I think I'm on to something

I think I have my own New Kid...

And I'm thinking that a white shirt and a fan would be a great Christmas present.

COLDPLAY

As an early Christmas gift, my parents gave all my siblings and me (along with our spouses) tickets to the Coldplay concert! We had been looking forward to it for months and finally, this is how the night unfolded:

First, some of us went to eat at Mimi's while others of us stayed home to watch some hyped up college football game.

After eating, we took the Trax to the ESA. Here we are waiting in the chilly night for the train. I personally love riding the Trax. Probably because I don't do it very often! But it sure beats driving and parking downtown. Plus there are plenty of interesting people to spy on for entertainment along the way.

Me, Richelle, Suzanne, Annie (doesn't she look cute!), Devan, Ben, and Sarah.

I had my first experience as a ticket scalper! We had an extra ticket and I had to stand outside and try to sell it. My kind and thoughtful brother Ben and his girlfriend Sarah stayed out there with me so I wouldn't be alone. After some time I found a nice guy who bought it, thank goodness.

The opening band was called Sleeper Car but I missed most of their act. Then there was this guy who played the keyboard along with a WEIRD animation video. I think I would've enjoyed it more if I had had a little chemical help...if you know what I mean! It was interesting. Dave and Shelle said the keyboard guy reminded them of a Friends episode in which Ross gets really into playing the keyboard.

Here is Chris Martin on the piano. My favorites were Viva La Vida (of course) and Fix You. We all called my parents on their different phones during Viva La Vida so they could hear it.

The seats were scattered all around. I sat with Shelle. Annie, Dave, Devan, and Annie's friend were dead center on the floor 7 rows back! And Jon was to the left of the stage in the railing of the lower bowl!

For a couple songs they went up into the crowd! It was the top of the lower bowl. So awesome!

Here they released a ton of confetti butterflies! It was so beautiful! I caught a few to take home to the kids.

Here we all are after the show.

And Ben and Devan on the Trax ride home.

These are the butterflies that I brought home to the girls. They like to arrange things...

It was quite the night. Thanks mom and dad! And thanks to ALL my family for being so awesome and fun to hang out with.

GYM BAIT

I found a new bait to get my kids to agree to go to the child center at the gym while they are off track:

They discovered the rock climbing wall and THEY LOVE IT! After I work out, I pick up the girls, leaving Charlie in the child center, and take them to the wall. It's been great for them too because they have had to work at getting to the top where they ring a big bell for all to hear. Now both Haily and Paige can reach the top of all the courses. I usually go in the morning and the rock wall is usually open at night, but shhh, don't tell my kids that. Everyday I say, you can climb the wall if it's open. And everyday they get excited and come along willingly.

I started feeling bad so last Saturday Jon and I both took the kids solely for the purpose of climbing the wall. Charlie isn't allowed in the rock climbing area for safety reasons so Jon and I took turns pushing him on the scooter.

He also liked to sit on the edge of the climbing wall area and watch. To keep him there, we would give him Tic Tacs. He dropped one in the black rubber chips that cover the floor. As he picked it up and put it back in his mouth, he also got a handful of the chips. Jon started shouting, "Get the black guys out! They are yucky! Get the yucky black guys out!"

What makes this incident more funny is that right behind him was an entire team of big, mostly black, basketball players. WHOOPSY!

5 bad brothers from the beantown land

ANATOMY OF THE BEST GNO EVER

History

July 5, 1990:

My aunt Tracey gave me tickets for my 12th birthday to a concert of a little boy band sweeping the nation called New Kids on the Block. About 6 weeks earlier she had given my brother tickets for his birthday and I was seething with jealousy so I said, "I don't really like them. They are not that cool." How stupid did I feel when I opened mine?

We went to the concert with my two aunts Steph and Mindy and sat pretty much on the back row of the nose bleed section. This was my first concert ever and I was so star struck just being in the same room (no matter if it was an enormous arena). This really kicked up my romance with the fellas, particularly Joey because he was closest to my age. My aunts had a poster on their bedroom wall and we would each kiss our favorite goodnight. I think we made quite the pair, Joey and I, with our matching hairstyles.

December 1996

Well, I grew up some and my "boyfriends" broke up and seemed to disappear, although not from my heart. My friend Jolene and I went to visit some friends in Massachusetts. We took a little excursion to Boston and on the top floor of one of the downtown towers there is a wall with photos of famous people from Beantown. Of course I had to get my picture taken with my lovas:

October 19, 2008

I was browsing some of my friends blogs and came across this:

http://jonathonandkatie.blogspot.com/2008/10/boys-from-bean-town.html

As I read about the concert my heart began to pound and I was so excited I could hardly sleep. But I did sleep long enough to dream that they were coming to Salt Lake. So the next day I say to Jon, "GUESS WHERE KATIE WENT?!?! A New Kids Concert!!!" He goes, "Oh really? You know they are coming to Salt Lake." WHAT!!!!!??? No I did not know that! But now it's destiny that I be there. I start making phone calls. Rally the girls to see who wants to go. Within a week I got an email from my neighbor Marci saying she got an email offering 20$ tickets to New Kids and do I want to go? Sign me the freak up.

