Ya'll I made a quilt - the final chapter...sorta...

Remember how I wow'ed you guys with my epic quilt making abilities?   Well, the next step has been done.  The actual 'quilting'....

Debbie picked it up from the quilters last weekend & I went over to her house Monday after work to see it.

I don't know how much anyone knows about quilting (well, I know Marcia knows...) but when you make a quilt it has the front (which is what I made by sewing my life away), the batting inside & the back.  The quilter takes all that & sews it together on a quilting machine.  Most quilters have different 'patterns' to choose from for the quilting thread (think hearts, stars, circles, etc.)  & you can even choose your own color thread.  Debbie had the quilters do mine with a 'wave' pattern in white thread.

Front on the left, back on the right.

We picked out the fabric on the back when I sewed the front together at Rose's.

I am sooooo happy with it.  And I am quite pleased w/ myself that I was able to MAKE THIS (with adult supervision, of course...)

I wanted it to be long enough to really cover up with it when I take a nap.  You don't want it too short & have your toes or feet sticking out...then they get cold & you can't sleep.  OH THE HUMANITY.

I wasn't going to take it home because it's still not totally done.  SIGH.  (more on that in a sec...) But I wasn't feeling well at Debbie's & her & Rose felt sorry for me & told me I could take it home.  I can use it, but I can't wash it yet.

I was off work Tuesday & Wednesday sick & by Wednesday I felt well enough to venture out of bed & onto the couch w/ my new, cute quilt.  My worst fear was that my BLACK cat, Sonny, would take a liking to my WHITE background quilt & want to lay on it with me.  

But then I thought, "Well-he's a boy cat.  Surely a BOY cat wouldn't want to lay all over a pretty, colorful, WHITE blanket?"

My worst fear has been realized... He has no claws but he did the classic, "I'm a cat & I have to pretend to dig very quickly with my front paws on everything that belongs to me..."  Even after I got up he continued to lay on it.  C'mon, say it with me... oh, the humanity...

(& NO I can't knock him off it.  He's just a poor kitty cat - he can't help it he's BLACK!)

Sonny says, "Mom - I think this quilt is gonna work out just fine....'

Yea, he calls me mom... you know - because I feed him & take care of him & clean out his littler box & take him to the vet when he's sick & I let him lay on my WHITE blanket...

Kids, hmph...

And you may be wondering exactly how much something like this costs.  Well, I'm here to reveal all. It's not cheap, people.  I didn't realize how much fabric & stuff cost until I got involved in this.  I don't remember exact prices (I try not to clog my pretty little head w/ such minutia) but the jelly roll of colored strips for the front was around $40.  The white fabric was around $10.  I bought a spool of thread for myself to use which was maybe $4-$5.  The fabric to back it with was around $70 & the quilter charged $51.75. (I know that one because I JUST wrote Debbie a check!)   So that's a total of around $175. 
NOW-I would never, ever, ever in a million years pay $175 for a quilt from a store.  But I figure this is special.  I MADE this.  I had a great time w/ friends making this.  And I Sonny love it.   You can't put a price on that.  
And since I have no one to pass it down to when I die - if any of you blog stalkers love it, you can fight over it have it to remember me by...

The last step (I think?) is the binding.  We (& by we I mean my adult supervision) need to put the binding on the edges to cover up where the 2 sides come together to make it look nice & finished.  The binding will be the same fabric on the back so it will basically be outlined in that.  Now I have to find the time to go 2 hours to Rose's house & hang out w/ her for the day....what sacrifices I have made for this quilt... 

Summer concert series - Garth Brooks

So Garth Brooks...for my non country music loving people out there - he was big in the 90's.  He was like the top selling country music artist back then.  I was only in high school & wasn't a concert junkie yet so I didn't go see him when he came to Louisville.  He retired from music, then he changed his identity (think Prince being a symbol?) to 'Chris Gaines' & put out an album as the alter ego.  (No, that didn't go over well.)  He had a show in Vegas a few years ago, he got divorced & then re-married a fellow country music 90's icon, Trisha Yearwood, & now has decided to do a world tour & has a new album out.  

You're all caught up...

