little big town

Little Big Town came to the Jefferson County Fair a week or so ago.... and Ben, Jessica, Brianna, Adam, Mama Steph, dad and I decided we should probably go. Because 96% of above mentioned group enjoys the likes of country.

 

 

Things got off to a rocky start when we could not all fit into one car, immediately followed by a surprise extra $10/each for general admission into the fair. We resolved to shake it off by shaking our bums to some country tunes, and to do that, you need a nice cold beer. So we got in line....

 

 

And the chaotic, communication-failing Jefferson County Fair sent us a curve ball.

 

 

Turns out that the line we made it to the front of was the line for beer tickets alright, but the country bumpkin running the shhht show needed us to have wristbands. Instead of talking to us like humans, she hog called "LINE FOR WRISTBANDS IS OVER THERE! WRISTBANDS FIRST!!" Annoying, but fine. So we got in line for wristbands... which apparently were a buck each. After defeating that line, we got back into the original line for beer tickets. Country bumpkin gave us our magical tickets, and we got in line at the beer tent. Upon making it to the front of that line, we each received our beer.

It was the most refreshing beer I have ever had in my life.

 

 

But our night of lines was far from over. One would think that the general admission ticket and reserved seating show ticket would be enough to gain access to your seat. Nah. The Jefferson County Fair would not be complete without another seemingly pointless line for another wristband. This special wristband stand was located on the opposite side of the entrance.

 

 

Yet to be deterred, we conquered the above mentioned lines, got another beer, and found our bleacher seats. The show started, and the booty shaking commenced.

 

 

  

The show was bunches of fun, and Ben was singing along by the end. Now Ben is a very creative boy, and towards the end of the show, we realized that we needed to "use 'em or loose 'em" with our drink tickets. So Ben used 'em. And he got fancy with those beers, artistically pouring them like a waterfall into his mouth during some group photos we took after the show ended. So by the time we were walking back to the car by going through the horse and cow barns...... Ben was a lively fellow. When a cow started to "moo" and we all started to giggle.... Ben began to yell "'HEY! Shut up cow! You don't talk to me like that! SHUT UP COW!!! SHUT UP COW!!" Mama Steph snorted and dad grabbed Ben by his flannel before the cow's 16 year old country kid owner came figured out that his cow was being harassed.

 

group shot!

 

And we all made it home to LM in one piece. Yee-haw

 

 

 

 

xoxo, b

drunky monkey

Sometimes in life, you have off the same Friday as your sister-in-law. Maybe you decide to put on a sundress, sit on a patio, and split a pitcher of margarita before skipping off to the zoo and feeding the goats. And taking 10 million pictures in front of the elephant who shares your name. 

 

And maybe that was the best decision ever. 

I love the zoo. 

 

 

 

xoxo, b

Car shop coffee

I'm sitting at the auto shop drinking all the coffee while mechanics tinker with the Voodoo so she won't explode. An 8am appointment was close to the stupidest thing I could have ever done on my day off. So now I sit here and peruse Pinterest for crafty ideas that will never come to fruit. Perfect example of what can happen during the critical out-of-bed-but-before-coffee-kicks-in part if my day.

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I was cleaning out my closet the other day, so naturally Ben was unsupervised and antsy in the living room. About ten minutes into my declutter project, I hear giggling. Then the giggling turned to a full blown laugh, and I heard my grown ass husband yelling for me to "come here quick and look at Paris!" Allegedly, Paris wanted a haircut. Ben was merely there to provide the belly chop job for her. 

My kitty looks like a total goonberry. But she sprawled out on his lap and purred the entire time, so I guess it's partially her fault. 

xoxo, b

Ring-a-ding

My friend Kor recently went and got herself engaged, and then so kindly came home to WI over July 4th. We got a little group together Friday night, caught up, went out, came home. A more detailed description of the night is as follows:

- I got to use my fancy pants serving bowls and glasses to make sure my guests were aptly fed and watered (or champagne-d and Chex-mixed)
 

- Kor has a pretty ring. I felt honored to be the one to show her how to use it to ward off creepers at the bar.
 

- I'm fairly certain I know how people end up face down in the MKE river. Spoiler alert: It's the power trippin' MKE police department on their ponies at the end of the night snatching boys and throwing them into the timeout trailer. Fools.
 

-And there was dancing. So much bad dancing. 

