It's official

Well it happened. I am officially old. I have aged out of "lawn seats" at a concert. Last week we had lawn tickets to the Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert. We got there early, got good seats, rented little lawn chairs, had a few drinks and was having fun..... and then the "idiots" showed up. The stupid-drunk, flicking pot ashes on our blanket, trashing our space, no respect for anything, groping idiots that decide lawn section means a free-for-all. I swear this place needed an enema. A few months ago, we went to see Def Leppard at the same venue and it was awesome. It must be the type of people that get seats in the lawn section that act like trash. By the beginning of Aerosmith, Toby and I abanonded our lawn chairs (keeping up with them required a can of mace and a pit bull anyway) and went to the back of the ampitheater and made fun of the drunk people trying to go up and down the steps. Ah! good times indeed.

As for the concert.... Aerosmith is awesome live. They always have been. As for the Crue.... Vince Neil's voice is rough-- too much screaming and smoking the past 20 years I guess. Tommy Lee barely got any visibility. I was truly disappointed at the lack of on stage camera work (no close ups of my man Nikki Sixx???) Not one of their better concerts..but at least I got to see them one more time....while sitting in the (gag!) lawn section.

Thanks Oscar!

My friend, Oscar, in Alberta sent my little guy Chick Hicks from the movie CARS! We have been looking for Chick Hicks for months! He was SO SO SO excited. I used this surprise to reward him for good behavior at school! Thank you Oscar-- you rock!

The Power of Four

I accepted this blog tag from Paula-- my Aussie friend!

A) Four jobs I have had in my life: In order of importance:
Mother, wife, Instructional Designer, Project Manager
B) Four movies I could watch again:
Steel Magnolias, Dumb and Dumber, League of Their Own, The Replacements
C) Four places I have lived:
Chester, High Point, Chapel Hill, Trinity
D) Four TV shows I like to watch:
The Office, Lost, Earl, Family Guy
E) Four places I have holidayed:
Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Disney World
F) Four regular websites I visit:
Google, Scrapjazz, eBay, CNN
G) Four of my favourite foods:
Potatoes, Bread, Cherries, Greek Salad
H) Four places I would rather be right now:
Claiming my winning Lotto ticket, on vacation, sleeping, reading to Spencer
I) Four friends I think will respond:
Oscar, Nancy, Val, and Donna

Catching up my blog!

Another few busy days. I can't believe my weekend is already over!

Tonight was our Hoedown for Hunger at church. We raised a good bit of money for our Missions fund and we had a great time. Everyone enjoyed the Square Dance and the silent auction raised an impressive amount of money as well. The homemade cakes did better at the auction than anything else. I was disappointed that my scrapbook album only raised $16.00. I put about 9 hours of work and $60 in it. But hopefully the person receiving it will appreciate it.

Louise Mandrell was our special guest at church. She played her "fiddle" and sang beautifully. She is quite a hottie, too. Toby added her to his "Top 10" list--haha!

We bought several things at the auction tonight: handmade cards, a handmade glass bead necklace, a gift certificate for printing of our Christmas cards, Apple crumb cake and a jar of honey from a local bee keeper. That's kind of an odd assortment, eh?

Spencer is enrolling in self-defense and basketball this week. My "free evenings" will be coming to an abrupt halt.

I also agreed to host a Tastefully Simple catalog party. You can check out the new stuff at http://www.tastefullysimple.com or let me know if you want to see a catalog. We are out of several of our favorite "party foods" and the holidays will be here before we know it!

Spencer's hermit crabs are still alive. They are diggin' (pun intended) their little crabitat we built for them. They both look like they have grown so we are hoping they change shells soon!

Well we have another busy week filled with softball games, karate class, church, basketball enrollment, my cousin's wedding, Operation Christmas Child kickoff, -- oh and work! And I guess I need to clean the house sometime since I didn't get to it this weekend. (yikes!)

Books!

