June 16, 2014

C-Town, Girlfriends, Wedding, Garage Parties and Harley Time- The Full Weekend Recap

Monday is tough in and of itself.

A Monday after a full weekend of excitement is just cruel and unusual punishment.

I want to go back!

Take Me Back!

Friday

Kicked off my Friday afternoon right with this darling little chick.

I allowed myself only one though as I had to be in Burlington Junction, Missouri for an evening wedding rehearsal for a former student of mine.

I have to say that it is a really cool experience to see these kids grow up, become adults, marry and start families.

After rehearsal I met up with my two besties in my hometown. Love getting to spend time with these two chicks. We thoroughly enjoyed each others company, as you can see.

Just kidding. This was a SnapChat 101 Lesson.

We hung out until around the 11:30pm hour and then went our separate ways. No worries, I stayed at my mom’s house. No driving back to the city for this chick!

Saturday

Thanks to my super awesome internal alarm clock, I was up and moving around 6am. Apparently my mind doesn’t care that my body was now going on only 17 hours total since Wednesday night. Rude.

I laced up the ol sneakers and took off for a little under 4 miler. It was good to see the streets of Clarinda again in the early morning hours.

After the run, I took over moms kitchen and made some Clif Bars. If you haven’t tried the Clif recipe yet, you are missing out. Find it here.

clifpic

Isn’t her kitchen so cute? Very “This Old Home”.

She works magic outdoors too:

Mikos wanted to say hi:

Next up? Wedding!

Such a beautiful, loving, down to earth couple they are. Thanks for letting me be a part of it, Jess and Alan!

Saturday night I met up with my hubby for some yummy J Bruner’s action. And then closed out the night in our friends’ garage. Some of the best nights are the low-key easy ones. Jade and Kayla are definitely two of the best friends we could ask for.

I mean, just LOOK at the way Clint is gazing at Jade. It’s true love, folks.

And, a group selfie to close out the night. Two of our other friends were having their 40th birthday party over in Iowa City that weekend, and since we were all stuck in Clarinda for various reasons, we wanted to send our love and support.

We are just that thoughtful.

Sunday

Thanks again to a killer internal alarm clock and the inability to fall back asleep for no more than 10 minute increments, I hit the road back to Homaha.

But first, a pit stop at my girl Sara’s. I just love these two.

sara

Once back in Omaha, my chrome baby and I set out on a solo 150 mile ride through the Nebraska terrain.

And it was the best kind of date to close out the weekend.

PS- Have you entered the Scooter’s Giveaway yet? Odds of winning are incredibly in your favor. You’ve got a little over 24 hours left to enter. Go!

CHEERS!

June 8, 2014

The Blogettes, E-Money, Mud Wars and Beer

I don’t know about any of you, but I keep looking at my clock wishing it was bedtime already. Man I need some serious zzz’s. Why not take a nap, you ask?

Because, I don’t do naps.

Lame, I know, but they just make me feel worse, so I fight the sleep in true toddler fashion until my actual bed time.

So, how about a recap?

weekend-recap

Friday: Our friends Cyndi and John came to town. First stop- dinner at Quaker Steak and Lube.

And a giant Lube Tube of ice cold Bud Light. Clint always wants to get one of these babies when it is just the two of us out to dinner. Eh… I’d be a hot mess trying to get all that down. FINALLY someone to help fulfill that dream of his.

Weekends with these two are never dull.

Case in point:

Oh man, I don’t know who the owner is of this little gem, but it keeps finding its way back into our lives. Exactly one year ago, this same picture happened with this same exact car. Seriously. It’s like destiny for these boys. What are the odds that we’d see this car on the weekend they were in town?

Thank you to the owner of this masterpiece. You made their day.

Again.

After the car hugging, we made our way into the MAC to see Eddie Money and Rick Springfield.

Thanks to the connections made with the Omaha Bloggers group (specifically Katie!) I received tickets for me AND to giveaway. You can find the Concert Recap here.

There were several of us Blogettes (<—- yep, John. I’m using it) at the concert, so we all got together for a photo opp between sets!

Left to Right you’ve got:

Erin from Girl Gone Veggie – Angel from Positively Angel – Lisa from Midwest Mammas and Sweeties Freebies – Leslie from Mom on the Rocks – Yours Truly – Lisa from The Walking Tourists – Megan from Smile Like You Mean It

It was so great to meet a few more Omaha Bloggers. This makes 10 that I’ve met so far. The other gals I met this night and one other, Jess, I ran into at a YMCA event.

Saturday: Warrior Dash, Nebraska!

This is the second year Clint and I have run the Warrior. The 2013 Dash was actually the last time J and C were in town.

The Pre-Dash Walk. Isn’t Clint’s outfit just precious?

Oh, that man of mine….

I was able to meet up with my YMCA family prior to the race start as well! Such a GREAT group of peeps. LOVE them all.

And look who else I found?!?!

JEN! I was so excited to see that chick. She is a freaking machine. Jen and I met at a former place we occasionally called work and we’ve managed to keep in touch. We really need to meet up more though. We have sucked at that.

When are we going to schedule an actual happy hour, Jen? As in, a real one. Not a “let’s just talk abut it” one.

By the way, Jen owns a little piece of the blog-o-sphere too, so y’all should give her a shout at Red Lipstick and Sneakers.

Ok, back to the Dash.

