Our Week - The One with Sleepovers, a High School Football Game, a Georgia Football Game, and a Day in Atlanta

What a week!  I feel like we need a break to recover from our fall break because we stayed so busy.  It was such a fun week, though, and it was much-needed! 

Monday, October 2

Monday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then headed straight to the cardiologist to meet with him about my vertigo.  That appointment was more of a consult, so they didn’t do any of the testing, but they did to an EKG while I was in there, and it was normal.  The doctor was really kind and he spent a lot of time with me, listening thoroughly and answering all of my questions, and I really liked him. 

He scheduled an echocardiogram for me as well as an ultrasound to take a look at my carotid arteries as well as some of the arteries that run down the back of my neck.  My other doctors have been urging me to have that test run just to make sure that the blood flow to my brain is normal since I have some constriction in my neck.  If there were to be a blood flow issue to the brain, then that could explain the vertigo. 

I’m very confident that all of these tests are going to come back normal, but at least we’ll know for sure and rule those things out.  The tests aren’t scheduled for another few weeks – sigh – so there is a lot more waiting to do.

After my appointment, I zipped over to Walmart to pick up our groceries for the next couple of weeks, and then I headed back home to get everything unloaded and put away.

The rest of the day was spent working on blog stuff and tackling some other random things, and then I picked up the kids from school.  Olivia had gotten to make bracelets with her Pre-K4 prayer partner and her teacher tagged me on Facebook on this post... so dang sweet!

Jacob had a golf match right after school, so we had just enough time to get him home and changed for the match, and then he and Brian headed to the golf course.

He ended up smashing his best score ever with a 38 – his previous personal best was a 42 – and also got an eagle on one of the holes (two under par!!)!!  He’s never done that before, and Brian informed me that he’s never even done that before.  Haha.

He was so excited when he got home, and we all sat down and ate dinner together so he could tell us about it.  Monday night we had ranch chicken pasta from the slow cooker, steamed broccoli, and some gluten free cinnamon muffins that I had found at Walmart.  Oh my word, y’all, those cinnamon muffins are AH-MAZING.  I have never had a gluten free baked good that was so tasty.  You would never even know they were gluten free… seriously!

After dinner, I headed out for a walk/run, and then we finally finished this season of America’s Got Talent.  I could. not. believe. who won, but the kids were excited.  Those shows can be so frustrating sometimes.  Lol.

After the kids went to bed, B and I watched some of the new episode of Shark Tank, and then we called it a night.

Tuesday, October 3

Tuesday, I dropped the kids at school and then I stuck around for the Home and School Advisory Board meeting that I’m a part of.  We planned everything out for the rest of the calendar year and started focusing on upcoming events like our big class basket fundraiser as well as Trunk or Treat, and we’re feeling good and organized rolling out of 2023.

After my meeting, I headed home for a bit to work, and then I had to leave again for a meeting with my therapist.  I have been meeting with her weekly since this vertigo has been doing a number on me, but she’s about take a long trip overseas, so I won’t be able to meet with her again for a whole month.  Hopefully I’ll do okay without our weekly meetings for a while.  She has been a Godsend throughout this whole ordeal.

On the way back home, I dropped off a bunch of donations that have been sitting in our dining room for months, and it felt good to unload all of that. 

The rest of the day was spent working on blog stuff, and before I knew it, it was already time to pick up the kids.  I read for a bit in the car while I waited for them, and then we headed home so they could get homework done before we had to get Olivia to dance.

Jacob and I dropped her at 5, and then he and I headed to Publix to get a few things I couldn’t get at Walmart, and then we headed home.  I spent the rest of the afternoon getting the groceries put away, wrapping up my to-do list, and even getting a couple of other random things done that weren’t on my list.

When Brian and Olivia got home, we had a very late dinner – sausage, peppers, and onions tacos, tortilla chips, and fruit – and then the kids headed straight upstairs to get showered and ready for bed.  While they did that, I got in a stair stepper workout and a short arms workout, and then we got the kids in the bed.

After that, we finished Shark Tank from the night before, and then we started a new episode of Only Murders in the Building, and then headed to bed.

