No Rhythm, No Worries? No Problem!

About two months ago, I decided that I wanted to go see Carrie Underwood in concert.  I checked her tour schedule and my friends calendars to see if a girls' weekend was possible.  One of the girls was already busy that weekend :( but the other three of us decided to go!  At that time, the closest venue to Dallas that Carrie was to appear was going to be Bossier City, LA.  Of course, since that time, she has added other cities, including...you guessed it, DALLAS!  O'WELL....we needed the weekend away!

This weekend was SHOW TIME!!!  I took off on Friday. I asked Brice to get us some snacks.  Every good girls' trip should include:  peanut butter M&Ms, our favorite drinks (Diet Dr. Pepper for me, Coke for Rachel, and water for Sara), popcorn, Chex Mix, and Twizzlers, of course!! :)  I downloaded Carrie's CDs on iTunes, burned them on discs, got everything and everyone in the car and we were headed out!!!!  First stop, Zig Zag Stripe Boutique in Mansfield!

I won't bore you with a bunch of details about this stop, except this....Sara bought an ADORABLE outfit that I will show you later!!!  AND...I do not own any cowboy boots. I tried some on at ZZS and LOVED them.  They were just SO expensive!!!  I did not end up buying them and, honestly, I kind of regret it.  I anticipate that I will either go back and buy them or buy them somewhere else!!  We grabbed lunch and then zipped on to I-20 for a lot of miles towards the state where crawfish are plenty!

It had been rainy and dreary all week long and God was so good to us to give us an ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS day of traveling!!!!  The weather was beautiful, skies were blue, and the clouds were big and fluffy!!!  We could not have asked for more perfect traveling conditions!

We made it all the way to Van, Texas before we stopped to go to the bathroom (thank you to Cynthia for the restroom stop tips ;) We were going to stop at Buc-ees but we did not have time on the way there.  We did stop on the way home!! :) 

We pulled into the hotel parking lot way later than we intended to (anyone that knows Rachel and me are likely not surprised by this) but with still plenty of time....or so we thought!!!!  Our plan was never to drive to the concert venue.  I did not want to deal with traffic, paying to park, or just the headache of it all.  The hotel has a shuttle but what we did not know is if the shuttle would go to the venue.  Our backup plan was Uber.  

Arriving to the hotel around 5:30 pm (just an 1 1/2 hours before the concert STARTED) was a little stressful as we still had to get dressed and ready and figure out how we were getting to the concert.  We had given up on eating dinner before the concert at this point.  We rushed around, got pretty, and started figuring everything out.  We began stressing out when we figured out that the shuttle DID NOT go to the Centurylink Center, Uber DID NOT service the area, and the cab would take over 45 minutes to get us there, when the concert was then supposed to start in 30 minutes!!!  I said, "Okay, girls, LET'S GO!!!"  I grabbed my keys and we jumped in my van and I drove....well, as Sara says, "aggressively."  

I have to give some serious Kudos to this venue!  The parking was absolutely FREE and they had some pretty efficient parking staff!  I was super impressed!!  We got to the Centurylink Center in about 15 minutes and still had 15 minutes to spare!!!  WORD!!!  We thought we were living right!  We walked up and saw that there was a door right there that said, "Entrance for VIP and floor seating only."  Well, HOT DIGGITY DOG...guess what?  We had floor seating!!  We pranced right on in, got our little swanky floor seating wrist bands, and the kind lady said, "All right girls, it's general admission but it is standing room only.  There are no seats."  Cue the dropped jaws, eyes wide open, blank stares.  "I'm sorry, what?"  She said, "Yes, that's right.  The concert people changed it because Carrie's stage is too big and no chairs will fit on the floor along with her stage so it is standing room only."  We all just looked at each other.   Rachel went off upstairs to see if she could talk to someone because of her back issues about getting a seat and Sara and I scoped things out a little.  Ultimately, we all decided to keep our spots by the stage as the place we had was so super close to where the performers were going to be.  Little did we know the condition we would be in at the end of the night!  

The first act was the Swon Brothers.  Apparently, they were on the Voice which I have never watched one second of but they were pretty good.  The second act was someone named Easton Corbin and I have never heard of him either but I kind of liked him.  I could have done without how long he performed but he was really good.  Then....Carrie Underwood!!!!!!!

First of all, she was just great!!!  She was a great performer, her vocals were amazing, and the best part, she just sang!  She was classy, beautiful, and entertaining.  I just thoroughly enjoyed the show!  It was one of the best concerts that I have ever been to.  She changed clothes five times, I think.  She sang for a SOLID 3 hours and never took an intermission.  Awesome, awesome show!!! One of my favorite parts was when she sat on the piano and did a tribute to her son and husband.  Loved it!!!!  

