Life via Pixels: August 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Country Girl at Heart

I'm a country girl. Well, I was born and raised in the city, have been on a horse just a handful of times, have never had to get up in the early morning to milk the cows, but I still consider myself a country girl.

I love when we go back and visit my husband's hometown. It's full of fields, two lane roads, barns, horses and cows. Lots and lots of cows. I'm in Heaven. He thinks it's crazy that I just want to spend hours driving around and looking at cows and taking pictures of barns and deserted houses. It's just a different life that I've never know and it makes my heart happy. Here's one of my favorite images from our last trip:

Country music also makes my heart happy. Don't get me wrong, I love my Eminem, Nickelback and Timbaland during treadmill sessions at the gym, but I love, love, love country music. I've pretty much seen every artist in concert - probably a few times. I also love a good country bar and line dancing, which brings me to Christian Simmons and Miss Jessica.

I got divorced about eight years ago and it was a very difficult time in my life. I'm not sure what made me do it, but one day I wanted to wrap myself in things that made me happy so I decided to head on out to a country bar. Alone.

Over the years I've learned how to line dance, cowboy cha cha and two step, but I've also made some great friends. Some of my best friends are those that I met through country bars. It was hard to go alone and meet people, but I'm so glad I did.

I met Christian Simmons and Jessica at Cowboy Country. I loved his voice and some of his original songs. I introduced myself one night and the rest was history. I've helped them sell merchandise at a festival, at Cowboy Country and almost went on a little tour with them to help sell merchandise when they opened for artists such as Reba, Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins and Toby Keith. He's also been featured in Country Weekly magazine - my husband took the photo!

I've joked many a time telling him to remember the little people when he makes it big - I expect a seat in one of the first five rows! I know that one day I'm going to be driving down a crowded freeway and hear this Broken Arrow, Oklahoma country boy come over the radio. I'll probably scream. Then I'll say, "Wow...I knew him in the Cowboy Country days."

Best of luck my friends!!

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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Happy 19 Months, Baby Girl!

Dear Riley Grace,

Wow! 19 months already?! Where does the time go????

I love, love, love you baby girl. This was one of my favorite months yet. Sometimes I wished you could stay 18 months forever...well, maybe not forever, but you are so fun and so sweet at this age. I've had so many great times with you lately (not that I didn't before, but it's just been different)!

It's summer so we've had a lot of beach days, we've had some fun fair days, and just general nothing-special-but-still-great-days.

There's so many things you do and say now, I really need to start writing them down as they happen during the month.

It's getting late and we had a fun day at the fair with friends so we're both exhausted, so this post will be somewhat short and sweet, but here are the stats:

STILL size 3 diapers
mostly 18 month clothes
size 5 shoes!
you say tons of words now and do a lot of repeating

Some memories from the past month:

Grammy got this swimsuit for you at a garage sale for practically nothing. Love this pic of you:

You know how to swipe through pictures on my iPod Touch. I can't believe you'll grow up with all this kind of technology in your life. I think it's great but I also feel that the world is moving way too fast.

Another beach day with Max. I have pictures of you two when you were just little babies. I can't wait to see how you two grow up together with play dates and such.

Fun at the fair with Ginger. You two are two days apart but this was the first time the mommy's could get their schedules together (after lots of cancellations because of this or that) so this is the first time you met! Hopefully, we'll have more frequent play dates.

One of my favorite pictures of you. This picture already makes me tear up sometimes when I look at it. You are not going to be this little much longer and it already makes me sad. :(

And here you are today at 19 months. Wow, 19 months seems so old. :/ We had a fantastic day with great friends at the fair. I hope that you grow to love this family as much as I do. I'm sure you will.