WAR EAGLE!!!!

3 DAYS UNTIL THE FIRST KICK OFF!!! WAR EAGLE BABY!!!

AUFootball video!!!

What a crazy time!!

I'M SO SORRY for those of you who have been checking in and I have had nothing posted. These days things are a little crazy. School is back in full force and I have been slammed with work. I have new athletes needing physicals that missed their window to have them done before practices start. I have returning athletes that need to fill out more paper work. I have new and returning athletes coming in and checking up with me about old and new injuries. I have graduate assistants that have added to their responsibilities that need guidance. I have my team starting 6 a.m. conditioning 2-3x/week. I am trying to cram as much information about my new athletes into my brain so I know who needs what. I have coaches emailing and calling me every 5 minutes. Our ice machine is broken so we have no ice for practices (really great timing for the hottest week of the year here- above 98 with 94% humidity). I have made appointments with doctors for atleast 8 athletes in the last 12 hours and now I can't remember who goes in when and at what time. My desk looks like a paper bomb blew up on it. I have new student athletic trainers that I have to "break-in" and I had a lab to teach today that I almost forgot about and only half of my class actually showed up!! To top it all off...I havent spoken to Ryan for more than 2 minutes in the past week. Why? He's just as busy as me and when we do have time to actually call each other...we're too freakin' tired!! Wooo! Got that out of my system.


It's just that time of year. The first two weeks of school are usually the craziest. Getting everyone and everything started on the same page. It can get pretty stressful. But, like everything it begins to subside and ease up a little.


Things are changing here for me. The big news is that Ryan and I are moving in together. Yep. I'm taking a chance and living with a boy for the first time since I was 18...and that boy was my brother. We found a house in a suburb of Indianapolis called Fishers. It's a really nice area and has a lot of people moving into it. It is a little bigger than what we were looking for but the rent was in our range and the location is right inbetween my work and his. The house is four bedroom and 2.5 bath. I know. I know. Its big, but thats okay. We're only renting for now and if we play our cards right we have the option to buy further down the road. Plus, we've all ready decided what each room should be. Master bedroom, guest bedroom, office, and..."a man room."

What is in this so called "man room" I have no idea. Infact most of our rooms will probably only have one piece of furniture in it besides the living room and our bedroom. Ryan has a vision though of this den of testosterone. He wants to be able to play poker with his buddies, play his x-box and watch sports at any time with his recliner and a microfridge filled with beer. I have a feeling he wants to be able to accomplish all of this while in his underwear, grunting, and eating raw meat. He also made the fatal mistake of saying the following:
"Yeah, I can invite the guys over to play cards and we can drink beer and smoke cigars." WHOAH THERE KILLER!!! I put the kabosh on the cigar smoking inside the house. Absolutely not. He tried to put up a good argument but he failed.
"But...we'll open a window!"
"No."
"And put a fan in there to push the smoke out!?"
"No."
"We'll stuff towels under the door so none of the smoke comes into the rest of the house!"
"No."
"Come on babe!!!"
"No."

We move in on Sept. 15th...well, Ryan does and I will slowly move my stuff down as my lease winds down in another month. I'll definitely take a bunch of pictures and post them when I can.
It won't be all settled in until probably late fall/spring because of our crazy schedules right now, but it'll get there.

I definitely feel like I'm growing up now!

The Type of Day I'm Having

'Nuff said.

I weep for the future!

Kids.

That's right....kids. I'm not talking about young children that many people my age have or are having. Stop freaking out...I'm not pregnant. I'm talking about these people walking into my work fresh from high school. This week at work I, and my fellow coworkers, are getting ready for the massive onslaught of returning students and athletes that will fill our beloved athletic training rooms with questions and complaints for a full school year. A part of me is excited and ready to begin. The other part of me is crying over the fact that summer is gone.

I have to admit that certain things shock me into the realization that yes...I am getting older. I have talked with many of the athletes here and certain things I bring up from my childhood are mysteriously absent from theirs! WHAT?! I'm not that much older than they are right? I mean just look at their birthdays...the incoming freshmen: 1989. WHAT?! I was 11!!!! Holy crap.

The generation gap between myself and these...children, is startlingly huge for me. The reason being that these kids are obviously deprived of character building, quality television that I enjoyed when I was younger. I mean, little kids today have no Saturday Morning Cartoons!!!! WHAT?! I remember waking up at 6a.m. and turning on the television and being able to scroll through multiple channels with different cartoons that lasted until noon! Now, nothing. Maybe one channel with japanimation and cartoon network with cartoons that make no freakin sense!

And these poor individuals are living in an obvious ignorance as to what a real quality cartoon is. What a deprived childhood they have had! It makes me cry a little on the inside....

I remember certain cartoons that still pop into my speech on a weekly basis.

"And now you know....and knowing is half the battle!"

"What's up, doc?" or "Rackin-frackin-brrprpgnrprpr-rabbit."

