That Time of Year Again!

While children spend all year anticipating summer and Christmas, and parents spend summer anticipating the school year, I spend my entire year anxiously awaiting, you guessed it, football season!!

I remember driving home January 11th this year (the day after the National Championship, duh!) and thinking 'only 8 1/2 more months until we get to do it again!' At that time my life was in a very different place. So different that it's hard to even think about it. I was just about to start my new internship, it was really just sinking in that I would soon be graduating from Auburn, and I had no idea what was to come of my grad school applications.

Well here I am 8 1/2 months later, a college graduate, a first year marriage and family therapy graduate student (reading so much everyday that my brain hurts!), living 5 hours from home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and most importantly, welcoming football season back into my life! Yes, my priorities are all kinds of messed up! ha ha

I, however, am only kind of welcoming it back. Sadly (and I really mean sadly), I will not be at Auburn's first football game tomorrow. You may think this is no big thing, but let me tell you, this is the first home openner I will have missed in 21 years!! I repeat, TWENTY-ONE YEARS!!! Since moving, I've had some sad and lonely times, which were to be expected since I don't know anyone, but this is by far the saddest I have been! Right now, I'm not only missing my family of origin (that's right, I'm gonna be a therapist), I'm also really missing my Auburn family!

It will be okay though, I will be there in spirit and right now I'm just glad that my schedule worked out tomorrow so I can at least watch the game. Although, my watching the game tomorrow may be a lot like when I watch 'Titanic': there will be ice cream, there will be candy, and I'll really be rooting for everyone, but in the end I'm just gonna be sad.

Alright, I'm now done bringing down my wonderful readers, I just needed an outlet and I figured my blog is as good as any. So thanks for stickin around, if you read to this point :)

For now, WAR DAMN EAGLE!! I'll see you, Jordan-Hare, in a few months...so the countdown begins. :)

Weekend of Fun!!

Well friends, I can now make a trip home in five hours flat! I changed my route and that is what I found. Why, you may ask, did you come home so soon? Well, what had happened was I looked at my syllibi and my calendar and realized that I don't get a legit trip home again until Thanksgiving!! Yeah, let that sink in a little bit. Is it in there? Good!

I was very sad to find this out, but I've rearranged some things and will now be attempting a magic trick to create time. (que "The Final Countdown", very Gob)

Anyway, after I realized my lack of spare time, I had to take an emergency trip home to see Davis (and my family) before the semester picked up. And I had to make it a really good trip, so Davis can remember me extra fondly in my absence. So here's what we did in what will furthermore be known as 'Liz and Davis' Weekend of Fun'. (yes, I stole that from Friends)

We went to get ice cream at Chick Fil A and play on the playset. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but really who else is gonna take him to get ice cream and get in the play place with him? Only his woman-child aunt, that's who! So here he is fully enjoying his ice cream...

That night I pitched the idea of taking him to a real movie, kind of as an expiriment to see how he would do, so I showed him various movie trailers and decided by his response which one to see. And The Smurfs won. Shocked? I was. I thought for sure that Winnie the Pooh would win, but anyway we went to see The Smurfs and it was cute. Well, what I saw of it was cute. He made it for about an hour and did very well and then decided he wanted to nap in the theatre, so we had to go. But I was very proud of how well he did for that hour.

But of the Weekend of Fun I have to say that my favorite part was Saturday night. Now I love old school Winnie the Pooh, as in 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', so we curled up and watched that Saturday night. And it is even cuter and sweeter than I remember. It was amazing and I loved every minute of it.

So that was the home portion of the weekend, now let me tell you about what happens on a 5 hour road trip by yourself. First you think 'this won't be so bad once I get the music going', which was a correct thought. Then you get to Mobile and I'm not sure what the name of the giant bridge is on 65 that leads directly into Mobile, and I've only traveled it once before, but both times I had the exact same thought going across: Wow. That bridge has the most amazing view way up in the air, it's like you're dancing across the tree tops. Truly breathtaking. Anyway the last thing I realized on the road (before realizing that I had gone loopy) was that my Cher singing impression only sounds like Cher during "If I Could Turn Back Time" and during "Believe" it sounds like the target lady, and sometimes Kermit the Frog. Anyway, that's enough rambling from the road...for now.

