green thumb

here is my little helper ,rory, she always finds a way to get right in the middle of whatever it is that i am doing. which usually makes for a pretty good photo opp.

today was a great day to get things done. got my plants...flowers and veggies...planted them and then sat back and enjoyed my hard efforts. what a great day!!

friday-last day in brason

sad it was our last full day in hot sticky but fun branson. went the pool in the morning then got ready for our afternoon show. we of course got there early and boy was it hot inside this theatre. wowza. it was built like a green house with windows all around, including the roof. we got our icecream and waited an hour for our show to start. once inside the actual theatre we waited for the air to kick on like all the other shows but it never came. i thought i was going to pass out. the sweat running down the backs of my legs. we were cooking. at the break our entire row left except us. i felt bad for the performers because it was like they weren't good, it was just so darn hot and those people are all so old.

there was this woman they had brought in in her wheel chair before the show. she was wearing a turtle neck and a jacket with a blanet. she was probably in her mid to late 80's and they took her out after about 45 mns. i felt bad for everyone sitting there that had stayed to watch to rest of the show. sweating and smelling. yuck.

boy we were so happy when it was finally over. i am surprised everyone made it out ALIVE.

overall the trip was great. too bad the last show wasn't amazing but what can you do when you're a.c. doesn't work. hmm.

i am so glad i got to spend time with my two favorite people, my gram and papa

tube socks

i have seen more tube socks in this city then i have seen or noticed in my life. everyone here seems to wear them high and proud,white or dingy, there they are.

this man was spotted wearing them in the *branson variety theatre* earlier today and had to be photographed in order to show the brason fashion trend. his legs were like tree trunks. i dont know if those socks were special order but here they are for you to see.

if i would have written this without a photo it just wouldn't be the same. visuals are very important when telling about something so...hmm so trendy.

if hillbillies were a trend this city would be one of the trendiest!

thats all for now...possable more to come. we do have the rest of today and all day tomorrow in brason before returning home. wish me luck to find more trendsetters like this man pictured.

today so far

photo: inside the lobby at the theatre this afternoon that the twelve Irish tenors played at...

today we have been shopping, yes again. and we have been re-shopping the same places because there's not that much in branson to shop somewhere new everyday for seven days. i did find a few cute things at the ralph lauren polo store. fun fun.

this afternoon we went to *the twelve Irish tenors*. they were good. as i am watching them sing i try to entertain myself song after song but trying to figure out which one is the best looking...well after the first 3 songs i start to realize there is an awful lot of hair tossing. hmm. so i keep watching and looking. then i start to notice there is an awful lot of jazz fingers. hmm. i continue to watch. their shirts all unbuttoned down the chest. hmm. by the end of the show i was thinking they should be called *the twelve gay Irish tenors*

so we are now relaxing until our show tonight.

wed night in branson

outside the show, of course an hour and a half early. we made friends with a few of the chatty women and could break free so we made one of them take our photo.
dancing with fire is a dangerous job...but someone has to entertain me! ha

here i am on stage ....learning the hula dance. on my way back to my seat the lights went out and i almost pulled out some lady's weave ( hair) oops. it was dark and i fell on someone in my row. hope she's ok.

the fire island show at it finest! what an amazing performance...our seats were great from sixth row dead center. papa made sure to get the best in the house.

after the show i got my photo taken with the island dancers...

tuesday evening

photo: the entire hughes family at the hughes brothers show. this is the largest performing family known. for 14 years running this show has had a new born baby jesus. we were in row 6 for this show.

tuesday shopping

tuesday was a big shopping day. were shopped til we dropped.

monday evening

gram and papa infront of our theatre for today's shows: bab and clay cooper performers

at the evening performance: clay cooper. it was soo good!! the middle photo of the old man has such a funny story...will post later.

with such a great show so early in the week. it really set the bar for the rest of the shows in the days to come....

monday afternoon with bob

bob








bob imitates football players, haha












getting our signed photo of bob









us with bob








after seeing bob perform this a.m. at breakfast in the lodge my papa got us tickets to see bob this afternoon.

breakfast and entertainment

breakfast and 3 hours of entertainment? wow, that's branson. this guy who is performing now. is this tall goofy fellow who is singing johnny cash and keeps talking during the song. haha. wow. hopefully we get outta here before lunchtime. geez.

breakfast was yummy. the biscuits and gray were delish. these people were crazy hungry and were in a big hurry to get their seat

until they heard there was assigned seating. then there were all sorts of moaning and groaning.

omg there are these big hillbilly kids here that have buck teeth and keep cutting the people in line that haven't eaten yet for..... more sausage and bacon. wow.

now, i am listening to the lady sing *the twist*. haha. next...omg there is this big big big man that is wearing this green tee shirt. he just fluffed his hair (photo). he just said "kids love my show...pauses...then said thats it. come see my show before it closes." haha i wanna see that one.

