Beer Drinkin' Par-tay, Fatty Meat Fest & Rock the VOTE!

Weekend adventures when we're almost to the next weekend. The husband had a 4-day weekend and we didn't travel! Perhaps a small miracle in itself! We did, however, enjoy two bike rides, one concert, a party with lots of beer, two times using our new Weber, and just rested.

The Wilsons threw another House Party! Nothing like 60 free beers and awesome swag for my friends just to promote a great product! After our Bud tour a few weeks ago, we were slightly underwhelmed until we had this party. It was a massive hit with 21 of our friends there to eat brats and drink beer. I went to the store and bought all these beverages the other day. I found it quite entertaining and wondered if the cashier was curious if I was thirsty. Hah.

Two friends kicking off the BBQ. Tommy looks hilarious here. There really are an endless supply of Tommy photos I could post, but I'll leave that to his wife.

Happy Husband & friends drinking Budweiser in their new coozies!

These two photos provide me nothing but laughs. Tommy took the photos and for the first one, we all just smiled.

Then Tommy said, "Okay, now the fun one!" Well, apparently I'm the only one who heard that. And also, I blinked because the camera wouldn't take the picture right away. Special Brandy. Special.

We experienced our first Ribfest here in the 'burbs. It's basically a large park covered in various carnival rides and lots of BBQ vendors interested in selling their slabs of really fatty meat. Mmm. It's festivals like these that secure my spot in vegetarian land forever.

First stop, beef brisket from Two Fat Guys. Of course I took a photo. Except... not pictured is the second chunk of animal on bread my husband consumed, pulled chicken. Also, the pizza I had from the single vendor that decided to cater to me and the cornbread we shared.

We rode our bikes to the event so we didn't have to deal with parking or traffic. And, we live exactly 3 miles from the park that Montgomery Gentry was playing at! We were about 30 feet away from the stage. Other than inhaling at least an entire pack of cigarettes, we had a great time.

After too much meat consumption, my husband always allows me to insert a few veggie-friendly meals. He feels the need for a detox and I gladly oblige. We made veggie kabobs and a lemon-parmesan pasta for the starch using my favorite pasta. Anyone else love this stuff?

 More food. But of course.

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And now here's for a plug. One of the first resources I found online after losing Andrew in December was a non-profit website called Faces of Loss, Faces of Hope. There's a button on the right side of my blog from their site. The woman who started it is a young mom of a daughter, Stevie. Stevie was born in 2010 at 25 weeks due to blood clotting disorders. Because of this, Kristen started her own non-profit online as a place for women to be heard. Women who lost babies that they wanted so desperately to keep. Women who lost babies to stillbirth, miscarriage, SIDS, infant loss, or loss of a child in any way. It is there so others would be able to read their stories and see their faces. It is there so women won't feel so alone. It's there so women, like me, are shown to the public as normal women with devastating circumstances out of their control. We're not women who abuse drugs while pregnant or women who lack prenatal care. We're women who gave our all to these babies we carried but their fate was determined to be fatal.

Now, because FOL is a non-profit, they are trying to win a $25,000 grant from Pepsi. I love this resource. It connected me to so many women that I still talk with--some everyday. They are people who absolutely understand my loss and struggle. Because of this, I am hoping you'll vote. It won't cost you a thing and you can connect to your facebook account! Here are the deets:

To vote:
1) Follow this link: http://pep.si/kzOEpR
2) Click the button that says ‘vote for this idea’
3) You’ll be prompted to either login or sign up for a new voting account (this just takes a few minutes and a valid email address, or you can even login using your facebook account!)
4) Click VOTE after it logs you in!
5) Repeat once a day, every day!



Thanks so much! :)