What to wear to a NASCAR race

So we went to a NASCAR race. Yes, it's true. What do I know about NASCAR?

1. It originated with the transportation of moonshine

2. Someone named Dale Earnhardt was the best ever.

That is it. Caleb's work paid for us. And I was totally up for it. Since you know, I am never paying $93.00 of my own money to go to a race. Sorry NASCAR.

I did not know what to wear to a NASCAR race. I was unfamiliar with appropriate attire. I chose a pair of super roomy jeans because they were comfy. I looked through these pictures and realized that was a horrible decision. So you do not get to see a pic of me from the waist down. And you do get a tip: baggy jeans do not look good on people with hips/large backsides. Caleb chose to dress punkish because he felt like no one else would. This was true.

Bristol Motor Speedway behind us!

 Benny brought his kiddos. They were super stoked. You can tell because the little one is pretending to be asleep. And the older kid decided punkish dressing was his style as well. That made two people.

I know I am going to sound like a super airhead girl for saying this. But here goes. Basically, you just watch the cars turn left. 500 times. I'm not kidding. And it is so loud that you have to wear earplugs and use sign language to talk to people. BUT the best part is when the pull in for a pit stop. Because the pit crews are super fast and awesome! The kettle corn was exceptional as well.

Apparently not a lot of other people wanted to pay $93/ticket either.

 Also, we did see Jeff Gordon get in wreck right in front of us. Kinda cool. (He was fine, ok?) I guess Dale Earnhardt Jr. bumped him. People were upset. They yelled things like "That is SO Jr.!" Except I mostly read this on their lips and with my exceptional sign language skills.

Conclusion: NASCAR is kinda fun. I think I'm good though. Going in the summer would probably be better. Better, as in crazier NASCAR fans. Which is the whole reason to go anyway, honestly.

Oh, and what to wear? White shorts and black tanks, obviously!

Sexy Kiewit girls!

Happy Monday friends!

Kiewit knows how to throw some rockin Christmas parties

Its an extravaganza because it was three (3) parties. That's right. I'm a high roller now. (Oh wait, I'm not.) I bought three (3) separate outfits. They were awesome. ThankyouExpressstore. Did you know that if you ask Express for the coupons in their mailer, they will just give them to you in the store? And then you get a large discount. It's quite nice. I'm never above asking for discounts straight up.

Ok. Party number one. This was my favorite. It was here in Tennessee for just us Tennesseeans. The band was super rockin'. There was even a prom photographer that took some super sexy pics. I left work an hour early for this party. And it was great to spend time with everyone before we all start moving to separate ends of the world.

This dress was my fave too. And my husband maybe smiled normal for half a second. Why are we holding hands like this? No one knows. Also, the things sticking out from my head is a reindeer antler, not some misguided curls.

There was a cocktail party in Kansas City a week later. No pics were taken. I work a cute purple dress. But my tights that claimed to be control top were not very controlling. Moving on.

Corporate Christmas party on Saturday night. I pulled out the big guns for this one. Super shiny top! I love it. Another awesome band played, Liquid Blue. The singers had a choreographed dance for every song and they played for hours. I was super impressed.

I love these girls. Our feet hurt (high price for heels) so we picked a table near the dance floor and did some people watching, learned some new dance moves, and found some dresses that should be on What Not to Wear.

Emily and Christi: Tennessee is not the same without you!

The hub, looking classic.

Elevator ride. Because I could never get him to take a super nice pic with me. Oh the burden I bare. I kind of love this pic actually.

Yeah so that wraps it up. We brought our big camera but sometimes we don't like carrying it around at parties. And we just love our little Iphones. But the moral of the story is, get yourself a nice sparkly top from Express. Thank me later.

And now on to folding laundry and my last of three in a row tomorrow... 

Rocky Top Tennessee

Before I start the real post, I just want to say that a patient told me I was "too hardcore" yesterday. It was amazing. If making someone take their medicine that they would die without, then I am happy to be hardcore. I'm pretty sure I've never been accused of being too hardcore before, but I am excited about my new identity. Ha.

