Andrew Lloyd Weber night

Okay.... tonight's AI featured songs by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Love his stuff. I have the movie versions of both Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cats. (Of those, Joseph is by far my favorite.) Have watched Phantom of the Opera; Emily has the soundtrack on her iPod, and just saw it on Broadway a couple of weeks ago. Evita? Eh... not really one of my favorites. My exposure to Jesus Christ, Superstar is limited, but I am familiar with a couple of songs from it.

So going into tonight, I tried to imagine what songs the finalists would choose, or what songs I thought would work for them. I had Carly pegged, and I think she totally rocked with the title song from Jesus Christ, Superstar. Actually, tonight went pretty well for most of the gang except two: Brooke and Jason.

Poor Brooke. I knew this would be a tough night. If she'd only called me, though. I think I could have helped her out. I really think she would have fared much better if she had taken on "I Don't Know How to Love Him." (That's another song from Jesus Christ, Superstar, for the uninitiated.) Yvonne Elliman sang this in the movie; here's the clip from YouTube.

And Jason. Gee whiz. What was he thinking? I totally agreed with Simon when he said it was the longest 2 minutes of his life. I'm not sure what song Jason could have picked. But not Memory!

Syesha wowed me with a song I'd never heard before (One Rock and Roll Too Many). She could definitely make her living in theater.

David A.... interesting choice with Think of Me. Rearranging it as a pop ballad definitely worked for him, though. Before the show, I was picturing him singing Any Dream Will Do, from Joseph. That, or another song from the same show, Close Every Door. (Links are of Donny Osmond; the first is an actual clip from the movie.) But he didn't ask my advice, and I guess this time it didn't hurt.

I enjoyed David Cook's handling of Music of the Night, but it didn't wow me. It was nice to see him do something other than rock, though.

Favorite of the night: Syesha
Who should go: Jason or *sob* Brooke

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.

Miles to go before I sleep

Yep. I have to pick up Emily from the airport in Sac tonight after 11pm. Her flight from NYC is supposed to land at 11:18. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for her luggage and can get by with the free 30 minute parking. If not... oh well.

Got a free CD in the mail today. Matt Maher's Empty & Beautiful pre-release CD arrived and is already loaded into my iTunes. I just need to plug in my iPod and update it now. Many thanks to Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer for announcing this freebie.

Looking forward to tomorrow night's American Idol. I haven't heard yet what the theme is... I'm very curious. Last week's results were quite surprising. I can only imagine what this week will bring.

Read a really good book last week and have been meaning to mention it here, but I kept forgetting. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah is the story of two girls who become friends in the 8th grade and how that friendship grows and changes as they go through life. If you grew up in the 70's/80's/90's, you'll find yourself reliving scenes from your life as you are reminded of the music/tv/pop culture of the times. Kate and Tully's unlikely friendship, forged as outsiders in their school, spans over 30 years. We see them make tough choices, bad choices, impossible choices... And in the end, you will feel as if you knew both of them.

Girls' day

Brian is off on a TDY to Cincinnati; Emily is in NYC with her choir; Joel and Noah just left with our neighbors to go see the Giants play the Cardinals in San Francisco. That leaves just Halle and me here for the day. We haven't fully planned our day yet, but know that after church, we want to hit Olive Garden for lunch. With it just being the two of us, we shouldn't have the usual wait for a table as we do when it's 5 or 6 of us.

We might take in a movie, or start one of the jigsaw puzzles we got at Christmastime. As much as the house needs cleaning and laundry needs doing, I want to avoid it unless she has something else she wants to do that doesn't involve me. Today will be her day.

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Yesterday was full of "stuff." I had a ladies' breakfast at church at 9, but both boys also had baseball games. Joel's game was at 11:25, which meant I wound up leaving the breakfast early to get us to the fields. Noah's game was at 1. We were at the field from 11am to 3pm. Halle and Joel walked home with the neighbor's older daughter about 45 minutes or so into Noah's game. When all was said and done, I had sunburned arms. Thankfully the redness has faded today. I've got to remember sunblock for next time!

Roughing it... NOT

OK, internets..... I've been holding out on you. But it's not my fault. I was under strict orders not to say anything until we had a chance to experience the wonders in store for us with this baby:



This, my friends, seems to be the answer to our dilemma of how leave home for more than a day without needing to kennel the dogs or pay for 2 hotel rooms. She is an Allegro Open Road 35QBA (I gotta come up with a name for her). We made the decision to bring her home the day before Easter, but didn't actually get her until the 27th. Brian told me to hold off on the announcement until we got to break her in.

