Last Saturday the Missouri Governor’s Mounted Guard were back at it and mounted on their trusty steads. Don’t ask me why it is so much fun to say “Trusty Steads.” I think it stems from Shrek when Princess Fiona calls Donkey Shrek’s Trusty Stead until she realizes that Shrek is an Ogre and then Donkey is just a donkey.
Anyway the Guard were helping park cars at a local Bluegrass festival. The day before I really wanted to bake something, so I decided to make Cinnamon Rolls for them since they had to be there early in the morning. Abug helped me make cinnamon rolls until it was her nap time, then she and the cat curled up on my bed and snoozed until I was done with the last pan of cinnamon rolls.
Abug and I were going to head out to the festival and see what the Guard was up to as well as take pictures but we didn’t make it out there. Instead we went to see my grandma for a bit. Later in the afternoon hubby had Karen send me a message and say that they were going to lunch/dinner and did we want to meet them. We decided that sounded like fun. And asked where.
They finally told us a place called JT’s Burgers & Wings in Webb City. I’ve seen this place on my way to school more than once and thought it sounded interesting. So we loaded up the car and headed their direction.
Friday night a friend of ours was going to sing the National Anthem at the Joplin Outlaws baseball game so we loaded up and headed over to support her and watch a baseball game.
We got there a bit early while they were still warming up. There was a foul ball that came our direction. Our friend De picked it up and tried to give it to CL but he didn’t want it so I said to try giving it to Abug… she wouldn’t play with it either. Weird kids… lol :).
Finally baby squirrel claimed the ball and played with it for a bit.
Normally on the first day of the month I post that I’ve still been plugging away at my project 365. And just so we’re clear I have been! But today warranted a different post… like what I was up to yesterday!
What was I up to yesterday you ask? Well writing a paper that was due at 9am this morning. No that’s not blog worthy! What is… the fact that I got my paper done. Oh wait, no!!!
What’s blog worthy is the fact that I was invited and got to attend the Chiefs Draft Party! Score!!
Danielle and I drove up together to meet the rest of our crew. She had to leave after work and I had a paper to write. That came first!! So when we got there we parked in BFE. People thought we were joking but when we got there there was a Royals game last night and we wound up in Royals parking because they ran out of room in the Draft parking. Yup, we were in BFE :).
As we were walking in we got to stop and meet Suzie and WarPaint. I got Abug a signed photo and of course got my picture with them. Although I joked that I couldn’t be in a picture with her because she was prettier than I am.. lol.
Then we took off walking to the Training Complex. We even got to walk down on the practice fields. One is grass, the other is bouncy turf stuff. I felt like I could run across there and do a cartwheel because it was so bouncy. Don’t worry I didn’t try.
So Dan and Grady are Red Coaters. Dan told Danielle to let him know when we got there. I went to give them my ticket to go in and it wouldn’t scan. I just about had a heart attack, then another Red Coater came up and said I wasn’t allowed in unless I had $75 to buy a ticket. I about croaked. Well we wound up with 3 tickets because one of our group wasn’t able to come so Danielle went to give me the other ticket and they scanned hers. Hers scanned. The Red Coater lady started laughing, Dan came out of the shadows and laughed and they let me through. I was about in tears, partially because I’ve never been here and I was nervous and then my ticket didn’t scan and we drove 2 1/2 hours and and and and.
So at the Draft Party there’s all the food you want all the time. When we got there it was 6ish pm and I was hungry so it worked out!
This picture in multiple forms wound up on facebook. Nice huh?
So halfway through eating Dan and Grady point out one of the Red Coaters and said I needed to meet him so Dan and I went and tracked him down. He was one of the original secret service for President John F. Kennedy. They told me every story you hear from him is different, I heard about him and Sean Connery. Sean Connery was filming one of the James Bond movies and Ray told him that he was the original James Bond. Okay, seriously how cool is that?!?! This is Ray Zachobich (please don’t quote me on this spelling:)) And the flag on his lapel is what they wear at the White House. I’d sure like to hear more about that!