November 4, 2008

Michelle downloaded the greatest hits album and THE BLOCK, their latest album and made copies for the group of us groupies so we could know the music for the big day. This is all I have been listening to, in the car, at the gym, even falling asleep at night. Michelle and I have fun texting some of the awesome lyrics to each other. I could seriously do a complete post on my favorite lines from the new songs...but let's save that for another day.

November 13, 2008

The girls get together for a night of preparation we called the pre-show. We made t-shirts and posters and watched the Behind the Music on the New Kids. We really took the research seriously. Here is what I put on the back of my shirt.

How hot is THAT?

That night I dreamt that they stayed at my house while they were in town for the concert. I had a farewell dinner to which I invited all my friends.

November 15, 2008

The day has finally arrived. The culmination of an 18 year love affair! Michelle, Marci, Richelle, Annie and I met at Paradise Cafe for a little dinner. I was so excited I hardly had an appetite. (Which is RARE!) We then headed out for the time of our lives!

This is the poster we created thanks to Michelle's hilarious-ness, my poster making skills, and Marci's supplies. All our husbands were thrilled. We thought about adding a little something about "my bishop said you could be my freebie..." but decided against it. The heart breaker was that we weren't allowed to take it inside!
Here we are distributing the day glow that Michelle provided. These are the kind that you put in your mouth like a sexy retainer. They looked like something else which gave us a good laugh.
They did a few songs on this little round stage in the middle. One of which was Dirty Dancing, one of my new favorites.

This is the 5 of us at the end of the concert. I seriously jumped, danced, screamed, and sang the entire time. I was so sweaty! And my voice was GONE the next morning. We had to make a stop at the SEV on the way home to get a soothing Slurpee.

This was truly the most fun I've had in a long time. The noise was crazy, the cheering and screaming never stopped. I HIGHLY recommend the new album, even if you've never been a fan. This is some good stuff. I'm tempted to make a road trip to San Diego to do it all over again.

The days are long, but the years are short.

This video goes so perfectly with my last post. Hope you take the 1 minute to watch!
http://www.theyearsareshort.com/

Life

This morning as I was loading my kids in the car to drive them to the bus stop (Yes, we have to drive to our bus stop!) I had a rare moment. I just felt thrilled about this time in my life. I love having kids. I love that I still feel young. I love watching them blossom. It is exciting. It is rewarding. It is fun.

By the end of the day, my perspective had changed some. I had the more common feeling of being overwhelmed by all my responsibilities.

*Getting three meals a day: something easy to prepare, suitable to the tastes of 5 people,

affordable, nutritious

*Making sure the kids are clean and presentable: bathed, hair combed, dressed in something

appropriate to the weather their genders.

*Getting them to bed on time at night and up on time in the morning

* homework done, including reading 20 minutes a day (doesn't sound like much but trust me..)

*piano practice done: before it gets too dark since the piano is in the room that has no lighting

and amid the noise and chaos of the other children

*Groceries

*bills paid

*soap in all the bathrooms

*lightbulbs replaced

*laundry: need I say more? Always overflowing baskets, never done, I think I am the perpetual
laundress.

*house clean: never every room all at the same time!

*doctor's appointments

*dentist appointments

*exercise!?!

*gifts or cards for family and friends birthdays and various holidays and special occasions.

*oil changed, tires rotated, heaven forbid safety and emissions rolls around

*car washed, or at least the interior cleared of wrappers, shoes, food, sippy cups, papers, etc.

*church calling: varies but always something

*temple

*family scriptures, prayer, and Family Home Evening

*personal prayer and scripture study (make it meaningful!)

*couple prayer (can't remember the last time)

*genealogy

*food storage

*Keeping the kids dressers cleaned out and making sure they have clothes that fit.

*volunteering in the school classrooms so I can be involved in their education

*husband: just something else that requires attention and time (am I the only one that has this

bad of an attitude? Some days, anyway. Just being honest.)

And then you throw into the system a variety of wrenches: hormones, illness, lack of sleep, holidays, vacations...

Jon's always on me to document all these priceless memories, so I gotta blog!! This counts as writing in a journal, right?

Then you gotta find time in there for fun: a hobby, a TV show, a movie, a sporting event, a party, a girls night out, a date, whatever.

