Well I had this awesome blog all typed up that I’d been working on for days and in an instant it was gone.  I shall attempt to re-create it.  Unsuccessfully I’m sure…

I’ve been a bad blogger of late.  We’ve been so busy with weddings, babies, football, holidays, trips, etc.  It’s been wonderful but I haven’t had much spare time.  I have about 10 half written blogs in my drafts folder that, I hope, will materialize into full posts soon, but for now we’ll stick with a quick update and some thoughts…

— Big news first.  I passed the NCE exam and I now have my LPC.  I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor which means I’m licensed to do private practice if I so choose.  I’m currently employed with a non-profit agency and while I don’t make much money, I wouldn’t trade what I’ve learned there for anything in the world!  Furthermore, I feel like I make a difference at the end of the day which means alot too.  But sometime in the future I plan to go out and explore my options.  Working with kids in the foster care system is hard, emotional work.  As anyone who has worked with this population knows, happy endings are rare and burnout is high.  I don’t know if I’m ready to walk away completely, but I’ve considered going part time and working with some other client populations.  I need some light to balance the dark…so-to-speak.  We’ll see…

— Eric and I made our biannual trip to Talladega on Halloween weekend and it was an experience as always.  We camped out like we did last fall and it was alot of fun.  Camping out at Dega always takes me back…reminds me of growing up in Clanton.  I don’t know why..maybe it’s the smell of the campfire and the cheap beer.  It just makes me think of my adolescence, camping out, four wheeler rides, bonfires, barn parties, etc.  I don’t get out of the city much anymore and I hate that.  I need a trip home soon!  Anyhoo, HERE is the link to the whole, hilarious album from the weekend.  One of our compadres somehow ended up with a carboard cutout of his favorite driver and we had WAY too much fun with that thing.

— My favorite newborn continues to grow like a weed and I was able to get some good shots of her recently.  Here are a few:

— We went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I started to include my thoughts on that here but it got too lengthy.. so I’m saving that for a separate blog.  As with the past films, I wasn’t very happy.  Having read all the books at least twice, I’m extremely critical.  Anyway, moving on…

— We got our Christmas decorations up the 2nd weekend in November.  I get alot of crap for putting them up so early but I enjoy it.  It puts me in the holiday spirit.  I love the holidays…the smells, the lights, the music, the warmth, family, friends, parties, etc… I want to enjoy it as long as possible.  Here are some shots of our decorations… take note of the wreath.  I made it!!!  Cool huh?  A wire coat hanger, some cheap plastic Christmas balls from walmart and about 20 minutes was all it took!!!

— Now for my Iron Bowl analysis:  We lost.No seriously, I think we played a stellar first half.  It seemed our defense was shutting Cam down and Auburn’s defense wasn’t even in the stadium.  But they made adjustments in the second half and were able to make the plays.  We also had 2 key turnovers that I know cost us at least 2 touchdowns.  I also feel the injuries to Julio and Greg hurt us bad.  Had we had them in that final drive I feel we would have AT LEAST kicked a field goal for the win.  I’m sure all Bama fans are saying similar things but oh well.  It makes me feel better.  I do have to admit that I’m beginning to believe Eric isn’t exaggerating when he talks about the national media’s dismissal of Auburn.  The national sports media consistently expects them to lose and yet they keep winning.  They seem to think they are scraping by with luck…like they are just an incomplete team with a good quarterback that won’t possibly make it to the title game.  But yet it seems they are 1 win away.  I guess we’ll see.  I’m pulling for them now, of course, but an Iron Bowl victory would’ve been nice…especially since I was there with Eric.  Most of the couples we hang out with are “split” as well so I really wanted bragging rights this year.  Oh well.  We went to the game with Ryan and Lindsay.  Too much fun…here are a few pics from the day: