thanksgiving

we had a great thanksgiving. we got to announce to our families the name we decided for baby G:

Norah Christy

chris & i also felt her kick for the first time, which was exciting! we spent some time in south georgia with chris' family. a few years ago, i started doing a craft/kitchen project with his cousin's children, and it has sort of become a tradition. this year we did gingerbread people. the girls said the large gingerbread cookie cutter was christopher, the medium one was me, and the tiny one was baby norah. then they made half their cookies with a cutout of norah within a larger gingerbread person's belly- "since that's where she is." so precious! here's a picture of the golden family with mema. we are very excited for kevin & andra (pictured far left) as they finalize their wedding plans for next april. i've always wanted a sister! we left the farm early to go to the georgia game on saturday. despite the outcome, we had a great time with friends in our final tailgate of the season. they surprised us with a shower! the cake says if i had a daughter...i'd dress her in white & gold, which is from the GT fight song. i've always heard the best way to get new tech fans is to breed them! here are some of the sweet things we received for norah. she will be ready for next football season!

halloween weekend

we had quite a busy weekend. we spent all day saturday in atlanta at the clemson game. some sweet clemson friends of ours from greenville, matt & meg, made the drive with us (pictured on the left). we also got to meet up with some of our other clemson friends, tim & blaire (on the right). they moved to the atlanta area almost a year ago, and we miss getting to see them more often! of course we got to see our usual favorite tech friends (er, tech friends & their wives): justin & linda (left) and derek & katherine (right). you see a sea of white and gold (and navy) behind us storming the field because we weren't expecting to win against clemson!
sunday night we went to a halloween party with some church friends.for a while, i have been wanting to find a reason to wear my tiara from my wedding day again. i am (a redheaded, pregnant) holly golightly from breakfast at tiffany's. all i bought were the evening gloves and the plastic cigarette holder. christopher is beaker from the muppets. he did a great job of making his head, and he borrowed the lab coat from his mom (it was too big for her, in case you were wondering!).
in other news, here's what i look like at (almost) 21 weeks. and here are two outfits i recently bought for baby G. if i had a daughter, sir, i'd dress her in white & gold!

fall so far

fall is definitely here! last weekend we went apple picking at sky top orchard with liz and scott- and little miss leah, of course!it was very picturesque, walking around filling our baskets with handpicked apples of every kind. i am thankful for my tall husband whose reach far outstretches mine! i love how the rows of trees were labeled with the type of apple. we had to pose here, for obvious reasons:this week i made apple streusel muffins and apple crisp. i also sliced up winesap apples- the kind my grandmother picks from her backyard for her fried apple pies. they freeze well, and i will be making some pies of my own soon. for saturday's game, we are taking apples & brickle dip (among other things). speaking of games, here's some photos of the gt season so far. first game: this is the dress christopher picked out for me in chicago. here i am with the girls, linda & katherine:christopher's whole family ended up coming for the white-out game. we're not sure of the last time the four golden men were together at a football game!a few weeks ago, we had a church picnic with our newlywed sunday school class (and the teachers & their kids): the class is actually a lot bigger than this. we recently split into two classes because it was growing so much. so sadly, christopher and i are no longer newlyweds!

catching up...

over two months since we last blogged - we are officially busy (and bad bloggers)!

so i'm going to do a photo medley post to catch you up on what we've been up to since the last post:

oct. 17: saturday night win over virginia tech preceeded by awesome tailgate. even the goal posts "got down" ;)

oct. 31: katy dressed up as daphne from scooby doo for halloween. i was busy in nashville at the tech game against vandy.

nov. 26: thanksgiving with the rimes family in alma. my 2nd cousins loved sitting in the big recliner with katy and eva!

nov. 28: tech-uga game. 35 folks plus 30+ pounds of fried turkey made for an awesome tailgate that turned out to be better than the game. sorry no pictures, our camera batteries died. if anyone has anything to say, my response is i hope you have fun at the independence bowl ;)

dec. 5: acc championship game vs. clemson with tilman in tampa, fl. jackets won 39-34, and we're going to the orange bowl!

dec. 11: sunday school christmas party at the hartsells' house. here's a picture of the wives because they look better than the husbands.

that's about it for now. katy and i are both off this week and looking forward to visiting family and friends in augusta and elsewhere. we wish each of you a very merry christmas and happy new year!

early new year's resolution: blog a little more in 2010.

it's that time of year again...