We headed out to Knoxville on Saturday to tailgate with all the Kiewit folks and watch Tennessee get beat by Georgia. (Coach Dooley, I don't know anything about football but I did note that your team cannot run the ball. At all. Maybe try something else?)  I hate to say this, but UT is just so much more hardcore about football than KU and their stadium is so massive, the games just have a different feel than KU. Also not sitting in the student section just isn't as fun. Ha. But we had a great time since we don't really care. And what's not to love about a great tailgate?

I do feel like a serious traitor wearing an orange shirt.

Just hanging out with some Housewives...

Caleb showing off his corn hole skills.

Neyland Stadium is huge. For reals.

But honestly, my favorite part was the halftime show. The band did this Wizard of Oz theme, complete with Dorothy and all the characters. (And the Wicked Witch of Georgia, hardee har har.) Since I get called Dorothy on a daily basis, I felt like it was just for me.

The weather was perfect, as compared to last year.  It did make us miss KU and college and being poor and not working 12 hour days and feeling like 9pm was the beginning of the night instead of bedtime. We feel old.

All the words to the Rocky Top song. Tshirt of the guy in front of us.

Last minute pic as we were leaving the stadium after the third quarter. I like it.

I just wanna say: Rock Chalk Jayhawks, Go KU!

I'm heading to my personal trainer session (fancy, I know). My last session was Thursday and on Friday I couldn't walk right. Don't kill me today, Chris!

Happy Monday!

What a good Kiewit wife looks like.

Hey friends, I just had to post a couple pics of Kiewit's family day on Saturday. The power plant is almost finished and they invited everyone to check it out! Somehow I got roped into volunteering. But I did get a radio. And I talked on it. Which probably annoyed everyone. But I don't really care. I also got to drive a caboda (I don't even know how to spell that word), which is like a golf cart but used for more serious things. Like carrying supplies. I used it to give myself a tour of the plant.

All the volunteers, looking very patriotic. Except me, because I volunteered to take this photo.

The Black Family, looking awesome in their matching attire. It was game day, people.

My husband built this. It's kind of a big deal.

In related news, we are probably going to be here through the spring. *Probably.* Because even though the plant is built, they have to make sure everything runs smoothly before the project is over. Not gonna lie, I was a little bummed because I was hoping to be back home for the holidays. But that's ok. You officially have several more months to visit us in the great state of Tennessee!

The Real Housewives of East Tennessee

Are you familiar with the Real Housewives? From Orange County, Beverly Hills, New York, Atlanta, New Jersey...and now, from East Tennessee.

Yes, it's true. The first episode of The Real Housewives of East Tennessee, on this blog, today. It's going to be a hit.

All of our guys work for Kiewit, so we were all transplanted to East Tennessee. But as you can see, we are embracing it. This past weekend, Kiewit sponsored a golf scramble (is that the correct terminology?) and we gladly participated.

Obviously, we coordinated with the pink. It's what a housewife does.

After having our glass bottles of wine confiscated, we were on our way. (The Real Housewives always have wine at their events.) The girl groups (there were 3 of them) were booted to the back nine, while all the guys played the front nine. This was fine with us. The first hole (we started on 11) took us an hour since we let the other two groups pass us. (We didn't want to embarrass them with our great skills.)

Playing golf, housewife style. Natalya on the bottom left, Paige on the top right, and Emily on the bottom right.

After the first hole, we were all in the groove and we rocked it from there. We skipped the holes where we couldn't see the flag from the tee off place. (What's the point?) We liberally played best ball. ("Yeah this is approximately where this ball would be if it went straight instead of into the woods.) We were so good that other golfers even bought us drinks. And the director of the golf course came to check in on us often, he was super impressed with our sweet game skills. He also gave us some friendly reminders of where you can and cannot drive the golf carts. All in all, playing golf with the Housewives was a smashing success.

We dressed up for the evening events to celebrate our great day.

Looking good, ladies.

My man was looking sharp as well. And I have some sweet shoes on.

The dinner was yummy, the band was funny, and the dancing was constant. Some of the guys even got to play a few songs.

My hubby is a stud.

The Kiewit band.

The housewives struck again later. Something was obviously funny.

Good facial expression, me.

It was a good day for the newest Real Housewives. And now, off to be a real housewife in my own house. Laundry, cleaning, dishes. Why do I feel like the Real Housewives don't do these things?

