PBR & Wild West Festival 2010

Saturday night was so much fun! We geared up for the PBR event with the Wild West Festival. It had a cowboy, Native American, and other areas to enjoy. Plus, LOTS OF GOOOOD FOOD! I had a burger, cinnamon almonds, and FUNNEL CAKE!

This is Amanda & I, new friend from church.

As we worked our way to the PBR event, we stopped in to see the PBR headquarters. I don't think we were suppose to be in there, but we made our visit quick. Long enough for pictures.
This is the front desk shaped like a giant horn.

Once we got inside we were entertained by this guy. He was hilarious and quite a dancer.

After seeing this guy, Jeff says he has discovered his post-retirement career. I can totally see him doing this; dancing, making a fool of himself, and running from giant beasts...right up Jeff's alley.

Here are a few photos of some of the riders. I tried to get pictures of all of them, but my memory card filled up quickly.

I couldn't keep up with who was on the bull because the screen was blocked, the voice was muffled, and my camera is so slow I was busy concentrating on focusing to get a decent photo. Next time I know to bring our "good" camera.

This is the round 2 winner-Ben Jones

An interesting character at the PBR this year was Honest Abe! He sat a few feet from me. He looks pretty good to be dead for over 200 years.

He's not so honest though--he was in someone else's seats!

I was excited to see two people -Ty Murray and Justin McBride. They are the only two names

I recognize from PBR because they've been around since I was in high school (I was into PBR alot more back then.) Justin was busy doing the radio show, but I did not have my camera handy when he was up and walking around. I did get to see Justin upclose (back of his head photo) and have my boots signed by him.

This was Jeff's first PBR event and he had a great time. He kept saying he would stand out like a sore thumb. And that he did-a lady stopped him and asked "Are you ok" when he was following us to our seats. Bless his heart. But, he said he had a great time. And we're looking forward to next year.

Me & my cowboy!

This was my favorite part--had nothing to do with PBR riders or large bulls. It was the kids' sheep riding competition. And a girl won!!! It was so cute to watch these kids.

Here's a short video of one of the riders. This is the guy who (was) currently ranked 1st place, unfortunately he did not win this round.

Happy Mother's Day!

To My Wonderful Mother!

When I was a tough teenager,

she loved me.

She's always been there for me,

no matter how far away I am.

It's been a year since I've seen my mom and

I can't wait until she and my dad come visit this summer.

THANK YOU MOM FOR GIVING ME LIFE, ALWAYS SUPPORTING ME, LOVING ME, ALLOWING ME TO BE MYSELF, AND GUIDING ME!

I love you very much! If I am half the mother you are, I'll be blessed.

All of these pictures were from when mom visited me last year in Hawaii. The picture above was taken

at the top of Diamond Head on Mother's Day 2009!!

Landscaping Complete & Mexican Night

Last week they finally finished our landscaping. I told you previously that I was not too happy about the abundant amount of rock in our yard, but it's slowly becoming "OK" with me. We have to water the heck out of this grass for the next two weeks and then we can begin planting flowers and personalizing our beautiful yard.

Here is a picture of our beautiful new grass!

This is the spot that we are considering making our "Oasis" and building the area that

I spoke about in the previous post. See what I mean when I say there's wayyyy too much rock?

Here's our backyard. It is really a disappointing space with all that rock around.

But, the dogs love the yard and that's all that matters right now. I can see us spending many wonderful summer nights out in this yard.

So this weekend we had a lot of fun. Friday night Jeff went to see Iron Man 2 with Daniel while I stayed home with Daniel's wife Amanda and enjoyed some great conversation and wine :)

I am so happy we found a great couple that share our beliefs and are a great couple to learn from. So, Saturday they came over for Mexican Night. My wonderful friend Lily sent me a package with wonderful spices, "sticks", and a her mom brought me back a beautiful cloth from Guatemala. So, I used many of the spices and the cloth last night during dinner. I made a yummy salsa (well, mine was gross so I mixed it with a jar salsa), chips, Chicken Casserole, a mexican bread (that tasted more like Italian bread), and rice.

Here's the beautiful cloth Lily sent me and underneath is a VERY bright table runner Jeff's Aunt Joyce passed on to us.

Following dinner we played "Battle of the Sexes" and shared many laughs while watching You.Tu.be videos. Including the one of me falling on a hike in Hawaii while admiring a Banyan Tree in 2008.

Today after church we came home and I started chili for dinner and hung out in the yard for a little while.

I am counting down the days until summer break and when I can finally get some stuff done around the house. I have so many unfinished projects around the house that need to be completed before our first visitors this summer.

Thank you everyone for the sweet comments. I am feeling so much better. This weekend gave me the time to catch up on sleep and cough...sounds funny, but it got all the crap out of my chest. Yuk!

Speaking of the weekend...we had a GREAT one! Friday night, we did nothing...and it was awesome. We watched a couple of movies and drew out the plans for our future "Backyard Oasis", which will be breaking ground in 4 weeks!!! Then, on Saturday we visited Amanda and Daniel's house in Penrose....it was beautiful out there! Being at their home made me feel like I was back in SC with fresh air, dirt roads, and land that just continues for miles. Amanda was kind enough to take me on a ride (in 50 degree weather on an open cabin "gator") to see a beautiful Lake (kind of....don't know really what it was) and some HUGE buffalo just hanging out in some dude's front yard...literally. I have a picture to prove it! It isn't the best quality (cell phone) and the picture does not do justice for the size of these things. There were literally like 7 or 8 of them (including 3 babies) just hanging out in the yard. I tried to convince Jeff that we need cattle or something in our yard...he didn't agree. I wonder why?

Anyway, we had a great dinner with Amanda and Daniel. We discovered that we have alot more in common than I knew. For example, everyone makes fun of me for not crying at our wedding....while Jeff & every other person in that room cried like a baby. In my defense, I laugh when I'm nervous or emotional...finally, I met another wife who did the same thing!

Sunday we got up and dressed for church. Then, I reminded Jeff that our pastor would not be there. He is the only pastor Jeff actually enjoys listening to and speaks about the bible in a way that he can actually picture each sentence. So, we ended up skipping church :( and spending quality time together. It was much needed time together, but I'll definately be listening extra hard next week.

Today was a manageable Monday. A few people actually commented that I sounded too chipper for a Monday....but, nonetheless it was a busy, caotic, and hectic Monday at work...as usual. After dinner we took another trip to Lowe's to price our future "Backyard Oasis". Luckily, it's right on budget! There's one part of our backyard that is just so boring and wasted space. The way our backyard is set up we have 75% rock and 30% grass...which I am not happy about. So we are making the best of it and doing something beautiful and personal with the space. I tried to find a picture to show you all what we're thinking of doing, but no such luck.....sooooooo, here's bits and pieces of what we're doing.

Instead of building a porch, we have decided to create a

obble stone area about 14' x 16' wide.

We chose this color....it's beautifuil in person.

We found this patio set in brown that we love,

but not sure if it's exactly what we're looking for.

Finally, our "Backyard Oasis" wouldn't be complete without a canopy and fire pit.

I can already picture many wonderful summer nights with great friends and great food! Our landscaping is scheduled to be completed this Thursday and we'll begin preparation for the transformation of the boring side of our home.

If anyone has some great ideas on what we can add or change about our "Backyard Oasis" please let me know. Suggestions welcome!

Thank you again for all the well wishes last week. I am so much better and ready to feel 100% again.

God bless you all!