31 years ago...

DJ's parents were married. Congratulations & Happy 31st Anniversary!

Another Teammate of the Month

In October, I told you DJ was the Teammate of the Month for the month of September. Now I have to post about myself. We had our monthly staff meeting last week and the November Teammate of the Month was announced. Much to my surprise it was me! I usually know who is being named - sometimes I have to help scan photos and my good friend is usually responsible for rounding up photos of the person. However this month when I asked her who was getting Teammate of the Month she quickly responded with a name and lied to my face. DJ wasn't involved in the secret either - since we all know he can't lie! Caroline called my dad to get photos since mom was in Iowa visiting my grandmother. So I share with you two of the photos everyone in the athletic department has now seen of me...or at least they did if they came to the meeting.

Christmas Sneak Peak

We babysat the nephews a couple weekends ago. We thought it was the perfect opportunity to do a few Christmas projects for their Mom & Dad, Mimi & Papa and Mammie. We hope they like their presents.

Happy Birthday Casey

Today is DJ's brother's birthday. Happy Birthday Casey!

Christmas Countdown...

We are on countdown at our house. Only 5 more (work) days until our holiday break!! We are looking forward to our week and a half off from work. The Christmas cards are in the mail, presents to those far away in the mail, the presents are wrapped, 2 more presents to find and one more party left.

Sneak Peak

My sister's family came up to Columbia for Thanksgiving. We had to have a mini photo session with the boys for their Christmas card. This is one of my favorites...

Bennett

Bennett 9 months...

Tripp

Another picture from Thanksgiving weekend

(Roenfeldt) Family Photo

My mom turned 60 this year. My sister and I decided we should have a family portrait taken. The Hoke's were doing Charleston sessions Labor Day weekend. Here is our favorite shot of the group.

Happy 30th Birthday Sis!

A few days off...

We are looking forward to a long weekend at the beach while our football team has a a little time off too.

Gamecocks vs Florida

The Gamecocks couldn't pull off a win against the Florida Gators yesterday, Mom & Dad got to go down to the field pregame for 2001, DJ and I got to see Coach McCarney (former Iowa State Head Coach) and his wife after the game...all in all a good day. Now we are off to see our Women's Soccer team play Rutgers in the NCAA tournament.

Amost 80

...degrees that is. The high today was almost 80 degrees and we can expect the same tomorrow. I think that's a few degrees warmer than our friends and family in the midwest have been experiencing.

Two away games in a row...

We have a break from football the next 2 weeks. We play at Tennessee Saturday 10/31 (7:45 on ESPN) and then at Arkansas the following Saturday 11/7. DJ and I both have to work all of our home football games - so we are looking forward to two quiet weekends at home. I think I am going to take Friday off so I can clean the house...there is lots of dusting, vacuuming and laundry that have piled up the last few weeks. Go Cocks - we'll be watching from the comfort of our couch!

Homecoming

This past weekend was Homecoming at the University of South Carolina. We celebrated Friday night with my college's annual homecoming party at the McCutchen House. I didn't see many of my classmates from college but several of my newer friends from the alumni board I serve on were there. Saturday we played Vanderbilt and came away with a victory, although not pretty it was a win. I can't believe I graduated 10 years ago (almost 10 years since I really graduated in December since I was on the 4 1/2 year plan). Maybe we will make it back to Iowa State next year for homecoming...

Teammate of the Month

At work we have something called Teammate of the Month. You nominate people that have gone above and beyond and our AD says "Teammates Make Team Members Better." Our very own was selected as the Teammate of the month for October. He gets a certificate for his office, a small ($100) bonus, 2 tickets to an event at the Colonial Life Arena and $100 to spend with Under Armour.

They also share embarassing photos - so I'm sharing with you! Yay for DJ!

Suggestions?

I am looking at purchasing a photo editing software. I'm not sure which is the best for me. Any suggestions?

Tripp & Bennett

We have a new photos of the boys...I beleive this is their school picture.

Happy 3rd Birthday Tripp

Blogging Hiatus

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged. After our trip to Edisto we have been in football mode. We traveled to Athens, GA for the USC vs Georgia game on September 12th. It was a heartbreaking loss but enjoyed our weekend with family and friends. Since then we've had 3 home football games - we defeated FAU, then Ole Miss and SC State. Next weekend we host Kentucky for the last of a 4 home game stretch. This will be the first home game for the Smith family and it sounds like Tripp will be coming to the game too. I'll try to be better this month!

sunset

Our week of relaxing has come to an end and sadly we head home. I leave you with a beautiful sunset photo from our trip.

The View

{Another} 4 Fish Day

Yesterday was another 4 fish day. Although the fish were slightly different...2 flounder, 1 spot tail trout and 1 baby tarpon. I don't know how much fishing there will be today as we have a family photo scheduled for sunset with Lonnie and Yvonne Hoke {our favorite photographers in Columbia}. This was a 60th birthday present for mom and a good excuse to have a family photo!

