The Carter Posse: March 2011

As usual, I’m playing catch up with our blog. The good news is I have lots of fun pictures and stories to share!

At the first of March Pressley made her official cheerleading debut! Indiana Elite hosts “The Dawg Show” at the end of every season to showcase all of the squads and the hard work they put in throughout the year. Travis and I arrived at the Noblesville High School gym an hour early to make sure we got a good seat and the place was packed! I was a little nervous that Pressley may have some stage fright since there were so many people in the audience but she rocked! Travis and I could not have been more proud of her! We stopped for ice cream at Culvers afterwards to reward her for a job well done! She was riding high for the rest of the evening and could not stop smiling! I’m pretty sure we have a little performer on our hands! She seems to really enjoy it, especially when she gets to hang out with “the big cheerleaders.”

D-A-W-G-S Let’s Go Dawgs!

Pressley’s pre-school class has show-and-tell every Friday. The children are encouraged to bring an item from home that begins with the letter they have studied from the week’s lesson plans. A few week’s ago, the letter for the week was “S” so Pressley decided to bring her most favorite Shih Tzu to school for show-and-tell! Lou nearly had a panic attack because he was mobbed by several kiddos at once but the kids loved him and they had a blast feeding him Beggin’ Strips. Pressley kept saying “This is my brother” and “Be nice to my brother”. Those kids were probably thinking “Um, don’t you know he’s a dog?” Oh well, for the time being he’s the only brother Pressley has:)

Travis and I made the decision (finally) to take a vacation sans child. We were able to have some “us” time and boy did we need it! We ventured down to Clearwater Beach, Florida with our good friends Joe and Valerie Futrell. The drive down was miserable (16 hours!) but the week spent in The Sunshine State was well worth it. We were even able to see my grandparents and some of my cousins! We went to the beach, shopped, learned how to play shuffle board, ate lots of amazing food and even ventured to some nearby towns to explore. One of our “adventures” took us to Sarasota/Siesta Key area! We spent the entire day on the beach, found a Sperry Topsiders store and treated ourselves to some new shoes and ended the day with a bang at Munchies 420 Café in Sarasota.

For those of you who watch the show Man vs. Food, you may have heard of this dive of a restaurant. Munchies is known for their “Fire in Your Hole” hot wings challenge, which the host of MVF (Adam Richmond) participated in on one of his episodes and failed miserably. Thousands have attempted and only a few have succeeded. These wings are made with extract of the world’s hottest pepper…the ghost pepper. The challenge consists of eating ten (YES TEN!) wings in under 20 minutes. You are not allowed to drink anything and you are not allowed to vomit and if you do feel the need to "Upchuck", Munchies states that the most important guideline to follow is that you do so outside. If you do either of the two, you are immediately disqualified. Sounds like fun huh? You even have to sign a waiver to eat them and no one under the age of 18 is allowed to participate. Let me preface the end of this debacle of a story by telling you that my husband was 110% convinced that he could complete the challenge of eating all ten wings. He laughed in the face of the ghost pepper…and then he got his butt kicked.

When you take the challenge, you have to stand at the front counter to eat. Travis was presented his wings and everyone in the restaurant gathered around us to watch the freak show begin. Travis ate one wing and I waiting for him to combust all over the place. Nothing. He ate a second wing. Nothing. He ate a third wing and then started shaking his head. “I’m not doing any more” he said. “Where can I get some milk?” Luckily there was an ice cream shop next door and he ran out the door (literally, not joking). Joe, Valerie and I sat down to eat the food we had ordered. After 15 minutes passed by without any sight of Travis, I started to get worried about him so I walked next door to the ice cream parlor. He was a hot mess. Tears were streaming down his face from the heat and his lips were red and swollen like he had just had lip injections. I didn’t know whether to laugh or to take him to the ER. He then proceeded to go out back to the alley and vomit…a lot. Needless to say, the rest of our evening was a wash but I believe he learned his lesson when it comes to eating anything with the words “Ghost Pepper” in it. As far as the construction of our new home goes, we plan on starting in July if not sooner! I can’t wait for the day to come! We’ll keep you posted on our progress!