fact. Collin is a yankee from ATL and pronounces this restaurant: "Sweet Po-tay-toes."

We correctly pronounce it: "Sweet Puh-tay-duhs."

The TWENTY year-old and her teenage boyfriend.

I love this girl!

Sweet Puh-tay-duhs has a lot of sweet things.

My salad!

Marlee sampled it and said, "Yum, that's good. It doesn't taste fishy at all!" Which was good - since it was turkey.

We had to try "the best banana pudding on earth."

And Marls had a special dessert of her own.

It was a fun lunch filled with all the normal hilarity.

We spent the day shopping around and when it was time to eat again, we ended up in City Market at Wild Wing Cafe.

Christmas was still alive and well in those parts.

Once home it was time for more games. This time it was Nertz!

Team Revo Speed.

Team Chicken Feet.

They take it seriously.

Here's my partner! She's twenty and has quite the cute ponytail.

Things get crazier as the hours pass on.

Even Phoebe joined in the fun!

Obviously she was having a great time.

It was a great couple of days celebrating the cutest 20 year-old I know!

I bet Santa is missing this little helper

2011-12-29T17:20:00.001-05:00

Apparently Santa must have been a little distracted during all of his merry house-hopping this year, because on Monday night we came across a cute little elf he left behind!

My favorite little boy, his parents, and his Nana pulled into town late Monday night for a quick visit!

Even though it was past his bedtime, the cute little elf still mustered up the will to entertain and mesmerize his public.

He also enjoyed a late night snack under the supervision of Aunt Deb Deb.

With the supersonic strength only Cheeze-Its can give, Jayce found the energy for a game of hide and seek.

We could not find him anywhere, as he did a great job of leaving no clues as to his whereabouts.

But you know how Nanas are - they have a 6th sense about all things grandbabies.

There he is!!

Jayce loves coming to the Tyson's and always makes himself at home. He feels so comfortable, in fact, that he frequently strips right on down to his party suit.

(While we extend hospitality to guests of all ages - this particular practice need not apply to visitors over the age of 2). :-)

Mama can always find that sweet spot!

Risa, Joel, and Jayce had to get up early on Tuesday and head down to Florida to visit family (they left Nana with us!), but we got a little more loving in before they hit the road.

Here's the babe rockin' around the Christmas tree (in his great-grandfather's rocking chair).

He also hunted down a picture of two of his favorite people to gaze upon and admire.

We were sad to see him leave, but guess who'll be passing back through on Friday??

The day after

2011-12-27T11:40:00.002-05:00

One of the sad things about Christmas is you blink and it's over. Another whole year to wait! (Although at the rate we're going - we'll blink and 3 more seasons will have passed. And up the twinkling lights will go again!)

Yesterday morning we got up and lounged around with our people a little while longer before they had to hit the road back to business as usual.

While they packed up, my father and I got some use out of his (favorite?) Christmas present.

It has several of his favorite songs on there. And mine too! Family karaoke is where it's at.

In his own words after the 4th or 5th song - "You've created a monster."

I also helped Deb get her (favorite!) present up and running.

For lunch we dined on soup, salad, and sandwiches at Panera. Two of Matthew's buddies joined us.

Fun fact: Jeffrey in the middle was extremely instrumental in helping me get my new job. He was already on the favorites list, so you can imagine where he stands now. He's extremely VIP.

Full once again (I forget what empty feels like), it was hug distribution time! We hated to see these two leave.

But we are so thankful for a wonderful Christmas, another year of health and happiness, and a deep adoration for the One who came to earth so that we can enjoy this blessed and full life.

Merry Christmas from the Tysons!

The Merriest of Days

2011-12-26T17:00:00.003-05:00

I'm sitting on my bed underneath a fleece blanket with a diet coke beside me reflecting on a wonderful Christmas 2011. Our best in years, I'd say!

As you know, we had an addition to our family this year (officially, anyway). And we were ecstatic to have that new addition and her husband (known around here as The Prince) be with us on Christmas!

My brother had to work on Christmas Eve, so he and Larsen didn't get in until late Christmas Eve night. The rest of us spent the day taking part in typical Christmas Eve shenanigans. Big Al cooked and prepared all morning, and later golfed the day away.

The Debster and I both got out in the hustle and bustle a little bit. I typically am a huge advocate for avoiding all kinds of crowds and not going to any public places when there is a good chance people will be functioning at a heightened level of crazy.

But for some reason Christmas Eve craziness attracts the Tyson girls like magnets. We love it!

After tootling around for a bit, we all met back at home (adding Iris to the mix) and got ready to go to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church.

To pass the time, Deb washed dishes as Grammy supervised.

The service was wonderful and the only complaint would probably come from Iris who would prefer not to wait to eat and drink when partaking in communion. We have got to start feeding that lady more before those things. You know you're hungry when unleavened bread and a shot of grape juice start counting as a much anticipated snack.

When we got home, Daddy put the traditional Shrimp Casserole in the oven.

Don't mind the smoke billowing out of the oven. Just a small culinary mishap that in no way compromised the meal.

As always - my compliments to the chef!

We frolicked around until Matthew and Larsen rolled in around midnight and Christmas could officially begin!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. I highly enjoy Christmas being on a Sunday!

And I actually came downstairs to find that I got a twin sister for Christmas!!!

Larsen and I unknowingly picked the same dress to celebrate in that morning! We got a big kick out of ourselves. We usually do.

My brother was taking these pics for us while we waited for my parents in the lobby after church. After the first one he said, "Oh man - wait. Do ya'll want Jesus in it?" and then snapped this one. Tis the reason for the season!

Gram with her twin granddaughters.

Deb with the twins back at home. Jesus, Gram, Deb....the twins were really getting around that day.

Back at home it was business as usual. Food prep, comfy clothes, classic Christmas movies on TV, and a childlike anticipation.

27th Christmas with this fella. We've run down many halls and charged down many stairways at the wee hours of the morning together.

1st Christmas as a married couple!

This came as no surprise to anyone, but my brother brought of all his presents for his bride unwrapped and solicited the help of his unsuspecting but always willing mother.

And his mother solicited the help of his sister about 10 mins before we were going to open presents.

Never to make it too simple on anyone, Matthew had gotten Larsen 7 different presents and he wanted her to open them a specific order. He decided to number the presents on the gift tag and when he handed it back to me, I stared at it a little confused.

"They spell out 'I. Love. You. So. Much.'" he said with a goofy smile. I made fun of him and then broke the news to him that he actually had 6 presents. Never one to back down from a challenge he added "Very" to the gift tag succession.

"There," he said. "I. love. you. so. VERY. much."

Sadly, it was later realized that he actually had not six but seven presents. So, he added "!!!!!!!" to the last present. I've always thought of myself as the smarter of the Tyson kids. But, now I'm beginning to wonder.

You may notice that the tag on the bag above is about the 4th one added. That is what I like to call a breakdown of the system. You would have thought we were trying to figure out the quadratic equation numbering those presents in order.

It was crazy.

("!!!!!!!")

A beautiful girl waiting for present time. Did ya'll know my brother loves her so very much?

("!!!!!!!")

Ready to do this thing.

The presents were on point this year and needless to say it was a very merry day in that respect. For example, Debbie's children gave her a Kindle. It elicited an average amount of excitement.

One of my favorite presents from the day. My parents got us both these sweet nativity scenes. I love it. My favorite part is that Mary holding is Jesus. I just think that is so sweet and haven't ever seen that before.

I think this was right after Big Al opened my present to him.

After we were waist deep in wrapping paper and gift bags, we moved to the kitchen to get working on our late Christmas lunch.

We kept our thirst quenched in a variety of ways in the these cute cups Larsen brought. They said, "Santa, stuff my stocking with _____."

We all filled in the blank. L-R: Deb, LarLar, JBabe, MT, and Al.

The recipe for a great Christmas: A kitchen full of Tysons.

And a counter full of food.

My dad is amazing. And we say it every meal - but I think this was truly his best work yet!

He even made the Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler. I haven't fully grasped his unique method of scopping it out, but who am I to judge the hand that feeds me?

After lunch/dinner the girls went to see "We Bought a Zoo." We always go to the movies on Christmas and this was a PERFECT Christmas Day movie. It was sooo good! I thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening hours with my mom, sister-in-law, and Matt Damon.

We got home just as the boys were waking up from their food comas and just in time to go for round two.

With birthday cake for dessert! That cake lived a good life. We were sad to see it go.

And we continued to annihilate the cobbler.

We ended the day tired, full, and with happy hearts.

Hope you all had a very much Christmas.

PS. I love you so very much.

("!!!!!!")

Twas the weeks before Christmas

2011-12-24T14:11:00.000-05:00

Tis the season for.....

Tree trimming.

Candy making for co-workers.

Late night card playing with boys who get helmets for Christmas and wear them (and share them!) 24/7.

Relaxing weekends away visiting sweet college friends.

These are especially fun when one of those friends is........

Making sure Baby Casen is all fixed up right.

More goody-making for more work parties.

Late night excursions to see Christmas lights with Moesha, Marls, PaulSon, and Sean.

(Enjoyed in part by the preceding late night trek to the movie theater - not for a movie, but for a quick run-in to refill up 2 popcorn buckets. With a side of large Sonic drinks of course.)

Making memories by getting lost on way to seeing the lights, driving 30 minutes, and only one house being lit up. :-)

Taping Big Al's Final Thoughts on the 2011 season.

Watching ready-for-cooking casseroles and Christmas dinner fixins mulitply.

