Happy 22nd Birthday, Little Bro!

22 years ago, I became a big sister…..

January 28, 1991

I remember dad picking me up from Kindergarten and telling me Josh had been born.  I could hardly contain my excitement as I gathered my stuff, and headed out the door, but not before I asked my Kindergarten teacher for an extra sticker for my new little brother.

The picture above was taken moments after getting to meet this new little man in my life.  Little did I know how this little guy would change my world for the better.  Although I was only 5, well 9 days shy of being 6, I remember walking in and seeing my mom holding my new little brother and begging to hold him.  Being 9 lbs, 8 oz and 21 inches long, he felt like he was almost as big as me, but mom let me “hold” him with her assistance (you can see her hand in the bottom left corner).  Although it looks like I am strangling him, I promise I wasn’t – in my mind, he was my own little living baby doll, and I’m sure I was trying to put him on my shoulder and gently tap him on the back just as I did my baby dolls.

As you can see, I was a very proud big sister that day, and I can honestly say that I am just as proud of him today, 22 years later.  Although our relationship has not always been perfect, I think he knows I would do anything for him (and I think he feels the same way about me). Words cannot express how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to see him grow into the smart, talented, sweet, and handsome man he has become and how blessed I feel to have been chosen to be his big sister.

January 28, 2013

He was and still is the best early birthday present I’ve ever gotten

Happy 22nd Birthday, Brother Bear!  Thanks for being the best little brother ever!  I love you!

Phone Dump Friday–Spring Break Edition!

 

Before I left to come home for Spring Break, I did some “Spring Cleaning” in my closet.  I have a TON of stuff, so even this little space in my closet was a huge accomplishment

 

 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m OBSESSED with flavored coffee, but it has been a while since I purchased any.   I stocked up on Keurig’s website with lots of their variety packs, which of course means lots of fun flavors for me to try!

 

The hospital that my mom has worked in for over 30 years (and has been open since 1948) closed its doors to patients back in January, but my mom was on the closeout team (she’s the Materials Manager, i.e. she buys and manages all of the supplies) so she had to stick around to completely close down the hospital.  On Tuesday I went and helped her with a few things before her last day (which was yesterday – Thursday), and snapped this picture of her empty store room.  More on this later, but it was definitely a sad sight….

 

On Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment.  On top of the normal cleaning, I started something called Smart Moves (the invisible braces similar to others I’m sure you’ve seen advertise), to start on my journey for perfect teeth. More on this later as well, but I will say that they’ve been a pain all week – literally!

Yesterday, Alex and I celebrated the 10th anniversary of us meeting.  Although we obviously have not dated for ten years, it is still pretty special to know that my sweetie has been in my life some way or another for an entire decade now.  My, how time flies! This is the ticket stub from the night we met.  To read our “How we met” story, check out the post I wrote here.

 

Speaking of our relationship, my dad was cleaning out an old filing cabinet and found a notebook he thought was blank.  Turns out it was my old dance/choreography notebook where I kept all of my stuff from teaching dance.  As I thumbed through the pages, I found this written on one of my pages of choreography notes – doodlings from 17 year old Maegan.  Perfect timing that I found it almost ten years later and I still agree with that today!

 

  My daddy took the week off as well, so he took my brother and I to lunch at a little rinky dink restaurant yesterday.  Anyway, they had a BBQ sundae, and between my sore teeth and just the fact that it intrigued me, I ordered it.  It was amazing!  I’d seen them on Pinterest and I usually mix all of my stuff together anyway so I knew it would be safe to try it, and thankfully it did not disappoint!

 

 

I also had to make a trip to see my allergist yesterday.  I have horrible allergies anyway, and as I wrote in this post, I have now tacked on mild asthma to my list of ailments.  Although I have been MUCH better from the last round of meds he gave me back in August, I ran out, and have been trying to battle the early pollen attack on my own (and failing miserably, I might add).  Since I was home, I nervously decided to go back to visit him to get some sort of medicine in hopes of getting some relief.  Thankfully he was impressed with my progress and just gave me a refill on my inhaler, a steroid shot, and perscription for an antihistamine.  Fingers crossed I’ll survive this spring!

