McAfee Christmas (aka the loudest Christmas ever)

We had a full weekend of McAfee Christmases the weekend before Christmas.  Saturday afternoon was the BIG McAfee Christmas.  And by big I mean 62 McAfee's in one location.  It was complete chaos, people.   It was loud...it was hot (since it was like a spring day outside) & it was crowded.  I tried to keep to myself as much as possible.  The McAfee's are huggers & I was just recovering from my near death stomach bug so I didn't want to take any chances.  When they came at me with arms outspread I would say, "Ohhhh, you don't wanna hug me.  I've been sick this past week..."   

 Sadly, my partner in crime buddy Alicia was also recovering from the flu so she wasn't able to be there.  But her extremely entertaining kids were there & I took great pleasure in sending her updates of all their antics.  She's a great sport about stuff like that & I knew it would make her feel better to hear my commentary on it all...  I'm a giver, remember?

I told Daniel I was sending his wife updates on their children.  Of course, he's a good sport too & laughed it off.  He got me back though when he told my arch nemesis Sam how my name is spelled. 

 "Sam, do you know how to spell Jaime?  It's spelled J-A-M-I-E!"  

And then I had to listen to Sam scream, 'J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E! J-A-M-I-E!' until I could finally escape him.  

Well played, Daniel...well played...

This was Jake shaking up & getting ready to pound another one of those kool aid drinks thingies in a barrel shaped container.  I don't know how many he had, but from the blur of his quick movements, I'm thinking at least 42...

 Nora found the dessert table fairly quickly & was more than happy to smile for the camera.  Her & I sat at the table for a while looking at pics on my phone.  I would show her their dog & she would say, 'Dat Weese!'  Then I'd show her a pic of me & her mom & she would say, "Dat mommy.  Dat youuuuu!'

 My brother in law, Brian, got the honor of playing Santa this year.  I wanted to be sure to get a blackmail pic of that.

 This is when it got even louder.  My mil took over explaining how things were going to work to the kids.  I have no idea exactly what she told them...I got this pic off of Facebook.  I stay as far away from this room as humanly possible when all the kids are corralled here.

She announced each childs name as Santa pulled a gift out of the bag.

 And since the big McAfee family is practically being over run by the tiny humans...this took awhile. 

On Sunday, we celebrated w/ B-rad's immediate family.   I will say having the little girls around to be so excited for Christmas does make it a bit more fun.  They really are very sweet & that daddy of theirs makes them walk a line.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all.  They're well-behaved, (of course they have their moments) they are polite & very helpful.  Madelyn had the tables all set when we got there & they both helped us clean up the dishes.  (That was a hilarious nightmare in which I almost had a control freak induced stroke... )

Even though there were only 9 of us that morning, the noise in the house was deafening.  More so than normal I felt.  My in laws were in full force telling us over & over again how they were up until 3am wrapping presents.  (Not my fault they waited until the 2 days before to shop...) And my fil went on & on about how he wrapped each gift impeccably...
At one point ya'll it was SO loud I said to Eric, "Brad & I are NOT used to this much noise.  OH MY GAWD."
 When we get gifts from the in-laws it's a big production.  They announce whose turn it is to get a gift, then there's always an explanation surrounding it.  It's loud...& long.  For your viewing enjoyment I got my mil giving Erin & Eric their gift...the other loud voice you hear is my fil (talking about his pro wrapping job...)  (sorry I flipped my phone sideways soon after the video starts.  The real gem here is the audio...)
(Listen for the ceremonial countdown to open the gift at the beginning...)

Covert ops

  When I say 'covert ops' I mean like a plan that's secret.  You know - like a covert operation?!   I LOVE covert ops!!!!  I hate surprises for myself, but I really enjoy surprising people that don't hate them!  (I'm WAY too much of a control freak to enjoy surprises.)   It happened the morning of the Keith Urban concert, but I couldn't tell you about it then because it was a Christmas surprise for a blog stalker... (HI, BRIAN!!!!) 