Well, we finally got our chance this past weekend. It was a whirlwind affair, trying to get ready to go.... what with 2 ball games to get through Saturday before we could even begin to leave. Somehow we managed to get it together enough to take a short trip about 40 minutes away to Lake Solano. See Brian drive:

We only had time to spend one night, what with baseball season and all. We are hoping for at least one more overnight trip somewhere else close by in May, and then maybe we will be able to do a 2- or 3-night stay for Memorial Day weekend. The kids had a blast, and we enjoyed ourselves a bit as well. We did discover that we will have to tweak the sleeping arrangements on the next trip so that the person who wants to sleep the latest isn't on the sofabed, but the dinette bed instead. It made moving about for the earlier risers (namely me, but the other 4 in the family as well) very difficult, since the sofabed takes up the entire width of the coach when it's pulled out.

Here are a few sights from Saturday and Sunday:



I am sure we will have lots of stories to share about all this... especially if I can't convince one small pony of a dog that she can do her business (what some humans call "paperwork") some place other than in her own back yard. Yes, my friends: we have a "holder." I'm glad we were gone for less than 24 hours. She was happy to come home and went straight to work as soon as she hit the back yard.

Yep... stories. We'll have 'em.

A Death in the Family

My children experienced their first taste of death today. Thankfully, they were somewhat prepared for it. Summer (our pet rat) had seemed poorly for the last week or two and yesterday her activity level dropped considerably. We told the kids we didn't think she'd last past the night. Noah woke up at 4:30 this morning and checked on her... by his report, she was still breathing. I didn't think to check her until I got back from taking Emily to school at 8. She was gone. Of all the kids, Noah took it the hardest. He talks a good game, but he has a sensitive heart.

We waited for Brian to come home in the afternoon and he and the kids took her to a quiet spot and buried her. I would have gone, but then I would have felt like I should have sung a funeral song for her and I wasn't sure what an appropriate one would have been: When All of God's Ratties Get Home, Precious Ratties, Cheese Perfect Cheese, Precious Lord Take My Paw....?

Anyhow, that's life here. Looking forward to hump day tomorrow. I've had a tough time getting back into the swing of things after that week off, but tomorrow is a new day and we *will* get back on track!

Spring break

We're all on spring break here in the Pass the Prozac house (well, everyone except Brian...). Emily is getting plenty of driving practice. She drove a bit over the weekend (to church and back, to the BX, the shoppette) and has taken every chance she can get to get behind the wheel this week. I think she will be a fine driver once she has a few more miles under her belt. She hasn't been out on the highway yet ... I think I'll let her dad handle that!

Sunday was a rather long day... it began with me waking up a bit later than I had intended. I didn't set an alarm, and my usually reliable internal alarm didn't wake me up until 6:22. Wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't supposed to be at church at 6:45 for rehearsal before the 8am worship. BUT... I managed to shower, dry my hair (mostly), throw on foundation and clothes, and be driving out the main gate of the base as the clock read 6:45. I hit every light on green except for 1, never exceeded the speed limit, and made it to church by 6:55 (I even put on my blush and lip color while I drove. Anyone know the new term for that?? You can see it here.). There were others not there yet (although most were) and they hadn't started. Can you say "lucky?" Anyhow, sang for 3 services and left church a little after 12:45. Brian was busy at work grilling steaks for our Easter dinner. My legs were killing me from standing so much at church... counting rehearsal time, probably 3 hours or so. I'm still working out the soreness.

Had fun tonight chatting with John Dobbs tonight while he was doing a live u-stream during American Idol. I was able to get a little preview of what I would get to see out here on the left coast by listening/watching the broadcast on his tv when he turned his webcam to show me. I'm hoping more of his regular readers will come and chat with us next week. (Hey Terri, Donna... I'm talking to you! And anyone else who comes here that also reads John.)

And about AI, I know I haven't said much about it this year. I'm not as thrilled with the top 10 as I was last year's.... can't see myself going to the tour concert with Emily this year unless she is just dying to go, but even she isn't as into it this year as she was last year. My favorites are David Archuleta, Brooke White, Michael Johns, and David Cook. For some reason, I don't want to like David Cook... but I can't deny he has talent.