Weekend Happenings: go-karts, bbq, reading, and muffins

We had a beautiful, relaxing weekend. It started with Chick-fil-a and Starbucks, the way every weekend should start. Because those are the finer things of life. Then after I conquered the farmer's market and the skinny jeans, we headed to Pigeon Forge to meet up with some of Caleb's coworkers. Pigeon Forge is like the place where everyone goes. Everyone and their whole entire family and everyone they know. It doesn't matter when you go, the traffic is always horrible and everything is packed. But people keep coming back. Because it's just good wholesome Tennessee fun. (Haha)

We raced go-karts all afternoon. I got lapped on the first round and after that I smoked all those boys. (Kind of.) I have no pictures of us racing because I was racing the whole time everyone else does. This is why I'm not a good photographer. But here is a lovely picture of the neon sign.

My arms are still sore. Because I'm a woman and I have weak arms.

Afterwards, we went to Bennett's Bar-b-que Pit and it was amazing. I love bbq and this was no let down. I do miss some good Jack Stack and Oklahoma Joe's though...

So good!

Yesterday, I wore my cowboy boots and my skinny jeans. A winning combo, people. And no, you do not get evidence of this. I felt very Tennessee and Caleb made fun of me the whole time. We went to his coworker's house and they installed new speakers in Caleb's Civic while I sat in the shade and read. I started and finished Water for Elephants this weekend and loved it.

Today is my last day off before an insane amount of working. So it still counts as the weekend. I was walking with Stephanie and we saw a strawberry stand and bought the most magical strawberries ever. Seriously, so freaking good. My fridge was bursting with strawberries (I just can't stop buying them!) so I made these little babies.

You too, can have this deliciousness.

Here is the link for Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins. I even subbed half whole wheat flour and low fat cream cheese and they are still perfection.

I'm finishing 6 loads of laundry, cleaning, cooking dinner, and fighting off a cold...but I still have time to make a blog post. Happy Monday!

Paintball: It does a marriage good.

I love my weekends off. And I love my husband. He got home from his week away on a "business" trip at like 3am on Thursday morning. Let me just say, this trip sounded like a darn good vacay to me. But I'm just glad he is home. And that I've had three beautiful days off!

Yesterday afternoon we went to play paintball with some of the other guys in the piping department on his job. We were on opposite teams all afternoon and had a great time shooting at each other. It strengthens the marriage, people.

Bring it on baby.

I have a number of large, painful welts on my bod. Somehow, all on the left side of me. You can tell which side went unprotected. I'm pretty sure at least half of those are from my loving man. Like I said, shooting does a marriage good. (See A Tennessee Thanksgiving)

Those guns were heavy. I was not a very helpful teammate. Sorry guys.

We grilled afterwards and watched some basketball. Go Butler! And the guys passed the baby around...

She didn't like it.

Caleb is already in bed, mourning a horrible KU loss. But at least Elite 8 is honorable. Even if losing to Virginia Commonwealth is not. (Who are they anyway??) But I am now and always a proud Jayhawk. Rock Chalk!

Hope you had a great weekend! And have a beautiful week! More recipes coming this week...

PS. Congratulations to The French family on their new addition! He is beautiful!

There's no place like home...Part Two

Ahh nothing like spending your Friday night eating leftover pasta, watching Chopped, and blogging. Aren't you jealous? I know, I know. Ha.

Time for part two of the home visit!

We spent an afternoon with Zach and Audrey in Kansas City at the wonderful Boulevard Brewery. In case you didn't know, you can take a FREE tour with FREE beer samples at the end. It is super fun and the brewery is beautiful.

The room with barrels of beer was my fave! It smelled SO good!

Delightful.

We had so much fun. Just another reason to love Kansas City.

Next up: Kiewit district meeting. This where everyone in the whole district gets together. The guys have lots of meetings. The girls have fun group events, go shopping, and get gifts. This year they gave us Vera Bradley makeup bags. That's right ladies, if your man works for Kiewit you get a sweet bag. Oh you don't want to move about the country at random? But the bag is so awesome...

Anyway, we had fun seeing people that we miss from KC and going to the four course dinner parties at night. And we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, which was pretty sweet. I didn't take lots of pics because there is no where to stash my camera in a little black dress.

