"You better Redneckognize"

This weekend I got to bring out my inner-redneck by going with John to Childress, Texas out to the farm that my family owns. It's also where I experienced my first Deer Hunt which you can read about here if you missed it! John wanted to get it ready for the coming Deer season by checking on the blind and refilling the deer feeder (as if we don't feed enough animals already!) We also wanted to practice shooting our guns and make sure they were "sited in". (yeah that's right I'm learnin' the lingo)

We met my cousin Michael out there and he brought his 4-wheelers which we are grateful for because we couldn't drive the truck anywhere since it was so muddy.  The lovely Sage got to come as well and get her much needed exercise in by chasing us on the 4-wheelers. She loved it until she started getting tired and would try to guess which way we were going so she could take a short cut.

After we arrived and got the 4-wheelers unloaded and drove around looking at the farm we John and Michael decided they wanted to walk around and find pigs to shoot. Awesome. Since my gun doesn't have a strap I didn't carry it so I was unarmed as we were walking around the tall grass looking for wild hogs. I didn't even have a knife, just my binoculars and my camera. So I could survive by seeing it coming and then taking it's picture. Not very good odds if you ask me. I would say I felt safe since I was with John and Michael who had guns but they apparently walk way faster than I do through tall grass so I kept getting left. I was just waiting to a pig to jump out and attack me. There was this one moment where I was literally stuck in the tall weeds as hog food. The weeds had tangled around me so I couldn't get through and I was asking for help and the boys just kept staring at me. Such great protectors. Then we got kind of turned around and had to hike through more tall grass and jump across a mud ditch at the same time. It was an adventure. Thankfully we didn't see any pigs...at least I'm thankful!

Then we did a little target practice. I'm getting so much better at shooting my gun. I was so excited cause I hit a glass bottle that they put in the tree for me. I think it was about 100 yards away. It only took me like 8 tries but I finally got it. Hopefully a deer won't run away after my first 7 attempts...I wish. :)

Ok so the blind. Some kind of massacre happened in that blind over the past several months. When we opened it, first of all it stunk so bad. We know there was a rat living in there because there was a rats nest and lots of rat droppings which is disgusting but what grossed me out the most was that there were miniature blood splatters all over the carpet. At first we thought maybe a momma rat had babies in there but I don't think so, it looked like a little miniature Texas Chainsaw massacre happened in there. Michael and I decided that there was a "fight to the death" battle in there but there is no way those rats did not have swords too. It was disgusting so we will have to go back and clean it out cause I am not sitting in that for hours at a time. No thank you.

I had fun and I'm so ready for deer season now. I'm becoming quite the outdoors-woman.

Sage protecting me during one of the time the boys left me.

The location of the mini Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It doesn't get better than a Texas sunset. 

Fall, Football and Friends

FOOTBALL

I absolutely love fall! And when it's fall it means FOOTBALL!

We started our weekend off on Friday night by going to Abilene High School's first home football game of the season to watch my little brother play. I just can't believe my baby brother is a senior in high school. Time is flying! His team won and we had so much fun watching him play! He is a wide receiver and is #10.

So the new eagle is pretty awesome!

Go Bryce! We are proud of you!

FRIENDS

On Saturday we were so blessed to be able to spend some time with our friends Erin and Jason Davis. They just moved back to the states after living in Africa for almost 2 years. Erin and I were roommates in college for 2 years and Jason and John were roommates for 1 year so we have really missed them and are so glad that they are not only back in the states but living in Abilene again! We really enjoyed hearing their stories and experiences while living in Africa. We are excited about spending more time with them!

Erin and I are going to have a craft day on Wednesday. I'm so excited! I love crafts! So stay tuned for our projects!


John and I are so blessed to be surrounded my such wonderful people!! Have a great rest of the week! 

Labor Day Weekend Happenings

We had an eventful Labor Day Weekend. We started it off on Saturday when John went to Dallas for the...

ALABAMA VS. MICHIGAN GAME

The game was at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium so he was so excited! I KNOW he was excited because he planned his outfit for 2 days before he went. That never happens EVER! He went with one of our friends, Marshall, who is also a big Alabama fan. He had a blast and I'm so glad he got to experience that!

Poor girl on the screen, John captured the picture at a bad moment for her.

COPPERAS COVE

Sunday we headed to Copperas Cove to visit our friends, Caleb and Marissa Northrup. They are expecting their first child in January so we went to help them get their nursery ready. Marissa and I painted big navy striped on one of the walls. Their walls are really textured so I found this blog that had how to paint stripes on textured walls. And amazingly it worked! You can check it out here. Marissa's walls are super textured too so we were a little nervous it wouldn't work but we got nice crisp lines with only a few spots to touch up where someone (uh-hmm, Marissa) got a little carried away with the roller and went over the tape. :) I was impressed and will definitely use that technique from now on. I'm pretty sure when we were done we stood there for a really long time and said "This is so cute" I don't know how many times! It really does look so cute! Check it out...

 

Then we were feeling so crafty that there was this pallet wood that one of Marissa's neighbors had put out on the curb so it was clearly trash (we hope) so we walked down the street and took some of it. We then put 4 of the boards together, painted them red, distressed them a little and painted her baby's name, Ace, on it. It was a fun, easy project that added so much to the nursery. I can't wait to see the nursery all finished. It's going to be so cute!

Then, Caleb wanted a Texas Ranger 'T' painted in the playroom so we got to work on that using the same technique as the stripes. We taped off all the straight edges and free handed the curved edges. We painted the T white on top of a dark grey wall. 

John and Caleb stained an old dresser they had to match the crib and it turned out awesome! It looked so good and they did such a good job! I wish I had a picture of it but I don't.

We had so much fun spending time with the Northrups! I'm so glad we could spend this time with them as they prepare for their new addition to their family. John and I can't wait to meet Ace!

SAGE'S NOT-SO-HAPPY-WEEKEND

So we finally decided that Sage should be spayed. John really wanted her to have puppies but it never worked out that it was a good time to mess with that. Since she is almost 3 we decided to go ahead and do it before she gets too old. So she spent the weekend having surgery and being boarded while we were gone. When I went to pick her up, I forgot she would have to wear a cone on her head which is really dangerous when those things are put on big dogs let me tell you. I've been jabbed many times in the leg already with that thing! When I picked her up on Tuesday she just looked so pitiful and getting her into the back of my car was quite the challenge since the cone kept getting stuck. She looked so sad I couldn't resist taking her picture. Her not so happy weekend...