After it was over, I knew that I had a blister the size of Texas on my heel.  I borrowed pair of boots from Maura and they were just a smidge too small, I am afraid.  I need to be real honest for a minute...I am not a dancer and I do not profess to have very good moves...like AT ALL!!!!  BUT...boy did I MOVE at this concert!!!  And..in the car...and in the hotel room!!!! I just let it loose.  I had THE BEST TIME!!!!!!  I think that might be part of the reason for this blister.  So the blister and the fact that I had been standing for 4 1/2 hours straight was KILLING my back!!!!!  I COULD NOT walk straight!!!  I looked like I had drank about 4 too many beers.  Well, I hadn't!  When we got back to the van, it hurt to sit down.  I couldn't breathe!  We just sat in the parking lot waiting for the cars to file out which was good because I had to get the boots OFF!  We talked and laughed and just goofed around!!!  

We were STARVING but recognized that we had NO IDEA what would be open at 11:30 at night in Bossier City, Louisiana!  We landed at Chili's.  Problem was....I had to put the boots back on!  The hostess....have you ever watched the Bon Qui Qui videos on YouTube?  If you haven't, you should...they are entertaining and that is what our hostess reminded me of!!  We ate dinner and headed back to the hotel.

After taking turns prying our boots off, we took meds to ease our aching backs, talked until the meds kicked in and then went to sleep at about 2 am!!!!

When you are on a girls' weekend trip and you have the capability to sleep in until AT LEAST 11:00 am, what happens????  Your body does not allow you to sleep later than 7:30!!!!!!  But that does not mean we had to get out of bed!!  We I laid in bed as long as I could before Sara would not let me anymore. I was stressing her out!!!!  :)  We all got ready, had a mini concert in the room, did Bible study together (one of my favorite parts of the weekend), and checked out of the hotel, headed for lunch!  

Some of our church friends (from Louisiana) recommended this restaurant called Posado's in Bossier so we ate there at lunch.  It was pretty good.  We just all shared everything.  Funny little story...we were trying to get a good picture of the front of the restaurant for...you know...documenting purposes (and because we were jamming to the song on the radio) so they had me drive around the restaurant THREE TIMES!!!!  LOL!!!  We were all a little sad after lunch because it was time to head home.

We got gas and hopped on I-20 headed to the Big D!  Next stop....Buc-ees!

Buc-ees is a Texas monument!  The one we went to today is actually the newest one opened....in Terrell, Texas.  It just opened in June of last year.  If you do not know what Buc-ees is, it is a HUGE gas station with like 150 gas pumps, a convenience store, and mini Walmart all in one.  It's pretty cool!!  It was the first time any of us had been to one.  We three got matching shirts and I got shirts for everyone in my family.  :)

The trip was officially over with the arrival home to my babies and my sweet, sweet husband!!!  My husband who has so selflessly given of himself this past week for everyone!!  I cannot say enough about Brice and how he has served so many people lately.  I don't deserve him...at all.  

This was one of the best trips I have ever had!!!!  I was 100%, completely myself!!!!  I let anything and everything GO!!!  I have not laughed that hard in such a long time!!!!  It was so good to just laugh, sing at the top of my lungs, roll back the sunroof, listen to the same song over and over and over again, dance even though I have zero rhythm, and let the cares of the world stay in my rear view mirror...even for just 24 hours.  It was good!!  The Lord so graciously gave us beautiful weather and traveling mercies.  So so thankful for the blessings that He gives me.  The Lord is so good!!!

**SIDE NOTES**

Throughout the trip I started writing down quotes because there were things that we did not want to forget!!  I have recorded some of them below for your entertainment.
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Rachel:  Y'all, I think deep down I have always had an inner theatrical side.
Sara:  Inner???  I think it comes out way more than you know!

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Sara (to Rikki):  It's okay that we are running late.  You seem to be an aggressive driver.  We will get there.

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Conversation about syncing our FitBits....

Rikki:  Cynthia synced really early this morning.
Sara:  Well, she's an hour ahead of us I think.  At least Florida is...
Rikki:  Oh, yeah, that's right.  So, is Mississippi the next state over, then Alabama, then Florida.
Sara:  See this is how it works...
Rikki:  WOAH...I am not looking for a geography lesson!!!!

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Sara:  Oh!!!!!  Look at this beautiful day!!!!  I AM SO EXCITED!!!  (This one comes with a picture...below!!!)

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Rikki:  I wonder what Posado means?

Rachel:  Do you think it means tortilla?

That one is our favorite from the entire trip!!!!!  We laughed about that for hours!!!!