Houston Rodeo

Matt and I have gone to the Houston Rodeo ever since we moved to Texas. We really enjoy seeing all the animals in the livestock area, the baby animals, the shows and of course the real rodeo. This year my family came over to my brothers house to experience it for the first time. All of us armed with our cowboy boots, we were ready. There will be lots of pics, so I apologize.

 I want to note how awful I look in this picture, but my Mom and Sis look great, so I had to post it.

Matt and I on the bus after parking.

 Mom and Dad

I told Matt to not look at the camera and he did, so I got this creepy smile from him. bahaha.

Inside the livestock area, you got to see the piglets and calf's that were just born within the past few days. It was so fun. 

 Here are some really "pretty" tractors that 4-H students rebuilt and painted. 

 Here is T and me with our matching red boots. She is definitely the cuter of the two of us. 

 The girls w/ their boots on. 

 I love this picture of the three girls where T is crying. 

 The rodeo! Here is the covered wagon race. 

They also had the calf chase and Muttin Bustin', but I didn't get good pictures of those. 

The performer that night was Brad Paisley and he was great! Matt and I really love his music and were excited that we were going to get to see him. I was worried about my brother since he doesn't like Country music, but he really enjoyed it. He put on a good show.  I kept thinking my Dad would love him, since he is really awesome on the guitar, but I forgot that my Dad isn't used to the electric guitar. He told me it was too loud when I asked him if he liked it, oh well.

 His stage turned in a circle so everyone could see, it was really neat. 

 The fairgrounds outside

I will post some more pictures soon of the weekend since it was my brothers birthday too. 

Mac - Picture of the week - The stare

Does anyone else's pet give them the stare? Mac is notorious for that. He will sit at the end of the hall way and either stare off into space or just stare at us. It is sometimes kinda creepy, in which we call him the creeper, but he does this all the time. Here are some examples:

Chilling in the chair across the room

 (The close up)

 (don't look at all the stuff on my counter tops, its always that messy.)

Staring at me in the hallway. 

Staring off into nothingness. We were in the middle of playing ball and he just stops and stares.

Here he is in the yard just looking off into the distance. 

Here he is staring at nothing while sitting in his half empty pool. 

See nothing! nothing to look at.

(I guess another question to ask is why is he sitting his his half empty pool. You've got me on that one. I am not sure if he doesn't realize there is no water or not.)

Does anyone else catch their pet staring off into the distance? Does anyone else think it's kinda creepy odd? 

Friday's lunch

Today for lunch when I went home, this spring weather was just amazing! I told Matt that we had to eat lunch outside and enjoy the temps since it won't last for long. We like to watch Mac sunbathe and stare into the sun. I wonder what he thinks about.

A happy boy!

 After I finished lunch, I pulled out the wonderful Hammock hubby gave me for my bday a few years ago. It was chillin' in the old storage bench during the winter cooler months. 

 Here was my companion. He didn't quite know what to think of it.

 Oh, and check out my new glasses I got for $3 @ TJ Maxx yesterday. They were from American Eagle. I love great deals!

I can't wait for the weekend, so I can spend the whole day like this! All I need is for hubby to come out and feed me grapes and fan me w/ a palm leaf. 

However I have a feeling I will be helping Matt fix my car. Or just watch him, I get nervous when people work on cars by their selves. Sunday we might got and see 21 Jump Street or the Hunger Games. What are your plans for the weekend? Going to see any movies? 

Mississippi

My Hubby's family has property in Mississippi that they go and visit/hunt/camp at often. For as long as Matt and I have been together, I have never gotten to go out and see it. Until now. We finally had some free time when we were visiting in the summer, to go out and walk around . We brought the dogs and thought it would be good for them to run around a bit out there too. 

The old house

The road diverged. 

Pups on the leash

Off their leashes and trusting that they won't run away. I was so nervous that Mac might run off chasing something and that we would loose him. Luckily he stayed right behind my father in law and did great!

The side of the old house. 

Inside the floors are falling apart, but just look at how beautiful this floor covering is. I believe it is some kind of laminate. I wonder if they still make this? 

Mac covered in stickers from the tall grass. He so happy and having the time of his life!

The three of us with the pups before heading back to attend a crawfish boil!

I love visiting our old family homes. There is so much history and character in the old houses. We are working on cleaning out my grandparents house in Illinois still. They have been gone for almost 10 years now. We are slowly moving stuff out and around as the old house is falling apart in some areas. It is mostly old books my grandfather had in his library, or libraries I should say. I will have to find those pictures and post them for you. It is quite the undertaking. 

Mac - Picture of the week

I meant to post this on Friday, sorry I am a day late. Life happens as we all know. The below pictures are from a recent maternity photo session I was taking for my friend. The whole time I was running into Mac who just happened to be where I needed to be at that moment. You all know how that goes. Pets are always in the most inopportune place. I guess Mac got tired of me tripping on him and decided he needed more attention. Therefore he decided to get in the pictures.

He started as a lump, hiding behind the background. 

Then eventually came out and just stood there in the picture. 

Then he laid down

And stayed there. 

Eventually he flopped over on his side and went to sleep. 

Just look at this sad face. This is his poutty face, when he doesn't get any attention. Just pitiful huh? 

Does anyone else's pet pout? What are some things they do when they don't get attention like they want? 

*Disclaimer* These pictures have not been edited and are not shown as a final product. They are just for fun and to show how cute and needy my puppy can be.

Beef....it's whats for dinner?

Does everyone remember those commercials. haha. Sorry for the absence here on the blog. My computer at home that had all of my pictures wasn't very happy with me. Apparently he was very full, and needed a bigger hard drive. Thanks to a very good friend who is computer savvy, my computer is back up and running w/ plenty of storage space for the moment. I won't be posting EVERY day, but I hope to keep doing it a few times a week. Be sure to hold me to it.

The insides of Mac the computer, (I know my computer and the dog have the same name, talk to Steve Jobs about that, not me.)

Last night I cooked a rocking recipe from Real Simple's magazine (Aug 2010 issue). I love this magazine and the recipes they put in there are usually really good. I am so glad I saved this one and tried it last night because it will now become a regular in our dinner rotation. It was super easy and fast to make. It does really only take 20 mins to make and cook. So instead of heading to the freezer for that frozen pizza or to the pantry for some hamburger helper, you can get a home cooked meal for the same amount of time and work. Here is the recipe:

You might notice in the top right corner I wrote "great". I like to put that on recipes that I have tried for a few reasons. #1, so that I can remember that I cooked it (I have a bad memory), and #2 so that I remember if it was good or great or not. If not, then I will get rid of the recipe. If good or great, I'll keep it in the rotation. 

Here is a close up of the "great" rating.

Here is our take on it. Not a great pic from my phone, but I think it still looked tasty.

Do you have a rating system for your recipes? Does anyone else have tons of recipes strewn around their kitchen? I really need to take some time and put all of my recipes taken from magazine and website and put them all in a binder, organized.