Bowling in the Music City!

This week I just got back from Clemson's bowl game in Nashville where we played Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. Last time we were there we played Kentucky but the outcome wasn't good. This year we won 21-13! It was a great win for our coach in his first season and for our graduating seniors, who we will miss!


Can we talk about how cold it was at the game? I had multiple layers on and was still freezing! This is a picture with Elizabeth my Alumni Association BFF. She helped host our event at BB Kings!

I was actually at the bowl game this year for work. My coworker and I were lucky enough to be able to host an event the night before the game at the BB Kings Blues Club. We had never had an event before and weren't sure what kind of crowd we would have. We kept saying that we would be happy if 50 people showed up. To our surprise we had about 250 people show up and were very excited. We can't wait to host an event at next year's bowl game!

These are the fun ladies that I spent my weekend with and had a blast! Maybe next year Colin will get to come! Go Tigers!

An Indiana Christmas.

Nothing says Christmas then being at home with my family and seeing snow on the ground!

I got to spend time with all my friends and family while in Indiana. I have to admit..I think I might have spent more time at the mall than anywhere else! I went shopping with my Mom, Colin's mom and my BFF Jessica. While I didn't buy much, it was so nice to walk around with my favorite people to shop with!

I also got to have dinner with my gymnastics family at our favorite hang out- Pepes! I wish I would have taken pictures of us all, but sadly I didn't. There isn't a dinner with them that I don't almost cry from laughing so hard. It was so good to see Cindy, Renee and my adoptive children! I terribly miss coaching gymnastics at LAGC.

Colin and are I blessed that our parents live literally like 30 seconds from each other. It makes for easy traveling during the holidays. On Christmas Eve we always spend the day with Colin's side of the family. We ate a wonderful meal prepared by Colin, went to candlelight service and then opened presents. After presents we all played the game Loaded Questions, it was a great time! Here is a picture I stole from Lauren's facebook (it was the most normal we all looked).

The on Christmas Day we spent the day with my family. We did our normal Christmas routine. We woke up and opened presents followed by egg casserole (it wouldn't be Christmas morning without it). Colin got the new Super Mario Brothers Wii game and we spent the afternoon playing that. My poor Mom got a migraine and slept most of the afternoon but Dad made a wonderful meal of lobster and fillet.


I was so sad when I had to leave both of my families and friends the morning after Christmas!

Theres No Place Like Home...

I am home.

There is nothing much else to say but that.

I have already gotten to be with both sides of my family, go shopping with my mom, see my best friend for a few minutes, eat at my favorite place on Purdue's campus and even try a new spot.

Simply Wonderful!

We Are PURDUE!

This weekend Matt, Lindsey and I took a little road trip (5 hours) to the University of Alabama to watch the Purdue Boilermakers take on the Roll Tide. Colin wanted to go but he had to work :0( Matt and I both graduated from Purdue, so we were both real excited when we saw they were playing fairly close to us this year. We recruited Z to come along and pretend to be a Boilermaker fan! She played the part perfect! Here we are when we first got to the game.

For most of the game our beloved Boilers were behind but then they fought their way back for a victory! There were about 200 Purdue fans at the game and let me tell you, we were loud! There was even a little Alabama fan who was yelling at us to "shut up" when we were cheering and giving us a thumbs down! Here is a picture of the boys on the court.

Below is the picture of us celebrating after the game! We Are PURDUE! Boiler Up!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Again, I am slacking but with the holidays just around the corner we have been busy decorating! This year is the first year in our home and we couldn't wait to put up Christmas lights outside! The Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend Colin and I went to Target to get all the outside decorations. Colin gets all the credit for the lights outside and I might be a little bias...but I think we have the best house on the street!

My mom and I did some Christmas shopping the Black Friday morning, let me tell you how crazy those people are at 4 and 5 in the morning! Below is my best purchase from the morning, the trees! I got those two trees for $40 bucks from Target...they are normally $95! It even came with a wreath and garland. We put the garland inside.

Below are some of our Christmas decorations inside the house. Enjoy!

I am so excited to have our decorations up! I love to sit in the living room with all the lights out in the house besides the Christmas lights! Have a wonderful holiday!

Our First Sale!

We Did It!

We are no longer craigslist virgins! We made our first sale tonight and it happened to be out big ticket item! We sold the weight machine!

Can't wait to see the rest of the stuff (futon, kitchen table/chairs, IKEA shelves, Target desk and a big movie banner). Tell all of your friends to check out our stuff on craigslist!

Catch up and Craigslist

It's been awhile again since I blogged so I figured I would do a quick picture catch up and then tell you about my latest obsession...craigslist.

