The Sand Pit

Bobby and I scored some great tickets to last night's Kenny Chesney concert. We were in "the sand pit" that was right next to the stage. I could literally put my hand on the stage. We've had the tickets for a while now and were really looking forward to the show. What we didn't know was that in the sand pit there are no chairs and this particular concert was going to last for almost 8 hours!!!!! MY FEET!!!!! My stomach, too, because anyone that knows me knows that I'm on a toddler diet ( as Bobby calls it) and I eat snacks between meals and get crabby if I miss one. So to pacify myself I had to eat a greasy chicken finger. Which is hardly ever, basically never, part of my eating regimen. Anyway, here's Bobby with the backdrop (at this point in the pic we had been there for five and a half hours.)

Here is our opener. Gary Allen. Pretty good. Knew some songs. First impression: Jerk. Don't know why. Just a gut feeling. He was also swigging on Jim Beam the whole time and then the entire band was swiggin' on the SAME bottle. Ewww. Gross. I had to cross him off my friend list almost immediately for that infraction. Germ sharing. Not on my list of good things. I am, however, pretty much best friends with Leann Rimes now. Especially since Bobby snagged the coveted hand clap from her. He claims there was a "pause" to the hand clap with eye gaze and possibly a wink.........until he flashed his wedding band. I knocked the breath out of him and he finally woke from that dream. I can't help but to comment at this point on the people surrounding us in the sand pit. We were ever so fortunate to have Weird Drunk Guy that nearly made me lose my religion. He was doing moves that should be reserved for da club or a Fifty Cent concert. All I'm going to say is that I haven't seen hip thrusting like that since the 5th grade when I watched Dirty Dancing at Laura Yelton's slumber party without my parent's permission (sorry mom and dad). Nor have I seen french kissing like that since, like, middle school at the movies. (not by me of course). Nauseating. Purely nauseating.
This is why I want to be her friend. She hopped and danced and ran and jumped all the while wearing these. That's impressive. She didn't take them off until the last song and which time I was just sure she was going to throw them into the crowd to me. They looked like they could be my size. And I'm sure, on a normal day, I would not be able to afford them.
Controversy during the show: Some know-it-all claimed that this person was Kenny Chesney and he had snuck ( sidenote: I googled this and it IS the past tense of 'sneak') under the stage and into the crowd to watch the before show. The rumors were flying all around the place. People snapping pics and whatnot. I guess that guy was wondering what all the paparazzi action was about and the moron that started the rumor felt, well, like a moron when KC came out and this Joe was still standing there.
Best part of the whole concert: Keith Urban. Killer guitar playing. No Nicole Kidman sightings.Finally at 9:30 KC showed up to the gig. Did great. Sweated a lot. Mixed in some new songs with the old. Did not chose me to give the signed guitar to. Not because I wasn't screaming his name. I was. I wanted the guitar. He chose some 5 year old. What was a five year old doing up that late anyway?? It was 11:30! Kenny doesn't know what a mistake that was.
A good surprise was the lead singer from Sugarland happened to be at the concert and KC pulled her onstage to do an impromptu vocal. She sang "Stay" and it was great. Sounded just like the radio.

Well, that's my concert roundup. Good times. Even greater seats.

It's That Time Again!

Bobby has two times a year that he is allowed to purchase and shoot fireworks and this makes him SO happy. Each year he sets up his arsenal table and teaches the children the basic points of being a pyromaniac. Hopefully this won't lead to future jailing due to arsonist activity or worse, ER visits due to lack of judgement.
We had the usual watching of the little roadside fireworks consisting of really loud weird things and little exploding tanks and cars as well as my personal favorite (and the kid's), the little pop-out parachute. They had so much fun running and chasing to see who would get to catch the parachute.I managed to snap one picture of Cade with his sparkler and I am always proud when I get such a natural, unforced smile from this child. I usually say, "Cade, just a normal kid smile. Normal kid." but just didn't have the desire this time to remind him. Sigh. It is what it is.
Rhett had the most fun eating his homemade ice cream. He didn't want any to go to waste. Not even the little bit that managed to escape up into his nostril. Somehow Grant managed to dodge all of my attempts at photographing him this year. He was there though. Somewhere.

