dirt to darn awesome!

Since we have moved into our new digs last month, our dog has been having a hay day in the flower beds that have been filled with dirt/mud. I am not sure why the people before us never planted anything but I was getting pretty tired of looking at it and of cleaning Debo's paws. My older brother, Matt (my new hero by the way) helped me out by giving me some simple ideas on what to plant and since he works at a plant/tree nursery he helped me save some money as well.

Last night Matt came over with all the plants and got me started on how to plant everything. I kinda think sons of farmers are the best because they have a wealth of knowledge and the are the hardest workers I know. Matt is like a machine when he starts working and I LOVE IT!!!! He just started digging holes and throwing them in there to get me started by he really did one whole flower bed and a couple pants in another flower bed. After Matt left I had not planned to do all of this alone since Brett had a business dinner but Matt's work ethic inspired me to get working. So, I decided to just knock this project out last night, I finished spreading the mulch right before dark. Here are some before and after pictures. ;)


































I still have some round up to do and planting some ground cover so is it not so muddy back there but it looks so much better than it did. Brett is a great lawn boy, as most of you know, so I know he is going to have this yard in tip top shape by next summer. I don't have any before pictures to show you but I can tell you that the plants were all there but they were surrounded by weeds in another part of our yard that Brett and I worked on this past weekend. Matt taught us how to put the edging in and it looks so much better than it did. This was one of the few home projects where Brett and I didn't get in a little fight so we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.










Matt, a shout out to you, thanks a million for helping us so much with our back yard, it looks so much better and I owe you big time!!!!! Love you!

another great find on the C list

Ahh, yet again, I find another good deal on Craigslist. Brett and I saw this armoire at Nebraska Furniture Mart (I hate NFM but I liked the armorie, minus the light house they show in this picture) a few weeks back. I found the same armorie from a girl who just bought it but wanted a bigger desk, so we got the desk for over half the originally price and it was already put together. Thank you Craigslist for coming through again!!! Now the office is nice and organized and I can close the doors anytime to make that room into a guest bedroom.

Lets see what else I have been searching for:

-large indoor Plants

-Free Weights with a bench

-Nice metal shelves for bathroom closet

-Lamps

-Two leather chair set

- Sectional couch for the basement

- A jig saw

- A swing for the back tree

I am sure I will come up with more. I am obsessed!!!

Girls Weekend in Nebraska

This past weekend my sister (Callie) and my mom and I traveled to Seward, Nebraska to visit my older sister Carrie. Carrie has lived here for a couple years and I had never visited so it was high time we took a road trip.

It was great to get out of the city and see all the tall green corn and just enjoy the small town feel. I love KC and where we live but it is nice to not lock your car, be able to see the full moon and stars and just be around good ole' small town folks.

We got there friday night and Carrie made a a great meal, Carrie is a wonderful cook so it was pretty stinking exciting. Oh, I also had to do a little fashion show, these boots were really comfortable, I may have to invest in some. Carrie married a cowboy so they house is cowboy theme, I could not help myself when I saw all the dress up fun I could have.

Saturday we went to the cutest little cafe for breakfast and the food was wonderful. It was so fun to observe locals reading the paper and chatting with everyone since they pretty much knew everyone. We then went to Lincoln (just 2o minutes away) to shop around and hang out. I have to say I think I liked Seward more than I liked Lincoln, it kinda seemed a little deserted, maybe because the college kids are gone for the summer, not sure. We did go to this cool antquie mall and I got a globe and could have gotten a lot more. We only got through half of this store because it had so much stuff, I shall return. After a stop at DQ for a star we headed back home to rest for a bit and get ready to go to a rodeo that Jeremy (Carrie's husband) was team roping in that night.

The rodeo was pretty fun and it was great to see Jeremy in action, he did such a great job!!! I would have to say the bad part about the rodeo was when one of the horses has a heart attack and died right there on the spot. As some of you know, I am not even a fan of horses but I had to hold back tears. I could not believe this horse was just going to die right there on the spot. Carrie said it was pretty rare that something like that would happen but it was really sad. On a different note, I was entertained by an activity they do for the kids at this rodeo which is to ride on lambs. At first I didn't think there was any harm in this but when I saw the first kid coming out on this lamb that was about to run into a fence I had to cover my eyes. Kids were falling off these things and were inches from being trapled by a lamb, I am still considering calling social services and complainning about this activity. :) It looked pretty dangerous for a 4 year old to be doing, I can see a 8 year old being ok but there were some kids doing this that looked like they could still be in diapers. Anyway, stupid activiy but entertaining non the less.