I had read that he was going on tour but he had only announced a date in Chicago.  It sold out in less than 10 minutes...so he added more dates (10 I think?) to Chicago.  I didn't really think about going all the way to Chicago to see him.  I mean-that's just crazy talk.  (You may remember us crazies we went to see Jason Aldean in Chicago last year...) Then one night while trolling Ticketmaster I saw he was going to do 2 weekends in Atlanta.

I called Shauna & in 4.2 minutes we bought tickets for a concert...in Atlanta...for 2 weeks later...

Yes, you read that right - ATLANTA, GEORGIA.

Yes, we drove to Atlanta & back in 2 days.

Yes, we are insane.

Yes, we would do it again.

(Disclaimer - that bastard Garth Brooks has since announced he is also coming to Lexington the end of October.  We did not know this when we got our tickets.  But our story going to Atlanta will be wayyy better than any story about going to Lexington.  Hmph, Lexington, puh-lease.)

Before I tell you about the show, I have to tell you about the guy we saw get the shit beat out of him by a cop.  YES WE DID.

Ya'll have met me - you know I have to have a plan...& we had an epic plan.  Garth was doing 2 shows a night Friday, Saturday & Sunday:  6:30 & 10:30.  We decided to do the 10:30 show on Saturday night to give us more time to drive down there, check into our hotel & nap before the concert.  We do love us some naps.

We got there around 2:00 & our room wasn't ready yet.  We stayed in downtown Atlanta within walking distance of the arena.  Yes, I'm old & called ahead to make sure it was 'safe' for 2 lovely females to be walking the downtown streets of Atlanta late at night.  Her response was, "Oh yes honey, it's safe."

(Remember there will be a cop hitting a guy w/ a stick later...)

ANYWAY-we were hungry so the valet at the hotel told us to walk to the CNN building because there was a food court inside.  I said, "Ok-how far a walk is that?"  He turned & pointed & said, "It's right there.'  It was a 5 min walk...

 When we got our tickets for the show we only had the option to sit behind the stage.  Make no sense?   Yea, me either.  I was not too worried because I figured surely they wouldn't sell us a ticket to a show we couldn't see?  (And because I hate surprises I researched on the internet about his tour in Chicago.  I was pleasantly surprised to read that the stage had no backdrop so there would be full view to all seats & Garth even comes around to the back of the stage to sing.  Score!)  Our ticket said, "Full view rear" so I had a lot of fun telling all the people around us as we waited over an hour to get into the arena (more on that in a minute) that we had 'full view of his rear'.  There may have been drinking involved...

As we walked down the busy streets to the arena we were waiting at a light to cross the intersection.  And you need to NOT think about measly intersections in Louisville.  No, people.  This intersection was 4 lanes wide with a decorative plant vegetation thingie separating the 2 lanes going one way & 2 going the other.  Big intersection. 

I heard a loud, revving engine noise that I immediately recognized as motorcycles.  All of a sudden, like 6 DIRT bikes had cut up between the cars waiting at the red light & ripped through the intersection.  It was quite the spectacle.  As you can imagine there were security & officers around.  I immediately heard the sound of sirens as the motorcycle cop parked near the intersection speeded toward the cars stopped at the light where the dirt bikes had come from.  He blocked the section of road so no more dirt bikes could get through between the parked cars & I saw 2 more guys on dirt bikes trying to dump their bikes & run.  And that cop jumped on one of them...& proceeded to beat him with a night club.  YES HE DID.

Again - drinking may have been involved so it took me a minute to grab my damn phone.  I zoomed in the best I could but if you look between the headlights you can see the cops bald head & down towards the ground his foot.   We could see the stick hitting the guy trying to get him down but I couldn't get that on my super cool iPhone 6 phone.

Suddenly there were cops everywhere coming from every direction.  While they were detaining the other guys, another thug came tearing through the intersection on a 4 wheeler & was popped up & only riding on 2 tires.  It was insanity.  

After they loaded the men into the patrol cars we all sat around talking & gabbing about what we saw.  I said, "Ya'll - shit like this doesn't happen where we're from!"

