Tailgating...

So my birthday gift from hubs was tickets to the Alabama Homecoming. We've never been to an AL game together before and it's been almost 5 years since I've been to a game in T-town, so you can see why I was uber excited about my gift! The game started at 8pm, so we had all day to tailgate. We ended up trading our two tickets for 4 tickets and had another couple that met us there. We timed it perfect and got to park right beside each other in a field, so we just set up our tailgate right there. We brought the satellite, TV, grill and snacks. It was soooo much fun! We watched the Auburn game and grilled hamburgers, bratwurst, and andoille sausage. Yummo! We might have turned into slight rednecks when the sun was going down though:)

After the Auburn game, we packed up and headed to Denny Chimes, said hello to a coworker and went in the game.

It was a little bit closer than we all expected, but we pulled out a win. Bummer of the night, was that I had to go straight to work afterward. Thanks Savannah for staying for me:) I was only 2h late, so that wasn't too bad.

Ankle Problems

December will mark the 10th anniversary of me being hit by a drunk driver. I was heading to work one morning and BAM! my life changed in an instant. I was incredibly fortunate that my only injuries were a "crushed" ankle and a knee that was cut wide open. I was in an ankle cast, using crutches and going through therapy on and off for about 2 years.
Fast forward 10 years, and the ankle is showing signs of rebellion. I've always had some struggles when I stay up on it for extended periods of time, such as going to Six Flags or working doubles, but lately it has been unbearable. Working these arts and craft shows have proven to be much more difficult than expected. By the end of the day, I am limping from place to place, sometimes crawling from the bedroom to the bathroom.
I took the initiative to go to the doctor and have it checked out. I had just had enough!
So essentially, I will always have problems. I have severe arthritis in my subtalar joint, which is the most used joint in your foot that supports walking. Isn't that wonderful! I'm 28years old and I have "severe arthritis." I was really throwing myself a pity party after going to the doc. I'm just not that happy about it. But we are taking it in three phases.
Phase one is starting Mobic-a prescription arthritis med, changing shoes, wearing an ankle brace and wearing new insoles to my shoes.
Phase two is having a CT to evaluate the joint and doing shots in the joint.
Phase three is having my ankle bones fused together.
So far phase one is doing the trick and I think that I am going to cancel my phase 2 appointment. I've been to New Orleans walking around half the country, and did great! I must say that it's a relief! I am sure that I will eventually have to move to the other stages, but hopefully that can wait until much later on.

I did get to look at my new xrays and compare them to the ones from years ago which was pretty cool. Here's my CT from the day of the accident:

If you look at the ankle on the left, you can see in the middle there is pieces of bone just floating around in there:)

And here's my xray from the other day:

On the picture on the left, you can see a white line in the middle of the ankle. That's arthritis!

This is how you walk around if you are me:

Just because I need to wear a brace at times, doesn't mean I can't still wear cute shoes!!!

Memphis

The reason I have been MIA for a while is because of my side business. We were in a show two weekends ago in Huntsville and in about an hour, I am leaving work. We are heading out to Memphis for our first HUGE show. Wish us luck! I'm a little bit nervous about it. Especially since we have never been and don't really know what to expect. We have a lot of new products and I am praying for a good following and start of a customer basis in TN. I'll let you know when I get back on Monday...

College Football

College football started in full swing while we were at the beach. I am loving it! I love watching ESPN college game day, I love watching football! We went to watch our niece cheer last night and the game was sooooo good! It was back and forth during the first half, and then Hueytown ended up winning by 2 touchdowns. I just love watching how much these high school boys get into pumping up the crowd and motivating each other. Kent bought me tickets to go watch my favorite team on Oct 16th.

YEAH!! We've never been to an AL game together, so i am really excited! We've seen his GA Dawgs play 3 times and it's about time we go cheer on the Crimson Tide together. I must admit that GA is now my #2 team. There are 2 reasons for that. #1:

The coach! I just think that he is a true role model for college students and he stands for what he believes.

#2:

UGA!!! Enough said!

