ZZ Topless

I was supposed to attend my college graduation on May 31st in Springfield even though I'm still finishing my last class. I'm a responsible college student and have worked very hard for the past two years doing online courses. The thing about online courses is that you're basically paying out a ton of money to a University for them to simply give you a book and a syllabus and say teach yourself.

Well as responsible and dedicated as I am to my education I decided my time would be best spent doing responsible grown up things. So we went to a ZZ Top Concert at Ft Knox. The previous "we" included me, one of my best friends ever, her 11 year old daughter and some of her other friends. Kirke was sweet enough to stay home and watch all three boys.

I expected that a concert on a military base would have mostly military and military families attending. I could not have been more wrong. The crowd looked as if every trailer park in Kentucky vomitted it's residents right in the middle of the Ft Knox airfield. And if that wasnt bad enough, appearantly many of these people didn't even have time to get dressed before being spewed all around us!

I decided that my time during the opening bands would be best spent taking pictures of people around me to share with all of you. I could not believe what I saw. It didn't take long before the well dressed normal people around me joined by pointing out people that I just had to get a picture of and even letting me use their camera phones when mine died long before ZZ Top even came out!

I saw more topless men that one day than I have in my entire life! Men who found it appropriate to take off their shirts just because they could. It wasn't the great looking guys or the young guys either. It was ugliest, creepiest, most tattooed, pierced nipple, beer belly having group of men I've ever seen!

Women who were probably 30 years old at the very first ZZ Top concert 30 years ago tried to wear the exact same outfit this time as they did 30 years ago. Old ladies with bra-tops on or their tank tops rolled up under thier bras, with their bellies hanging over way too tight jeans or shorts were freaking me the heck out!

And for your viewing pleasure here are the best pictures I could manage from my cell phone. I appologize for the picture quality, it was the best I could do since the tickets said "no cameras" and I was the only one in the audience who actually obeyed and left mine in the car, stupid me!!

First we have the Topless:










And now on to the original ZZ Top Groupies from first few years!






And here are some of my favorites:

This lady walked between our chairs and the row in front of us, very very close in front of us and then she stopped. With her tail right in Wendy's face. I did what any good friend would do and took pictures. I even pretended to "reach out and touch someone"!



Next we have some of my least favorite hairstyles if you can call it that, of all time:






This girl looked like she rubbed a dandilion on her head to get that shade of yellow blonde!



I didn't read the dress code before we left but I'm pretty sure it didn't include wearing pants that your butt will try to eat the whole night!


For a minute I thought that Britany and Avril were at the concert.



And these pictures, well take a look:




And now so that you can forget everything you just saw here's a picture of Cool Dude!

I'm Losing My Mind Already

Well it's been a long day. We came home from dropping off Kirke around 1. I edited all of the pictures Amber took for us and then I let the boys watch cartoons and I laid down for an hour. When I woke up we waited on Amber and to get here and then we went to McDonalds for dinner with Brandy's family. Then we decided to rent 27 dresses and go to Brandy's new house to watch it. Good movie but too long in my opinion.

We just got home a little bit ago and found a pretty little gift all for me! Thanks Roxy!! Guess what it was? Give up? Ok ok I'll tell you.....socks! Yep lots of very cute socks just for me. Socks make me happy and it worked! Thanks so much!

I was feeling pretty good right up until my horrible mind tricked me. Kirke's plane was late leaving St Louis so they missed their connecting flight to Kuwait. The airline put them up in a hotel for the night. In my little jumbled up mind got it in my head at midnight that they were stuck in St Louis for the night. I got so out of hand with this thought that I got excited thinking we'd load up and go on up there to spend tomorrow with him since his flight is a red-eye. As if that wasn't bad enough I even asked the boys if they'd like to go spend the day with daddy tomorrow. They of course said yes. AND I even text messaged Kirke to tell him we were heading to St Louis.