Most of you know how much I love books so when I got the notice of Spencer's very first Book Fair at school I was thrilled. Luckily, Spencer loves books, too so I wanted to make it a fun evening for him. I was a little surprised at how many toys are at the Book Fair. I was expecting..well..BOOKS. But no.... there are toys, games, posters, video games, etc. Oh and there are books, too. The toys and goofy junk are merchandised FRONT AND CENTER-- that tells me they (Scholastic) are more interested in profits than literacy. Spencer bought a nice stash of goodies: a school sweatshirt, a Leapter game cartridge, a handheld tornado thingy, a stuffed Jaguar with a little Rain Forest book, he bought 5 books for us to read together, he picked out a book to donate to his classroom and he bought his cousin, IV, a book about a Bad Kitty.

After the Book Fair, we went to his Open House. We had cheese pizza and I met some of his classmates. He showed me some of his artwork and I talked with his teachers. I *really* like his teachers. What a relief!

Toby and I are meeting up with Melissa and Jimmy this afternoon after work to drive to Charlotte for the Motley Crue/Aerosmith concert. Spencer and IV will spend with night and Nana and Boppa's since I'm sure we will be getting in quite late. I bet we will be a real treat tomorrow at work-ha! Funny, late nights to a weeknight concert used to be no big deal when we were younger.... now we have to get a sitter, adjust our morning meeting schedule, hit a triple espresso from starbucks, oh, and whine about it on our blog BEFORE we even go....heehee

The Square Dance for our Missions Fundraiser is this Sunday at church. So if you don't see me around this weekend, I will be quite busy getting things ready for that!

Things that frighten fish

We have been quite busy since we got back from vacation. We have caught up on the shopping, laundry, visited some of Toby's family, and Spencer even went to a Professional Bullriding tournament-- hold the hatemail-- I hate that crap but he wanted to go with my brother. Actually, I think he just wanted to dress up in cowboy boots, hat and old jeans and ride the little mechanical bull. He did look really cute. I hate that bullriding junk but at least I got some really cute pictures for my scrapbook-haha!

Spencer also got to visit with his cousins, Ashley and Kristin this weekend. He missed Aaron but A&K kept him plenty entertained and he fell asleep in the car within 2 minutes of leaving them!

Now we need to get the house cleaned up and build the "crabitat" for the hermit crabs. Toby got this brilliant idea that we can make the crabitat out of our 10 gallon fish tank and we can buy a new 20 gallon fish tank. We found a "sale" but then Toby just had to spend the extra and have the tacky air-opening coffin with skeleton that hooks up to the air hose. He and Spencer thought it was awesome-- must be something in guy DNA that attracts them to it because I thought it was just ugly as hell. Our poor fish will need therapy...

Vacation was Wonderful!

We spent this past week at Myrtle Beach, SC and had a wonderful time! Spencer and IV enjoyed playing on the beach with the 15 million toys they *had* to bring along.

It was the perfect week-- no schedules, great weather, just whatever. The only bad part was when that little freak Lukas won Rockstar SuperNova--UGH!!! Oh well.

We stayed on the beach every day. We had a huge tent--big enough for all 8 of us so no sun burn! Casual week all the way. Dinners were whatever and whenever: pizza, subs, Japanese, seafood, Fiesta del Burro Loco (our favorite Mexican) and the boys wanted to go to Medieval Times one night. Spencer and IV *loved* the fighting and jousting at Medieval Times. We thought the food was lousy and we spent and insane amount of money on crappy souvenirs for Spencer-but he is a typical 5 year old boy and these things really impress him.


Speaking of typical souvenirs at the beach, Spencer and IV got hermit crabs.... and freaking $40 worth of cages, shells, food, etc. etc. etc. They really rope you in with that whole "free hermit crab" sign don't they? Spencer named his crabs Amy and Chooka Boy.

Spencer and IV also played miniature golf at their favorite place, shopped at the "beach junk" stores, and got new body boards to ride the waves!