We survived our first police brutality incident {& I say that in jest of course.  I have no opinion on whether the cop used excessive force.  I am a big proponent of 'there are 2 sides to every story.  I have NO idea how scary it is to be a police officer.  Not knowing when you come up on someone if they're going to try & KILL you??  People are crazy nowadays.  I think cops are very brave for doing what they do for citizens... like firefighters!  Nor do I know any of the back story of these dirt bike bandits.  Is this something they do a lot?  I mean-they could have killed a pedestrian the way they tore through that intersection.  There were no headlights on those dirt bikes, it was dark outside & they were going FAST.   That cop seemed to know exactly where to go to block their way so it makes me think they may do this a lot.  I couldn't see everything that went down.}

 Since the pre-show was over, we continued our walk to the arena.  We had gotten an email that doors would open at 9:30.  We decided to get down to the arena around 9:00 or 9:15 to have time to get in & get t-shirts & drinks.   UHM apparently everyone else had the same idea.  Ya'll there were people EVERYWHERE outside waiting to go in.

 We waited... & we waited...  Lucky we are friendly gals & chatted it up with people standing around us.  We took a selfie & if I hadn't been drinking had my wits about me I would've cropped that bitch out that photo bombed us before I posted it on Facebook.  I hate photo bombs.  Add them to my pet peeve list.  
If I wanted to ruin a picture, I could do that all on my own.  I don't need anyone elses help.

At least in this one we are pretty...just don't look at that bitch her...

 We waited for over an hour before they opened the doors at 10:15!  UHM, yea.  Remember the show was supposed to start at 10:30?  Guess who was all anxious about not getting to her seat on time?

Thankfully we were able to use the bathroom, get a drink & find our seats.  And when they say full rear view - it was...but we've never been so close to the stage.  It was amazing.  That's our view - no zoom.

We sat & waited to see if the show would start soon.  You can see all the empty seats behind us.  Not everyone is as prompt crazy as us.  

 We were hungry so we decided to divide & conquer.  I would get food, Shauna would get us more drinks.  I saw this young lady while waiting in line for nachos.  NOW-I have nothing against tattoos...I really don't.  But I don't understand why people want to put them all over their faces & every available patch of skin they possess.  I mean - I have a lot to express too... I just choose to talk peoples arms off or write very lengthy blog posts rather than ink up my body... Lucky you guys...

 Around 11:15 the show still hadn't started.  I told the lady sitting next to me, "they really should announce when the show will start so people know to start making their way to their seats."  About one minute later there was an announcement it would start in 5 minutes.  She said, "I bet they heard you."   It started one HOUR after it was scheduled... unacceptable...

Lucky for Garth we're forgiving girls because he did come to the back of the stage several times.

 I mean - we couldn't have seen this good if we were in the front of the stage in the very back.

 His wife, Trisha Yearwood, came out in the middle to sing their duet together.

 She hung out & sang a few more songs.  I thought Garth would take a break & go 'back stage' & relax.  Nope, he stayed on stage & played in the band while she sang.

 For his 2nd or 3rd encore (who can remember?!)  at around 1:30 AM the stage started to move.  That orb thingie has the drummer inside it.  It came up out of the floor.  You can see under him & the background singers the stage is coming up from the main stage.  Very cool.
We got back to the hotel around 2AM & got our butts in bed because we had a 7 hour drive the next day.  Who thought this was a good idea again?

  We started to head back home around 11:15 the next morning.  Shauna's 'low oil' light came on in her car.  We had to stop to get oil.  Lucky for me she knows about this kinda thing because I would've been in trouble.  I know how to check oil kinda & I know where to look for the cap thingie to put the oil into kinda.  But I'm more of one to bat my eyelashes at someone, play the damsel in distress & say, "Can you help me put more oil in my car?" Who wants to get their hands dirty with oil & possibly break a nail?  No thank you.  
Shauna is able to handle all that herself.  But I did do my part, people - I read on the oil cap thingie of what kind of oil she needed to buy AND I carried the funnel the auto parts store let us borrow back to them.
  So there.

 Thanks to Shauna for being crazy enough to do stupid stuff like this with me & for driving!  And to her hubby, Brian, for letting her be crazy w/ me & taking care of their kiddos.  Of course my hubby was working on the combine & probably didn't even know I was gone.  
I kid, I kid...sorta...

