a little Christmas music

This past weekend, B and I had the privilege to attend a performance of Handel's Messiah by the Choral Society of Pensacola.  I actually had hoped to be singing with the group we saw, but decided not to push it with the pregnancy.  I also purposely didn't join the other (less-involved) choir I had sang with in the spring because their only concert for the fall was on the same night as this one!  (I really think the directors need to get together to plan around each other.)

Anyway, the concert was being held our our beautiful church, and we showed up ready to buy some general admission tickets.  The ticket gal asked, "Do you want some reserved section tickets?  These were just returned and are already paid for, so you can have them for free."  Sweet!  So we sat 8 rows back and listened to beautiful music for the next 2 hours.

They actually did the ENTIRE Messiah oratorio (all 3 parts), not just the traditional Christmas section with the "Hallelujah" chorus tacked on like I was expecting.  The soloists and choir were fantastic, and I loved hearing the other parts that I wasn't as familiar with.  I was so jealous that I wasn't up there singing myself!  But at the "Hallelujah" Chorus part (end of the Easter section, of course), you stand up (it's tradition!), and at this concert, the conductor turned around and conducted the audience so it was okay to sing along.  I sorta sang, but I was exhausted, making me realize that I made the right call about pregnancy vs. singing.

Here is the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus performing the first choral part of the Messiah, "And the Glory of the Lord":

I must sing with a symphony orchestra once again!  I miss it.
p.s. If you want to hear the "Hallelujah" chorus, check out this post I did at Eastertime.

wordless wednesday: maternity pics

While we were visiting my mom's hometown last week, I somehow convinced a cousin to take maternity pictures for us by the lake! Here are some faves.  I was 31 weeks along--the pictures were taken on Thanksgiving morning.

The due date in Rummikub tiles!

That last one needs some explanation, I know.  No, we're not naming our baby girl George, but my Aunt Georganne would love us to!  Since we're keeping the names* a secret, we took a few with the actual names, and then took this one to pacify everyone and so I could show you the cool picture now!  My aunt referred to her as "Baby George" the entire week, so it made sense.

*We actually have 2 different names picked out and are letter her "tell" us her name at birth! (And my cousin/photographer is sworn to secrecy.)

I would like to thank Pinterest for helping me get all of these pose ideas easily accessible in one place!

waving the green and gold

I love my little 101 list, and a lot of the things on there I really have to work for (a post about my adventures in learning to crochet coming soon). But sometimes one of them just falls into my lap. Last week while B and I visited family in central Florida for the holiday, we were invited to go to the University of South Florida football game, thus fulfilling:

✔ 83. Attend a college football game again

B likes to make fun of me for having stuff on my list that I've already done before, but I put them on there for a reason!  I haven't been to a college football game since I was in college myself, so it's been 6 years.  I've been to a few NFL games since then and was not impressed.  Luckily for me, college football games are just as awesome as I remember, even though I wasn't watching my beloved Dawgs play between the hedges.

I have a lot of USF alumni on my mom's side of the family (including my mother); however, the school didn't have a football team until most of them were well past graduated. My cousin is a more recent grad, and they live about 45 minutes away so they go to a lot of the games.  B and I went with my aunt and my cousin, who have gone to most of the games this season and have their own little game-day rituals.

The game against Louisville was on Friday at 11am, which was . . . odd.  But they got it televised on ESPN2, so that's something.  USF doesn't actually have their own stadium, so they just use the one where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.  Parking was super-close to the stadium, but we still got to walk by some fun tailgates.  My aunt and I even got free gigantic t-shirts.  (I normally wouldn't care for an XL, but I had recently seen this tutorial for yoga pants made from a big t-shirt, so I went for it.  Can't wait to make my pants!)

It was a nice stadium, but definitely too big for a team like USF.  I know it was a holiday and all, but there was no one there!  They weren't even selling the upper decks.  B and my cousin bought the tickets at the window and said they were only selling three sections.  The student section was really really empty.  We sorta ended up sitting in the visitors' section, but there weren't that many of them, so it was fine.  And we were in the shade the whole time and the seats were actually cushy!  (I'd never actually sat down during a college game before--at the GA games, we would stand on top of the bleachers--so that was also new, but my swollen pregnant feet were very happy.)  I actually got a bit cold in the shade and ended up wearing my free XL t-shirt, so that was a good call on my part!

The game itself was actually pretty good.  It was back and forth on the score with some fun touchdowns and frustrating fumbles.  In the end, our USF Bulls lost 34-24, pretty much because of their fumbles.  Hey, at least it wasn't a blowout.

My camera battery died before we ever made it in the stadium, so here are some pics from watching the marching band play before we went in.

Yeah, I didn't need the sun hat in the shade, but it's better to be prepared!