Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Everybody collects something or has a hobby. Or at least I hope so. I couldn't imagine not wanting something all the time or figuring out my next purchase. Ever since we moved in this house, I have been slowly finding stuff for my Blackyard here and there. I can't afford to get it all at once, nor can I find it all at once. I have made a list so I don't forget. I finally scratched the pot belly pig and Shetland Pony off that list.  Apparently, I was the only one who thought that would be a good idea. I have a rustic/cowboy/ranch theme going on.  Sadly, I enjoy decorating my Blackyard more than the inside of my house. I have a great time finding all these good finds. It's like a never ending mission for me. I feel accomplished each time I can scratch something off 'Momma's Want List.'

I will never forget the time My Lover and I were driving and I yelled, "STOP!" I wanted to stop at this junkyard. I found this rusty wheel barrow with one handle, I wanted! I dumped all the crap out of it and it started taking it to the truck.  Jerry walked away and said, "I don't even know you!" It was great. I found my wire spool that I use for a table there too. I love junkyards, they're the best! I love antique malls too, but he doesn't mind going into those at all.


Today, I finally found my vintage square galvanized wash tub with a stand and it has a ringer! This is the real deal, not the crap knock offs they make today to replicate the old ones. Legit! Jerry's grandfather has one and I hint to him everytime I'm over there that I sure would love to have it.  Haha Papaw, I got one now!

And I got a milk can that I am going to sand down and paint John Deere green on a hot summer night.

That whiskey barrel was a great find too! I found it behind a farmer's market and asked if I could have it. She sold it to me for $20 bucks. My rusty wheel barrow was Jerry's grandfather.  

I found this mirror for Bailey's vanity. I recovered that chair her Mama gave her too.

You just gotta keep your eyes open! Open yow eyes Shelby, open open yow eyes!

CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH SHUT BRO!!!

Bailey had a T ball game Saturday morning, 'team' ball as she calls it. Grammy took the rug rat home with her after the game. That was que for Jerry and I to have a little date night. We went to Pappadeux and enjoyed some shrimp, lobster and king crab legs. We never eat sea food, so we splurged. We went down to the Stockyards and walked around, then finished the night with a movie.


You know what else we never do? GO TO THE MOVIES! It gets expensive, it's loud, I don't like people sitting that close to me, it's hard for me to sit still through an entire movie, I get annoyed at people that talk, I get aggrivated with kids that are too young to be out without any parental guidance, but I especially get annoyed with guys sitting next to me that CHEW THEIR POPCORN WITH THEIR MOUTH OPEN! Did his mother not teach him to chew with his mouth shut? My four year old chews food with her mouth closed, nor does she talk with food in her mouth. Can he not hear himself smacking? Is there really anything worst than smacking of food in one's mouth?


THEN,  his girlfriend sitting next to him laughed unbelievably loud, awful awful laugh, at parts that were not even remotely funny. (ex: She started laughing because the monkey was wearing a Rolling Stones jean jacket in the movie The Hangover II) See, it was ridiculous! Did she just want people to hear her? Is that her way of getting attention? Then she was on her phone the entire movie! I could see her lit up screen in my peripheral the entire time. I tried to move, but the theater was already packed. 


I'll stick to taking Bailey to movies and watching my movies on Netflix.

Good Good Weekend!

What a good weekend. This is a weirdo weekend for us. Friday night, we ate at home and watched Sherlock Holmes and Gran Torino. Both excellent movies and highly recommend. Saturday we slept in. Bailey turned on her own TV and left us alone. We slept until 8:30ish! That is very odd in this house. It's usually, "Momma can you put this dress on my barbie" in a very whiny voice. We got up on our own will and My Lover made breakfast, biscuits and gravy, sausage gravy that is! I made coffee, sipped on it in my recliner and fell back asleep until 10! Again, Bailey left me completely alone. Usually she can't stand it if my eyes are closed. I finally got up, got ready, and we went to Bailey's double header T Ball game. (Team Ball as Bailey calls it.) It was hilarious, everytime a kid would hit all the kids would run after the ball and tackle each other to get the ball. Totally defeats the point of baseball, but it was cute to see her hit the dirt. We finished the night with some CiCi's because Bailey did so well and because it's cheap. We watched the Maverick's game and chilled again.


Sunday, we slept in again! We ate breakfast and layed around until it was time to get ready for the annual 'Falcon Fest'.  This is a little get together for all our 8th grade athletes. The coaches won this year and crushed the hearts of many 8th graders. Sorry, that's what we do.  We want to win those t shirts! We then rushed over to our friends that were having a diaper shower for their upcoming third kid next month. It was great! We played washers, drank some beer, had a shrimp boil, and Bailey played with all the other kids.


This was just the most chill relaxing weekend we have had in a very long time. We usually are on a mission to complete something every weekend.

