Flashback Friday: Cowboys and "bad guys"

I wasn't able to do this yesterday so I'm doing it today, but this will become a recurring "segment" on Fridays! I'm REALLY excited about this!!!

I have grown up hearing about all these stories of things that have happened to various family members. All of these stories I would classify as crazy, or at the very least, different. Because these stories are so "different" I have decided the rest of the world should be able to bask in the glory that is my family.

Disclaimer:

It's very possible that people were injured in the making of these stories (which tends to make them that much better). Also, due to the embarrassing nature of some of these stories, names will remain anonymous. All stories are completely factual.

I took this picture in Collins, Mississippi in my
Mamaw's front yard.

Cowboys and "bad guys"

Let me set the stage for you a little bit. This story takes place in south Mississippi in a place where the wildlife easily out numbers the people 10 to 1. There were no play dates or nights out on the town. It was simply you, your family and the things you had on the land around you. In Hot Coffee, Mississippi kids played with their siblings and they got creative with their entertainment. And that has provided me with LOTS of entertaining stories to pass on to y'all!

Back in the day, when my mama was about three or four years old it was very common to walk out onto the front yard and see children playin'. My mom's brother always played the sheriff, while Mom played the loyal deputy! I don't know if this is relevant but, they were shirtless lawmen. Usually it was just my mom and her brother but on this particular day their cousin came a callin', so he joined in on the fun. He was given the unfortunate title as "bad guy". After much hootin' and hollerin' (because that's what you do when you play Cowboys and Bad Guys in south Mississippi) the Sheriff and Deputy caught their man and took him at gun point. They were toy guns, not cap guns because Mamaw couldn't stand the smell of a cap gun. He'd done wrong and justice must be served! Like so many children in the south, my mom and her brother grew up watching Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger, which means there's only one way to make "thangs right". He had to hang. So the Sheriff got the rope and they tied it up in a tree in the front yard. The bad guy climbed up the tree (to his own hangin'), the noose was tightened and the sheriff and deputy shoved their cousin AKA "bad guy" off the tree and he hung. Mamaw heard the racket and cut him down from the tree while the lawmen stood and watched. Needless to say, he didn't come back to play Cowboys and bad guys. 

Don't worry, the cousin is still alive. He just may be a bit skittish around trees and rope.

This story is brought to you from the mind of my mother (the deputy) and the fingers of me! If any of my family members read this and have a story you want retold let me know! The only criteria is that it is at least some what humorous.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox! Thank y'all for reading!

Wonky and Woot-tastic

Ya ya ya.. it's not Wednesday. I got busy rewatching True Blood. More about that later.

Wonky:

   - As you all know, Rebel sleeps with me. He also sleeps on his side of the bed.... with his head on a pillow. I was cruel and didn't cover him up. Please don't report me to the SPCA.
   - Poor Rebel was having tummy troubles the other day (which begs the question, "what did he eat?"). As a result of those tummy troubles, he was a bit gassy. He was laying in the middle of the floor, asleep, and he tooted. He jumped up with his eyes really wide, looked around and went to lay on the other side of the room, safe from whatever was obviously going to attack him in his sleep.
   - I was awake at 5:30 in the morning. Need I say more? Well, I'm going to anyways. FIVE THIRTY!!! The sun isn't even awake at that time! On the plus side, I got paid.

Woot-tastic:
   - I should post under "wonky" that the following excites me. Anywho, While I was matching socks that I had just pulled out of the dryer, I was genuinely excited to see that they ALL had matches! NONE of them got eaten by the sock monster that lives in our laundry room. Someone really should figure out how to kill that stupid monster. Yup, I'm 20 years old and was very happy to be able to match all the socks that I had washed.

      - A few weeks ago Mom and Dad got 4 bookshelves. Two of those bookshelves also have cabinets, which we got for the purpose of storing all the games that we have acquired over the years (and by "we", I mean my sister). Anywho, I was able to get rid of some games and the rest of them actually fit in the two cabinets WITH ROOM TO SPARE!!!! Again, it's sad that this excites me.

   - Tuesday evening I went over to my saster's house for a girls night! I love girls night with Maegan. We went for a walk with AJ just around their street, then AJ swung in his swing (that sounds weird). Later Maegan and I decided girls night wouldn't be complete without fried food, so we made fried cheese sticks! I would like to add to this, I did the frying and didn't burn myself (that's a pretty major accomplishment btw). We got the recipe for the cheese sticks from Pioneer Women. It's pretty awesome :).
   - Season 4 of True Blood. Lots of shirtless Alexander Skarsgard. The End.

