Rodeo time is almost upon us, last year we got Schlumberger tickets to see Keith Urban and at the 11th hour we got nosebleeds to see the Black Eyed Peas. It ROCKED and, as it turned out I absolutely LOVED the actual rodeo part of it as much as the live music.
Ticket time has been happening the last week or so, Magz, Sam, their friends visiting from home and us all bought tickets to see the headliner, Ms Janet Jackson (nosebleed seats!)
Wednesday Col went to the Sugar Land SLB office to get tickets, they sold out FAST. Two of the 3 acts he went with on our ‘possible’ list, sold out just before he got to the table, and the last artist, he managed to get 2 of the last 4 tickets.
He got us tickets to see KISS (and is very excited about it!) and informed me that his own office was doing a draw for tickets and he’d put us down for Rascal Flatts and Lady Antebellum.
Yesterday, he tells me that we’d won the draw for both acts and, as much as I’d love to see both, $30 a ticket (SLB club level tickets, which is a pretty good deal mind you), is just a little steep to pick up tickets for both so we settled on Lady Antebellum.
I’m excited! AND I’m in the market for some boots – yes, yours truly, Miss Norn Iron born and raised is going to shop for some proper Texan cowboy boots and I can’t WAIT!
Anyways, continuing on from my last blog post (I split it up cause it was soooooo long!)…
Saturday was a home improvement day, where we had to find out more about our smart water shut off system here which helped our plumbing planning, which resulted in me not getting out of my pjs, yet having a pretty spotless garage (aside from the piles of stuff set aside to go out for the rubbish/recycling), 2 clean cars (mine was cleaned outside AND inside!) and groceries for Sunday dinner up at the Maddens. I had the best crawl space insulation services from Clean Air Doctors also coming by Saturday itself who worked on to bring about a perfect change in the environment inside my home.
Col did a great job (though I’ve not fully appreciated my car cleaning as of yet!). I, on the other hand, spent most of the day in the craft room.
Yes, I can’t believe it took me all day either, but I’ve got the place as close to tidy and organised as I can get without spending a single penny on furniture at the moment.
I’m proud of it, it took the guts of 2 days to do. I have a list of photos I need to print and stuff organised and set aside for Scrapbooking group for a while which helps, I love forward planning!
Sunday we were up pretty early too, it’s unusual in Casa McMaster for both of us to be up early on the weekend, but this weekend it happened, 2 days in a row! *shock!*
We packed up a bag or two and headed up to Magz and Sams for their ‘bring your fave dish’ game afternoon. Turned out it was just the 5 of us (Maddens, McMasters and Tracy) and we arrived just after 1.30pm.
When I say, ‘game afternoon’, I may have been overstating it as we didn’t get home til 10pm last night. But it was lots of fun! We ate a pot luck type lunch (I brought Stew and Chicken Pie!), we played Ligretto (it’s a fab game if you’ve not yet played it!),
Cranium,
Things (which was a guess who’s answer is who’s kind of game) …and Hungry Hippos
and we got lots of doggie cuddles!
Monday morning was the SSA Southwest Coffee morning at my friend Julie’s house. I showed up (late) for an hour and got to see a bunch of people I’ve not seen since August/September time (and some, before!) and there was a bunch of newcomers there too – not to mention, I got me some baby Hazel cuddles (and got her to sleep) which is always fun!
I ‘escaped’ without saying g’bye to any/many people, I wanted to head to the post office before the lunch hour rush to pop things in the mail for Nicole S, Courtney and Sarah K, my car is still screaming for a service (well, obviously, cause I’ve still not serviced it!!) but it started yelling at me for some other ‘failure’ so I came home – not to mention the fact that it’s raining and my tyres aren’t the best for traction on these awful Houston roads (the water just pools on top of the roads causing aqua-planing).
En route, I picked up a Thai green curry, which I split with Magz when she dropped by for knitting and Greys Anatomy in the afternoon – complete with a nice cuppa, it’s always good craic when Magz comes by!