Anyway, that’s it for this week!!!  We’ve got a busy weekend and week ahead so I’m sure I’ll have lots more to add to next week’s post!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Much love,

Maegan

Bama vs. Vandy (Homecoming!)

This weekend was homecoming weekend here in Tuscaloosa, and boy was it busy!

Alex came into town, as usual, on Friday evening.  It had been two weeks since I had seen him, and as silly as this sounds, those two weeks have seemed like a lifetime!  Anyway, we soaked up the little “alone” time we had before heading to Nick’s (yes, Alex’s favorite) to meet a friend for dinner.  We got home about 10:30, just in time for my cousin, who was visiting for the weekend, to arrive.  We all sat up and talked for a while, but it wasn’t too long before both of the boys were out like a light.  I decided to call it a day too and get some rest before my busy Saturday!

Saturday morning, we got up, and decided to go grab some breakfast at Jack’s (since I’m a terrible hostess and did not buy any breakfast stuff for the weekend…oops!)  After waiting on it for at least 20 minutes, them messing up our order and having to go back, only for them to mess it up again, we finally got to eat breakfast around 11.  By then, it was time for me to get ready and head to work!

I don’t have a clue as to what everyone else did, but being Homecoming and playing an SEC team, recruiting was crazy!  We’ve started something new at halftime too and it was my turn to work, so when we wrapped up pre-game stuff half way into the second quarter, I knew it was not worth going to my seats and I ended up staying in the recruiting room until after the half.  Although they had the game on, I don’t have a clue what went on…I checked on the score occasionally to know that we were winning and that was good enough for me.

Finally, I got join my family about half way into the 3rd quarter.  It was so nice to sit down!  I managed to get a couple of pictures, but I was so tired, pictures seemed to be too much of a hassle ;)

My cousin, Justin, and I.  Don’t you love the wind blown look? ;)

Alex and I

Anyway, it was a wonderful weekend!  We’ve got an away game next weekend so I’m excited to get some time to recover!

How was your weekend?

Alabama vs. Arkansas

This week, we had our first SEC match-up against the Arkansas Razorbacks.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous because 1.) it was our first true test for our new guys, 2.) It is Arkansas, who gave us huge fits last year 3.) It is an SEC game…period.  Thankfully, there was no reason for me to be nervous because we did an awesome job!  To sum up the game (and our many highlight-worthy moments), check out this highlight reel from the University…one word – LOVE!

At the beginning of the game, we were all a little nervous.  Although we were never down, Arkansas did tie it up.  All it took was one play to get our momentum rolling and Arkansas was never able to catch up :)

I loved getting to enjoy the win with the folks I love, Alex…  

And of course my family!

Everyone was so excited and BDS (Bryant-Denny Stadium) was REALLY loud!  Needless to say, we sang our victory song, “Rammer Jammer” LOUD and proud! 

See?

Bama vs. Arkansas 2011 - Rammer Jammer from Maegan Slaten on Vimeo.

Afterwards, we met up with my dear friend Reba and her family who were doing some post-game tailgating.  I was exhausted, but it was worth it to see her.  She just finished up radiation, so we haven’t gotten to see her in a while, but we made up for lost time! :)

You can tell how tired I was (and my steroid pounds)!  Yikes!

 

Alex and Reba

On the way back to the apartment, Alex and I just happened to look towards the stadium and we saw this.

Bryant-Denny is always beautiful, but something seeing it like this just took it to a whole new level. LOVE!

Perfect end to a perfect day!

We’ve got an away game next week, so I won’t have a game recap until after Homecoming on October 8th :)

Bama vs. North Texas Weekend

As with any weekend during football season, this weekend was nothing short of busy!

On Friday, Alex arrived around 6:00 pm and we met one of our favorite couples at Alex’s favorite restaurant, Nick’s Filet House (better known as Nick’s in the Sticks)

If you’re from Tuscaloosa, you know that Nick’s is the best spot to meet friends you want to catch up with because you usually wait at least an hour.  This time, we actually didn’t have to wait that long (especially for a home game weekend), but we did wait long enough to enjoy Nick’s signature drink, The Nickademus and catch up with our friends who we haven’t seen in a while.

My best friend Casey and I

Casey and her husband, Taylor…love them both!

