A Visit With My Papaw

I'm ashamed to say that it's been years since I've seen my Papaw. I try to call him every couple months but it seems that getting everyone free and loaded up to make the 4.5 hour drive for a visit just doesn't happen. We planned this trip months in advance. I got a quick picture of him with all my kiddos.

I know my dad must miss being able to see his dad whenever he'd like. I know I'd hate living far away from my dad! 

 My sister made the trip with us. It's always nice to have your sister around when you know you're going to have to endure eating at the Golden Corral. That's one of Papaw's favorite eating places so for this occasion I sacrificed my nutrition:)

It was good to see that Papaw's sense of humor was intact. He had us laughing with his silly comments! 

I hate that I don't get to spend more time with my Pap. I wish time and circumstance made it easier but it doesn't. I'm glad we found the time to slow down a bit and drive up. If it were only for one hug it was worth it :)

Fall Family Pics

I spent so much time in the fall taking pictures for other people's families so I decided I finally needed to take my own out for a quick little shoot. My intent was to get a family shot all together but as I quickly ran out the door I grabbed my old, broken tripod. Why is that still sitting with all my camera gear? I have no idea. So, here are the few I got in between grunts and groans from the fellas. 

My princessa.

I think I'm teaching Cade well! He snapped both of the pictures of Bobby and me and did a great job! 

This picture makes me smile inside:)

I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked but my brain could hardly stand all of the complaining. Boys are not good photo subjects for the most part. I hope Elaina understands that she's my only hope for practice!!

Rascal Flatts

As most of my five readers know, concert date nights are my absolute FAVORITE! Bobby and I had heard that Rascal Flatts was touring with Little Big Town (whom I LOVE!) but we were going to turn it down because we had just been to my bestie Carrie Underwood's show. But, my man who loves me so had a little downtime at work and happened upon an amazing deal for tickets....and really good ones at that. Who could turn it down??

We called up our great friends Mike and Amanda and arranged a long overdue double date night. I never fail to laugh until my sides hurt with these two so I was really looking forward to it and as usual, I was still laughing the next morning at Mike and his antics:)

The concert started out with the Eli Young Band and I took this opportunity to use the "panorama" setting on my iphone. While it worked fairly well I was still aggravated that I didn't have my real camera with me. I'm taking it in next concert. It seems that the whole "no professional cameras" debacle that Barney Fife put me through with Keith Urban was just a fluke since there were plenty of nice cameras floating around at the last two concerts. Anyway, I think I knew  one or two songs from Eli. They were good.  

Up next was LBT. I'm really glad they've won some awards this year because they are totally deserving. I sang along with several of their songs and I'm sure Amanda was feeling a bit self conscious because my voice is somewhat superior to hers. Some folks have it. And I'm one of them. in my dreams.  

 

 This two sang a duet together that, let me tell ya, had the chemistry a'flowin'. We all agreed there was most definitely a little somethin' somethin' going on between these two and we were certain that their prospective others were probably NOT happy about the fact that they were traveling to and fro together all year touring. The funny thing is that they are both married. To each other. Ha! Good thing they have some chemistry! 

 LBT didn't disappoint. I'll be back to see them again. With my good camera.

 Bring on the Flatts! This is the second time that Bobby and I have been to see Rascal Flatts. While I feel that all the Rascals are great singers, Joe Don, despite his name, has for the most part been my favorite. That being said, I will be the first one to openly admit that Joe needs to cool it with the sleeveless shirts. Or, he needs to do some curls and get a spray tan. His guitar skills make  up for most of that but, hey, I'm just here to keep it real and give advice to famous people that obviously don't need any help from a stay at home mom nobody. 

 Ol' Gary LeVox about got a beat down when he walked to our edge of the stage shortly after this picture and gave Amanda a straight up point out. If Bobby hadn't been there to hold Mike back.........

 They had a little portion of the concert where you could yell out what you wanted them to sing. It was pretty fun but I really didn't have anything to yell out because for some strange reason I could not recall a single song that Rascal Flatts sings......and here I was, 3 rows back from the stage at their concert. I tell you, I've lost most of the capacity of my brain since having kids. I think the thing I'm best at at this point in my life is cutting construction paper. 

 Despite the fact that I couldn't remember the names of any songs, I DID remember the words to Life is a Highway (mostly because it was in the movie Cars) and I sang it like I was a contestant on The Voice. The one contestant that no one turns their chair around for. 