Merry-making not pictured:

Taking a day off mid-week for shopping in Savannah with the Hagan and Eckles girls.

Evenings after work spent shopping and last minute present planning.

Getting off on Thursday with a 11 days of freedom ahead.

Days spent in pj's cleaning and/or (emphasis on OR) doing nothing.

Hustling and bustling around the town.

Gift giving and gift receiving.

Late night Mario Party playing with couches 3 deep and pulled up close to the TV for maximum enjoyment.

Happy times ahead celebrating with the sweet fam.

Happy times ahead celebrating a sweet Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Get after them aggressively

2011-12-16T10:00:00.003-05:00

We had a special request from some loyal viewers this week to record Alan's gameday commercial by the light of the Christmas Tree.

We did this for the last few commercials last year, and since it brings us untold Christmas joy to still be throwing around that tator ball well into December - we thought it was a great idea!

Now to be clear, the man in the video is not Santa.

I know it can be confusing with the white beard and (unseen) jolly belly. But it's just Big Al doing what he does best!

GO EAGLES! BEAT NORTH DAKOTA STATE!

It was the best of times, it was the best of times

2011-12-12T21:30:00.003-05:00

Gameday. It all starts in the kitchen.

I wish I could say I made these because seriously how awesome would I be? (Every man's dream?) But these, as is the case with all of our tailgate contributions, were the work of Big Al.

I do have a knack for gathering the crackers, though.

It was a bit brisk and overcast this past Saturday, but that did not stop the loyal fans from far and wide from coming out in droves to Paulson. I think 2/3 of the people were at our tailgate.

Thanks to a quarter final playoff game at home and the building excitement that comes from such - we had some new faces under the tent.

This motley crew made up of a ATO's from yesteryear are no strangers to a tailgate. I am sure they have more tailgating stories that I have time to hear. If I were even old enough to hear them, that is.

Some old faithfuls could also be found under the tent.

People like the Tysons, the Palfy's, the ATO's, Nancy, Amee & Jimmy from Jax, my friend Sean, and numerous other friends and fans alike stopped by to converse and find the nutrients they would need to get them through the pending game.

This guy is all about the nutrients.

As always, one of the highlights was greeting the team. The high-fivers securing their spot among the masses.

Here they come! Connie can barely contain herself.

Excitement containment need not apply after this. Connie and her main "squeeze".

Pretty soon it was time to pack it all up and head on in.

This is my longtime friend Alex who sits a few rows in front of us. His team loyalty ranks up there with Alan & Matthew Tyson, Connie Palfy, and Erk Russell.

Big Al looking out onto the field right before kick off. I could tell he had a good feeling about things.

Freedom flew.

GUS waved the flag.

And it was on!

They played hard and we cheered hard and at the end - we were still, as GUS says, number one!

I got to sit by Connie which I enjoyed immensely because she is a football wizard, a great high-fiver, and she taught me about the "Turnover Power." This phenomenon is not be abused, but there comes a moment in every game where a turnover is needed more than life itself.

According to the Conster, if you concentrate with all that you have ("until you think your head is about to explode"), you can MAKE it happen.

There were a couple moments in the game when we wondered if we should implement the power. With about two minutes left, Connie reached over and let me know "it was time".

And I'll be darned if RIGHT before my head exploded - we made an interception (!!!), sealing our fate at a semi-final game. I may have screamed a little and jumped up and down so much that my cell phone catapulted from my pants to the rocky bleacher below.

But I cared not because in that moment I realized that I, too, possess the Turnover Power.

The final score.

Deb texting Larsen with the joyous news of victory.

ONE MORE TIME, Eagles!!!

Don't take no prisoners

2011-12-09T07:16:00.002-05:00

Still playing!

Still happy!

After a crazy game last week, GSU has advanced to the quarter finals and will take on the Black Bears of Maine at Paulson this Saturday! Needless to say we'll be there.

And a certain white-bearded man is pretty excited about it.

GO EAGLES! BEAT MAINE!

Friday & Saturday Fun

2011-12-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

We had an exciting weekend around here!

Friday night Debbie, Iris, and I went to FBC to see their annual Christmas Celebration. This year was extra special for the church because it was the first one in the new sanctuary. And it was extra special for us personally because Big Al donated his acting and singing abilities to the show!

Speaking completely impartially here - my father did amazing and many of the parts were quite hilarious! The title of the program was The List and it was about the wayward choir member (Big Al) who snuck into the choir loft to sing because it was on his Bucket List. When the choir director calls him out, he goes on to explain about how he created a Bucket List after a near-death experience falling off a mountain.

Other things on his bucket list included jumping out of an airplane, riding a motor cycle, riding a bull, etc. They filmed little excerpts of Alan "doing" these thing with our former (and beloved) preacher as his "guide". Too funny.

Through the music and the message, the Bucket List Man (as some lady in the women's bathroom would later call him after the show) realizes in the end that he left something (the most important thing) off his list - a relationship with Christ.

It was all very moving, and I am pretty sure all 1500 people in attendance left high on the Christmas spirit!

Saturday was a BIG day as the Eagles played the second round of the playoffs at home! I got there just in time to greet the team.

Connie and Jasper high-fiving our hero Coach Monken.

When we got back to the tailgate I got a big surprise!

Brittany and Earle came down for the game. It was soooo good to see them! I really like to hug those people.

We had so much fun visiting and even made our way over to chat with some other tailgating friends. I came back just in time to load up the food and head into the prettiest little stadium in America.

It was inside the stadium where I would test the strength of my heart, nerves, blood pressure, and emotional stability as the Eagles battled back and forth with the Old Dominion Monarchs.

Big Al was steady under the pressure.

The girls were a little more rowdy.

Finally......victory. It is well.

A good Word on Friday followed by good friends, good food, and good football on Saturday! Only thing better that that is more of it.

Send 'em back to wherever it is they came from

2011-12-02T10:46:00.004-05:00

Warning: Some observers may experience extreme pride, elevated heart rate, and intense excitement/anticipation upon viewing this video.

Viewer discretion (especially if you are from Old Dominion) is advised.

GO EAGLES! BEAT OLD DOMINION!

Thanks a lot

2011-11-24T18:28:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning and realized it was about that time again...

And with this guy at the helm, we knew we were about to have a good day!

He started us off right.

And it only got better from there.

While we missed having Matthew and Larsen here with us (you'll see their smiling faces again at Christmas), we had some special family with us to share the fun and the food.

We also had (for the 2nd year running) some good friends that are like family join us as well. Jo and John!

We are immensely thankful to have these two with us again. These two have both battled cancer this year and, by God's grace, are doing so much better! We love them!

We toasted to health and happiness!

And then some of us got involved in a very serious turkey cutting mission.

I seriously stand in awe of my amazing cook of father. This blog does a good job of high lighting this man's talents, but I would say cooking is at the top of the list!

Turkey, ham, dressing, squash casserole, rice and butter beans, macaroni and cheese, rutabagas, collards, yams, and fried okra.

And while mother CAN cook who would want to with Top Chef in da house? But Deb's talents do not go unnoticed.

She is our resident decorator and Festiveness Coordinator.

Around 2:30pm, we sat down and this happened.

Then this happened.

Look at Alan pulling in with the surprise Banana Pudding! I didn't think I liked Banana Pudding but I stand corrected.

It was a great Thanksgiving and as always a wonderful time to think about all the wonderful blessings in our lives. There are just too many to count. And while there's not enough time in the world to thank God for them all - we'll spend the next year trying our best to do so!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lot of thanks

2011-11-24T13:57:00.013-05:00

Family Resemblance

2011-11-23T17:50:00.001-05:00

People have always said I look just like my daddy.

I just don't see it.

Celebrate we did (like a month ago)

2011-11-22T17:13:00.001-05:00

Our dear Debra D turned an undisclosed number of years old on November 4th.

My dad had a lady at his office make a homemade birthday cake that gave us all even more reason to celebrate.

This cake and I met up an undisclosed number of times over the course of that weekend.

As I think I already mentioned (like a month ago when it actually happened) - Matthew and Larsen rolled into town to celebrate the bday and also go to the GSU game on Saturday.

As usual, we were sooooooo happy to see them Friday night. They are a couple of crazy goons, but we find them to be equal parts lovable and entertaining.

My dad had been announcing our high school's football game, but when he returned we dined on Shrimp Casserole (do not let me father tell you that I pick all of the shrimp out of it. It's a lie.)

Our after-dinner show included Matthew and Larsen's wedding video! It was so sweet to watch and we were in tears laughing so hard at all of M&L's friends as they gave their well-wishes to the bride and groom. Talk about some crazy goons for real.

Saturday we got up with one thing on the mind - football. Actually, 2 things. Football and tailgating. Anticipation was only heightened with things like this littering the counter tops.

It was a little chilly out but that just gave us more reasons to hug.

Larsen's parents and sister were there!

Plus a lot of other friends came by!

Can anyone spot the Bentonator?

Sisters-in-laws by chance, friends by choice. Crazy by natural ability to be ridiculous at a moment's notice.

Did I mention how much we love Larsen's fam!

And did I tell you how when the Tysons stand next to them it looks like an episode of Little People, Big World?

Pretty soon it was game time. Can you spot the happiest man in America?

I think I already mentioned (like a month ago when it happened) that this particular game was somewhat touch and go.

But in the end - victory.

It was a perfect day of doing what we love with the people that we love.

Sunday we went to church and it was made extra special by the fact that M&L were with us but also because it was the first service at the newly built sanctuary at my parent's church.

It was a packed house and it was an amazing service!

