The Haps is cool, but don’t forget to vote for me too…

Do you really find it necessary to go 40 miles an hour on W11th/Hwy 126? Seriously? The speed is 55 mph through there. I understand it was raining, but don’t think I didn’t see your Oregon license plate…you should be used to driving in the rain by now. And don’t think that you beind “OLD” is a legitimate excuse, that just means you’ve had that many more years of practice driving in the rain!! Pass you? That’s a novel concept. Thank you for the suggestion, Captain Obvious. I would have loved to have passed you but did you happen to notice all those cars coming toward us in the other lane? For the safety of my little monster in the back seat, I opted not to pass you. Ok, I’m done ranting now. Please drive faster next time I am behind you.

Sincerely,
Katherine

They all have to grow up some time. I guess I knew it would happen eventually. Now that it’s more of a reality, the more I don’t like it! I’ve been saying it for a while now…the only two things that still make Ry a “baby” are 1. She still wears diapers and 2. She still sleeps in a crib.

Well, Rylee has started to try and crawl out of her crib so, we’ve decided to make the big move to a “big girl” bed. We decided to go with a toddler bed for two reasons; 1. It was given to us as a hand-me-down (aka FREE) and 2. We really can’t justify/afford to buy a twin mattress and box spring right now. We pulled the bed out of the rafters last night and started to get it all cleaned up. Rylee even helped. She was very excited, though I’m not convinced she really knew what she was excited about. So, tonight is the moment of truth and I’m sure that means tomorrow will be the day of exhaustion! I will post photos and an update tomorrow! Wish us luck!

I mentioned before that in order to cure my Andy-gets-a-Spring-Break Blues, I took Monday off and we headed up to Portland to go to the zoo. Before the zoo, we made a detour to see Whitney from Bliss for a quick photo shoot for our little Monster. The hats were adorable and Whit and her business partner Sam had been busy making little Tu-tus that weekend before. They were SO cute! Rylee was in her typical “monster” state once she warmed up to Whitney and that made for some fun photo capturing…Whitney was a great sport. She’s so great with little kids. By the end of the shoot, Rylee kept running over to Whitney after every couple of shots to check out the pictures on the camera. She would even rest her little hand on Whitney’s shoulder. It was very sweet. Whitney always does such a good job of capturing just the right moments. Anyway, I borrowed these shots from Whitney’s BLOG. I cannot wait to see the rest of them. Be sure to check out Whitney and Sam’s Sticks and Fuzzies website to see more hats, tu-tus and Ry’s little modeling debut!

I’ll say it right now…this post has nothing to do with Rylee. I’m going to take a Mama-Minute to do a little bragging. Why? Because it’s my blog and I can if I want to!

Did you know that I like country music? Did you know that Zac Brown Band was in Salem, OR last night? Did you know that Zac Brown himself is a bowhunter? Did you know that I happen to work at a company that makes bows for hunting? If you didn’t know any of that, now you do. And it’s all true. One last little tid-bit…did you know I got to go to the Zac Brown Band concert, eat dinner with him and his band, go on his tour bus and present him with a brand new BowTech Destroyer 350 decked out with Octane accessories in Optifade Forest (which he loved, by the way), watch his 4 hour concert, cut to the front of the autograph signing line and get his brand new cookbook (which he gave to me) signed by everyone that performed? Well, I did. And it was pretty dang awesome!

Everyone at the concert, the crew and musicians alike were all very nice, down to earth, genuine people. Even though it was their 2nd to last night of an 8 month long tour, they put on a really great show. They didn’t seem burnt out or exhausted, like I’m sure I would be. Zac used his iPhone to show me pictures of the little Australian Shepard puppy him and his family will pick up the week he gets home from his tour. All in all, a really fantastic evening!