Then my brain kicked back in and said "hey stupid he's not in STL he's over 18 hours away". Oops. Then I had to re-break the boys hearts and tell them Mommy got confused and Daddy isn't in STL. I feel so disappointed that I had let my error in my head get so out of control so fast that it hurt so bad when the reality sunk in. We can't just go and see him anymore. After tomorrow we can't call him or text message him just because we want to either. Is it too late to decide this military lifestyle isn't for me?


Ok lets laugh a little okay. So the Brigade Commander (I think that's who she was she was a Lieutenant Colonel) was talking to my boys and even presented them with a Brigade Coin for their support of the Army. Afterwards she was talking to me and asked when I was due. Yep that's right I've lost around 30 pounds, probably gained 20 back by now but still, and she thought I was pregnant. She said "and when are you due?" and I looked at her and said "never"! She looked like she might panic at this point and said "oh I'm sorry, I can't believe I just did that" and I said "yeah after my hysterectomy we decided we were done having kids". Then a few minutes later I saw Amber pointing the camera in our direction. I decided I'd use that moment to show my mean face at her (she didn't see but who knows who might have) for asking me if I was pregnant!


Then as I looked at the pictures Amber took I realized my shirt made me look about 5 months pregnant. I burned it put it in a bag to donate to goodwill as soon as I got home. Actually I threw it in the trash but decided now that is a wasteful thing to do and I wanna go green so we'll recycle that shirt to someone who is pregnant.

Here's some more pictures for your viewing pleasure (or not if you don't want to see what it really is like for a military family to say goodbye for over a year).

Countdown's Over Let the Saddness and Fear Begin

Why is it that when we are counting down to the date our soldiers are deployed that it is so short and happens so fast, yet once our soldiers do leave the count down until they come home to us is so long? We had an idea when he'd be leaving but didn't know for sure until it was less than two weeks away. Now we have over 400 days until he comes home for good. What can I do with 400 days? 400 nights of sleeping alone. 400 dinners without my husband to wash the dishes afterwards and fill up my Pepsi enjoy them with me. 400 nights of tucking in sad little boys. 400 days of fearing the unmentionable.

Kirke called me from the airport. He said that when they were checking in the lady at United Airlines was trying to charge them for their over weight luggage. Kirke had to step in and explain to the lady that the Army is paying for it because it's all Army gear and they paid a ton for the damn tickets. The lady said "Yeah with the tax payers money!"

Can you believe the nerve of this lady? Here you have four young soldiers, Kirke was by far the oldest at 29, leaving behind wives and children to go fight for her damn freedom and she has the gall to complain about the burden placed on the American public to ship their protective gear to Iraq with them!! She also kept making them move their very heavy bags out of the way so she could wait on first class customers. Wouldn't you think those customers would say "no thank you ma'am please finish up with these brave men first". It's obvious where they're going when they have all of that military luggage and had their orders out.

I did what any irrational, crazy heartbroken soldiers wife good citizen would do. I called United Airlines and asked to speak to a supervisor and filed a complaint. I also intend to send an email to the St Louis airport about the way that their staff is treating American Soldiers and to ensure it won't be happening when the next group leaves.

I was very disappointed in our country today until at 5pm when the post played Retreat and lowered the flag. My kids are very good at stopping and saluting or putting their hand over their heart. However, this isn't typical of all military children. It seems we forget to share some things with our children in the craziness of our lives. But today when my kids stopped to pay respect to our nations flag, some kids down the street who are often out and running wild stopped too. They put thier hands over their little hearts and stood motionless until the music stopped.

That was a moment to be proud of for all of us. Our children learn things from us, they see what we do and try to emulate that. Other children also see what our children do and when you see another child emulate a behavior that you're so proud of in your own child it's a sense of pride like no other.



This is Kirke and the boys hanging up the Service Flag. This flag is displayed when you have a loved one is a part of the Armed Services during a time of war. The soldier doesn't have to be deployed but we keep ours in the deployment box and the three of them hang it before he leaves and take it down when he returns.