Can you spot Big Al in the choir (looking at his phone because somehow he locked it and couldn't figure out how to get it unlocked).

After church we went to eat at The Beaver House.

We took advantage of our wait time by taking family photos.

Grammy!

Cutest couple in America.

With the cutest little lady.

You know how those babies in the fam are never ones to be left out of a cute picture opportunity....

The Tyson women. We have "New Girl" Tyson, "Someone please de-Tyson her" Tyson, and "Old Girl" Tyson respectively.

It was definitely great family weekend!

GATA

2011-11-18T08:31:00.007-05:00

So the Eagles traveled to Wofford last Saturday. 31 points later - this happened!

SOUTHERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS!

As you can imagine, we are all pretty excited. I will let Alan tell you more about it, and about a little school we are headed to play this weekend. Just a small team out of Tuscaloosa.

GO EAGLES! BEAT BAMA!

One more time

2011-11-11T10:24:00.004-05:00

Remember that time Larsen and Matthew and Larsen's fam came down for Homecoming and something crazy happened to the Eagles and they made me have a heart attack by letting the game be decided by a 37 yard field goal by The Citadel with 18 seconds left in the game and only leading 14-12?

Well, you may not because I have not posted the recap yet, but just know it was:

1. Super fun! (The visitors)

2. Very delicious (The tailgate food and otherwise)

3. Extremely anxiety-inducing (The game. The 18 seconds left on the clock. And the other team going for a FG.)

4. Happily ever after (The kicker missing the FG.)

5. Super super fun (Again, the visitors)

On to the next game and onto the next gameday commercial! It's a good commercial and I know it's going to be a good game!

GO EAGLES! BEAT WOFFORD!

Open up a can on these canines

2011-11-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well last Saturday was not filled with leisurely football watching.

Sitting in the living room watching GSU play in Boone brought some very trying times. And while there were some brief moments of glory, in the end our Eagles fell to App State 17-24.

But, we're getting up, brushing it off, and getting ready to take on our next opponents! And this one is sure to be epic fun for a few good reasons.

1. It's Homecoming!

2. Matthew and Larsen (AND Larsen's fam are coming!)

Here we are a couple Homecomings ago...

We can't wait for them to get here!

Making this even more a of celebration is the fact that today is my lovely mother's bday!

Matthew and Larsen will roll in tonight, and I'm pretty sure having all 3 of her kids with her is making all her birthday wishes come true. Happy Birthday, Mama! We love you!

It's going to be a fun one, folks!

GO EAGLES! BEAT THE CITADEL!

Highlights

2011-11-02T19:40:00.002-04:00

Last we left off, it was last weekend and we were having a fun with The Marls and her red-headed, good humored friend-boy.

Back in those days, Jake drove me around on a golf cart.

Little did we know that only one week later, he'd have quite the upgrade with which to cart me around.

That's right - a milestone was reached over this past weekend. The Jakester got his first car!

While he is still on this side of 15, a deal on an extremely awesome ride came along that was too good to pass up. I have a lot of love for this car and am very excited for little Jakey Poo.

Some other weekend highlights included the search and rescue mission to borrow this beauty.

Marsha and I are planning an extremely fun photo shoot with our girl Dana in the next couple weeks. Marsha had the great idea to do a vintage, old-timey theme and that really sent my idea-maker into overdrive for some reason.

I remembered that my grandmother, a retired beautician of 40 years, had this old hair dryer in her house. The one item saved when she closed the shop (located in the back of her house) many years ago. We think it will help make for some really awesome pics. Dana, get ready sister.

Saturday afternoon, Marsha, Jake, Mama, and I went to the movies. We saw "In Time" with Justin Timberlake.

In the words of the movie goers:

"I want my time back." -Marsha

"This will end Justin Timberlake's career." -Jake

"This is a movie....for no one." -Deb

Shakes head back and forth in disbelief -Jenna

It may have gotten a ton of laughs (note: it was not an intended comedy) and a 0 out of 5 starts, but we still heart you JT. Success will find you again. You know what they say - what goes around, goes around, goes around comes all the way back around.

Thankfully, the rest of the night was quickly redeemed once supper hit the table.

Even though the waffle dinner put an end to the weekend, the fun did not stop and rolled right into Monday.

While Marlee was in high school The Hagan's hosted a Halloween Party. These were epic.

Jake Hagan, loser that he is, has thus far rejected the idea of carrying on the tradition with his group of friends.

Thankfully there are other bodies (namely, Rebecca Lauren) taking up residence at the Hagan Home currently, and they happen to be cool and invited some friends over so the tradition could live on.

And boy did it ever.

I think originally it was going to be a dress up party, but most people ended up costume-less.

Becca admitted that she failed to mention to Laura and Bryce that she and Cam were going to be partying sans costume. I am so glad she forgot to tell them.

I know I am easily amused, but we laughed for about an hour at these two. The costumes of course were hilarious, but they were in full character pretty much the entire night.

I had to take a Tylenol by the end of it because I had a headache from laughing so hard.

Phoebe, on the other paw, was not amused. Apparently she is not a fan of the elderly. She wouldn't even look at them.

We took the party outside by the fire - a night complete with chili, hot dog roasting, and s'more making.

And lots of laughter, as usual.

The following 3 pics compliments of Marsha Hagan Photography. :-)

Jesse, Carolyn, and Lucky joined us - complete with costume! Golfer, blind girl, and seeing eye dog, respectively.

Mitchell (who would later be described as "not overly mature" in a separate incident) wow-ed us with his s'more making abilities.

I think the final count was something like 3 graham crackers, 6 marshmallows, 6 mini Hershey's, and 2 Reese's cups.

Grandpa even put on a show for us.

It was a perfect Halloween night!

Time to bow up

2011-10-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

In my life, I have logged many an hour watching youtube videos.

But should someone hold a gun to my head (someone who really takes youtube seriously apparently) and ask me my FAVORITE youtube video of the year, it would be the one below. Although I really did like the Fried Chicken Song.

But no. Definitely this one:

Last year our Eagles took down No. 1 (and arch rival) Appalachian State. In overtime. At Paulson. On Homecoming. Breaking a App State 26-game conference win streak. (Their last loss had been to us in 2007.)

It felt good. It felt really good. I just recently got my voice back from yelling so much after App fumbled and we recovered and crowd went wild.

Well, a year has passed. Our Eagles are stronger than ever, but App State is, as always, a strong competitor as well. And as is the case with alllllll GSU vs. App games - there is just no telling.

Big Al has some stats on how these guys have matched up in the past, and like he says - it is sure to be a battle of epic proportion. And I can't wait to see our men in blue pull out another victory!

GO EAGLES! BEAT APP STATE!

#CMTakeover

2011-10-25T11:30:00.001-04:00

Over the past few weeks, this particular weekend has looked several different ways. Plans being made, people coming, plans changing, more people coming.

In the end, it turned out to be a weekend full of fun.

First stop - football!

Little Jakey played his last home football game Friday night and we were all there. I donned my (Marsha's) purple bag and, as always, spent time yelling for the Gators, handing off lens, and saving Marsha's life on at least 2 occasions.

Smalltown football. Gotta love it.

What a stud.

Fan sandwich!

There were a few extra fans on the field that night - Mar Mar came home for the weekend!

And she brought a.....red headed giant with her?

Indeed she did! Meet Collin - our favorite ginger in all the land.

Actually, you may already know Collin. He made his first appearance at the Lake over the very memorable Memorial Day Weekend.

Back in those days he was just Marlee's "friend from school". A jolly lad whom we instantaneously enjoyed. In the span of months between then and now, ol' CollinK went from friend to friend-boy to boyfriend!

We are super happy for cute Marls. And we are super happy for ourselves too, since we seriously heart that big leprachaun.

And the blonde chick ain't half bad either.

After the game we went to eat at IHOP then back home where we carried on our usual shenanigans until the usual early morning hours.

I woke up looking like this.

Thankfully we were able to brush off our sleepy-ness and have some good old fashioned fun at The Fair.

Collin had never been to a country fair so we made sure to prepare him for the cow roping and pig wrestling and all the world's smallest people. I think he was glad to know we were kidding and he was safe.

Really the only things to fear are the oversized stuff cows and the giant Bob Marley bananas.

Oh - and all the death defying rides that awaited.

And by far the most treacherous of all....

We enjoyed following these two around like paparrazi. 1. Because they are cute, and 2. Because we live to embarrass.

Team HAVIN FUN on the swings!

While Collin's claim to fame is his monkey impression - he also imitates birds quite well.

This was Collin trying to get Marls to go on some fast, spinning ride. As fun as throwing up is, she wasn't having it.

They did manage to get their money's worth out of their tickets with some old fan faves.

One of the highlights of the day was running into these sweet people!

Ash and the boys were all cuter than ever.

We ended our time at the Fair the only way we knew how.

Then it was back to the house for a wonderful meal a al Chef Greg and a night full of friends and games.

No icing? No problem. "Let's just mix cinnamon and sugar and put it on top. I think I had that once and I think I loved it." -Marsha Hagan

The fun was getting so intense that my bangs went haywire and I needed a bobby pin in the worst way.

Apparently I get innovative at 3am. I should save all my thinking til that time of night.

In the end, we had a fabulous day!

I think we all agree that Marlee is definitely playing her cards right with CK.

And seriously - we're all winners here.

Bust the clock on these Blue Hose

2011-10-21T10:00:00.006-04:00

I told Big Al he was looking pretty snazzy yesterday when we filmed the commercial.

"Looking good, Al!" I exclaimed upon entering his office. "I'm diggin' that vest."

