Our Week – The One with HOCO 2021

This week was HOCO 2021 at the kids’ school (and my alma mater) so we had a super fun week that culminated with a tailgating party, the alumni social, and the football game. 

Monday, September 27

Since this week was Homecoming week at the kids’ school, they had themed dress-up days each day of the week.  Monday was pajama day, (probably the kids’ favorite one of the whole week) so I dropped my two comfy cozy babies off, and then headed home to work.

My entire day was spent working on the blog yet again.  As I said before, I’ve been prepping the blog for our mountain trip, and it’s always a ton of work to get that far ahead. 

I grabbed the kids from school at 3, and then we headed home.  We normally go to dance on Mondays, but Olivia had her final appointment with her doctor from when she broke her elbow back in May.

The appointment overlapped with dance, so we ended up having to skip it, which was a bummer for Olivia.  She and I left the boys at home and headed to her appointment, and everything went beautifully.  The PA checked her elbow one last time, and they did one last set of x-rays.  Olivia was such a good patient that the nurse gave her a bunch of stickers, and she was so excited.  The PA looked at the x-rays and then came back in and told us that everything looked great, so Olivia was finally released from their care!  Woooo hoooo!  It was a long four months, y’all.  I’m so grateful to have all of it behind us, and I pray that we don’t ever have to go through anything like that again.

Olivia and I raced home after her appointment to meet the boys, and then the four of us turned right around and headed to the ball field for Jacob’s baseball game.  On the way, we ran through the Chick-Fil-A drive-through to pick up dinner, and Jacob ate in the car, so he’d be ready for batting cages when we arrived. 

The game was a nail-biter, but we ended up winning it in the last second of the game, 6-5.  Jacob struck out twice and got on base once with a walk… the other team had two fantastic pitchers, and they were striking out our batters right and left… even our best ones.  I was so proud of our boys for pulling off the win at the very end!  We were down the entire game, so it wasn’t looking good for most of it.

When we got home, the kids got showered and in bed, and then B and I stayed up late to watch the second to last episode of Clickbait.  It is just so, so good I couldn’t wait!!

Tuesday, September 28

Tuesday was Dynamic Duo day at school (twinning or things that go together), so the kids wore their twinning outfits.  Jacob twinned with his friend, Maddox, who is in his class, and was also on his baseball team last season.  They both wore their jerseys from last season with some navy school uniform shirts, so it was easy peasy.

Olivia and her friend, Aubrey, twinned, and we opted for something easy – white t-shirt, jean shorts, and a blue bow!  Olivia’s friend, Charlotte, also ended up twinning (tripleting?)  with them and I received this picture first thing Tuesday morning.  So sweet!

After I dropped them at school, I dropped off a library return, and then I worked all morning.  I met my old coworker/friend, Tammy, for lunch Tuesday afternoon, and it was SO good to see her.  We hadn’t seen each other since before the pandemic started, so it had been probably 18 months.  Sheesh.

She and I had Mexican for lunch, and she caught me up on her life and family as well as things going on at my old workplace, and I got her all caught up on our family happenings, too. 

By the time I got back home, it was almost time to leave to pick up the kids from school, so I squeezed in a few more minutes of work and then hit the road.  Jacob had an appointment at 3:30, so B met us there and grabbed Olivia so he could take her to dance. 

After Jacob’s appointment, he and I headed home so I could start dinner and he could do his homework.  We had nowhere to be Tuesday evening, so the four of us went for a walk around the neighborhood.  The kids were super excited because a bunch of our neighbors had already started putting up Halloween decorations!!

Once they were back home and getting showered, I headed back out for a solo run, and then I helped the kids pick out outfits for decade day on Wednesday at school.  I also braided Olivia’s wet hair into several small braids so her hair would be good and crimped in the morning.  ;o)

After they were in the bed, B and I watched the final episode of Clickbait, and y’all, my mind was BLOWN.  Totally didn’t see the end coming.  It was fantastic!!  If you’re looking for something that’s truly bingeable, that you cannot stop watching, give Clickbait a try.  You won’t regret it.  It’s definitely rated R, though.