Before closing out, I'd like to shout out to Kristen "the summer intern" Katibah. She's recovering from knee surgery and is in my prayers and on my mind tonight. So please also remember her in your thoughts and prayers. :)

That's all for now. Will update you on school soon!

The Start of Something New

Well guys, since I know after tomorrow (the first day of class) I won't have much time for blogging I thought I'd update you know and let you know how Hattiesburg is! It is wonderful!! I'm really loving it here, which is such a blessing! I was scared for so long that this move would be too much for me, but I couldn't be happier here.

Here's what I love so far:

• My roommates: they are hilarious and crazy, so I can relate. And one roommate is also beginning the MFT program with me (happy coincidence) so we're both pumped to start tomorrow.
• My cohort: Since there are 12 people in my cohort there is a wide variety of personalities and backgrounds, which is interesting and a lot of fun to get to know everyone.
• The second years: The cohort of 10 above me is ALL girls (and you though 6 girls at Auburn was bad!) But these girls are amazing, and so helpful as we're starting out here, and they really seem to all click together in different ways. Also, one of them told me that although they've all had times of frustration with the program and anger, there has not (yet) been a time when they didn't honestly love the program. You may say she is blowing smoke, but I'm choosing to believe this is true and have the same attitude for myself.
• My assistantship: I found out yesterday at orientation that for my 20 hours a week assistantship, that I will be a teaching assistant for 2 professors (10 hours a piece). This is exactly what I wanted, so I am thrilled!! Even more thrilling is the flexible hours, getting to really know the staff I'm with for the next 2 years, and teaching! Yes, you read right, one of the professors has me set to lead her class for 3 days this semester! I am so excited, and I really think it will help me decide if teaching is something I'd like to pursue at a collegiate level! Of course I'm pretty nervous, but that just means I'll be calling in for some help and pointers from those who have already mastered this (that means you, Emily!)
• The food: I've only been here 11 days and have been eating in a lot to save money, but when I did eat out (on my parents bill) it was amazing! Now, Mugshots and Newks are both chains and I've eaten there before, but I swear it just gets better every time! AND, Mugshots now has a huge projector screen of the NFL network, um yes, please!! Burgers and football, count me in! Also on the food train is Leatha's BBQ. This was promised to me to be the best ribs I would ever taste, and as a diplomat I will say they are the best professionally cooked ribs, because I don't wanna get cut off from the church BBQ ribs at home ;). I will only say one more thing about the food and then I promise to stop, but Crescent City Grill is by far the best and most creative seafood I have ever eaten, and seafood is my favorite!! (Now back to the original list)
• My apartment: Since the apartment houses 4 people there is a lot of space for us. I knew that much, what I didn't realize was that once I moved my bedroom set that there is an insane amount of space in my room. That doesn't include the 2 closets and private bath! I have to say this is a huge leap from the shoebox I've been living in for the last 2 years.

Now I'm sure there are other things I will find to love very soon, and hopefully you will get to hear about them!

Of course, along with finding things you love in a new place there are things you miss from where you left.

Here's what I miss so far:

• Auburn. I miss the campus, the food, the people, the atmosphere, and starting next week I will sorely be missing football season. Note: This is the first time in my life I won't be in Jordan-Hare for a season opener. This will be tough,but I will be tougher.
• My friends: I miss having people to talk to that I already know are as crazy as me, and knowing their "crazy boundaries". Note: If you people want to Skype me, I'm always up for that! It's comforting to see familiar faces!
• My family: This is a big one and I think you know why.  I've never really been away from my family so the distance has been wearing on both ends. But really more than anything I miss my little buddy Davis. I do get to talk to him on the phone and see pictures of him, but not getting to play with him is really sad. But I will be seeing him this weekend (if all goes according to plan) so I'm really excited about that!

 

Isn't he precious though?

Anyway, for now that's all from Hattiesburg! I'll let you all know how school is soon!



What's My Age Again?