Sunday we just went to church and lunch with Carrie and Jeremy and headed home. It was a great trip to be with the girls and Jeremy of course ;) You can check out more pics of our trip on my slide show to the left ;)

A shout out: Carrie and Jeremy, thanks again for having us in your home and taking such great care of us. You did a great job of treating us and making us feel welcome. Love you both!

A visit from the popcorn queen

So, my little sister (Callie) has pretty much grown up on popcorn (maybe that is how she stays so thin). I am telling you, as long as I can remember from childhood, this girl could eat a whole bag of popcorn by herself and loved it every time (even if it was once or twice a day). Callie would have popcorn pretty often back in the day but since college I would say she is on the "popcorn everyday plan". She was really big into the microwave popcorn but in the last year she has started making her own popcorn.

Callie got a stove top popcorn popper that you stir with the handle and this girl has perfected the art of popcorn making. She adds only a certain amount of oil, butter and salt to go on a certain amount of popcorn. You know how you can get it too salty or too much butter, not this girl, PERFECT!!!!

Yesterday Callie agreed to stop by and make me her famous popcorn along with a cold coke (or Coca cola Classic as the popcorn queen says). It was the best and hit the spot, thanks Callie!!!! You can come over anytime and make it again.

Birthday weekend update

Update:

Birthday Dinner: EBT Restaurant, I had lamb chops, mashed garlic potatoes and asparagus. Lime sorbet for dessert.

Birthday gifts: Brett gave me a shopping spree to Nordstom's (not sure if I want shoes, makeup or a hot pair of jeans). I recieved lots of cash, not sure yet what I want to spend it on but I sure lot it that I have a little stash. I got a couple gift cards, a book (Wicked), a wonderful picture for my kitchen taken by my good friend Donna and lots of wonderful cards, flowers and even balloons. I also had breakfast and lunch on good friends of mine, thanks for taking me out peeps!!

I also had a semi-surprise (found out from my good friend David on Thursday night on accident I think) birthday party. It consists of Cherry Pie, smores, friends and lots of cute kids!!! It was a great time.

Thanks all for making my birthday such a special day!

7-11: B-day

Today I am 27 years of age, how does it feel you ask? Not to much different than 26. I am normally really high maintenance about my birthday but this year, I almost forgot about it this year. I think a mixture of moving into the new digs and just being busy with work, I really just forgot it. I really have no clue what Brett got me this year, I kinda hope he does not use the excuse that the house was my birthday gift, I don't think he will. Brett might be the best gift giver I know so I am really looking forward to it ;)

Really my only request this year has been this:

yes, it is an apricot pie. Not many people know about the apricot pie but it is yummy!! I was not feeling cake this year, the problem is that my grandma strahm makes the best one so it is hard to live up to it so I may just settle for a cherry pie from The Upper Crust (best pies in KC if you ask me).

Besides "doing some pie" (this is what my Dad says when he means, eating pie) I think just relaxing this weekend is my request. We have kinda been so busy with house stuff that I have not had a chance to really take a good nap with my beagle or cook a nice meal in the new home so maybe I will try to do that.

Anyway, I will have to update you on monday on how the birthday weekend went!

Thanks all for your birthday wishes and cards so far. I do love all the attention ;) hee hee.

What a great weekend full of friends, sunshine, fireworks, great summer food and relaxing. Brett and I headed to our friends farm house near Wichita on Friday to celebrate July 4th weekend (one of my favorite holidays next to Easter).

Top 5 things I loved about this trip:

- The summer food: I adore watermelon, chips, brats, pasta salad, puppy chow, and seven layer dip! Oh Baby, bring it on!!

- The small town feel: I love how simple life seems to be out in the country near a small town. I loved that at the local fireworks show on Friday night, all the kids were lighting fireworks (some dangerous ones) off up until the show started. You don't see that in KC.

- Watching my dog in Heaven: I often feel bad that Debo does not go out to my Dad's farm more often, he loves to get into all kinds of trouble. Debo has been sleeping non-stop since we got home.

- Spending time with friends: It is always great to spend time with friends and meet new friends. Laughing with friends around the table has to be one of my favorite things.

- Summer Sun: I love being by the pool and reading some trash magazines and sipping on some cold ice tea with lemon. The smell of sunscreen is the best and becoming a bronze beauty is not so bad either.