We also celebrated Grandparents Day last weekend when we first got to the beach. Spencer was excited to give Nana and Boppa their presents and card! As usual, Nana and Boppa had gifts for them as well. Nana gave them new Power Rangers pajamas and Boppa gave them new flashlights and batteries perfect for their nightly walks on the beach!

Toby Rocks

Yay! the weekend is here and I am on vacation! I went to stamp class last night. I really liked the three cards we made and learned a couple new things as well! We laughed pretty much the entire time and dished about Rockstar SuperNova. I like Toby but I think Magni will win-- he seems to have the "fit" for the band. Throughout the show I liked: Dilana, Storm, Magni, and Toby. In fact I joking say I want a T-shirt that says "Toby ROCKS" hahaha! I have had Toby's song (Throw It Away) stuck in my head for days! I hope that little freak show Lukas is next to go....

I love my new car! But..... the black carpet shows EVERY grain of dirt--I think I will go out and get some clear mats today.

Spencer got his first week behavioral report from K. He got all green happy faces-- which means he was good all week at school (his 1st week) so he was rewarded with a Power Ranger car. He had "manly man" night with Boppa last night while Toby was at work and I went to stamp class. They went to Arby's for dinner, piddled around the lawn and garden department of K-Mart, played outside, then watched Meerkat Manor on the Animal Planet and fell asleep. Spencer couldn't wait for Friday night so he could have his Boppa time!

PTSA

Trying to be good, active parents of our Kindergartner, Mom and I went to the first PTSA meeting tonight at the school. (Toby is sick)
There were 8 people there.
Yep Eight.
As in 6 other people beside me and Mom!!!!
Where were the other parents?? Where were the Teachers?
All the new kindergartners at this school and *I* was the ONLY parent of the entire Kindergarten class to show up!!! I am so upset. This is supposed to be a Superior school with triple excellence this and that with Active Board classrooms and yadda yadda yadda-- I thought for sure we would have a huge turnout! We even showed up 20 minutes early to make sure we would get a seat! (that's funny, huh?)
The Principal was there (I really like her by the way) -- but none of the teachers came back and many of them live locally. Students are invited to attend so that no one feels the need to find daycare.
I am so dissappointed!
Anyway... the school's first fundraiser starts tomorrow--cookie dough. And it's the good kind-- already mixed, pre-portioned and flash frozen! Just pop them in the oven and bake when you are ready! So..if you are reading this and live near me, let me know if you would like to see the yummy brochure! All orders come with a hug and kiss from Spencer!

Toby didn't make it to his game tonight or to the PTA meeting. He has a bad sinus infection/head and chest cold thing going on. He went to the doctor today and got a shot in his patootie and then they loaded him up with prescriptions and a consult with a specialist to see about getting his tonsils and adenoids removed. Of course he has laid in bed all day and whined... men are such babies when they are sick.

Spencer and IV rode their motorcycles all evening. They are so glad that the evenings are finally getting cooler so they can put on their riding gear without having a heat stroke!

Okay! I'm off to watch Rockstar Supernova.....

Happy Labor Day!

Today is Labor Day. And I am doing anything EXCEPT laboring... Today is going to be a nice, relaxing day! Well...for me anyway. Toby has to work today--and then he has school stuff to do tonight. We had a cookout/pool party last night and we still have lots of leftovers so dinner is taken care of--yay!

Spencer is running around in his Power Rangers costume fighting imaginary bad guys. If he is still doing that when he is 17 I promise I will put him in therapy.

Well, we decided to go with a new Honda CR-V in Alabaster Silver Metallic. The CR-V gets better gas mileage and it is very comfortable, plus it has superior safety features for Spencer in the back seat. It will be about a week before we get it. It is in the detail shop having black leather put in right now. I named her Yolanda. (Yolanda the Honda- or Yo the Ho) The I-Pod (MusicLink) hook up will be installed in two weeks.

My friend Deann made me an awesome necklace and earring set last night! Thanks Dee!