"Well you should - you gave it to me."

Just add Costume Designer to the list.

There was definitely cause for dressing up this week because our Eagles beat arch rival Furman 50-20 last Saturday!

Keep those big numbers coming, boys!

GO EAGLES! BEAT PRESBYTERIAN!

The Hungry Chef

2011-10-20T18:50:00.003-04:00

When Marsha broke her ankle last year, I stepped up as head nurse. Obviously she couldn't walk for many, many weeks so I gladly assisted her as best I could. One of those ways happened to be cooking her something every once and a while.

Well, making her something.

One evening we decided I should make Cornflake Candy. Not that one needs an excuse for CC, but it does have special happy powers and the patient was definitely needing some during that dark time.

Having seen Marsha make this treat many times over the course of our friendship, I hopped up, went to the kitchen, and gathered the ingredients.

As the story goes when Marsha tells it, all of a sudden she tuned in to what was happening in the kitchen and this is what she heard:

"Ok guys! Now we are going to take the sugar and Caro syrup, pour it in the little pot, and bring it to a boil!"

And it continued:

"Ok guys! NOW we are going to pour the peanut butter mixture all over the cornflakes!"

Slowly but surely, I OK GUYS-ed myself through a whole little Cornflake Candy-making cooking show. And ever since my series premier, I have the habit of going into full-on Food Network star every time I am around at least two ingredients that are going to be combined in some way.

"OK guys! Now I am going to pour this milk over this cereal!"

It really happens.

I share this story to set the stage for my pure excitement over what occurred out at the Hagan's on Sunday afternoon.

Last week Marsha told me that a college guy we know through our dear Rebecca was filming a cooking show for one of his classes and wanted to use their kitchen. She agreed, and on Sunday Brett and Sarah came over and started setting up for the first REAL cooking show to be filmed in the Hagan kitchen.

We've come a long way since the humble beginnings and the Cornflake Candy.

Lucky for Brett, his sister just happens to be a chef and was a prime candidate to help him with his video assignment.

We instantly loved Sarah.

And let it be said that we were extremely impressed with the set-up. This was no MacBook Pro filmed movie.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Maybe one day we can film Alan's commercial with something like this...

Although she has been my co-host many times, Phoebe was very concerned and confused about what was happening in her casa.

She kept looking around like, "What in the name of treats is going on here?"

When we revealed that Sarah was going to be cooking, she was immediately on board.

"Don't let this fat belly fool you...I haven't eaten since like an hour ago."

Sarah is a trained professional, so it was so fun to watch her get set up.

She had beautiful ingredients and shared with us that she was going to be making several appetizers.

Getting everything set up....

I was the stand in for a little bit so Brett could check the cameras. It felt like I was looking into my destiny.

Pretty soon it was time to get started!

Sarah began the show by putting together some Roasted Red Pepper Canepes.

I could have had her stop right there with the olive oil drizzled, sea salt sprinkled baguettes. Which is why my cooking show would never make it off the cutting room floor.

This was actually Sarah's first time being filmed in this way, so she was understandably a little bit nervous.

Because of this, I sat on the stairs in her view so she could talk to me instead of the cam - and I could pretend to be a real live, hungry human being. No acting ability needed there.

It was so fun being in the studio audience.

Finally after much hard work behind and in front of the camera - success!

Let me just tell you - everything was SOOOO good.

And beautiful!

At the end of the video Jake, Brett, and I got to join Sarah in front of the camera as we pretended to be her party guests. I thought this was going to be my breakthrough role, but I don't think the Academy usually recognizes actresses who don't have lines and who work to get spinach out of their teeth the whole time their on screen.

Sarah, you're awesome!

OK guys! That's how you make a cooking show!

Sunday Family Fun

2011-10-19T16:00:00.005-04:00

I went to church with my parents and sassy grandmother on Sunday. The pastor gave a really good sermon and at one point started talking clapping during church.

You know - that cah-razy, rebel gesture when you put your hands together to make a loud, sporadic noise. Generally used to show appreciation for something one found enjoyable.

I've never been to a church where clapping is discouraged, but the point he was making was that there are some people who think if you clap for someone at church you are doing it because you feel like the person (performer/preacher/speaker) deserves praise.

As if by clapping for someone, you are saying that they did something good, as opposed to God doing it through them.

Dr. John said explained that when he claps for someone in church it is because the person - a singer for example - used their specific talents to help him worship God.

He said it much more eloquently, but I like the way he put it because I feel the same way.

Which is why on Sunday after this.....

I put my hands together in a clapping formation. :-)

Yes, Big Al was at it again singing a song I dubbed, "The Jimmy Buffet Song." (It had a laid back Jimmy feel to it and was very good and very Big Al-style.)

It was great and my clapping was two-fold. 1.) Al's specific talents helped me worship God, and 2.) He's my daddy and I was proud!

Iris was so proud, too. (Note this was not a candid of us talking about The Jimmy Buffet Song....it was another "look at me like you love me for the camera" shot. They are her mission in life.)

I just realized Iris and I were coordinating with our zebra print (her jacket, my shoes). I have always thought there was a genetic link to Zebra love.

As always - a sweet Sunday morning with the fam!

Fall Ball

2011-10-17T21:10:00.001-04:00

Much to my excitement, I spent a lot of time this weekend at places like this.

It all started on Friday at a field in Savannah watching this young lad block a bunch of boys twice his size.

The Gators gave us a night to remember as they battled it out against Bethesda. The BA boys prevailed 39-38 - ending the game exhausted and completely covered in mud.

Tired, disgusting, and as happy as could be with such a hard fought victory!

We had so much fun at the game. While I'm pretty sure my blood pressure has just now lowered back down to a healthy range, games like these - so many exciting highs and lows along the way - are SO fun to watch.

Everyone played so great and it really was such a team effort. Of course number 45 was our personal MVP, playing his best game yet.

Not fairing as well as the boys in green were my formerly very cute shoes. Bless their soles - they really took one for the team when we walked out on the field after the game.

Football games make young freshman starters very hungry.

Get that boy a 50 pack.

Saturday brought more of the same, this time in the form of those awesome blue birds.

As we know, the fun begins long before the players take the field.

It all starts in the kitchen with some tailgate prep.

The BBQ Man returned to his roots with some sandwiches.

It's as if he owned a bbq restaurant for 22 years or something.

Getting everything packed and ready for the tailgate is no joke. No piece of paraphernalia should go unturned lest we risk complete craziness.

(Sometimes, the craziness still finds some of us.)

Big Al took us down the road...a path that would lead to ultimate victory.

But the first stop was for a little snack. We just ate whatever we could scrounge up.

New to the tailgate this year is this little festive fellow.

You know what they say - go gnome or go home.

Also in attendance were many familiar faces.

And familiar practices such as greeting the team! I wish Connie like this tradition a little bit more. We can barely get any enthusiasm out of her.

Game time finally came!

Flags blew....

....and Freedom flew.

"One more time!" we did proclaim....

...and fans stayed deep in thought about this blowout game!

In the end, we beat one of our biggest rivals 50-20 at Our House.

As Alan would say, we ran 'em on outta here.

"And folks, you just can't beat that...and you just can't beat Georgia Southern. And you ain't seen nothin' yet." -Erk Russell

Run 'em on outta here

2011-10-14T07:20:00.001-04:00

All this winning is making us cah-raaaaazy!!!!

(Look at that state of the art set, people!)

The number in the W column is getting higher with every passing Saturday, as is our excitement.

The hilarity of Alan's videos is also on the rise.

The commercial clincher scrawled out and ready to be charged to those men in blue.

Furman fans need not watch the following:

GO EAGLES! BEAT FURMAN!

Just a regular Tues

2011-10-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

We are having some fun over here today in our little corner of the world!

After work I headed to Books-a-Million to meet Moesha and Rebecca to find the new bride-to-be a planner. With just 4 short months til the big day, it is time to start cracking down and getting organized.

Also - we want to help Becca not look like this when she thinks about planning a wedding.

Books a mil had lot to offer.

We stood and looked through them for a while. Lists like this did not help the bride in headlights look Bec had going on.

But after we sat down and went through several options, we found a couple of books worth buying. Marsha took the books up to the cash register and got our little bride all fixed up.

We went to eat and then I went to the theater. The main character in our fam was the main character in another play!

Yes, he's the one in the cape. Naturally.

The play was SO good. He did great, and my mother and I laughed hysterically. I was crying I was laughing so hard. I'm actually laughing right now thinking about it. (This is me: hahahahahaha.)

Framer!

Just another regular Tues in these parts!

Engaged

2011-10-07T18:40:00.003-04:00

{The story you are about to read is true. And it truly happened almost a week ago. Pretend like I posted this in a more time sensitive manner.}

Did ya'll smell that last weekend? I don't know about where you're from, but it just seemed like there was something in the air this weekend around here.

At first I thought it was fear. The smell of fear coming from a certain 15 year-old who took his first venture out onto the interstate as a licensed driver.

But then I realized he wasn't scared at all and that he, holding right at 10 and 2, dominated the road with nary an issue, problem, blindspot.

Next I thought it might be the smell of Thai food at the restaurant in Savannah Marsha was dying for us to go to.

She had been recently and wanted to share her wealth (and tiny spring roll things with an addictive peanut sauce) with us.

Was the smell garlic? From this Garlic Chicken dish?

(An entree that was obviously disgusting.)

Was it the smell of post-meal creativity?

Hmm, seems like we would've recognized it if it were. (Since Marsha has an knack for personifying food at about 9 out of 10 restaurants for which she is a patron.)

