Southern Blondie: June 2011

When Did I Grow Up?

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"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
- Maya Angelou

 

(Last weeks fortune...still waiting on the 'happy news')

I've had a writer's block here lately. Probably because life has been so busy that I have felt up, down, spinned around and then just plain tired.

Yes. Excuses are signs of weaknesses and I'm not one to use them often, so here goes a re-cap. 

Trying new things like 'Golden Raspberries. I actually like them.
Life: 

Growing up, my dad would always say, "Life isn't fair" or "Life isn't easy." When you're growing up you don't believe it. Well. I now believe it. I guess at 25 I can start to say that my parents are right. That's a hard pill to swallow. 

Life isn't easy. It can be really hard. Last week, life was hard. I was being pushed in every area. Between work and play and just things going on, I was probably asleep every night by 10 p.m. if not earlier. 

I'm happy with life being uneasy sometimes. It pushes me to do better and be better. If you're not comfortable in your life, then you know things are progressing. Good or bad, you're learning.


Friends and Dating: 

If you know me, you know that I'm honest. I'm a say-what-you-mean kind of girl. I'm not one to super sugar coat things and I don't expect that from any of my friends either. 

Life is hard enough (see paragraph above) to not say what's on your mind. Lately my friends have been pretty vocal about my dating, or lack-there-of, dating life. 

Yes, I get asked out. No, I don't go. (Mom I don't want a phone call about this.) Here's the thing, I'm not ready to date. I haven't been in a real relationship in a while and I'm just not sure I'm ready to bring someone in my life right now. Maybe that's a terrible excuse, maybe I'm 'sabotaging' myself...what I was told, not what I think, but I can't help it. I know what I want in life, I'm not in the 'find out' stage. I already know. Why waste someone's time if I know it's not the right one? 

I may be completely off base with this and I'll be happy to take everyone's opinions, but I think when you're ready you know. 

Gravy:
I'm working hard to perfect my white gravy. I'm going to keep doing it until Paula Deen calls me for advice. 

I have big goals in life. 
Randoms:


1.  My dog was really tired. She has a hard life. Eating bones and treats all day would wear anyone out.  

2.  I've realized that I don't like orange juice. It's taken 25 years for me to say this, but I don't like it.

3. My friend Sara and I have considered trying out for The Bachelor together. Not for the guy, just to travel all over the place. 

4. I got a little sunburned Saturday at the pool. I look silly now with these random tan lines. 

5. It's time I go to St. Louis this year to a Cardinals game. It's just time.

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Wordless Wednesday: Trouble

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Microwaved Baked Beans

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Huh? Microwave baked beans? Yes. Microwave baked beans. That's what I cooked tonight.

I'm in my small home town because it's Father's Day and because I had to get my car back. After new brakes, tire-alignment, tire check, ordering new parts for the front, this and that and words I'll never understand, White Lightening is good to go!

Can't keep a good girl down for long.

Anyways, back to the important subject at hand. Microwaved Baked Beans.Tonight my parents decided for supper they wanted grilled hamburgers. Not sure if it was the grilled part or the fact that it's summer, but baked beans sounded delicious. Since we didn't have a fancy can already bought and there wasn't enough time to bake them in the oven, we had to do the next best thing. Microwave!

 Tonight's Cast of Characters Include: 
1 Can of Pork and Beans (Sounds country)
Just little less than 1/2 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of Barbeque sauce (your choice. I used what was in the fridge.)
1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
Couple of cut peppers (optional)
1 good squeeze of mustard

 Open yer beans. 

 Pour them in a microwaveable dish. 
I know these directions are difficult. Whew. 


Getch yo onion and chop it reel fine. 


Now. Put the onion in the pot with beans!
 
Whew. Hope everyone can keep up.

 Add the ketchup. 

 The Le Barbeque Sauce. 

Diced peppers.

Hardy squeeze of mustard.

 Mix well. 

Stick your pretty, little country dish  in the microwave.

Cover it up. 

 Set it for 3 min. 

Stir. 

Set it for 5 min. 

Stir. 

Set it for 2 min. 

Stir.

Put on a mitton and take it out of the oven. 
It's gonna be hot.

Give a minute to cool...

If you're like me then getcha a bowl, put in some baked beans and eat. 

I don't like to mix beans on my plate. It's weird to me. There is no reason to be like me when it comes to beans. Means you have to clean up two dishes.

Enjoy.
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I'd Settle for a Slow Down...Now.

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I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.
- Mae West 

  Sunset it Little Rock this week.

Okay. I feel as if I've learned my lesson. Going 90-to-nothing for weeks straight isn't good for your body. Especially if your body was sick last week. Especially if your body was sick last week and the doctor told you to slow down. Especially if your body was sick last week, the doctor told you to slow down and you went to Nashville for four days and nights and went 120-to-nothing.