 

My sweetie and I…he was a happy camper to finally get to visit Nick’s again ;)

Dinner was amazing as always, and we had a wonderful time catching up with Casey and Taylor!  After dinner, we went back to check out their new apartment and we ended up hanging out on their balcony, chatting and enjoying the fall evening weather.  It was great!

Saturday:

This week, I got to sleep in a little since we had a later kick-off.  Alex cooked us breakfast and we spent the morning sipping on our coffee and watching ESPN College Game Day.

Our mini sausage egg and cheese biscuits…and I do mean mini – this was on one of my saucers! 

I had to be at the complex at 1:30 for recruiting, so Alex walked me over and I got busy with my “recruiting champions”.  Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the stadium to wrap-up our recruiting and get ready for kick-off.  We actually had plenty of people working this week, so I got to enjoy a nice, leisurely, although late, lunch from Full Moon BBQ (they’ve catered our football games/events for years!) and I actually got to head to our seats in time long before kick-off.  For the first time in a long time, I actually got to enjoy pre-game!

Pre-gaming with Alex

Alex and I as the game was winding down.  Clearly, I’m tired and my make-up is almost gone…bleh!

We had a lot of fun at the game.  It was one of those games that we actually got to relax and enjoy it rather than stressing about the score :)

During the 4th quarter, we were both bombarded with texts saying Alex was on TV.  I still need to pull the video off of my Tivo, but here’s a picture his TV appearance that we found on the replay the next day (sorry about the quality…cell phones and HD TV’s don’t mix well ;))

 

Funny thing is, we switched seats with my parents and you could see both of them and Alex, but I was no where to be found because Alex was standing right in front of me :).  Yes, I was sitting down, but we were winning big and it had been a long day in 5-inch heels…can you blame me? ;)

After the game, we came home and enjoyed BBQ again, Mom and I made pear cobbler, we watched the rest of the football games, and we just hung out and relaxed.

Sunday:

My parents had to leave early because we had a film crew coming to our house to film a TV show (more on that once it airs :)), so we all got up fairly early, finished cleaning both apartments and put them on the road.

Alex and Josh decided to go play a little golf, so I had the house to myself for most of the day.  When Alex got back, he took me out to make me feel better (I’ve been feeling a little down lately because of all the weight my medicine has put on me and I’m getting quite frustrated because none of my clothes fit).  We went to Barnes and Noble and browsed while sipping on our first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season (yes, singular…I can’t drink a whole coffee of any kind by myself so we shared ;)), and then we headed to Target to pick up stuff to cook dinner and check out their Halloween decor.  Of course, we had to walk down the costume aisle and Alex was having way too much fun trying everything on.  See what I mean? (Sorry babe, I had to share ;))

After our shopping trip, we went back to my apartment, cooked dinner, watched Bridezillas (Alex is so amazing that he would sit through anything to make me feel better…even Bridezillas!), and just enjoyed our time together before he had to leave :(

It was a WONDERFUL weekend and I’m looking forward to yet another home game weekend this weekend! :)

2011 Home Opener – Bama vs. Kent State

This weekend, my beloved Crimson Tide kicked off the season with a game against Kent State.

Kent State is a sterotypical “home opener” team, so we were not too concerned with the outcome of the game, but it was fun playing against Coach’s alma mater. :)

Not only did Kent State produce our beloved coach, but they also have helped a great deal with the storm relief efforts.  You can read more about their contribution here.  To show respect, the University and fans decided not to “boo” the Kent State players as they entered the stadium and forego our traditional victory song, “Rammer Jammer” after we won.  Things like that make me proud to be part of the Crimson Tide family :)

Anyway, the game was pretty much like watching a scrimmage game, but it is nice to have a home opener like that (especially since the other school in the state had a more difficult time than we did in their home opener)  Plus, it was nice to get a glimpse of our new QB(s) :)

As usual, I worked for recruiting.  We had low numbers, so it was helpful for all of the newbies to get their bearings before we move into the huge games :)

Because the home opener is the only game I get to wear a white dress, I had no problem deciding what I was wearing, but rather which one.  I picked out a cute white dress, but due to my 10-day steroid pack and the ten pounds and massive swelling it has brought on, I had to change dresses at the last minute.  I got to wear white though so I was happy regardless (especially since it was HOT)

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the game.  As mentioned above, I am super swollen so please excuse my puffy face.  On top of that, I am so splotchy thanks to my OTHER medication that gives me hot flashes….gotta love side effects of medicines!