Marsha, Jake, and I really started zoning in on the smell after a day of shopping at the Savannah Mall. We followed it all the way to a popular restaurant on Tybee Island.

It was a beautiful night. A setting sun, a gorgeous sky, perfectly cool weather. It was a lovely night.

A LOVEly night.

We soon realized that the smell that was in the air - it was love, sweet love.

Our dear Becca got engaged!

Above pic is of the text Rebecca sent after Cameron popped the question. And before she knew we were hiding out a nearby restaurant to celebrate!

Laura and the other Jenna anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newly-engaged couple!

They finally made it and the restaurant erupted in screams! Well, really it was just us that screamed while everyone just looked on, but I know they were all screaming inside.

Becca's hand was paralyzed in this position all night - and rightfully so. Her ring was gorgeous!

Telling us the story of the proposal at a voice level of about 2 octaves higher than her usual. She will never live that down. Only dogs could hear her telling the romantic tale.

Our table number that night was 10, which we thought was cool since we gave the proposal, the ring, and the couple a perfect 10!

It's a shame no one was excited that night.

Sweet friends.

We went to a fun dockside restaurant called AJ's. This is actually a Tyson family favorite that I hadn't been to in years.

I had missed it for obvious reasons.

The Hagans & Co. representing.

It was a great night celebrating our girl and her new fiance. Let the wedding planning begin!

All that excitement and all that seafood eating really made us hungry, so we stopped off at KK for a little night cap.

A sweet ending to a very sweet night.

Stomp a mudhole in their butt

2011-10-07T07:42:00.001-04:00

Most of the time, when someone says they are blue - it means they are sad.

This school of thought doesn't apply when you are TRUE BLUE.

With another win last Saturday, we are more than happy to be blue. We're cheering for blue, thinking about blue, seeing blue.

In some ways we have so much team spirit that I think we are actually turning blue.

My new job has made me quite the inconsistent blogger, but during football season there is one weekly post that always gets published.

You count on Big Al's videos popping up just as much as you can count on those Eagles showing up and dominating on Saturday.

GO EAGLES! BEAT CHATTANOOGA!

Friday Night Lights = Happy

2011-10-01T12:40:00.001-04:00

Just another Friday night on the bright green grass of BA's football field!

There was an extra excitement in the air, at least for my posse. (And it wasn't just because we were experiencing the most perfect football weather - although that did raise our collective joy levels to immeasurable heights.)

Becca and TFran super happy.

Me and Rebecca super happy.

The reason for our extra excitement was due to the fact that our very own gator - freshman offensive guard Jacob Hagan STARTED last night.

(Pictured here about to go in during the game. He played the whole night and did awesome! Jake for Heisman.)

To celebrate Jake's awesome game and a Gator win we went to El Sombrero!

JT and BT even happier.

Our MVP happy with the win...and his mama happy he was successful and uninjured. Emphasis on uninjured.

Even Tara - who is very against letting cameras capture photographic images of her - was happy enough to pose!

A great night!

Go upside their head

2011-09-30T08:45:00.003-04:00

After a blow-out at Paulson last Saturday (and the preceding Saturday blow-outs), I'd have to say that Eagle fans are significantly pumped up.

I know one man in particular who definitely is (see: below).

Our guys are traveling North this week (North Carolina, that is) to take on Elon. I know this will come as a shock, but my father has some specific thoughts about Elon and some specific feelings about Saturday.

I shall now give him the computer generated floor. :-)

GO EAGLES! BEAT ELON!

What we did

2011-09-26T13:10:00.001-04:00

Friday marked the end of my second wonderful week at GSU!

If you saw my to-do list (and on that note, if you DO see it can you let me know where it is), you would see "write post about new job" scrawled across it. Pending the results of my to-do list search and rescue mission, I will hopefully be crossing that off this week!

When I left work on Friday I headed home to freshen up and then over to the Hagan's where I would spend the majority of my waking hours this weekend. I am a frequent flier over there any way, but there was a special reason for my presence this time around.

The note on the back door will reveal a clue as to why.

Yes, little Marls was making her first Boro appearance since she left us the first day of August. (And she was bringing one of our favorites with her!)

Marsha and I had to leave before Marlee and her friend Maddie made it in from The Classic City to head to the BA Homecoming Game.

As always, Moesha was a sideline photog, and I was her loyal assistant. My duties include carrying (a very cute) bag full of camera paraphernalia, shielding her from padded/helmeted high schoolers charging toward her, and sometimes I (along with two very cute little UGA sophomores) pose so she can test out her flash.

As an added bonus this week, we got to stay after the game and take pictures at the Homecoming Dance where booty shaking and teenage awkwardness were in abundance.

Some of these kids have moves I've never seen.

After the dance we went back out to the Hagan's where a crowd was forming. Becca and her crew (including our dear Kayla!) greeted us and we played games, chatted, looked at the night's pictures, and stayed up way too late. I always think that when Marlee's home - if we get to bed before sunrise we are doing good.

Saturday I slept in a little, caught up on some cereal eating and Tivo, then headed back out to see Marls and the gang. We lounged around some more and then hit the town for some shopping and - a personal favorite - some yogurt intake.

I threw in a few iced animal cookies that day. I was feeling kinda crazy.

Our dear Paul Son joined us. We couldn't get him to fully commit to the yogurt, but he did enjoy a handful of sample cups.

Saturday night I went to an outside church service that was really neat and special.

Then it was time once again for to head back out to Moesha's. I know this will be hard to believe, but we embarked on some more game playing. We are such playas.

A new fave was on the agenda - Speed Scrabble! So fun and quite educational. I learn all kind of words I didn't know existed.

Maddie loved it!

As did Jake. When he loves something - like me taking pictures of him, for example - he always covers his face.

Then I say things like, "I don't know how someone so cute can be so against having their picture taken." And he will concede.

Paul LOVES having his picture taken as well. He can't help but smile.

There were lots of smiles that night, actually. See cute Mitchell for example. (Marlee was smiling on the inside.)

Rebecca and I are like, addicted, to smiling. Impossible to wipe them off.

By the end we were exhausted from all the fun.

Just as one should be at the end of a fun-filled weekend. :-)

Fly all over these felines

2011-09-23T07:35:00.001-04:00

One day I am going to write a post talking about my new job at GSU that I heart with a passion, but combining that with a very passionate gameday commercial from Big Al might be more than the little blog can take.

One pumped-up GSU post at a time. That truly is the safest path - lest we blow up with glee.

With no game last week, the anticipation of this week's game is eliciting an ever-growing excitement around these parts. Not to mention that after their game 2 weeks ago, Georgia Southern moved to the #1 spot in the FCS.

That's what we're talkin' bout.

Also breaking records....this guy.

In an unprecedented event, Alan was able to get this baby recorded within about 15 takes. That has happened about zero times in history.

Here's to all of this good fortune continuing at Paulson Stadium on Saturday!

GO EAGLES! BEAT WESTERN CAROLINA!

Catching up

2011-09-14T22:40:00.006-04:00

It has been kind of crazy over here the past week.

CRAZY FUN that is. :-)

4 major things have occurred in the last 5 days.

On Saturday GSU had their first home game. We celebrated by enjoying our fellow Eagle friends, eating like it was our last meal, yelling, high-fiving, and winning!

TAILGATE HIGHLIGHT ALERT:

My sweet and incredible friend Dana and her sweet family came by! Made me so happy. How cute is this little engaged couple above??

On Sunday we enjoyed a nice after-church meal at Cracker Barrel with my uncle who was in town to visit my grandmother for her birthday! (More on that in a minute.)

I chose breakfast for lunch and it was one of the best decisions I made that day.

My grandmother has a slight obsession with people looking at each other in pictures. She finds looking at the camera and smiling to be very lame. For Iris, it's all about the "look at me like we love each other" pose.

Tara Tyson, I know you are reading this and laughing - included this one just for you!

Monday was a very exciting day! I officially joined the staff of Georgia Southern. I will probably do a job update post of it's own soon, but I will tell you this - so far....loving it. LOVING it. :-)

Tuesday marked a very special occasion. Iris "The Gramster" Tyson turned 90!!!

We went over to her little assisted living home to visit and gave her some cards.

This was so sweet to me. My grandmother has pretty severe dementia at this point. She still knows us all and still is sharp as a tack when it comes to quick wit and humor, but her short term memory is pretty much non-existent.

Mama gave her a card but because of the bad lighting and small words, Gram was having a hard time reading it. She handed it to Mama and she started reading it for her. On the side of the card there was a verse. Deb started trying to read it, but had a hard time seeing the words herself.

"The earth is the Lord's..." Deb read then paused to try and read the next line. Without skipping a beat, Iris finished it, "....and the fullness thereof."

She might not remember what happened 2 days ago, yesterday, or even 10 minutes ago - but those verses are hidden deep in her heart and mind and come forth with no effort at all. Oh that we might all have His word buried so deep in our hearts that even failing memory can't take it from us!

This particular card said "Happy 90th Birthday!" Iris, not remembering she is 90, was floored to be informed of her age.

Casually reading...

"Wait. I'm 90?!?!"

"There is no way I'm 90. Someone miscounted."

Sorry, Grammy. Birth certificates don't lie. You are 90!

And we love you!!

And another picture for my cousin - T, you got the coveted spot on the TV! I've always claimed to be her fave, but it might just be her eldest granddaughter afterall. :-) I wouldn't blame her! :-)

Whew!

Between partying it up on the football field, visiting with fam, starting new jobs, and celebrating 9 decades of life, we are pooped!

