A Triumph!

To quote my father, who often, at this time of year, quotes Bob Cratchit, from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the pumpkin bread was "a triumph my dear, a triumph!" In all seriousness, the pumpkin bread was as big a hit with Nick's and my co-workers as it was with Mark and me when we were kids (and I guess even now).

Thus ends another day at the Hall house.

Pumpkin Bread

Even though it's still 80 degrees outside, I decided to begin making pumpkin bread today. It looks like the temperature will cool down this week, and, well, this weekend was the last chance I'll have for a while to do any baking. It was a success...

That's all the news for today - we have temporarily suspended the church search due to the fact that we will be unable to attend for the next two weeks. We spent the day baking, doing chores, and reading. Yes, yes, exciting times at the Halls.

Stay tuned for more exciting news this week.

WOW

This about sums up the day.

Well, this morning started out nicely, with Finlay attending his first tailgate. You can enjoy some pictures below.


Finlay was not a fan of the train that was passing by the tg sight.

He was curious about the port-a-potty so he came in with me once.

He was pretty exhausted by the time we came home!

Then the bottom dropped out. First our Gamecocks lost to Vandy...TO VANDY!!! We only saw the game on gametracker, but it looked ugly, even on there. Good-bye #6 ranking.

Then the BaylorBears suffered a sickening loss to Texas. It was sickening of course, because for a while it looked like we were hanging in there. But after that, we know what happened. Same song, different verse. We have taken some pictures to commemorate our feelings about the football games today. Please enjoy these as well.


Perhaps we will have a more positive blog tomorrow.

Happy Parents Weekend!

This weekend is parents weekend at the University of South Carolina. This morning I volunteered to help with registration for the 2,000 or so parents who will be visiting their students this weekend. I was a little bummed that I had to wake up kind of early to make it there, but in the end it was a pretty rewarding experience. The parents I met were sometimes absolutely precious, sometimes absolutely hilarious, but never boring. Their common denominator was the clear excitement that they felt to be there with their students. It kind of made me miss my parents, but then I remembered that this time, two weeks from now, I will be home in Waco with them, so then I didn't feel so homesick.

Tomorrow Nick and I will be taking "Big Red" (aka my car) to the SPA tailgate again. It will be another early tailgate, but it should still be pretty fun! We will bring back a report.

Happy Friday everyone, and happy parents weekend to Mike, Edith, Lauri, and Jay!

Clean Carolina

Today marked the first big even I have been charged with as a graduate assistant: Clean Carolina. It's an all-year event, similar to adopt-a-highway, but instead of sections of a road students or student groups adopt an area of campus. They clean it up once a month, and Student Government supplies them with trash bags and gloves. Our big kick-off event was held today, where we signed up this year's participants, handed out t-shirts and free pizza, and the areas got their first spiffing-up.

The event was a success thanks to my student senator and event chair, DeShawn (you can see him in the picture below) and some great SG volunteers.

Since I worked so hard all day, Nick is being his normal, truly wonderful self and making dinner. Hooray for my outstanding husband!

Also for your enjoyment today, I am posting a picture I took with Cocky, our mascot. He helped us recruit participants for C.C.

Flag Football

You know it's fall when flag football is in full swing!



Nick's team played a game tonight, and Fin and I were there to cheer them on. Nick played excellent defense, contributing to the AIS victory!

Fin had a lot of fun before the game, making new friends with some young kids who were also at the game. I am so00 grateful to his breeders, who taught him to be so great with kids before he even came to live with us! He is so patient and longsuffering - they can tug and yank on him and "pat" him as much as they want, but he just sits there, smiling and calm, never snapping or misbehaving.

Unfortunately, Fin is not the best game-watcher. He really wants to play in the game so he runs up and down the field (at least as far as his leash will go) and barks during each play. It's really annoying, but we can't very well leave him at home when we are gone until 10 p.m.

We're off to sleep now...Enjoy the pictures from the game.

Sunday News

Today being Sunday, Nick and I continued our church search. This time we went back to Shandon UMC, but we also visited a Sunday School class to get a feel for the other married young adults in the church. We were definitely made welcome by the class, but we are really struggling to find a place where we fit in. This may be it; we just aren't certain yet. As it turns out, most people our age here are either married with kids (or kids on the way) or are singles. We would love to find a group of young married couples who are at the same stage in life as we are. Who knows, it might be waiting just around the corner. We have faith that we will find our place here.

After church we did exciting things like laundry and house-cleaning. I count myself as very fortunate that Nick shares this task with me. He is always willing, and sometimes I might even say eager, to clean the floors or do the dishes. He's such a great husband! This is especially helpful since we both keep full-time schedules. If he didn't help, only half of our chores would ever be done!

Since late this afternoon, though, we have been indulging in a new favorite activity. We put on some classical music and have been reading our books. Nick is finishing up The Hobbit, and I am reading The Birth of Venus. It has been relaxing, and Finlay has napped alongside us as we read. It's a perfect, peaceful way to start out another week. Below are some pictures of us enjoying our leisure time.