In other news.... who has/hasn't heard Chris Sligh's new single??? (Remember Chris?? AI top 10 from last year?) Go. Get. It. Now. It is titled Empty Me, and is great. Ask John... he took my advice. If you want to hear it first, I found what I think is the entire song in streaming media here.

No big plans for the week... just keeping up with the house and laundry and watching the kids enjoy their free time. They've been having a blast playing with their friends who are also on break this week. Friday night is a big 6-month celebration for Celebrate Recovery at church; we're having a barbecue dinner before the usual start time. I'm on worship team and will have to arrive an hour earlier to get in a little rehearsal time. Of course, I don't mind, since I like singing.

I'm ready to kick back with a little HGTV before turning out the lights... hopefully I'll have more to tell soon.

Who turned out the lights?

We spent the better part of yesterday without power here... someone hit a power pole just outside one of the base gates and took out 2 more. We were dark from 12:30 pm till just before midnight last night. Made for an interesting day with no way to cook (electric ignition on the gas stove) or do our usual things (computer, tv). We had some errands to run in the early evening and when we came back, our next-door neighbor had an outdoor fireplace going, and a propane camping lantern hanging in the doorway of his garage. Across the street, another neighbor had his telescope out, trained on Saturn. We all had a chance to look through the telescope... it was very cool; we could even see Saturn's rings! It wasn't an extremely close-up view; our neighbor said he had stronger lenses, but they were more sensitive to wind, so it would have been harder to see. At any rate, it was a great night for stargazing, since there was very little light to be had anywhere around.

It's course selection time at Emily's school. I was able to log onto the school website just a few minutes after registration was opened up, so I am hoping she is able to get all the courses she wanted. Not sure when we will hear about it.

Next week is Spring Break. No major plans except chillaxin'.

Baseball and birthdays

It was a great opening day yesterday, despite the iffy weather. The sun played hide-and-seek for most of the day, but thankfully the rain held off until our last game was ending. Noah's team won its first game of the season 12-4; he played 3rd base and made some good catches, including one in which he made a throw to 1st to get someone out. His next game is this Thursday.

This picture is of Noah on 2nd base. The one I took just before this was of him rubbing his upper right arm, where he had taken a hit from a pitch a few moments before.




Joel's team had fun with their first game. This being our first time with coach-pitch, we are pretty new to how they do things.... it appears that there is no score-keeping with it. At any rate, Joel had a great time, especially since he was playing 1st base and caught several throws to tag kids out. Joel has to wait until Saturday for his next game.




This is Joel, just seconds before he caught a throw and tagged a player out.



Today was Brian's birthday... we celebrated by driving up to Sacramento to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, doing a little shopping at the mall there, and then grabbing some cheesecake to go from The Cheesecake Factory. Emily and I went grocery shopping after we got home, and then we all settled down for some homework. I helped Brian edit and proof some recommendation letters he needed done for tomorrow and Emily finished up her schoolwork for tomorrow.

This week is the last week of school before Spring Break.... and Emily will have her first driving lesson on Friday. I forgot to mention earlier that she passed her driver's test on Friday. Now we are 6 months away from having 3 drivers in the family!

Party on

I am uncharacteristically late to the party, but at last I have arrived! Loved last year's party and am looking forward to this year's.... just hope I have time to mix and mingle, what with all the goings-on around here. Forgive me if I have to step out for a bit, but I seem to have lost the remote control to life and cannot hit "pause" so that I can relax and enjoy the fun as much as I'd like.

For newbies here, I'll point you to my 100 things post, newly updated. As a quick intro, I'll let you know that I'm a full-time mom to 4 kids ages 7-16, plus 2 dogs, ages 11 months and almost 5 years. The beautiful face looking at you in the header is Rory, our Great Dane puppy. She is mentored by our spazztastic Wire Fox Terrier, Campbell. I've been married nearly 22 years to a great guy who is a nurse anesthetist in the US Air Force. I homeschool our 3 youngest kids, while the oldest is a sophomore at the local Christian high school.

Two big events coming up this week for us:

1. My 16yo is taking her driver's permit test on Friday.
   
2. Opening day for baseball here on base. The boys both have games, thankfully not at the same time (although that will happen a few times later this season).

Grab a Diet Mt. Dew and relax... I'll be back to check on you eventually (unless I fall asleep watching HGTV).