C-L-E-M-S-O-N T-I-G-E-RRRRR-S

So I know I have not posted anything about Clemson Football yet...and that's because I went so long without posting I decided to save it all for one long post.
In case you have been living under a rock...here is an up to date record of our football schedule this season. (Sorry it did not copy and paste how I wanted it too)

2011 Clemson Football Schedule
09/03/11 vs. Troy Clemson, SC W, 43-19
09/10/11 vs. Wofford Clemson, SC W, 35-27
09/17/11 vs. Auburn Clemson, SC W, 38-24
09/24/11 vs. Florida State Clemson, SC W, 35-30
10/01/11 at Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA W, 23-3
10/08/11 vs. Boston College Clemson, SC W, 36-14
10/15/11 at Maryland College Park, MD W, 56-45
10/22/11 vs. North Carolina Clemson, SC W, 59-38
10/29/11 at Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA L, 31-17
11/12/11 vs. Wake Forest Clemson, SC W, 31-28
11/19/11 at N.C. State Raleigh, NC L, 37-13
11/26/11 at South Carolina Columbia, SC L, 34-13
12/03/11 vs. Virginia Tech Charlotte, NC W, 38-10
Discover Orange Bowl 01/04/12 vs. West Virginia Miami Gardens, FL 8:30 p.m. ET

Our record so far is 10-3 INCLUDING an ACC Championship win! But this season has been a little bit of a roller coaster. After a less than stellar season in 2010, my expectations were not too high for 2011. Granted, at the start of each new season my hopes are always up for a great season but I could have never imagined we would be as good as we were this season.

We started off with an EIGHT game winning streak and every Clemson fan (myself especially) was on an ultimate high. I, myself thought that the toughest part of our schedule was behind us and we were well on our way to an undefeated season and maybe, just maybe, even a shot at the National Championship (I know, I know, I got WAY ahead of myself).

Then came our first loss to Georgia Tech on Halloween weekend, man that was a rough day of disappointment- but I was still incredibly proud of my Tigers! The next game that followed was Wake Forrest, that game was a nail biter and way too close for comfort, but we pulled through and I started to get my excitement back. Then came the worst part of the season starting with the NC State game, which just plain terrible, followed by the USC game. USC is such a personal game because of the rivalry so it is ALWAYS one we want to win so badly and it is always a huge let down to see us lose that game. We went from, at one point being ranked number 5 in the BCS to moving all the way down to number 20. It was confusing to see a team that was doing SO well and playing so well at the beginning and middle of the season get worse at the end.

Nevertheless, we made it to the ACC Championship, in CHARLOTTE I might add. We were set to play Virginia Tech, who at the time was ranked number 5 while we were number 20. Even though we had already beat them once this season we seemed to be getting worse while they seemed to be getting better. So although I was hopeful, I did not forsee the game going so well, but even though my spirits were down after our last two losses I was still excited for what I knew would be a fun weekend. We had tons of family and friends come to town for this game. We hosted a big tailgate at our house all day on Saturday, I love night games! Boy was I wrong about the game, it was AMAZING! The Tigers played so well and we took home the ACC Championship victory 38-10, which we have not done since 1991. We also secured a spot in the Orange Bowl in Miami! The energy in that game was incredible and I could not have been more proud of my Tigers!!!

I have been a Clemson fan my whole life and have been going to most home games since I was one year old. I have seen a lot of mediocre seasons and have loved and pulled for them regardless. But this season was special, it shows a lot of promise for us with such a young and talented team. I think alot of it has to do with our coach, Dabo. I really love him as a coach and people can say what they want about him, but I think he is very talented, truly believes in our team and will take us great places. This season I have loved Clemson football a little more than ever and I have never been so proud and excited for the future of the team.

Here are some pictures from some of the home games this season...

New friend at the Esso

Right after we got done singing Eye of the Tiger

And some of my favorite ACC Championship pictures...

Giant Jenga!

Post Flip Cup Tournament

Jello Shots!

Post Win!

Go Tigers!!!

This Is The House That Matt Built

Sorry Jack, I stole your song!

Since we bought our townhouse in May 2009, Matt has made so many upgrades and improvements all on his own. He has totally taught himself how to do these things by just reading about them and watching DIY videos and he does a really great job!
Usually he waits until I am out of town for a long period of time to start the project. This works for him because he claims it gives him something to do while I am gone but it also works for me because I don’t have to deal with my house/bathroom/kitchen being a mess/work area and the garage can turn into his “shop” rather than my parking spot. Plus it’s so nice to come home to a home improvement. :)
Since we have been here he has….

Added Backsplash tile in the kitchen

BEFORE

AFTER

Put tile in the Master and guest bathrooms

Guest Bathroom Linoleum Floor BEFORE

Guest bathroom AFTER

 But the biggest project he has taken on was our shower. He did a WONDERFUL job and it looks AMAZING! But if you ask him if he would do it again he will say no. I think it ended up being way more time consuming and way more of an expensive project than he originally anticipated. But check out this before and after…

BEFORE

AFTER

I am so lucky to have such a handy husband who loves making our home even better!

Halloween

For Halloween weekend we went out to my friend Katie’s family farm in Chester, SC and stayed for the night at High Cotton. There were 5 couples and we all had a great time (with the exception of having to see the first Clemson football loss of the season to GA Tech!)