"Captain Caaaaaaaaavemaaaaaaaan!" (Yeah USA Cartoon Express!)

Okay, so maybe not this one so much but you get the idea. And when I do say something like this...I get nothin'. No recognition or response. I'm so freakin' old....

Here's a website that has a bunch of 80's t.v. shows on it that help bring back memories. Enjoy!
"Thundercats....HO!"
http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1970

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to my big brother Sam! He turns 31 today!! I hope he is doing well and is having a fantabulous day....old man!!! HA!

My brother and his wife, Kerry, after he returned from the Persian Gulf last year...rhe little boy's head at the bottom right is my nephew. I promptly threw up after taking this picture. :)

Still in B'ham

While I was in Birmingham I got the chance to see some friends of mine from high school! I was completely stoked! I hadn't seen them in years! Leslie is someone that I cannot imagine a moment of my life growing up that she was not involved in some way. I've known her since 4th grade and she knows all the dirt on me when I was young. I probably spent as much time at her house as my own. One of my fondest memories is my dad taking Leslie and I trick-or-treating around my neighborhood every Halloween....and my dad stealing all of my Snickers candy bars: "Kiddo, I dont know about these. They look dangerous. I'll just take these away."

Emily is someone to whom I dedicate my high school diploma. Without her I would never have passed high school algebra, algebra 2, or trigonometry. I like to think of myself as the cause for her career choice...high school math teacher. She had to talk me off the bell tower a few times trying to make me believe I knew what numbers even were!!! Thanks Em!! If she could teach me then she can teach anyone.

I met my two girls at a wine store/restaurant that has a wine tasting every Sunday afternoon. It was awesome. 5 glasses of wine for $5. Needless to say, we definitely took part in the festivities that day.

Here is Leslie, me, and Emily at The Grape after a few glasses of wine. It was so much fun to talk about old times and what everyone we knew was doing. I had to get the scoop from them about our 10 year high school reunion that was this past June. Some people changed for the better, some for the worse, but mostly everyone is the exact same from what I hear...how boring.

But, the only reason I would have gone was to see certain people, 2 of which I was hanging out with at that moment.

In my absence, Leslie had decided to replace me because the Casey void was too substantial. However, she decided to replace my friendship with boyfriendship. Her boyfriend, Casey, came and joined us at the wine tasting and I am pleased to say that he is worthy of being the "new Casey." Or as Leslie likes to call him "Casey #2." Thanks Red!

I was glad to find two of my oldest friends doing great in life and I couldnt be happier for them. It was great to reconnect and I will definitely stay in touch.

Back home again...

When I went back to Birmingham I was in for a pretty big surprise. Like I said before, I had not been back there for over a year and even then I was only in town for a few hours. So really I had not stayed in Birmingham in about 2 years...maybe 3. I didnt realize how much I missed it until I was back. I bought a plane ticket a couple weeks before I left because I decided to fly last minute. Usually when I fly (especially alone) the "powers-that-be" decide...hmmmm, lets see what we can do to mess up Casey's flight schedule. Usually it comes in the form of a missing bag at my destination. I guess the baggage handlers really like to try on my clothes and prance around.


This time it came in the form of a completely cancelled flight. Well, after 20 minutes of waiting in line to see what my options were, I had completed the emotional rollercoaster of fate. I went from angry to stressed to amused to complacent to nervous to indifferent to really having to pee. The lady at the counter of my airline looked up my name when I got to her and said I was all ready booked on another flight through a different carrier that would take off in an hour from then. Hmmmmm, that wasnt so bad. Needless to say I made to B'ham with one stop and remarkably obtained my bag at baggage claim without incident. Woo hoo!!!

I stayed with my mother while I was there and had an inevitable epiphany that I'm sure all people make at one point...I am just like my mother. Which incredibly is not a terrible thing. I actually think it is rather funny!! Why does this happen? I dunno. But I'm pretty sure it has to do with gamma rays or radioactive spiders.


A few years ago, mom decided to become active in a very noble cause to her community in Alabama. Without her help an entire population would starve to death while everyone else turns a blind eye!! I call her cause: No Raccoon Left Behind! Yep. My mother feeds all the raccoons that live around their house...everyday. It started while I was in grad school in Georgia. I got a call from mom saying that there was a little raccoon outside of the house and she fed it some bread and how cute it was...blah, blah, blah. Well, as a couple months went on I guess it got a little out of control. My stepdad called me one night and left a message on my phone stating, "There are 31 f***ing raccoons outside the house!! And they arent going anywhere until we feed them!! I tried to open the door to scare them away and they almost got into the house! This is getting out of hand! Your mother has to be stopped!"

So they stopped for a while and I came home this time to find her back to her old ways.


Here's mom with a raccoon that is regular to their house, named "Scratch."

This is one raccoon trying to get mom's attention to get some food. They all will hang out right outside of this door on the deck...just waiting.

I feel a Nobel Prize coming her way. I'm so proud.