Girl Time/Brantley Gilbert

Yesterday my cousin Jillian and I went to the Houston Rodeo.  We had such a great time hanging out and just catching up on life.  We talked so much that my throat was a little sore when I got home!  She really holds a special place in my heart.  We have been close our whole lives.  Yes, we're cousins and most people don't understand how cousins can be as close as we are... But, most people don't have my family.  The first cousins on my mom's side are really close, and we've always been that way.  We're extended family, but it's like we're immediate family.  Anyway, I love her dearly and am so glad we spent some time together. 

I met Jillian at her apartment, she gave me the grand tour of her place, and then we headed out to Houston.  We used a park and ride shuttle service which was really easy and totally worth it.  When we got to the rodeo, I took Jillian to the boutiques and the cattle showing.  We had baked potatoes with chopped beef for lunch/dinner.  It was delicious!  We watched the entire rodeo from start to finish... Well, kinda... We probably did more talking than watching.  Our friend Cara was also there, so she met up with us to say hi for a little bit.  I hadn't seen her in forever!  It was so good to catch up despite the shortness of it.  Brantley Gilbert was good, especially if you like the rock/country genre.  I loved his version of Dirt Road Anthem, and his cover of Dust on the Bottle.  Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our girl time, margaritas, the rodeo, and Brantley!!!

We could totally be sisters...

Cara, Jillian, and I

It had been way too long!

Love her!

Brantley Gilbert

He stripped down to his black wife beater...

His mic was really cool!

Zac Brown Band

Since we've been dating, Andy and I have been to the Houston Rodeo every year.  We've seen Clint Black, Brooks & Dunn, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, The Band Perry, and last night we added the Zac Brown Band to our list.

The rodeo is one of my favorite spring time events!  I love everything about it!  We usually go early and walk through the shops.  It surprises me how many people don't know about the little boutiques they have set up.  Andy is a really good sport and follows me around as I do my browsing (even though he secretly enjoys them too!).  Either way, get him a cold beer and he's good!

We enjoy the entire rodeo too!  We don't go just for the concert.  I could never watch a rodeo on TV (except for the movie 8 Seconds, but that's totally different) because it would be too boring for me.  But, I can watch it live.  Andy's favorite is the steer wrestling, and mine is the bull riding.  Even though, I really like watching the Muttin' Bustin' with the little kids.  They crack me up every time. 

Here are some pictures from our fun evening!

At the house before we left

Houston Rodeo!

Andy getting his boots shined.

Andy's mom and I ready for a little shopping.

 

Grand entry

Ready for the rodeo to start.

Andy's parents

Zac Brown

Great singer and musician

Loved their concert!

Outside the Zac Brown "Eat and Greet" bus

Mud Bugs

Before I lived in Tarkington, I had never in my life eaten a mud bug, aka crawfish.  I thought to myself "how on earth could I eat something with it's eyeballs still looking at me."  After Andy took me to my first crawfish boil a couple of years ago, the eyeballs don't bother me quite so much anymore.

Recently, our local Mexican food restaurant started serving crawfish.  So on Wednesday Andy and I decided it was time to eat some!  They were delicious!

Jury Duty

Last week I received a letter in the mail that said I had been summoned for jury duty.  Now, mind you, this is like the third time in four years.  The first time it was cancelled, and the second time I had a connection and someone got it postponed/excused for me.  This time I had no way out...  I called Friday after 5:00 and sure enough it hadn't been cancelled.

I'm not going to go through the entire process, so I'll hit on some highlights or some things I found interesting.  The District Clerk said that they had summoned 300 people, and the final count was about 70 people.  Then she also said that they were picking only one jury today.  Really?  I didn't know they could pick more than one!  I was juror number 98 but ended up sitting in spot 25 because so few people showed up.  Thankfully, the attorneys wanted to do a jury shuffle so I ended up as juror number thirty-four.

The whole process wasn't horrible, but I did get really tired of just sitting there by noon.  I was ready for a recess longer than 10 minutes, and I was hungry for some lunch.  Thankfully we finished around 1:15pm.  I did not get selected (barely), and I don't know if I could have sat there any longer without any food.  Juror number 32 ended up being the alternate.  So, I was two away from being selected - whew!  I think I would like to actually sit on the jury at some point in my life, but today was not the day.  My students need me more than the court system does right now.

The way people dressed surprised me, but at the same time didn't.  You had a few people like me who dressed professionally, you had the hard-working middle class men who dressed in their boots and starched jeans, and then you had the people who looked like they just walked off the street and ended up in the court room.  Personalities were interesting too.  You had the obnoxious young kid who complained about everything at every chance he got, and you had the redneck woman who could have been mistaken for a man and she seemed to know everyone in the courtroom.