As you may have guessed from the title, today (yesterday) is my birthday!! And my age now is 23. This just so happens to be the age of interest in the Blink 182 song "What's My Age Again". In case you haven't heard it, this song pretty much describes me as a person. Yes, my numerical age is 23 and yes, I'm becoming more of an adult, but when did 23 become the end of being a little childish? I don't mean incredibly immature, but in my book letting loose and acting like a fool sometimes is the only way to keep your sanity! So here's to keeping my sanity, cheers everybody!:)

In the words of Blink 182:
"No one should take themselves so seriously.
With many years ahead to fall in line,
Why would you wish that on me?
I never want to act my age.
What's my age again?"

Also, happy birthday to Steve Martin and Tim Tebow! :)

Falling or Flying?

Hey there blog friends! It has been a quick and busy summer as you can probably tell by my lack of blogs. I will soon update about the last 3 months, but tonight I'd like to discuss an idea that has especially resonated with me lately, falling or flying.

This particular idea comes from two sources, a favorite song of mine, 'Falling or Flying' by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and a main theme from one of my favorite movies, 'The Shawshank Redemption'. In the movie, the wrongly convicted inmate Andy Dufresne tells us that we better "get busy living, or get busy dying". Now obviously this is a topic that we've all mulled over from time to time, and usually at times when we feel like we aren't really doing anything with our lives. Well today at lunch with a friend it really hit me that for the first 18 years of my life I worked steadily to achieve my goal of going to Auburn. Then for the next 5 (oops!) years, my goal (for most of the time) was to graduate from Auburn. Now that I have accomplished the only major life goals I ever set for myself I have to stop and ask myself, am I falling or flying?

Clearly, for the first 22 years I've been flying towards something, but my past 3 months of just working have felt a lot like falling. Well friends, for the first time since finding out about grad school I am really coming to realize that next Friday I will be leaving home and taking flight. (By now you may have realized that I have a thing for birds.) It's a little unsettling to start over in an unfamiliar place, but I believe it will be a totally worthwhile adventure, and I for one am very excited for this next chapter to begin.

Until I can actually update you on my summer,

Graduation with a Celebration!

For the last 5 years I have worked very hard (most of the time) towards a major life goal of mine, and last Monday, May 9, 2011, I accomplished it! Yes friends, I finally graduated from Auburn! And even better I got to walk at graduation in front of family and friends. Speaking of those family and friends let me also discuss the party that went down the night before graduation. Really it was just like a huge family reunion, but I call it a par-tay!

Here are some highlights from the party (including decorations)...

The cake.

The bottle labels, handmade.

The banners.

The candy buffet.

The 2 year old who ran in circles around the house and yard the WHOLE night. Pictures like this are the only ones we could get of him.

That's him in the corner, rounding the side of the house.

And of course, the family!

Like the brothers, Dad and Uncle Bob.

The men crazy enough to marry the Cain sisters, Uncle Charles, Uncle Joe, and Dad. :)

The cousins, Clair, Jenna, and me.

The mathematical road-tripping BFFs, Mom and Aunt Carolyn.

The graduates and proud parents, Dad, Mom, me, Kelli, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Dale.

And then there's Andrew, Davis, me, Mom, Dad, Rachel, William, and Leslie.

And after the party was the graduation! Which I will highlight in pictures, since my words would basically include exciting, incredible, nervous, early morning, and sunburn. :)

I don't think I've ever smiled so hard in my life!

Me and Brittany, 22 years strong!

This was definitely one of the best days of my life, and I'm so proud that I actually accomplished a life long dream! I'm also so glad that I got to celebrate the occasion with the people in my life who helped get me to this place, my incredibly supportive family! :)

Until next time...

The Union of a Lifetime

As everyone in the world knows this past week held the royal wedding! Now I was that weird enthusiast who has been not so patiently awaiting this, and it was fabulous! As much as I loved the royal wedding, though, if you wanted to hear about that you would be watching E! or TLC right now and not reading my blog. (Thanks for reading by the way!) No, the union I am speaking of is one that took place 35 years ago as of May 1st. I, of course, am referring to my parents.

