The unbearable lightness of being random

Just random observations and happenings for you today:

• I think the grocery stores are employing some kind of aversion therapy (aside from rising prices... youch!). At the commissary the other day, every single time I reached for an item, I got shocked. Too bad it didn't stop me from buying the stuff... I guess the aversion therapy didn't work. Just annoyed the heck outta me.
  
• It was a crazy busy week of running back and forth and here and there last week. This week promises to be more of the same. Between baseball practices, Emily's play rehearsals, AWANA, and music lessons, there is always somewhere to be and go.
  
• Tonight we have the chance to see Trout Fishing in America here on base (FREE!). Just have to get Noah away from his baseball practice early enough.
• Major spring cleaning around here this past weekend. Brian and I worked on the garage together and it is SPIFFY. Our back porch/patio area is rockin', too. Still need to take a backhoe to the boys' room, but not sure how to get it in the house and up the stairs. I don't even want to think about a certain teenager's room.
  
• Trying to plan a major road trip back east (Missouri/Alabama) for June... experienced RVers tell us we won't be able to drive as many miles in a day as we would like to. They say no more than 3-400 miles a day. That will mean almost 6 days of driving each way with no time for sightseeing. :( Oh well, perhaps later on in the year we will be able to do a sightseeing kind of trip.
• Halle and I went to see Nim's Island yesterday. It was a pretty good movie. I'd like to read the book now and see how it compares. I have heard the movie was fairly true to it. Jodie Foster was fun to watch as an agoraphobic adventure novelist, and Gerard Butler was quite endearing as a widowed marine biologist raising his 11yo daughter (played by the always-adorable Abigail Breslin) on a remote island in the South Pacific.
• I wish someone would invent a dust-repellent I could spray over my entire house. I cannot get rid of the stuff. It is back 10 seconds after I wipe it away.

Idol Chatter

Emily and I drove to Sacramento last night to take in the American Idol tour concert. Even though we didn't have floor seats, we still had a good view of the stage, and the big screens also gave us some closeup shots of the performers. Em definitely had a good time.... plenty of screams and whoops from her throughout the night, mostly whenever Blake or Chris R. were on stage. Those two did a very cool number in which both of them did a bit of beatboxing. Blake did his fabulous version of You Give Love a Bad Name; it was even better than the first time. We were also treated to Phil's *awesome* rendition of Blaze of Glory. He totally rocked it. Emily and I both agreed that Phil had the best stage presence of anyone, although Blake seemed fairly comfortable interacting with the crowd as well. As far as the rest of the guys went, Chris Sligh was able to show us his mad skilz on guitar, and Sanjaya served mostly as window dressing for the show. He was showcased very little... and that's OK. :)

Now as to the girls... When they first came out, one of my first impressions was that Haley was a bit overdressed (for her, anyhow). As the evening went on, her wardrobe began disappearing. Emily said she was just too "Playboy bunny." I am inclined to agree. On the other hand, Gina looked and sounded great. Kiki looked quite glamorous, and I think she's been going to speech therapy. I watched her singing/talking on the big screen and her lisp was not noticeable. She did a great job with I Will Always Love You. Melinda was fabulous as well. She was showcased performing Natural Woman. There were several group performances ... fun stuff! All of these performances led up to the last few songs of the night by Jordin. Jordin seemed to be having a little bit of trouble with her voice. Her first song was I Who Have Nothing, and there were a couple of spots where she cracked a bit. She also did Broken Wing (big surprise there, huh?) and of course, ended the show with This Is My Now. I absolutely love that song. Afterwards, there was the obligatory encore, which involved each performer returning for 30 seconds or so of one of their showcase numbers, and then everyone joining Jordin for This Is My Now. All in all a fun night. Emily was quite jealous of the folks on the front row, especially after Blake jumped down from the stage to the small barricaded section between the stage and the front row. Folks who got seats to the very side of the stage were also treated to lots of handshakes from the performers. I guess we know what to try for if we can't get floor seats for any other concert we get to attend there!

If you'd like to see a much better review of one of the other stops on this tour, look here.