Check out the pictures of our trip on my slide show to the left!!

Special thanks: Jack and Mindy, thanks so much for having us out, can't wait to go back!!!

Craigslist, the best list of all.

Several years ago we had some friends tell us they were selling their honda on Craigslist and I really had no clue what they were talking about but just didn't really care to much to research it. Then a couple months later another friend found an apartment on Craigslist and again I was confused. What in the world was this list, who is Craig and where could I find this list? Yes, I am kinda behind the times I guess because apparently everyone has been using craigslist for like 5 years. I just started using it last week when I was looking for a few things for the new digs. This table is brand new in the box and is originally $1,499.00, the seller was asking $600 and I got it for $450 last night plus free delivery (eat your heart out Nebraska Furniture Mart)!!!
Sweet Hots!!!! What will I find next? This might be better than estate sales (sorry Kerry, Andrea and Sarah ;)

Mov'in Out, Mov'in On.

A couple of months ago Brett and I thought we would put our house up on the market to see if we had any takers. I know it sounds weird just to throw your house on the market for no reason but I was getting pretty tired of having get togethers and being smashed like sardines. I was also getting frustrated that we were not able to sit down at a table when having more than two people over at one time. We figured we didn't have anything to lose so we would just try it out.

So, after 60 some days of being on the market and over 40 showings, we sold our house!!!

It is not fun keeping your house spotless every day and not even being able to leave a couple dishes in the sink but I think it all paid off once we sold our house for just under what we asked for it. (Guess the market is not that bad in KC after all).
So it was a little stressful to sell a house but buying a new one in record time is a little bit more stressful. We knew it was a great time to buy with interest rates being low and with a lot being on the market for a good price. So, we looked and looked and found a great house, put a bid in and didn't get it. We were pretty bummed about that house but began the search again. After driving our realtor crazy (we are kinda picky and can't make up our minds) we finally found a great home for us!!

The goal was to upgrade just a bit as far as space, stay no more than 15 minutes from work and find something as close to move in ready as possible. We said we wanted to move just a little bit more south and we only got about 10 blocks south ;)

We move in June 21st and we would love all of you to stop by and say hi!! (We are just off of 57th and Roe).

Happy Birthday Little Sister

Callie,

Have a great day!!!!!! Happy Birthday!

"About the Vacation"

So, many of you have been emailing me asking me about the trip to Cabo, Mexico. I hate to report that it might have been the worst vacation Brett and I have taken. Don't get me wrong, it was still time away from work and time together so it was great in that sense. Here are some
highs and lows of this trip. Please notice there were many more lows and I would say they were some low low's ;)

The Lows:
- As you may notice I always post a picture with my blog posts and I don't have one for this post because my camera was stolen/lost the last day in Cabo. The upside is that is was not my "nice" camera from my Dad. But I did just get this one from Brett for Christmas and I have no
documentation that we every even went on this vacation. Actually, maybe that is a good thing...
- Brett being sick pretty much the first two days and then him being stuffed up with snot the rest of the trip. The other low to that is that I can't stand snot and loogies so I would almost gag every time he would sniff, cough or clear his throat. The goal is to be attractive on vacation not repulsing your spouse ;) Poor Brett.
- Brett not covering his whole foot in sun screen and getting third degree burns and blisters all over his foot, he was barely able to walk with shoes on for two days.
- Cost of eating was outrageous for sub par food. Brett got a milk shake for $8, come on!!!!
- I didn't get ice-cream everyday because of the cost, I am way to cheap to spend that kind of money on ice-cream (the high of this is I got a whole gallon when I got home and have been eating it every night ;)
- Brett having major stomach cramps on the plane ride home and having the sharts/shats once we got home. (if you know what sharts are then you know that there was a mess involved).
- Vikkie having the shats pretty much the whole time in Mexico, the plus was at least I was regular.
- Getting my small swiss army knife taken from me in the Mexico airport because I forgot to take it off my keychain. I almost hate flying these days, no customer service and it takes so much time.
And a drum role please........ Just when you think things can't get worse:

- I was not feeling good the night before we left but I thought I had made myself sick because I could not find my camera. We got to the airport two hours before our flight and it was hotter than Hades in that airport. When it was time to finally board the plan, I got in line and started to feel dizzy as I slowing collapsed on the ground. I passed out for a couple seconds and then immediately threw up all over the floor in front of hundreds of vacationers and then twice more in the trash can that Brett found. As I was on the floor sweating and feeling much better at this point. I see this Mexican standing above me trying to get me to get in a wheel chair and saying "You are in no condition to get on this flight, you can not fly like this". I was thinking "the hell
I am not getting on this plane, I want out of here". So, I talked himinto it and we were the last ones to board the plane, I was not staying in Cabo for one more hour. It had already taken to much from me. I was not going to give it 5 more hours of my life.

