A love affair spanning 21 years...

Ok, so if you thought this was going to be about B-rad & me - you don't know me at ALL....

The love affair that I am referring to is the one I have had with a certain country music singer by the name of Faith Hill.

Normally I tell you 'don't judge me' but hell - you can judge me ALL YOU WANT.  I don't care what you think.  I know I'm insane & amp; like a bi-polar person off their meds I LIKE IT.

Most of you know this about me - I have 2 great loves: the color purple & Faith Hill.  You will be reading a LOT of all capitalized words & honestly I'm so excited to be telling you guys all about Faith that I have NO idea where to start.  

(JUDGE, JUDGE, JUDGE)

So Faith Hill has been 'out of the game' for a few years now.  You may remember that B-rad & I went to Vegas 3 years ago JUST to see her in concert when they did a residency there, but other than that - you don't hear much from her.   However when we go to Tim McGraw concerts I ALWAYS ask anyone involved w/ the venue, "Did Faith come with him?"

 "Is Faith here?"  

(Ask Shauna - she'll tell you!)

SO-as Jami & I were waiting for Carrie Underwood to come on stage in Indy a couple of weeks ago, I got this text on my phone.

YES, I started to scream...

And you guys, I'm so freaking excited about this I can't even tell you.  (However I will try in 2 million words or less...)  I texted my concert partner in crime, Shauna, & told her not asked WE ARE GOING & of course she was on board!

Yes, we know which shows we are seeing.

YES, you read that right 'showS' - w/ an S.  

We're going to 2...

Judge away, people...

And any self respecting artist always does press when they're going on the road so Faith & Tim were everywhere the days after the announcement.

Does life get much better?  

I think not...

This all happened just as they were celebrating their 20 year wedding anniversary.  Have I loved Faith longer than Tim?  Yes, yes I have... 

I saw a Tweet where Faith Hill responded w/ simply a red heart & it was Keith Urban wishing them happy anniversary while he was wearing one of their concert t-shirts...

I thought, "Man-that looks SO familiar..."

And I started digging in my dresser... & LOOK WHAT I HAVE, PEOPLE.

And because B-rad is a good guy & supports my borderline obsessive love for Faith, WAY back in 1995 I had bought a brand new car that did not come w/ a cd player (Oh, the humanity...{kids nowadays have no idea how good they have it...}) & for Christmas that year B-rad bought me my first Faith Hill CD AND an external cd player for my car.  It's the bottom left cd, 'It Matters to Me'.  Yes, I still have it & several others!  These are the ones I was able to find quickly for this post...

And I know I go to a lot of concerts now, but back 20 years ago that wasn't the case.  In 1998 Faith was coming to the Palace - B-rad & I got tickets & there was a 'rule' back then 'no flash photography', 'no cameras' etc. so I didn't take my camera.  I was never SO pissed as when I saw other people there w/ cameras & she even took people on stage w/ her & posed for pictures.  I have ZERO pictures from that show (this was days before cell phones) but the local country radio station was giving out buttons... & I STILL HAVE MINE.

In 2000 they did the first Soul 2 Soul tour & we went - TWICE.  Once in Louisville & once up to Indy.  (I can feel your judgy eyes...)  Digital cameras were just starting to exist & the one we took I borrowed from B-rad's parents & it was huge.  The 'sd' card in it was a 3 1/2" floppy disk!  (Remember those?!)  I know I have pictures somewhere from that that I printed out but I couldn't find them.  

In 2006 they went back on the road w/ the 'Soul 2 Soul II' tour & we went again - TWICE.  (Judge away...)  We went to Louisville (which I don't have pictures of) & I remember distinctively telling B-rad, "If they come w/ in a 500 mile radius - we are going!" & they were closest they were going to be was Cleveland &amp that's where we went!

I made B-rad take my picture beside my Faith...

I also took a pic of this box that was randomly sitting out in the venue because it had her name on it.  (I'm not nuts - YOU are...)

This was still the days before cell phones had cameras and Lord help us all - we were bad at selfies back then...

The stage had like 4 cat walks coming out of it & in this one you can see her clearly waving right at me.

At some point I joined her fan club.  (I make NO apologies.  NONE.)  I got an autographed picture...

AND a magnet that remains on our fridge to this day.

During my jewelry days, my jewelry mom (aka friend), Brenda, had somehow gotten a signed pic of Faith & she had told me she was going to create a challenge for me to earn that picture.

UHM, yea - I earned that no problemo!  It sits on top of my desk along w/ my other Faith relics.