Jaime Mac's iPhone 6 review

Ah, my favorite time of year... 

No, not because of the weather.

No, not because of football.

YES because it's alllll about new iPhones. 

We all know I'm an Apple snob now - but I MUST tell you that if it weren't for my super 'forward thinking', 'techy' hubby - I may not have gotten an iPhone.  

I KNOW.  

We were team Blackberry 4 years ago - B-rad had an iPod touch & wanted to try an iPhone.  He wanted me to think about getting one too but I was a chicken. Old dogs, new tricks & a touch screen?   How would I text from a TOUCH screen?  No buttons to feel?   Whaa??   

 I wasn't allowed to touch is iPod touch after he got it so I had to threaten tell him that he had to let me touch his iPhone & play with it so I could tell if I liked it.  Like, I needed to actually be able to get into it & mess w/ it rather than just looking. 

We are on the best rotation of iPhones known to man - our 'upgrades' are available when Apple completely redesigns the phones (rather than just processor changes...)

B-rad we got the '4' when it was newly released 4 years ago.  2 years later when our contract was up it was time for the '5' which had a longer screen. Now that the 6 & 6 plus are out - hallelujah - it's time for new phones!  And unless you live under a rock, you may have heard about the two options for the new phones & complete design change.

I watched the Apple keynote live (don't act shocked) even though I had been reading rumors for months about what was going to be announced.  And since Apple decided to give us a choice this time of which phone we wanted, well - that sent me into a seriously anxiety ridden decision...

What if I get the 6, but then I like the 6 plus better?

What if I get the 6 plus & it's too big?

Normally I have NO problem at making decisions.  But THIS decision?  I mean this is really, REALLY important - almost like more than deciding who to marry.  

(I spend more time w/ my phone than I do my hubby...)

Since B-rad & I take our phones so seriously - after the keynote address & the actual specs were announced, he made me cardboard cut outs of phone sizes.  (Does he love me or WHAT?  I didn't even ask him to do it.  I only wanted him to draw them out on a piece of paper so I could see them because he understands those little tiny fractions on tape measures & I do not.) They don't have the rounded edges, but the 'size' is according to specs.  He even made them the same thickness as the specs.  He's awesome.

 I was able to hold them & see how they felt in my hand.  Then I put my phone between them to see how it compared.  

6 on the left, my 5 in the middle, 6 plus on the right.

After a few days I decided on the 6 & B-rad wants the 6 plus.    NOW the less important question - how much are we going to pay for them?

Long story short, we are with AT&T & they do their 'Next' plan where you can upgrade phones every 12 months (pay for the phone in 12 equal payments then you can upgrade) or 18 months (pay for the phone in 24 equal payments & upgrade after 18 months), BUT you have to pay full retail for the phone.  GULP.  I knew we didn't need to do the 'next 12' because like I said before - we are on the best rotation known to man.  I am admittedly an Apple snob, but I'm not THAT big of a snob.  I don't 'need' a new phone when they make small hardware changes.  Yes, I NEED a new phone when the design changes.

Amen.

I was getting so confused about what we would be paying & thought for SURE there was no way paying $750 for my phone would be cheaper.  I called A&T several times, I chatted w/ them online each time asking if I understood properly what the costs involved were.  (Because ya'll know I researched that shit online over & over & over.) 

And since I'm a number cruncher I did the only thing that made sense - I made a damn spreadsheet.

We are on a monthly share plan where they give us a 'discount' on each line monthly if we're not under contract.  They take that away if you renew your contract & get the phone at a discount.  They also charge you a $40 activation fee per line if you do the discount. 

So I compared Apples to Apples.  (no pun intended.)  I broke it down by what it would be monthly for both options.

Linda is my mom - she's on our account.  No, she's not getting a new phone.  She has a 4S & I am giving her my 5...don't feel bad for her...

And not that you guys reviewed that spreadsheet w/ a fine tooth comb (WHAT?) but you can see the bottom line is we would save $12 a month if we paid full retail for the phones.  Hey - 12 bucks is 12 bucks.