Hope ya'll are having a good week!

10 years

2011-09-11T15:01:00.012-04:00

I was a senior in high school.

I was joint enrolled at GSU so my schedule looked different each day. That particular day I had one morning class up at my high school, followed by a long morning break until my class out at the college after lunch.

I had left school about 9:30, come home, and was sitting in front of the computer when my AIM chat popped up. It was a friend telling me to turn on the TV.

It was about 10:45am. By that point, both towers had fallen. In the time it took me to leave school and turn on my TV, the world had changed forever. The country had suffered unimaginable loss.

I remember calling my dad immediately. "What does this mean???" I asked frantically. A loaded question for which he had no answer. No one could comprehend it.

It is true that we will never understand....but we will never, ever forget.

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
~President George W. Bush~

Goodbye, Good Luck, and GO EAGLES!

2011-09-10T13:50:00.001-04:00

When I first started at (my now former) job, I took the place of a girl a few years older than me. She was super sweet, incredibly helpful, and very encouraging during the month she trained me. She was leaving due to a move brought on by her husband's job and her desire to stay at home full time with her son. I remember her last day with us so clearly.

It was a bittersweet day for her and it was a bittersweet day for me. She was ready to be out of there, but was sad to leave the co-workers she had grown to love. I was excited to truly start my job, but also nervous because her leaving meant gametime for me. I would now completely take over her job and responsibilities - both of which I felt completely inept to handle, despite her wonderful efforts to train me.

I remember when she left thinking how awesome it must be to be able to leave appreciating her experience there, but knowing she was meant to be somewhere else. And knowing she was leaving so she could fulfill a dream.

"I wonder what that must be like," I thought to myself. I had no idea then what I would experience the next couple of years and when my last day would come.

Last month after I received the call from Georgia Southern offering me my new job, I finally had a date!

September 9th would be the day I would get to leave - appreciating my experience here, but knowing I am meant to be somewhere else. And knowing I am leaving so I can fulfill a dream.

Well, as you know yesterday was SEPTEMBER 9TH!

I have been in a state of disbelief the last week. It just doesn't feel real for some reason. I can't believe it's over! I am extremely thrilled but it was also so weird knowing I wouldn't be running up and down those halls, answering a billion phone calls a day, having to deal with the stress and heartache of addiction.

I kept having those "last time" moments and it was just bizarre.

It was also a very sweet time as I was showered with love and well wishes from everyone.

I found these on my desk when I got to work on Friday.

And this on my chair from my dear co-workers, Linda and Ginger.

These two ladies are the only reason I survived as long as I did. Because of the way our jobs were intertwined, we spent many hours working together each day - my gratefulness to them and my love for them can't be matched!

They are my homegirls.

I spent a good part of the day cleaning out my area. I had to disassemble desk decorations.

I turned in all my keys.

Packed up my paraphernalia (mouse-pad foreshadowing).

I also said goodbye to my phone. She and I spent a lot of time together over the past 2.5 years. I have listened to countless stories through that phone. I've talked to a bunch of precious people, and had more than my fair share of crazy conversations.

And check out that headset. I will possibly miss that headset the most. When I first got it I felt like I worked at the McDonald's drive-thru. Then I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of my computer and realized an uncanny resemblance...

{source}

From then on, I felt like a complete Admission Rockstar. And I fought the urge to tell callers to hit me baby one more time.

My day concluded with a goodbye party in the cafeteria complete with cake! It was a sweet day and I so appreciated every one's well-wishes and kind words. It was a crazy, crazy job in a sometimes crazy, crazy place - but I can honestly say when the tides of insanity rose, the goodness of the people working there never changed! Love them!

Now off I got to the next chapter!

{"Last Day" prize from my mama.}

Friday night, I celebrated with a good old-fashioned high school football game!

The Jakester was playing, so you know what we were doing. Moesh and "The Precious" were doing this...

And I acted as assistant carrying a surprisingly heavy, yet extremely cute Kelly Moore bag full of lenses and gear - along with my camera, sweater (!), and water bottle. Let's just say we had everything we would ever need.

My camera wishes it was The Precious. Blurry as can be, but there is that cute #45 helping the Gators to a 48-7 victory!

After the game we went to Waffle House!

I ate this with the excitement and gusto of a woman who had just had her last day at work!

AS FOR TODAY :-)

The car is about to be loaded with seats, cushions, and coozies galore.

The dips have been prepared and the meat is in the smoker as we speak.

Because it's a little thing we like to call.....

Happy Saturday!

Run 'em back to Davy Crockettville

2011-09-09T07:50:00.003-04:00

Big Al has spent a lifetime teaching me things, so I taught him a little something yesterday when I went up to his office to film the gameday commercial.

Lesson: The joys of Photo Booth.

I also reminded him that even though we all love the commercial and he is most assuredly the master of gameday commentary, it's nothing to get a big head about.

After about 300 (give or take) failed attempts, I don't think we need to worry. The football movie industry keeps ya humble.

One thing we aren't that humble about is our Eagles! It was kind of an ugly time in the land last Saturday, but we pulled out a solid win. I'll let Al give you all the specifics and tell you what's up for our first HOME game of the season!

GO EAGLES! BEAT TUSCULUM!

Random Fall nights

2011-09-08T11:30:00.004-04:00

I know technically Fall does not begin until the end of September, but do you see care on my face? Let's claim it!

Temps are dropping. Football players are running all over the place bustin' heads. Discussions about tailgate food are happening. There was one point yesterday when I went outside and I was chilled. The word "Brrr" even escaped my lips.

I didn't know whether to grab a jacket or strip down so I could keep on saying it.

One thing I loved about the Fall in college was intramural games. Flag football, Ultimate Frisbee, soccer. Please note I did not participate in these sports (I hit my limit on sports my junior year of high school), but loved going to watch my friends battle it out.

On Tuesday our friend Sean took me back to old times and invited us to come out to his Ultimate Frisbee game. Marsha took pictures while Becca and I enjoyed the fresh air and cool night on the bleachers.

With the Fall breeze in my hair and a friend by my side everything was going exceedingly well. That is until one of the guys' girlfriend started talking about all the "old guys" they had out there.

One of the fun things about getting older is you get to pick on people and make them feel uncomfortable when they talk about someone else being old. (Especially when the person in question is substantially younger than you.)

We joked and told them they needed to simmer down with the "23 year-olds are now grandpas" talk. Trying to save it, they followed it up with - "OH they aren't that old....I mean it's not like they're 30 or something."

I lifted my personal ban on sports and tackled her.

Granted, the team is comprised of a more varied age demographic.

While most of the players are in college, they are in their latter years (seniors or in the highly popular "5th year"). And then several (the REALLY old ones) have come back after graduating.

Like Sean, they are back on the team as staff members of GSU.

My fellow GSU-employed friend!

Sean helps dispel rumors about being ancient by wearing these super cool socks, sporting head/wrist bands, eating bananas at half time, and bringing his water bottle in a cooler to keep it cold. :-)

It was such a fun Fall night!

{Sky pic via Marsha Hagan Photography}

Becca's Birthday

2011-09-07T11:30:00.005-04:00

Last week our little Rebecca had a birthday!

For the last few years, Becca has been a staple in our lives. She was the ring leader of our college Bible study girls, and somehow we tricked her into staying in the Boro after graduation. HAHA! Got her!

By the end of college our sweet Becca had snagged an awesome fellow, as well as landed a big girl job serving a local church as a youth minister. You can't even believe how awesome this girl is. I mean, her handshake alone....

Because of all the happenings at the end of Becca's senior year (graduating, getting job, everyone moving away, etc etc), it was decided that she should shack up with the Hagans for a bit until things settled.

HAHA! Got her again!

Now we have total Becca access - just the way we like it.

So when the ole birthday rolled around, I got word that a little celebration was being orchestrated last Thursday night. It was to be a night of hanging out at the house with some of Becca's people, eating cupcakes, playing games, and distributing lots of bday love.

Hanging out....

{With the lovely Laura, for example.}

{We make birthday people stand in the middle.}

{To supplement for all the calories burned due to extreme laughter.}

{Little Phoebes wouldn't have missed it. She even put a b-o-w (we have to spell it out lest she realize it's there) in her hair for the occasion.}

Eating cupcakes....

{Homemade with love in the Hagan kitchen.}

{Sweet cousin Mitchell playing with fire - helpful yet scary.}

{Rebecca's reaction after counting the candles. It hurts, we know.}

{LG showing us the proper way to take the cake.}

Playing games....

{BLURT to get people warmed up and Things because its a reigning fave.}

Birthday love distribution....

It was a great night, and we were so happy to celebrate our dear Rebecca!

We love her like crazy and wish her the best year yet!

Labor Day of Love

2011-09-06T09:30:00.003-04:00

Well, I'll tell you.

We've got it. Got it real bad.

But in our defense - we were, well, defenseless. I mean, come on....

This weekend, Mama and I went to hang out with the young man pictured above (along with his Mama and his Nana). We left Friday after work so by the time we arrived in Atlanta, the babe was asleep.

I wanted to wake him up to party but his mom told me heck to the no. So we hung out and talked for a good while but eventually we all agreed that it was in every one's best interest to go to bed. Not because it was late - but we realized the sooner we went to sleep, the sooner we could wake up and see that baby!

That turned out to be the best idea ever, because before we knew....

Thus began the weekend of smiles. I swear this child is going to have the strongest facial muscles of anyone on earth. Those little cheekies get a workout 24/7.

