Tailgating

There are a few earthly things that are close to my husband's heart. First is me, and second is William. After that, there are his family and brothers and sisters in the Lord. And then...NC State Football. He really, really, really likes football. And he really, really, really, really likes NC State football. He has bought season tickets to the football games for probably...well I don't know for how long, but I'm sure for more than 10 years.

Part of the season ticket deal is getting in on a parking place close to the stadium so that you can tailgate. Tailgating is an all day affair that begins many hours before the start of the game and then continues for about 1-2 hours after the game. This holds true no matter when the game starts. The game may begin at 12:30 p.m., in which case we leave the house at about 8:00 a.m. The game may begin at 7:30 p.m.. If that is the case, we leave the house at 2:00 p.m. (if we are going with Robert) and don't get back until about 1:00 a.m..

Mentioning Robert brings me to explain that Russ has been tailgating with Ricky, Ray, and Robert for as many years as he has had season tickets. Ray is a Wolfpack Club member and a really important one. He gets the tickets and then sells them to Russ and Robert and Ricky. He also is the reason we have such great parking places for our tailgating parties. You know how you rate in the Wolfpack club by how close your tailgating place is to the stadium. Ours is really close. Russ has always ridden to the games with Robert. Robert and his wife Christy plan the tailgating menus and bring most of the food. The ritual is for Robert to set a time to leave for the game and then call the night before or the day of and up the leave time by at least 15 minutes. If you are a true fan, you just can't leave early enough; and if you actually leave at the scheduled time, you feel like you are leaving late.

There are all kinds of traditions ascociated with NC State football. Those who are into college football understand this but for the uninitiated it is a whole new world. It's been fun learning all about this sort of thing since its so important to Russ. It's also been interesting being a spectator of the true fan. I can understand since I'm a Cardinal fan. But still, there are some things that seem almost comical. However, this post has been far to long so I wont go into all of that.

Incidentally, my husband is out of town and the thought of having to go to bed with no one to snuggle with is not apealing, hence the long post.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAny way......

At the beginning of this goofy post I said, "There are a few earthly things that are close to my husbands heart. First is me and second is William." One of the ways I know this to be true is that this year Russ only got tickets to HALF the NC State games. AND there have been two games we've gone to where he has not ridden with Robert. Which means he has left later. Not only that, but for one of the two games he actually had to park in a different parking lot and walk to the tailgating space. Let me tell you, that is true, true love.

And now to the point of this ridiculously long post. These are pictures of William's first tailgating party and game. It was a beautiful day, and he did great. I had a great time being with my wonderful husband and sweet little boy. William and I didn't see much of the game since he slept in his pack and play for the first half and then wanted to walk the stadium for most of the second. But never the less, it was still fun.

Laundry with William and Pooh

Ayscue Birthday Dinner

Denise and Randy's birthdays are both in September so we got together, a little late, to celebrate. We went to Macaroni Grill. It was a lot of fun but a little caotic with two 7 month olds and one 2 month old. Nothing out of the ordinary for me who is used to making a scene with lots more kids than that but maybe somewhat new for the Ayscues. William was ready for bed half way through but Nick was wide awake and ready to go. Stephanie ate, said hi to her cousin William and went to sleep. Its so fun to see all the babies together. I'm glad William has cousins his own age close by.

It's Been Awhile

I know it's been awhile since I lasted posted. Probably because my dad finally got a computer so that he could look at our pictures. As soon as he got the computer up and running I stopped posting. Hopefully though I'm back to posting a bit my regularly. October is a busy month for the Ayscues. Russ takes vacation, there is the state fair, football, and, well, lots of things. Scroll down to see a few and check back tomorrow to see some more.

Crafting with the GRBC Ladies

Russ and I attend two churches. One in the morning and one in the evening. The church we attend in the evening is called Grace Reformed Baptist Church. Every year this church hosts a Valentine Banquet. It's a fun time and a way to reach out to people who may not come to a Sunday meeting. The ladies of the church make the center pieces. We got a jump start on things and met in early October for the first round of crafting. Diane Glasgow is a wiz at anything creative and she is the one who headed up the project.

William Loves his Exersaucer

I don't remember if I posted this before by William loves his exersaucer. People used to ask me what item I just could not do without. Well so far there have been two things that fall into that category. The first was a sling my friend Susan made for me. It was the one thing that helped William stop crying--sometimes. And now the exersaucer. He will play in it for a long time, as measured by William standards. It's fun to watch him.

Pig Pickin'

Every year our little neighborhood has a get together at someones house. This year Carl hosted the party and had an eastern North Carolina Pig Pickin'. I wonder how many of you have been to one of these. You call it a pig pickin' because you can pick the meat off the bones of a pig that has been roasted whole. Most of the time someone else does the pickin' and they have the meat in a big pan with a vinegar based sauce. The sauce is what makes it eastern NC BBQ. Thankfully we got to pick the pig ourselves. The meat is great if you leave off the sauce, in my opinion.

Seven Months

I'm soooo far behind that even though today is William's 8th month birthday I'm just getting his 7th month pictures up. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sleeping Through

Yea!! I am so happy to report that our little man is sleeping through the night. His bed time is 7:00 and he sleeps until 7:00 in the morning. Sometimes he wakes up before 7, but if he does he just happily plays in his crib until I get him up. Even if he wakes up at 6:00 he doesn't seem to mind staying in bed till 7:00. It's amazing how great I feel since I don't have to get up at 3:00 a.m. any more. I would not have thought getting up for 20 minutes would make that big of a difference in feeling rested but I suppose it does.