Shauna's hubby, Brian, is a gamer like B-rad & the new Play Station (PS4) came out maybe a month or two ago?  Neither one of them pre-ordered it but luckily for B-rad, Butterfly did the pre-order & HATED the new system.  He immediately sold it to B-rad.  The PS4's are a 'hot' item right now & of course you can't find them anywhere before Christmas.  

Shauna & I went to Best Buy one night to get Brian a PS4... but they were sold out.  (We did not know then they were so popular...)  The salesman that helped us was super friendly & told us they 'just so happen' to be doing a special event the next day where they had gotten in a 'certain number of consoles'  & they would be giving away tickets.  He couldn't tell us how many or what time we needed to get in line (you know, important stuff like THAT) so we had a big decision to make....

They would give out tickets at 9:00am & then the store opened at 10:30am to be able to purchase them with a ticket.   Our thought process was to be in line by 7am.   That meant I would have to be up at 5:30am, get to their house around 6:30am & on to Best Buy by 7:00am.  But that was also the weekend we got 6" of snow over 1/2" of ice.  It was COLD, people.  

Did we want to get up that early?  Did we want to stand out in the cold?  Did we?  Did we??   

I was allllll about it.  I thought it would be a cool surprise for Christmas because as far as he knew, they were all sold out.   Plus I knew Brian would love it.  

But really, the deciding factor to get me outta bed in single digit temps at 530AM was I knew this would be something that he could never EVER live down.  

"Remember that time we stood out in the SNOW for 3 1/2 hours to get you a PS4?  Do ya?!  HHMMMMM???"

  

(DISCLAIMER - they did this part of their Christmas Sunday so I'm not ruining the surprise now....)

We had to come up with a story to tell Brian why I would be dragging his wife out of the house at 6:30am on a Sunday morning.  Butterfly plays more computer games than 'online' games so we said that mom needed me to get a game for him for Christmas.  I didn't think Brian would know (or care) about the computer gaming world nor would he say anything to Butterfly since it was a gift (he knows him too - motorcycle gang, remember?!) so it seemed like a decent good story to me.  

B-rad let me wear his Under Armour stuff & schooled me on the ABC's of dressing to be out in the elements.   We got to Best Buy around 6:45 & we were the 5th people in line.  We felt pretty certain Shauna would be taking home a PS4!   That made standing in the frigid temperatures a little more bearable knowing it would not be in vain.  (I love the look on the guys face behind us!) 

After an hour or so, we took turns & walked to Dairy Queen to potty & warm up a bit.  The only thing that really got cold on us was our toes.  I had thick, long socks on but my toes were still hurting.  When I went into Dairy Queen, I took my shoes off, pulled the socks down so I could double them over my toes & that did helped a lot.  

We're friendly kinda gals, so we made conversations with people in line.  Most were parents waiting to get their kids Christmas gifts.  Man - those are good parents.  I can't imagine liking anyone enough to wait out in the cold... oh - wait...nevermind... (Don't tell Brian, mmmm kay?!)

 THEN it started to snow.  I mean - you can't make this stuff up, people.

Every so often we'd knock snow of each other.

Around 9 the store manager came out & passed out the tickets.  Someone in front of us left so we were number four!!!

We waited another hour & a half for the store to open & they let us in 5 at a time.  We were in the first group to go in & we were out of there by 10:45am.  (See all the people still standing in the line?!)  Shauna & I always have fun & this was no exception!   
Fun + something to hold over Brian's head forEVER = success!!!

   

Current events

Its been a while (again) since you heard from me!  2 weeks to be exact... I was off work the week after the Keith Urban concert & then when it was time to go back to work I got the stomach bug.  UGH!  I felt really nauseous Monday morning so for lunch I told asked mom to make me something like grilled cheese.  She did, along with vegetable soup...  about an hour after I ate it, I vomited.... AT WORK.  I thought I would feel better-plus I didn't want to leave sick the first day back after a week off!  But 45 minutes later, I vomited again.  I decided it was time to go home & go to bed.  