   

  To celebrate the win/season opener, I whipped up some homemade red velvet cupcakes ( with pecans grown in our front yard).  This was a family recipe that I have never tried to make, but I was impressed how they turned out.  In fact, they turned out so well that most were gone off the cooling rack before I could even get the camera out! ;)

All in all, it was an EXCELLENT way to kick off football season!! :)

ROLL TIDE! :)

First Trip to Auburn, Part II

Saturday, May 14

We got up bright and early to head to Auburn.  We stopped off by Chick-fil-a for some yummy breakfast and by Target so I could get a water-proof tote bag to take to the game (I didn’t plan for the rain…at all!)

We got there right before they did the senior recognition, bought our tickets from a scalper for three times face value (I wish we’d known about the stadium layout earlier because we definitely got screwed over), and got settled in our seats.

The view of the boys warming up from our awesome seats….

Yes, we were sitting in the last set of seats pretty much behind the right fielder.  I know you’re jealous… ;)

We sat behind a grandmother of one of the players, and she told us they were wearing their camo hats, that were previously worn for military appreciation, in honor of troops that are in Tuscaloosa helping out with the storm damage.  They also had a houndstooth ribbon on their jerseys, which has become the symbol of Tuscaloosa tornado relief.

While we are talking about the tornado, I will say I really admire these boys.  Several of them lost EVERYTHING, and 3 of the guys only survived because they held a mattress, with all of their strength, over themselves in the bathtub while their house literally crumbled around them.  Yet, they can still get out and be an awesome representation for our school.  Have I mentioned how much I love my town because I do ;)

Moving on….

Alex and I, pre-burn

 Brother Bear and I

Notice the lovely red top I am wearing?  Being the tanning connoisseur that I am (not really, but I have tried to master the art of not getting tan lines), I thought I would be smart and wear this tank top so I didn’t worry about a nice sleeve tan.  BIG MISTAKE.  Most of the sun we got was behind us and the back of my arms burned terribly (I had on sunscreen and never burn so I was taking precautions…darn overcast sky), so if I’d just worn a short sleeve shirt, I would have been fine.  Anyway, live and learn ;)

Unfortunately, we lost the first game.  Because so many people had bought tickets to the Friday night game, they were honoring those for the second game.  They cleared everyone out of the stadium, so we found another scalper and got seats a little closer this time.  Still way overpriced, but at least we had a place to sit….

Like I said, a little better

One of Josh’s high school friends, who is a student at Auburn came and sat with us for the second game.

Unfortunately we lost the second game as well :(  By that time, I was so miserable from the sunburn and the dropping temperature (yep, I was in a jacket by the end of the game) that I honestly didn’t care too much about anything but getting home and curling up on the couch.  We did stay for the fireworks show after the game.

I know you are seeing this and thinking I’m crazy for posting a “daytime” picture, but I kid you not, they shot off fireworks during the day. In fact you are seeing the puffs of smoke from them in the picture above.  I know, it was a first for me and a bit anti-climactic…especially when they seemingly knocked over the stand and the majority of the fireworks didn’t make it up past the fence. 

 Alex wasn’t too impressed with the daytime fireworks show…

Josh’s friend assured me that they don’t do this type of stuff all the time or anything.  Auburn, the daytime fireworks show definitely didn’t help your image….sorry!  At least I can now check “Watching fireworks in the daytime” off my bucket list (kidding, of course)

After that lovely entertainment, we headed back to Montgomery and had dinner at Red Robin…now everyone sing, “Red Robin…yummmm!” – you know you want to ;)  Anyway, it was yummy, especially after a long day in the sun.

Alex and I…check out that sunburn (and you can see where I got a little pink on the right side of my chest.  Thankfully that terrible tan line has already gone!)

  Josh wasn’t too keen on having his picture taken

Afterwards, we went home and I think watched a movie.  I’m not sure because I was definitely out as soon as I sat down on the loveseat….oops!

Next up:  Sundresses, jackets, and lemonade!