So Tbug is on a competitive cheer team. The KC Cheerleaders had a poster of all of them that they were signing so I got a copy and went around and got signatures for Tbug. They were all sooooooo nice. Asking if this was my first Draft party which it was and commenting on my belt/buckle. And then telling me I needed to eat to keep my energy up and strength. ha!
Dan and I walked a complete circle around the complex getting different cheerleader autographs for Tbug and we ran into Will Shields. He played 14 seasons for the KC Chiefs. In 2012 he was inducted into the KC Chiefs Hall of Fame and in 2015 it was announced that he was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame.
So then while we were walking around, Dan knows all the Red Coaters and get this… So the Arizona Cardinals recently re-did their practice locker rooms and they were going to throw out all the old lockers but one locker is kept in honor of former player Pat Tillman. Tillman played for the Cardinals in 98-01 before he enlisted in the US Army following the 9/11 attacks. He served in Afghanistan and 3 years after enlisting he was killed in the line of duty. So the Cardinals are keeping his locker in honor of him and his service. How awesome is that?
So then…. I was going to wear my jersey but instead decided to wear hubby’s shirt I got him for Christmas. There was the possibility that we might go to the Royals game afterwards (we didn’t) so I had on a blue tank top under the Chiefs shirt. One of our group, Drake was in line to get his jersey signed so I took my shirt off and threw it at him and asked him to have it signed.
Dan thought it would be funny to put on facebook that he and I were on a mission to find cookies for Danielle and me (we were), we didn’t find any (we hadn’t yet) so when I took off my shirt we found some (oddly enough just after I took my shirt off I found cookies. but remember I had a tank top on under the shirt!)
Hehe 🙂
My coke got taken away while I was off gallivanting so I came back and got another one. I got one that said share with a superstar. Heck yeah I’m a superstar!
Then Grady asked if I got my picture with the Super Bowl trophy. Well no…. where’s that. Ha they had a huge sign and I didn’t even pay attention so off I went again :).
And while we were waiting…
And our first round draft pick, Marcus Peters from Washington. And then it was all over and we packed up and headed home. At 11:55pm when I got home I submitted my paper that was due at 9am this morning :).
Last night while I was on break during my night class I got on facebook (big time drainer) but it was meant to be. A friend of mine who never posts, a girl I became friends with in college, had a post that really hit me. She said that if she hadn’t called you, she wanted you to know that she had lost her best friend, her husband last Thursday. I’m pretty sure my heart skipped a beat. In fact typing this is giving me those cold ice running through your veins goosebumps. I want to cry for her.
I don’t know any of the details but the details don’t matter. They don’t matter just like the trivial things in life really don’t matter. Some days we get caught up in I don’t have this or I can’t do that or yada yada yada but when it is all said and done, the most important thing is family followed closely by friends.
So the words that I can pass on is hug your close ones tighter and longer, put down the phone and spend time with family and friends, be there in the moment because you truly never know when that last moment will be. And don’t worry, I have to tell myself to put the phone and computer down more often than not, sadly!
It seems like in this day in age everyone has their phone up checking this social media outlet or that, texting and just being in the know about everything. What was life like before phones? I somewhat remember that because I was old enough to know. iPhones didn’t come out until the late 2000’s which I was already out of college by then, so life is different for our kids than it was even for me.
If you are the praying type, please pray for my friend and her little boy as well as their whole family. And just go and hug your family a little tighter and a little longer.
Are other parts of the country having the crazy weather we’re having here in Southwest Missouri? Saturday it was 40 and sleeting, last night it was snowing and today it’s 26 degrees and sunny. I also heard that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which means 6 more weeks of winter. Bring it on I guess because truthfully it’d be here anyway :).
So anyway Saturday there was a party! We had food galore! and let’s be honest, isn’t that the best part of any party?
Oh goodness just looking at all that food is making my stomach growl! I think I’m a little bit hungry anyway.
Anyway, what was the point of said party you might be asking? Well the local diving shop where we dive was celebrating becoming a ScubaPro Platinum Dealer! How exciting is that? If you aren’t up in the Scuba diving world, that means that out of the 450 dealers in the country, there are only 50 who are certified platinum. This is a program that was on created about 5 years ago as a reward system. AND once all 50 spots are filled, you have to wait for a dealer to drop out of the 50th spot to be able to even come close to achieving that level or else you just are a dealer. It’s pretty prestigious needless to say and Extreme Sports Scuba did it! Woot Woot!