Wednesday, September 29

Wednesday, the kiddos got dressed in their decade day outfits – Jacob was a greaser from the 1950’s and Olivia was an 80’s lady.  The funniest thing about Olivia’s outfit is that the black and grey dress she wore was a real dress that she already had in her closet.  Haha.  So funny how the styles go round and round.  She just threw that dress on with hot pink leggings and some chunky, bright, plastic bracelets, and then we put her crimped hair in a side ponytail.  She polished her look with some heart sunnies, and we were ready to hit the road.

After I dropped them at school, I headed straight to Kia to drop off my Telluride to have it serviced.  Can y’all believe I’ve had it for a whole YEAR?  I can’t.  I will say this, though, I LOVE THAT THING SO MUCH!!!!  A year later, and I can honestly say it is the best vehicle I’ve ever had.  I love everything about it and have zero regrets.  Definitely my favorite purchase of 2020.

B met me at Kia and drove me back home, and I worked for the rest of the morning.  We picked it back up at lunchtime, and B swung by on the way home and grabbed our favorite Greek food for lunch. 

Wednesday afternoon, the kids worked on homework while I got dinner in the oven.  While everything was cooking, I pulled out our Halloween decorations and added those to our fall decorations.  Olivia was thrilled.  She has been counting down the days until the bats came out.  She and Jacob even helped me hang them.  Stay tuned because the post will be up next week!

After dinner, our whole fam went for another walk around our neighborhood.  We walked about a mile, and then I continued without them and got in two more miles.  By the time I got back home, they were both showered and ready for bed, and then we all settled in on the couch to watch the rest of the Survivor premiere.

After the kids went to bed, B and I started the new season of A Million Little Things.  I’m so glad it’s back! 

Thursday, September 30

Thursday morning, I dropped the kids off for What I Want to be When I Grow Up Day.  Jacob chose to dress like an architect.  Since there’s no real outfit for that, we just put him in business casual attire and he carried a blueprint under his arm.  ;o)  Olivia wanted to be a teacher, so she chose a nice dress, a cardigan, some pearls, and we put her hair in a bun.

After I dropped them off, I filled up the car with gas, and then headed home to work for the rest of the day.  I picked up the kids at 3, and then we ate an early dinner at home before heading off to Jacob’s baseball game at 7.  Jacob had a good game – he got a single for his first at-bat and then he got a second good hit, but he was thrown out at first base.  We were down the entire game, ended up tying it up in the last inning, and then we managed to hold them, so the game ended in a tie, 5-5. 

Friday, October 1

Friday morning, the kids dressed in their school spirit day best, and we sprayed their hair red and blue since it was EXTREME Spirit Wear Day.  

After I dropped them, I headed to Publix to pick up some cookies for the homecoming tailgate Friday night.  They had a massive selection of HUGE heirloom pumpkins in all colors, and they were only $5.99 each… I couldn’t believe how inexpensive they were!  I ended up grabbing three different ones for the front porch, and I’m tempted to go back for more!

The rest of the day was spent working and catching up on house stuff, and then I grabbed the kids from school.  As I said before, this was Homecoming week, so we had Homecoming festivities at the school Friday night.  If you’re a long-time reader, you know that my kids now attend my alma mater, so not only was it a special week for the kids, it was also a special week for me since it was my Homecoming, too!

This year, for the first time ever, we had a grade level tailgate party prior to the game, so we headed to the school at 5:30 to set up for second grade since I’m the room mom.  Once everything was set up, we slid out of there and headed to the alumni social that was on the practice field.  Everything was obviously outdoors this year because of Covid, but after not having a celebration at all last year, it was nice to be able to do something no matter where it was.