I get it. At some point in life, you have to slow down or your body will slow down for you. Well much like my car on Monday, my body decided that it would take control of itself, become sick and sleep for 14 hours yesterday.

Eh. I'm going to learn this lesson one day.
 

Say hello to the second  tomato that was picked out of my dad's garden. The first one went to my mom...second to me. There is a pecking order in my family apparently. A pecking order never bothers me as long as I am first...put me second and you're going to hear about it.

The tomato was delightful and I now cannot wait until I receive my next one.



This is what I would like to share with everyone. All eight of you. I appreciate all eight of you as well. This is the absolute BEST yogurt I have ever had. I don't even like yogurt. I use to buy it just to act like I was a yogurt person. I was a wannabe yogurter. After I tried this yogurt off of a co-worker I became a real yogurter. This stuff is good. Real good. I cannot talk about how good this stuff is. I ate some last night. I had some this morning. I was afraid to bring it to work with me today or I would just eat it all day. I think that would be too much yogurt. Anyways. Best Yogurt Ever. Period.


Back to the Nashville trip, I know I never updated on the last day, but it was lots of fun. We had a great time all in all and even though we may not be going back next year (two years in a row is a lot) I cannot wait to go somewhere else with all of em! 
 Scott Plauche Photography, Inc.

Oh...and remember that wedding I talked about a lot? Well here is a professional picture that was taken from all of the girls. Fun, right?

Today is Friday. My ramble is over. I'm taking it easy this weekend. Don't believe me? Well me either really.
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Saved By The Grace of God

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You know the old saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans..."

Well not that I was trying to make God laugh today, but he sure showed me who was boss. I woke up this morning in Nashville, got all of my things together, hugged Courtney and Lauren good bye and set off to come back to Arkansas.

I knew if I left by 10 a.m. then I could be back by 3 p.m. which would leave me plenty of time to shower, do laundry, go to the grocery store, run errands, blog about the last day of CMA fest, rest and watch the Bachelorette.

However, my plan just wasn't meant to happen today. As I was driving through Memphis the sky looked a little grey, but nothing to be concerned about. When I started driving through West Memphis the sky was brown...I'm not even kidding the sky was brown. I snapped a picture with my phone (safely) and prayed I wasn't about to be in the middle of a tornado.

The rain was so strong as I kept on going that I couldn't see the road. I decided to pull over on the side with my flashers on because it was just too dangerous to drive. I knew this was going to set my back on time but I figured safety first, right?

The rain started to let up so I decided to keep on driving. It was raining at a light, regular pace. Nothing strong. Nothing that I had never driven through before. I wasn't texting. I wasn't on the phone. The music wasn't up too loudly and I was just driving along.

This was the calm before the twirl.

All of a sudden I feel my car hydro-plane. I had felt this before so I thought I had just hit a wet stop and could keep driving straight but I couldn't. Before I knew what was going on my car was spinning around the interstate then spinning into the grass towards the other side of the Interstate. 

When someone says they saw their life flash before their eyes, they aren't kidding. It happens. During the spinning and movement I thought about things, I saw images, I prayed, I was ready to go if the Lord was about to take me. The first thing I thought about was my family. Then friends. I thought about people who aren't in my life anymore. I thought about the fact that my dad just got my car detailed. I prepared my body to get hit by another car. I prayed that if that happened the other person would be okay. I thought about what a great weekend I had in Nashville. I prayed that if it was my time to go that it would be quick and painless. I thought about how I wasn't going to be able to blog anymore. I wondered what people would say about me. I wished I had gotten extra tea at lunch. I prayed that it would all stop.

And then it stopped.

I was in my car. I was sitting right side up. I hadn't flipped. I hadn't hit anyone. No one had hit me. I was in the middle of the median. I was okay.

I was okay. I was okay. I was okay.

That's the first thing I thought about. My hands started to shake and I reached up to press the OnStar button...

"Hello, Miss Clark. Are you okay?"

The minute that someone asks, 'are you okay' is the moment your realize OH MY GOSH what just happened? My voice was shaking, I was shaking, I just wanted out of the middle of the Interstate. Don't get me wrong, I like to put on a fun show, but I didn't want to put on this kind of show.

I'm not sure if OnStar called the police, if someone saw me twirling around the Interstate and called or if I was just extra lucky and one happened to be traveling that way, but a trooper pulled up and asked if everything was okay.

I realized that I actually was alive. I wasn't on my way to meet my maker and decided to see if my legs would work. (I thought if I stood up out of the car, which was on an incline, that I would faint and just fall in the mud. Since I had decided to wear a white t-shirt I didn't want to put on that kind of show either with mud all over the place.
See the big white truck? That's where I started...