Two weeks ago Clemson BEAT FSU! It was such a huge game here at Clemson and luckily we got to enjoy some southern tailgating before I had to go to work. Here are a few pictures from tailgating with the Rickett's family. Thanks for having us!!

This past Friday was the season opener for Clemson basketball. We won and got a special treat, we got to sit on the floor. Colin really enjoyed being so close and told me he wishes our season tickets were there! I agree!

Now about my new love...Craigslist! Colin and I cleaned out the garage this weekend and had a lot of old furniture to sell. So last night and tonight I have been working on posting a futon, kitchen table/chairs, desk, a movie banner, Ikea shelves and a huge weight machine on Craigslist. I've already had people asking about the shelves from Ikea and hope that I sell all of my items! Once we get it all sold and out of the garage we will actually be able to park our cars in the garage! Wish me luck!

It's almost Thanksgiving and my wonderful family is coming to visit. I can't wait to have our first Thanksgiving in our house with my parents and brother!

The Simple Things of Homeownership...

There are so many things that I am thankful for now that we are homeowners. I think the best things about owning a house are the most simple of things...

1. The mailbox. I love not having to go to the post office. Instead I can walk outside in my socks to put mail to be picked up and I can sit in my car to pull the mail out of the mailbox. Ohhh the joys of a mailbox.

2. A dining room. We have never had room for a dining room table before we moved into the house. We now have one and room for 6 people! We have yet to have a big dinner at our beautiful table (thanks Dad for making it!) but we are hosting Thanksgiving with my side of the family and can't wait for a full table during the holidays. Colin and I also eat dinner at our table most nights of the week. That means no TV just alone time together :0)

3. A yard. Never before would I have thought that I wanted a yard, until we moved. Because we have a yard we have been able to get a puppy, which was one of the best things ever. Bella is such a sweet dog and she loves to play fetch in the yard and we love to play fetch with her. (I do admit though, I love the yard but not the yard work)

4. The most important, I just love to know that this is OUR house and that all of our hard work has paid off and we can afford a little part of one of our life's dreams together.

Better finish making dinner before our shows start! Tonight is Dancing with the Stars and Castle!

Halloween, a Win and Great Friends!

We had a great weekend here in Clemson! First, it was Clemson's Homecoming weekend and so I went to Tigerama with Kate and Z. We had a great time and it's fun event to kick off the weekend. This year some of the football team preformed to Thriller but remained it Spiller. The crowd went nuts! I also hosted the Tiger Cub Birthday Party on Saturday morning before the game. All you need to know is that I had 250 lil kids and their parents attend the party, enough said!

Our good friends and Colin's old roommate Wes and Kate came to stay with us this weekend. Thanks for coming! We don't get to see the Sweeten's enough and every time we do, its always a blast. We tailgated with Wes's parents before the game and then stood in the pouring rain on the field to watch the Tigers run down the hill. Our Halloween night wasn't very eventful but it was fun. We handed out candy to the little kids in the neighborhood and then went out for some Mexican food.

Wes and Kate have a puppy named Bear that they brought with them. Bella and Bear are officially boyfriend and girlfriend. It was love at first sight and Bella has been looking for Bear all day long!

Today was just a lazy Sunday. After a busy weekend Colin and I napped with all the animals and ran to Target. I better get rested up for a busy week filled with board meetings and hopefully a Tiger win over FSU!

Colin's Pumpkin Creations

Since we just bought our house and had been living in an apartment for 2 years, we didn't own ANY fall decorations. I haven't really had the time or money to purchase decorations this year so pumpkins it was. (I am waiting till everything goes 50% off after Halloween before I shop for next years decorations)

I'm very lucky to have such an artistic husband. We bought 4 pumpkins and only 3 are carved so far. Colin has carved all 3 because if I did one and sat it next to his, it would look like a 5 year old did it. I do want to add that these were all hand drawn, no stencils used!

Below are our only fall decorations but I brag on my husband because I think we will have the best pumpkins on the block this year! (I'm sorry the pictures aren't the best, I took them with my iPhone)

Happy almost Halloween!

I had people comment on Facebook that Colin should do a tiger so I thought I would add this picture of pumpkins he carved a few years back. Mine is in the middle...can't you tell :0)

I've been a bad blogger...

I really do have a problem updating my blog. I always get sucked into reading other people's blogs that I forget to update mine. Who knows if anyone even reads mine though :0) So since it has been FOREVER since I have blogged, I will give you a quick update on life in the Leonard household.

1. Colin's family came to visit over fall break. I had a wonderful time with my MIL, and my grandparents-in-law. We did a bunch of antiquing and some shopping. They even stocked our fridge! It was the first time they had seen the house and we were so glad to welcome them. Too bad I didn't take any pictures while they were here!