sunday

at a craft mall. wearing our fancy old lady hats! and no we did not buy them...









out at table rock lake










me at the lake











papa out front of the breakfast place







sunday: today we shopped at tanger outlets, layed by the pool, and went to *Haygoods* at night.
we have been up so early in the a.m. that i am just pooped by the time 10/ 1030 rolls around. omg i am blending in with the oldies. i have to take my glasses to the shows, i bring my sweater into places when we eat and i can complain about petty stuff with the rest of 'em. haha. i am blending well.

my meal sched is a little messed. we eat early and they miss lunch but eat ice cream or candy then eat dinner about five or 530. then eat snacks again after the shows.

i ate soo much (sunday) yesturday. by the time we were at the show last night i had eaten 3 different bags of popcorn.

right now i am sitting in the lobby with the logdge with some real hillbillies and this old woman is talking and what lookes like her daughter is rolling her eyes everytime she looks over at her. but the funny part is that the daughter is prob in her 40's. their family trip is most likely not going very well and they are hopeing it will end as soon as possable.

i am having a great time. we are going all over and gram/papa are telling me all kinds of funny stories about other times they have been here. and they have been here A LOT.

our cottage

the cutest little cabin you have ever seen. and where we will be staying for the next week!

our kitchen and gram cutting our evening apples!!

my amazing room!

more photos to follow....

Branson- day one

nine thirty this a.m. i was picked up by my gram and papa to go on our branson vacation. stopped on our way to see an old friend of grams from when she was growing up. when we made it to branson we checked into our amazing cottage. since it was 430 we hit to town to check out the strip, at 5 pm we went to famous daves for dinner. it was a first for me and surprisingly delicious. to finish the night we had a nice walk. time for bed for an early early morning.

photo: gram infront of an indian in oceola at the cheese store

summer softball

(photo: warm up) so tonight we had softball. the last two weeks have been rainny so we didn't get to play. since it has been so wet out the humidity level was to the max. tonight everyone was dripping wet. we have two teams set up by randy that played tonight at 6:15, 7:15 and 8:15. I sat out the first game and watched. my first game (game two) i was surpriseingly not catcher. i was right field. i did a pretty good job. ps i was also eaten alive by all the bugs.

game 3 was my best. i was catcher as usual and rocked. i caught most of the balls thrown. we did lose but only to the fact that we had four girls and four guys on our team...a bit short. otherwise i bet we would have won. oh well.

i also made contact with the ball everytime but once but went down swinging as they say. too bad i will be out of town next week. looking forward to our next game.

this weekend

tonight (sunday): matt and i are over at josh's. we made these amazing sammies. buttered and toasted with ham, turkey, cheddar cheese and mayo with pinnapple salsa. de-lish. now we are stuffed and watching baseball. well...they are watching and i am blogging/ checking out layouts on a studio calico website. the pups are sooo pooped-out. they are snoozing big time right now. i can hardly type with reagan laying on my left arm.

we had such a good weekend.

friday: we were surprised with emily and zack hood calling and letting us know that they were in town. so we met up for a bit.

saturday: we left for DSM. matt having brandon hargens batchlor party was good because i got to go and hang out with my gram for the afternoon. when we got into town at about 1030 or 11 am i called gram to let her know that i saw a ton of garage sale signs in the area. she was so excited. we use to go all the time when i was little. gram and i hit some g-sales until we were too hungery to put off lunch any longer then when to our fav tasy taco. wow is that ever good. after lunch we went to a few of our spots that we usually go when we are together: tjmaxx, tuesday morning, and the bookstore.

that evening gram and papa had a dinner so i went out with perry and jeri. they took me to on the border. it was great because i cannot remember the last time i was there. since we had to wait being that it was dinner hour we sat at the bar and got a few drinks. i ordered a virgin strawberry daquiri. i got my drink and after a few minites i asked jeri to try my drink...we the guy didn't hear my say i wanted a virgin and gave me a real one. i thought i was breathing different. dinner was amazing. i had the chicken flautas.

after our wonderful dinner we went to the movie the hangover for the second time for me and perry and third for jeri. it was a good thing that we went early because within 15 mns of getting there and getting a great seat there were people pouring into the theatre. filled the entire thing, all the way up to the first couple of rows. of course the movie was just as funny as the first but since randy wasn't there i could hear better this time. he never stopped laughing when we all went last week.

this weekend was busy and a great time!

Friends with the enemy

so today was outside with rory and we saw two guys and two dogs. the little blonde one started running towards us and the guys followed. come to find out the little dog was the dog that bit matt the day before.

i told matt later that rory was probably saying to that dog...*you bit my daddy, that is soo cool. lets be friends!*

haha matt loved it.

