Are You Ready for Some Football?

For the past 7 or 8 years, Cody has played Fantasy Football. He gets a group of about 8 guys together to be in his league, and they all draft football players to be on their teams. They use their teams to wage war against one another throughout the entire football season and hope to accumulate the most points through touchdowns, passes, and yards run by their players. The one with the most points at the end of the season wins bragging rights!

Last night, about half of the guys in his league (the ones that live around here) came over to the house for a draft night party. The guys heckled each other while they did an online draft of their players, while the wives played with kids. I made chocolate chip cookies and a salsa pizza for everyone to snack on during the party.

I'm sure Cody will keep us updated on his progress as we go through the football season...

Winterville Watermelon Festival

This Saturday was the Winterville Watermelon Festival. This was the first time Cody and I have been; it seems like we always heard about it after it had happened. It left us with reminiscent feelings of the Apple Festival in our hometown of Taylorsville.

We arrived in time to see the last part of the parade. (Cody's favorite part was a huge grocery cart that was driven with some sort of a go-cart type motor. I really wish I had a picture, but we didn't take the camera. Here is a picture we found online of the "Got to be NC Big Cart".) We had to walk a LONG way to get to the actual festival from where we watched the parade. Being our first time, we really didn't know where to park, and it seems we obviously parked a little too far away.

A large part of the festival was the fair rides. We didn't venture into that section. (Although Cody probably would have liked to ride some, I don't do so well with fair rides--they always make me feel sick. I am all about some roller coasters, but I will definitely pass on the fair rides.) There were a lot of different vendors set up. You could find anything from watermelon carvings, free slices of watermelon (yum!), watermelon related crafts (like children's clothes and homemade watermelon rind jam), tons of pocket books, sculptures made out of recycled metal pieces, and of course, all types of food vendors. Throughout the day, they were having different types of activities, such as musical performances and watermelon eating contests.

We browsed some of the different vendors and then grabbed some lunch. (We realized the the $20 we had brought was going to go fast.) Cody had his favorite fair food-a $7 bratwurst-and I settled for $5 chicken supremes from the Bojangles stand and we shared a $5 cup of strawberry lemonade.

It did get pretty hot, but Cody and I had a great time together. It is times like this that are memories in the making....

Our Baby is Growing Up

Hershey turned 4 years old last Thursday, August 13 (yep, I'm a little behind in posting). We aren't really sure when his actual birthday is since we got him from the animal shelter. All they could tell us was approximately how many weeks old he was when we got him, so we established August 13 as his birthday!

I'll be the first to admit that he is one spoiled puppy, but he's our baby so we spoil him as much as we can! Look at all those goodies....



Hershey normally eats dry dog food, but for special occasions we get him a Caesar meal. His birthday dinner was New York Strip flavor!



Hershey loved his new toy, Kong. The Kong is a rubber toy that holds treats inside of it. Hershey spent a good 30 minutes playing with Kong while trying to get the peanut butter treat inside. He even played with Kong after the treat was gone. (He didn't want to go on his walk after he got Kong because he was having too much fun playing; if you know Hershey at all, you know he never passes up a walk!)

So Proud....

Cody just got his scores back this week from the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge Test (part of the series of licensing exams he has to take to become an MD), and he did great! I'm so proud of you Cody! Keep him in your prayers--he has to take another licensing exam in October.

Cody's Birthday Weekend

This Friday was Cody's 25th Birthday! (Happy Birthday Heffalump!) He got to celebrate all weekend long.

On Friday, we both got off work at lunchtime, so we ate lunch at Olive Garden and then we met up with his mom and dad who came to visit for the weekend. He opened his presents--my favorite part of birthdays--from his mom and dad. (Cody got to open his gift from me a little early...I gave him his GPS before we went to the beach so he would have a chance to use it.) We spent the rest of the day shopping around with Sherri, then came back to our house to grill out steaks.

On Saturday, we got up early so we could earn some money with our yard sale. We made $188 for about 4 hours of work; that's not too shabby! Then, our wonderful neighbors, Vern and Becky, hosted Cody's birthday party at their pool. It was the perfect day to go swimming, and we all had fun! Even Jake had fun in the water! Thanks to Sherri for making her famous pound cake. After dinner, Cody HAD to go spend some of his birthday money--he bought the Wii Sports Resort and an extra Wii Motion sensor for his remote. He broke it in the second we got home! :)

After lunch on Sunday, James and Sherri went back to Taylorsville, and Cody and I just enjoyed lounging around for a while. All in all, it was a very busy weekend, but hopefully a very good one for the birthday boy!

Check out the pictures from the weekend below:

Myrtle Beach!

This past weekend, Cody and I were able to enjoy a long weekend vacation at Myrtle Beach with Mary, Jeremy, and Connor. It was so nice to have a vacation, and it was the perfect time to get away. Cody took his Step 2 licensing exam on Wednesday, so it was nice for him to have a way to celebrate the completion of another stressful time. Plus, there are so many changes happening at work right now, so it was nice for me just to get away. And of course, we always enjoy seeing our family! Myrtle Beach is almost my home away from home, as I have so many childhood memories there. I couldn't imagine a more relaxing place to be....

Some of the fun things we did:
*laid out on the beach
*ate at Johnny Rockets and Chili's
*played in the waterpark at the hotel
*went to Broadway and Barefoot Landing (where we got Hershey some treats from the doggie bakery)
*went shopping at Tanger Outlets
*played putt-putt at Cody's favorite place
*ate ice cream at Painter's
*Connor built a car at RideMakerz