Concerts

It was serendipitous! Right at the time I was trying to wrap my brain around the fact that U2 concert tickets were crazy expensive, I discovered a random savings of $35/month with our phone company. It was like Bono himself was singing through the phone line It's A Beautiful Day!

So in honor of our concert ticket purchase, I was trying to remember other concerts I’ve been to. I have to admit that it’s not that impressive (and a tad embarrassing in parts), especially considering I was raised by a man who sees every band possible in concert…still!

Here goes…in chronological order:

Neil Diamond
Michael Jackson
Billy Joel
New Kids on the Block
Tiffany & New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block (yes, 3 times)
Dixie Chicks (pre-Natalie)
Hootie & The Blowfish
Collin Raye
Jars of Clay
Parachute Express
Don Henley
‘N Sync
Dixie Chicks
Celine Dion
‘N Sync
Celine Dion

And on October 12, the one and only…

U2

Spring Has Sprung

We are finally in the middle of a Texas spring season. That means the temperatures can range from the 40s to the 80s. You could wear a T-shirt and shorts, or you may need to bring your winter coat back out. And the weather could consist of beautiful sunshine, rain, hail, or tornadoes. We Texans like our variety!


We’ve been taking advantage of the pretty days by planting flowers in the backyard. This is when Tate discovered his love for digging dirt. Now he’s got a pretty impressive radar sense for finding a stick and dirt pile anywhere we go.

And this is a sweet reminder of Wade’s maternal grandmother. She lived to be 102 years old and lived on her own well into her late 90s. When she did move out of her home, Wade’s mom saved some of the irises from her yard and gave them to several of us. So now every April, we get a beautiful reminder of such a strong, faithful woman.

This picture is after they have barely survived this spring’s rain, hail, and even smoke/wind storms.

And spring is not complete without golf. This is Grandpa helping Tate with his putting. He now has a golf club just his size at both grandparent’s house and at home. And after having the Masters on this past Sunday, Tate has declared several times since then, “I’m Tiger Woods.”

And a young Texan’s right of passage during the spring is finding a field of bluebonnets (our state flower) for pictures. Tate had a blast at this great field we found. But he was having so much fun running around, it made it a little difficult to get a great shot. Now he looks for bluebonnets everywhere.

Hope your spring is off to a springy start!

American Idol ~ Top 7

I was a little disappointed with the song choices tonight, when there could be so many great ones from the movies. But I am glad that they are at least finally acknowledging that the show is going over time and doing something about it.



For me (as Randy says), there wasn’t just an obvious showstopper this week, but I think Allison had the best overall performance. Great song choice for her. She may be slowly getting close to sounding the same, so it would be great for her to really change something up soon. I am still blown away by her talent.

As far as the worst of the night…sad to say, but I think it was Lil. The girl can really sing, but week after week, she’s showing that she’s not a performer. I love that she’s a mom with those cute kiddos, but she isn’t showing any improvement. Was the Simon eye roll not greatness, though? We rewound that several times.

And the others:

Adam ~ My quote to Wade: It’s crazy, but it’s good.
Anoop ~ His slow songs make him look like he’s in pain. It was really good, but I don’t think he can do much better than that. Although, he has what Lil doesn’t…stage presence.
Danny ~ For someone that always has great vocals, he seemed off. Surely that had to be an emotional song to sing. I was tearing up with him. But like I said last week, he’s just sounding the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
Kris ~ I LOVE that song. I think he was striving for an “Adam Moment,” and didn’t quite get it. He was really close, though.
Matt G. ~ Sweet Matt. I thought his version was better than the (I’ve heard it 1,000 times before) original. He’s just too easily forgotten. He’s not going to win, but I bet he may be a surprise success after the show.

I’m thinking the bottom 3 will probably be Lil, Anoop, and Matt G. Thoughts????

Easter 2009

As with many holidays or special events, this Easter was spread out and celebrated several times with lots of family and friends.

We started last weekend when Shannon, Brad, Mallory, & Morgan came in town. We started with our usual attempt to get three small children to look at the camera and smile. A for effort.



Then it was off to the egg hunt in Mimi & Grandpa’s front yard.



There was even some nice sharing of eggs.

Afterward, it was time for the goodies in the Easter baskets from Mimi. Tate & Uncle Brad enjoyed decorating each other with stickers.

And I love holiday paraphanelia, so my sweet nieces humored me by wearing the bunny ears. Tate wouldn’t’ have anything to do with it. The turkey headdress might have been my last chance with him.

And the day was sealed with a cousin kiss. Will they hate me one day for this or what?

Later in the week, we made some Easter cookies at home. You can see in the video why we don’t do this very often.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

But they turned out pretty cute.

And they turned out pretty yummy as well. (And yes, this is the same fireman hat that keeps appearing in pictures. If Tate is home and awake, chances are he has on his fireman hat.)

We celebrated Easter at our church on Saturday evening with a packed house and a wonderful service, followed by a fun dinner/egg hunt with lots of friends and kiddos from church. On Sunday, we met up with the Strzinek family for an Easter brunch.

While we were eating, Tate had a sudden look of concern come across his face.

Large rabbits are kind of strange. Tate gave a cordial hello and high five, but was then glad to see the bunny hop away.

Our attempt at a family shot. A for effort.

Then we headed to Poppy & Mo Mere’s house for dancing bunnies and eggs.

Wade’s parents save their spare change in a big jar all year long. On Easter they put all of the change in eggs and hide them for the kids. It’s a pretty good deal for everyone.

And then we got home to an interesting Easter surprise. At first glance, this may look like a normal spring wreath on our door. Although, there is a strange long twig coming out of it. Hmmm?