 Did I mention that going to this concert made the four of us bonafide stars? We're totally on the hit tv series "Nashville". The director was there filming concert scenes and for several takes we had to scream like crazy and act like we were at a concert (which wasn't hard to do since we were, in fact, at a concert). Most people were the standard concert hands, you know, heart hands,  longhorns, l love yous.....not us. We were just doing a single pinkie. Yep. One.single.pinkie. So when you're watching the show and you see a pinkie in the crowd, it's me. And Mike. And Bobby and Amanda. It's hard being famous so no autographs please.

Last concert date night of 2012 in the books. One of the best ones yet with two of our favorite people!!

Field Trippin'

I chaperoned Cade's fifth grade field trip to Bicentennial Park and thought I'd document my two pics here on ye' ol' blog for posterities sake. I can so remember being a fifth grader and it still makes me smile to look back on some pictures from that period of my life. So, here it is, MY fifth grader on what may be his last elementary school field trip.....sniff sniff. Please note the seven inch standing gap between Cade and the girl we very loosely and innocently have termed his "girlfriend". It made me laugh to see them so awkwardly stand close to one another for a picture moment:) Good times! 

This was actually a really great field trip. I found that at one point I was actually having fun and not one time did I feel the urge to strangle someone else's child. I consider that a chaperoning success!!

Blown Away!

 Months ago Bobby and I snagged tickets to see Carrie Underwood and I was delighted when the Joneses decided to join the party. Concert date nights are ALWAYS my favorite and I had been looking forward to being Blown Away for more days than I could count.

 We had a little (lot) of dinner at the Kayne Prime. Kayne, not Kanye, that's another concert. Little steak for the men, little fish for the ladies. It was delish and the atmosphere was cozy.

I must remember to take note that my pictures from this concert are definitely less than desirable. Ever since the Keith Concert Camera Catastrophe I'm afraid to try to take my camera in for fear that Bobby will have to hoof it a mile back to our car because it's "illegal". Anywho, my little iphone did the trick...sorta. No matter how good they say those phone cameras are, they just really aren't. 

Opener: Hunter Hayes. Cute young man. Quite possibly the Justin Beiber of country music. Speaking of Justin Beiber, I'm available if anyone needs a chaperone for their tween at his upcoming concert. Just contact me privately. Back to Hunter, I knew a couple of his songs. One in particular that I really like from the radio and yes, I did sing aloud. 

During his performance he was presented with an award for.....well, I can't remember because I'm so late in blogging this concert. In any case he was really excited and thanked us fans a least 37 times. Bobby wanted to hold up heart hands like people do for Taylor Swift but when it came right down to it he chickened out. I literally begged him to do it. Just the thought of it is hysterical to me:)

As usual, a concert self portrait:

And out came Carrie....

With the opening she had me all thinking that she was going to start out with "Blown Away" but then she fudged and sang something else. 

She had the business in the front, party in the back dress style goin' on this time. I like her legs though so I think she deserves to have them sticking out in the front. We weren't quite close enough to see if she had on spanx this time. 

I've been searching high and low for the boots that she wore with this outfit (that you can't really see in this pic) but I haven't been able to find them. It's probably for the best. We DO have to send 4 kids to college and neither Bobby nor myself have Carrie's salary. 

For her next set of songs, Carrie came out in a Pred's jersey and cut off jean shorts. Then the little stage she was on lifted into the air and began to float over top of all of us. I love great tickets but this is one time I was uncomfortable being in the good seats. I just knew that stage was going to fall and crush us to smithereens. 

Yikes! Could this be the moment I had been fearing?? 

Nope! All was well and as it floated past us it was actually pretty from afar! 

Now, I'm not saying that I'm Giuliana Rancic when it comes to fashion or anything but let it be known that prior to the concert I said, "Metallics are in for fall you know". And, lo and behold, what does Carrie come out in? Metallics. Just call me Sonjanista. That's Sonja and Fashionista meshed. 

Next, I thought the same ol' same ol' was going to happen. You know, when there is a duet song at a person's concert and they make you think the other half of the duet is there and it's really a fake on the screen.....nope. Not tonight. The real BP showed up and I screamed so loud that I blew my uvula. 

It was a fantastic duet and by the look on her face Carrie was just as surprised as the rest of us. I do love that Brad Paisley! 

The grand finale came and it was time for "Blown Away" and I was.

All kinds of wind and confetti blowing around. A perfect ending to another great Carrie Underwood concert! 

As always, concert date night=awesome. Concert date night with friends=even better!