Well that's all for my Wonky and Woot-tastic Southern Soapbox! Have a good evening y'all!

5 things

It's been a while!

Five:
As I was driving to pick Ryan up for a date I saw the prettiest sunset! This picture doesn't do it justice. I am enjoying the several more hours of daylight!

Four:
I had a BUSY weekend! Friday from 4:30pm-12:30am I babysat 3 adorable kids. Then I babysat them again from 6:40am-7ish pm. By the way... it's very depressing being awake before the sun rises

Three:
I got my first sunburn of the year. Not sure if I'm excited or not. Tanning is always nice and I enjoyed the time I spent at the park on Saturday, but perhaps 3.5 hours is a big too long for my whiteness.

 Two:
I had lunch with Dad Sunday after church. Which reminds me, I also worked Sunday morning in the nursery. It was nice just sitting there, the two of us, talking and eating yummy food.

One:
Yup, this is probably going to be the highlight of my weekend, even though it happened today. We finally got all the bookshelves put together AND got all the books put on them! I still have to go through the games tomorrow and put them in the cabinets but there are not longer boxes filled with books on the floor in the dining room! Now there are empty boxes all over our new "library". Oh well, we can use them to donate some games.

All 4 shelves, plus part of Rebel's kennel.

The far right shelf

One of the middle shelves/cabinets. I love dad's firetruck
books and his art books on the bottom.

Another middle shelf/cabinet

I had fun organizing all the books. There are some really cool looking old books. I'll have to get close up pictures of them with the actual camera, these were just taken with my phone. I didn't do a close up of the far left shelf, it's nothing spectacular. It mostly contains Dad's woodworking magazines.

Well that's my Southern Soapbox! What did you guys do this weekend?

Crappy Unproductive day

Yesterday was so very unproductive. I don't know if that's actually a word, but it is now. I went to meet Ryan for a friend of ours birthday party on Tuesday even though I had felt REALLY bad before I left. I ran to his apartment, let Jixer out then went and picked him up at one of the facilities he was working at. We left and went to celebrate our friends 21st birthday. And that has been the extent of my productivity for the last two days. After we got back to his apartment I felt like dying. Seriously, I sat on the couch and cried and said "will you just kill me?" He said no. I cried more. Sometimes being a women sucks. Needless to say, I laid on the couch with a heating pad, a container of peanut butter cookies and Desperate Housewives until about 5am when I finally passed out. I vaguely remember him waking me up when he left for work but not really. I woke up at about 3pm. Yup... 3 in the afternoon. An hour before Ryan got off work. Jixer and I watched more Desperate Housewives. I finally came home, started a load of laundry, took a shower and now, thanks to me not waking up until... 12 hours ago... I am not tired.

So if you were wondering why I didn't do Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday, now you know. You probably know more than you ever cared to but.... oh well.

Ok, that's my Southern Soapbox! I'm going to go take some advil PM now.

The amazing men in my life.

<p>So it's two AM and someone reminded me of how blessed I am (without even meaning to, in fact I'm sure we was trying to do the opposite, but God used him to remind me of my blessings), specifically how blessed I am to have such an amazing father and boyfriend. And now I am having a cheesy mushy moment and sharing it with y'all (sorry haha). </p>

<p>My father... wow where do I start? He's awesome. He LOVED spending time with me and my sister. When I was little he would come home from a long day at work and manage to pump out some more energy to play with me. We would go play catch or even Barbies and you know your dad is AWESOME when he will sit in the middle of the floor and play Barbies with you. I remember him making breakfast on the weekends, and I don't mean toast or frozen waffles. No sir, he made pancakes, bacon, eggs AND toast!! Then I would spend the day playing in the garage with him. Now that I've gotten older he is still awesome. We go shooting and he endures my Vampire Diaries obsession. He is there when I need a voice of reason. I love just talking to my dad, and sadly we don't do it very often. Hopefully since the weather is getting nice we will be able to go shooting more and maybe go walk around a nature trail or something and just talk. I have heard that girls usually marry someone that resembles their dad but I'm not sure if anyone could be quite like my dad. He is truly one of a kind.

