Fantasty Football Draft

Time to get excited about football season...both college and pro!! I love college football and am excited that games are just around the corner, even though I know that Auburn is not going to be very good and this season will be vastly different from last season. Pro football season approaching = fantasty football draft time. Last year was my first time to compete in a fantasy football league. I was WAY into it and won the league. It was fun to watch the games in a different way and Gary had his league and it was fun to compete against him as well. My trainer at the gym kept trash talking me but look who ended up on top and who ended up not making the playoffs? : )

Sunday night we met at Rachel's house for our draft. We started mid-afternoon and enjoyed appetizers and desserts. I drew the unlikely last draft pick of the first round. Since we do a snake style draft I always picked 2 players at a time picking the last pick of each round and the first pick of the next round. Kind of made it hard and it was hurry up and wait every time. I found an easy way to make sure I got at least a few top tier players was to change to a different position when it was my turn and pick the top player for that position. Ended up beneficial to take this strategy.

Laurel wins for bringing the best theme dessert with her hamburger and french fries dessert which was actually cupcakes with brownies inside and sugar cookie strips for the fries. They were yummy and ended up being a large part of my dinner!!

I think I have a good team but no one really knows.....We had fun, lots of good fellowship and I look forward to defending my title!!

look at these yummy treats by laurel!

our league members, minus 1. almost minus 2 until we called tiffany to remind her!

our completed draft board. the final rounds end up being a joke because no one is left!

First day of school

It is a new school year and both girls were thrilled for the new beginning. They love summer but they also love seeing their friends every day. Anna, my obsessed learner, was interested to hear what they would be learning in third grade and hoping for a challenge. Love that she is a sponge and hope it stays that way when the homework piles up and I have no idea how to answer her chemistry, biology and calculus questions one day!!

Anna started third grade and has Mrs. Fussell. She was excited to have a few friends in her class and will definitely have a great year of fun and learning. She started on Monday with a little bit of nerves but a lot of smiles.

Caroline started Junior Kindergarten and has Mrs. Sharon. Anna had Mrs. Sharon 4 years ago and we love her. Just the right amount of structure but a lot of hugs and encouragement. Caroline was a bit unsure of what goes on in Junior K and yet she was excited to be on the "big kid" side of the building from where she has been in Early Childhood for the past 3 years. She started on Wednesday and had a great first day.

Here's to a great year of school at Harding!

my sassy 3rd grader on her first day

anna with mrs. fussell...wearing her safari hat to signify their adventure for the day

ready to start the day after having to put away all her supplies around the room

our new junior k student caroline

caroline with mrs. sharon

the zyrieks are ready for a great year!

U.S.S. Alabama

On the way home from the beach Gary asked if we could stop at the U.S.S. Alabama battleship in Mobile. This is a favorite place for Gary and having been born in Mobile and shared this place with family it is special to him. He really was excited when I agreed even though in my head I was thinking it is 100 degrees and there is no air conditioning on the retired battleship! The girls were game for it and after 2 1/2 hours we had really enjoyed ourselves. It was super hot and I think we could have even stayed longer had the temps been cooler. We enjoyed a self guided tour of the battleship and then went into an indoor museum of planes and then ventured over to tour the submarine. The girls really enjoyed it and were very eager to learn. Not one complaint until the end about the the heat and that was that they were thirsty. Maybe all that fun time at the beach had carried over!!??

I think we will definitely visit again and tour the other parts of the ship. The submarine is not one for those with claustrophobia. Very close quarters. Glad we stopped and it definitely put a smile on Gary's face for the drive home!

the girls with the battleship

one of the flags flown on the ship...before we had 50 states!

gary enjoying the tour with the girls

steering the submarine!

definitely close sleep quarters on the submarine!!

The beach!!!

Our annual trip to the beach was back on this year after having stayed away last year due to the oil spill. The girls so missed it and have been counting down until we get in the car and are beachbound. We left mid-day on Friday and arrived in Fairhope, AL that night. Caroline kept calling it Iowa and I really have no idea why!!

We got up on Saturday morning and went down to the pier and looked out at the water. The town of Fairhope is beautiful and according to Gary has become quite the retirement place. Lots of cute shops but none opened until 10am so my bank account was safe!!

We arrived at the beach club around noon. We were not able to check in but they gave us passes to the clubhouse so we could change clothes and enjoy the beach and pools for the afternoon while waiting on our condo to be cleaned and ready. What a great idea!!