My Patriotic Boys

Everyday at 1700 hours military bases around the country play Retreat and lower the flag. The first round of music everyone stands at ease. Then after the first round they shoot the cannon and then start the music and lower the flag. The soldiers ceremoneously fold the flag and then march to put it away until the next morning.

We can hear Retreat played at our house everyday when we're outside. The boys are fast to stop what they are doing and put their hands over their hearts. Kirke decided to teach the boys more about what they are doing because all they knew was that the music meant "they are taking down the American flag". He wanted them to see it in action. We dressed them up in their ACU's (Army Combat Uniforms) and met Kirke at post headquarters to see them lower the flag.

Amber came and took these pictures of us watching the daily ceremony.






After the flag was carried off the boys wanted to see the cannon and I thought it was the perfect place to take these pictures that I wanted before Kirke leaves on Friday. So Amber took these pictures.







And here's a couple more because we had so much fun!







Ok that's it for today. I have lots of great pictures and I will share them and blog my little heart out when I'm husband-less. As for now, I still have my Kirke and need to make the most of it...afterall we have a whole disk left of House to watch and only one more night to watch them.

I don't want my hair cut!

Today Korbin Cool Dude didn't want his hair cut. He can't stand to get the little hairs all over him. Here's my solution:





The last picture is how happy he was to have his hair cut! He just loves it!

Wanna know what really makes me happy?

Do you? You know you do! Well I'm going to tell you! I love, absolutely without a doubt in this world, whole-heartedly LOVE LOVE LOVE new socks! Yeah yeah lame, whatever! I love them!

Socks make me HAPPY! Very very Happy!

I had gotten into wearing lots of cute, colorful, wild and crazy socks. I have some really cute socks. Those are great but don't have the same effect. The other problem is that it's summer. My crazy socks with shorts? My flip flops aren't in good enough condition to really wear out and about so that leaves me with my new super cute Adidas tennis shoes, yep a girls size 5 1/2 but.....I got them for 13 bucks so HA! Laugh at my little feet now!


So I have to wear socks with my tennis shoes because, well, it's gross not to okay! I haven't bought plain white womens athletic socks in some time now. I forgot how absolutely amazing slipping on a pair of brand new, unwashed (yeah yeah shake it off, washing them ruins that new snug feel) pair of socks. I love it so much that if I could afford to I'd buy new socks everyday just so I would start my day off just right!

Now I'm sitting here in my new comfy socks, happy as a clam! Ahhh, the simplicity of my true happiness! Who knew? If Kirke was smart he'd buy me new socks alot to keep me in this stupid happy state of new sock bliss!

How am I supposed to...

How am I supposed to write a paper about the Vietnam War and the protests, social and political consequences right now?

My husband leaves for Iraq in less than a week. Reading about war and trying to wrap my brain around this information is too much right now. I don't want to think about all of those details. I can't separate myself from the reading enough to write objectively. I want to scream. I want to make it all go away. I want our guys to stay home but I know it's not time. I know that their job is not done yet. I understand that by Kirke leaving another husband/daddy/son/brother get's to come home to his (or her, not to leave out the female soldiers) family. I get that, I respect that and I want to be that wife that can say "ok it's our turn" and stays strong but I'm not.

I know that it is our turn and I'm trying to stay strong but it sucks. It sucks to pretend to be ok with it all. Last night Kirke tucked the boys into bed and kissed Korbin good night. Korbin innocently said "no more kisses today Daddy". Kirke said "I'm leaving in a week bud I want to have your kisses". Korbin replied "aww man! I thought it was 5 more weeks". He's not going to handle this well.

So my assignment due tonight will have to be a day late. I can't sit here using up my last Sunday night, fathers day, writing a paper about war. Instead I'll lose 10% credit on it and write it tomorrow while Kirke is at work. He has to take care of the Will, Power Of Attorneys and other paperwork that has to be updated before he heads off to play in the sand for what should amount to be about 13 1/2 months too long.

