Homecoming 2013

Josh and I don't usually participate in much during homecoming weekend.  In fact, we usually avoid campus altogether because it is so crazy!  Last year, we completely left town.  For some reason, we jumped right in this year.  We attended the chemistry circus on Friday night (we usually do this), the homecoming parade Saturday morning, and the football game in the afternoon.  Titus and I actually walked in the parade while Josh took pictures.  We did this one other time a few years ago, but we haven't been to the parade since then.  Neither of us had been to an ACU football game since we were students, so that was fun too.  Here are a few pictures from our weekend.  I didn't take any at the circus because the lights were off for the cool parts and those pictures never turn out anyway.

Caffeine!

Titus with some of our students

Enjoying the parade with my "Chemistry Lab Lab."  Titus was a huge hit, and most of the people understood what his lab coat meant :)

ACU's Big Purple Marching Band

ACU

Here come the Wildcats!

On their way to another touchdown!  It would have been more interesting to see our huge crowd in the background instead of the empty visitor's side.

We won!

Two Month Catch Up

Well, after not blogging for 2 months, I suppose it's time for a little catch up!

At the end of August, my brother came to town to help us move Mom into her brand new house.  We spent 2 days moving, 2 days laying sod and parts of 2 days setting up stuff like appliances and electronics.  My poor brother- we always put him to work when he comes for a visit.  Maybe one day we'll let him rest :)

We also had kitchen cabinets delivered for an upcoming remodel.  They lived in the garage for a while, but we moved them into the dining room after ripping up that carpet and clearing out space.  They're supposed to be adapting to the temp and humidity of the house for several weeks before installation.  We don't plan on starting the work until December, so we get to stare at them for a while longer and dream of the day when they are in place.  They are out of the boxes now, but I'm saving those pictures for later.

Of course school started at the end of August too, so there were lots of activities and meeting to attend.

The beginning of September brought us the whole ordeal with Titus.  I'm sure most of you have kept up with us on facebook, but here's the short version.  Titus is battling an auto immune disease of some sort (we think).  We don't know for sure what caused it, but it made him very anemic to the point of needing a blood transfusion.  He went to the vet 12 times between Sept 3 and October 2.  He has been responding to treatment, but there have been several complications along the way.  We're also dealing with lots of side effects from the steroid he is taking.  I'd say overall he's about 75% of his normal self right now.  Treatment will continue for a while, so we're just taking it one day at a time.

Our garden is dwindling, but we're still harvesting a few things.  Peppers, okra, honeydew and tomatoes are still producing.  Sweet potato plants look healthy, but we haven't dug any up yet.  Everything else is done which is good because we don't have much time to spend out there these days.  I'd like to try some cool season crops someday, but it's not happening this year.  It's been nice having enough tomatoes to do some canning.  We've also stocked our freezer with various fruits and veggies to use throughout the winter.  This was definitely our most successful year of gardening in TX!

Tomatoes thawing, soon to be peeled

Garden 8-26-13

Garden 10-9-13

Our only 2 pumpkins from the garden this year.

And most recently, we had nearly 50 people out to our house for a cookout/hayride/campfire/archery evening.  These are students, faculty and family involved in biology related research at ACU.  What a fun group!

Most of the group, a few spouses skipped out