Our days consisted of beach time primarily in the morning and pool time in the afternoon. The girls LOVED it and it was very relaxing. We went into Gulf Shores for dinner and to enjoy a night at the
Track which is a lot like Putt Putt with mini golf, go karts, bumper boats and the infamous Sky Coaster. The Sky Coaster is a super attraction (hence the huge price tag) where you are strapped in, raised 110 feet in the air and then allowed to free fall and swing back and forth until you stop. Gary immediately said he was going on it and then kept telling the girls they should too. Luckily Caroline is over 42 inches tall which is the lower height restriction so she was in and Anna was as well. Very proud of Anna as she is not that much of a daredevil but is willing to try just about anything. They were hilarious on the ride and kept yelling to me while I watched. Only 3 could go on the ride at a time, so a perfect chance for me to be the photographer!!

On Sunday we met Gary's cousin Ned for breakfast in town and he took us out on his dad's boat. What a great time for all of us. The girls had never been on a boat before. We rode around for about 2 hours and saw porpoises, stingray, lots of huge jellyfish and several other types of sealife. The girls really enjoyed it and it was nice to catch up with Ned.

Our other days were at the resort and were very enjoyable and relaxing. We did sneak in some shopping at the Foley outlets...even Gary managed to shop a bit and find some deals. Such a great end to our summer. Once we arrived back home the girls had only 4 days until school started. Back to the routine of school. We will hopefully never miss a summer at the beach again!!


sweet home alabama....gary loves to share it with the girls



enjoying the boat ride

beach trip 2011

sweet sisters

walk along the beach

look at that face!!

anna loves the boogie board

caroline's first time to drive her own go-kart

all smiles after the sky coaster

All the girls

Family!

Riding the tram to the ice cream parlor for our nightly treat!





caroline relaxing

my absolute favorite pic from the trip

beach beauties

Run to Peoria.....

There is a fundraiser every year for St. Jude called the Run to Peoria which involves about 300 people, of which about 250 are from Peoria, Illinois that literally in relay style run from Memphis, TN on the St. Jude campus to Peoria, Illinois, the site of one of St. Jude's affiliate clinics. Each runner agrees to raise at least $3,000 for St. Jude and commit to the 4-day 400+ mile journey. This year marked the 30th year of the fundraiser and our CEO at ALSAC thought it would be great if he plus several other senior staff members ran along with the teams on the first day of the run.  I volunteered to be a part of the ALSAC Senior Staff team and it was such a great experience. The CEO and CIO ran the first leg and then headed back to Memphis. The other 6 of us continued on via RV for the entire day.

The run started on Wednesday, August 3rd, which just happened to be the hottest day of the year in Memphis with the actual temperature reaching 106 degrees and the heat index over 120 degrees. We were part of the gold team and there were 8 segments for the gold team to complete, each ranging from 5-7 miles. We joined in on parts of segment 2 & 5 and all of segment 8. I completed a total of 7.5 miles. The final segment was only 3 1/2 miles and all 6 of us from ALSAC completed it together. It was an amazing time...hot and humid which is why we did not complete all of each segment, but great to see so many people excited to fundraise and show their support for St. Jude.

We entered the park in Lauderdale County, TN and our shuttle arrived to take us back to the office to retrieve our cars and head home. Made it home by 11:30 and took the best shower of my life and then dropped in the bed. Long and hot and sweaty but so worth it!! Proud of our team which had some very experienced runners and some very novice runners as well. Can't imagine living out of the RV's with a team of 8-10 others in each RV for the 4 days but so glad we joined in the efforts.

emily, melanee, lisa and jen before we head out for our first run!

emily, chief marketing office and me on the RV with one of the gold teams!

the whole group at the end of the long day waiting on our shuttle ride home!!

Goodbye to Lizzie

My sister Lizzie is off to Austin, TX this weekend to start her journey with the University of Texas to earn her PhD in Nursing. We are so proud of her as she adds to her academic achievements and starts a new chaper in her life. Having just earned her masters from University of Memphis last year, she is ready to do more. She will still keep her editing responsibilities with a journal back at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital but is looking forward to her new classes that she will be teaching and taking and working with the great faculty at Texas. We all gathered tonight for a family dinner at Dad's house to say our goodbyes. The packing has been fierce and the movers are arriving on Friday. Good luck to Lizzie!

 the girls with their aunt lizzie

 lizzie and lisa

the girls with their baby cousin graham