I really hope this shows up.....Nick and Ashley's wedding........

Our good friends Nick and Ashley got married a couple weeks ago, and I have been struggling with this blog to get something posted about it....so here goes....................

These pictures are in no particular order...........These are the flower girls, Anna and Natalie....aren't they adorable!!!!!!Ryan giving his "brother bear" Nick, AKA the groom, a giant hug.....aaawwwwwwww.................Here is the beautiful bride, Ashley, shakin' it with our friend Jamie!!!The lighting really sucks here, but this is all the guys in the wedding party. L-R Ryan, Matt, Nick's brother Josh, Nick the groom, Justin another brother, Jamie, and Joe. There's me and my baby!!!!This is Ashley and her momma. You can definitely see where she got her hair!!!!!Ah, there's those handsome fellas again :-)Me and NickRyan and Nick celebrating!!!!!!!Ashley and her second mom, or so she calls her........I loved this woman, and I feel bad because I can't remember her name!!!!!!The girls in green were in the wedding party with me. I realized after it was all over that we never got a picture with my camera of all the girls........But, this is Chantel and Elise.Ryan is trying to rope someone into something..........................I couldn't resist to stop and take a picture when I saw Anna laying on her Grandpa's lap. Isn't that sweet?!?!?And, of course, Ryan had to break out some of the break dancing skills from his past.....just look at those chocolate locks flyin'!!!!!And what wedding reception would ever be complete without someone throwing in a little robot action :-)

Chantel rockin' her little heart out!!!!!

It was such a sweet wedding. The ceremony was quick, but not quick enough to keep me from getting a big 'ol lump in my throat. The tears never broke all the way through, but I almost broke down and cried.

What really got me was looking at Nick while Ashley was walking down the aisle with her dad. Nick looked so proud of her, but so close to tears. They were definitley pooling up there, but I don't know if any ever actually fell.

And believe it or not, everything went off without a hitch. (That's a funny phrase) No major disasters, no fires, no broken hips. It was a very successful and cheerful evening, and I think we all went home happy as could be to see our friends starting their new life together.

Congrats to you Ashley....incase you ever read this!!!! I love you guys!!!!!!

....................................And yes, once again, it seems that this post will not show up immediately after I send it through, so hopefully this will show up in the next couple days. I posted it at 6:24 PM Friday, Oct 5th....like you care :-)

OK, those last two posts took two days to show up.this is another test....sorry you guys.......

Still frustrated

OK, I just posted something else since my blogs from the other day finally appeared....like two days later. But the one I just wrote didn't pop up. I'm trying this one in "edit Html" format.....I don't even know what that means, but we'll see if it works...................

OK, I'm frustrated!!

Well, apparently you can see these posts now, but I got comments sent to my email, but they won't show up on here either. I'm so confused!!!!!

this is a test....I can't get anything to show up that I've posted the last couple days......

The Big Bachelorette Party

Our friends Nick and Ashley got married last weekend, but before we get to that, we gotta show some fun from the bachelorette party.

Before we left the house, the girls all had a couple shots....except for me and Andrea. I stuck to wine, being the wino I am :-)....and don't worry, we had a designated driver. The pregnant part of the wedding party was our chauffer for the night. But, let me tell ya, even sober, Andrea is a crazy driver. I mean CRAZY......we did at least two U-turns in the middle of Indy while she was at the wheel. I'm surprised we didn't get pulled over...he he he..........

By now, you should all recognize TeShannah, and that's Elise on the other side of me.
The gaggle of gals....L-R Chantel, Ashley (the bride to be), Andrea, me, TeShannah, and Elise.

We just happened to run into my big little brother Clint....I love him so much!!!!And I love Ashley too!!! Smooches.............................This is Reggie. We met him on our way out jammin' to some James Brown. Well, you know my carmel friend had to stop and bust a move to some James Brown...SHOOT..................Chantel, me and Ashley. Looks like Ashley's starting to get a little crazy now!!!!Or wait, is it me and TeShannah who are getting crazy?!?!?It was TeShannah getting crazy for sure.......in fact, this is a post-puke pictue :-) Taken in the White Castle drive through.