NOW-since I'm sure you don't remember our trip to Vegas to see her (tsk, tsk) I will refresh your memory!

They had done a residency in Vegas & I had thought about going but we didn't.  When they announced they would be doing another one - YES, you guessed it - we were there!

I nabbed this magazine from our hotel... it sits in the bookshelf in my office...

And since I took a pic beside my Faith in Cleveland in 2006, I saw it only fitting that I took one beside her in 2013.   

And did the crazy girl take a picture of herself in front of anything Faith based?

Yes she did...

I better warn Shauna she's gonna have to take my picture anywhere I see Faith...

Several years ago I got the bright idea to get magnets from all the places B-rad & I travel.  I had gotten a Soul 2 Soul II tour magnet & then got TWO magnets from the Vegas show & because we had splurged & got really good seats, I kept the ticket stubs as well.  All displayed lovingly together on our fridge...

We got better at selfies by 2013...

Once again those bastards said 'no photography' but guess what?  I had a fancy pants iPhone & they couldn't make me leave my camera at home.  When they came out, they entered through the back & walked down the rows of the venue.  Ya'll when I saw her - I cried.

(Think I'm insane? - don't care - loved every crying minute...)

My FAVORITE part of the whole show was towards the end they sat down for about 10 minutes & talked to each other.  I could've listened for days...

This is my all time favorite pic.  We were in row 3 & I had quit crying, but never wanted the show to end.

Last December I went to Nashville w/ my mom, aunt & cousin.  We went on a country star home tour (which I never blogged about because I took a bunch of pics w/ my cousins camera & I have never gone to her house to put the pics on a thumb drive for myself...).  When we got in the bus I asked immediately, "Are you going to take us past Faith Hill's house?"  
Do you doubt me for a second?  
He said, 'Yes' & then I asked which side of the bus I should sit on for the best view.
YES I DID.
So to truly take myself to obsessive stalker status - I got to see their house.  Or as much of their house on a mountain as you could see from the road.  It's like they don't want people to see them or something?  

So here we are at present day & I am as giddy as a child about this tour.  I know I am driving Shauna crazy by talking about it.  Every time I come up w/ a new hair-brained idea I start out by saying, "I know you're gonna want to kill me before this is all over....".  She's been a really good sport about it though - I come up w/ a hair-brained idea & she's like, 'ok - lets do it!'.  That's a good friend, people!  

We have our tickets for Louisville already & we are also going to one (of the 2) shows in Nashville.  See, people - I am showing restraint - I could want to go to BOTH Nashville shows since they're back to back nights but I'm not - so there's that...

hmph...

Finishing my quilt...

Ok -so I told ya'll back in May that I was making myself a quilt to nap with on the houseboat... I had a few more steps to do on it & since I don't do quilting related activities unless I'm w/ Rose & Debbie it had not been touched for over 4 months.  Rose & I finally had a free weekend together so last weekend I went to her house to finish my quilt.  You may remember she lives about 2 hours from me so we don't get to see each other often.  Debbie lives between us & she had had a Mary Kay party last week so it worked out perfect we were both there so I sent my quilt top & backing home w/ her so she could have it loaded on the quilting machine when I got there to save some time.

You may also remember that I helped talk Rose into buying herself a super fancy quilter named Millie.  And YES she is a person, people.  She is to be referred to as 'she', 'her' or 'Millie'. 

I arrived around 7 pm on Friday night & after we chatted & caught up we got to the business at hand.

First I had to pick my quilting pattern.  Rose vetoed some right away because I'm a newbie & just not ready for that kind of responsibility... We narrowed it down to these 3...

I decided on this pattern which is called 'Bam!' because it seemed super simple & not intricate.

Next Rose started sewing down the edges & through the middle in a few places to help secure it to the batting & backing.  (She made the stitches through the middle larger so as we advanced the quilt it would help hold it all together.  Before I actually sewed the quilting pattern on I had to remove the large, middle stitches.)

We got up the next morning & Millie & I were ready to start working.   You can see the fabric I chose for the back here.  It's like a dark pink color w/ squares.  It came off the clearance aisle, people. 

So let me explain to you what's happening back where I am on her.  The pattern is laid out under a clear, plastic sheet which keeps it in place.  I use the laser light shining on the pattern to guide me.  NO, it doesn't have to be perfect (Thank GOD) & you have to move fairly quickly.  Rose had me practice before we started & she said, 'Ok-you're going way too slow.'  Sounds funny, but the faster you move her, the better it is.

Rose learns all kind of stuff from You Tube videos about Millie (God bless the internet...) & she had this tape measure on one of Millie's bars w/ the arrows to pointing to certain lines of the quilt to keep us on track.  

