Monkey

Shadow may look like a cat, but she really is a monkey at heart. And this picture is evidence.

Unbelievable

So we're not supposed to believe in curses, right? Well, then this sure was one crazy coincidence! After my last post, all 3 of our teams lost this week!! I can't believe it...


But life goes on.


This past weekend, Bobby and I helped out at a Horse Show. It was pretty fun for a couple of people who really know nothing about horses. Fortunately my aunt knows a lot about horses and entered her beautiful Friesian into a couple of classes. He even won a blue ribbon! Here is a picture of the champ.

















We really did help and not just sit around all day.

We're All Smiles

Because all of our football teams are undefeated!


Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-0
















WVU is 4-0




















OU is 4-0
















The only one that's not undefeated is my alma mater, Grove City... but we had a great time at the game last night. Their first night game in school history! I forgot to take a picture, but here is one I found on their website. (it's not from last night, but it is of the football field)















P.S. In case you didn't notice, the pig is smiling in that WVU picture. :-)

Brad Paisley is so much cooler ... in person!

One of my highlights of the summer finally arrived this past Saturday night - I got to see Brad Paisley in concert! The weather was a little bit chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining; I’ve been to an outdoor concert before when it stormed – I mean STORMED – thunder, lightening, power went out at the amphitheatre, and we just stood out there. So this clear, chilly 45 degree night wasn’t too bad.

Here we are, eagerly waiting for the show to start.

There were a lot of WVU fans & students at the concert, including this one.

The first opening act was Taylor Swift who was born in Pennsylvania and she sang at least 6 or 7 songs, and Bobby and I got the surprise of the night… we had no idea she was so popular, and that there were 10,000 teenage girls surrounding us that knew all of her songs! Imagine our surprise when we’re just sitting there, on our blanket in the lawn, and the opening act comes out, no big deal, right? I mean, we know a couple of her songs from hearing them on the radio, but did we know that all these girls were going to jump up, start dancing, and sing everything word for word? Not a clue… it was pretty amusing.

Second act was Rodney Atkins. Now he does have a few songs that we really like, and he seems like a pretty cool dude, but we were so annoyed that we had to hear our least favorite current song,“Watching You.” Ugh! I can’t even stand to type that because then the song is running through my head! Yeah, yeah… I guess it is a good “message” but the lyrics are just so awful, cheesy, and just plain retarded, if you ask me. I mean, c’mon, it sounds like it was written for a preschool-age after-school show on Nickelodeon! Yet, we had to endure everyone around us singing:

“With a happy meal in his booster seat, knowing that he couldn't have the toy, till his nuggets were gone…I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you. And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.”

Ok… so now, the real deal, Brad Paisley!!! Unfortunately, I have one complaint, his opening acts played just a little bit too long I think. Like I said, Taylor sang nearly 7 songs, Rodney played even more than that. Brad did play a lot more than both, but it still was not nearly enough, in my opinion!

He started right out with his newest, and most awesome, single “Online”. If you haven’t seen this video, you have to go to YouTube and watch it. He is so funny! We got to hear all of his hits and he sounds so amazing live. And Bobby was most excited to see/hear all his guitar playing live. Since most acts you see, the lead singer may have a guitar, but is only playing a couple chords and the guitar player (a separate person) is doing all the playing, but not Brad… he ended nearly every song with a guitar solo. And while I might not fully appreciate it, I was still very impressed.

He didn’t talk a whole lot during the show, but when he did, he really got the crowd going. Not only because he’s Brad Paisley, but because this was his home turf – he even called this concert a “home game” for him, since he is from West Virginia (and went to WVU) and even though the amphitheatre is in PA, WV is just a couple miles away. So there were tons of WVU fans on hand… and they were not disappointed because he sang “Country Roads” during his acoustic set. It was awesome, I can't wait to see him again someday!

Can you see the graphics on the screen in this next picture? This is when he was singing "Ticks". Before you knock it, this is my ring tone on my cell phone!

Here I am, after the show... just a little bit cold.

Breathe in the fresh air... if you can.

Many of you know that my favorite season is upon us. We had a hot start to September which reminded me too well of the heat in St Louis, but alas, the humidity has disappeared and we had the most beautiful day here yesterday and today looks to be the same... sun & mild temps. I was able to take a walk outside yesterday (in jeans!) and help my aunt move horses from the barn to their pastures.