I vomited for 12 hours.  I couldn't eat anything (even crackers) without them coming back up.  If I moved - I vomited.... seeing food on tv - made me vomit... people talking about food - made me vomit.  It was horrible.  I came back to work on Tuesday morning, but since I looked like death, my boss sent me back home.  I fell asleep at 9:30 am & slept until 5:45 pm.  After the vomiting came the lovely diarrhea & my mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls for days.  I could only sip water to avoid it coming back out either end quickly.  Finally on Friday I started to feel more like myself! 

   I was on vacation from work the week before last.  It was right after the ice & snow & my cute, little car had a hard time getting out of our 'facing straight up to God in Heaven' driveway so I was actually iced in my house for 2 days.  Yea, I was not happy about that.  I bitched & moaned & ranted & raved made a few  teeny tiny comments about how 'we have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment at the farm, but NONE of it can come save me!'   B-rad was 'busy' with other farm stuff & couldn't make find the time to free me from an icy prison.  He did, however, delegate that task to our 17 year old nephew, Brady.  He & his buddy came over one evening & had to use sledge hammers & other assorted tools to break up the ice before he could use the grater box.

If you are wondering - YES, Brady McAfee is my new favorite person on the planet.

(And he did get paid for his trouble.  He works for us on the farm & I yelled to him, "Be sure to write this down on your hours!!!!")

The best part of being on vacation from work is not having to get up early.  I'm older now so sleeping in to me is like 8am.  I was awaken bright & early (5am) Thursday morning when B-rad called to say he'd had an accident in his truck.  He was on his way to work & a guy ran a red light & he hit them as he was going through the intersection.  Much like I love my wedding ring more than I love my hubby...he feels the same about his truck.  He was devastated... You're looking at a little over $9,000 in damage.  Gulp.

In case you've been wondering - B-rad finally got done with harvest last Thursday.  I can't remember going this far into December in the 19ish years I've been around.  They pushed really hard last week to get the last 50 acres done before the rain this weekend.  Although he is 'done' with harvest, you know a farmers work is never done.  There are always things to be worked on this winter & of course eventually hauling the grain to market.  

And in other news, does anyone remember when Facebook was a fun place to get back in touch with people you knew from way back, share pics with people who may live far away & just EASY?  Yea, me too...it's not like that anymore.  I have some family members (my side, not B-rad's) who are feuding because of comments on Facebook.  This really makes me mad & I just don't get it.   Feelings are hurt, tension is high & I do NOT like all the drama.  What I want to tell people is to 'grow the f*** up', 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones' & 'judge not lest ye be judged' or however that goes.  Honestly, I swear... 

Winter concert series - Keith Urban

Last night, Alicia & I went to see the Keith Urban "Light the Fuse" tour at the Yum Center.  It was the final stop on the tour so it was extra crazy!  Tons of high energy & this man knows how to connect with the audience...more on that in a minute....

Alicia wasn't quite ready when I got there because I was early so I got to be entertained by her four children.  (That'll teach me....)

Reese finally got over the trauma from staying with me for a week & a half & was more than happy to let me pet her.  I was sitting on the couch next to Sam who was watching an IU ballgame.  He kept quizzing me, 

Sam: "Do you know who number 0 is?  

Me: "Uhm, no..."  

Sam:  "Ok -it's xxxxx (can't remember)"

Sam:  "Do you know who number 22 is?"

Me:  "Uhm, no...."

Sam:  "Ok, it's xxxxx (yea can't remember again)"  

 Jake brought out a race track to 'put on a show' & boy did he ever.  He had race cars launching from the top of the lamp on top of the coffee table.  And guess what?  He told me how 'they used to have another lamp in the corner but it fell & put glass ALLLLL over the floor'.  Jake's not sure how that happened though.   I have a guess...

 He also made me some play doh ice cream.  When I inquired if he should have that playing with it on the carpet he said, 'what color ice cream do you want?  Purple & yellow?'  There's the answer...

Alicia rescued me got ready & we went out for dinner & conversation.   She appreciates my obsession need to be early but we got stuck in traffic near the Yum Center.  We saw some people holding a sign that said, "Parking $10" a few streets from Yum & we said, - 'oh yea, this is us-we don't care.'  We trekked it a couple of blocks in the slush on the streets & made it inside with plenty of time to spare.  