I got out of the car, saw that at least my side didn't have severe damage, went to the trunk which was in one piece, popped it up and switched from flip-flops to boots and found a jacket. Good. Now it looked like I was dressed for the farm with daisy dukes, now muddy boots and a white t-shirt. Perfect.

The trooper kind of laughed when he saw I had put boots on but if I had just survived I didn't want muddy toes. That's creepy to me. Ewwww

Trooper Awesome (his last name was too hard to say) tried to get my car out of the ditch but since I have this traction control thing it made it harder.

This isn't where it ended up...This is where the trooper tried to drive it to but it wasn't budging.
Want to hear some irony? My traction control was ON when I hydro-planed but turned OFF when he tried to get me out of the ditch. Get the irony? The traction control turned on made me twirl and turned off couldn't gain traction.
Nice, huh?

 Had to boost the car...
Notice how I am facing west while the Interstate is facing east...

After Trooper Awesome and Trooper Cutie helped and did what they could, OnStar finally got a wrecker to pull me out. The wonderful wrecker people who were so nice pulled me out and let me follow them (my car is drivable and fine) to their shop. They raised my car up to pull out all of the grass, mud and nasty junk that was stuck between the tires, by the exhaust and all up in the bottom side.

As I waited in the ditch, waited for the wrecker, waited at the wrecker, all I could think about was how lucky I was today. Actually, no, it wasn't luck. It was the Grace of God. I don't talk about religion a lot, I don't beat the Bible to others, I don't put my opinion out there, but I know what I believe and I believe in prayer.

Everyone keeps asking, did you have your hands on the wheel? Did you press on your breaks? All I can say is that I don't know because I'm pretty sure someone else was driving the car for me to protect me.

Maybe sometimes we need to be twirled to be set straight.

Something to think about.
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YeeHaw and Giddy Up!

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Yesterday the whole group was tired.  Everyone needed a break so we took it easy and just hung out for a while, went to eat lunch and didn't push it too far. Billy Ray Cyrus was playing at around 4:45 p.m. and I knew this was my chance to hear Achy Breaky Heart. There is no way I would have missed this. Lauren and I got dressed and headed down to the daytime concerts.

I'm not going to lie - Billy Ray did a much better job than I would have expect him. He played for almost an hour, seemed really into it, and played lots of his old songs...which I know all the words to. I was getting worried because he kept waiting to play Achy Breaky Heart. My heart would have been broken had he not sang it...luckily for my heart, he sang it!

Hi Rednecks! 

Hi Billy! I wish everyone could see his mullet. It's still pretty awesome.

Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it'd understand...

After Billy Ray, Lauren and I headed to meet Melissa and Courtney for dinner. There are pictures but they aren't on my camera so those will have to be shared later...

Josh Turner played last night...amazing. 


Trace Adkins played last night and this was the first time I had ever seen him. He's good. He's real good.

Courtney, Me and Lauren enjoying some country music. 

This was the one night we actually sat in our seats.


Oh Trace... No way would I ever take you. You're scary looking.
Martina will sing you out of the stadium. 

This might be the most awesome picture ever. 

Lauren...where are you looking?
I can't get anyone to focus!
While Martina was singing she brought on one of the American Idol contestants named Lauren. That's about all I know.

Rascal Flatts. Eh.

After a long weekend what makes it all better? Pizza at 1 a.m.

Day four starts as soon as I can get off here and get dressed.
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What Was I Thinkin...

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Day two of Nashville CMA Fest was just as productive as day 1...

We started the day off going to eat lunch at Pie in the Sky. We ate there last year and it's close to our hotel so we knew we'd be in for a good time. 
We headed down to the day time concerts after lunch to listen to the Sawyer Brown band, James Wesley and Darryl Worley.

By the way...Darryl Worley isn't that good. At all.

After listening to the afternoon bands we went and ate at B.B. Kings then headed over to the big stage for the night concerts. 

Last night we listened to...Dierks Bentley...Lady Antebellum...Sugarland...Keith Urban...Clay Walker and Reba.

Sawyer Brown Band

While we were walking around we saw some BC Powder people whose motto is just...Shake it Off.

This happens from time to time...
Sitting in the shade, drinking lemonade, and listening to music.

We kept another tradition we started last year by eating dinner at B.B. Kings.
Between the shirt and the creepy guys things are starting to get weird...
Nashville Skyline at sunset.

Group shot!

Waiting for the big shows...
Luckily enough I found someone to spin around with!
He even flipped me around. He was fun. 

Sugarland...Keith Urban...Dierks Bentley...Heaven 

Shania Twain came out as a surprise to introduce Sugarland.

Stuck like glue... you and me baby we're stuck like glue.

I love this picture for so many reasons.
And the real one..
Guess who it is?
Reba...
I shall now call her Reba the Diva because she took forever to get on stage. 

 
Sharing love.
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