I have to say one of my absolute favorite questions I get when people find out that I am a certified scuba diver is… but you live here in the middle of the US. You’re land locked, where do you dive? My answer, currently at the local lakes and over in Illinois at Mermet Springs. My goal is to hopefully some day be able to travel to the ocean and dive there to!
Sometimes there are people who come into your life that have a very deep impact. One of those people would be Tim. He and hubby (along with Tim’s brother, Greg) have been friends for what seems like forever, long before I dated hubby anyway. And the one true test of friendship is the fact that you may not be able to see each other for a while, and you’re still friends and pick up where you left off from the last time you talked.
Back in October we saw Tim for the first time since our wedding when he and Greg showed up to the wedding as a surprise. (We were pretty sure Tim was coming but Greg was a different story, he flew halfway around the world to be at our wedding which was a surprise for hubby.) Anyway a few days before Christmas Tim and hubby made plans that they wanted to see each other so Tim’s family drove here from Kentucky to spend a few days with our family and his. (His dad’s family lives about an hour from us.) And I can tell you that they geeked out All. Weekend. Long.
Let’s see we had lots of food. Breakfast Potato casserole, Biscuits and Gravy, Ham and Scalloped Potatoes, Poulet Tchoupitoulas and Andouille Pudding, um… and that’s just what I can remember, plus we took them to eat dinner one night at one of our new favorite Mexican restaurants in town.
I want to say Santa’s Little Helpers but truthfully you have to have a big heart to be this generous at Christmas time so that definitely makes everyone Santa’s Big Helpers! There are a bunch of people still out of work even though the television says that unemployment rates are down. That means there are a lot of little kids who wouldn’t have a Christmas if it weren’t for the help of volunteers who spend a lot of time gathering money and presents, shopping with that money, wrapping all the presents and delivering those presents to all the good little boys and girls.
Yes, the true reason for the season is Jesus but presents for Jesus’ birth make Christmas what it is. So the last couple weeks a bunch of people from the local fire departments, EMT and Search and Rescue have spent time collecting and wrapping presents so all the little boys and girls will have a very Merry Christmas.
None of us need the acknowledgement but the gratitude of the happy little kids makes it all worth while! I started out wrapping presents, then tying ribbons on, but ended up with a camera in my hand and was told to take pictures. I guess that’s what I do best. 🙂
btw, I’m a broken record but have you linked up for the Review Extravaganza?!?!
So we have two friends, (technically 3, we claim one as our group now!! Nancy went through classes with Grady) who are Red Coaters for the Kansas City Chiefs. At Sunday’s game the Red Coaters had a tailgating party that was catered in for Red Coaters and their families. Since we are claimed as family too, we got to go!
Sunday we met up with everyone and headed to Kansas City. When we left home the temp was 68˚ and when we got to KC the temp was 29˚. I kept questioning our sanity, lol.
Tailgating was to start around 4pm but we were there a bit early. We went ahead and walked over to the tent and checked in and chatted for a while with all the other Red Coaters and their families. Eventually it was time to eat. You don’t have to tell us twice :). I quickly snapped pictures of food as I was going through the line so I didn’t hold people up. A few looked at me like I was crazy but all my people know that’s just me… lol.
Now we played Denver. As I was sitting at the table I noticed there was a lady who was wearing an orange Pea Coat and a blue sweatshirt. I asked hubby if they were Denver fans. He suggested that it might just be ironic, especially since we were in the Red Coater tent…
Later before we ate, one of the Red Coaters introduced our honorary guests who were in fact Denver fans. They were her Brother and Sister in law. He blessed the meal and then once we got started eating they were sitting next to us at the table so we started talking to them. Of course I had to heckle him a little but apologized every time I did. He laughed and told hubby he needed to teach me to heckle better… lol.
The food was delicious I might add… we’re now back on the food if you couldn’t tell :). It was catered in through Hyvee, the grocery store. They sponsor things up here during the game. I really would like to know how other stadiums are since I’ve only been to Chiefs Kingdom!