And even though it hurt a little to pay $750 for mine & $950 for B-rad's phones we did it.  AT&T adds the cost of our phones divided by 24 months to our monthly bill, they charge us no interest to do that & we keep our discount on each line per month.  I am ok w/ those terms.

OF COURSE I pre-ordered our phones on the Friday that pre-orders opened.  The 6 pluses have been very popular & poor B-rad's phone hasn't shipped yet...

But my phone arrived to my office last Friday morning.

Oh, happy day.

NOW-the reason for this post other than showing you I'm super cool & have an iPhone 6 is because I get lots of texts asking advice about the new phones (which I really enjoy because I love telling people what to do & all the attention) & the new iOS  (iOS 8 is available now.  If you have a 4S or newer, you can update your phone & it's FREE!)  And because I love the attention I'm a giver - I try to give my best, unbiased opinion on the subject.  

NERDY, TECHNICAL, I LOVE TALKING ABOUT IPHONES ALERT:

If you have a '4' you should absolutely upgrade to at least a 5.  The poor brain on your 4 is maxed out beyond belief & it moves slower than a snail.  If you don't want to invest in a 6 or 6 plus, get a 5.  They will be fairly inexpensive.  If you want to go to a 5S that works too.  It will be a bit more expensive than a 5, but the processor & camera changes in them aren't going to be that noticeable.  If the price difference between a 5S & a 5 isn't that much, splurge on a 5S!  

If you have a 4S, I would recommend not doing the iOS 8 software upgrade if you plan to get a newer phone soon.  The phone can 'handle' it, but it will slow it down a bit & that processor is three technological years old - it won't like it much. 

iOS 8 was more of an update for developers rather than the end user like iOS 7.  Apple allowed developers to write programs for things that had been proprietary before.  (Example:  you can download different colored keyboards - you know I'm ALL over getting a purple keyboard.)  Yes, there are lots of great changes in iOS 8 (like family sharing.  I don't even have a family & I'M excited about what it does!) but really there aren't enough differences to warrant putting it on a 4S if you don't plan to keep that phone very long.

After texting w/ some friends just this morning about phones (HI JLL & T!) I forgot I hadn't talked about storage.  If you are thinking about getting a new phone - don't go w/ a 16gb.  I've always had 16's, but with all the updates Apple does & the apps they load on your phone for you that you can't delete it chews up a lot of room.  This time I went w/ a 64 gb phone.  It's worth the extra $ now to not have to clean off valuable photos or music from your phone.  

Bottom line:  after 2 days, I declared that I L-O-V-E my phone.  (Was there any doubt?)  It's a bit thinner & I really like the larger screen.  My biggest dilemma is that I have room for another row of icons on the bottom of the home screen & I have NO idea what I want to put there.  

First world problems...

I dropped my 5 lots of times & always quit breathing until I picked it up to see if I shattered the screen.   For some reason I'm scared to death I'm gonna drop this phone.  I think it's a combination of the size, the thinness & the fact I'm dropping $750 for it.

(But in the spirit of full disclosure if I did drop it & destroy it - I would totally buy another one.  I would:

A) put it on a credit card.

B) take money out of our savings account.

C) steal the money from someone

D) steal an older persons phone & pray their children didn't show them how to use 'find my iPhone'

I mean - this is my PHOHE, people...I love it almost as much as I love my wedding ring yet still more than B-rad...

 The only thing that's caused me major difficulty is the damn lock button is on the side now rather than the top.  I can't tell you HOW many times I've reached for the top to lock it.  But after a week with the new phone I had to do something on mom's 5 that used to be mine & I went to the side for the lock button rather than the top.  Progress, people...

If I haven't totally bored you & your eyes aren't glazed over & you're drooling you have any questions, PLEASE let me know!  Comment here, text me or FB me.  Oh yea - don't GET me started on FB messenger.  If you have a iPhone, just download it already...sheesh!

The Labor Day looooong weekend

So ya'll know my in-laws have a houseboat on Rough River & that B-rad & I bum a room stay on their boat when we go to the lake, right?  A few years ago the whole family used to stay on a much smaller boat - 6 adults & 3 kids - & I don't handle that very well.  I'm just being honest here... (& trust me they all know this.  AND I know I'M no gem to be around 100% of the time either!) Brian & Lora got their own houseboat a few years ago so that took the human count to 4 adults on my in-laws boat.  Those numbers I like.

