it's officially fall.

so i'm practicing how long i can wait between blog posts....  sarcasm.

i have lots of things to mention in this post, but i'm thinking that i should just narrow it down to a recap of the past few days. most of the other things i'd like to mention are pretty heavy topics. so we'll start with the past few days...

thursday night i got to hang out with a long time friend, lakin. we met through a mutual friend (my bff jessica!!!) in junior high, and we've been friends ever since. on thursday, we met at sweet bay to catch up... how we thought we'd be able to catch each other up on our lives in just under 2 hours is crazy to me haha! we ended up staying up until 5:00AM!!!! it was great to be able to catch up with an old friend and to get some "girl time" in. 

an interesting fact about me is that i'm not the best with girls... i've got an older brother, and he was my best friend growing up. i always preferred hanging out with guys, watching football, and detouring all drama; therefore, the girl friends i DO have are very special to me... lakin is one of those friends! it was great to be able to pick up where we left off and encourage each other, too. there really is nothing like an old friend.

i was very excited about friday. friday was the day i FINALLY got to spend time with ryan keith. :sigh: he's been working so hard on school stuff, and we decided friday would be OUR night. we started off with dinner and planned on seeing Lion King later that night. 

now, if you know anything about either of us... we LOVE Disney. our first conversations we had when we first met were about Disney and Disney trivia... needless to say, we knew we would see Lion King in theaters, and Friday was that day. I'm thankful for the 3D glasses because i basically cried during the entire movie. it was a mix of pure emotions, childhood memories, and Disney magic :) i remember going to see this movie when i was a little kid at the phoenix village mall dollar movies for one of my birthdays. 

we have to take advantage of the time we get together... so we've been pulling some really late nights on the weekends to pack in as much time together as possible! after Lion King, we decided to go buy Bridesmaids on DVD. We saw it in theaters and thought it was hilarious. the bonus features on the DVD are funnier than the movie, and we laughed like crazy and went to sleep pretty late :)

Saturday was a big, big day. it was the day that our razorbacks took on the #2 team in the country, the alabama crimson tide.    we lost. it was saddening, but i went into it with realistic expectations... hoping for an upset, but knowing our competition was pretty impressive. it was a great day of family, food, and fun, though. my sister came down with her daughter, and i absolutely LOVE getting to spend time with my niece. my brother and his friend charley joined us... and of course, my dad, ryan, and me were there. the food (little smokies, cheese dips, hot wings, tamales, homemade chocolate chip cookies) and of course the beer made the loss to alabama manageable.  

this day, i was also introduced to a new backyard game: washers. the thing with me and these types of games is that... i'm either really great or really awful. i was really awful at this one! haha. I had lots of fun playing it, though... and it might become something i really practice at and get good! my brother, casey, is talking about making an elaborate washers game set for our parents' backyard... i'm all for it! 

that leads us to today. ryan had to do homework most of today since we had such a fun and busy weekend -- so i spent my time tidying and going shopping for our food this week... then we got to head to Home Group. we love our Home Group from church so much, and once again... I had some bittersweet moments. one of my very best friends is leaving for 4 months this Tuesday. tonight at Home Group was my last chance to tell her goodbye before she leaves, and i wont see her again until January -- all those holidays in between will stink without her around.  love you, Aletha!

 (good mawnin!)

love this girl so much! 

so there's my weekend... full of friends, family, food, football, fun, and officially... FALL. 

this may be my favorite time of year... the weather is cooling off//football is in full swing//i get to wear sweaters, boots & scarves//holidays are fast approaching... yay.

im so glad i have such amazing people in my life... whether they are moving to texas/virginia in 2 days, or i haven't hung out with them in a year and we catch up on our lives one night in 9 hours, or knowing them my entire life and seeing them every week... 

im thankful.

carrie anne