Although Ryan does have a lot to live up to he does a pretty good job. He is a lot like my dad in a lot of ways. He's very smart and independent. He's always the voice of reason, which balences out my insanity very nicely. The person that inadvertently reminded me of how blessed I was did so, in part, by being a child and showing me who Ryan is not. Ryan is caring, and respectful. He doesn't raise his voice. He apologizes with sincerity when he is wrong and he is always there to make me laugh. One of the things I love most about Ryan is his sense of humor. He can make me laugh even when I think my whole world has fallen apart(and as a girl that can be quite often). I love that we can just sit on the couch and watch TV and be perfectly OK with that. I love that he knows what I want to order at restaurant before I even do. I love that when he texts me "good morning beautiful"(he doesn't call me beautiful all the time, so when he does..) my heart flutters and I have a big dorky smile on my face. I have been told that relationships are hard and they require a lot of work, but I have to disagree again. Mine and Ryan's relationship is in no way "hard". Yes, sometimes we fight and have issues but we are usually pretty quick to work them out and move on so I wouldn't say that it's hard. Our relationship doesn't require much work either. Sometimes it needs some more than other times but not really. On June 4th we will have been together for five years. On one hand I feel like I have been with Ryan for forever but on the other hand it feels like just yesterday that he said "So, should we make this official?"

Well, that's my sappy Southern Soapbox. I hope I didn't make you want to throw up with my mushiness :P. Good night!

Busy busy day!

Today was INSANE! I woke up at 8:30am [8:30!!] then we had brunch with Grandmother, Aunt Trisha, Ashton, Erin, Mom, Dad and, of course, me. Mom made fruit salad, quiche lorraine, and croissants! Yummy! After we finished eating we left for Ikea. Dad and Ashton bailed halfway through Ikea and went shooting. I wanted to go but ended up staying with the female half of the group and let them have their "man time". After Ikea we went to Central Market, which is amazing by the way. It's a HUGE grocery store with all kinds of stuff. 3 isles of produce, 2 isles for the bakery, a whole area the size of a gas station (or the public part of a gas station) dedicated to wine and beer, it's CRAZY! They have awesome stuff. Anywho, we got there at about three or so and decided to eat lunch and then walk through the store. After all the shopping was finished I ran by Ryan's apartment and picked up Jixer to bring home since Ryan was coming for supper.

For supper I made my stir fry. I was a little sad because it didn't make as much as I had planned so there was barely enough to fix ten servings, which is how many I needed. Everyone ate and we played Apples to Apples and Trivial Pursuit. I like Apples to Apples but Trivial Pursuit.... I would be ok if we never played that again. The problem with that game is most of the questions are about things that happened when I was in middle school or before, and therefore I know NOTHING about them so the game gets very boring, very fast.

I think tomorrow we are going to McKinney but I'm not for sure. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures and my phone ended up dying since we were out and about for 5 hours (which is a REALLY long time for me and mom. We usually shop for like 2-3 hours and are done lol.) It was fun bonding with the family. Hopefully we will do something exciting tomorrow and I will be able to take pictures.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! Have a good night/morning!

Wonky And Woot-tastic Wednesday

Wonky:

   - I am 20 years old and I still sleep with a stuffed animal. It's a really sad looking brown dog. His nose is ripped open, courtesy of Rebel. Mom is supposed to give him stitches but hasn't yes. Ryan gave him to me for our 6 month anniversary, almost 4 and a half years ago!

   - While I'm thankful for the rain and God knows we need it.. I'm really not a rain person and it makes me all achey. Which brings me to my next wonky.

   - Because of all the rain we've been getting mom and I have both been having flare ups. Every time the weather changes (from sunny to rainy, rainy to sunny, hot to cold, or cold to hot or any combination of those) my entire body feels like it got hit by a car, which makes it hard to sleep, which causes my body to feel like it got hit train going 90 MPH... and thus the cycle continues.

   - I mentioned before that Ryan had a motorcycle accident... ya that sucked...

Woot-tastic:

   - Grandmother, Aunt Trisha, Ashton, and Erin are all in town! We have lots of stuffed planned so I'll try to take lots of pictures! We are going to Ikea and Central Market (they don't have them in north Mississippi) one day then another day we are going to downtown McKinney and walk the square with all the antique shops! Lots of fun to be had!

   - I mentioned before that I sleep with a real stuffed animal, well I also sleep with Rebel and he is a lot like a stuffed animal. A stuffed animal that snores, twitches, yelps and occasionally lays on me.... Ok, so he's not really like a stuffed animal but I love that he sleeps with me. My bed would feel way too big and empty without him :).

   - Mom, Maegan and I all went shopping Saturday! Oh, and AJ was there. We got lady garments and ate at La Madeleine's! YUM! They have the best salads, well next to Olive Garden.

