She's gorgeous and real and being with her is the epitome of feeling that you are with family you like. Please join me in celebrating the day this beautiful person graced the world.
And for you dear Becky I've found some Cravin' Melon doing 'Sweet Tea' *grin*
Yesterday I got an early present with Jimmie Johnson winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover.
But I'd already had the Best. Present. Ever.
My wonderful husband, Brad, decided that, in honor of this milestone, he would give me a special present---the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Kentucky Speedway. I've wanted to do this forever and Friday he made it happen.
All dressed and waiting for the driver's meeting.
We had videos and some classroom instruction on the cars and what we would be doing. That's our crew chief 'Jr'. There were 8 in my class--I was the only chick.
As you can see it was a perfect day. The track is located in Sparta--about an hour and twenty minutes from Lexington. This is just one of the Petty haulers.
My class waiting for the first class to finish.
This is the ride along car---you get to ride shotgun with a professional driver--in this case another woman ---and feel what it is like to zip around the track at 165 MPH.
Getting in and out is a trick in that helmet and HANS device. The ride along was just AMAZING! I loved every second of it.
Waiting for a car to drive Each driver has a 'trainer'. You follow them on the track keeping about 3 car lengths between you. They show you were the best line is on the track so that you can get your speed up.
Tony was my 'coach'--he's putting the HANS on. The HANS is a head and neck restraint system. The folks at Petty take safety very seriously. This is an inherently dangerous activity but I never felt concerned.
Strapped in and ready to go!
The first part of my session was 8 laps and then pit for discussion and tips and encouragement. Tony was a hoot and very upbeat. It took me a while to get comfortable with the feel of the car and start pushing for speed. It's so different from driving a street car. This is the first break.
I then did 11 laps and came back in. There were faster cars than me so we had to stay low on the track a lot during that time and I couldn't get into a rhythm to get decent speed during that second session. The guys were super cool and sorted it so that I could have some laps by myself during my last 11 laps.
That was F.U.N!!!! I started getting faster each lap and topped 109 just as they waved the checkered flag ending the session.
I was laughing and grinning for a while--it was just a blast.
We took the backroads home, enjoying the perfect weather and reveling in each other's company.
There is no doubt I'll remember this day forever.
But the experience of a lifetime for me is repeated every morning when I wake up and reach to touch him and we say 'I love you' and every night when we kiss goodnight and in a thousand little moments in between.
I love you, baby. You are the greatest gift I will ever receive and I treasure you and our life together.
I was playing Wordscraper on Facebook when a sidebar display ad caught my eye as a potential 'fail'. It was for the Giant Gummy Bear on a Stick and proudly proclaimed that they were "hand made (with gloves on)". I just had to follow that link------
Thank you Vat19 for this morning's giggle.
Smooches and some sticky Gummy Bear gropes babies.
I have been very much 'skimming' blogs in my Reader of late. It's very difficult to get even that done some days. I miss interacting as much as I used to but reading my friends' thoughts is still an important part of my life.
Even though she thinks I don't know ( I do *giggle*)she is slipping by to see me here and there Ms. Busy has gifted me with a sweet Blogging Buddy award. It's pretty cool that after 3 plus years what started with the Soul Patrol is still going strong.
The Rules of Accepting and Sharing this Award
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate a few bloggers who show an attitude of gratitude
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received this award.
5. Share the love and link to this post and the person who nominated you for the award.
6. Tell us how you've come to have an attitude of gratitude.
I don't normally do these because I don't want folks to feel left out--I have a LOT of wonderful friends I've met through blogging. But because they were the first and it is that time of year
I'm going to nominate Vinny, Ann, Trav, Lee Ann, and Mary---Busy too---my Soul Patrol peeps for more than three years. They got me into blogging and helped me re-open my eyes to life's glorious fun. That may sound a little over the top but it's not---it is all true.
They are a fine bunch of folks and I am honored to call them friends.
Last summer we had a new deck built on Bliss Manor. They started about 1 PM on a Tuesday and by 5 PM Thursday we were lounging and cooking some supper.
So I was quite optimistic that we'd make a quick go of it when we decided to take on the task of staining/sealing it ourselves. I researched the best stain (Defy) and we assembled the gear and got going about 11 AM on a Saturday. We worked until 7 PM and this-----
----is all we got done. Why just the rails down just two sides in 8 straight hours of work you say? They neglected to mention that every linear foot of rail/spindles (32 feet in these two portions) is equal to five square feet of deck to be stained. In bright 85 degree sunlight. On about five hours sleep(me). Hungover(also me). Red Bull and Donato's pizza would have been excellent sponsors as their products made it possible.
So sunburned (me again) and fully hydrated we started out the next morning at 7:30. The floor was a breeze. However we had another long rail of spindles ahead....
We realized that we would need more stain (that whole 5x more for the spindles thing) so we took a break at noon and got two more gallons and then plunged back at 1 PM. It became obvious toward the later afternoon that we'd likely need yet another gallon so I headed back to the paint store. As I'm making my request from the very nice lady at the counter some know-it-all tool chimes in "Are you doing this in direct sunlight?" He is amazingly lucky to be alive. I laughed at him and said "Dude--it's a deck". He kind of mumbled "Well you should start in the morning". That made me giggle and say " I thought 7 AM was the morning". The lady at the counter enjoyed his discomfort almost as much as I did.
End of day two came about 8 PM--again it was 85 brilliantly sunny degrees and more sunburn and aching everything. I wasn't sure we'd make it up the stairs to bed. Luckily we'd grabbed a bucket of KFC's new grilled chicken during our midday break and the leftovers made for a nice cold supper.
We rallied and finished it off in three hours on the final day.
Despite being out of his comfort zone Brad remained a cheerful, wonderful workmate. We had far too much fun with the word 'cooter' in a 'Marco--Polo--' sort of way. It still needs a touch up here and there but it is beautiful and worth the effort.
And in just 30 short days ConFab, Baby guests will enjoy the fruits of our labors.
Smooches and some counting it down gropes babies!!