I love city views so here is the morning and night views from our 30th floor room. You are looking at the Sprint Center and P&L. And somewhere towards the left is the place where we had our wedding reception. Awww. There is also one of Mat sleeping. He loves those meetings. And me and some sweet girls that are surviving TN with me, Paige and Natalya.

Our last day in KC we went to the KU vs Nebraska basketball game in the epic Allen Fieldhouse. This is one of our favorite places in the world. Caleb got four tickets for Christmas (from his awesome wife) and so he decided to take Jordan and Mat.

Check out that sweet NCAA championship trophy.

Again with the refusing to smile. Embrace it.

It was a great game and KU won! (Duh.)

Other highlights of the trip:
-snow days!
-going to Westside Family Church again...we miss it
-Mi Ranchito
-Chipotle
-seeing my beautiful Grandma Voth
-meeting Caleb's sister Audrey's middle school classes
-seeing the super cute Alana Ryan and Ashley Wills
-a late night Applebee's hangout with my brother
-just spending time with our families!

Loved this trip. I miss Kansas City and can't wait to live there again!
Have a wonderful weekend! I will be saving lives, teaching a new grad the ropes, and telling doctors what to do. Aren't you jealous?

One last photo for you to enjoy...

Rock Chalk!

Tune in Monday for the closet clean out...before and after pictures promised!

Christmas Par-tay, Kiewit Style!

Ahh,  a lovely day off. Especially good since I had to drive through snow and ice to get to work the last two days. And people in Tennessee do not know how to a. prepare for snow/ice, b. clear off snow/ice, c. drive in snow/ice, and d. not freak out when a flake of snow falls. But no worries, I made it just fine.

So here is a recap of our past few weeks full of Christmas fun. We finally got a Christmas tree. Its real. We did not go out to the woods and cut it down. We went to Home Depot, where they trimmed it for us and placed it in a tree stand. Now that is customer service.

Also I included my kitchen table in the Christmas tree collage. Delightful.

I hung the stockings on the bookcase. Since we don't have a fireplace. And we got a real live wreath too. It smells amazing when you walk through the door.

Look closely and you can see the Harry Potter display on the bookshelf. And laugh at us. We don't care.

This past Friday night we went to the Kiewit Christmas party. It was at the Marriot and was pretty sweet. Good food, hilarious band, and they even paid for our rooms. Nice. 

Pretty.

The band was very funny. Love the lead singer's hair.

Awesome. 

In case you haven't met my husband, here is something super fun about him. He hates smiling in pictures. He loves making weird faces and messing them up. I think the only time he made a very legit attempt at good picture taking was our engagement and wedding photos. Because I told him they were very expensive. Ha.

See the picture where he is smiling? Its at someone else. He was caught off guard.

Anyway, we had a great time. I can't believe its the middle of December. Which is why I'm doing my Christmas cards TODAY!  Tomorrow I may attempt Christmas cookies. Hmmm...

In case you still have Christmas shopping to do (hello, everyone!), check this out. My mom is a new Mary Kay consultant! This is her website!!! Mary Kay is an awesome line with tons of makeup and skin care products. They have tons of great gifts for cheaper than you think! My mom will also do a FREE facial for you! Think holiday parties, girls nights, or a fun gift for yourself. She has a great selection of beautifully wrapped gifts, as well as gorgeous personalized gift certificates! Oh, and she does FREE shipping! My mom, Kaye Voth, lives in Olathe, KS but will ship to anywhere for free! Check out her website for all her info as well as the full line of products!

And off to clean my house, workout at the gym (yes I joined one), watch Hoda and Kathie Lee, and write Christmas cards! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Thankful List:

1. Chloe, my car, who got me to work in the treacherous conditions

2. Forever 21, sponsor of my sparkly cocktail ring

3. The fab Kiewit Christmas party, which reminded me of all the great people who are far from home with me

4. The amazing patients I had the last two days: one invited me out to his farm to ride horses, another told me she loved me when I left every night.

Good 'Ol Rocky Top

Due to working overtime and making moolah, my blog posts have been lacking. Not for lack of fun times in East Tennessee...just for lack of time to make blog posts.


Recap of exciting things that have happened in the last couple weeks:
1. Mullet Man became Buzz Man. I did take pictures and wanted to post some of them but decided he looked like a cancer patient. So I did not. Because I love him and I want him to not hate me. Let's just say the hair was very, very short. Like, there was almost no hair. It has since grown and he no longer looks completely bald.


