WOW What a Weekend

I have so many pictures and things to share from this weekend. Kinda funny since it was technically only a one day weekend, since I worked yesterday. I will post later today about some of the things I did this weekend, but I wanted to share some exciting news that I got for Mother's Day. My handsome oldest son, Wade, the guy in the band.......he is getting married in 2 weeks. Sorry, ladies, Wade is off the market, lol. Her name is Diana and she has the most beautiful little girl named Layla. It was a whirlwind affair.....they've known each other since high school, recently met up again and it was almost like "love at first sight". I can't say any thing about that. Hut and I didn't waste any time getting married and we've been married 17 years. Diana seems like a really special girl and it seems like this is meant to be. So for the next couple of days I am going to try my best to get some blogs done and then I may be busy with wedding plans. I'll keep you all posted. I only have one picture of Diana and she is liplocked with Wade. I had to steal it from Wade's MySpace. I will get a better picture so you all can see how beautiful she is. Have a great day!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

Today I have been married to the most wonderful man in the world for 17 years. Who would have thought? From a previous blog you know we moved in together almost from the start and got married less than 2 months after we met. Who says there no such thing as love at first sight? I honestly believe I love my wonderful husband more and more with each passing year.

Here I am with Hut on our wedding day. Notice the longneck Budweiser in his hand. That's what we toasted with. It was a typical "redneck" wedding. Guests wore shorts, t-shirts and softball uniforms (Hut's friends were playing in a local softball tournament and came and went in between games, including the best man,lol) We had fried chicken, 'tater salad, lots of beer and tons of fun.

This is us 1 1/2 years ago when we renewed our vows. We had been going through a tough time with Hut getting demoted due to downsizing and I had gotten laid off from work. So we decided what better time to let each other know we'd make it through because we loved each other. So we went to Cypress Gardens Valentine's Day weekend and renewed our vows. My two sons and their girlfriends at the time served as witnesses and attentants. We had a great time.

I love my wonderful husband with all my heart and I feel truly blessed to have spent the last 17 years with this wonderful man.

I do have to say I got a bonus when I married Hut. I ended up with not only a new best friend, but the best sister in law in the whole world. So Happy Sis in Law/Best Friend Anniversary, Missy!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (yeah, I know I'm early....I have to work Sunday)

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful, unselfish, giving women out there. This includes natural mothers, adopting mothers, foster mothers, surrigate mothers, grandmothers, women who want to be mothers, stepmothers, mother in laws and anyone other women who takes care of others. That's what Mom's are. I found some very different Mother's Day "awards". Please feel free to take one, two, however many and please pass them on. Some are serious, most are whimsical. They all touched my heart in one way or another. I had more, but they didn't show up very well. I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Mother's Day.

Come out, come out, where ever you are......

What is happening to all my blogging buddies? Where are you? Are you all really too busy to post a few lines about what's going on? It's that "TWITTER" isn't it? That's got to be it....everyone is twittering or tweeting or whatever it is you do with that. I don't follow very many blogs but I absolutely love to read the ones I do. But lately I've been disappointed because I keep going back to the same old blogs I've already read over and over again. I know I'm not a great example for keeping up on posting blogs, but I try. So please, please have pity on me and blog......PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! I miss you guys ( you know who you are) and I want to know what you've been up to.

Under The Empire

Nope, not a new Star Wars movie. It's my son Wade's band. We went to see them last night since they were local to us. Only about 5 miles from home. You would have to like heavy rock to like this band. That is actually the kind of music I like so I really had a good time. I think Hut had a good time too, although I'm not so sure that it was his kind of music. The pictures I took didn't come out all that great, but I will post the best of the lot. They played at a bar on our chain of lakes here in Winter Haven. It's called Alligator Alley. For those of you from the Winter Haven area it's also been the Dockside, Autumn's Anchor and Sally's Shrimp Boat. It's probably had other names, but these stick out in my mind. Anyways, I think it's kind of ironic that Wade played there. His father and I took him there to eat when he was like 6 months old (Sally's Shrimpboat). Of course he doesn't remember. He kept telling everyone he had never been there and me being the smart a$$ that I am kept telling him yes he had. I finally had a chance to meet the other band members. What a great group of guys. Two of them somewhat adopted me and the other two really didn't care. They were there to play and play they did. There were a total of 3 bands playing and I have to say that Under The Empire had the loudest crowd.

Under The Empire getting the fans going.

Tim, the bands lead singer, one of my newly "adopted" sons.Tim and Ard aka J Bone ( my other newly "adopted" son).

Tony and Brett, Rock On!

Ard, Tim and Tony.

I saved the best for last.....Wade. It was hard to get any pics of Wade to come out, but this is a close up.

I apologize for the darkness of the photos, but it was really dark in the bar. I did the best I could. They are playing close to home again next month, so maybe I can get there and get some better pictures. Thank you all for bearing with a proud momma and her crappy pictures.

