An all-time favorite recipe and WAR DAMN EAGLE!

That up above is big Jake Ricks trying to take an interception to the house! He didn't make it, but he did get to around the 20 yard line (and carried Noel Devine, who weighs about 100 pounds less, for about six yards on his way there). It definitely wasn't a pretty game, but it showed some heart and confidence that we can come back even when an opponent comes out and punches us in the mouth. Props to West Virginia -- they are gonna beat some people this year, and I expect them to be right in the thick of the Big East race. 

Here's some links to what the bloggers/sportswriters have said about the game:

The Gold Mine: videos, Chris Todd praise, story about the defense (especially the LBs) coming up big, plus other stuff

The Auburn Beat: just a wrap-up of the game, plus a report card

HABOTN (Hottest Auburn Blog On The Net): Four stories about the game at the very top, including a notebook of facts about the game and commentary

War Eagle Extra: Top entry is about us not being ranked (IDIOTS) but getting closer; second entry has three links to stories and columns, as well as game notes

For me, the game balls go to Chris Todd, Darvin Adams and every defensive player who got a turnover. (Although we have got to frickin' tackle some people!) Also to the entire crowd (including my Dad, Mike and Jessa) who stayed through the pouring rain. WDE!

Now on game day, Patrick and I got to eat the yummy leftovers of our Poppyseed Chicken Casserole. Patrick made this recipe for me not long after we started dating, and it has become one of my favorite comfort foods. My family also loves it -- we make it almost every time we go home for the weekend!

Poppyseed Chicken Casserole

Ingredients:

3 or 4 large frozen chicken breasts (might need to use more if you have smaller ones)

A big bottle of lemon juice

One roll of Ritz crackers

One stick of butter or margarine

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of celery soup

16 oz sour cream

Poppyseeds

Directions:

1. In large pot, pour in enough water to cover chicken by an inch or two. Bring water and chicken to boil and immediately pour in half bottle of lemon juice. (If you get a regular-size bottle, use whole bottle.) Wait to make sure chicken is boiling evenly (I usually watch it for about 10 minutes or so), then allow to boil for an hour. 

2. Preheat oven to 350. Take chicken out of pot and shred with two forks. 

3. In large greased oven dish, mix chicken with sour cream and the three cans of soup. Mix well and smooth so mixture is level. 

4. Crush Ritz crackers and spread evenly over chicken mixture. Melt butter in microwave and pour over crackers. Sprinkle poppyseeds over crackers. 

5. Bake 30-35 minutes until crackers are browned and mixture is bubbling. 

Best enjoyed with an Auburn win! :)

Frustrating day

RIP BEA ... WE HARDLY KNEW YE

Yeah, so it's been a really frustrating day. A few highlights (or lowlights):

1. Drove four hours, round-trip, to get me added on to some of Patrick's insurance. Why did we drive four hours? Because we had made two prior home appointments, but the insurance agents forgot to show up.

2. Patrick's computer had some major problems this morning and is pretty close to death, so we ended up buying an entire new desktop computer today. Which is fine, since we planned to buy it next month anyways, but still. Not expected.

3. Our house's A/C is out. This is probably the worst development of the day, especially since the rental company said they weren't sure if someone would make it out to the house tomorrow or not. Fun. We did go to Wal-Mart and buy a box fan, so we're protected against the heat somewhat. 

4. Since our house's A/C is out, we can't do anything tomorrow until they call and let us know if they're coming or not. Stuck in a sauna-like prison of a home all day? Sweet!

5. I burned the baby back ribs that I spent four hours cooking. While this wasn't a huge deal, this is what finally made me cry.

6. Bea Arthur (Dorothy from Golden Girls) died today. R.I.P. Bea, you will forever be remembered for being a friend.

However, some good things that happened today:

1. We got our new computer! :) It is pretty awesome. It's a Gateway "gaming supercomputer," whatever that means, and it looks all futuristic and such. It completes our new home office very well. 

2. We got to see my mother-in-law, Pam. She is awesome. 

3. We get to see Dad and Trey (my little bro) tomorrow!! And they're treating us to lunch at Baumhauer's! Double yay!

4. Sen'Derrick Marks, an Auburn defensive lineman, got drafted in the second round of the NFL draft today. Seeing as how I am a major nerd, I love the NFL draft, and I love it when Auburn players get drafted.

