WOW is about all I can say about the past 48 hours. We just got home from our trip, FINALLY, and I can't believe that we went from 67 degrees in Florida to hearing about Memphis getting a major ice blast, wondering if we'd even be able to get home today, and we come home to 20's and Teens here in Mississippi, and lots of ice...very slick stuff.

As most everyone that reads this knows, we left Tuesday night for Mobile, Alabama for the GMAC Bowl to see the Tigers play the Bowling Green Falcons. We got to our motel between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Wednesday, and crashed. When I went to sleep that night, I had this horrible nightmare that we were driving home and there was lots of ice on the roads, and Michael was driving so fast that he lost control and we flew off a bridge. It was all happening in slow motion, and we both looked at each other and realize "We don't even know what we're about to land into" and it was a river or creek or something. We hit the water, Michael went under, but I was floating on the roof of the truck, and then I woke up. That scared the living crap out of me!! What's tremendously freaky about all of that is the fact that I dreamed that before the roads even got bad. It's weird.

So anyway, we got up the next morning and drove to Destin, Florida, which is about a 2 hour drive from Mobile. Yeah, yeah, it was a 2+ hour drive, plus lots of continuous rain & heavy winds, and a bridge over Escambia Bay (damaged in one of the hurricanes earlier this year) down to one lane for like freaking miles, but it was well worth it to go back to Destin for a visit. It's been 4 and a half years ago since we were last in Destin for our honeymoon. (Trust me, we are infamous for making long drives for only a couple hours stay...i.e. Hattiesburg last year...drove 10 hours round-trip for a 2-hour basketball game. A few years ago we drove 8 hours round-trip to Nashville to see Alan Jackson sing 3 songs in the Grand Ole Opry. Call us nuts...we love road trips.) We were in Destin long enough to discover Destin Beach Club (where we stayed on our honeymoon) was closed due to repairs which I assume were due to hurricane damage (sounds like the Griswald's luck, lol), it was too rainy and windy to go to the beach, we stopped in about 3 stores (story on THAT later), ate a WONDERFUL seafood lunch at the place we ate on our honeymoon, stopped at Walgreens, and then headed back to Alabama. We drove roughly 5 hours total for like a 2-hour visit to Destin, but like I said, it was worth it.

Now back to the 3 stores we went to, the first store we stopped at was Bass Pro so I could get my Dad a giftcard...he lives in that store, so that meant I had his Christmas taken care of. THEN we went to Build-A-Bear. We intended on going in there to get a bear for Jacob since we got Travis one from there a few years ago, BUT that all changed after we got in there. If you've never been to Build-A-Bear before, this is what you do. First you pick out the bear's fur...you pick out the empty shell of a teddy bear. Then you take it to this machine that puts in the stuffing through an opening in the bear's back. Before the lady sews the bear up, you pick out a little heart to put inside the bear, but before you insert the heart, you have to warm the heart in your hands, place the heart on your forehead so the bear will be smart, place the heart on your tummy so the bear won't be hungry, give the heart a kiss and make a wish. Only then is the heart inserted into the bear, and the bear is sewn up. Then you make your way to the next station where you give the bear a "bath", to fluff his fur and give him a brushing. Then you choose the bear's outfit, take him to the dressing table and dress him, then sit down to one of the computers to create a birth certificate and give the bear a name. WELL, the outfit we found I could NOT pass up. It was an Air Force uniform, and on its sleeves was the Chief stripes, just like my Dad's, and with his retirement, I HAD to get it for my Dad as his retirement present. And it was the ONLY outfit like it left in the store. And we named the bear "Chief Yarbear" (my Dad's last name is Yarbrough, for those that don't know, and of course his ranking is Chief, hence the name I chose for the bear. After you dress him and make his birth certificate, you check out and they put the bear with his certificate in a cute box that's shaped like a little house. So after we left there and I was feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, almost literally, we went across the way to a toy shop and found Travis and Jacob a little something. We never go on a trip without bringing our babies back something.