Thanks friends for joining us to celebrate the Fourth! It was a good time! And, by the way, I'm sure Jon is going to be upset that his little pic didn't make it on the blog but, unfortunately, Bobby was laughing so hard that he blurred the picture. Nice try, Jon. Maybe next year!

Hello Leg Pump!!!

After months of trying to get the boys to learn how to swing themselves we finally have a taker!! With a little help from his friend, Carter, Cade grasped the leg pump and had himself swinging in about 5 minutes. His kindergarten teacher called him yesterday to check on his summer and they had a conversation that consisited of this on Cade's end:

"I learned how to swing all by myself the other day!"

"Yeah! No. I didn't have to work hard at all! It was like everyone was trying to teach me and stuff and no one could really do it. Then Carter came over and it was like......like magic or something. I was just sittin' there and the next thing you know it was like he gave me the power to do it and I........I just DID!"
Thanks Carter for your inspiration and thanks to your mom for the greater inspiration idea of a prize from Target. Cade is now the proud owner of yet another Lego set to cause me grief.

It's Really Interesting.........

to find this when you open the pantry doors at 6:30am to get your morning protein bar. Interesting and a little startling at the same time......... I'm really surprised he chose such a fiber packed meal when there were SpiderMan gummies to be had. I'm sure all of those raisins will come back to haunt me later. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about................

Happy Suprise!!!

This past weekend we had a Suprise Retirement party for my dad. After 38 and a half years of faithfully working for General Motors he is hanging it up to do a little golf and hiking and a lot of "honey do this and honey do that"! My sister and I bought him the most ridiculous hat we could find and make him wear a crazy button at the party. I'm sure that today, his first official day of being retired, he is wearing it around town.
We had a great turnout of friends and family to help us celebrate. I'm not posting any of their pics because you never know who is in the witness protection program and I don't want to blow anyone's cover. My cake lady came through with another cute and tasty cake. I didn't have too much leftover but there will be some of you out there, you know who you are, that will be sorely disappointed that you didn't take any for your long road trip because this morning it went into the trash. I don't deal well with dessert temptation and I had to eliminate it. Congratulations dad on a job well done!! Just let me know when you can start on my project list. You said it yourself, "Every day is Saturday from now on!" and Saturday's are perfect for building little bridges across little creeks, or putting up cute beadboard in little boy's bathrooms, or laying precious stone to complete some additional landscaping, or...............

What's He Do All Day?

Cade has been a busy bee with his new favorite thing: the Star Wars Lego set. He got a few for his birthday and I have picked up a couple others for special occassions. He is forever building, building, building..........then screaming, screaming, screaming when little brothers get in his business and mess up all his hard work.
I love all of the quiet time these little things have provided me with.
What I don't like is when I find one embedded in the bottom of my foot, or the clink, clink as I suck them up with the vaccum, or when I slide sleepily into the bed at night only to find my legs being mauled by stray pieces, or when I dig one out of Rhett's mouth, or when I have to pick them up for the thousandth time out of the kitchen floor, or when...........well, that's probably enough of that. I do complain a little, but he really loves them. So, for now, so will I.

'Sup, Dawg

While at a kid-friendly Spring Hill eatery tonight Grant so wisely spent his quarters for an extension into his wardrobe. He was so proud when he came running over flashing his new chain and bling. I didn't have the heart to tell him that, usually, accessories of this nature are reserved for gansters or rap artists. His innocence just tickled me. I had to put aside my pride and let him run around the ball fields wearing the silly thing. All of his unsuspecting buddies thought it was the coolest thing ever. He even brandished it after bathtime tonight.......and without my prompting added another morsel to the picture..........
Yes, that would be his glock in the right hand. I never knew that watching BET during t.v. time would have such an impact.

(For those of you gasping: We really don't watch BET....with the kids, anyway :)