a low key Halloween

At work this year, we didn't have a party. So I didn't win first prize. And my dad didn't build me a 4 ft tall bird cage. You know you're curious... Read about it here.

So this year I kept it low key and did a last minute throw together costume. 

I went as Paula Deen.

you know she loves some butter y'all 

Yes, that's my hair - I just poofed it and sprayed it with that cheap Halloween hair spray (the white color). I actually had SEVERAL people tell me I'll look pretty when I go gray someday. A day I hope is far, far FAR away. 

A couple of my pals at work were scheming to try to wear jeans on a non-jeans day. Success!! 

My buddy Brandi loves her some Avengers... 
(she recycled some of the stuff she used for her daughter's birthday party.. of course not the tshirt)

A lady down the hall was a biker chic... said she just pulled some things out of her closet. She's a bike rider with her hubby. 

This is Bridget... she's not doin too well LOL 
   it's my hairstylist's mom

On to trick or treat time...

Our church had a big humongo County Fair thing with games, rides, prizes and live music and OF COURSE FREE CANDY, so since me and Anth have no children, we didn't go :-P 

Instead, we hung out with my inlaws to help with handing out candy to the trick or treaters. But it turned out to be a small number. As in THREE. Three little trick or treaters. 

Ashley brought her girls by (that's one of Anthony's cousins)

And Riley, I mean CAPTAIN AMERICA stopped by 

Next year we may show up in somebody's yard in one of those neighborhoods where they practically bus the kids in so we can just see a buncha kiddos. Livin in the country you just don't get enough trick or treaters. . . 

a play date with Riley

A play date with Riley was loooong overdue. 

Back in late spring when I went to watch Riley play soccer, he pointed to me and said play date, soon! But for one reason or another, we never seemed to get a date worked out. :-(

But the other day he came over to play. He always brings toys and we play non-stop!

Right after his mom walked out the door he looked around at his pile of ten thousand action figures and said "I can't find my Wolverine mask."

I said "your what?"

He said "my Wolverine mask." Pretty sure he wasn't getting that Lyndy doesn't know what or who a wolverine is. Lol 

I asked "what's that?" and he said "it's a child size mask that I can wear. I'm so disappointed."

Thankfully no tears. He was mature about it. :-P 

Our indoor fun included some daredevil moves... 
     flying boy ahead - - 

 whoa

 yikes

by this point he was brave flying boy 

We also played with his race cars and speed track. You know boys and their cars! Shucks, with two older brothers I played with em as much as my Barbies and dolls. The kitchen counter became a track. 

We also went outdoors to play since it was a pretty nice day, but it ended up being a bit chilly with the wind, so our play was cut short.

Another funny/cute Riley story - he wanted to go into the bedroom. And of course I knew why. Every kid deserves to jump on the bed once in a while. He jumped and jumped. 

While jumping and saying boing and woo and doing karate kicks he asked "have you ever tried this Lyndy, when you were a kid? I have, a thousand times."

Then, he jumped again, said this is great, woo hoo, did some more karate kicks and said "all this jumping has made me thirsty" as he climbed down from the bed. 

Funny kid.

Riley loves the Hawaii Five-O theme song so he asked Anthony to play it for him on his phone. This has been kinda their thing for about a year. :-P
How presh is this?!  

 sure do love this boy!

Darius Rucker Opry Induction

Living so close to Nashville, I guess we sometimes take for granted how close we are to some cool stuff. 

Like the Grand Ole Opry... 

On October 16th, Darius Rucker (previously of Hootie and the Blowfish fame for you 90s music lovers) was inducted into the Opry. 

And we were there.

They had some other folks there to fill the time. Would have been fine with me if it had been all Darius, but they didn't ask me. 

The lineup was Clint Black, Whisperin Bill Anderson, Elizabeth Cook, Connie Smith (Marty Stewart's wife and Opry member since the 50s), Vince Gill and Martina McBride
Poor little Jimmy Dickens was feelin poorly that night and couldn't make it. At 91, who could be surprised?  

Martina not only sang beautifully, she looked gorgeous. 

Martina had two sets that night - the first time out she sang This One's For the Girls, one of her early hits. Then she did Walkin After Midnight - a Patsy Cline classic. Martina is no Patsy Cline obviously, but I think she did Patsy proud. Martina got pipes.

Her second set was Independence Day and that sad song about breast cancer I'm Gonna Love You Through It. Good song but :-(

However this guy was the man of the night. . .  

Yeah, smile Darius - you are THE MAN !!!

Sadly, Darius only sang two songs - Don't Think I Don't Think About It and his new release True Believers.  

Vince sang a song but I can't remember what it was. His voice is so purty though! 
He's also the fella who got to do all the talkin and stuff and presented Darius his Opry thingamabobber.