Wednesday, October 4

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to get as much work done on the blog as I could before they got out at noon for fall break.  We typically head straight to the mountains every year when they get out for fall break, but this year we decided not to go.  For starters, we’ve had a ton of unexpected costs this year, so it didn’t hurt to save the money.  Second of all, our school’s big rivalry football game was Friday during the break (poor planning between the schools, I know) and we didn’t want to miss it, and we also wanted to go to the Georgia vs. Kentucky game on Saturday, so it just made sense to stay home this year.  Not to mention we’ve had a lot going on lately and it was nice to have a day to breathe and get caught up.  Whew.

So anywayyyy, at noon, I picked up the kids, and then we swung by Chick-Fil-A to pick up lunch because they’re creatures of habit and they love to pick up CFA on noon dismissal days. ;o)

We ate lunch at home, and then I tackled a few more things while they played video games for a bit. 

Olivia had dance at 3:45, so Jacob and I dropped her off there and then stopped at Walmart again to pick up some goodies for the tailgate on Saturday + some goodies for the kids’ sleepovers they had Thursday night.

After that, he and I headed home, and I got all of the groceries put away, I switched from my spring and summer bag to my fall and winter bag, and I tackled a few other small, non-pressing tasks that had been hanging over my head for a while.

I made breakfast for dinner – eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, and toast – and we ate when Brian and Olivia got home, and then when the kitchen was all cleaned up, I set out for a walk/jog.  The weather has been amazing here lately… while it’s still been in the mid-to-upper eighties some days, there has been little humidity, and the evenings have been gorgeous. 

After my run, I got showered, and then we started the new season of Lego Masters.  After the kiddos went to bed, B and I watched another episode of Cruel Summer, and then we headed to bed, too.

Thursday, October 5

Thursday morning, the kids and I slept in a bit and B headed off to work.  I got up, got showered and ready, and then made breakfast for the kids and me.  After breakfast, I got started on some blog work while the kids watched a show, and then we spent the rest of the morning getting the house tidied and cleaned for spend-the-night company.  The kids got their bathroom scrubbed down and cleaned up, and we finallyyyy cleaned out all of their bathroom cabinets while we were at it.  That has been on my list since January – LOL – and we finally got it done. 

We also got Olivia’s nail polish all organized, which is soooo nice.  She had about 30 bottles, so we cleaned it all out and threw a bunch away, and I gave her my nail polish organizer so she could get them organized and stored better.  I pretty much only wear 4-5 colors now, so I don’t need a huge organizer anymore.  I’m going to see if I can find a small one for myself to use now instead.

The kids also got their laundry washed, dried, and put away for the week since we were going to be out of town for the rest of the weekend.  And then we all ate lunch together.

After lunch, they played some video games while I tackled some more blog work, and then we headed to music lessons at 3:30.  Olivia had a makeup voice lesson after her regular lesson, so we were there for an hour instead of our usual 30 minutes.  I sat in on Jacob’s lesson per usual, and at the end of the lesson, his teacher told him that he had chosen him to be the Student of the Month for October!  Jacob was so excited, and it is just so well-deserved.  He is truly a great piano student.

After music lessons, we went to pick up Jacob’s friend, WJ, from his grandparents’ house so he could spend the night at our house.  Right as we arrived at home, Olivia’s friend Cami got dropped off, too, so we had a house full for the night.

We did frozen pizzas and fruit for dinner, and then after dinner, the kids hung out for the rest of the evening.  Jacob and WJ played Minecraft for a long time, while Olivia and Cami listened to Taylor Swift, had dance parties, did crafty things, and worked on writing their scary story for Halloween.  It’s amazing how different boys and girls can be.  Hahahaha.

I headed out for a run once the kids got settled in after dinner, and then I got showered and did a Bible study.  Around 10:30, Brian and I were ready to head to bed, so we got the kids settled in their rooms and said goodnight.

Friday, October 6

Friday morning, Olivia and Cami were already awake when I got up, and they had gotten very little sleep (eek!), so they were ready for breakfast.  We had picked up donuts the night before, so the kids had those with options of eggs, sausage, and fruit to accompany the donuts. 

Jacob and WJ got up around 8:30, and Jacob told me that they hadn’t gone to bed until, like, 2:30 AM, so I knew we had a loooong day ahead of us with two exhausted kiddos. 

I helped them get breakfast, and then for the rest of the morning, the boys played video games while I helped Olivia and Cami make rice crispy treats.  They wanted to decorate them for Halloween, so Cami made a monster and Olivia made a ghost, and they turned out so cute.