Our Easter egg surprise! I’m completely weirded out by this nest with baby bird eggs planted on our front door. I had a bad experience once at a pet store with a large bird and have never been the same since. Not sure what we’re going to do about it. I just know that I’ve avoided the front door by a good 10 ft.

Tate LOVES his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins so much. Any time we get the chance to see them, he will talk about and name them over and over again. So despite our new family members living on the front door, it was a wonderful Easter full of blessings that I’m continually thankful.

A Passover First

Last night I experienced my first Passover Seder. I loved every minute of it and look forward to going again next year. I went into it not knowing what to expect at all and was hoping it wasn’t going to be too strange.

It was anything but that. In fact, the atmosphere was welcoming, friendly, relaxed, and familial.

I loved that everyone was involved including even the younger children who participated in some of the readings. And I learned a lot. It’s such a good thing to go back and be reminded of my faith heritage and that God is the Redeemer and Deliverer. And I know that the next time I hear the passages of The Last Supper, as Jesus and his disciples took part in the Passover, I will have an even greater understanding and appreciation.

After the Seder, there was a reading of The Last Supper followed by communion. It was a wonderful evening. I feel prepared, refreshed, and renewed going into this special weekend.

Here is the benediction that all of us read together to close the service:

Aware of each and every one,
The Lord our God has been;
He blesses those who love in truth,
Forgiving those who sin.
He stayed the whip and broke the lash
And clothed our souls laid bare.
His mercy healed our bleeding wounds
As Israel’s voice made prayer
His love, a never ending strength
Through all eternity.
Embraced His people,
Freeing them from dark captivity.
So lift your hearts and lift your souls
In freedom’s mighty roar,
And thank the Lord for blessings sweet,
Now and forever more.

“For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
1 Corinthians 5:7

The Faces Of Tate

Oh how I love this boy.

American Idol ~ Top 8

Well thank goodness for the second half hour of this week’s show. The first half was brutal. Of all the great songs of the awesomeness that was the ‘80s, some of the contestants picked some lame songs. I’m probably a little too stuck in the ‘80s for my own good, but I know there are so many better songs out there.


At least the ones at the end salvaged the show. And I think Adam stole the show again. He has seriously got to win. I’ve already downloaded his Tracks of My Tears from a few weeks ago. Smartest performer I think I’ve ever seen in the 7 seasons that I’ve watched. Loved the song tonight. Love him and his crazy hair.

And I won’t hold it against Allison that she was born in 1992. She has got some impressive talent. I don’t understand why she keeps landing in the bottom 3. Simon is probably right about her likability. Let’s hope people voted tonight.

And at the bottom of the list again is Scott. He seems like a really nice, funny guy. But what was he thinking with the electric (???!!!) guitar? Random. It is time for him to go.

Lil ~ I'm afraid that she may be the one that gets the least amount of votes, though. She needs to step it up. The judges comments were right, but I still think she's better than Scott.

Anoop ~ I LOVE that song. He's pretty good, but probably won't last much longer.

Danny ~ I didn't think it was near as good as they said. I'm getting a little bored with him.

Kris ~ Not his best, but not horrible.

Matt ~ I think he is so good. Reminds me of my sweet Justin T. I think he gets forgotten over Adam and Kris, though.

Thoughts????

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I know that things really shouldn’t be what make us happy. I know, I know, I know. But come on, don’t you come across a few material things every now and then that just make your heart flutter a little?

The most obvious right now is the new blog design. I love it! Kind of funky, vintagy, cute. I told the designer, Sharon from Redbud Designs, it looks just like stationary I would buy somewhere. My blog decided to get all high-maintenance on her, so I appreciate the extra time she had to take to make it just right.

And speaking of stationary. One of my most favorite places on earth, Swoozie's, had a stationary BOGO sale with FREE personalization recently. Can you believe it???!!! You know I was working some magic with our cash envelopes to make this little purchase happen. Just loverly!



This item is technically Tate’s, but he doesn’t quite appreciate the cuteness of it yet. He had some leftover Christmas gift money, so I decided (for him) to indulge in a canvas print of the USA for the playroom and maybe in his big boy room one day. Is it not the cutest thing ever? And he already knows and can point to where he lives…Texas!

And finally, here is a true testament to friendship. Does my friend Laura know me or what? She gave me this little spool of adorableness for my birthday. Personalized ribbon!!!!!

You know you’re excited about things when it looks as though just about every sentence I wrote ended with an exclamation mark. I try hard to edit those down, but these few of my favorite things deserve to be exclaimed!

Pardon Our Dust

Blog is under construction. Stay tuned...something pretty cute is soon to appear. And not just another one of my baby pictures! :)

A Gene Pool Game

Don't cheat if you've already seen this. Let's play a little gene pool game.

First up is the this adorable little girl. We'll call her "Exhibit M."





Now the game is to guess which person she is more closely related to in the gene pool. Is it "Miss Germany" below?

Or is it "Miss Child Born into Family with Ugly Couch" below?

Can you guess?

"Exhibit M" is the one and only adorable Miss Morgan. If you look at the pictures, she does sure look a lot like "Miss Child Born into Family with Ugly Couch."

But the answer is....she is the daughter of "Miss Germany," who is also known as Shannon, my sister. And I'm the one with the ugly couch...which I remember as really scratchy as well (not a good combo).

Isn't the gene pool strange? My baby pictures and this picture of Morgan (my niece) look SO much alike. And then Shannon's oldest, Mallory, looks just like Shannon. It's all a little weird...and made even weirder by my sister's comments about not being just the surrogate.

Good times with genetics!