Highs:
- Seeing/talking to former KU and present NBA player Nick Collison in
the Cabo, Mexico Wal-Mart.
- Not waking up until at least 10am everyday.
- Finishing a book which I have not done in like two years (thanks Mindy, that book was so good).
- Zip lining over the dessert...it was pretty great and now I really want to do more extreme things like this.
- Being called honeymooners the whole trip.
- All the Mexicans pronounced our last name correctly.
- Staying in a premium resort where golf carts took you everywhere and there were great ocean views
- Laying out at the pool eating Nutter Butters and sipping margaritas.
- The shower...it was out of this world! I hate taking showers normally but I took up to three showers a day at this place.

In conclusion, I don't know that I would recommend Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. You can have wonderful relaxing trips right here in the US of A!! The end.

Must focus

Only 6 days until vacation and I am having a hard time focusing these days. Brett and I had a really difficult time deciding where we were going to go this year for "Wiese vacation". We thought we would go back to Hawaii since we went there for our honeymoon almost 5 years ago and it could be a way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary but we just couldn't justify spending that much money. So, I researched and researched and concluded we would go to Cabo, Mexico. So far, I only hear great things about it so I am excited to get there next week. I of course am most excited about being in the sun and soaking up the rays but I am also looking forward to zip lining, snorkeling, maybe renting some scooters and driving them around and eating whatever the h*ll I want to ;) Enough grilled chicken and veggies, bring on the good stuff.

We are staying in this resort called the Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, it is suppose to be a great place to stay so hopefully it is everything I want it to be.

If you have been to Cabo, I would love any tips on places to eat or things to do. As an event planner, you know I have day to day activities already planned but I would love to add to it ;)

My goals for this trip:
-Spend some good quality time with my boy, Brett
-Read celebrity trash magazines by the pool

-Finish reading a book I started a couple weeks ago (I know everyone, big shocker that I am reading a book)
-Eat ice-cream every day
-Come back a bronze beauty

This sh*t is Bananas

In the words of Gwen Stefani....

(Mom and Dad, Don't worry about it, I don't have a potty mouth, I am just quoting someone who had the perfect title to my blog today.)
In my house, we eat a lot of fruit and veggies but we have had a hard time keeping up with the banana supply apparently since we kept having ripe banana's left over at the end of each week. I didn't really notice how many bananas we let over ripen until I opened my freezer last week and a frozen banana fell out and cut my foot. ;) (I put ripe banana's in the freezer to make banana bread). After a frozen banana shot out of my freezer because of overflow and then cut my foot, I took it as a sign that I needed to make some bread. Here is a sneak peek:

Ahh, Banana Bread is sooooo good!!!!! Brett found this recipe online that we think is the best. Brett ate I think close to three loafs by himself last night ;)

Happy Friday!!!

Tis the season of the lawn boy

You may recall from a blog post last spring of my hot lawn boy that I secretly want to take advantage of. Well this year it has gotten even worse. I thought a lawn boy pushing a nice green John Deere mower and riped up blue jeans was nice, check out this new get up:

My Lawn boy now also sprays for weeds, over seeds and fertilizes. My lawn might be the best one on the block now ;)

Thanks Dear Lawn Boy, I love it that I get to see a full summer of you out my kitchen window!

mission 1/2 Marathon accomplished

I made history yesterday by running 13.1 miles all at one time. It was such a great experience that I am pretty sure I am hooked. The training was someone time consuming but I got most of it done before most people were out of bed so it really didn't take much time out of my day. The weekends were longer runs and they were a bit more challenging but over all, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was so afraid to committed to this race because I really was not sure if I could do it, man it felt good to cross that finish line and know that I had accomplished a huge goal for myself. I am not sure what is next, I am thinking about starting a list of things I really want to do and start checking them off.

