Tornado Season

Man Tornado season has officially begun! We have had at least 12 confirmed tornadoes that have touched down in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex. The city of Arlington and Lancaster have bother been declared to be in a state of emergency. Thankfully the city I live in was spared but there are a lot of areas that were not so lucky.

In our house we are PARANOID about tornadoes. Whenever a tornado watch or warning is issued Stevenson family protocol is to put on clothes (if you're in pajamas) and put on tennis shoes. This "tradition" was started back when we lived in Alabama. There was a tornado and our neighbor at the time told my mom "You never know what you'll have to walk through if a tornado hits" and it's true! If you're wearing tennis shoes you don't have to worry as much about stepping on debris. It's smart if you ask me. Paranoid, but smart. I wish I had taken a picture of me, Mom, Rebel, Martin, and George all crammed into the laundry room. It was a site to see.

A picture of ONE of the storms that hit the Dallas
Metroplex

Candles and a flashlight just in case :).

Well, that's my stormy Southern Soapbox! Stay safe and dry y'all!

Outside During Spring

Spring hasn't been around for long but we have been outside A LOT! Here are some pictures of AJ playing outside :).

Playing in the hose while Rebel got a bath

Climbing around Aunt Emily's yard

No, it's not AJ. It's my cousin Mollie.
I thought this picture was cute so I threw it in the mix

Pop Pop and AJ

Peek-a-boo!

It was a crazy busy weekend! Friday Ryan and I went to dinner at Twisted Root with our friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. Saturday Mom, Dad and I went with Maegan and AJ to a park near our house. We had lunch with Maegan's small group from church and AJ did his very first Easter egg hunt! Sunday I worked in the morning, then met Maegan, Mom, Dad, and a friend of ours for lunch at Cotton Patch. YUM! A few hours after that Mom and I went to a ladies house to learn how to play bridge.

Well, that's my Southern Soapbox! I hope you had a nice, sunny weekend!

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!