Ok well that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! I will probably be MIA for the rest of the week so I can spend time with my family! Good night :)

Crash and burn...

...no, like literally.

This past weekend was pretty nice. It rained Friday and Saturday so that was a bummer but Sunday was BEAUTIFUL! I had been hurting really badly that night and ended up taking a pain pill so I could go to sleep but when I woke up at 10am I was feeling a lot better. I woke up and mom and dad wanted to go out to lunch and then go to Cabela's. Free food, sounds good! I called Ryan and he met us at BJ's (YUM!). Then, we met Maega, Andrew and AJ at Cabela's. AJ had a lot of fun looking at the guns with his daddy and Pop Pop(my dad). Ryan and I then left Cabela's to go hang out with some of our friends.

We met Brett at one of the high schools near his house because Ryan wanted to ride his motorcycle. Ryan was having so much and doing really well. With each passing moment he was getting more comfortable and I was getting more confidant in his abilities. He came by and let Brett have a turn. While Brett was riding around in circles (you can only do so much in a parking lot) Ryan gushed about how excited he was to get his bike and how much more comfortable he is feeling while riding. Brett came back around and Ryan hopped on the bike. Brett offered Ryan his jacket and I told him he really should wear it "just in case". He decided that he wasn't doing anything stupid and a helmet and gloves would suffice. Famous last words. He went around a few times and was coming out of his last turn. I was texting someone, I don't remember who, when I heard Brett say "Oh crap!". Then I heard scrapping plastic and looked up in time to see Ryan flipping over the handle bars. He then flipped on to the back of his head, rolled down his spine and stood up. Brett and I took off at a dead run but by the time we were half way to Ryan he was already up looking at the bike. Thankfully, Ryan is fine, minus some road rash and a pretty sore back. There was no frame damage to the bike but the handle bars broke along with a lot of body damage (which will be a couple of thousand dollars in parts alone). Surprisingly enough, none of Ryans clothes ripped, his jeans, tshirt, and belt were all perfectly fine with the exception of a little blood. One of the little plastic spoiler pieces (forgive me, I don't speak motorcycle) on the back of his helmet broke off and there were a few scratches on his helmet, but other than that it didn't have any cracks in it or anything.

Yes, Ryan still wants his motorcycle. Yes, I will be a nervous wreck when he gets one.

After that whole incident I was in DESPERATE need of some retail therapy (don't judge... it was traumatic...), so me, Maegan, Mom, and AJ went to North Park  mall. Yay for retail therapy.

Well that's my Southern Soapbox. Please wear a helmet AND A JACKET when you are riding a motorcycle, even if you aren't "doing anything stupid".

Goodbye Texans, Hello OnSite!

I am SO EXCITED! Today was Ryan's LAST DAY at Texans Credit Union! After four and a half years of working there he finally got a job doing something I think, and hope, he will enjoy. He will be a software tech (sort of...) for a pharmaceutical company. Basically this company has machines that dispense medication and Ryan will help fix the machines if/when they break. It's not EXACTLY what he wanted to do but he will be working with computers and his best friend will be his boss... which will be interesting. I know he will be wonderful. To celebrate Ryan's new job we went to Buffalo Wild Wings with his now ex-coworker Angie, her man candy Chris and Ryan's friend/new boss, Juan. We had fun and I looked really cute :P.

Top: Express(I think?), Belt: Target,
Jeggings & Shoes: Charming Charlie

Me, channeling my inner Katherine Pierce.

Yes, I'm aware the pictures aren't very good. My outfit was "inspired" by Katherine Pierce, a character from The Vampire Diaries. Although, I'm not sure "inspired" is the right word for it because I didn't realize it until I was already in the car and on my way to the restaurant. I like The Vampire Diaries, what can I say?

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the night. Ryan starts his job at 8am so pray that he doesn't get nervous or intimidated! Good night!

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

Wonky:
   - Kony. Need I say more? Probably not, but you know me. Kony and his little minions need to be stopped. They are destroying thousands of lives. It may not affect us, but we can affect them.
   - The fact that I put Kony at the top of my "wonky list" and now everything else seems completely stupid.
   - I gained weight.... now I feel fat.. ugh
   - The "joke" I put on facebook... no one read the comments, which was very essential to the joke. For the record, I am not pregnant. (See the below 'wonky' for the story)
   - I bought a maternity skirt. I was walking through Target, saw the skirt and said "OH MY GOSH I NEED IT!"... then saw that it was a maternity skirt. Maegan said "Well there's an extra small, see if it'll fit". It did (wonky.. I, being NOT pregnant, fit in a maternity skirt... see the above 'wonky' about me gaining weight). Anywho, it is a LITTLE loose in the waist and a bit long (but that tends to happen when you're 5 foot 1) but that can be easily fixed. So I bought it, and unwisely decided it would be funny to put on Facebook that I bought a maternity skirt. Again, I am NOT pregnant!

