When the cats away, the mice will play

Brian & his fam & my in-laws are out in Vegas for Spring Break. And in this little dog & pony show we call 'the farm', Brian's kinda like, 'the drill sargeant'. I won't get on my soap box (in this post...) but Brian gets upset when Brad wants to take off to do 'things'. Yet, I can count on my fingers AND toes the times he has left Brad alone to farm while he has gone to one of the kiddos ball games or whatever. And here's where I get infuriated...we don't have kids - we're selfish, hello?! So we don't 'take off' to go to a ball game here or there. And when B-rad wants to do something for himself - I compare it to Brian taking off for a kid related function. Same difference, right? Who's with me?! Anyone?...Anyone?...Buehler?!

I had made plans to go over to Carrie's last night to work on the top secret picture project. And I got a text from Brad, "Wanna ride the motorcycle to Matt & Carrie's?" Uhm, whaaa? Hold up... I haven't been on a bike in 13 years. We used to ride his bike for hours & hours when we were in our late teens, early 20's. We were young & dumb - we rode with no helmets. Please don't judge us...I said we were young & dumb... One day Brad was riding home & he had to get close to the edge of the road & he got caught in some gravel & junk on the side of the road. He lost control & hit a tree. He was fine - he was wearing his helmet that day. The bike was totalled & I had the crap scared outta me. And since then - I haven't been on a bike.

So fast forward from early 20's to early 30's...Brad's got his bike obession back. I've been able to hold him off having me ride with him. Well Matt & Carrie ruined that because now he wants US to ride with THEM. I had decided that my butt was too wide & too old to be on the back of a street bike. Well B-rad had other plans...

And I was nervous, I'm not gonna lie. And B-rad got his feelings hurt - but it wasn't against him. I was scared that I would make him wreck us. So I nervously got ready for the trip. And I dug out my medical alert bracelet. Ya know - just in case. (B-rad wasn't very happy about that, either...) And now that we're older & wiser, we know we need to wear gear. So Brad gave me a choice of 2 helmets. One he & my brother have worn on the race track - which means they had been sweated in profusely. Even though I share dna with one of them - I decided against having his sweat drenched helmet on my non-sweaty head. So I chose a helmet just Brad had used. Then he got a jacket for me & I WISH I could've gotten pics of him getting me all zipped up. It was hilarious. I felt like a 5 year old having her daddy get her coat all zipped up & 'hat' strapped on!

I was ready to go!

Thankfully I survived the 20 minute ride there. Needless to say, it's hard on these 'ole knees having them up in my chest for that long of time. And my arms are sore today from holding on so dang tight. I was afraid Brad would do something silly & scare me. But he was a good boy & behaved - for the most part...

Since Brian was gone (wondering how THAT tied in to the story?!) - B-rad & Matt made plans to ride while I was helping Carrie.

So the street bike racer & the big bad son of anarchy were together at last.
These boys ain't like their wives...they can't make a decision to save their souls. They sat there in the driveway for 10 minutes trying to decide where to go. "Where do you wanna go?!" "I don't care - where do you wanna go?!" They finally came up with a plan & they were off. And history was made.... tear...

Carrie & I went inside to get started. I actually took a couple of pics this time. On the left are the baggies of pics for each year of Tyler's life. She had pulled out some more albums to look for pics.

And while I scanned - she was going through the pics to see if there were any more to add. We scanned from age 8-16 in about 2 1/2 hours. All we have left is ages 17-18 to scan & then we can really get working on putting them into the book.

The bike ride wasn't too bad. I just gotta get used to having my bootie on that tiny seat. I smelled like exhaust - which I didn't like. I knew I couldn't wear cute hoop earrings, so I put in little posts. Nu uh, that didn't work either - when I pulled the helmet off, they popped right outta my ears. No earrings? Oh the humanity...

Plus, if I'm gonna ride the bike on any sort of regular basis (ya know, when Brian's gone again...) I'm gonna have to get some cuter, more girly gear. Like a jacket & a helmet that actually fits my head. I'm thinkin' in a lovely shade of purple...