WELL-remember how I told you B-rad helped work on Brian's boat all weekend the first time we went to the lake this year?  They realized it needed far more extensive work than originally thought & had to be hauled home... So that meant whenever they went to the lake this summer they would be staying on the in-laws boat.  Granted the numbers have changed slightly, but the total is still the same- 2 adults, 2 of their own kids & 1 girlfriend which brings us back to our original total on the smaller boat.  

SO-B-rad & I have not gone to the lake much this summer.  We went a total of 3 times.  Once when it was the in-laws, us, Brian, Cole, Brady & his girlfriend staying on the boat, once when it was just us w/ the in-laws (that's when the other McAfee's came & hung out) & this past weekend.  I tried to get out of going but B-rad was having none of it.  He wanted to go ('it's the LAST weekend we'll be able to go!') & since sometimes I have to do things I don't wanna do I went too...

Ann's brother & sister in law from Indy always come down & they bring his wife's brother & another couple friend of theirs.  No, they don't sleep on the boat, but it's still a LOT of people in a smallish area.

What you need to understand is that my mother in law basically HOSTS this group of people. (And she loves it.)   She cooks for them (of course Lora & I help), serves them & then Lora & I clean up.  YES they are our guests I suppose, but it does become a bit daunting because you're talking about feeding 12 people...on a boat... It's not like cooking at home...

Saturday night Lora & I grilled chicken on the top deck in the rain.   You know I never curse the rain, so it wasn't THAT big of a deal to me.  Inconvenient, yes - but not earth shattering.  Stanley pulled the grills under the canopy on the top to keep us as dry as possible, but the canopy is fabric.  Once it gets saturated - it starts to drip....

Picture it - me at one grill, Lora at another grilling chicken & shrieking as cold water drops fell from the canopy & hit us in random areas of our bodies...

We eat on top of the boat 100% of the time.  There is a large bar where we sit all the food & 2 tables with chairs.  Guess where the 12 people were supposed to eat the feast prepared for them that night?  YES - UP TOP.  The more the canopy gets saturated, the more it leaks - so the bar gets wet, the floor gets wet, the table gets wet, the chairs get wet...

Stanley got the bright idea to put a tarp under the canopy to catch some of the water.  When Brian had hold of this tarp I said, not loudly I thought "OHHHH I'm finally gonna be able to kill Brian, wrap him in the tarp & throw him overboard!"  Since apparently I don't do 'not loudly' - his uncle had heard me (ooopps...) because then he responded, "Oh-is that why Cole was collecting rocks earlier?"  Hilarious, people...

This is why I love this family - their ingenuity knows NO bounds.

They took string & tied the tarp under the canopy to the braces.

I would've never thought of that in a million years.

This weekend was not the best one for B-rad & I to be cooped up together.  We weren't 'fighting' per se (not until Sunday morning anyway..) but we just didn't speak much.  I don't know if he was 'mad' at me but I wasn't mad at him yet but I was just blah.  I'm 'pms'ing so that never helps, but we bickered a bit before we left the house Friday evening & driving to the lake that night.  He was texting & driving which I don't like & it puts me on edge.  After we got our assigned groceries from the list his mom sent me, we went through the drive thru to grab some dinner on our way to the lake.  At one point his two hands were occupied w/ three items:  a phone, a steering wheel & a sandwich.  I said to him, "Can you PLEASE not do all THREE of those things at once?  Can you just pick TWO?"  (And when I told this story over the weekend he said, "So I quit driving."  Isn't he hilarious?)  Sunday afternoon we took the houseboat out onto the lake.  B-rad & I had to come back to pick up Brady & his girlfriend & turns out that B-rad can also drive a boat & text.  Talent.