Life is busy! Is there ever a point when you are "there". I look at each item on the list and you know what? I can find JOY in each one of them. And I do. There are those days, though, when it's all at once and then I don't find joy in any of it. That's when I need to SLOW DOWN and remember that moment I had this morning. Who cares if it's not ALL done ALL the TIME? So, Charlie wears dresses in public once in a while. And Haily wore floods on the first day of school. And I pull dirty jeans out of the hamper on occasion. And Jon gets neglected WAY to often. And, dentist? Oops. And a corn dog for dinner never hurt anyone. We are getting by. We are surviving. We are THERE.

2 funny things

#1: When Haily got home from school today she told me that a boy in her class got in trouble today. "What did he do?" I asked.
"He wouldn't stop talking to his neighbor when he was doing his homework."
"What did your teacher do?"
"She took a picture of him with his head down to show his mom."

Now, your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not that is actually the teacher's form of punishment. But the images in my head have had me laughing all night.
(teacher) "Put your head down on the desk! Keep it down! When your mother sees this she will know you were naughty today!"
or "Hang your head low, like you are really ashamed. That's it. Now frown a little. Not too sad, then people will just feel sorry for you. More like a whiney frown. There it is. Now your mom will see that you did something shameful."

#2: Paige brought home a book that she wrote today. It's called "My ot Book" because it's filled with words that have the "ot" sound in them. This page had me snickering:
"My sister has a hot potato
My brother got mad
My mom got a shot gun
For my dad"
Oh, how dysfunctional does this make our family sound? One child getting burned by scalding food. Another raging with sibling rivalry, probably because he isn't getting fed. And the mother solves these problems by retrieving the shot gun for the dad. Nice. But notice the ABCB rhyme pattern? I am so proud.

Movie Reviews

Here are my opinions on a few movies I have seen in the last month or two.

"The Women". This is a remake of an old 30's movie. I went to see it in the theatre with my sister. I really am not much into chick flicks, but despite the title, this does not fit the category. I LAUGHED OUT LOUD on several occasions. Once neither Annie nor I could stop for several minutes, after the scene had changed and everything. I was curious how Meg Ryan would do, and I was satisfied. I've always thought she was cute, then she went through a weird period after her divorce and her lips got too big... Anyway, SEE IT! GO with some girlfriends and have a good time. PS there are NO men in the movie at all.

"Run Fat Boy Run" Jon and I watched this On Demand one night after the kids were in bed. Personally, I am a fan of British humor. Kind of dry and subtle. So, I expected to laugh a lot, which I did, most often at unexpected times. What I was surprised about was that I nearly cried. Perhaps I was a little biased since I recently completed my first marathon, but it was inspiring. I don't know that I would pay full price to see it in a theatre but I would definatley recommend watching it at home sometime. It won't be a waste of your time and you'll walk away feeling good.

"The Other Boleyn Girl" I watched this On Demand one night by myself when Jon was out with the guys. I think he might have actually enjoyed it, with all the steamy romance! It was interesting. Strange period of time, as far as relationships go! I was entertained. Wouldn't see it in the theatre, wouldn't watch it at a party, but it has its time and place: home alone.

"The Love Guru" LAME!!!! Don't waste your time. You will not laugh, and if you do, it will just be a weak-hearted exhale of a laugh. Jon and I watched this over the weekend when the kids were in bed. Disappointing.

"High School Musical 3" You may have seen on a recent post that I took my girls to see this on Paige's birthday. There were some other friends and moms there too. I think the moms enjoyed it at least as much as the kids, if not more. Troy: HHHHOT! Gabriella: cheesy and annoying. Music: catchy (got Paige the sound track) Entertainment Value: high.

"Baby Mama" OH MY HECK! I liked this movie more than I thought I would. Maybe it's because I wasn't expecting it to be as funny as it was. I watched this one alone one night while Jon was out. I laughed and laughed, a lot. I was thinking of certain scenes for days after and would laugh out loud again. Tina and Amy are such a funny combination, and the guy who plays Amy's boyfriend had to be my favorite. So perfectly executed; not too over-the-top but that guy can pull off white trash! You will laugh! See it. Wha Wha!

tricks, treats

"Charlie Horse"

"Alice" Haily calls her Allison. Her original costume was a star but decided the night before to pull out this little number we picked up at Disneyland.

Paige the scary ghost.

Getting ready to go trick or treat-ing with dad. Charlie walked the whole time, loving every minute of it.

We have way too much candy at our house! In fact, when I pulled out these jack-o-lantern buckets, I had to dump out old candy from last year! It's all about the trick or treat experience, they don't really care about the candy.