Gator Tailgate

Saturday 10/6 was a big day at the Traxler Gator tailgate. Walt and Ryan Traxler have been hosting a tailgate at a particular grassy corner of campus at the University of Florida for the past few years. We are fortunate to have a guest room at their house for Gator game weekends and have called the Traxler tailgate home since graduating. 

Two weeks ago, Walt and Ryan adopted a baby girl. They had finally submitted their paperwork for adoption two weeks prior, when they got a call that a baby girl had been born in Jacksonville that needed parents. I can picture God's joyful laugh watching them hold their baby that they had been trying for on their own for three years. Olivia Laurelyn Traxler was introduced to her first Gator tailgate less than two weeks after coming home to Gainesville. And what better way to welcome the Traxler princess to her tailgate than with a chandelier. 

I've been obsessing over having a tailgate chandelier since last football season. I have always heard about tailgating at Ole Miss at the Grove, but I read an article last year describing the lengths to which these Ole Miss fans decorate. Apparently some tailgates are complete with a chandelier, china and candelabras. This was right up my alley. 

I researched buying tailgate chandeliers online and found one website that sells them for $120. It looked like something I could make myself so I decided at the start of this season to start looking for old chandeliers at thrift stores. This is where my good friend Lindsey came in. Her parents had recently moved  to Orlando and were outfitting their new place mainly with furniture found at Good Wills and garage sales that they rehabbed themselves. I asked Lindsey to ask her parents to keep an eye out for an old cheap chandelier because I wanted to make a Gator chandelier. 

Next thing I know Lindsey is bringing to my house a completely finished Gator tailgate chandelier done by the three of them. It was so incredibly sweet and I LOVED it. It made it's debut on the day we played LSU ... and beat them, of course. This will be the first of many tailgates to come. 

Look at that beauty!!! Thank you so much, Gergely's!

Princess Olivia. She slept through most of it:)

Go Gators!!!

Fifteen Pound Head

***There we were... being placed for our annual formal picture with my entire family at Olan Mills on Sunday... my Mom beaming with pride. Mom's one request is that we get a family picture every year for them to use on their Christmas card and to keep an accurate picture of the family to hang in their house. And at the rate our family grows, it's not unfounded. My sister Amy just had twins in July to make 7 grand-children! 
So, Phil and I being the only ones without children, are always placed last. And somehow the size of certain in-laws' heads always determines where we are placed so as not to give the impression some people's heads are too large. The conversation went something like this:
"Don't put her by me... her head is too small to be next to mine"
Phil-"I can go next to you... I have a fifteen pound head" ***

It's true - Phil and I weighed our heads early on in our marriage. We would be laying on our couch in our 1,050 sq. ft. bungalow in Charlotte, NC watching TV and he would always put his head in my lap or lay it on me somehow. After a few minutes I would always have to move him because it was too heavy. "I swear your head weighs like 15 pounds!", I would say. This always annoyed him. So one night, he decided to get the scale out to see what it really weighed. 

So how does one weigh a head? Accurately? Of course you have to be laying down. But do you lay on your back with your head on the scale or on your stomach? Does one way make you subconsciously press your head down more, ending in a higher weight? We decided to weigh three different ways and average the number. Once on your back with your head (only head-not your neck!) on the scale, once on your stomach, and once on your side. I don't know if the laying-on-your-side method is needed, but it sure is fun to watch. 

Phil's final average was a definitive moment in our marriage. His head was really 15 pounds. This means that I could lift his head for exercise. It is also equivalent to two gallons of water. There must be a lot swimming around in there. 

So, naturally we had to weigh my head too. I averaged somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds. How does one marry someone with double the head size of them? (I don't know but it sure made him easier to pick out in a crowd.) The question also arises-is head size hereditary? Well, on a trip home visiting his family we weighed his mom's head and it too was 14-15 pounds. Now I wonder if I'm missing out on something. Does the size of your brain matter or just it's components? Hmmm...

How much does your head weigh?