Sunday evening I ventured once again to Phenix City to celebrate the occasion with my family. Now maybe I'm just a little spoiled, but sometimes I don't really realize what an accomplishment 35 years is. I remember in 2009 in Knoxville at the Auburn vs. Tennessee game my mom was talking to a soon to be married couple sitting behind us. Note: My mom is notorious for making random friends at football games with whoever is sitting around us. Anyway, this woman asked my mom how long she had been married, to which my mom responded 33 years. And I had never thought about it before that woman said it, but her response was, "Wow. That's amazing!" Now that I think about it, that is pretty amazing, I mean that's a long time!! And it is such a blessing to have parents that set that kind of example for their children.

Note: My mom pulled off a long-sleeved lace dress long before Kate did. Just sayin'. :)

So thanks, Mom and Dad, for the life you've built for us and the support you've always shown for your children. It really makes all the difference to know that I have loving parents who are always there for me no matter what. I hope you're as happy today as you were back then.

But really how could you not be? Just look at the amount of love you're surrounded by!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Love you!

Lately...and Easter!!

As a brief update, since traveling to Hattiesburg I've been doing a lot of little things that are leading to the big things. Those big things are graduation (and party), moving, and simply living a good life. And it has certainly been good lately. :)

We're now just 15 days from graduation and 14 days from the party. To get ready for these the main things, what I've been doing, besides collecting vases and ordering obscene amounts of candy (more on that to come later), is pictures!! See, this beyond wonderful person named Emily did my graduation photos and they are AWESOME! I won't post them all, even though I want to because she did an amazing job, but here's my favorite.

Back in Phenix City though, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend we put up a new big boy bed for Davis, which is very exciting!

And although he loves his bed, he didn't take to it so quickly, which led to this.

Isn't he precious? Sorry I just had to post this. :)

So this weekend has been Easter! And let me tell you that my favorite part about Easter, apart from the fact that it is the best reminder of how great our God is, is getting back together with friends when they come home for the holiday. This weekend in particular I mean Reed (and a number of other random high school friends we ran into). But I always know that with Reed I am guaranteed a good time, and again he did not disappoint. I'll leave it at that, it's just always fun to get to hang out with my old buddy.

Other than getting to see my long lost other half, Davis got a new play-set this weekend, which we have named 'Davis Park'. And he hasn't left it all weekend!

He's been giving "speeches" from this hole to his loyal followers, much like the Pope.

When we were able to drag him away from it, we dyed eggs.

And then, of course, we stole and hid them from him. But the hunt was fun (for him), because apparently 22 is too old to hunt.

Please take note of the boots he insisted on wearing.

Anyway, like I said the last couple of weeks have just been livin' the simple life, and it has been good. Hopefully I'll be able to update more often, or at the very least I'll try.

Happy Easter!!

Slipping through My Fingers

Coming up in 29 days (May 9th) is Auburn's commencment ceremony, and as hopefully anyone reading this knows I am a graduating senior this year!! I could not be more excited and we all know I love a good countdown so I've been trying to get one together over the past two weeks in order to lead up to this monumental event! I have, however, not been able to get it off the ground. So I ask myself, why? Well today I think I got a lead to that question, allow me to explain.

Some of you may also be aware that this fall I will be attending the University of Southern Mississippi's Graduate School for Marriage and Family Therapy. Also, very exciting!! So yesterday I set off with my parents to Hattiesburg, MS to find an apartment...good news, I found one! But on the way home, my mom said the most heart breaking thing, "the next time we make this trip back from Mississippi, we'll be leaving you there." Now to some of you who are already hours from home, this may seem like no big deal, but for a person who has only ever lived 30 minutes up the road from home, it is.

When she said that though, it really hit me how bittersweet these next 4 months will be for me. I've been so excited counting down to graduation and party planning that I didn't realize in 2 months I'll no longer be a resident of Auburn and in 29 short days, I'll no longer be a student here! Wow, this is a time in my life I never thought would end and here it is, coming in less than a month! I still can't wait to graduate and finally have a Bachelor's degree, but I wish I could have called a stop time in the last couple of years and really savored my time at Auburn.