It's too bad he can't just be deported.

So anyone who wants to do my homework for me just let me know it's due at midnight.

Did I just say that?

Lets lighten the mood up from my last blog. If you haven't read it, please do, I worked hard and it's important.

Ok so you know how sometimes your brain and your mouth don't always work together to make things come out right? Well that happens to me often. Today it just messed up really bad.

We always joke that Korbin and Megan are going to wind up married someday. It's this little joke haha, no harm done. Until today.



Korbin decided to let little Megan ride on his bike with him. I guess maybe because it was her birthday? I don't know but he was being nice to her and I was happy. Also, please know that we would not let them actually ride this way, they were just scooting along. Well Korbin needed to turn around so Megan got off and he started his turn and ran right into Megan!

Being the loving caring mom that I am, who always makes smart alec remarks I shouted to Korbin. The words I meant to say were "that's not how you show love".

Instead I yelled "Korbin that's not how you MAKE love!"

Brandy and I could not stop laughing and I was mortified. There was no way to cover up my mistake with words. Brandy simply said "wow just because she's 4 today doesn't mean she's ready for that!"

Stupid stupid mouth saying the wrong words anyhow!

RFL takes over the Food Enterance at Wal-Mart of St Robert

Let me tell you about the first part of my day. Relay for Life is less than 2 months away now! We had an event team challenge today at our local Wal-Mart. Each team was encouraged to attend and bring out baked goods or something else to sell. Then each team had assigned door (pan-handling duty) time. I love to be at the door asking for donations and find that I'm fairly good at pan-handling.

First please note that last year my dear sweet Tayton was heard saying things such as "hope you don't get cancer" or "don't call us when you die" when people would say no thanks and walk away when asked to donate! I did NOT teach him this or encourage it! But well....it is what it is. And Korbin did say to one lady in a low cut shirt last year "well my mom has boobs too!"

This year, none of that! They were wonderful about soliciting donations. Other than Tayton jumping out to stop people from just walking past him and not donating and Korbins most sincere thank you to a man who did donate being "thank you chicken!" They did great! Amazing little boys and they know why we're out there!


Cancer a horrible monster that in some way has affected nearly everyone in some form or another. Whether it be through a family member, themselves or maybe just a family that has touched their heart through blogging like Julian Avery did mine almost a year ago now.

I'm always amazed at the people who stop and take small children out of their shopping carts, hand them a few cents and teach that child about giving. I'm disappointed in the people coming out with children carrying bags of new toys that refuse to make eye contact or give up those few cents. I'm touched by the ones who stop, drop a few cents and then share a story about a loved one lost to cancer or still fighting that battle. Some will go back into the store to get change others will apologetically search to the bottoms of their purses or pockets with no avail.

Today we had a man who avoided our eye contact on the way in as if we were trying to telepathically force his hand into his pocket to dig out loose change. However, on the way out he stopped. He asked my friend how much he should give. Her response was simply "that's up to you". He dropped a five dollar bill in the bucket then met her gaze again, this time with tears in his eyes, and said, "I just lost my dad to small cell lung cancer". And with that he walked away.

They are the reason we do this. People hurt so much because of this horrible ugly word: Cancer. Why would someone walk by and say "no thanks" to dropping a few cents in a bucket to help find a cure? We aren't the local wrestling team (just an example no offense) asking for money for camp. We have a different idea, we want to help everyone. One in four people will be faced with a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Look around...

Click here to help my team!

That's a long drive for 2 minutes of your time!

Cool Dude Korby Daniel Best is gonna be just fine!


I know that some of you haven't been reading my blog long so if you want to know more about Korbins kidney click here and here.