you guessed it: it's football season. katy and i had a wonderful weekend in atlanta going to a wedding and visiting friends (see post below). still, my favorite and most anticipated part of the weekend was the first georgia tech football game. i always tell katy she doesn't have to do anything much for my birthday because the ncaa decides to start football season around the first of september. thanks ncaa!

as with every home football game, we started out the day with our usual tailgate. we didn't take any overall pictures of the set up, but the grill, lots of food, and satellite tv were present and accounted for. katy bought an excellent ice cream cake for a tailgate birthday celebration with all of our friends. here's a picture of me with the cake. i didn't blow out all the candles in one breath because of that first pesky y. good thing i didn't wish for an undefeated season!

last year the athletic association was running a special deal, so we bought four tickets and invited folks to games with us. this year we decided to get a little better seat location. we've got two tickets and are sitting with our friends the freemans and derek. katy thinks the game moves along much more quickly with linda there to talk to!


here are a few more pictures. the first is the view from our new seats in the upper east stands, and the second is beautiful tech tower, a campus icon, as seen from bobby dodd stadium at historic grant field (the oldest and winningest stadium in division 1-a football).

finally, here's a picture of katy and me after the game. we're looking forward to many more fun and exciting football weekends this fall!

october updates: football games

sorry for the lack of posts this month! football season is in full swing, and we've been at games the past 5 saturdays. i, for one, am thankful for a break today! we've really enjoyed having friends & family come to the games with us. justin & linda joined us for the duke game. luke & julia (who announced they're expecting their first baby next spring!) came to the gardner-webb game. the clemson game was away this year, but it felt more like a home game to me since it's now closer to us than our atlanta games. a few friends from tech (derek, john, & jon) came to stay the night with us here in greenville, then we tailgated after the game with my friend audrey's clemson crew (she's the girl i met taking the class this summer).
the game vs. uva was homecoming, and jordan & emily (who just got engaged!) got to come with us.last weekend was the fsu game, and we went down friday night to see wes, blakely, & ashton again. we hung out at...guess what, another football game (of the high school where wes directs band). then on saturday, mr. chris & mrs. cathy (our parents/in-laws) joined us for the fsu game, and we enjoyed unlimited stir fry at chow baby afterwards.

gt vs. miss state

we had our second home game of the season this past weekend, and this time my parents joined us. since it was a noon game, we had a breakfast tailgate before and a lunch/dinner (linner?) tailgate afterward. that's a lot of tailgating! it was great to catch up with some of our old bsu friends and enjoy good food. my parents really had a good time and were glad to get to meet some of our college friends. i guess i've been married a while and people have gotten used to my new name because one friend accidentally called my parents "mr. and mrs. golden" when we introduced them.a funny thing happened. my parents brought a (brand-new) cooler with drinks for the tailgate. they were a little concerned about leaving it under our tent during the game, but chris & i reassured them that it would be fine. we've been tailgating in that spot for a few seasons now and always leave our tailgate equipment there during the game; nothing's ever been stolen. you can see where this is going...when we got back after the game, their cooler was gone! it was the only thing missing.my dad summed up the day pretty well when he gave us "A+ for food, A+ for hospitality...and F for security!"

gt game & anniversary trip

last weekend was our much-awaited vacation. chris took thursday & friday off, so we were able to leave thursday morning for atlanta. i'd been wanting to visit the coke museum for a while, so we took the tour in the afternoon. my favorite part was by far tasting coke drinks from around the world.

then we met our friends angela & joseph (both tech alum) and rode marta down to midtown together. after dinner at the varsity, we enjoyed the first game of the season. i have to get used to our new seats...but i definitely like being able to sit down during the game (impossible in the student section).due to some unexptected circumstances, our plans to go to the beach had to be changed. we decided instead to go to asheville, nc and see the biltmore house. it was beautiful, and i especially enjoyed the tour. it reminds me of an american versailles, and i left with the same thought: people actually lived here?! we liked it so much we got annual passes - they pay for themselves in two visits, and we thought we might go again for christmas or with our parents sometime.
we also explored downtown asheville. it's both quaint & strange. i was freaked out when we saw a street performer painted like a statue. she stood on the same corner for several hours, not moving a muscle except when someone dropped change in her bucket -- then she'd play a drum beat. pretty bizarre...and cool.we ate at a restaurant that was formerly an s & w cafeteria. what attracted me was the awesome art deco facade. the steak was pretty good, too. all in all, it was a fantastic weekend. we came back sunday night and celebrated chris' 25th birthday monday with four cheese lasagna and a strawberry pie.