Then they showed us a video that was supposedly a live feed of Keith Urban in Vegas. Then BA BOOM Keith walked out on stage. 
I was so excited I might have jumped up, screamed my head off missed taking the pic. All I got was a blurry shot of him huggin Darius. And to add insult to injury, my dang camera focused on the microphone. As if. 
But I like how this shot shows Vince grinnin behind em. So whatev.
Darius is only the second African-American to be inducted into the Opry. So he sits in a real special spot with Charlie Pride. Cool.

One of the funniest things Darius said when he was accepting, thanking, etc. was something about Hootie. He said back in the Hootie days he never could get an invite to the Opry but maybe now that he's IN the Opry he could work somethin out. 

Hey Darius - we are SO there ! ! ! Make it happen!

They told us football Hall of Famer Dan Marino was in the crowd. At the end he was on stage with Keith, Darius's family and whoever the other special folks were. I have no idea why Anthony and I weren't asked to join them. 

And just because I know y'all already think I'm crazy. . . 

This is the camera that might have startled me... zooming around right over my head. Sheesh!

BH7 plays Legends in Nashville

Sometimes a man needs some guy time. 

Ever since Anthony and I have been together, we've always done things separately, with friends from time to time. I think that's healthy. Don't get me wrong - I could spend most every wakin moment with him, but sometimes it's okay for us girls to have a girls night and the fellas to have a guys night.

Recently our buddy Brandon played Legends down in Nashville on Broadway. It was his first time to play there, so Anthony and his buddy Clint went.

Clint said he really felt like a roadie when he and Anthony helped Brandon and his band haul in all their equipment. :-P

Brandon has a website (brandonholder.com) and a bunch of tunes out there on Youtube. Check him out.  

Starting in November he's gonna play every Friday night at Second Fiddle. And yes you can enjoy live music without partaking in "strong drink."

just a little FALL FAMILY FUN c'mon

You may recall that my hub's bunch gets together every fall for a bit of family fun in the out of doors... well technically it's his step-dad's bunch but we claim em

Pepa with the newest addition of the family - lil Sawyer 

We had some tasty vittles 
   chili, bbq, rotel dip and tortilla chips, hot dogs roasted on the camp fire, etc.

The fellas always end up playin corn hole

Ima need Joey to paint them boards - 2 years in a row of plain ole, plain ole...

These three look SUR-YUS bout somethin don't they? Solvin the world's problems maybe...

A father and his two sons... a lot of good ole know how in this circle

And just because ...

   life is too short to be serious all the time

a little reading by flashlight courtesy of Pepa

 I mean really, who brings a book to a fall family cookout?! 

McKenzie, that's who! 

Never forget the hayride ~ 

And I'm pretty sure roasted marshmallows will be in Heaven. 
    Uh huh. Yeah.

Good times. Really it was. 
We look forward to this little soiree every year. It's on my list of reasons I love fall. 

I don't have a list. 
But if I did, this would be on it.

catch up on me and some RANDOMNESS post

Here's some stuff we've been doin lately.

~ My mother-in-law cooked supper for us one night and it was deeeelish! Good southern home cookin. Sign me up! (ahem) once a week would be grrreat

~ Mom and I did a bit of shopping one Saturday. Love some girl time!

~ Our friends' son plays football so we went and watched a game one Saturday. The field where they played is the high school field where Anthony and I spent a lot of Friday nights in high school. He actually asked me for our first date after a football game standing on this field. Ahhh the memories. (insert dream sequence music here)
Anyway, I thought it was cool how they used red solo cups to spell out some team spirit - - 

Why didn't we think of that when we were in school?! 

~ We attended a couples conference at church - our first ever. It was really really good. Just a one night deal, but super good. 
One of the things they had us do is to tell each other 10 ways we bless each other. Obviously that's personal, but I have to share a couple of my hub's he wrote about lil ole me. His #1 was that I'm his best friend. Aww. His #2 was that I'm his soul mate. Aww. And the one that made me laugh (in a good way) was the last one on the list - he wrote "you love me even though I suck sometimes." :-)

~ My niece and her hubby delivered some big news. On September 12th, Sasha text me a pic of two pregnancy test sticks. Preggers she is. Excited we are. Then on October 5th, my sweet little daddy text me that Sasha was having TWINS. As in double occupancy, two babies in one womb. Zoinks! Side bar - isn't it ironic that she text me two pregnancy sticks? things that make ya go hmm 
And just today she told me they're identical twins so now we play the waiting game to find out if we'll be buying blue or pink. Trucks and army men or Barbies and dollhouses. Oh what fun!