2. We went whitewater rafting last weekend with some guys from Mullet Man's work. It was a beautiful day on a river that went through the Smokey Mountains. I couldn't take pictures because...we were on a boat...fighting our way through rapids. I had to pay attention people! Despite wedging my feet deep into the boat, when our guide steered us into a large rock, I flipped out into the river. One of the guys had a video camera on his helmet and caught the action. Awesome. I do have some sweet bruises to show for it. It was smooth sailing from there on, we had a blast!


3. Yesterday we went to the University of Tennessee football game in Knoxville. This was quite the event sponsored by Kiewit, Mullet Man's place of work. It started bright and early in the morning, where we met up at 11am to take a couple charter buses to Knoxville. At this time, it was raining. We prepared ourselves with layers of clothing and ponchos. At our arrival to the tailgate site, the sun came out. Scorchingly. Kiewit provided a massive camper, large screen tvs, never-ending drinks, and a delish tailgate spread from Calhoun's (bbq and tons of sides). Tennessee fans love football. Seeing seas of orange and hearing obnoxious chants of "Its great to be...a Tennessee Volunteer!" made us miss KU. Oh the Rock Chalk chant, waving the wheat, that beautiful KU blue...*Sigh.*

A good example of UT spirit

A UT decked out car...impressive

Anyway, after roasting for a few hours and gorging ourselves on food at the tailgate, it was finally game time! We headed to Neyland Stadium with the masses and found our seats...literally at the top of the stadium. Which is significantly bigger than KU's Memorial Stadium. I kind of wanted to vomit when looking down. But I gathered my strength to sit down and enjoy the game. UT does put on an impressive pre-game. With the largest marching band of any University and the releasing of doves in honor of September 11th, I was thoroughly impressed. (All these pictures are taken by my phone, since I didn't want to subject my camera to intense weather conditions.)

The players running out onto the field through the marching band. Please note all the orange everywhere.

The jumbotron....please note how high up we are.

Well, we were having a grand time until about 8 minutes into the first quarter. We we noted all the players running of the field. And there was an announcement, "We have received notice of inclement weather including lightening within 6 miles of the stadium...the game will resume after this weather has passed...please take shelter....you will be allowed back into the stadium with your ticket stub."

What inclement weather? We didn't see any lightening. Come on people. Lets play football. Since Mullet Man and I are hard core (ha!), we decided to stick it out with all the other Kiewit people. Surely the game will resume in a few minutes. But check out these storm clouds...

See how that once full stadium is now looking much emptier?

"Oh look how the storm is moving past us...it's not even going to hit this stadium."

Note how the storm seems to be heading straight for the stadium.

After this picture and about 5 more of the same announcements, I saw the lightening. Not far from me. And I was at the highest point of the stadium. Surrounded by metal. And flag poles. More lightening is noted. People are now in mass exodus of the stadium. Kiewit people are still holding their ground. I calmly and rationally suggest to Mullet Man that we perhaps take shelter. He agrees. We start for the exits. And then the monsoon starts. Sheets of rain come down. *Note: we left our ponchos at the tailgate site because the sun is scorching and there would be no need for ponchos.* We are now immediately soaked. There is no more picture taking at this point.

We finally get out of the stadium and decide not to wait for the game to resume. We head back to the tailgate site where a bus comes to take us home. We ride for two hours in our wet and now cold clothes. Once arriving home, we take hot showers and put on dry clothes. It is now midnight. We decide that after our ordeal, we are starving. So we go to McDonalds and get two nutritious Big Mac meals and find that "Date Night" has arrived from Netflix. So we spend the wee hours of the morning enjoying being dry and warm. Ahhh. 

Dear UT: We enjoyed your game day experience. Maybe next time we will bring sunglasses, sunscreen,  a change of clothes, and a better idea of what the weather will be.  We enjoyed your stadium, your marching band, and learning "Good Ol Rocky Top." We think your chant "It's great...to be... a Tennessee Volunteer" is a little silly. We are glad we had the chance to see you score six points before you ended up being beat by Oregon.  Good luck in the rest of the season! And as always, Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Love, The Bakers