America's Favorite Pastime

No, I don't mean blogging. I mean BASEBALL! I love baseball. I love the Red Sox. Being born and raised in New England might have had something to do with it. Besides, if it weren't for the Red Sox, I might have never met my wonderful husband. Okay, now I know your curious, so I'll make it short and sweet. The Red Sox held their Spring Training in Winter Haven from 1966 until 1992. My husband worked at the ball park from 1978 and still does. Back in March of 1992 I was working at the Taco Bell across from the ball park. One night I was working when this handsome fella walked in with a Red Sox hat on. Me being the shy person that I am says, "Now there's a man after my own heart." not knowing how true that statement would be. Well he handed me his work number and said if anyone wanted to go to a Spring Training game, call him and let him know. Well I hung on to that phone number for close to a week before I had nerve to call him. I was a single mother with 2 young boys who would love to see a baseball game. So I called him, he didn't remember who I was but he told me to stop by the stadium after work so we could talk. Well I lived 45 minutes one way from Taco Bell. I drove home, showered and changed and drove back to the stadium. I spent most of the night at the stadium meeting his friends and talking and at one point Hut kissed me. Then he waited for me to slap him. Didn't happen. I was thrilled he kissed me. Anyways, it was getting late and I needed to get home. He got in his truck and it wouldn't crank. He asked me if I would take him home. Sure, why not. So I took him home and yes, the shameless hussy that I am, I stayed the night ( my kids were with their dad). I also stayed the next night and the next. I finally moved in with him and less than 2 months later we were married and happily so for the past 17 years. So thank you Boston Red Sox for having Spring Training in Winter Haven. Hut and I married in 1992, which was the last year the Red Sox trained there. I think there was Divine Intervention there, don't you?! Okay, so it wasn't really short and sweet and I totally got off track for this blog. Just so you know, we will be celebrating that 17 years next Saturday, May 9

Okay on to the ball game. I have a few pictures to share from the Red Sox whupping on the Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox went into this series with an 11 game winning streak. This is a 4 game set in Tampa. The Red Sox lost the 1st two games, but I knew they were going to win our game. And they did....10 - 6. I forgot to take a picture of the score board, but it's doesn't really matter, they WON! I had originally bought 8 tickets for other friends and family and no one was able to go. So Hut and I enjoyed the game alone. He did give 2 tickets to a friend of his, but they were in a different section. Plus I traded 4 tickets to the Rent to Own place where I buy some things. Fred paid off one of my accounts with them and he was able to take his whole crew to a ballgame. He already had 4 tickets and couldn't decide who to take and then I walked in with 4 more in the same section believe it or not (divine intervention again, I believe). So it all worked out with the tickets. Before I go off on another tangent, let me get some pictures going here.

Here is the Tampa skyline on our way to the ballgame.
This is where the game was held. I didn't even think to take a picture of the outside. It's a domed building.

An avid Rays fan waiting for the gates to open.This is the game we went to see. Go Sox!

This is who made it possible for us to go to the game. State Farm gets blocks of tickets that they sell to employees at a discount price. So thank you, State Farm.

Hut and I when we first got there. Couldn't find anyone to take a picture of us. I don't know how you guys take your own pictures and they look so good. I couldn't get the camera right, lol.This is Raymond, the Tampa Bay Mascot. Boy was he surprised to find himself in the Red Sox fan section, lol. He sprayed a bunch of Sox fans with silly string.

These next two photos aren't the greatest, but oh well, I did my best. This is Dustin Pedroia, who plays for the Red Sox.

And yes, I took a picture of the other team up at bat. Actually this is Carlos Pena, who plays for the Rays. I had to take a picture of him, because he is from my hometown in Massachusetts and he went to my old high school. So unless they are playing the Red Sox, I have a little allegiance to the Rays, lol.This has absolutely nothing to do with the ballgames, but I saw this in someone's yard and thought it was the cutest darn thing. It's made out of many shapes and sizes of flower pots.

Sorry for the long post. Guess I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Beef Jerky

As you can probably tell there ain't much going on around here. Hut likes to feed our animals beef jerky as a treat. They usually beg him all at the same time and when he calls me to take a picture.....never fails, they won't do it. But I did get a few pics of them eating some beef jerky.

This is Booty Barker (the cat) and Molly waiting for some goodies.

This is Max after waiting patiently for the others to get their goodies.

It has been pretty quiet around here these past few days. However, we have a busy, busy weekend planned so I'll have lots to blog about then. We are going to a baseball game Saturday night with my son Wade and a couple of his friends. We are going to go see the Boston Red Sox go whup the Tampa Bay Rays.

Should be fun, fun, fun. I love ball games because I can be really obnoxious and no one cares because they are all being obnoxious, too.

And Sunday evening Wade's band is playing at a local joint, so we are going to go watch that. Wade's been in a couple of bands the past 5 years and we always try to get to the shows for support. All of the bands he's been in have been pretty good, with the exception of one.....they were too vulgar (thank God Wade didn't play with them long). If you want to check them out and you have access to myspace....the band is called UNDER THE EMPIRE. Please go check them out....they are good.

UNDER THE EMPIRE

That is my son, Wade in the front. I haven't met any of the other band members so, sorry, can't fill you in on whose who.