~ Unfortunately the other day I had to get a filling.  In a tooth. Not cool. I was on such a good long stretch of "good job as usual Lyndy" that my hygienist said "ohh Lyndy... you have a cavity" like she was tellin me a family member didn't make it out of surgery or somethin. I was thinkin ok, it's not the end of the world...

Movin on... 

~ Our dryer died recently. Thankfully on the last load of that weekend (yeah, I only do laundry on weekends). So rather than buy one, Anthony's sister offered hers up! 

Terry came to help Anthony install it. Translation: Terry installed it. 

In this picture I can't help but get a giggle out of how Anthony is watching, hand on hip. He reminds me of those highway workers on the side of the road you drive by. You know, the 3 or 4 men who stand around and watch the one guy dig the hole or whatever. hehehe He did hand Terry a tool here and there.

~ I made an orange pound cake and took it to Diana, my coworker who recently had back surgery and hasn't been able to come back to work yet. It was her birthday and I wanted her to know we love her! It's so fun doing for others.

~ I tried the new spinning class at my gym...

* epic fail *

I know you're not surprised. Neither was I. I'm a clutz. I mean really, who carves out that much skin on a pedal? Me, that's who.

~ Anthony and I took a day off

If you follow me on Instagram and Twitter, you're having deja vu right now. 

We had lunch at O'Charley's, went to see Taken 2 (great movie) and enjoyed some ice cream. It was a nice day! And that evening I even did a bit of scrapbooking. Hadn't done that in forever.
Oh and the silly pic was tough cuz every time we'd try to take it, I'd get so sooooo tickled. I'd laugh so hard I'd start coughing and my eyes would water. Thought you should know that.

~ I've made a few new friends of the female persuasion at our new church which is of course groovy. Well one of the girls in choir had a jewelry party. So I went. And socialized. And bought some jewelry. After all, a girl can't go around unadorned. ;-) 

~ Last weekend we finally tried Chuy's - a Tex Mex joint everyone has been telling us is really good. I agree with you all. It IS very good. And we'll definitely go back. Yum, yum! Best chimichanga I've ever eaten. EVER!!!

* * * * * *
The rest of the stuff we've been gettin into lately is worthy of its own post. Gear up cuz I have some pictures to throw atcha. 

that Zac Brown Band thing - Southern Ground Music & Food Festival

If you read my blog you know my husband and I love some Zac Brown Band. Anthony is in their fan club - the Zamily. So through that we've been to some shows and some fan events. They're cool. And they put on an awesome show in case you've been under a rock for the last 4 or 5 years. They've won Grammys, ACMs, CMA awards, etc. etc. etc. 

And of course I always say they're cool because their first CD was released exclusively by Cracker Barrel. 

They came to our campus for a show before they made it big huge ENORMOUS. But I didn't get their autographs. Or a pic. Didn't even say hi. But I did take their CD home they gave us and made the hub listen. And told him he'd like it. And he did!

In Nashville back in September they had their Southern Ground Music & Food Festival down by the river. It's always awesome to listen to live music outside, is it not?! 

The setup was sweet - we had seats right by the stage and between the catwalks. You could bring a blanket and it was kinda cool to have your own space. 

I went on Saturday night (yes the same day I ran in the half marathon cuh-razy) and Anthony's buddy Clint went with him the night before. There was no way I could have gone the night before the race. I'm fairly sure Clint was glad I couldn't go lol

Anyway, the opening acts were great. Zac and his wife were close by enjoying the tunes for a while. 

An older lady sitting near us had this tat. Oh yes she did. She was SUHR-YUS bout some ZBB. 

Zac and the fellas sounded great, as usual.

yes, there was a 7 ft tall man a few rows from stage in front of us

Here's a link to the set list for the night I went with Anthony - Sat night setlist
Anthony's fave that night was probably the Aerosmith song they did - Sweet Emotion. I have several faves, but I really dug Free, Keep Me In Mind, and Highway 20 Ride. Well, they didn't have a bad song. 

And when John Mayer rolled out (insert scream here) um, he can flat wear out a guitar do you hear me?! I loved NEON!!!!

I screamed EVEN MORE for this gal though - cuz I seriously love me some Sheryl Crow 

I might have the tiniest crush on Jimmy, the violin player. Just a hang out and talk kinda crush. Nothing inappropriate people. Geez!

You deserve that spotlight Jimmy. Shine Jimmy shine.

In all seriousness, he is amazing on his instrument and a super nice guy. I chatted with him at a fan event and he was sooo down to earth and cool.  Really all the guys in the band are.

Zac came down the side catwalk near us for several songs. Spittin distance. Yeah. Pretty neat!

And I'll leave you with this shot for grins...  
    pals since the playground 

If you've never gone to a Zac Brown Band show, I highly recommend it ! Good times you will have. Very good times.