Jayce was happy to entertain us that morning during his breakfast. It's the least he can do for his adoring fans.

And later he practiced intoxicating every female relative he could find in a 3 foot radius with his cuteness.

Some of the womenfolk stayed at a 1 ft radius at all times.

It was during our time discussing all the many things we saw outside the window that Jayce confided in me and told me I'm basically his favorite person ever. And he said it was NOT just because he knows I'll give him whatever he wants for the rest of his life.

After we all got dressed and ready on Saturday we went down to the town square because they were having an art festival. Thanks to all the cuteness of the morning, we had worked up quite an appetite - so we made a lunch stop first.

Our little bulldog checking out the scene.

The Debster!

Me and Risa

Men using various electronic devices to tune out cackling women - it starts early.

After we ate, we headed over to "Art in the Park" and walked around.

They had tons of booths set up with a lot of cool stuff. I found many inspiring and thought provoking pieces.

I quit pretending a long time ago.

Ris and I got a kick out of this little print. It's us! (Note the hair.)

We didn't buy it but I'm thinking about just framing this picture of it and giving it to her for Christmas.

Just kidding, Risa! I know you aren't laughing but at least your son thought it was funny.

It fact there is not much in this world that Jayce doesn't not find laugh-worthy!

And it helps when someone turns their hand into a duck and squeezes your juicy little thigh while making quacking noises.

Anything to catch a glimpse of that grin.

Big boy crossing the street.

They had a lot of stations set up for kids. Their was a clown making balloon animals sitting next to a bubble machine. The bubble machine was blowing bubbles while simultaneously blowing Jayce's mind.

His excitement level was at an eleven.

Pretty soon it was time to go.

But not before making one last pivotal stop.

They had this cute little cupcake shop downtown so we did what we had to do.

It was all very exciting until we decided to be the meanest people ever and make the boy leave. The horror.

Jayce found a comfy spot on the sidewalk to flail around and tell us how he felt about leaving.

He must have sensed that we were taking him home to nap while we did this...

After the nap we went over to Jayce's grandpa's house for a little swim. Cutest fish ever!

Helping his daddy clean the pool. Labor Day - the perfect time to teach the young lad about hard work.

And also a perfect time to learn the how to balance with an equal amount of play.

We had a great night and sadly on Sunday we had to head back.

Here is Jayce receiving the news of our impending departure.

I was feeling the same way and was making the same face, but it wasn't nearly as cute.

Can't wait to see our precious, laughy, genius child again soon!

Match these mutts

2011-09-02T07:29:00.001-04:00

Here's the (ghetto) set up.

Here's the script.

Here's our host (picture taken accidentally when trying to record...it's hard to get good help these days).

And here we go!

GO EAGLES! BEAT SAMFORD!

A video....about videos

2011-08-31T10:55:00.004-04:00

Very soon there will be a lot of "kicking off" in the world of football. Because of this, I thought it'd be fitting to do a little kick-off video for our new season of Alan's gameday commercials!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, hopefully this goofy little video will explain it - and Big Al of course makes some cameos as well (via videos of olde). :-)

And just to keep everyone as up-to-date as possible on the latest gameday commercial news (because I know it's all any of us can think about), this week's commercial has been written and I have already heard the preliminary draft.

If his new one is any indication of things to come, well, it's gonna be fun year. :-)

Football Fun

2011-08-30T13:40:00.004-04:00

With football starting up this weekend, you may see a theme here on the blog for the next couple (few) days (months).

I actually attended my first football game of the season last Thursday! I try not to accept the fact that Jake is 15 and in high school, but when I see him walking out with the Varsity gators - it makes it harder to live in my pretend universe.

Jake goes to a small private school and they were playing another small school, so it was a very close-knit evening on the sidelines.

We were so close, I could smell the sweat! Not really because I can't smell, but I heard it was pungent.

They won the game by a landslide and Jake got to play a bunch and was ballin, so it was a great night all around.

One last note about the closeness of the people in proximity to the action: it's dang scary!

I stood on the sidelines with Marsha while she took pictures, and I basically had to rescue her from getting tackled like 10 times.

"Woman!" I would yell every time I pulled her back from the sideline and she cheated death by trampling.

"For some reason, I just feel like when I'm behind this camera I'm protected," she shared.

"Ok, well, thank you for that beautiful story but you're not - and you're not doing my blood pressure any favors."

Perhaps the boys should add delusional photogs (and their life-saving assistants) to their pre-game prayers.

It was a fun night and a great way to kick off the season!

Weekend Review

2011-08-29T20:00:00.004-04:00

First of all, thank you all so much for your congrats on my new little gig. I am obviously very excited about what's to come! Glad ya'll are excited with me!

As always, I was thrilled to see this past Friday come to be, even though no real plans were in the works. I ended up over at the Hagan's and then took Jake and one of his friends to the SHS game. Though it tis my alma mater, I opted out of going to the actual game - but I enjoyed seeing the evidence that Fall was officially here, athletically speaking.

Seeing a billion people up at the high school, then rolling down the window and hearing Big Al's voice over the loud speaker (he announces the games) just made it feel like Summer has really ended. There was even a slight drop in temperature. At least one or two degrees.

After the game we picked the boys up and headed to Sonic. The Phoebster even came along for the ride. She was coveting my DC.

"One is never too young or too old for an ice cream cone." -Mahatma Ghandi

By the end of the night it felt even more Fallish outside, weatherly speaking. We just had to wait til like 10:30pm to experience it. Phoebe wanted to jump out and run across the Courthouse lawn, but I advised her against it. I told her that's how dogs get shot.

Once we were home, we busted out the ever popular Things!

Cam and Becca joined us and their presence definitely contributed to the intense laughter.

But let us not forget that Things is also serious business.

Just ask Mitchell who is always trying to dispel something.

And/or creep on people's pictorial hugs.

A night at the Hagan's is very fun, but can be very exhausting.

Saturday I did some cleaning and then got invited out to the pool. Woohoo! 4 bags later, and I realized I am not "pool ready" at a moments notice.

Phoebe "Wet Rat" Hagan getting a little sun.

And a little swim.

This was Phoebe's face when I told her that her hair was going to turn green from the chlorine.

She was out of there after that. I hated to spoil her fun but I am trying to protect from hard roads I've already walked.

The rest of the day on Saturday was pretty low-key and uneventful.

Sunday I went to church with my parents and then my mother and I were co-conspirators at tricking my father into going to our favorite Sunday lunch spot - McAlister's!

My soon-to-be NINETY year old grandmother joined us as well.

She always provides lots of laughs for the whole gang.

These two laughed so hard at themselves they about worked up a thirst.

Good thing McAlister's is known for massive liquid refreshment.

I hope I look this good when I'm ninety.

When I showed Iris this picture, I said - "Look how pretty you are, Gram!" To which she replied, "Oh yessss, I am pretty. Except it looks like I gotta squeak eye."

Say what now?

All the Tyson ladies (we just needed Larsen!)

After lunch, I defied the odds of sanity and went to Walmart for some groceries. Since I made it out alive, I decided to celebrate by putting a little vlog together to kick off football season. Or "football gameday commercial" season as this short video will address.

I am planning to post that on Wednesday unless I decide before then that posting it would take away more cool points from myself than I'm willing to forfeit. :-)

Today was back to business as usual! Two weeks from today I will be officially employed by GSU...and since next week is Labor Day, I realized earlier that today was my very last Monday! Ohhh yes.

Now that it's official...

2011-08-26T10:00:00.007-04:00

When I opened up my work email on Tuesday morning, I immediately smiled.

I clicked on an email sent from my boss to all staff members, and read these words....

"Dear Staff: I have regretfully accepted the resignation of..."

From time to time, we will receive these notifications. Our CEO will send an email to everyone letting us know when a fellow co-worker has decided to close their season at this treatment facility.

As with all places of business, people move onto different things - and I am always sad to get that resignation email. It means I won't be seeing that someones smiling face in the halls anymore.

But when I clicked on that email on Tuesday morning and read those opening words, I was not sad.

"I have regretfully accepted the resignation of..."

I wasn't sad because I already knew what the remainder of that sentence was going to read.

"...Jenna Tyson, Intake Coordinator. "

I have never really talked much about my job on this blog. I talked about it a little when I accepted the position in March of 2009, but since that time, it has never been a common subject matter.

{I know you can't tell, but I play with my nametag when I'm stressed. I like to think the smiley face sticker helps distract from the curling edges.}

I don't talk about work for many reasons - the most notable being that I am bound by Federal Confidentiality Laws. :-) The ones that prohibit the disclosure of any information having to do with anyone who may or may not have called/been admitted/or even looked in the direction of this treatment hospital.

HIPPA and blogs are not best friends forever.

It's really a shame though, because in a perfect, non-confidential world - I would have soooo many blog-worthy stories from my work life.

Even for the most astute mathematician, they'd be countless.

But, being the law-abiding citizen that I am - those stories are going with me to the grave. Or at least going with me until I can't remember them anymore which is probably a more accurate time frame.

What I haven't shared publicly is that for the past little while, I have been desiring a vocational change. I love the people I work with, but the job itself is something I feel like is no longer a good match for me. More plainly said - this job was making me kind of crazy.

(Ask around. People will vouch for this.)

I have gone through the many ups and downs and have come to realize that while I am so thankful for many of my experiences here - I am just no longer meant for this world. In other words, I've been thinking it might be time to blow this joint (sorry, drug humor).