The obstacles were awesome this year! I conquered my fear of heights multiple times thanks to obstacles titled Deadman’s Drop:

WD_DeadmansDrop-3

and the Cargo Climb:

WD_Cargo_Climb-51

In addition to the climbing, we did a lot of crawling, sliding and swimming. The last obstacle course required all of those components:

No control on that slide. Hella fast. The water (shit water, mind you) at the bottom was FREEZING and thanks to no control on the slide, there was no way to bypass going all the way under. Shock to the ol system, my friends.

What a freaking blast.

Team Y also living it up:

Thanks, Carrie. I swiped a few pics. 🙂

I’m so ready for the next one! Any of you in?

Saturday night we headed downtown to the Old Market. Dinner at Old Chicago and a little bar hopping. Surprisingly, we were all well behaved last night.

Shocking. I know.

Sunday: besides a trip to the gym for a quick lifting session, our day can pretty much be summed up from this pic:

Cheers to another great weekend! Now, if Monday-Friday will just hurry on by, I’ve got another good weekend ahead!

🙂

May 6, 2014

The Gift of Giving- A True Hero

Allow me to introduce you to a Hero.

tyree

By now you all know Tyree.

I talk about my friends often and Tyree is a staple in most of those stories. Tyree came into my life in 2007 and soon became one of the absolute best friends a girl could ask for.

She is my Omaha family.

My riding partner in crime.

milwaukee

My go-to-girl for any concert, no matter the genre.

concert

She’s one of those friends that you can tell absolutely anything to and she will never judge you.

Ever.

secrets

My husband has even taken her under his wing and considers her one of ‘his’. He cares for her well-being and is always there to help in any way he can.

031

Tyree has friends near and far and from all different walks of life.

girls

She is loyal to her girlfriends.

gals

Tyree is the FUN aunt.

aunt

The loving Sister

sibling

sister

Tyree knows NO stranger and is as welcoming to others as a person could possibly be.

2013 bb

This girl means a lot to so many other people and she touches lives with every step she takes.

So it should come as no surprise that when a friend was in need, Tyree didn’t hesitate for a second to ask how she could help.

Even when the help needed was an organ donation.

TandR

Meet Rachelle.

In December of 2013, doctors told Rachelle that she would soon need a kidney transplant.

Rachelle is very near and dear to Tyree and came into her life at a time when she needed support. Rachelle was a rock for Tyree. When she shared the news of her need for a kidney, Tyree immediately said:

“I’ll do it”

Tyree began the initial tests to see if she was a match. After months of tests, pokes, prods and multiple hours in the hospital, Tyree was finally cleared.

On May 7th, 2014

Tyree will be giving the gift of life as a kidney donor.

A true friend. A true hero.

A group of us girls got together on Sunday night to surprise Tyree for a Pre-Surgery celebration.

We wanted to celebrate all that is Tyree.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal with a few cocktails.
toasts

And said a toast and offered gifts.

toasts2

To know Tyree is a blessing.

Please send a prayer up for Tyree and Rachelle as they enter into surgery tomorrow morning.

And to our dearest Tyree,

“Don’t look any further than your own reflection for a Hero”

~~~~~~

To help with financial costs, donations can be made to Kidney Konnection (Rachelle Walker) at any Wells Fargo Bank.

To learn more about Kidney Donation please visit The National Kidney Foundation.

~~~~~

5/7/2014 – 4:30PM Update

From Tyree: Surgery went great! Both of us are doing fine. Kidney seems to be functioning good. Now onto the healing process! Words cannot express all of the heartfelt love and prayers that we received. Thank you so much for everything!

February 20, 2014

Viva Las Vegas- Part Two

Why is sleeping in impossible on vacation? It’s vacation. We are supposed to sleep in right?

I was up at 6AM.

Six…. A…. M….

Internal Alarm Clock is a b!tch sometimes. Or it could have been the Red Bull still going strong in my system and a killer headache I had started to sport.

Aleve, water, a few more hours of dozing in and out of sleep and magic: headache be-gone.

On the agenda: The Forum to shop with my girl, Cyndi.

Louis Vuitton, Christian Louboutin, Armani, Gucci, Tiffany and Co. and I all rubbed elbows for the day.

And, after witnessing the shopping styles of the rich and famous, we soothed our egos and slimmer wallets with Fat Tuesday Slushies.

Vodka Red Bull Slushie for Cyndi, Rum and Fruit Punch Slushie for me!

Next up, Cyndi took me through the Bellagio to check out the Botanical Garden. Truly amazing to see the extensive displays of flowers, plants and scenery.

Each horse was covered entirely with grass, moss and other types of greenery. No green thumb here, so don’t ask for descriptions beyond a kindergarten level.

On our way out we checked out the Fiori Di Como, a glass sculpture that hangs above the 18 foot ceiling.

On our walk back to meet the men in our lives, we caught a quick look at the Bellagio fountains, Eiffel tower and I had to throw in a pic of Planet Hollywood where my girl Britney is living for the time being.

I am very sad she and I couldn’t match up our schedules this trip. I’ll catch her next time around. 🙂

Once we caught back with the husbands, we all decided to take a walk to the Harley Davidson Cafe.

The cafe had a conveyor belt that circulated the room. Pretty cool to see a handful of Harley’s floating above your head. We decided to stick around the Cafe and sit outside on the patio. It was GORGEOUS that afternoon and it served as a good meeting point for the rest of the group.

Our bill was impressive!

The afternoon soon slipped by and soon we found ourselves in a limo headed to Fremont Street! While there we ate some great food, listened to decent music, drank a lot, gambled a little and had ourselves a great last night in Vegas!