We got back to our hotel and got ready for the game and left for the stadium around 5 p.m. We had our backpack complete with pom-poms and rain ponchos. The game didn't even get started before it came down a major downpour and we had to break out the ponchos. We still got somewhat wet even with the ponchos, especially our feet and our butts, lol, but as the rain came down harder, the crowd got more excited. In my honest opinion, this year's bowl game didn't have anywhere near the level of excitement as last year's bowl game. For one, New Orleans is a really neat place to visit. There wasn't really anything that special or remarkable about Mobile. Another thing is probably simply because last year's bowl game was the first one after many years of no bowl game. This year's bowl game was pretty much *expected" all season long. AND the fact that I kept feeling like I was watching the game in a high school stadium. It's really hard to top a game at the Superdome, lower level, about the 40-yard-line. This time we were sitting on concrete, in the rain, in the end zone. So yeah, last year was just way more exciting and had lots more perks. My opinion. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted because I didn't want to fry my digital camera, but I did get a few good ones. There were a few moments in the game I felt there was hope for Memphis to pull off a win, but the Falcons ran over the Tigers in the end. Final score 52-35. We didn't even stay until the end...we left early in the 4th quarter. We treked through lots of mud to find our vehicle, got back to the motel, changed into dry clothes, and I was hungry, but so very tired. This was between 10:30 and 11 last night, and I wanted hot food and I wanted coffee. Well, the only places to eat near our motel (that we KNEW about) was Steak N Shake and McAllisters. I wasn't in the mood for a potato and I hate McAllister's sandwiches, so Steak N Shake it had to be. I think every Tiger fan staying in the general vicinity crammed into Steak N Shake and they weren't used to those numbers, and they were very understaffed...they had only 2 servers in the whole restaurant. It seemed that everyone in the restaurant had had their orders taken but us, so we just got up and left, and after driving around a few minutes we found a Waffle House. Michael just said "Be sure to tell them who found the Waffle House." LOL. Yes, it was a bit of an argument because we were both so dang tired, so we kept going back and forth like "Let's just go back to the hotel, sleep, get up in the morning and eat a good breakfast", but then it was like "Nooo, I'm hungry, I need food." Thank the Lord *Michael* found the Waffle House. I swear I think we ordered everything off the menu, and I chugged down like 2 cups of coffee. We got back to our room, passed out and I got up about 6:45 this morning, got showered, woke Michael up, and we hit the road home about 8 a.m.

We didn't run into the patchy stuff until about the Como exit, and then the interstate got lots worse right after the Hernando exit, which is only a few exits from our exit for Southaven & Horn Lake. Several things amazed me once we started seeing white. We had the radio on, and this beautiful instrumental version of "White Christmas" played, almost on cue. Some of the trees along the interstate were covered in ice, and the sun was shining on them, which made them look silver. They didn't look real at all...they looked like giant Christmas decorations. It was beautiful. When we finally made it into Greenbrook (my parents' subdivision...they kept our dog for us and we were picking him up) the song "Home For The Holidays" came on, again on cue, and it brought tears to my eyes. We finally made it to my parents' house and my Dad wasn't even there so I could give him his bear! He had ran over to Lowe's for something, but Mom said he'd be right back, so we waited for him to get back. In the meantime, Mom fed us homemade cookies and was busy making other Christmas treats. When he got there, I had the bear's box hidden behind the chair I was sitting in, and then I sat it up on the kitchen table so he could see it. He opened it, looked inside, and my Mom was like "Awwww!" and my Dad took him about of the box and got all teary-eyed!! That moment right there made the Destin trip totally worthwhile. About 20 years ago, my Dad gave me a teddy bear, which later became known as "Jelly Bear" (don't laugh), which I slept with from the time I was 4 years old until I got married. The bear even managed to find his way into my suitcase for the honeymoon (my parents did it as a joke). So I thought it would be sweet to give my Dad a bear that might mean something to him. From the look on his face, it's something he will definitely treasure. He even said he's going to frame the birth certificate. While we were over there, Dad let Little Bear (our dog) out of his shop and let him run around the yard. He threw a ball for him and he was going nuts, trying to bury his nose in the snow, but couldn't because it was solid ice, lol. We loaded up the dog, left my parents house, and slid on over to Michael's parents' house to pick up our babies.

Now THIS had us nervous to a certain degree because of their steep driveway. We just KNEW we'd get almost to the top and begin to slide backwards, but we just took it slow and easy, and climbed the hill all in one piece. The boys were very happy to see us! Travis was kind of whiney though because he wanted so badly to "throw a snowball" and "build a snowman". He couldn't understand why we kept telling him he couldn't. The stuff was solid...nothing powdery. It's the weirdest thing really....from what I hear, the rain came first, then sleet, then snow, so it appears to be snow with a glazed over effect. When we got home, after nearly busting our rear ends on our own driveway, we got the kids in the house, got them REALLY bundled up and took them outside for a minute. We turned the Christmas lights on the house and took a lot of pictures of the kids and the house. It's just soooo awesome to see the lights against the snow, well, ice that looks like snow. It's beautiful! Oh, and what's REALLY nuts....our front porch has an overhang and we have no gutters, and we have white icicle lights hanging across the front of the house. Well, when the stuff on the roof started to melt, it dripped down off the overhang, froze to the icicle lights and made GIANT icicles. The first thing I thought was now THAT gives a new meaning to icicle lights, lol. It looks really pretty now because the white lights are shining through the icicles hanging down. These things are so huge, I swear they could kill somebody if they fell on someone's head or something. I took a couple pictures of them so I could put on here later.

What I really can't get over is how freaking cold it is, in December. Tomorrow night, on Christmas Eve, it's going to be 12...yes...TWELVE degrees. Now that, my friend, is cold. It's so cold I'm having to wear like 2 pairs of socks, and I'm having to put towels down by the front and back door and inside the windows to prevent drafts. It's crazy. I thought it only got this cold in Michigan or Minnesota or something. I mean, it has gotten this cold down here before, but I think it's been years. And it almost NEVER happens until January or February.

Well, I must run now. I still have a few presents to wrap and I need to go snuggle up with something warm!! Have a Merry, WHITE, Christmas everyone!!