The only bad thing about this week has been that I've been pretty sick. Along with cooler temperatures, fall brings "back to school," and even though I stay here most of the time, secure in my safe little home in the country, Bobby is at school, surrounded by sick kids and sick coworkers. And yes, he had the nerve to bring home those germs and give them to me! Even though I'm a little jealous that he (the germ-giver) has no problem breathing & sleeping during the night and hasn't gone through 4 boxes of Kleenexes in 3 days, I am happy to take on the burden of the sickness for him since I have the luxury of catching up on sleep during the day and don't have to sit in class, or conduct freshmen workshops, or read 300 pages this week.

So hopefully he will stay healthy and I will recover. Especially because the Brad Paisley concert is this weekend!!! I have been looking forward to this for months, I can't wait! I hope this great weather continues, but I've been checking weatherchannel.com and it's going to be cold! High of 66 and low of 44 on Saturday. I guess I better start looking to see where we packed away the fall/winter clothes...

Name

We have finally decided on a name for the black kitty - Shadow. It suits her pretty well because she loves to hide in the shadows and jump out at us when we walk by and her coloring of black & gray kind of look like shadows on her back. And we thought it kind of had a good ring to it. I think she is already learning her name too. Bobby thinks she is empowered now that she has a name, which may explain why she has been acting excessively rambunctious this week.

Addiction

Living on a farm with avid animal-lovers does have it's consequences... we're addicted to adopting pets! We moved here with a rabbit and a turtle, then we added another turtle, and now we are the owners of two orphan kittens (both girls). My aunt & uncle found them on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, a couple weeks ago. They brought them home and I fell in love immediately. We weren't sure what we were going to do with them at first, but they did get sent to the vet for shots, immunizations, tests, boosters, etc for a few days. She estimated that they were 12 weeks old. Then they came home and I brought them over to our house to "test them out" and there has been no turning back. They are very sweet; they love people, play a lot, sleep a lot, eat a lot, and are perfect about using their litter box (from day one!) - a big must!

So here they are... of course we are struggling with names (yes, our little turtle still isn't named yet). The "grayer" kitten is named Paisley. But, the "blacker" one's name isn't definate yet, because frankly, we weren't positive that we were going to keep her, but seeing how much they love and play with each other, I don't know how we could separate them!

Looking down from the stairs into the kitchen. I can't tell which is which from this picture - their heads are almost identical - I think Paisley is on the left.

This is Paisley in the parlor/sewing/guitar room.

What is this little girl's name going to be? She looks sad that she is still called "the other one" or Paisley's sister.

Action shot of them "playing"

We're dancin'

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!So after the last post I made, I thought I needed a much more light-hearted one. So here it is... Bobby and I disco-ing. I stole this idea from my friend Stacey's blog. I laughed so hard that I cried when watching her video, and I knew I had to make one of my own. For some reason though, Bobby does not find it funny at all!?

Happy Day / Sad Day

Today is a day of mixed emotions. First, the happy reason... today is the anniversary of my parent's wedding 36 years ago. I have been so blessed and fortunate to be raised in such a happy and loving home, and I'm so thankful that God has done such an amazing work in their marriage.

Now the sad part... today would have been the estimated due date of the baby we lost back in January. I knew that when this day came, I would be sad, but I truly was hoping that we would have another one on the way to help ease the pain. Well, that is not the case, unfortunately. It's been a tough year and a half of trying, but many good things have happened in this time also. We've made new friends, celebrated Bobby's graduation, moved to this awesome house, reconnected with loved ones here, went on a wonderful vacation to the beach, and much more! So we have a lot to be thankful for, including all of our friends who have been praying for us. We're so excited to see what God has planned for us this year... new school, new jobs, new church, new friends, new pets, and hopefully that little answer to our (big) prayers.

So once again, happy anniversary mom & dad! (I couldn't find a picture from their wedding that I have, so I'll post this one taken a couple years ago, at Jodi's wedding.)

TK concert

Bobby, my parents, and I all went to the Toby Keith concert this past Saturday night at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pavillion. He was awesome - sounds amazing live! We had so much fun. The opening acts were Flynnville Train (never heard of them, but they were good) and Miranda Lambert, she was great, but - OUCH! - her lyrics are scary! Here is one verse from her new album,

I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun

Wait by the door and light a cigarette
If he wants a fight well now he's got one
And he ain't seen me crazy yet

He slap my face and he shook me like a rag doll
Don't that sound like a real man

I'm going to show him what a little girls made of

Gunpowder and lead

His fist is big but my gun's bigger

He'll find out when I pull the trigger

Here is Miranda onstage.

A couple of Toby rockin' out the stage.

And the patrons...

My mom and I post-concert.