Both kids were picked up in the early afternoon, and then our kids spent the afternoon tidying up, hanging out, and getting ready for our big rivalry football game Friday night.  We left the house a little early to swing by and pick up Olivia’s new glasses since they were ready, and she was soooo excited to have them in time to show her friends at the game. 

Our family of four ate dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town and then we headed to the game.  The weather was nice and cool, but it rained on and off all evening unexpectedly, so that wasn’t ideal, but we still had a good time.  One of my friends who I graduated with ended up surprising us there, and it was great to catch up with him because I hadn’t seen him in years.  He and I were really close for my last couple of years in high school, and we kept in touch all through college and into early adulthood, but then lost touch, so it was a surprise to see him at the game.

The game was a close one, but we had an early morning Saturday, so we tore ourselves away in the third quarter, and then I watched the last quarter on the livestream on the way home.  The other team ended up tying the score near the end of the fourth quarter, so we went into overtime, and then we ended up beating them in OT.  Whew. 

They have been our huge rivals for decades, so it’s always an exciting game, and it’s always even better when we win!

When we got home, the kids got showered and in the bed, and then B and I watched an episode of Cruel Summer before calling it a night.

 

Saturday, October 7

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to go to Athens for the Georgia vs. Kentucky game.  The game was at night, but we wanted to get up there early so we could park near my Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg’s tailgate, and we wanted to see my cousin, Wil, before he had to leave for work.  He works for the Georgia football team, so he obviously has to work on gamedays, and he typically has to be at work about five hours before the games start, so we didn’t want to miss him.

Our ride to Athens was fast and smooth because the gameday traffic hadn’t quite started since we were so early, and we watched ESPN College GameDay all the way there.  We were able to get a spot in the lot right next to our family tailgate, and that was SO nice since we typically park downtown and walk to their tailgate, which means that we don’t have access to our vehicle until after the game. 

They’d already gotten all set up by the time we arrived at noon, so we were able to hang with them for several hours until game time.  They had a TV set up, so we were able to watch all of the noon games, and we ate too much and drank too much, and it was a great time as always. 

The kids always love tailgating because they get to snack all day and eat all the treats, and we also brought the Nintendo Switch along for the times that they got bored since we were there for five hours.  They even set up their own little tailgate away from the adults while they were playing.  Lol.

Around 5, we packed up the tailgate and made the mile-long walk to the stadium, we parted ways with my fam, and then we headed to our seats.  The first cold front had moved through the night before, so the high maxed out around 70, and by the time we reached the stadium, it was getting chilly. 

The kids were SUPER PUMPED for the game – we love a night game – and they both had a blast.  It also doesn’t hurt that we whooped Kentucky.  The energy in the stadium was just something else! 

As the sun went down, though, the temperature started dropping quickly, and while we’d prepared for chilly weather, we had not prepared for chilly weather with whipping wind the entire time.  By the end of the first quarter, we were all freezing despite our fleece pullovers, and it was way colder than we’d anticipated. 

In the second quarter, I took the kids down to get dinner and snacks – Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and Skittles – and we took a bathroom break.  We used that opportunity to thaw out a bit, too, as it was nice and toasty in the bathrooms since they had the heaters on. 

Midway through the third quarter, Olivia had a bad dizzy spell, and after that, she just couldn’t stop feeling dizzy.  She ended up laying her head on my shoulder for the next 30 minutes and she looked miserable.  I asked her if she wanted to leave, and she said she couldn’t because she couldn’t hold her head up or everything would start spinning.  And she also wanted to see all of the fanfare that the beginning of the fourth quarter brings… she didn’t want to miss it.  Haha.

The fact that she was having vertigo freaked me out since I’ve been dealing with it, too, and I kept wondering to myself how on earth we were going to get her out of the stadium with 92,000 people and get her all the way back to the car that’s a mile away.  Ugh. 

After all of the magic that the beginning of a fourth quarter night game brings, we decided to attempt to get her out of there since she didn’t look so good.  Brian was able to pick her up and carry her down the stairs and into the tunnel, and then once we were down there, we got her to try to walk while holding both of our hands, and she was able to do that.  As we made the walk back to the car she got to feeling much better, and she’s been fine ever since.  Whew.

We think that the combination of little sleep the previous two nights and too much sugar plus the fact that she’d been wearing her new glasses on and off all day just did her in… most of it being her new glasses since she had been wearing them when she got dizzy.  The doctor told her she really only needs to wear them to read 15+ feet away, so she probably didn’t really need to be wearing them anyway. 