Birthday recap and weekend plans

Thank you to all who sent birthday wishes. I think I received more greetings this year than ever before. I had several e-cards in addition to the comments, plus a few of those old-fashioned cards that come in the mail. *G* One of those even came with a Starbucks card... Thanks, Grace!

We had a very nice time last night... It was great catching up with Rick and Virginia and hearing about things over in Antioch. We were a little late to the Won By One concert, as Friday night traffic on the interstate was backed up a bit. Thankfully it was only by about 5 minutes or so. The Won By One kids did a great job, especially considering they were short one person. They had less than a month to rework their songs written for 6 voices and modify them for 5. Not an easy task! It was good to see the familiar faces and meet some new ones. That's the thing with the college groups: the faces keep changing. Afterwards we were able to chat a bit and then the group surprised me with a beautiful chorus of "Happy Birthday." Matt chatted with me and Emily about Harry Potter and the upcoming book and movie. Noah really enjoyed hanging out with Darnell afterwards; they found out they share a common interest in playing NCAA Baseball on PlayStation and have decided they are going to use the "Create-a-player" feature to make each other on their games and see how many homeruns they can hit with each other.... using the Pepperdine team, of course!

We were able to get the keys to the base house yesterday afternoon, so this weekend we'll be seeing what we want to take over ourselves before the packers come on Monday. We'll probably do some shopping as well. We need a washer/dryer, as the base house doesn't come with one. And we also need a new microwave. Brian took our old one to work to use in his office when the one there died, and this house has a built-in.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

One day closer

We've been doing a little bit each day to get ready for this move. Dusting the bookcases, taking unwanted items to Goodwill, getting rid of the bleach spot... Yes, you heard me right. That bleach spot I mentioned this past weekend, the one that used to be a yellowish color, is now gone, thanks to this. I wish I had taken pictures so you could see the difference. I am one happy camper now.

We've had time to visit the base swimming pool a couple of times this week as well. Just $75 got us a family pass for the summer. Sure beats what they are asking for the community pools! ($280!!) I am sure the pass will come in handy once we are actually living on base and the weather begins heating up a bit more.

Tomorrow night, we are going to dinner at Olive Garden with friends from Antioch, then taking in a Won By One concert. Sounds like a nice way to celebrate being another year older, doesn't it?

Once we get settled into the new place, I plan on having a book giveaway like some of my other blogfriends have done. I have a group of books I put aside just for this purpose, most of them fairly new. So if you're a reader, be prepared to put your name in the hat for one!

And while I'm talking about future things... keep your eyes out for an announcement of something new here. (Mom and Pam, you already know... and Larry, if Mom hasn't told you already, just ask her.)

There it goes...

Just watching the $$ fly by this weekend... We took the kids to the movies yesterday afternoon to see the latest Shrek installment. Kids loved it. We laughed as well. I liked the music; these guys have a great way of using old songs in the soundtracks. I wonder how many more Shrek films they'll be able to squeeze out before the Shrek gravy train runs out?

Then I bought 2 tickets for Emily and me to go see the American Idols tour when it comes to Sacramento in July. OUCH. That was painful. But Brian pointed out that he has spent that much taking Noah to baseball games, so it was definitely the right thing to do. All the floor seats were taken already (although there were auctions for floor tickets beginning at $90), but we still managed lower level seats that will hopefully give us a decent view.

I also reserved us a room for the homeschool conference in Modesto at the end of July. Thankfully the conference negotiated pretty good room discounts and we'll be staying at a nice place right next to the convention, a Doubletree. The kids will have their own conference to attend, so they will have plenty to keep them busy while we're attending sessions and shopping. I haven't registered them yet... that will be a few more $$ to add to the outgo.

Surprisingly enough, tonight's activity is actually FREE. We're heading out to the local ballpark (which closes at the end of the month due to not enough support) for a free concert. It's actually a full day of concerts that started earlier today, but we are mostly interested in the last 2 performers, Lincoln Brewster and Todd Agnew.

And how was *your* Saturday evening?

Meeting Mark

It was an excellent concert.... Big Daddy Weave rocked the house, and Mark sang all his old stuff and several new ones. One of the best parts of the night was when he had everyone sing It Is Well With My Soul a cappella. Wish some of you could have been there to share it with us!