Saturday was a surpris
e lunch for Kor at The Smoke Shack. And since it was a surprise, Kor had no problem being nearly two hours late. Since the lunch was right before we had to book it to a wedding, we wore our wedding dress attire. I went ahead and spilled some BBQ on my lap like a hillbilly. 

 

After lunch, BBQ spills, and a wedding ceremony, Ben and I were standing outside under the shade of a beautiful, big tree with a small group of his relatives waiting for dinner to be served. There was a perfect breeze, sweet sunshine, and the wine was finally flowing. Then Ben's cousin spilled red wine all over her husband's lap. We all had a good chuckle. Then I subconsciously decided that I would one up the red-wine-pants-spill that could be covered by a shirt. Not realizing what my subconscious was plotting, I began to move my red wine from one hand to the other. Mid-move, the light breeze got frisky and tried to Marilyn Monroe my skirt. So obviously I spazzed while trying to maintain my "I'm a lady" act, and proceeded to throw the entire glass of red wine down the front of my dress. Fantastic. 

And so concludes my July 4th weekend.

xoxo, b 

mke fireworks

Wednesday night, Jessica, Ben and I headed down to the lakefront to watch the USBank fireworks. We threaded our way through the wads of flag tank tops, fried cheese curds, and fat kids waving glow sticks until we reached the breakwater rocks near Discovery World. Once there, we laid stake to a couple flat rocks right at the water's edge. It was literally the perfect spot. You could not get any closer to the show. We cracked open a cold one, leaned back, and got ready for what has always been an awesome show.

And the first 4 minutes that we saw were great.

Then the foggy night and firework smoke mix started creeping in, and before you knew it there were only loud bangs and colorful clouds. It was so sad that it was hilarious.

Ben had brought along a few sparklers, and decided that this was as good as any time to light a couple off. The three little boys next to him got super excited, and asked if they could have a sparkler, too. Ben, being the nice boy that he is, gave them each a sparkler. The little boys lit them off and came back to ask for another. Ben handed them a package of six. The little boys lit them off.

Then one of those snotty nosed little brats walked over to Ben, snapped his fingers and whistled for more.

Jessica, who until now had been laughing hysterically at the firework show mishap, basically choked on her beer and yelled "are you serious?!! Where are your manners!?" At the same time this was happening, I was retrieving my jaw from the ground and exclaiming "ooh hell no!! Benjamin you will not give these boys any more if this is how they behave!!" That naughty little boy realized he had acted like a 10 year old jackass, gave Ben some puppy dog eyes and followed up with a "Excuse me mister, may we please have some more sparklers? We are really enjoying them."

Ben gave them more sparklers.

The moral of the story is, Ben is apparently the good cop and I swear at children.

xoxo, b

summerfest 2013

I happened upon Summerfest 2013 on Saturday, and a little country concert performed by Thomas Rhett, Jake Owen, and Jason Aldean.

And it was fantastic.

Once the concert was over, we left the Marcus amphitheater and headed towards the chaos that was an overcrowded Summerfest grounds. The original game plan was that Ben was going to pick us up or we would cab it back to my place. Well Ben was zonked out and there were no cabs since hello this is Milwaukee and all 27 cabs were occupied-o by the time everyone and their aunt were busy leaving. So we walked to my apartment. MapQuest tells me it is approximately 2.6 miles along the river walk. I believe it.

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 Fireworks tomorrow night in Milwaukee for the Fourth of July.


'Merica!

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Three years ago, on July 5th (because he was told holidays & birthdays were not allowed),
 Ben asked me to marry him. So sweet.


However, I just want to take the time to reiterate the fact that Jessica and I had spent the entirety of July 4th sitting on a front porch wearing flannel, sipping sweet tea and lemonade from mason jars, listening to country music, and trying to play a guitar that was missing a few strings. Ben witnessed all of the above, and still decided to see what I was doing for the remainder of my days.


Soo yeah.


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Paris ate an ibuprofen this weekend. I think she was trying to dull the pain from earlier when Nicole slammed her head against the wall. She must have been riffling through my purse looking for cash or something, because I know she has not mastered the kitty-proof top on the ibuprofen bottle, and there were a couple floating around at the bottom of my bag. Anyways, she threw it up and she's still alive.

Which makes it another successful day in the life of Paris and Nicole.


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xoxo, b