Tuesday was another busy-bee day, up early and more tidying (yes, a person can really have that much organising to do!) before a lovely lunch in the Richmond Arms with some of my SSA lady friends. We had 6 Brits, a Canuck and an Irish chick and spent 2 hours cackling, giggling and chatting – it was great fun! (So much so that I forgot to snap a pic!! Bad Las!)
After lunch, I hit up Target for some grocery shopping, the Dollar store for some ‘social gathering’ supplies for Thursday night (Col doesn’t do ‘parties’ so it’s not a birthday party! LOL!) and a loooooooooong drive home (it’s really only 15 minutes but took me 40! AGH!). At home, I did laundry, made dinner, totally gutted, tidied and dusted our spare room, made up the spare bed, got out everything I need to take with me to Seattle and had a shower – phew! It was a pretty go-go-go day, with nay time for sitting on my arse and doing sweet FA!
Yesterday was another busy one, I got up early and headed out to the SSA Spanish Conversation group. Christie – a lovely Argentinian lady here, has started to teach SSA ladies Spanish and since it’s something Col and I have an interest in, I decided to give it a whirl.
Today was my second class (I’ve missed 3 for various reasons), so, although I can’t say, ‘my name is’, or tell you how I am, where I’m from etc, I can ask what you’d like to drink (‘Que van a tomar?’) and ask where your bathroom is, (‘Donde esta su banos?’).
When I get back from Seattle I’m going to have some 1-to-1 sessions with Christie to catch up on the 3 sessions I’ve missed and Col and I are looking in to doing some classes together as he’d love to learn Spanish also. My goal is to be able to have a conversation with our Argentinian friend Mariano in Spanish – hell, I’d take a conversation with his young son at this rate! haha!!
After Spanish, I hit up Kroger to pick up some cereal (and hit on a great deal)
Each of these items are around $3-$4 full price, today I got them for $1.22 each. Not bad going, considering it was only yesterday that I was telling Amber I can never get Crystal light for a good price!
I cooked a leg of lamb in honour of Australia Day and Col and I blitzed the downstairs. Swept and mopped the floor, kitchen done, downstairs bathroom done, living room tidied and I’ve plonked myself on the sofa for some knitting, while Col’s taken my car out for it’s weekly blast to Pearland for footy!
This morning, I was supposed to be hosting the SSA’s first kid-friendly ‘Stitch’n’bitch’ which (cause some people can be sensitive) we’re lovingly calling, ‘Be Creative’. I expected there to be 3 of us, but just Magz and I were there – I’ve had a good response rate for my February dates, so we’ll see how it goes!
So as well as doing some stitching and bitching, Magz helped me do a little decorating, she cooked Col some sausage rolls and we started to watch ‘One born every minute’ on 4OD – what a great programme!
This afternoon I’m hoping to not have to do much, I’m knackered and could do with a moment on my butt ahead of tonight’s gathering. So far, the Maddens, the Stevensons, the Rojas and the Georges are all confirmed attending with the Ribauls being a strong maybe. Either way it’s going to be a fun group with lots of games (and pictures! LOL!).
Here’s a funny story to leave you with…a friend of my family died last week (no, that’s not the funny part of the story so stop laughing!). Catholics tend to ‘wake’ their dead for a few days prior to burial, the concept of which freaks most non-Catholics I know out, big time, and my husband is no exception. What that means is the body of the deceased is moved from the funeral home to their home where they remain for the few days running up to the funeral. People come around, drink, sit with the body, drink, tell stories and drink.
Col was saying that he’d never ‘wake’ me, but he wouldn’t want to lose me, especially my butt. He said he’s gonna wait for Groupon to have an offer to take casts of your body parts and just have a cast of my ass made – the way he said it was funnier than I’m re-telling (isn’t it always?) lol!!
Until next time, which, will probably be soon cause we’ve got a busy week planned in Seattle! yay!!