When you are quilting you make one 'pass' down, raise the needle, cut the thread & then you have to advance the quilt to the next 'area'.  Once you get it lined up again you're ready to thread the needle & take off.    

And ya'll have seen a quilt before so you know the concept...but this is what mine looks like w/ the quilting pattern I chose. 

Once I was finished, while it was still on Millie, Rose had to 'square' it up to get ready to attach the binding.  

We had strips cut already for the binding & Rose worked on getting those ready while I was quilting on Millie (& interrupting her 5 million times to help me...)

She has found that you can sew the binding on one side of the quilt w/ Millie which is WAY easier than doing it on a sewing machine.

Finally we removed my quilt from Millie & Rose (are you noticing a pattern here?  Rose did ALL the heavy lifting, people...) had to cut my quilt off from the extra batting & backing that was 'over hang'.  

This is the point where I checked out, people.  Rose had to use the sewing machine to sew the binding to the back of the quilt & I really had no purpose then.  I sat on the couch, then laid on the couch... Then we got the bright idea to take a picture of me w/ the first quilt I made sleeping to send to Debbie.
NO I wasn't actually sleeping... I mean - I would've totally taken a nap but Rose would've killed me.  

And finally, it was done.  Like done done.  And I think it's awesome.  

(HOWEVER in the spirit of full disclosure as I was preparing for this blog post I was reading some of my previous posts about the quilt & I totally forgot we were going to add a 6" border of the dark purple w/ white dots on it.  OOOPSIE.  I can't believe I forgot the purple!)

The final test is the napping capability of the quilt.  I like it to be wide enough to cover me, w/ extra to snuggle up with & it MUST cover my feet.

I give this one an A+.

Before I went to visit Rose, I knew that on Saturday we HAD to go to a drawing they were having in her town.  An organization there has been doing a drawing all summer for a winner & no one has won yet (so the jackpot keeps growing & growing).  If you are there & they draw you - you get the whole jackpot, if you're not there you get half.  This weeks jackpot was $704,894.00.  

UHM, yea - we went...

And I cannot explain to you the amount of people that were there.  It's a true testament to what people will do for $700,000.00.  The cool thing is that it has also stimulated other businesses/charities in the town.  The movie theater was selling popcorn, there was a beer garden set up, a school was selling sandwiches & drinks to raise money for prom.  It's a big deal, people.

Sadly, Rose was not drawn this week, but the guy that was drawn did NOT hit the jackpot... Which means it grows again...Rose texted me Monday & said this weeks drawing will be $845,000.00.  

OH MY.

I sat my newly finished quilt on the couch when I got home Saturday night & Sunday afternoon Sonny gave it his stamp of approval.

I had said I was going to take this one to the houseboat but now I'm changing my mind.  I think I might take the first one I did to the houseboat & keep the new one at home.  I mean, I will only use the houseboat one 2 months of the year, plus the quilting job is not as nice as the one I did w/ Millie.

And I know it might seem easy, breezy but I'm telling you people - this quilting is hard business.  There is SO much that goes into it & can't even begin to explain it to you.  And I could NOT have done ANY of it w/ out Rose & Debbie.  And of course Rose was SO much help this past weekend getting it all loaded on Millie for me, then showing me 9 million times had to thread the needle & un-thread it & all that stuff.  I am so grateful for her help.  

Rose has also started doing some quilting for people on the side.  She has a blog (YES I helped her set it up - they're the quilters, I'M technical support!).  You can find her on my reading list or at www.creativequiltsbyrose.blogspot.com !

Harvest time

So when I started this blog my intention was to try and educate people about farming & not just talk about myself (thus the blog name) & show a side of our lives that not a lot of people see or understand.

Well-turns out I'm hilarious & my stalkers enjoyed reading about my antics & concerts that sometimes I forget to blog about B-rad & the farm...

But this is post is about farming (& ok, a little about me...{what do you WANT from me, people?!}).  Harvest has started & its not gone as smoothly as they like.  It always seems that something goes wrong & needs to be worked on which delays the whole process.  

  On Sunday I went to Jake's birthday party & on the way home around 4:00 I called B-rad to see where they were so I could ride around w/ him for a bit.  I hadn't seen him much the past week & all I had to do at home was make supper & I do anything I can to avoid that...

When I got to the field our nephew, Cole, was running the grain cart.  He's 14, people.... 

This is his 2nd season helping & he still has a lot to learn.  I told B-rad, "No WAY would I want Cole's job!"  

