The Aubie debacle

I interrupt the February Project for a very important story.
A few weeks ago, Emma Kate was invited to Aubie's birthday party.  It was in the Auburn Arena Scholarship room complete with cake and presents from Nell Fortner, Tony Barbee, and Gene Chizik.  Emma Kate made Aubie a birthday card, with a picture of herself and Aubie on the front, holding hands.  We took Emma Kate's good friend, Mary McKinnon who has never been a big fan of Aubie (she likes him from afar). The girls were super excited and could not wait for the party.  When we got there, we saw a big box of presents on the table for Aubie. Emma Kate wanted to put her card in there to be sure he got it, so we did just that.
Aubie opened all of his presents which took a pretty long time since he has less-than-nimble fingers.  The stack of cards got put back in the box, since time was running out, and the lady in charge, said "OK Aubie, that is all of your presents!"
From a crowd of 40 kids, Emma Kate screamed, "NO IT IS NOT!!" but by then the box had been swept away.  Then came the tears.  I felt horrible.  Emma Kate was so excited about Aubie seeing that card and although he would see it eventually, she would not see him see it. I tried to console her. I even asked Aubie in front of EK if he "saw her card" and he nodded yes. Good Aubie.

But EK was still devastated.  The whole way home she kept telling me that she was sure he had not seen it and that it had been thrown away.  So, I told Emma Kate that we would make Aubie a super-duper Valentine's Day card!! We could give it to him at the Gymnastics meet that Friday. That seemed to suffice her and then she started getting excited about what all she could use to make his Valentine...........To Be Continued.

Day 4

**I'm really bad at decisions. This whole "one a day concept" is really lost on me. Anyway.....
On Friday nights, you can can find Mom, Emma Kate and me at the Auburn Gymnastic meets. They are fun (and cheap) entertainment! We have a new coach this year and he is really great and super nice. He comes up in the stands and personally thanks people for coming. It is usually pretty crowded and we have a great time. So far this season, all of our meets have been super close, yet we had only beaten LSU. Heading into this meet, we were 1-3 (1-2 in the SEC with losses to UGA and Ark.) Tonight we hosted the University of Kentucky and they were pretty solid. Mom and I were pretty sure they were leading at the end of the meet. Then, in the last floor routine of the night, Auburn Senior Rachel Inniss performed her now infamous routine in which she starts her last tumbling pass with a quick Heisman pose. By now, the crowd knows it is coming and everyone hits it at the same time, everyone goes crazy and she nails her last tumbling run. And with that, for the third time this season, she scores a 9.9!! That score put the Tigers over the edge and it was an AUBURN VICTORY! War Damn Gymnastics!

Feb 4, 2011

Day 3

I am really bad about checking the weather. Mike is kind-of a weather nut, so I usually ask him at the last minute "what's the weather gonna be tomorrow?" Last night, I failed to ask this question and had no clue until Emma Kate and I walked outside to go to school/work. The car was covered in ice and when I looked in or out of the windows it looked like gaussian blur was applied to them in photoshop.

Day 2

Emma Kate is not a morning person. It probably is due to the fact that she is not a big sleeper. Last night, I tried to get her to go to sleep at least 17 times. At three in the morning, I woke up, snuck into her room and found her still awake. She had lined up all of her stuffed animals on her bed and was "teaching them lessons." She finally crashed shortly thereafter, and this is how I found her this morning.

February 2, 2011

For those not on Facebook

I have always been envious of those folks who do the 365-projects.  That is, where they take a picture a day for a year and post them on a blog or flikr or somewhere.  Some friends and I decided that in our hectic lives that was probably impossible, so we agreed to just start with the month of February. Our rules are a little loose. Post a picture a day in a Facebook folder entitled "February project" incorporating some element of surprise in the theme each day and write a little note explaining the picture.  We are on day 5 and so far I am on track.  I decided that since I am sparsely blogging these days, I will add the "February Project" here as well. Here is day 1:

I was leaving work on Feb. 1 around 6:00. As I walked across the sidewalk to my car in the parking lot, I came across this reflection. I looked all around and could not figure out where it was coming from. Finally, after much detective work, I found a car parked across the lot, facing my way and they had a mirrored AU tag that was catching the light perfectly and throwing this reflection all over the place. As I looked around, I saw it against a tree and against the Chemistry bldg as well. I only had my cell phone, so I snapped the best shot I could.