Prayer requests:

Please pray that someone will come out and fix our A/C ... no A/C in Alabama can be a bad situation. And please pray that Patrick and I will be able to enjoy tomorrow, 'cause we sure haven't enjoyed today that much. 

Heartbreak

Well, it's a crap week for AU basketball. Yesterday the women lost badly to Rutgers, today the men lose a heartbreaker to Baylor. And I mean a heartbreaker. We had the chance to take the lead with just a few seconds left on free throws ... missed them both. Then missed the 3-pointer for the win — instead of taking it to the basket for the tie and overtime. It's a real bummer.

Justin said we had to blog about it, so here you are!

Today I did my good deed for the day by cooking a nice meal (chicken pot pie, mac and cheese, rolls) and taking it over to Whitney and Justin's (along with a chocolate pie and Milo's tea). Lord knows when we have our kids, I hope people cook for us! Anyhow, I got to meet baby Hayes, who is just as adorable as you could imagine, and I got to spend a couple hours with Whitney, Justin and Hayes. We ended up talking about a whole range of things, and somehow Whitney and I discovered that we have basically the same shoe size (10 for her, 10 and a half for me) and pretty much exactly the same hands -- we held up our hands to each other and they're the same size, and our ring size is actually the exact same. It was definitely a girly-scream moment, and Justin obliged with an awesome girly-scream. And then he was like, "OMG, you totally have to blog about this!" But I think he was mocking us.

The weather outside is so gorgeous that it has just taken me right out of the funk I've been in for the past few days. I love Alabama so much when the weather's like this -- I go outside for a few minutes, and I believe I can do anything. In fact, it's inspired me to do some impromptu spring cleaning, so I'm going through the house trying to tidy up and get the house together to surprise Patrick. You won't tell him, will you? :)

March Madness has begun (as I'm sure you all know), but more importantly, our Auburn Tigers keep winning! The women's basketball team won earlier today to make it to the round of 32 in the women's tournament, and the men won last night to make it to the Sweet 16 of the NIT. I'm excited that both teams are continuing to play well, and I'd love to see us contend for a championship or two! 

OK, back to the Madness. Right now, the Jones team (that would be me and Patrick) are winning in our bracket challenge with the church group, but that might change today as a lot of our teams are in bad match-ups. The way we play March Madness, we all drafted teams to follow throughout the tournament, and the couple whose teams win the most will win it all. Yesterday, we had six out of seven teams with wins. Unfortunately, today, most of those teams aren't expected to win. For example, LSU (our team) is up against UNC ... you get the idea. Oh well. The games are still a heckuva lot of fun to watch. I love this time of year. 

Yay, Trey's here!

My little brother made a trip up here to hang with us for the night. So far it's going awesome ... we're watching Coming to America, which so far is pretty hilarious. Ah, I remember these days when Eddie Murphy was actually funny. That doesn't happen anymore, except for the Shrek movies.

Auburn won today! Of course, despite the fact that they're a No. 1 seed, they still weren't on TV. Boo. Hopefully they'll be on TV Friday night. Just two more wins and they're going to Madison Square Garden!

So, OMG, Twilight's coming out this weekend!! I couldn't be more excited. I mean, the movie wasn't a top 10 movie or anything, but I still loved it.

I'm at a week and a half of doing yoga every day! Patrick and I have been doing it together every day for about four days. We're pretty pumped about that.

OK, this was just a short post 'cause I was thinking I needed to do it. If y'all don't mind praying for a few things:

-My sister-in-law's job is about to drive her crazy, so she needs some love out D.C. way.
-Patrick and I both desperately need some time off to just spend some time together before we go crazy too.

Next post will be longer, I promise!

Ladies and gentlemen, your Auburn Lady Tigers!

OK, guys, I'm here right now, watching the Women's NCAA Tournament selection show. Our Auburn Tigers are battling for a possible No. 1 seed (likely a No. 2), and I'm here to record it for posterity. I'll also try to keep up with the other SEC seedings.

*Vandy's a No. 4 seed -- here's hoping we don't end up in their region since, as we all know, Vandy tends to beat us. After all, they were the only team to beat us twice this year (and we only lost to one other team)! If we get into the Final Four, hopefully they won't be there either. (Whew -- we're not in their region.)