Walk 20 miles a day for three days...... Check
Eat three Reese's Easter eggs in one sitting......... Check
Be in Lawrence, KS when we win a National Championship..........Check
Do a 1/2 Marathon..... Check

mmmm, any suggestions on what to do next? I am not sure about a marathon and if I did one, I would want to do it in my favorite city (NYC) I believe you have to qualify or be on a waiting list for that marathon so not sure that is in my near future. Maybe I will look into a triathlon for beginners. My friend at work told me about one might be perfect for me. Maybe I will look into it ;) If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. It could be like that game "What would you do for a dollar" and you could see what I would do. I think I ate part of a can of cat food when I was in middle school when playing this game. Yummy.

Feel free to visit my picasa page to see some pics of yesterday.
http://picasaweb.google.com/vikkiewiese/12Marathon2008

A shout out to my girl Andrea for being a great running partner and for wanting this as bad as I did. Nice work sister, I am so proud of you!!!

Proud to be a Jayhawk!

It has finally soaked in, we are the National Champs!!! Go Hawks.

For Monday's game we had planned to go to Lawrence to watch the game with some friends to see them but also so that we could be in Lawrence in case we actually won. I knew, based on how crazy Lawrence was when we went to the final four back when I was in college, that if we won, it was going to be off the hook. We last minute decided to stay in KC and watch it with some good friends which ending up being so fun (thanks Jack, Mindy and sweet bella). It was a great game from start to finish!! Just as I was putting on my coat on to go home, Mario came back with that three pointer, the rest was history!!!

After winning the game we went down the street to The Blue Moose to celebrate with other Jayhawks. As soon as "One moment in time" was over it shot back to a helicopter view of Mass. street and my heart started pumping so fast and I knew I had to get into Lawrence and be apart of that energy. I mentioned that I really wanted to be in Lawrence to Brett and he was like "oh yeah, that would have been really cool". Our other friend heard me say that I really wished we were in Lawrence and he said, "lets hit guys, lets go right now". We had both only taken like two drinks of our beers but we paid and headed to Lawrence at 11:30 pm at night. Yes, I would be tired the next day at work and yes, I knew most of these people are going to be drunk college kids but I had to see Mass. Street with my own eyes. Here is some pics of the night, it was so fun to be apart of such a wonderful celebration. Yes, there were some crazy drunk people hanging from trees and several people (guys and girls) peeing in the alley's because of lack of public restrooms at 1am. I saw this one girl by Chipotle squatted down and I though maybe she was hurt so I looked down at her and she looked up at me and said "hey, when you got to go, you got to go". I couldn't have agreed with her more, I just pulled into Lawrence at midnight. When you have to go, you have to go!!

A special shout out to Pitts for wanting to go to Lawrence as bad as I did, thanks for making the night so fun!

a cool 45 feet

Over easter weekend we went home to Sabetha to be with my family. My Dad had sent out an email a few days before the weekend to see if all of us kids might want to help clean up after the ice disaster that he had this winter. This was the first time that it was warm enough to get out and really start cleaning up the hundreds of branches and thousands of little tiny sticks. Every single tree needed to be trimmed and it was going to be a big job. Even though I love a good days of work on the farm from time to time, I was not thrilled about this request from my Dad until he mentioned that we would get to light the whole pile of limbs on fire. I was sold in a matter of micro seconds. I ADORE FIRE!!

When we got home and pulled up I saw this out of my car window: Right away, I knew this day was going to be so much fun, anything look weird to you? Can you see someone at the top of the tree?? Nice

I knew right then I would be riding up in the bucket lift at some point in the day. I would not say I am a dare devil but if I am ever given the opportunity to do something I have never done, I usually try it out. I was telling Brett if I didn't have to pay for it I would be a sky diving, bungee jumping, swim with the sharks fool (mmm, maybe not sharks). So, after picking up all the limbs, stacking all the wood my Dad had cut for fireplace wood and cleaning up all the little sticks, it was time to go up in the big bad bucket. I have to brag a little that I was the only one to get all the way to the top. My dare devil brother Matt was not home so I am sure we would have shown me up if he would have been there. I will not lie, I did scream a little once I got to the very top since it was really windy that day and I felt I was a little out of control but I did make it too the top and loved it.

I was pretty beat after all that work and going up 45 feet up in the air but still had plenty of energy to start a massive fire, it was the best bonfire ever and I didn't even need a smore (the steak dinner Dad, Angie, Carrie and Joce made was just as good ;).

It is always an adventure on the farm, some of the best times of my life are out there.

To see more pics of the weekend you can visit here.

Easter is over but Jude is here!!