That Just Happened

What are the odds a F0 tornado would hit my backyard? Apparently pretty good, because Wednesday, May 11th around 2:35ish, one did! The funny thing is that our neighbor called our alarm company, because we have a little sign in front of our house, and they gave her Jerry's number. Jerry almost didn't take the call, because he didn't recognize it. He called me and I quickly called Bailey's school to see if she was okay. When I drove up to my house and looked around, I immediately got sick to my stomach. We spend so much time in our backyard and have been working so hard to get Jerry's shop built. We were at the point of putting a roof on it.  He has spent countless hours on it, but I personally mixed all the cement the posts are in. On a freezing cold day, I helped him put up the walls. I mean I did get to use the nailer, which was fun, but not when your nose is dripping. Last weekend, we put up 11 trusses on a windy day and I'm scared of heights. So when we saw the pile of wood, we were just heart-broken, BUT it's just wood and we can rebuild it. The quicker we rebuild it, the quicker we tear down our other shed and my outdoor kitchen will go there!

I think this twister was a blessing in disguise. Yeah, my yard looks likes a gypsy camp currently, but it will look good again.  We needed to redo all our fence anyway. Our gates needed some attention. The builders used wooden posts, because they are cheap instead of doing it right with metal ones, so this way we can build it back the way it should have been built in the beginning. 


Bailey needed a new swing set.


Who doesn't like a new roof? 


Camper needed some minor repairs, now they can fix those along with these new repairs.

And with all the old wood from the fence I want to make faux windows and plantar boxes and sell them!

 Our gate flew into the side of the camper.

 It completely pulled the plug out.

 My poor surf board table. I found it on the complete other side of the pool.

 It blew the vent off the top off the camper and now our mattress is SOAKED!

 We found Bailey's slide a street over.

 We found part of this fence two streets over.

Even the posts that were metal were bent.

  I'm just thankful that Bailey was okay at her school, it didn't hit our house or my deck I love love love.

God is Good.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today, Jerry surprised me with a really cool Mother's Day gift. He got me a Scentsy candle with three different scents, one including my favorite scent Clean Breeze. I love things that smell clean. Maybe it's my OCD getting the best of me again. Yeah, I know it's probably lame to you, but this is a really good gift for Jerry. One year I got a gallon of sweet tea and for my birthday I got a plastic tiara and poinsettia (in front of my friend and I was so embarrassed). I'm not kidding people. Next to the volleyball he got me three years ago, this is the best Mother's Day gift Jerry has given me.

Today is Mother's Day. That's a tough one for me. My biological mother left me when I was 7 and my sister was 12.  I rarely saw her after that. When I did see her, she was getting drunk or high with her boyfriend and leaving me places you shouldn't even take children. My Dad remarried and unfortunately the step mother and I never saw eye-to-eye......ever.


Don't even feel bad. Don't. Don't you do it!!


Luckily, I married a great man. His name is Jerry Wayne. You may know him by "Lover".  He has the best mother on this earth.  You don't even know. He totally doesn't understand how lucky he was to grow up with such a loving and caring mother. I'm not kidding people. If Jerry said, I want a bubble-gum snow cone, she would be in the car finding the closest snow cone stand. If she couldn't find one she would find a way to make it at home. It drives me crazy how she is always trying to please people. She's so positive about everything  in life too. Gosh! I wish I could be that positive. She loved her boys unconditionally too. Even the nights Jerry came home 'Cooder Browne' drunk and passed out in her bedroom, she still loved him the next day. He wasn't kicked out of the house. He was never treated any differently.     Unconditional love.


Whenever I need someone to talk to, I can count on her. When I need someone to watch Bailey, I can ALWAYS count on her. She still loves me when I do bone-head things too. We won't even get into that though.


Today's Mother's Day definitely goes to my Mother-In-Law, Pamala Black. Is there a Mother Of The Year? If there is, she deserves its.  She has been there for me, us, Bailey countless times and I am so thankful that I married into this family. I've learned so much about unconditional love.  I love my mother-in-law and don't know what I'd do without her. I get a kick out of listening to women that hate their Mother-In-Law. It's hilarious!


Oh, and Bailey LOVES her Grammy so much too. I think she loves Grammy more than me sometimes. Well, you know I have to be the bad guy and say no.  She cries for a solid hour after leaving Grammy.
                     Happy Mother's Day Pam! I love you!
       