Woot:
   - I puppy sat for some friends. Those puppies were the CUTEST things EVER! Pippa and Reese (which I changed to Princess Pip and Reese's Pieces) Again, ADORABLE!

   -My grandmother (on my dad's side) sent me a little Valentine's Day gift! It is sooo cute! In the top box there were some cute little heart shaped chocolates and little notepads and in the bottom box were 2 little heart shaped soaps! Thank you Grandmother!
   - Grandmother, Aunt Trisha, Ashton(cousin) and Erin(cousin) are coming in town! I haven't seen them in SO LONG! Yay!

   - I made Tomato Basil Soup last night! It was really really really yummy!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the day! Hope you enjoyed my Wonky and Woot-tastic! I am off to Ryan's house now!

La Madeleine's Tomato Basil Soup!

I tried this recipe for the second time tonight! It was soooo yummy! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we do.

Ingredients:
4 cups of crushed tomatoes (the 1lb can is about 4 cups)
12 fresh basil leaves (or you can use 4 tablespoons of the dried basil in the little bottle)
1 cup of heavy cream (That is what the original recipe calls for although I suggest that you start out using 1/4 cup and add a little more if you need to. When I used 1 cup it was WAY too much.)
1 stick (1/4 lb) of sweet unsalted butter
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Directions:
1. Simmer tomatoes in saucepan for 30 minutes
2. Puree,  with basil, in small batches, in blender (honestly.. I'm not sure why you're supposed to blend it? but ya... you might be able to skip this step if you don't have a blender)
3. Return to saucepan and add cream, butter, salt and pepper while stirring over low heat
4. Eat up!!

I hope you enjoy!

Wonky and Woot-tastic Wednesday

Ya.. ya ya.. I know. It's not Wednesday.

Wonky:
   -The fact that I'm doing Wonky and Woot-tastic WEDNESDAY on a Thursday. Sorry, I got busy yesterday
   - The things my brother-in-law and I talk about. It gets... interesting. Especially since before we didn't really like each other. He's stubborn, I'm stubborn, he likes to argue and so do I... do you see how this could be a problem? Anywho, some how we have managed to get past this and I would almost venture to say that we are friends (for those of you how have actually met me, and met Andrew AND had the pleasure of experiencing us TOGETHER... in the same room.. I'm sure there was an audible gasp coming from your lips :P)
   - My little Monkey (AJ, my nephew) is sick. He went to the doctor yesterday and they said he has a sinus infection AND bronchitis. Poor angel. His sinuses are so backed up that the mucus is coming out of his tear ducts. Again I say, poor angel. Also I say, ew. It, shamefully, reminds me of True Blood and how the vampires cry blood. Except AJ is a baby, not a vampire and he isn't crying, he's just leaking snot (ew. and now that I explain it like that... it's not so much like True Blood anymore... except it is.. but it isn't).
   - I was driving down the road the other day and I saw this women smoking her car.... then I saw that this women was smoking in her car with an INFANT in the BACKSEAT! That should be illegal. Seriously, how is that not child negligence or endangerment or something? It should be and if it were, I would have called the police on her. It's one thing to kill yourself but don't smoke around your kids, and especially not in the car with them! HELLO!
   - I got new shoes (no this is NOT the wonky part) and was walking around in them, my mom looks at me and says "are those even comfortable?" (they're 5" wedges). I told her that surprisingly, they are and she should try them on. She did (this is the wonky part, in case you were missing it). She was doing pretty well until Rebel ran by and brushed up against her. At which point she almost fell over and promptly decided it was time to take my shoes off.

Woot:

 - I think this goes with out saying but... I got new shoes. WOOT! I had seen them on pinterest and saw that they were from DSW so I went and tried them on. They're AMAZING. Then I was looking and saw this ADORABLE clutch. So, of course, I got that too :).
   - My cleaning schedule is working. The house is pretty much clean. YAY.
   - Ryan got a new job! He will be working with our friend Juan (the one from Valentine's Day) as a Software support (more or less) for a pharmaceutical company.
   - We are having AMAZING weather (knock on wood). Today the high was 83! Amazing!

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox for the night!