2. Kari's Bridal Shower was the weekend that my family was in town and Kate and I went to it. It such a nice shower that her sister put on for her. I can't wait for her wedding the first weekend in December.

3. Colin and I have been tailgating with Kari and TC's family after games. We have been having a blast with them and want to thank them for allowing us to hang out with them! Here are a few pictures from past tailgates....P.S. We beat Wake Forest last weekend and Purdue beat Ohio State! It was a good football weekend in the Leonard house!

4. Clemson just hosted Rock the 'John 2009 this past Friday. It is our version of midnight madness and kicks off our basketball season. I have to brag on our event because it was awesome. We totally had the best entrance of any coach in the nation this year. Coach Purnell repelled from the rafters of Littlejohn in Army fatigues. Here is a picture even though it doesn't do it justice! Now we just have to come up with something to top that for next year!

I will leave this post as a promise. I promise that I will try to start blogging more often and keeping everyone updated on our life in the south. If you read this, let me know so that I don't feel as if I am blogging to no one :0)

Weather Update

Anddddddddd it is STILL raining!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

It has been raining for the past 4 days here and is supposed to rain for the entire next week.

Friday night we went to dinner with some friends before going to watch Clemson play Michigan State in volleyball. Michigan State is ranked 17th and the Tigers fought hard but lost in the 5th game. Volleyball is my 3rd favorite Clemson sport to watch after football and basketball.

Saturday we played Boston College in football and won....but not after the longest football game in history! We had two weather delays for a total of 2 hours. The game took an entire 5 hours from start to finish. Lets just say...there weren't many Clemson fans in the stadium at the end of the game! The Tigers are 2-1 and we are looking for our third win over TCU this coming Saturday. After the game we went home to watch some more college football.

Sunday was a cold and rainy lazy day. I think the most productive thing I did all day was returning my books to the library and checking out another one. Now I am watching the Emmys, mainly to see what people are wearing.

Since another football weekend passed and I didn't take any pictures (I really need to get better at taking pictures), I will post one from last football season. Too bad the weather this past weekend wasn't like the picture below!

Lazy Weekend

You know how it is when you set all these goals and plan to get a bunch of stuff down around the house...and then you do nothing. That was us this past weekend. We wanted to get the entire garage done so we could sell a few things we have in there and be able to park our cars in there. ALL we did was clean out ONE box! So much for an entire weekend that we both had off!

So instead of cleaning...we watched football....ALL Saturday! I just love college football. You will always find me cheering for Clemson, Purdue, the ACC and Big 10!

Tonight Colin had his 3rd softball game. His team is 3-0! It's fun to go and watch him play. I am the cheerleader wife :0)

I don't have any pictures from the weekend so I will post one from this summer. It's of Kate, Kari and myself from Kari's engagement party...December 5th will come very fast!

I'm Back!

Ok, so I have been MIA in almost a YEAR! I was really bad about updating my blog but I have decided that I need to start blogging again. The reason being is that I read so many other people's blogs, many of whom I do not know and it makes me want to record my life in words. I want to be able to have a place to look back at all the memories in life as I go forward.

So, since it has almost been a year I will try my best to give a quick overview of the past year of the most important highlights.

1. Colin and I bought a house this summer in Liberty, South Carolina!! We LOVE it! We have been here for 3 months now and there is always something else to be done. We have done a lot of painting but have much more to do. We just love knowing that we have somewhere to call home that is truly ours. Below is a picture for those of you who haven't been able to come visit yet. Speaking of visitors...we love visitors! So please come down to see us!

2. We got a PUPPY! Bella is a lab/spitz mix who is 4 months old. We have had her for about 4 weeks now. I'm not sure how we have gotten so lucky with animals (as you know we have 3 of the best cats ever) but Bella is super sweet and really hasn't chewed up too much...yet. Bella loves the cats...the cats put up with Bella. Below is a picture of our sweet Bella girl, I mean how can you not fall in love with those eyes!

3. Jevin came to visit! Jevin came down to visit us Labor Day weekend. It was so great to see him since I hadn't seen him since March. He got to go to the Clemson vs. MTSU game, see our new home, meet Bella and go to Atlanta, GA. In Atlanta we went to the Georgia Aquarium and to the World of Coke Museum. I always love having my brother come to stay with us!

4. My BFF got married in June! Jessica and Scott were married on June 20th and it was such a beautiful wedding. Jess and I have been friends forever and I can't even start to describe how happy I am that she found Scott to spend her life with and how perfect they are for each other. I love them both and I know they will have a wonderful marriage and life together.

Those are just a short overview of some of the bigger moments of this past year. I can't wait to see all that the fall has in store for the Leonard house. I hope more visitors and some great fall weekends celebrating some Clemson football wins!

I promise to become better at this blogging business...stay tuned!