Broke Back Brandi Black

While Bailey is taking a bath and listening to the Disney channel on Pandora, I sit here with my heat pack on my lower back and counting down the minutes until I can take my muscle relaxer. I don't want to take it until Bailey goes to sleep AND I've never taken one before.  I hurt my back last Friday playing volleyball. Playing volleyball. Something I've been doing since I was underhand serving at 7 years old. All I did was pass the ball, some of you know it as "bump" the ball. As soon as I passed it, I just felt amazing pain in my lower back after the ball hit on my hands. For those of you who don't know volleyball, you don't pass on the top of your thumbs. It's ideal to use your forearms, anything else is a shank waiting to happen. I immediately walked off the court and rolled around on the ground in agony. I left school and laid on a heating pad for the rest of the night.  It hasn't got any better as of today, so I went to the doctor after bawling all day yesterday. The doctor started moving my legs and I started crying again. That sums up my pain level. Level 10 Doc. Write it down. They took X rays and she said my spine looks good, I'm just having severe muscle spasms. The only way she could detect a bulging disc is through an MRI and she's going to wait until I do some physical therapy. I don't believe in physical therapy. I got two shots in my hips and one of those was a steroid shot. Holy jeez, whoever invented that can die. Not only does it hurt like hell, it has made me nauseous all day.  I started bawling after that too. I am a hot mess right now.  I'm just praying that God makes this better, because I can't handle it. I look like an 80 year old woman when I walk, I can't even pick up my daughter, LJT is this weekend, and I'm suppose to play in a volleyball tournament next week.

The moral of this story is that I would not wish back pain on my worst enemy. There's not a whole lot of people I dislike, okay a few, but I wouldn't even wish this on them.

Team Black!

Let's play catch up!
Jerry threw me an awesome "30th" Birthday Party for my 30.25 birthday. It was exactly what I wanted on December 3rd, my actual birthday, but he made up for it on April 2nd. In fact, April 2nd is my new birthday. I'm no longer a Sagittarius. I had so much fun with my friends. The live band was amazing and I wish I could have that every Saturday night in my Blackyard. Thank you Josh and Michelle for all your work, and Kelli and Jeremy for driving from Oklahoma!

                     
                                  I'm singing my Wagon Wheel song.
                    
                                     Copperhead Road Dance
                    
                                                 My Beautiful Cake!

Last weekend, Jerry worked hard on his 'manshed' as I call it. He built 9 trusses. What's a truss? A truss is a structure made up of one or more triangular units. He is using these trusses to make his roof. I am NOT looking forward to helping him put them up there since I am deathly aftraid of heights. While he was working on that, I was on pool duty. I drained the nasty green water, cleaned it with the big brush we have for our camper, and filled it. Bailey had a blast playing in it while it was filling up. I remember doing that as a kid. I remember my Dad putting in a new liner every other year and it was so much fun to play in the pool while it was filling up. I tried to get in there and play with Bailey before chemicals got in there, heck no! That water was too cold for me. 

This weekend was great. I had been wanting to take some frivolous family photos of various places near my house. I'm really digging photography right now. My dear mother-n-law came over and just snapped away at at everything I asked her to. We took pictures on a train track and all of those pictures turned out very well. I was quite pleased. Then lucky for us the farm next to that train track let us go in, take pictures and pet all their horses. Oh yeah we got to pet two bulls that came when she called their name. They were like dogs. Dogs that wanted a treat that is. We finished up there with a lot of good photos and headed for lunch. So we went to good ol' Freds. Love that place. We finished up by going through the stockyards.  I would love to start a little side job taking photos with Grammy. We could totally do it!

                         
                       
                         

                        

                        

                         

                        

                        

WARRIOR DASH PEOPLE!!!-
Grammy took the rug rat home and Jerry and I did the Warrior Dash today. The Warrior Dash is a 5K (3.24 hellish miles) with obstacles through out it. It was really fun. I think my Cowtown Marathon took every bit of energy I had out of me. I haven't worked out since then. I thought I would just 'wing' this 5k. Well, I could quickly tell my endurance level was not as high as I would like it to be. It was fun, but challenging. I'm so proud that Jerry has lost 90 pounds just exercising and eating better. Oh yeah, he stopped smoking too. He hasn't had a cigarette since the first week of October! 6 and half months! Back to his weight loss. Yeah, he still drinks plenty of beer and throws in a bad meal here and there, but he has done it the right way for once in his life. Without sounding so lame, he really made a 'life style' change. He has more energy than ever. He gets up at 4:00am to go run Monday through Friday, thank God for ear plugs.  He is up to 5 miles now. He gets excited when I give him a new route to run. He eats protein bars, fruit, vegetables, and actually takes the vitamins I lay out for him. He even bought some good Asics running shoes on his own. I'm so proud of Jerry, he did so well! He finished a few minutes behind me. In fact, when I was finished, I walked over to get our bag, walked back, and started cutting the tape off my ankles and he walks up and yells, "where have you been?!" I was shocked he was already finished. My bad Lover. He felt so accomplished today after doing the Warrior Dash that he made the lady put his medal around his neck. She tried to just hand it to him and he wasn't gonna have that. He got up closer to her and leaned his head down. She placed it around it neck and he got his picture taken. That made me laugh! I just grabbed mine from her hand and wanted all that mud off me! I'm glad he had the Warrior Dash to motivate him these past few months. I told him about the 15 mile El Scorcho race this summer. He said, 'El No' or was it hell no? I can't  remember.


                      

Our results...
I got 14 out of 571 in my age division/792 out of 6801 overall, 32 flat with 10:19m Jerry got 137 out of 475 in his age division/1439 out of 6801 overall, 34:52 with 11:15m!!!!