 Normally I walk to the end of the row he's combining & wait for him to get to the end to pick me up...well I noticed he had stopped & I could also see the tank was super full.  

 I walked down to the combine to find he was in the back of the machine because the cobs were breaking apart & staying in the grain tank instead of getting thrown out the back.  (Obviously all we want are the kernels...we don't want any cobs or other 'trash' getting in there.)

They unload 'on the go' a lot & ya'll I don't know how they do it.  What I don't capture in this video is that B-rad is watching about 50 million things at once... he's watching the grain unload, he's watching his monitors & he's watching in front of us because he's still got to be lined up w/ the rows of corn because he's continuing to bring it into the machine AND he has to make sure he doesn't hit any holes to freak me out.  

And our 14 year old nephew is behind the wheel of that huge, 260 horsepower tractor...

Like I said - not for me, no thanks...

 The whole time I was with him he didn't get much done.  (At one point he said, 'I wasn't having any trouble until you showed up...') He kept having to stop & get out & check things over & make adjustments because the cobs were still breaking.  The a/c doesn't work so it was pretty warm in there.  B-rad & his brother were climbing all over the machine so I took that opportunity to get out of the warm cab because it was so nice on Sunday that is was cooler outside than it was inside.  I also got a picture of the corn that spills onto the top of the cab.  Totally normal - when the tank gets full & he goes down a hill gravity takes over & the corn spills.  Sometimes it comes down over the front of the cab & looks like rain.  

 Poor B-rad was so frustrated while I was there.  Hell, I was annoyed that he had to keep stopping & I didn't even have to do anything so I know he was getting pissed.  Normally when I ride w/ him we talk or sing but he was in no talking or singing mood.   I finally told him, "when we get to the end of the field I'm gonna go home."  I got no argument from him... :)

They kept getting up inside the grain tank to check & see if there was any trash in it.  As I stood there I noticed that fun sticker of a stick man falling...  It says 'do not attempt to enter grain tank in this area'  UHM-look where they both are...the grain tank...

They finally got that problem lined out but as it goes they've had other problems since.  On Wednesday night they got to the field & an inside tire on the combine was flat.  Like so flat it came off the rim so they had to fix that before they could start.  

It's always something, people...

Carrie Underwood in Indy

I know that I go to so many concerts you guys can't keep up - BUT you may remember Carrie Underwood was in Louisville back in February & Shauna & I were in attendance.  

Well Jami regretted that SHE didn't go see her then... & her regret got the best of her & she texted me months ago & asked if she was coming somewhere close to us if I would be willing to go see her again.

UH yes - I'm always up for a good concert.

 (but for God's SAKE don't ask me to see those dumb Dixie Chicks again...)

SO Carrie was coming to Indy & Cincinnati & we decided to see the Indy show.  We left around 2:00 because I had heard from a co-worker 65 was still under construction & they had sat in traffic for almost 2 hours to see a Colts game & we did not wanna miss a minute of Carrie.

We hit no traffic at ALL.  We stopped a few miles south of Indy to eat dinner & after we got parked we walked to the mall that's there in the middle of downtown.  There was a Nestle cookie shop & we got a sampler of items to try out.  Ya'll this stuff was so rich I was sure we were gonna go into a diabetic coma...

 We finally made our way to Bankers Life Fieldhouse...

 We took a selfie between the opening acts & after I took it I heard a guy behind us say something about 'not photo bombing' us.  Well ya'll know I hate photo bombs so I whipped my head around real fast & I saw he had ducked...He said, 'I didn't photo bomb you I swear!'  I looked at the pic & his buddy was in our picture laughing...

 So I said, "Ok-you ruined my picture - now you have to take one of us in front of the stage.  And don't you DARE flip the camera around & take one of yourself.  I know your tricks..."  

We had GREAT seats!  We were like 12 rows back from the floor area where it was standing room only.

 The only downside of being so close is that when she would walk towards us that damn camera boom would be in the way.  I know, I KNOW - first world problems...

 This chick has a HELL of a voice, people.  Jami has liked her since her American Idol days.  I think she pegged her to be the winner from the very beginning...

I'm including a few videos for you to hear her incredible voice, but also I want you to look at her outfits & shoes.  

She started by singing Renegade Runaway.

Next up was Church Bells - it's one of my faves!

Blown Away is one of her most famous songs.  I mean - listen to that voice!

Before He Cheats is another good one.  I included this one because she was so close to us.  I would so break my neck in every pair of shoes she wore... Jami said, 'I wish I could rock a pair of jeans like that!' 

 It was a great show & thanks again, Jami, for asking me to go!