 Dustin Lynch & Little Big Town performed first.  I don't know Dustin Lynch's music but he was ok.  I know a few Little Big Town songs & they were good.   They did make me mad because they sang a Christmas song.  Really?  Play us some Pontoon & get on with it...

Alicia graciously took the blame for that because she's the one that drug me to a concert in December...

 Right before LBT finished we headed to the bathroom & to grab a drink so we would be back in our seats promptly ready for Keith Urban to start.  While we were walking I noticed something on Alicia's dress...

 UHM - they left the security tag thingie on her dress.  We got a serious laugh out of that!

 Ok-so ya'll know I've been to a lot of concerts over the years.  And this one was like no other.  You know how they normally take the lights down & everyone starts to go ape shit bonkers & then there's music & hype & BOOM there's the artist grappling down from the ceiling or something?  Nu uh, not Keith Urban.  The lights were on, we were talking paying attention & I heard someone shout, "There he is!" & seriously - he just walked out on stage.  No pomp, no circumstance.  He walked out, waved, picked up his guitar & we were off!!!!  

He had this screen thingie behind him that was 5 screens but they were all separated.  Alicia & I were mesmerized by it.  Like the whole night we kept saying, 'Man - that screen thing is SO cool!"  (Maybe we don't get out enough?!) It was unlike anything I've seen.  There were five 9,000 ft tall Keith Urban's!  YES,  please!

 It would split the band up...

 or show his pretty face over all 5.

He sang a song he wrote for his wife...you know who SHE is, right?  Nicole Kidman - perhaps you've heard of her?  When he introduced the song he told us it was 'extra special' because the woman he wrote it for was there standing at the side of the stage.  Nicole Kidman was at the Yum Center, ya'll! They didn't show her on camera or bring her on stage though...we were pretty pissed about that.

 LBT came out to sing with him & they were all on the screens.  (Told you - obsessed!)  I REALLY liked how he brought his opening acts back to sing with him.  That was a cool touch.  I've seen artists bring them back to sing like a duet they've done together but not just some random song.

 I'm telling you - the screens made the night.

 Dustin Lynch came back out & sang "Kiss the Girl" with him.

 There was a stage set up in the back where we were.  I knew from the Taylor Swift concert what that meant.  He did an incredible job of connecting with the audience.  He literally walked through the crowd to get to the back stage.  Can't tell who he is?  Yea-he was swarmed with people!

 People were grabbing him, taking selfies & hugging him - it was awesome.  A gal I know on Facebook was there & she posted this pic - he signed her freakin' phone case!  How cool is that?  I told you he connected with the audience!  

We got to see him up close & personal for a few songs.  Then he sang White Christmas.  SIGH.  I would take away brownie points for that - but he had so much other cool that stuff he redeemed himself...

 I do love me some confetti!

 So if you know anything about Keith Urban he is an AMAZING guitar player.  If he sang 30 songs - he changed guitars 30 times.  NO LIE.  After every song he got a new one.  Towards the end he played one with a camera on the end.  You guessed it-they showed it on the 5 big screens!  SCORE!   You could see his fingers going like crazy. 

 During the encore, he walked out in the crowd again & this time he went & performed a song IN THE AUDIENCE.  He walked down through the floor & went up through the lower level & stood there & sang.  People were going crazy!  He gave his guitar to some chick too!  

Did I mention how freaking cool these screens were?   

 Such a fun night of talking, laughing, singing,  dancing & me pouting about the Christmas songs!  Alicia even learned a new iPhone trick when Keith told us all to turn on the flashlight to our phones & she tried to use her Flashlight app.  I said, "Get out of that."  She kept trying to hit the button to turn it on.  I said maybe 3-4 times, 'Get OUT of that.'  When she got tired of hearing me say that she let me show her how to scroll up from the bottom to turn on the flashlight.  She's lucky she has me...

 The next winter series tour stop is B-rad & I going to Luke Bryan in January.  Alicia REALLY wants to go but it was sold out almost before tickets went on sale to the public (I had pre-sale codes).   She's decided to work on B-rad to see if she can steal get him to graciously give her his ticket.  The texting offensive started last night....next is an all out assault on Facebook... 