There is about a 20 chapter book that I won't write about my journey that led up to my boss' Tuesday email. It was filled with a lot of tears and a lot of discouragement and stress. I won't go into the whole backstory - the only reason I wish I could share it all would be to truly show just how amazing God is...how He has fulfilled the verse I have beside my desk and have read a million times over the past couple years.

He knows our hopes and dreams and He wants to fulfill them. In 2009, He answered a prayer by giving me my current job, and even though it has been a whirlwind to say the least - it was part of His plan for me. It was needed in the big picture and it's lessons will be invaluable in the years to come. As hard as it has been, I know that it was all part of His promise to give me the future I hope for.

SO - ALLLLL of that being said, I am happy to announce that soon He will fulfill a longstanding desire of my heart.....

Yes! On September 12, 2011, I will add a new title to my Georgia Southern repertoire.

I started as a loyal, lifelong fan. Then I enrolled and spent 4 years as an official Eagle. Then I (sadly) graduated but (happily) took on the badge of Alumni.

And now I will, with great pleasure, take on the title of...

Employee!

Everyone around here is totally turned upside down with excitement about it!!

As you know, we are pretty hardcore fans, supporters, and lovers of this great University.

I am so excited about my new job (I will be working with students as an Academic Advisor), and I can't wait to take my True Blue self and start this new chapter of my life!

Dog Days

2011-08-15T09:30:00.004-04:00

The days of Summer are winding down. You can feel it in many ways around here. Kids going back to school, kids going back off to college. Students coming back into our college town.

The morning drive has a little more turbulence. Walmart is a mad house 24/7. And the end-of-summer heat is impressive, oppressive, and hopefully soon - regressive.

There is a lot happening and though the Summer has been crazy, change is a'coming.

Until then, we are just trying to enjoy these last dog days of the season.

Yes, there is still lots of working. But still lots of playing. There's quality time having. Late night moving-going. (And late night movie crying my eyes out). We have tons of weekend chilling. Couch laying and movie watching. Church going and home organizing.

A little dreaming. A little over-heating. A lot of hanging. A lot of chatting. A lot of laughing.

Throw in some hoping, some thanking, some fun-planning, and (of course) some loyal Sonic visiting....

And all of a sudden, these dog days of Summer are all summed up.

Weekend themes

2011-08-09T14:00:00.002-04:00

This past weekend can be broken down into 4 very enjoyable themes.

Entertainment

I was definitely entertained this weekend. It all started with this on Friday night.

My mother is the ultimate movie critic. She even has a world-renowned 6+ page document listing all of her favorite movies by category with a 1-5 star rating system. If her daughter was worth anything she would have started a blog for her to track her movie reviews, but unfortunately her daughter is a loser.

Regardless, she is always the first one I turn to for theater guidance. We don't always like the same thing, but she knows what I enjoy and after seeing Crazy, Stupid Love she let me know immediately - "Jenna Babe - this is your kind of movie."

With Steve Carrell (funniest ever), Ryan Gosling (hottest ever), and Emma Stone (second funniest ever) I felt pretty confident. And for the record - Deb strikes again!

Also this weekend I managed to watch 2 other movies of which I had never seen.

I don't know how it happened, but I got left behind on the Bourne series. But don't worry, completing the trilogy (or are there 4?) is on my bucket list.

Saturday night we watched Big Fish. I can't tell you one thing that it was about since confusion took over the minute it started, but I think I really liked it.

In addition to being entertained by people who don't really exist and stories that are made up - I spent some good quality time with real live people making real live stories as well!

Cam and Rebecca - always bringing out the fun.

And Jake, always bringing out the goon.

Also (not pictured) Marsha, who is always bringing out the "If you take my picture and put in on your blog, I'll kill ya."

Eating

I feel like all I did this weekend was eat.

Friday night movie food.

After movie treat.

Saturday night food.

It was cooked with love and just the right amounts of butter and salt and cheese by Cameron.

There was more consumed throughout the weekend, but I was too busy eating it to take the picture, it seems.

Educating

The goon mentioned above achieved a milestone on Sunday. Jake Hagan....turned 15.

On his birthday, I always like to the tell the story about how I once felt him kicking in his mama's stomach, but I'll refrain. But just know - I felt him kicking in his mama's stomach, and now he is going to be driving and I just don't know what to make of that.

On Saturday we had a study session as we enjoyed a late lunch at Barberitos. Becca took the reigns of quizzing Jake (who is taking the driving test to get his learner's permit today).

I'm going to tell you the truth - they have made this test super hard and if I took it right now, I would definitely not pass. I barely passed when I turned 15.

Seriously, when I took the test to get my learner's permit, I turned my completed test in and when the woman was grading it finished, she looked at me and pointed to an answer -"So, um, are you sure you meant to be 'A' on this one, honey?"

"Oh let's see," I said somewhat confused about what was happening. "Huh - um, no ma'am I actually meant to put....(looks at the smiling grader lady and I start cluing in)....'C'?"

Lady smiles. Lady stamps PASSED. Lady has no idea what she has done.

Because we can't be sure Jake would get a worker so willing to break the law and put ill-equipped children behind the wheel, we took his study session seriously.

Studying can be stressful. Call out multiple choice questions at your own risk.

Update: Jake passed. Watch out world.

Entering a new Era

Because of the big bday on Sunday, we had a fun time celebrating the boy I one time felt kick in his mother's stomach who is now 15.

There was the Saturday night supper...

...served on the special Celebrate plate.

And then, well, there was this.

I love people who are born and who have the same favorite cake as me!

My grandmother used to make the best caramel cake, but this one was pretty close to it! Jake chose caramel cake as his dessert of choice. That's my boy.

The cake was huge, but I started thinking that had I been featured on a Man vs. Food challenge, it's possible I really could have eaten the whole thing. And I am not kidding, because it is not ok to joke about cake.

On the actual bday, Jake had big plans. The youth group at church was putting on a RAVE for the kids. What better way to celebrate your bday than dancing around in a 150 degree room with 100 of your closest friends, illuminated only by a pyrotechnics and a black light?

And to conclude the weekend, we brought all the themes together as we entertained ourselves by eating cake at the RAVE, while educating others on how to best embarrass a teenager as he entered into a new era of his life.

Moving Marlee Takes Muscles

2011-08-03T10:40:00.006-04:00

Taking Marlee back to college forced us to use a lot of muscles on Monday.

First off, using the smile muscles upon departure.

Did you know it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile?

I think we've all know that since like 3rd grade, but I find it to be a anatomical fact worth remembering.

So in efforts not to over exert ourselves by using more muscles than we had to - we chose to smile rather than frown and focus on the sadness that The Mar was leaving us.

The real story is that Marlee's last week in the Boro was quite stressful. She had her wisdom teeth out and had a really bad time with the recovery. On top of that she had an allergic reaction to her medicine, and while you can't really tell in the picture above - her whole body was broken out in a rash.

You know - every girl's dream when she is trying to pack/move/get ready for classes/prepare to participate in the mayhem that is sorority RUSH.

Marls had already been to urgent care that morning and had gotten some steroids before we even hit the road.

I was afraid the roid rage was going to have her using her muscles for evil - but we all escaped unscathed. She was a trooper!

After a fun drive to Athens (Becca & Marls jamming out in one car, Moesha & I laughing til we cried in the other) it was time to use our other muscle groups loading all of Marlee's stuff up into her new room.

I think she might have left like one pair of socks at home and that's about it. Everything else made the trip.

It really wasn't that bad since we had several helpers. But, I have to say - between lugging all the various bags and paraphernalia from the car and then going on a search and rescue mission for cinder blocks (to give her bed some height), we definitely got a good workout.

The biceps, the triceps, the quads, and the other muscles that I haven't known the names of since the day College Anatomy ended - they were all in attendance at the moving party.

Becca knows. She was the one who taught me how to carry two cinder blocks at one time down two long hallways and two flights of stairs.

I know she wanted to tackle me to the ground because I kept stopping to rest every 10-15ft during this very painful journey.

Did you know it takes more muscles to tackle someone to the ground than it does to hug them? We always choose hugs.

One of our helpers that day was David. Once he got over the shock that a room had just exploded right before his eyes, he was a great asset.

Once we had everything in there things started getting a little stressful. Every inch of the floor was covered, Marlee was feeling worse, the clock was ticking away, and we still had a list of things that she needed to get before we left.

We sought refuge in the aisles of a heavenly fortress.

It was at Target that we really started making some headway. We got organizational storage bins, a lamp, extension cords, curtains, etc etc.

It turned out, though, that my favorite thing I found in Target that day was something that couldn't be bought - my bff Megan!

I met Meg in grad school and she is the reason I actually survived that experience and am here and able to tell you about it today. Megan still lives in Athens so she came over to Tarjay to join the madness for a bit. I miss this girl!!! (Again with the hugging.)

1 hours, two cart fulls, and one sad goodbye later, the gang was off to get some supper. We went to a yummy pasta place.

The sky started to darken as we finished up supper and made our way back to Marlee's room. It was then that we took part in the fastest organizational experience of my short life.

With Marlee in that feeling bad/can't think state, Marsha, Becca, and I turned into to 3 little Tasmanian devils and swirled around the room putting everything in it's place until.........

.....Success!

By the time we were done, I think Marlee was feeling much better (it's a wonder what a chaos-less room can do for your health) and was very happy with her new room.

We were sad to leave that dear girl, but we know she is going to have a great sophomore year in Athens.

We left Marls with her sweet roommate Devon (that's a lot of cuteness in one room) and pulled out of Athens around 11pm.

We had a fun late-night ride home, and when we pulled in the driveway at 2am - we were very thankful for safe, successful trip!