Ok-so I know you're dying to know what we fought about Sunday.   And if you dangled a carrot like that in front of me & didn't tell me I'd be mad - so here we go:

One of my biggest pet peeves w/ B-rad is the fact that he has so many hobbies but NO time to do them.  He has a lot of interests, but he doesn't have sufficient time to devote to them because of his time commitment to the farm.  Now that's not to say that if he had one hobby it might be a different story but he doesn't so that point is null.   He has a turbo charged Mustang in the garage that needs work done to it, he has the Mustang that Brady wrecked to put back together, he likes to go to the lake, he likes to snow ski in the winter & he is doing competitive archery now.   On the way to the lake Friday night I told him how I want to start saving money to do some things to the house (re-model the kitchen & master bath, etc) & how I know he's busy, but he's gonna have to make the time to do them in the winter & summer when he's not so busy with everything else the farm.... (B-rad can do ANYTHING so unfortunately for him I depend on him to do those kinds of things instead of hiring someone to do it.)

SO-imagine my irritation when sitting inside the houseboat Sunday morning while it poured rain outside & I couldn't escape he tells me he bought another bow to HUNT with.  

UHM....

I said, "HUNT?  When will you hunt?"  (Yes, he hunted years ago...) I said, "OK - I'm gonna BLAST your ass out of bed at 5 AM every morning of hunting season for you to hunt." He tried to explain to me it was only a couple weeks out of the year but I walked away.  

Then he asked me why I was mad - I said, "You know why I'm mad." & then he asked again so it was game on... (his brother, sister in law & nephew were locked in the boat w/ us - I was trying not to make it awkward but that didn't work out so well.)

Jaime: "Really?  You bought a bow to HUNT with?  When do you have time for THAT?  When are you gonna fix the turbo car?  When are you gonna fix the Mustang?"

B-rad: "I can also use it for IBO shoots." (right now he goes to ASA shoots that are out of town when he's able to during the farming 'slow' time.)
Jaime: "OH - & when are THOSE?"

B-rad: "Spring & Summer"

Jaime:  "OH- the same time I wanted you to work on the house like we talked about Friday!"

He waited a moment & then said, "Yea-but you said you had to save money because 'we never have any money' (in his best me impersonation)

Jaime:  "Yes because I'M the only one who is able to save money!"

And then the silence began...

And at some point during the silence he decided to sell the Turbo Mustang.  He didn't say anything to me about it - he just put it on Facebook.  I didn't even know it was for sale until it was sold & him & the dude were making arrangements for him to pick it up...

ANYWAY-our nephews, Derik & Brady, both have birthdays pretty close together in August so Ann had Brady's girlfriend (who works at Dairy Queen) make them both custom ice cream cakes. 

Unfortunately Derik wasn't at the lake with us, but we needed to use his cake as a sacrifice to feed the army of people...

Brady turned 18 last week.

After he & Sarah got there Sunday evening, his dog, Abby, was so excited to see him.  Brady went up the back stairs on the boat & Abby took off after him.  These stairs are difficult for a person w/ 2 legs to navigate - let alone 4.

THIS is where the meal magic happens, people.

And even tho it was a holiday -that doesn't mean the McAfee's get any rest.  B-rad got the job of fixing the party lights under the canopy.  Notice it was dark behind them?  Stanley held up his phone flashlight for B-rad to be able to see.

 And this is further proof why I want him to do things at the house - he can fix anything! (I didn't marry him for nothing!)  He worked on them until he got them working.  Brian had to hold the connection together until B-rad got the fitting thingies to hold it permanently.  

When it was time to take the houseboat back to the dock it was dark outside.  After dusk, you are required to run a green & red light on the front of your boat (for port & starboard sides) & a white light in the rear.  Our white light in the back had not been working, but started working for B-rad - then it went out again.  He messed w/ it for a while & couldn't get it going.  It was getting late & they didn't want to mess w/ it anymore on the water so he & his brother taped a head flashlight to the top of the ski rack thingie.  Sometimes we're ghetto like that... 

Then our white light came on in the back & worked the whole way to the dock...jealousy perhaps?

 So we I barely survived the 3 day weekend.  The un-official end of summer.  The official start of me being a farm widow... 

(Alicia - notice B-rad's shirt?  He didn't wear the other one I was bitching about when you were there allll weekend!  This one says, 'tell your woman to stop texting me'.  I love it!  HA!)