Ashley was gettin' crazy in the drive through too!!!!!TeShannah stole Ashely's headgear and we took some nice wind-blown looking shots.............Got to end the night back at Matt and TeShannah's with our guys. Looks like Matt was sad the night was over, but I think they were all really glad, actually................long story.

Buddy Guy in Indianapolis

Shame on me!!!!!

It has been way too long in between posts, and I've got some catching up to do.

The day after we arrived home from Hookahville, we decided to drive down to Indy to meet some friends and go to the rib fest. I had no interest in the ribs, just the music.

Buddy Guy was playing, and there was only a four dollar charge to get in......SWEET!!!!!! Buddy Guy was one of my Dad's favorite blues artists, so I grew up listening to him. I really didn't start hearing him as a familiar name among other people until the late nineties. He has played with Carlos Santana and John Mayer more recently.

We got together with our friends Matt and TeShannah before the show. The guys got a couple beers, and we walked over by the stage to catch a glimpse of the legend. He put on a great show. He was really funny. He would start singing a song, and get almost all the way through it and then stop all of a sudden and say "wait, I know another one," or "hang on, you'll like this one too." It made everyone laugh. The ribfest, however, is not anything like seeing an actual concert at a music venue. First of all, once the uppity Indy people (no offense) put their seats down, they expect you to stay the heck out of their way. Whatever you do, DO NOT walk into their path...they'll be happy to let you know how unhappy they are. Kind of a tight ass crowd, but you know how we roll......we made the most of it, and still had a great time!!!

Here's a few pictures.....Like I said, I didn't want to piss anyone off anymore than we already had, so I kept my distance with the camera. But I was still pleased with a couple of them considering what I was working with.Buddy Guy showing off some of his tricks!!!

This is my TeShannah....I call her my carmel friend. Ryan calls me her carmel friend because I'm "just as black as her" so he says :-)

This is Matt and me being silly!!!My baby, TeShannah and me.............I love these two!!! We always have so much fun together. They're tons of fun!!!I liked this picture even though you can't see anyone's face. I thought the sun reflecting off of the buildings looked cool.

Hookahville XXVIII

One more Hookahville down....now only nine months to go before the next one!!!! Yes, I'm already counting!!!!

We had such a great time this weekend. Ryan and I both worked late Thursday night and got up to leave for Ohio at 3:30 AM Friday morning. I felt kinda bad for Ryan.......he drove all the way while I slept. I couldn't help it. My eyelids felt like they had boulders hanging on them.

We stopped first at Aaron's house to meet up with him and Julie so they could follow us there. I remember nothing of the ride to Ohio....only that we stopped once for Mcdonald's and a pee break.

It was about 8:30 AM Friday when we pulled into the parking lot. We made really good time. I think that's the earliest we've ever made it to Hookahville. Too bad the gates didn't open until 9:00 and we had to wiat a half an hour. We weren't real happy about that, because, it specifically said doors would open at 8:00 AM. But, hey, it was a nice day, so we all just hung out in line while we waited.

We found a good spot to camp, pretty close to where we were last spring, so that made it easy to find after the sea of tents kept growing. Aaron, Julie, Ryan and I all had our tents up within an hour or so, and were ready to just sit and hang out with eachother. Julie brought a big shade tent, so we hung out in there waiting on the rest of our Indiana crew to arrive.

Shortly after noon, we got a call from one of the guys saying Dave, Kelly, Pete, Rhonda, Matt, Liz, and her friend Jacquie were finally here. Ryan met them by the gate, and showed them to the spots we had tried to save for them. It was starting to get crowded, so I was glad they got there when they did. The spots around us were disppearing quick!!!