I don't think it's gonna work out for her - HE'S the one that wants to see Luke Bryan...I just wanna watch him dance (Luke, not B-rad...)

Weekend recap

'Tis finally the appropriate season to put up the Christmas tree purple & silver glittery masterpiece.  I got it put up Sunday morning & will spend my nights this week rearranging the ornaments until they look 'just right'.  Normally I'm not so particular about things like this, however when it comes to my tree masterpiece I'm full on weird.

Purple. Silver.  Glitter.  What's not to love?

I like to listen to music when I put up my tree masterpiece.  Right now I'm really into Country music so that was the genre I picked on my tv.  I was severly a little teeny weeny bit irritated when they kept sneaking in Christmas songs.  I mean, I had it on MODERN COUNTRY for crying out loud.  They need to keep the Christmas music segregated to the other 900 channels they have overtaken it playing.

IT SAYS RIGHT THERE AT THE BOTTOM.  'You are listening to country.'  UHM NO I WASN'T.  THEY WOULDN'T LET ME.

And ya'll probably won't believe me if when I tell you this - but the combine we're renting broke again on Sunday.  I can't make this shit up, people.  Bad, bad harvest...

  B-rad knew on Saturday night a belt was wearing thin & would break at some point, but in true farmer 'we can't stop for 5 seconds to fix it because we gotta go go go' they were moving to another field on Sunday & the belt broke while he was driving down the road.

 He was going down a steep, curvy hill & Brady & Brian were in front of him in other equipment.  He got on the cb & told them, "Get out of my way - the belt broke & I have no way to stop."  UHM... Luckily he still had control of the steering (Lord...) & was able to coast into a field to get off the road.  He & I jumped in the car around 1:30 (pm this time!) for another road trip to Boonville to get a belt.  

 I don't think you can fully appreciate these little road trips we have to make.  It's literally: drive for 1 1/2 hours, get to the dealership, walk inside to pick up the parts they laid out, get back into the car, drive 1 1/2 hours home.  Then B-rad has to work on fixing the machine with the parts we just picked up  It's exhausting for me.

This didn't happen this weekend but I know ya'll will love this story.  Today at lunch mom was telling me about my cousin of mine who's really upset because her daughter & her family live out west & can't come home for the holidays.  They were here a couple of months ago to visit for their sons 1st birthday but my cousin is still upset they won't be able to visit for Christmas.  Of course I can understand that, but that's also part of life, right?   So I said to mom, "That's kinda part of it when you have kids isn't it?  They grow up & have their own families."  To which she responded, "Well, some of them do...."

It's never not infuriating...never...

Current events

Our poor kitty, Sonny, got attacked by a stray cat on Tuesday night.    He's an inside cat, but he likes to go outside too.  He lays on the deck & usually stays pretty close to the house.  He'll stay out for an hour or so & come back in.  One morning I opened the door to let him back in & there were TWO solid black cats on my deck.  UHM...I only have ONE solid black cat so that was a problem.  They were growling at each other & when I said, "Sonny!" neither of them moved.   Luckily Sonny has one white whisker & I was able to identify him by that & scare the other kitty off.  A week or so later we had another incident.  This time it was raining & they were behind the house & I had to go out & figure out which one was Sonny...again.  They hadn't fought up until that point - just growled & acted like bad asses.

I decided not to let Sonny outside anymore but Tuesday night when I went out to feed the dog he ran out.  I called for him several times a bit later & heard growling behind the house.  When I went outside I came across the other cat first.  It was 7:30, dark outside & they're both black.  You do the math.  I said, 'Sonny?' & the other cat kinda lunged at me & took off...yea, not Sonny.  I finally found him crouched under the trailer.  When I coaxed him out he was a hot mess.  I could see patches of his fur missing & he just looked really mangy.  He was acting different & I knew he was hurt.