Gigi's Cupcakes

One of the reasons I am excited to go to Huntsville for our arts and craft show today is because I am going to be picking up some of these:



The coconut snowball

The lemon dream supreme

Cupcakes from Gigi's!!! I really wish that we had somewhere close to my house that had such a variety of cupcakes that taste this good! I love some Edgar's cupcakes, but they just don't have enough variety. Just look at the menu for Gigi's and you will see these plus Key Lime, Mellow Cream, Merry Margarita, Midnight Magic, Miss Princess, Orange Dreamsicle, Peach Cobbler, Peanut Butter Cup, Scarlett's Red Velvet, Southern Comfort, Strawberry Shortcake, Summer Fun just to name a few. (Go ahead, click on those links and your mouth is going to be watering and you will be heading to either Huntsville or Auburn!) Every single one that I have tried, I have loved and wanted again.

On second thought, maybe it's good there's not one close to me. I might gain 100lbs...

Beach Part 2

We got back from the beach around 6pm on Monday night. We had so much fun!! Other than being almost swallowed by a Portuguese Man of War on our last day in the ocean, it was perfect. My face was literally about 3 inches from being that thing's lunch! It is highly likely that I screamed like a little school girl upon seeing it and make Kent drag me all the way to safety while I stayed safely on my raft. I did not step foot back in the ocean after that. At least is was our last day right!?!
Anyway, we spent soooo much moolaa on food, but I wouldn't change it! We tried a total of 3 new places while there and all three were wonderful! If you are in the Orange beach area, you need to try out Flippers! It's a little farther out and on canal road, but that food was so good and they had some pretty cheap lunch specials. I read an article in Southern Living magazine and I am so glad that I read that article.
I finished reading Barefoot by Elin Hildebrand and started Beach Music by Pat Conroy. I still have about 150 pages left, but I am really enjoying it. It's 800 pages long and has a bunch of history mixed in the novel. These are my first books by those authors and I will definitely be reading some more by them.
I just love Gulf Shores/Orange Beach so much. I think that Kent and I will end up living there in a couple of years. I am just so much more relaxed and have such a better outlook on life while I am there. That may just be that I don't have to go to work and deal with people, but I'm just going to say that it's a sign...
Now I am back in the "real world." Working and losing sleep, just your typical night shifter.
I am heading to Huntsville when I get off of work for our arts and craft show. It started yesterday and we have done well so far, just pray that it continues through the weekend.

The Beach

We've been at the beach since Friday and I am having the best time! I worked Thurs night and Kent worked half a day on Friday, so we didn't leave our town until around 5pm. We still had a lot of packing and loading to do since we brought the dogs with us, so let's just say that it was eventful. Lucy does NOT like to travel, so we stopped at WalMart and bought some children's Ben@dryl to attempt to calm her down. She did NOT enjoy that and it did absolutely NO good! She sat in my lap and trembled the entire way! We got to the condo around 9 and started unloading. We found out about a month ago that our condo had been overbooked for the first 3 nights of our stay. The lady was wonderful and did get us into a condo below ours so we just had to move up. We had gotten such a great deal that we couldn't find a better deal at all. I didn't like the fact that we had to move, but money wise, it was well worth it. Since we knew we were going to move, we really didn't unpack anything, we just lived out of our suitcases.

Our first full day, we went to the grocery store and got a few snacks since college football started!! We had pizza for lunch and we watched Kent's Dawgs win big. We took a nap and got ready for my official birthday dinner at Louisiana Lagniappe. Kent was rushing me to get ready and when we got there I realized why. My parents had driven down to eat with us and stay the night! What a wonderful surprise!!! I couldn't believe that Kent had orchestrated this! It was so sweet and such a great birthday gift! Dinner was so delicious! I tried every one's dish and decided that my crab cakes were the best. My mom thought that her jambalaya was since she had been dreaming about it since the day that Kent called and told her where we were going.

After dinner, we went back to the condo to watch my parent's Auburn Tigers, and so I could check on my Crimson Tide. All of our teams won, so it proved to be a great day for all of us!

After the games, we all took a stroll on the beach, and Kent's mom and step dad arrived around 10:30pm. I knew they were coming so that was not a surprise:)

The next morning mom and I went for a looooong walk on the beach and it was so nice to just have some mom and daughter time before they hit the road.

The weekend was super fun and now we are all unpacked on the 8th floor with everything in order. We've also eaten at our all time fave Bahama Bob's and of course Lulu's. Tonight Kent and Kenny are cooking and Donna and I are watching HGTV and blogging. After 2 full days out in the sun, I am ready for a laid back night. I didn't bring my camera cord, so there are no pics right now, but maybe when we get back I will add...