Overall, good experience.  The whole process was very interesting.  My butt got really sore from sitting so long.  Definitely worth getting out of work for.  Andy would have been absolutely miserable because he couldn't sit still for that long.  He gets way too antsy too quickly. 

Weekend Shenanigans

Sunday seems to be the only time I have to blog about our life.  Maybe one day I will be able to actually blog daily.  Even though I never have anything interesting from the week. 

Saturday - Andy and I hung out around the house.  I went to the grocery store, as usual.  I finally cleaned the house too.  Our house gets neglected during the winter because we are rarely home due to basketball, and when I am home, the last thing I want to do is clean it.  But, I finally got it done!  Not as deep of a clean as I would like, but clean enough nevertheless.   I didn't have a chance during the week to wash any laundry so that left me with four loads on Saturday.  Ugh!  I think laundry (specifically putting up the clean laundry) and vacuuming the couch are my least favorite "chores."

Andy cleaned up all of his kayaking gear from Friday, got his truck washed, filleted his flounder, and cooked our stuffed flounder for dinner.  We also rented the movie "Here Comes the Boom" with Kevin James.  Cute, funny movie.  I always like Kevin James' movies because they're usually clean and enjoyable.  Overall, great Saturday!

Sunday, Andy went to play golf with his dad.  His mom and I had lunch at The Ranch Hand Cafe.  I sat outside in the beautiful weather (yet again!) and played with Maddie Mae.  Then Andy's dad wanted to go to Wing Street for a cheese pizza.  He is on a vegan diet right now because it's supposed to help with his cancer.  Well, cheese is not allowed as part of his diet since it comes from an animal.  They discovered recently that a little cheese won't hurt him, so he wanted to give in today and be "bad."  So, cheese pizza from Wing Street it was.

Once again, Sundays are always bittersweet.  We love our time together but dread going back to work.  Maybe one day we'll enjoy Mondays a little more.

Random pics from the weekend...

Our dog really is beautiful! :)

Lonestar loves the nice weather
because I'll open the windows for him.

Lucky lizard!

Andy finally put his A&M auto emblem on! 
WHOOP!
And yes, those are my white crocs.  LOL

Stuffed Flounder

Andy took a "mental health day" from work on Friday and went fishing.  It was a much needed break after a long cross country season and even longer basketball season.  He had been talking about going fishing for quite some time, and the weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect on Friday.  On Thursday night he told me that he wasn't going to keep any reds or trout if he caught them because we have quite a bit of red snapper from family friend.  But... if he caught a flounder, he was keeping it, no questions asked.  He has been wanting to make stuffed flounder ever since he started kayak fishing. 

Well, God heard him and answered him....  On Andy's first cast of the day, he caught an 18" flounder!!!  Total for the day was 5 flounder, but he kept only two.  Overall, I would say that was a pretty successful trip.

On Saturday, Andy filleted the flounder and stuffed it with crab meat for dinner.  There's nothing like fresh fish straight from the ocean cooked within 24 hours of it being alive.

Right out of the ocean and in the kayak

He was very excited!

Stuffed with crab meat and Andy's special seasonings

Salad, pan roasted zucchini, and stuffed flounder!

Quality Time

As our lives have become busier over the years of our marriage, I think Andy and I really enjoy every minute of quality time that we can spend together.  It helps that we are in a funk with our jobs, so every moment outside of work is incredible.  It really hit me this past weekend though that Andy really isn't just my husband but my best friend.  I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be in a marriage, but that's how ours is.  Whatever it is, I must admit that I truly love spending time with my husband.

We really don't do anything special.  We typically go out shopping to our usual places... For me, it's Hobby Lobby/Michael's, Old Navy, Target, the mall (sometimes) and for Andy, it's Academy... and pretty much just Academy.  Then we usually eat dinner somewhere typically sitting in the bar so we can watch the latest basketball or football game.

This past Saturday Andy played golf with his dad while I went to the grocery store, washed laundry, made treats for Maddie, and got the house ready for the week.  Then we went to shoot our guns, let Maddie run around to burn some energy, Andy grilled ribeyes for dinner, and we rented the movie Flight from the Redbox.  Great Saturday!! Sunday we did our "typical" shopping and dinner.  Just simple quality time together.  Good weekends like this make it hard to go back to work on Monday.

Last summer I started making homemade treats for Maddie.

She really loves playing outside and jumping in the pond.

My target - shots from 3, 7, and 15 yards.
Not too bad...