Game day weekend in New Orleans

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Two weekends ago we played at Tulane on Halloween night. I have never been to NOLA and getting to go on Halloween weekend was quite the experience. We stayed at the hotel that was next to the airport but were able to take a bus with the donors and get dropped off a few blocks from Bourbon Street. If there is one thing I knew about New Orleans it was the famous Cafe Du Monde. After wandering around for a while my coach led us to this heavenly place! Tim (my coach) has been to this city more than seven times, most recently after UC went to the Sugar Bowl, so he knew exactly where to take us. Naturally we had dessert before dinner and ended up with powdered sugar all over us. Totally worth it. My parents visited New Orleans a couple years ago and still talk about the beignets they ate along with all of the beautiful architecture they saw. There were SO many art galleries that I was dying to get a look at, but unfortunately we were only there during the evening and they were all closed. As we walked around the boys did a great job making sure we were safe the whole time. Blessed to have such sweet boys on my team!

Few things in life compare to sleeping in. Can I get an Amen? Our game wasn't until 7pm, so brunch the next day didn't happen until about 11am. Before getting ready for the game the girls enjoyed laying out by the pool, knowing that it wouldn't be happening for a veryyyyy long time once we were back in Cincinnati. Even more accurately shown once we landed to snow flurries at CVG. It was a lovely weekend made even better by getting to watch Munchie Legeaux have a great game in his hometown!

Excited to play this Thursday night against Eastern Carolina and hopefully become bowl eligible! Trying to savor every second that I have left this year. God has been so good to me, it's very humbling to know He is always working for us, not against us, in the most simplest of ways.

Happy Veterans day, I hope you all have a great week!

Okay, so I have wedges on so I look like a giant haha

Yes, 12 hours later we landed to the warm welcome of snow flurries.

Who doesn't love autumn?

Monday, October 6, 2014

It is a cozy Monday here in Cincinnati- my favorite kind of day. After a busy weekend of high school games, college football games, and homework, it feels good to catch up with you all. Thursday night after practice I went home because Chloe was on homecoming court and Tucker had his football game. OH, and I also forgot add that Maddie and her boyfriend Brandon came in from South Carolina to surprise my mom for the weekend. I can't tell you how many times people confused all three of us girls, although I do look at Chloe now and sometimes think I'm looking at myself.

I went back to Cincy on Saturday to get ready for the UC vs. Memphis game that evening...andddd I think it's safe to say that after a Bearcats and Bengals loss, Cincinnati fans have had a rough weekend. Hopefully this loss will motivate them before we head to Miami, FL on Friday. I have never been to Miami before, and we're all excited to be down there. The boys have already planned an evening of night shark fishing...I am sure us ladies will be doing something else! (shopping...definitely shopping)

The Sunday after game day I wake up feeling like I've been hit by a truck. Especially when it's cold, it just sucks everything out of you. Lucky for me the church I love and attend here called the Vineyard, has a service that starts at noon. They also have the BEST free coffee. I don't know how they do it, but it helps me get up and out of bed. Vineyard is doing this seven week sermon based off of what their personal beliefs are as a church. This week they talked about worship and how we can't worry and worship at the same time. Yes, that one hit hard. Praising God through music is one of the most powerful ways we can worship Him and the Vineyard has been big on this. Marie Barnett who is a part of the Vineyard family wrote the song "Breathe" in 1995 and in 2002 it became the most recorded song of the year. So Sunday after the message was delivered Marie and her husband John sang the song at the end of the service. It was such an amazing experience! Writing about it here doesn't do it enough justice!

I hope you all have a lovely week and below are a couple photos of my apartment decorated for fall. I about took out all the pumpkins at Trader Joe's!

Could not be happier with how my gallery wall turned out. I am also a lucky girl to have handy-man men on my team to help me hang things like this!

My contribution to Chloe's homecoming evening was making this sign for her and Abby.

The Biltmore Estate

Thursday, August 7, 2014

About a month ago I was able to go to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. If you all have never been before I highly suggest taking a weekend getaway vacation here. The town of Asheville itself is very "granola", filled with quaint little shops and open aired restaurants. It is a very DAAP like town, hard to imagine the Biltmore being just down the road. I enjoyed getting the best of both worlds, and had an even better time with the loveliest of people to share the experience with.


Downtown Asheville & the best homemade ice cream sandwiches.

My favorite little incoming freshman at UC this year!

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

The Sweet South

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

I hope you all are having a lovely summer so far! Mine has mainly consisted of work and practice. Two weeks ago we took a family vacation to Charleston, SC, and Melbourne Beach, FLA. The majority of the traveling I have done in the last couple years has been with my team. It was definitely different to not have to triple (yes, even quadruple) check to make sure I have all my uniform pieces, or arriving at the destination and getting ready to go cheer a game and doing whatever needed to be done before hand. As much as I love being with my team, I must say it was nice to just throw in as many sundresses and swim suits in my suit case as I could. We drove to Colombia, SC to pick up Maddie so she could spend a few days in Charleston with us. She is so lucky to live close to such a beautiful and historic city. You all, Charleston had the quaintness of Georgetown but with all the charm of the south. We shopped on King Street, walked on the giant pier, and mainly enjoyed each other's company.

After we dropped Maddie back off in Colombia, we made our way down to Florida where a lot of my mom's side of the family lives. A longggg time ago my great grandparents bought land that included beach front property in Melbourne Beach, FLA. If you are not familiar with where that is, it's an hour and a half South East of Orlando. My mom lived here for a couple of years when she was born before my grandparents moved to Ohio. Once we arrived, all the nostalgia of my childhood rushed back. It is comforting to know that some things never change. My grandma lives about a hundred yards from the beach which is mainly how we spent our time. My momma, grandma, sister, and I took many walks down the beach looking for different shells. My grandma's strip of beach is a hotbed for the four different kinds of sea turtles that live in the ocean. So out of the entire world, her beach is one of the most populated spots for them to come and lay their eggs. We went one night to go look for them, found one, once it got up to the beach for whatever reason decided to turn back around to the ocean. I also enjoyed eating at familiar restaurants including the Blueberry Muffin, and Meg O'Mally's where the World Cup fever was intense!

I enjoyed being away, but like most people, (Chloe- as much as I loved sharing a bed with you) I was glad to get back to my very own bed and apartment. It's almost game time y'all! Let's go USA!

There are A LOT of pictures! Enjoy!