We got home last night from another trip out of state and left this morning to drive two hours one way to see Korbin's pediatric urologist. He had an ultrasound done on May 19th and they called right away to tell me it was abnormal and we had to go back to Columbia for more tests and whatever else they decide to do. We show up at the appointment and here's how it worked out.

Student Dr.: "blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah let me take a look at the ultrasound and we'll be back in with Dr. Neal."

Dr Neal enters the room. Pushes on Korbins belly: "Does this hurt? This? OK good!"

Dr Neal: "the ultrasound looks good so we'll see him again in a year"

Me: (confused) "what about the kidney being enlarged and stuff isn't that why they sent us back up here?"

Dr Neal: "That left kidney is always going to be bigger than the right because of the problem."

Student Dr: "There is still some back up of urine but nothing to be concerned about. After having a problem like that and fixing the blockage that's going to happen. The kidney should be good for a lifetime"

3 whole minutes later, mind you we drove 2 hours for this, we are on our way out. Now I'm a little confused. Why didn't they just send him the results from the Ft Wood hospital then he could have called us to discuss them. Instead we drove 2 hours to act as the Pony Express and hand deliver a disc? I don't get it.

So we ate lunch at our favorite restaurant in Columbia, The hospital restaurant, Main Street! It's so good and so cheap! We spent 18 bucks and had the most delicious nachos ever made and gigantic diet Pepsi! I couldn't be happier. Unless of course I didn't drive two hours for a meal that cost a third of what we'd spend on gas by the end of the day.

And I invited myself and my family to dine at Brandy's new house tonight too. Then after I told her we were coming for dinner I called Amber to invite her to come too! I hope Brandy's cooking something good!

How far would you go?

We have been so busy on trips since May 11th that I thought it would be fun to write it all down and look at some numbers because I'm a nerd like that.

May 11th we drove from home to St Louis to get Carol (Mother in Law)
Total Estimated Time: 2.0 hours 14 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 137.79 miles (mapquest)Round trip: 275.58 miles 4hr 28 min

May 12th we flew from St Louis to Maryland
First flight took 2 1/2 hours and the second took 1 1/2 hours so 4 hours travel time plus a 5 hour layover and a 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel.

Totals: 9 hours

The 13th we watched Kirkes graduation at 10am and hit the road right afterward to head home and got home on the 15th.
Total Estimated Time: 16.0 hours 24 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 1042.61 miles
(mapquest)Total Miles: 1042.61 miles 32 hr 48 min

Then we took Carol back to St Louis Airport on the 18th. One way:
Total Estimated Time: 2.0 hours 14 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 137.79 miles (mapquest)Round Trip: 274.38 miles 4 hr 28 min

Then we went to Tulsa to get my nephew and neices, straight there and then back on the 23rd.
Total Estimated Time: 3.0 hours 47 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 243.03 miles (one way mapquest)Round trip: 486.06 miles 7 hours 34 min

Next was our drive from here to Ft Knox, KY on May 27 one way:
Total Estimated Time: 6.0 hours 47 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 413.22 miles (mapquest)Round trip: 826.44 miles 13 hours 34 min

Then we went to Oklahoma this weekend, we left on the 5th and came home on the 8th.
One Way:
Total Estimated Time: 7.0 hours 8 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 417.59 miles
Round Trip: 835.18 miles 14 hours 16 mins


Ok so all of this in driving miles totals out to be:
3740.25 miles and 86 hours and 8 minutes of traveling time not counting stops.

Oh and lets add our drive to Columbia tomorrow for Korbin while we're at it: one way
Total Estimated Time: 2.0 hours 4 minutes Total Estimated Distance: 105.65 miles
Round Trip: 211.30 miles 4 hours 8 minutes

From May 11th through June 9th we drove 3951.55 miles 90 hours 16 minutes Used an estimated 180 gallons of fuel which at an average of $3.60/gal (that's a low guess) we spent around $650 in fuel. No wonder we have so many bills piling up!

I QUIT!!!!