On another note, I had been worried about my vertigo going into the day since there’s so much walking and stair climbing involved, not to mention the bird’s eye view in the stadium can induce vertigo in pretty much anyone who’s sensitive to heights, but thankfully, I didn’t feel any worse than I do on any given day these last few months.  I did have some unsteadiness when walking back to the car that night, but that’s probably because my medicine that I’m taking for it was wearing off at that point.  I was very grateful to be able to feel pretty normal most of the day other than that.

We listened to the rest of the game on the radio on the way to our hotel, and thankfully traffic wasn’t terrible getting out of Athens since we’d left a little early.  We couldn’t find a single hotel room in the whole city, so we ended up staying on the property of Chateau Elan in Braselton, so we had a 45-minute drive to get there. 

By the time we arrived and checked in, it was nearing midnight, so we all got into PJs as fast as we could, and it was lights out for one and all.

Sunday, October 8

Sunday morning, we slept in until almost 9 – it was much-needed! – and then we went down to the hotel lobby to get some breakfast.  They had an excellent free breakfast there complete with eggs, sausage, oatmeal, various muffins and fruits, and a full Belgian waffle bar with vanilla batter and pumpkin spice batter + all the toppings – chocolate chips, fall sprinkles, etc.  All of us ended up making waffles and having various other sides, and the waffles were fantastic.  The view from our room wasn't bad either!  We had a view of Chateau Elan and the vineyards.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room to shower and get ready for the day, and then we checked out and headed to Atlanta.  Our first stop was Trader Joe’s, because when in a city with a TJ’s, you make a stop!  We needed wine and a few other staples, and I also wanted to check out their gluten free stuff as well.  We ended up getting some GF pumpkin muffins and they are AMAZINGGGG.  Gosh, I wish we had a TJ’s here in town!

After TJ’s, it was time to find some lunch, so we ended up stopping at a Shake Shack not too far from TJ’s.  They only had outdoor seating and it was super chilly Sunday afternoon, but thankfully, they had heaters on the patio, so it wasn’t too bad. 

The first time we tried Shake Shack in New York City back in December, I wasn’t impressed at all, but I think we must’ve just caught them on a bad day, because my burger at the one in Atlanta was BANGIN’.  It was so good.  I’ve always heard people rave about it, so I was pretty disappointed when it turned out to be v unimpressive in New York.  I’m glad the ATL location redeemed things for us.

After Shake Shack, we headed to Puttshack for our 1:30 reservation, and my cousin, Shelby, met us there since she hadn’t been able to come to the tailgate with us on Saturday.  Puttshack is a high-tech indoor miniature golf place, and it ended up being so much fun.  There is a golf ball assigned to each player, and the golf ball is electronic, so it keeps your score for you as you play.  And there are all kinds of bonuses you can get on each hole, and lots of unique things you can do at each hole, so the scoring isn’t like regular miniature golf.  In this game, you want to have the highest score rather than the lowest score.

Each hole has a big screen over it, and it tracks your strokes and points so you can see them in real-time, and each hole also has a table, so you can have a place to put your drinks.  ;o)  Because, yes, we did stop by the bar on the way in to grab a round of beers.

I was in fourth place for most of the game, and then on the last hole, I got a hole-in-one which was the big bonus for that hole, and I ended up winning the whole thing!  That might be the first time I’ve ever beaten B. 

Also, they had the cutest bathrooms there, and you know Olivia and I can't resist a good photo op.  ;o)

Once we wrapped up our game, we said our goodbyes to Shelby and hit the road to head home.  When we got home, we had about 1.5 hours until we had to leave for Sunday dinner with my parents, so I was a whirlwind of unpacking, laundry, prepping for the next day, tidying, working on blog stuff, and a million other things.

 

For Sunday dinner, my Momma made vegetable lasagna, salad, beer bread, and a Hershey cake to celebrate my brother’s roommate’s birthday, and after we were done at their house, we all came home and crashed.  We got the kids in the bed before 9 even though they were off Monday, and B and I watched an episode of Cruel Summer + a little bit of Shark Tank before heading to bed ourselves.

The kids were off on Monday as well, but for the sake of the length of this post, I’ll just wait and recap it next week!  In true Lindsay fashion, this post is already far too long!  Lol.

Happy Thursday, y’all!