4 Fish Day

Yesterday was a 4 fish day...not a rating of the day itself, but instead the number of fish DJ caught. He caught 2 flounder and 2 spottail bass. Today is another day to fish. Hopefully the weather will be better than yesterday, it was overcast most of the day but was cooler so we could sit out on the beach and the deck all day without sweating.

Serenity Now...

It's been a long few weeks...Edisto here I come!

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

Thoughts and Prayers

Almost two weeks ago one of our equestrian athletes was injured in a horse accident. She was not riding, but bathing a horse when it spooked and the rail broke away and knocked her down on the cement. Our Gamecock family appreciate your thoughts and prayers. You can read Victoria's story and keep up with her progress at the caringbridge site.

Is there a difference in sweet corn?

I don't think Tripp knows that Iowa sweet corn is the best he could have...but he did enjoy some local corn Uncle DJ grilled a couple weekends ago.

Trading Chores

When DJ and I got married we divided household chores...and some how I got stuck paying the bills. So as a 3rd anniversary present to DJ I gave him the responsibility to pay the bills. It's been 2 months and we have renegotiated our "chore lists". I am again paying the bills...but I thought DJ doing all of the grocery and Walmart shopping was an equal trade!!

"Gum Pole"

There is a light or electrical pole in Charleston that attracts gum...lots of gum. Anyone that has been to Charleston to the end of the Market to East Bay know what I'm talking about. Although now they are trying to clean up the pole and giving out tickets for those that try to add to the collection...I have not added to the collection.

Minnesota {part 4}

Minnesota {part 3}

Minnesota {part 2}

Up North

We enjoyed a long weekend in Minnesota with DJ's family...we would have enjoyed a few more days! Over the next few days I'll post some pictures from our trip.

Walleye

(Before & After)

This was all within the 1st hour of fishing in Walker, MN.

Tripp the Baker

Tripp helped KK make homemade sourdough hamburger buns and bread. He loved to knead and thought the more flour the better.

and we did see Bennett too

Although he's still too little to run around and play but we did enjoy a little snuggle time with Bennett.

fun times at KK and DJ's

This past weekend the Smith family came to visit Uncle DJ and Aunt KK. We spoiled the nephews - as usual! Uncle DJ picked up some water toys and we played in the Trice's pool, water balloons and the sprinkler {yes, KK and DJ ran through the sprinkler in our back yard in our clothes!}

College of Charleston

Why wouldn't you want to go to school here? Or work here? We love Charleston and this is just one of the reasons why...I took this picture on their campus when we were down there this weekend.

the nephews

We enjoyed seeing the nephews when we were in Charleston too!

Happy Birthday Cathy!

A little belated post since we were in Charleston this past weekend!

just because it makes me smile

Spoiled Rotten

Fruits of our garden

One of our tomato plants is starting to produce little cherry tomatoes. These are some of the first few...

Our newest purchase

And one I'm not happy about! We purchased a new dryer 3 years ago when we bought our house...last weekend the motor broke on the dryer. After a $80 service call to find out it would cost about $350 + labor to repair we decided purchasing a new dryer made more sense {and we purchased the extended warranty - that would cover another service call if needed}. So here is our newest purchase...

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to both of our dads!

Move Over Betty Crocker

Lately we've been baking bread, both that require starters. A friend from work gave me a starter for Amish friendship bread. It's a good sweet bread and you can change the flavor depending on what pudding packet you add. We've tried the regular with cinnamon, just vanilla and chocolate - my favorite is the plain vanilla. I've baked the bread several times and shared the starter with other friends.

More recently I tracked down a starter for a sourdough bread. We baked our first batch Saturday night at 11pm (poor planning and not reading all of the instructions!) and enjoyed almost the whole loaf Sunday for breakfast and lunch. DJ is voting we make the Amish bread one last time (maybe lemon for summer) and keep baking the sourdough. I think he commented at least 5 times about the sourdough bread...so sourdough bakers we are!

trice...the traveler

Trice gets to go with us lots of places... She likes to go to our equestrian competitions, mostly because the girls love her and show her lots of attention but also because she loves the "big dogs". This is one of my favorite photos one of our athletes took this past year.

Hello to my friend E

It's been over 6 months since our trip to Iowa at Thanksgiving. We stopped in Murray, KY and I instantly had a new friend...Miss E. Maybe Miss E wants to come visit me next? I hope to see her soon.

Love, Trice

The River

(photo from the River Alliance website)

Three rivers meet in Columbia. The River Alliance has been working on connecting over 12 miles of trails. We love to go to the river and walk, especially with Trice. Yesterday we went down to the river and walked and Trice wanted to swim. So today we went back to the river prepared to get in (at least to our knees) with Trice. The river is high thanks to the rain we've had the last few weeks. Trice was ready to get in and looked back at us for the OK...as she started to walk into the rive there was a sharp drop off. So Trice was soaked right away and cautious of the water the rest of the walk.

Next time we go I'm planning to bring my camera! I think there will be some great shots.

Happy Birthday

Today we have two birthdays to celebrate...Grandpa Strub & Caroline. We hope you both have a wonderful birthday!