Weekend visit with Best Friends

This past weekend Scott and I were thrilled to get to visit with both of our best friends! We went to the Ole Miss football game at Wake Forest, which was an exciting game that I am glad we attended. Scott's best friend, Brian, lives in Raleigh so we stayed with him and made a weekend of it. We loved getting to see Brian and his new hometown, as well as hang out with his girlfriend, Laura. Thanks to you both for putting up with us and for entertaining us!! I will post pictures from the weekend as soon as I get them (hint, hint Laura!). I am very sad because we left our camera.

Scott and I had some free time to drive over to Durham where we toured the campus of Duke University. It was beautiful!! I couldn't believe the architecture of each and every building--even their sports facilities (although small) are pretty. On that note, because we were in town we thought we would try to visit with Coach David Cutcliffe, the new head coach of Duke. When Coach Cut was at Ole Miss he travelled a good bit with Scott. I remember when he left Ole Miss Scott was truly upset--he really thinks highly of this gentleman. Because of this, I was hoping to meet him. Side note: Back in January Scott and his great friend John went to visit Brian. During this visit, Scott and John tried to catch Coach Cut at his office, but missed him by mere minutes. Fast forward to now: While we were chatting with his administrative assistant, he walked through the reception area! We got to visit with him for a good long while--he and Scott caught up, we saw recent pictures of his family, and got his impression of the recent changes in Ole Miss football (which I will not post on our blog!). Let me tell you, this man is indeed one to respect and admire. I really enjoyed our special impromptu visit with him and am now a Duke football fan. And let me just say--he has one impressive office with a flat-screen HD television/computer screen that will make even the employees at Best Buy drool!

Friday evening we went with Brian and Laura to Chapel Hill to enjoy a night out at The University of North Carolina (which is Laura's Alma mater). We didn't get to see much of it, but we were very, very impressed with The Carolina Inn, where we went for drinks and bluegrass on the lawn. If I lived anywhere in the area this would be a regular weekend spot for me!

Saturday was game day, and we loaded into a mini-van and headed to Winston-Salem where we toured the campus of Wake Forest University. Again, a pretty campus! It was fun to see where 2 of my post-college roommates went to undergraduate school. I got a quick glance at the chapel where one of my friends got engaged! The only facilities we "toured" were the restrooms outside of the baseball field (Can you believe the women's room was unlocked!? Seriously, the guys decided on a bathroom break in this back parking lot where we were turning around...and we looked up and there was a bathroom! The ladies decided to take advantage of this unexpected blessing, and were disappointed when the guys realized the men's room was locked. I said, "At least check the women's room---it ought to be a universal rule that ALL women's rooms are unlocked at all times." And indeed it was! Because this never happens, I had to document it!).

The game was super exciting--and Ole Miss almost won. Sadly with 1:01 left in the game, our defense ran out of steam and Wake kicked a winning field goal with 3 seconds left. Heartbreaker. The major highlights from the game were sitting so close to the band that I felt I needed an instrument and getting to see my friends Jason and Brent (I haven't seen Brent in probably 3 years and Jason lives in freaking Iowa!). It really was fun to see familiar faces in the crowd!

Now, I have shared a lot about the weekend except for when I got to see my best friend. Because we were flying, we decided to fly out of the Birmingham airport so that we could see my best friend, Dana and her great husband Chris. They are special friends to both me and Scott and we were eager to visit with them because they just had their first child at the beginning of August. I wanted to get to meet Wells as a tiny baby, so was thrilled when our flight plans worked out as we hoped. Wells is a great baby--and managed to stay awake until we arrived in town Thursday evening (He was so excited he didn't take a nap all day! Sorry Dana!). I couldn't believe how alert Wells is--and how quickly he fell in love with his Aunt Mary. He really is adorable and we had fun seeing our friends as parents. The picture is of Wells' sporting his new bathrobe we gave him in true Hugh Hefner style. I can tell already that this boy is going to have the ladies lined up!



Another highlight was getting to spend time with my brother Brad and his wife Bentley. Although that visit was quick, we did appreciate the guest bedroom and ride to the airport. It's so fun to have family and friends living so close to one another so I can visit with lots of fun people when I am in town.

Now that we are back in Oxford, things are somewhat settling down....but as can be expected there are more adventures to be shared. It's football season, Debate time, and classes for Scott. We will share more soon!