In my attempts to create a countdown to graduation I was going to countdown my favorite memories of Auburn as a student, but couldn't find any huge, pinpoint moments for this list (other than winning a national championship). I've decided though, that is how it's supposed to work. There were no grand occasions that made me fall in love with Auburn and the people I've met here, just a million little things with extrodinary friends and an amazing Auburn family that I could never in my life explain. Like learning to do the soulja boy in the sorority dorm, or stalking the US Band for a month straight, or the creation of Isabella, or the inception of wing night! These small reasons are the big reason I can't possibly create a countdown, and don't really want to try. My time here has been absolutely unforgettable and I'm glad I get to finish it off with that glory walk across Pat Dye Field.

Lastly, I remember as a freshman that my pi chi leader gave me a list of '150 things to do at Auburn' and I thought I had all the time in the world to complete these. I have done 80 in the last 5 years because I kept telling myself that I had plenty of time. Well it is now abundantly clear that I have NO time left! If anyone is interested in helping me complete any of the remaining 70, I would love to try my best to finish it!

"Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
...
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers..."

Slow Cookin'

As some of you may know, I consider myself quite the baker but not so much an actual cook. Well this is no longer the case! I have learned to use my crock pot and you would not believe the difference. It is so easy!! I will share with you the new recipe I made today and make this post brief. (Sorry I didn't get the chance to take pictures of it)

Salsa Chicken (but tastes strangely like country captain)

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 cup of salsa
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of sour cream

Directions: Cover chicken breasts in taco seasoning. Place chicken breasts in crock pot. Pour in cup of salsa and can of cream of mushroom soup. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove from heat and mix in sour cream. Serve over rice. Enjoy and thank me later :)

I give thanks to slowandsimple.com (all slow cooker recipes!)

I'm so looking forward to sharing this with my coworkers tomorrow and my new buffalo chicken dip with celery. That recipe will be coming soon enough!

For now, Happy Monday!

180 Weekend

Well blog friends, I think this post will officially be my last "I'm catching up on my blog" post! Yay!! I just couldn't move forward without telling you about the incredible experience I had the privilege of being a part of about a month ago!

At the end of January I traveled to Gastonia, NC with my friend Elyse and 6 (yes 6!!) others in one car! This was not the exciting part though, the best part was the reason for the trip. You may have heard of a 180 weekend before, if not it's kind of a winter retreat for a youth group. I had the pleasure of teaching a group of 11th grade girls with Elyse. Now I've worked with adolescent girls in church in the past so I was really just expecting to have a similar group in NC...boy, was I wrong! I have to say that these were the most extraordinary 16 year old girls I have EVER met!

I won't say too much about the personal aspects of the weekend because a lot of it is about a personal journey in our faith, but I will say that these girls taught me more in those 3 days than I could ever hope to teach them. What a blessing that whole weekend was!!

Of the fun parts that I will share, we painted t-shirts...

We played at the park...(no I can't explain this game ha ha)

But mostly we just got to chill, get to know each other, and delve into the gospel. I'm so thankful for these girls and I hope I get to go back and help with their summer activities!!

And let me not forget our gracious host family who let us all but destroy their home (though we did destroy their sleep patterns)!!

To Arizona and Back...

In the last month or two (when I dropped of the face of the blog world) the most exciting thing that I did was take a cross country roadtrip to the National Championship!! Now I know I have been going on and on about this football season since October, but let's face it, I clearly had something to be proud of!! So let me tell you about this trip that took four southern football fanatics across America. (P.S. I am now officially crossing off "1. Take a cross country road trip" from my list)

On Friday, January 7th Mom, Dad, Aunt Carolyn, and I loaded down mom's CR-V and headed west. That night we made it to Shreeveport, Louisiana in no record time. Let me tell you what happens when you road trip with three other people, you go stir crazy. It seemed like we stopped nearly every hour and a half for food, bathrooms, or general stretching. Since I had snacks, don't use public restrooms, and am 22, I saw no use for any of those stops. But still that's the way it went. In my opinion, the only legitimate reason for a stop on a road trip is to take pictures at say, a state sign!!

Yep, there's Louisiana. And by the way that sign is only a few inches thick and easy to fall off of, not that I did.