We checked in at the alumni table when we arrived, and they gave us our food, drink, and game tickets, and then we headed to the table that my friend, Jen, was already holding down for us.  (And today also happens to be her birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEN!!)  Once we were settled in, we made our way to the adult beverage table to grab some beers, and then we got dinner from one of the three food trucks.

For the rest of the evening, we hung out with a handful of friends from my class, and we chatted with some people from other graduating classes as well.  We even got to visit with a guy in my class who I hadn’t seen since graduation as he moved away for college and hasn’t come back since.

We finally made our way into the football game at 7:45, where we stayed for the rest of the evening.  It was so nice to get to hang out with girlfriends who I’ve known since 4^th grade+.  These girls in this picture below?  I’ve been friends with all of them forever… 30 whole years with Jessica and Jen on the left, and 25 years with Becky on the right.  Just crazy how quickly time has passed.

At halftime, we rounded up everyone who was there from our graduating class of 2000 to get a picture, but there were a few who we couldn’t find.  Fun facts, the guy on the left has a daughter who is in Jacob’s class, the girl in yellow has a son who is in Jacob’s class and she taught Jacob, and the girl on the right also has her kids at our school, but neither of them are in the same grades as our kiddos.  

There are many, many other grads who also send their kids there now, and I just think it’s so neat that there are so many from my graduating class alone… there are several more who aren’t pictured.  That’s definitely a huge part of why we love having our kids there… because I’ve known many of the parents for most of my life so everybody already knows everybody. 

My momma graduated from there, too, so our kiddos are actually the third generation to attend.  Crazy, right?

A few minutes into the third quarter we headed home and got the kids into bed, and then B and I watched Ted Lasso and part of The Morning Show before heading to bed ourselves.   We were all exhausted.

Saturday, October 2

Saturday morning was typical – homemade Halloween waffles for breakfast followed by hot cinnamon tea and snuggle time on the couch to watch ESPN College GameDay.  They were in Athens for the Georgia game yet again, so it was a good one.  In the third hour of GameDay, I finally got off my butt and did a cardio workout while we watched the last hour, and may I say…doing cardio the morning after a three-beer night out = do not recommend.  Haha.  I’m getting too old for that.

Our game started promptly at noon and it was a big one as Arkansas was an in-conference game and they were ranked 8.  Everyone kept saying we should be worried and that there was a real chance for them to beat us, but I kept saying there was no way that would happen.  Y’all, I was right.  We whooped them 37-0.  They didn’t even have a chance.

After the game was over, I deep cleaned all the floors and then showered for the day, and then I spent some time in my office.  The kids had already showered and done their laundry, so they spent some time playing video games, and it was just a pretty lazy day at home.  Typical Saturday.  The heat and humidity came back Saturday, so we didn’t even bother to spend any time outside.  After being spoiled with very low humidity for a couple of weeks, the high humidity just felt unbearable.  Plus we’d spent so much time outside Friday afternoon and night that none of us felt the need.

Saturday evening, B picked up Five Guys for dinner, and then we watched the new Star Wars special on Disney+ – Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales followed by the newest episode of Survivor. 

After the kids went to bed, B and I toggled back and forth between the LSU/Auburn game, The Morning Show, and A Million Little Things, and then we went to bed.

Sunday, October 3

Sunday morning was cinnamon rolls and virtual church, planning the week ahead, a workout, and then getting ready for lunch at my in-laws.  They made a delish lunch, and then we all talked for a bit and then walked around the garden.  My mother-in-law showed us some big, fat caterpillars in one area of the garden and we got to see one of them eating a leaf.  So neat!

The rest of the afternoon was spent in my office, doing laundry, and prepping for the (short) school week ahead, plus getting ready for Sunday dinner.  My momma made dinner and brought it over – potato soup, salad, and beer bread – per my littlest brother’s request because it was his birthday weekend! 

We all spent the whole evening gathered around the table on the back porch, drinking wine, chatting, and hanging out, and it was a satisfying end to our Sunday.  We love our Sunday family days!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!