So the cookies above… This is truly how big they are. And oh were they good!
Christmas Santa is back. (does that sound a little redundant? Oh well)
Eric Berry, one of the Chiefs players has been potentially diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. One of the things we decided to do was all Red Coaters and family/guests at the tailgate were encouraged to sign a flag for him to let him know that we were all thinking of him.
Then we went and sat in the truck for about an hour to try and defrost. Once that sun went down it was friggid. Finally we all geared up and headed into the stadium. Hubby and I had on our jeans, and jersey’s but we also had on long underwear, heavy socks, heavy coats, our bib overalls and sleeping bags. Sleeping bags are soooo much better than blankets as you don’t have to constant readjust blankets. Really the only thing cold on me was my face.
Once we got to our seats I thought it would be fun to take a picture… and we had photobombers!
I just love these two!
The sane ones of our group stayed home in the comfort of the house and watched the game on the tv… well until halftime.
Sadly the game didn’t go in our favor… at all! We lost to the Denver Broncos 29-16. Yuck! Our group actually left at the start of 4th quarter because the game was that bad (in our favor) and it was soooooo cold. They did get a touchdown in the 4th quarter after we left but it wasn’t enough to even catch up.
And that my friends is how you freeze your tail off.
Oh where to start, where to start. Really in the fall my weekends get swamped with lots of fun activities and not so fun activities (such as school work….). This weekend though was a lot of fun activities… that’s the best part anyway!
So Saturday was my dear sweet husbands birthday. Hi hunny, I love you! Anyway that night there was a chili Cook-off for Newton County Christmas for Kids to raise money to buy presents for Newton County children who might not otherwise have a very Merry Christmas.
There was a $5 admission fee but that also got you in to eat all the chili you want, bid on a silent auction as well as you got 5 tickets and got to vote on the people’s choice award. How sweet is that?
In the silent auction there was anything from cheesecakes to pies to hats to Christmas sweaters to tools. There was a little something to appeal to everyone.
And trust me the bidding started immediately.
This cutie right here wanted to enter the Chili contest again this year. Last year her goal was to beat her daddy’s chili but he didn’t enter one this year. That didn’t stop her from wanting to though. Grandpa to the rescue. He helped her conjure up chili to enter.
The judges were taken off to the side so they couldn’t see chili coming to them and they were to judge. The scale was 1-5 with 5 being highest. They were to judge on smell, taste and appearance.
And while they were judging, so were the attendees. They were supposed to go and taste chili and help with the people’s vote. Tbug was soooo cute. She came up and asked me if she was supposed to put her tickets in other chili’s and not her own. I told her that if she wanted to put them in her own, that was totally allowed.
This little girl had her own “chili” ha! For all she knew she was eating what everyone else was, right?
Sometimes when you walk off without her blanket, you get to wrap her in the adult blanket in your car. I looked huge carrying her and that blanket because I kept stepping on it so I had to pick it up and toss it around me. So also in these pictures (which aren’t included) I looked like I had huge frown lines. Is this why everyone asks me all the time why I’m so mad?
Even though the weather was perfect for a fall night in November… the fire pit was still nice!
Can I get a shout out from Chiefs fans?!?! They won again this week but more on that in another post.
So after all the judging was complete and the people’s choice was finished, they started announcing winners. Sadly this photo gives it away… but 3rd place went to our friend Lee. 2nd Place to our friend Aimee, People’s Choice to our friend Rachele and Tbug… well she might have won 😉
Rachele sadly got called to work so her husband Doug accepted in her honor. Then Amie, Lee and Tbug
This is what was left of Tbug’s chili at the end of the night.
Then they finished up the silent auction. I’m not going to lie, Baby girl and I had to sit away from the commotion or else we’d have been run over and beat up I think. Ok it might not have been a knock out drag out fight but dang, it was some pretty fierce competition going on there at the end.
The real winners were the children at the end of the night. We were able to raise over $2,000 for the children’s Christmas in Newton County.
Oh and Tbug may or may not have been picking on Lee first….