After crossing 3 states in one day I felt like we had really accomplished something. We'd had light fun conversation and I had an iPod. ha ha. But really we were having a great time and making good progress when we ran into Texas. (bum bum bum)

It seems harmless enough, but you see the middle portion of that state? The largest part? We drove across that. And though it took 2 days, a minor amount of my sanity due to no phone service (thanks verizon...no, I cannot hear you now!), and many tanks of gas, there were all kinds of adventures to be had in the state where everything is bigger...or is it? First of all we went to a restaurant recommended on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (that's two on my list for this trip!) A little place, definately classified as a dive, called Fred's Texas Cafe and boy was it Texas-y!! By the way we made up a new word, Texas-y, I'll show you what it means soon!

Also, while at Fred's we found our first cactus of the trip! We wanted to find the big cacti you hear about being out west...that was not it. And the Texans thought I was insane taking this picture. But anyway, at Fred's we got to sit outside and listen to live music by a man who told dirty jokes that did not impress my mother, and a girl whose legal name was Sunshine.

Now this could've been all the Texas I needed, but little did I know that we would find the man with the Texas-y mustache...and get a picture with him, thanks mom. :)

Also while we were in Texas we decided to hop the border to Mexico, but apparently border patrol doesn't appreciate sponteneity and said that if we crossed without passports that Mexico would keep us, which we certainly didn't want! But we did get darn close to the border, close enough to park in border parking for 5 minutes.

After exiting Texas we made it to New Mexico. While New Mexico was beautiful, it was not my kind of place. Allow me to explain. My biggest fear is snakes (I mean it's a paralyzing fear) and the first thing I saw at the welcome center was this...

Now let's think about this. Alabama has all kinds of interesting creatures, but I figure your state has to have a real problem to have a sign AT THE WELCOME CENTER!! I cannot emphasize this enough. It took a lot of coersion to get me out of the car at all. I still believe they made it up, but mom and Aunt Carolyn told me that during the winter the snakes hibernate under ground. That sounds about as likely as buffalo not being extinct. haha. But anyway, while at this welcome center we found a bigger cactus than we had already seen...

Still not what we were looking for, but good try New Mexico.

We only spent a short time in New Mexico, and finally made it to Arizona (where there is not a welcome center with a state sign...step it up Arizona!) But their welcome center did have some interesting cacti though.

By the way, that thing stuck me like 30 times...it was a ninja cactus. Also, I know this post seems cactus heavy, but it was a fun game part of our trip. And we did finally find what we were looking for in Arizona.

Now that is what I call a cactus, and you should look at that beautiful background with the mountain. The whole state was that gorgeous!! It was amazing.

Now after we got into Arizona it wasn't long until we were in Phoenix for the night, and before we knew it, it was gameday!! We headed out pretty early and the rest of the day was amazing!! It can only be explained in pictures, with a brief narraration.

This is from our seats, mine and Andrew's that is. Mom and Dad were down below.

It just so happened that our brother William was one section over and one row down from us. We were on the top row. haha But the view was great!! And I love that this is a once in a lifetime photo op for the 3 Avant children. :)

Just after we WON the National Championship!!!

We were both crying and freakin out...for good reason!

Mom and Dad were too...

And the best part of this whole experience is that we got to do it as a family.

Let me tell you how angry the Arizona cops were that people were rolling their trees. haha They just didn't understand.

I don't even have words for that night. It was truly one of the best nights of my life and I honestly can't believe I was fortunate enough to be there for it.

After coming off of an amazing night like that it's hard to realize that you have 30+ hours of driving ahead of you, but we did. And to make that even better Andrew's flight was cancelled on the way home so he joined the carpool!! Since we were comfortably cramped on the way to Arizona, we decided to rent a car for the trip back. So again we took on New Mexico (and its snake problem), we conquered Texas (all 2 days of it and no cell service), and we made it home. The rest of the trip can be described in picture. :)

Home, sweet, home!!

Overall this was the trip of a lifetime and I'm so thankful I got to see the sights, share in the memories, and witness Auburn win the National Championship! To sum up the whole thing the best part (besides winning and hearing the alma mater played) was coming out of the stadium and finding my parents. After hugs and exchanged "War Eagle"s my dad just looked at me and said "hell of a senior year". I couldn't agree more. This has been such a dream, I still can't believe it.

War Eagle!!