Well, it is over, my favorite holiday of the year. I took down the Easter tree last night along with all my sparkly rabbit decorations, so sad. It was a great weekend of helping my Dad out on the farm (I will post about this soon, stay tuned), seeing family and friends and watching my beagle have time of his life with all his dog cousins on the farm ;) I would have to say the highlight of this last weekend was that I became an aunt to my first nephew!!!! His name is Jude Matthew and he was born Saturday morning.

He is so sweet and he is my new favorite little person!!! He is so perfect and I have not stopped thinking about how I can get my hands on that little guy since I saw him on Sunday. I think I will offer to take them a meal soon as an excuse to get over and give that baby some love!! ;)

Got the runs

During my training for the 3 day walk I really started liking that I was exercising everyday and had a scheduled amount of miles that I had to cover in a week. After I was finished doing the three day walk, I started to consider doing a 10K or something since I had only ever done 5K runs. The great thing about training for the walk is it was very easy to find someone to walk with all the time. People are intimidated to run over three miles, I wanted to take on this new goal but didn't know who would do it with me. I am not disiplined enough to do it alone so I needed someone that would take this on with me. My good friend, Andrea, and I got to talking about doing some running this past winter and we both decided we would start training for a half marathon, YIPPY!!!! We had both done a 5K and we thought the 10K just didn't seem impressive enough (we are so extreme) so we thought the half marathon would be doable.

We plan to run the Therapy Works 1/2 Marathon on April 20th and so far training has been great. We ran 8 miles this weekend, over half way to 13.1 ;)

Another run just came up last week that we are also going to do. This one is the Brew to Brew and I keep hearing that it is such a blast to run. It is two 4 mile runs per person. We have 5 people on our team and each person runs about 8 miles total but only 4 at a time. You can read more about it here if you would like but it is pretty much running from the Boulevard Brewery in KC to Free state Brewery in Lawrence using a team of five. The other runners drive to each pick up point and switch out runners. I am almost more excited about this race than the one we are training for, how have I never heard of this run, what a great idea!!!

I have found that I almost have to be training for something or I have no desire to exercise and I have zero motivation. It is pretty funny that I use to hate running when I was younger, I dreaded doing track and field days because of those longer runs (a whopping 1/2 mile run, ugggg). Three legged races were more my thing. I also went out for track just one year in high school and did it just because I thought the guy I was dating would think it is cool. I nearly quit because I hated it so much. Now, it has become kinda a hobby and though I am still not fast, I really am starting to love it minus the knee pain (nothing some frozen beans can't take care of). 13.1 here I come!!!

Lessons in self defense

Brett's job has required a bit more traveling these days which has left me at home solo a little more than usual. Normally I don't have a problem with these short trips away; it gives me time to clean up the house, not cook for a couple days, shop and just hang out with friends. Don't get me wrong I never prefer to sleep alone. I have never been one of those people that needs her own space; the less space the better. Anyway, Brett was in Iowa this Sunday night and I had the worst night of sleep. I had a terrible dream about a guy hitting on my bedroom windows and calling our phone in the middle of the night. I just lay there frozen in my bed. I thought about getting a gun but then I thought against it seeing as though I really had no clue how to load it and probably would’ve ended up hurting myself or blowing a hole in the floor. At 2:30 am I suddenly work up in a cold sweat from my dream. I was so close to calling the police to have them check the area. It took me about two minutes to realize that that might overkill and I needed to cool it and go back to bed. But as I lay my head back down, I knew I was going to get a game plan together when Brett got home.When got back yesterday I was telling him about my dream and how I felt like I would not know what to do if this situation really occured. Yes, I have taken a self defense class and I think if I had to kick a guy where it counted I could but what if I was in serious trouble, Brett was gone and I needed to pack some heat? “I need a gun" I told Brett. To which he replied “We already have 4 of them.” We have guns for hunting in our house but I was really thinking I need a handgun. Brett convinced me that one of our shotguns would do the trick just fine and I just needed a little training. Do I know which bullets go to which gun and how to unload and load it fast and correctly???? I have a general idea but I thought I better know how to really do it.

That's right, I got a full lesson last night from Brett on how to load one of his guns in record time.

(how much do you love Brett's shirt? it is my new favorite.)

Brett clocked me to see if I could really handle a pressure situation; on my first try I was locked and loaded in 12 seconds. We decided it would be best to get that time under 10 seconds and after several tries I was down to six seconds.

So, if some punk wants to try breaking and entering at our piece then you might want to reconsider…I am likely to blow your socks off. Give me 6 seconds and you will wish you never step foot on my property