Roll Tide Roll!

#2 Alabama defeats #1 defending SEC champs Florida 32-13. It wasn't even close. 22nd SEC Championship. Looking for National Championship #13.

What a wonderful day. =)

Pointless traditions?

Hayrides. What's the point? Tonight was the hayride and cookout w/the church group. On the way out there, Micah was like, so what's the purpose of this hayride thing? I don't really know. Then he asked if I thought they would leave on it without us (b/c we were running about 20 mins late). My reply: "No, it's not dark yet." "Why does it have to be dark?" "I don't know. It just does." So what is the purpose of a hayride? Especially a non-haunted one? I mean, we just sit in a cotton trailer on a bunch of bales of hay. It's freezing, the hay is itchy, the fields we are riding through stink to high heaven...and this is supposed to be fun? lol. Now don't get me wrong. It was enjoyable. But really? What's the meaning behind this pointless fall tradition?? Here's a picture from the hayride. Lauren sat with us for a little while. Apparently I missed the funny face memo. =) It's still a good picture tho.

Another tradition that is not-so-pointless, but nonetheless kinda silly is the tradition of Candle-lightings. It's a Freed thing. And I'm reminded of it b/c I got an invitation to one yesterday! =) Here's what a candle-lighting is. When a girl gets engaged, she keeps it a secret, at least at first. She probably tells a couple of close friends so they can help plan. They send out invitations to all of her friends to come to the candle-lighting ceremony. It's usually at night, somewhere on campus. Everyone shows up and sits in a circle, speculating about who it might be. At the ceremony, the ring is tied to a candle. The host (not the engaged girl) lights the candle and starts it around the circle. On the first go-round, all of the girls ooh and aah at the pretty ring as it passes by. On the second time around, when it gets to the newly engaged girl, she blows out the candle, letting everyone know it's her. And then the squealing begins. lol. I had one after we got engaged. And I did so good keeping it a secret! Everyone thought it was me b/c they knew we were gonna be getting engaged soon, but I fooled them all for a day and a half! Go me! lol. They kept asking and I told them that I thought it was someone else and that they knew that I wouldn't be able to keep it a secret if it was me. (Devious laugh...lol)
So yeah, I got invited to one for tomorrow night, but I already know who it is. B/c I'm just good like that. lol. It's the friends we've been doing our Star Wars movie nights with. We knew it was coming soon, so I wasn't surprised at all. She was walking around the cookout tonight w/her left hand stuck out. =)

By the way, the only good thing about living in Tennessee surrounded by a bunch of Vols fans is living in Tennessee with a bunch of Vols fans on the day that Alabama beats Tennessee. Roll Tide Roll! =D

"Good is the enemy of great."

This was Nick Saban's inspirational message to the Alabama Crimson Tide today. Apparently it worked. We beat Kentucky 38-20. Great game. 4 interceptions. It was a really exciting game to watch. I just thought that was a really good quote and that I should share it with you.

Today was a pretty fun day. Micah and I slept in. It was my last day to really sleep in before I have to go back to work. Sad day. So I took advantage of it. Then for brunch Micah made me a sausage, egg, and cheese omelet. It was pretty awesome. And we watched the Bama game together...well, kinda. I watched, Micah played WoW, and then watched the replays of the really exciting stuff. lol.

After the game we went over to Joel and Tansy's for a little while. Randy wanted to show us his presentation that he has been showing to the elders of the congregations he is visiting.

I guess with him being here raising funds and stuff, it's got me thinking a lot more about going back. Micah and I have been talking about it a little more often. I'm getting really excited about learning Portuguese and starting to plan our ministry. We've got to go back (again) next summer. Don't get me wrong, I love Brazil. The trips are a lot of fun, and I know that I'm very lucky to have been twice, because most people will never get to go at all. It's just a little frustrating that we have to go so often. It feels like we just got back, and now we're starting to plan our next trip. We actually don't have to go back until December 2010, but we'd rather go during the summer, than wait til the last minute and something come up. ((For those of you who don't know, Micah is a permanent resident, but not a citizen. That means that in order to keep his residency and his permanent visa, he has to enter the country at least once every 2 years. And tickets are so expensive and it's so much time travelling, it's not worth spending any less that a couple of weeks. We try to stay 3 when we go.)) But it's going to work out pretty well, because Micah has to do a field lab as part of his degree program, so he'll just do that while we're down there. (If I get to go and stay the whole time.) So I'm getting excited about what I can get involved with while I'm down there. We might go to camp again, which I would love. We spent 2 weeks as counselors at camp on my first trip down there. It was stressful, but still a good experience. If he ends up working with his dad, then I'll probably work a whole lot on my language skills, and also get more acquainted with the culture. I'm hoping I'll be able to go and spend the whole 3 weeks. If I'm still at Lowe's, it shouldn't be a problem. I've earned enough vacation time, and they like me well enough that I can get it worked out like I did for the last trip. If I'm not at Lowe's, there's no guarantee it'll be quite that easy.

Tonight we had J&T over to our place for supper. We haven't really gotten to hang out with them much since they got married. I cooked Mexican chicken, which is a recipe that their mom makes a lot, so Micah and Joel were really excited about it. As soon as Joel walked in, he was like, "It smells like Mexican chicken in here." Then we played Apples to Apples. Very fun game. We laughed a lot.

I guess that's all I have for tonight. I've been trying to keep my posts shorter, but I'm not very good at that yet. Maybe I just need to start posting more than once a day, but keeping them really short. Idk. I'll get the hang of it eventually.

Remember: don't settle for good when you can do something great. Go do something great today. =)