Matt Attack

so there is always *something* going on at our house. seriously.

i am on the phone the other day and i hear matt yelling about something as he is coming inside from taking reagan out for his walk. which is no different than any other time he takes out the dogs because he is either pulling the leash or whatever. but today,he is yelling because our neighbors shit-zue or whatever has bit his leg and is now bleeding. now matt does milk ever injury, bleeding or not, to the full extent. i am talking from a stubbed toe to a *dog bite* ,lets say, to where he will be unable to do anything for himself during a time period of his choice. i am not saying that a dog bit is not serious, yes, it stings....we all know i can go on and on.

so the point of the story is what the heck is the deal with some little p.o.s. dog coming up to matt who is standing next to big reagan who could probably eat that dog in one bite.

i asked matt what the owner said. which was a guy and he said sorry and then walked away. i am shocked. but if you think about the situation, how would the proper way to go about something like this happening be? i thought it would have been funny for matt to have said..."next time my dog sees your dog and bites off his ear we can just call it even". then laugh and walk away. because if that really happened or something like that the little dog did start a fight he cannot win and i am pretty sure that owner of the biter knows it.

update: but for your update matt's leg or calf is doing okay 24 hrs later and will be able to play softball Tuesday

stupid blog

i am trying my best with this stupid blog but it does not want to work with me and look cool. i try and post a photo and it goes where it wants on the post. I try to type some text and it does what it wants. all i want is to blog my blog. is that too much to ask? yes, is the answer. because my blog looks stupid. i need a someone to help me please because if you have seen my blog you know...it needs some help.

ps i just want to let you know that my last post has been lost, yes lost, for several days. my computer lost internet for a moment and my post went under saved drafts. but i could not find the saved drafts folder. and so then it becomes difficult to post your post when you cannot find it.

i am going to try and keep it simple for now until i get the blog assistance that i need.

: )

what happened

Today I noticed that Mr. Reagan has lost all the *long* hair on his left ear. When you look at him straight on he looks lop-sided. His right ear with all that long hair looks so much longer and larger. Hopefully it has not been too many days that this has gone unnoticed.

I thought I was being *punked*. I even called Josh to see if he was trying to be funny. He was impressed that I thought of him in that way (funny) but said he wouldn't have thought to shave someone's dogs ear as a prank before. So no he did not do this and laughed and laughed.

He struggles with ear infections and I think that is what the problem may be. We are going to see Dr. Mark Marks on Wednesday. He is the vet that we saw when we got baby Reagan and Dr. Marks just loved him and had said that he had never seen a dog of that bread before and wished we weren't moving so he could see him grow up. Well now that we are back he can see him *all grown up*. And boy did he grow. Now I hope he will be okay after his appointment and I pray we do not have to squirt any liquid down his ear for his treatment because we would need like six people to hold down this dog. He has had his share of ear problems and knows that is NOT something he likes.

June 1st already?

wow, time has been going by quickly the past couple of weeks since the move to lawrence. today acutally i got alot done even though i slept til noon. oops. well thanks to the sirens going off in town because it's the first day of the month...well it finally woke me.

then i realized that emily meyer had been trying to contact me to go to our pool, since she is in town for the week. so i went to the pool with her and her friend alex for about an hour. which was the second or third (not sure) time this week. and i feel like i cannot catch up to them with their tans. they are sooo dark. i feel like i am getting less tan around them since they are that much darker than i am. geez.

then matt brought me my favorite for lunch, tordas burrito!! yay! i love being so close to my favorite place to eat, makes it so easy to be able to eat whenever i think of it. : )

after that i got to work putting clothes away; folding, cleaning out and doing laundry. which was pretty much all i did till about six when josh called to see if i wanted to go shorts shopping with him.

we went to mass street since that is pretty much all lawrence has to offer for shopping. gap, american eagle, and and well thats pretty much it. we found josh some new shorts of course a the gap because lets face it amercian eagle is for jr high kids and hasn't changed since i was in jr high.

josh was feeling super nice and sneak-a-ly bought me a shirt without my approval! he picked it out when i wasn't looking and bought it. i told him that we were fighting because he doesn't need to be buying me things. but it was really thoughtful. he is the nicest guy i know.

(side-note) wow, it is starting to thunder outside. i am wondering if it will storm tomorrow like predicted. we have our next set of games tomorrow night and i kinda don't want to play because i have to play for our team and team 2. i mean, i know i am good at being the catcher and all but i need my rest.

and after shopping matt met josh and i back at his place for some bbq. its been like 3 or 4 times already this week and my stomach cannot take anymore meat. i just cannot do it. while there we had to watch the premiere of i'm a celebrity, get me outta here which was not very good but some of the people crack me up because they are so spoiled, like Spencer and Heidi Pratt.

well that was pretty much my day.

because after josh's we went home, matt read and then went to bed and i am up messing on the computer with this and photo stuff. and now its 2 a.m. how in the world does the time just go...

nighty nite liver lips