*LSU's a No. 6 seed in the Raleigh region, and I think they're playing in Baton Rouge for their first game. That should be fair to the other team. 

*The commentator's talking about how tough Vandy played us. Once again, here's hoping we don't see them in the tourney. And here's hoping we don't see UConn until the Final Four. They are downright scary -- undefeated, and they have won every single game in double digits. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Every game. Double digits. 

*Still waiting to hear Auburn's name called. I'm hoping it's in this region ... Oklahoma City. Oh, no. It's not in this region so far ... if we're not in this region, then that means we've got a chance of being stuck in UConn's region, and Nell Fortner (Auburn's head coach) is going to cut somebody.

*Now they're announcing the bottom of the Oklahoma City region. Hopefully Auburn will be in this one. (UNC is the No. 3 seed here -- I love UNC's basketball program, and would love to see our girls play theirs!) 

*YES! Auburn's in here! We're playing No. 15 seed Lehigh in New Jersey. Ok, that kind of sucks that we're in New Jersey, but the point is that we wouldn't see UConn until at least the Final Four. Granted, we have a whole mess of teams to make it through to even get there, but we have the talent to play with anyone. 

*Oooh, they're commentating on Auburn now! I'm going to rewind my DVR in a minute so I can recap that. OK, here we go: Basically, they're saying that if we make it past our opening-round game, we'll have to play Rutgers on their home floor (also assuming they make it past their first-round game). That's rough for us, because Rutgers has got one of the best coaches in the game and a great home-town atmosphere, but I still believe we can play with anyone. They're also saying DeWanna Bonner would have to play big for us to advance past Rutgers, but that Nell Fortner knows how to use that as motivation for our girls. They also recap that Auburn, despite a lot of talent, has not won an NCAA tournament game since Nell's been there. 

*Now Pat Summitt, who is one of the best basketball coaches of all time -- men's or women's -- is talking about how this was a rough year for Tennessee. They won the national championship the last two years with one of my favorite players, Candace Parker, leading them. This year they were ranked most of the year, made the NCAA tournament, and it's still a down year. This is how dominant Tennessee is. Need any more convincing? Pat Summitt is the only coach in NCAA history to have 1,000 wins. She's been at Tennessee for 40 years. I love this lady. 

*Tennessee is a No. 5 seed in the Berkeley region, which puts the SEC with four teams in the tournament so far (I think). 

*Yay, we got another one! Mississippi State is a No. 11 seed in the Berkeley region, as well. 

*Another reason Tennessee is so dominant: They have the most consecutive bids to the tournament with 28. OMG. 28 straight years. And, they have never missed a Sweet 16 in all that time. Pat Summitt has eight national championships to her credit. And 18 Final Four appearances.

*No. 1 seeds: Oklahoma, Duke, Maryland and (surely) UConn. Yep, there it is: No. 1 in the Trenton region, UConn.

*Wow, Florida's in too, as a No. 8 seed in Trenton! That's six SEC teams so far! Looks like the girls are making up for the boys having such a down year ... and there's seven! Georgia's in as a No. 11 seed! I'm really proud of the SEC women!

*And the entire field has finally been revealed. Just to recap:

-Auburn is a No. 2 seed in the Oklahoma City region. They'll play No. 15 seed Lehigh this Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. Definitely gotta be there for that. 

-The SEC has seven teams in. That's gotta be the most or tied for the most out of any conference. And I think the lowest seed out of the SEC was a No. 11. That's pretty good. 

*SEC games:

No. 2 Auburn vs. No. 15 Lehigh, Saturday at 11 a.m., ESPN2 -- Oklahoma City region

No. 4 Vandy vs. No. 13 Western Carolina, Saturday at 7 p.m., ESPN2 -- Raleigh region

No. 6 LSU vs. No. 11 Green Bay, Sunday at 6 p.m., ESPN2 -- Raleigh region

No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 12 Ball State, Sunday at 7:30 p.m., ESPN2 -- Berkeley region

No. 11 Mississippi State vs. No. 5 Texas, Saturday at 11 a.m., ESPN2 (Hopefully we'll get the AU game) -- Berkeley region

No. 8 Florida vs. No. 9 Temple, Sunday at 1:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2 -- Trenton region

No. 11 Georgia vs. No. 6 Arizona State, Saturday at noon, ESPN2 -- Trenton region