The first person we wanted to see and hear play was David Gans. He used to travel as a roadie with The Grateful Dead. He covered a few Dead tunes and did a lot of originals. I really enjoyed his set. Here's a few pictures of Daivd:

After David Gans, we had a couple hours before Dark Star Orchestra took the stage. So, we all headed back to the camp site for awhile. We played a lot of corn hole. Ryan's dad made him a corn hole game for his birthday.....we all love it!!!I love this chick. She sings the parts of Donna from the Grateful Dead, andin my opinion, she sounds much better than Donna ever did.........I think this guy is gonna look just like Jerry when he gets older. His voice in hauntingly similar to Jerry's. When you're not looking right at the stage, it gives you the feeling of hearing Jerry live again. Absolutely amazing!!!

When Dark Star played, it was still pretty hot outside, so we watched part of the show up by the stage, and part of it from the big hill where there's a little more shade. I actually fell asleep in the shade up there for awhile. That nap was much needed...believe me!!

Dark Star played for a few hours, and then it was time for some HOOKAH!!!!!!

The guys took the stage, and we all went crazy!!! It is always so exciting to see them come out to start a show. Here's a few pictures of the Friday night show:

OK, so there's the famous people from Friday night....now here's the rest of us!!!!
This is Aaron and my friend Julie.

Here's Matt poking his head around like he always does......with Ryan and Aaron..............Me and Kelly Jo.....this was before her haircut.......just keep reading :-)My sweet baby, all red faced...and me all drunk faced :-)

This picture was taken Saturday afternoon from the hill where I took my nap. Look at that beautiful sky!!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather!!!This is Andrew and Kelly Anne playing some corn hole. Ryan and I made a rule that if you win, you have to write your team name on the board. There was some funny stuff written on there by the end of the weekend!!!Liz and Matt working on an afternoon snack for all of us......check out all the burgers....YUMMO!!!!Ryan, Pete and Rhonda. We met Pete and Rhonda through Kelly Anne a couple weeks ago at the Jester Music Festival. They're great people, and tons of fun!!!!!Kelly Anne and me......awwwww aren't we sweet?!?!?

Ryan and Aaron haning out playing some corn hole!!!Dave eating one of those delicious burgers you saw Matt and Liz working on :-)Oh yes....we brought our tails!!!! The kitties were prowling the ville this year, that's for sure!!!!This is a few other friends from Indianapolis. We met them through Ekoostik Hookah.....love 'em all!!!! Dani, Julie, and Jenni.All I can say about this is....I was not being held respsonsible for my actions at this point in the night :-)

OK, you saw what my hair looked like Saturday night.....now take a peek at Ryan's. He did a much better job!!!!! But then again, I didn't exactly DO my hair that way, it just ended up that way after I let people keep sticking glow sticks in my hair :-)Check out those guns..........he he heSTP baby......START THE PARTY!!!!!!!!!Oh yes.....you should all be familiar with my guilty pleasure, Eric, by now. You normally would see him behind the drums, but it's Hookahville tradition for him to sing the encore song the last night of Hookahville.Of course, I was front and center for Eric's song. He always does a cover....usually something unexpected from Ekoostik Hookah....and I can definitely say that for this year's encore. It was "Stay With Me" by Rod Stewart........weird. But, Eric made that song his own!!!!

This was the final picture of my sweet hair do before I let the glow sticks drop........and this is what we did with them:Oh....poor Andrew.....good thing he had some undies on, Huh?Rule Number ONE: NEVER, NEVER be the first person to pass out at Hookahville!!!!!!Whoa, Dude.....................

OK, one last chapter to the Hookahville blog.......remember that picture of me and Kelly Jo earlier???? Well, she organized a few people to get together and let the band members cut their hari for Locks of Love. This is Dave Katz from Ekoostik Hookah getting ready to chop her beautiful hair off..............................

Oh, How sweet!!!!!!!And there she is twelve hours later, and she still can't stop touching it!!!!

I think it's awesome that they did that. There weren't very many participants, but a few of us talked about getting it going for Spring Hookahville too. Maybe if the word gets out a little more, we'll actually have a few takers this spring.

Until then....I'm gonna hang onto my hair and enjoy the ride!!!!!