It was great to get away and was a day full of food, football, four wheeling and skeet shooting. (I actually hit one that day and it was my first time ever shooting a gun!)

It was Matts first time shooting a gun too and he shot so many!

Action shot, right after Jess shot one!

From there we left on Sunday and drive to Greenville for Katie and Mikes Baby Shower! Look at how adorable their cake was...

I think this was the first Halloween I did not dress up (I’m officially boring, I know!) But I did go to Katie and Mitch's house to give out candy to their trick or treaters (we don't get any at our townhome). Her puppy Goose dressed up as a sailor, look how cute he was...

I also watched all 3 of the Paranormal Activity movies on Halloween weekend- probably not a good call to watch them all in a row- too scary!  All in all it was a good Halloween!

Go Greek Then Go Home

Our last stop of our trip was Athens where we stayed for 2 nights and 1 day. At the time that we were there Athens was in the middle of a taxi strike and they were still having protests/demonstrations. Thankfully our hotel in Santorini informed us about the taxi strike. Matt looked up the bus schedule and found a bus we could take from the airport that would drop us off about 1 block away from our hotel. As soon as we walked out of the airport we spotted bus 95 and Matt said this was the right one (how lucky right?? Wrong!) The bus was packed and we were standing in the aisle holding all of our luggage. Our stop was at Syntagma Constitution Square, a huge Square where the Greek Parliament building was and we were told “You can’t miss it.” Well after about 40 minutes of not seeing it Matt went and asked the driver and apparently we were on the wrong bus! We were supposed to be on the 96 bus. The driver told us we needed to get off and wait for another bus line that would take us to our stop. He let us off in a very sketchy area of Athens. We had our 2 huge suitcases and all of our bags at a bus stop right by the train tracks. We stuck out like sore thumbs and might as well have put signs on our backs that said “Mug Us Please!” We waited what felt like hours but was actually probably only about 25 minutes for the right bus. At this point we had about a half an hour drive to our stop. When we came up to our stop we found that they were having a huge protest in the Square in front of the Greek Parliament Building. Our hotel is adjacent to the Parliament Building so we had to walk through the Square to get to our hotel.

Part of the protest in front of the Parliment Building 

Anyone who watches the news knew about these protests so I was prepared and I knew we were staying was right by where it was going on. I had email the hotel before our arrival and was assured everything was back to normal. I would not say everything was normal but the protests were more like scheduled demonstrations so everyone knew when they would be going on. They were very tame and nothing like the media had been showing the weeks before. Still it was not what I wanted to see after our nearly two hour adventure from the airport. We anticipated getting to our hotel around 9:00 pm but did not get in until after 11:00 pm. We had not eaten dinner and were starving but I had had enough action for one night and was not up for venturing outside the hotel to find a restaurant in the middle of the demonstration. I noticed there was a McDonalds in the Square right by our hotel so Matt offered to grab us dinner from there and bring it back to our room. Believe it or not this was music to my ears, haha!

We stayed at The King George Palace which was adjacent to the Greek Parliament Building (where all the protests took place). Thankfully our room did not face the Square so we were not bothered by the protesters and the noise (they lasted until very late). However, I would not recommend this hotel. The hotel is supposed to be a great one but I was unimpressed. They made no effort to contact us and tell us about the taxi strike (thankfully our previous hotel in Santorini told us). When I  heard about the strike and contacted them to see if they had any plans for how to get guests to the hotel (many other hotels started offering shuttle vans from the airport etc.) they had nothing to offer me except a private car service for 200 Euros for a 25 minute drive- no thank you! In an effort of redemption we went to the Concierge Desk to complain talk about how to get a ride back to the airport besides the bus (I was not up for taking the bus again after our last experience). And they did offer a private car to take us to the airport for a very reasonable price but where was this option when I had inquired 2 days earlier?!?

Our experience in Athens the next day made up for our less than stellar experience the night before.We slept in the next morning and went to explore. On the plus side, our hotel was in a great location to walk to everything. We walked around Monastiraki and did a lot of shopping. Athens had the best shopping in my opinion. We had lunch at a great kabob restaurant (Matts favorite meal of our trip). Then of course we walked to the Acropolis and back to the hotel.

Our hotel had a restaurant that was very famous and supposedly one of the best in Athens, Tudor Hall. Tudor Hall is known for its view of the Acropolis if you sit outside. We had a very early morning flight out of Athens so we decided to eat dinner here. The view was incredible, the food was alright but nothing to write home about and the service was not great (can you tell I am not a fan of this hotel?? Haha!) We had a table outside and a great view of the Acropolis all lit up and beautiful! However, we could also see the Greek Parliament Building where they were having another demonstration and you could hear them randomly screaming things in Greek through a megaphone. I really wish we could have understood what they were saying!

View of the Acropolis from the restaurant

View from dinner at Tudor Hall

Overall I feel like Athens did redeem itself in my mind during the day we got to spend exploring but I do feel like we would have had a totally different perspective if we would have visited it at a different time.

This was the end of our Italy/Greece vacation. The entire trip was amazing and we have so many great memories we got to share. My only regret is taking so long to blog about it! I will try to be better from now on!