I saw blood in the kitchen as he walked around.  B-rad was home that night because it had rained so we checked him out & one of his back claws was missing.  It shouldn't come as a surprise that I like pets more than children so I was kinda upset.  I called Shauna for some advice on what to do because he was acting really weird too.  She told me peroxide for his foot & he probably was in shock a little from being in the fight.  Later that evening I saw his face looked wet.  When I touched it - there was blood.  Sigh.  Of course I couldn't see anything because of his fur.  Shauna suggested I call the vet the next day to get him an antibiotic because of how cats teeth & claws work & the damage they can do.

Wednesday morning I called the vet & they wanted me to bring him in.  The vet has 'resident' cats that hang out there & they were very curious about Sonny.  

 Imagine a crying kitty sitting in a plastic carrier.  BREAKS.MY.HEART.

 The vet shaved his face & he has a puncture wound & a scratch near his mouth.  He got a shot of antibiotics & the vet said it was good I brought him.  His injuries would've healed over but all the germs would've festered & caused more trouble. Gag.  I'm thankful Shauna told me to call the vet...

He also got some pain medicine for his little paw.  The pic looks bloody but it's not.  His paw is a bit swollen & his claw is broken off but the vet assured me (after me saying 9000 times, "I'm worried about xxxx") he is going to be 'just fine!'

 On my way home from painting that night B-rad called & said, "We have to go to Boonville to get a belt for the combine."  If you've read my previous post about the machine we're renting - a belt broke & we had to go get one that night so he could put it on Thanksgiving morning & be ready to run.  

It takes about 3 hours to get to Boonville & back.  I fell asleep on the couch waiting for B-rad to get home to get me.  He got home around midnight & I was UBER cranky after my little nap.   He was off work last week to combine so he had been doing that all day & night (until it broke).  I had worked during the day AND painted that evening!  (I mean, c'mon - I had it way more rough than B-rad!)  There was no way I was letting him go by himself.  (Another thing to add to my list!  There's no sleeping in farming,..) We loaded up the car with jackets & a blanket (in case anything happened), some snacks (to help keep us awake) & we hit the road at 12:15am.

It's mostly an interstate drive so it's boring.  Just you & semi's on the open road.  We tried to talk & sing along to the radio to keep us awake.

 

 Around the 2:45am mark we stopped talking (& not because we were mad at each other.  Score!) I said, "C'mon Mac - talk about SOMETHING!"  He said, "You talk about something!"  I said, "Ok!  Lets talk about all the stuff we need to do the house!  We need a new back storm door and..."  His response, "UGGGGGGGHHHHHH".  Bet he won't make that mistake again.  

We got home at 3:30am, were in bed by 3:31.  His alarm started going off at 7:30 the next morning.  Like I said - no sleeping in farming... 

(Good thing he's the farmer & not me!  I'm really really a little cranky without enough sleep!) 

When bloggers go painting...

The last couple of years I've met up with my buddies blog stalkers JLL, Gretchen & Tracey to watch the last 2 Twilight movies.   Sadly, Twilight is over (tear) but we have so much fun we wanted to keep up the tradition of getting together when Gretchen comes home for Thanksgiving!  The girls have seen all the fun Shauna & I have painting at Uptown Art & always say they want to do one, so I did my whole 'I'm a planner & control freak thing called their bluff & said "let's do one when G's home!'  900 group texts later & we were set!!!!  

 Shauna's my partner in crime when it comes to painting classes & she was able to go too!

This was the first time I had 'reserved' us easels & it's the only way to go, people.  They had our seats all ready for us when we got there!

Shauna & I drink wine when we're painting (it's much more fun that way!!) but these girls weren't real sure about all that nonsense....  

HOWEVER - a sip of our Cupcake Moscato was all it took to convince them.  

 I had so fun watching them do this for the first time....

 Lots of selfies...

 Lots of concentration...

Lots of posed shots...

The only class we could do when Gretchen was home were 'winter owls'.  Shauna & I did owls last time & I knew there was a lot of detail.  It wasn't really the 'best 'class for painting virgins to start on, but we didn't really have another option...we made it work & they all look great!

 We had a great time & I'm glad we could all get together!   Shauna & I were truly amused watching these gals try their hand at being Picasso's for the first time.  The looks on their faces & hearing their comments during the class were priceless!