A Girl and Her Dog

Friday, July 3, 2009

UNSTOPPABLE TOUR

June 14 Olivia and I went to my FIRST concert.

Yes I did see Rascal Flatts in March at the rodeo but they can't do all the theatrics there. This was also a different tour. In March it was the Bob That Head Tour and this one is the UNSTOPPABLE TOUR for their new album. GREAT CD!

I am a member of their fan club and I won a backstage pass to meet Jay, Joe Don, and Gary. I also won 2 tickets so the day of the concert I had 4 tickets. I gave 2 of my tickets to Ryan,

a friend from camp, and he meet us there at the concert. I also meet up with Alicia who I met via the fan club.

We both won meet and greets so we chatted in line while we waited for the guys. We had been chatting online for about a month before we met and we also met other "fam" members. SO fun.

I was pretty calm but Alicia on the other hand. She was fine until we went back and saw the guys. At first sight she freaked...me I laughed at her. I did try to calm her but she had been waiting 4 years to meet them and she ADORES Gary. It was her turn and she freaked. She gave Gary the biggest hug I have ever seen. Then she went to Joe Don and Jay. She ran, not walked, ran back to Gary. Squeezed him again and said OH MY GOD about 10 times and then turned around to take the picture.

Then it was my turn and of course I had to become shy. I had gotten a gift for Joe Don's son because his first birthday was two weeks before our concert and I wanted to get Jag something. I had the gift in my hand and I guess JD heard Alicia ask one of the guys back there if I could give him a gift since they were taking the gifts. Gary said Hi to me and JD stood in front of me. I handed him the gift and said it was for Jag's 1st birthday. He opened the gift which was a t-shirt

The guys loved it and Gary asked if he could wear it since it was so hot that day. I told him if it fit why not. JD gave me a hug and said thank you. Such a sweetie. By that time it was time for picture. I didn't want the typical person in a wheelchair pose that I have seen so I asked Jay to be behind me and then I wanted JD and Gary on either side. We didn't get the exact pose I wanted but I LOVE MY PICTURE!

By the time we were setting up to get the picture Alicia calmed down and was able to help me get the guys how I wanted them. I even had my head on Jay's shoulder. Once the picture was taken they said bye and one of them squeezed my arm as I was leaving. Alicia and I think it was Jay. If you haven't figured out yet Jay is my favorite. :) The meet and greet was a blast and we hope to have many more.

After the meet and greet we went and took our seats for the concert.

Darius Rucker was opening for Rascal Flatts and he was good. I haven't really heard many of his songs but he has a new fan.

Then it was on to SUMMER NIGHTS! They opened the show with summer nights and from then on it was nonstop bobbing of heads with the gang.

The guys really know how to put on an awesome show. They did a lot of older songs of theirs as well as a few of the new songs. Gary knows how to get us girls going with his smooth voice and moves.

Joe Don the cutie he has a great voice and can flirt with all the girls by just looking their way. He sang Mayberry and brought back the talk box for Me and My Gang. All I can say about the talk box is OMG! He makes me melt.

Jay is a great bass player and loves to crack jokes during the set. He told us how we can get on Joe Don's bus

and to wait till Hanna Montana comes out on DVD. Didn't mean it as a joke but still pretty funny. Jay is a cutie with his gorgeous blue eyes and dimples.

Here Comes Goodbye is one of their singles out right now and it sounded fabulous live.

Someone handed the guys a note and wanted a picture of the guys so the guys obliged.

They obliged for all of us with “the butt picture”. So many people take butt pictures during their shows they decided to give us easy access for “the butt picture.”

Then they gave us cute poses of all three together.

Chank, the fiddler, likes to try and make Gary mess up. Gary did forget where he was in the song What Hurts The Most. It is funny because I had just seen an interview where Gary talked about messing up during shows.

Olivia and I learned from the rodeo that when they say goodnight thanks for coming and just walk off stage the show is not over. They came back with Revolution

and Darius Rucker came back. Life is a Highway was the last song and that was a great way to end the show.

The guys had 18-wheelers out by the buses that are decorated with Rascal Flatts Pictures. A great photo opportunity too.

Handicap parking was next to the tour buses of the guys so we were going to wait a little bit but the police kept saying that they were not the guys buses so we decided to leave. As we were driving out we saw they were the guys buses. Oh well. That was an awesome night!

**thanks to Deanna for some of these pictures

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Moody Gardens with Michelle, Jolene, and Justine

I know I am late with all these. At the beginning of the month Michelle was down visiting her mother with her girls. One day Olivia, Watty and I took the girls to Moody Gardens. We had a blast. We did the aquarium, a 3-d movie, paddle boat ride, and the girls got to play at Palm beach.

Olivia

Jolene, Me, Watty, Justine

Michelle and Justine being frogs

penguins

Justine looking at the penguins

The Colonel

Olivia and the Colonel

Model Jolene

Michelle and Watty on the Colonel

Watty's paw print in the sand

Michelle and Watty

Michelle asked Watty to do a "here up" and this is what happened :)

Trying to keep Watty cool while the girls play on the water slide and fountains

Watty's reaction to the boat's horn

Watty scratching his nose in the sand

Watty's first meeting with a dino

Monday, June 1, 2009

Houdini 1991-2009

We got Houdini in 1991 after our cat BC died while we were on vacation. Houdini was from a litter that his mom abandoned. He was bottle fed before we got him so he never really knew how to give us affection except by biting or scratching us. Funny way of showing affection, huh? Justin decided to name Houdini and I forget the reason but he was a houdini. He had escaped the laundry room a coupel times and we had know idea how he did it. He did have his sweet side too. He loved to sit on your chest while you were watching TV. It was always as far up as he could get and he would be in your line of sight. He also had the loudest pur I had ever heard.

He was so good around Chip, Shocker, Watty, and Ellie. He was so good around my attendant's 2 year old too. He would lay all on top of him and when Houdini was done with it he would walk away. Shocker never messed with Houdini but Watty sure did. Watty would run up to him and lick him in the face. I think that stunded Houdini everytime because he had a weird look on his face like that wasn't suppose to happen. Watty also tried to get him to play but he never did. Houdini and Chip loved to share food. :P Chip would eat the food Houdini didn't eat and Houdini would eat Chip's food.

Today we had to put Houdini to sleep. For the past few months he had been on medicine but stopped taking it. All he would do is lick it, so we knew the time was close because he wasn't eating as much as he use too. Saturday he could barely walk out of the laundry room. By the time we noticed this the vets office was closed. We watched him Saturday and Sunday and noticed he wasn't getting any better and there was no change. We took him to the vet this morning and told us he was dehydrated and they could do all these tests to see what was going on. It would have been a $500 bill but the vet said it might not even help. Since he is 17 and had a good life we decided the best thing to do was to let him go and not go through all the test. He was a good kitty and will be missed.