"Scary" Halloween

Halloween really isn't my most favorite holiday. Having a birthday the day before meant that I got a lot of Halloween birthday parties. I hate, uh . . . greatly dislike, getting dressed up myself let alone finding costumes for my kids. Bless their hearts, though. This year they all wanted to be what they were last year except the scary (or scarier) versions of those so we added face and hair paint, brooms and some serious back-combing. I can handle $20 bucks for this year's Halloween costs.

Since they wanted to be the scary (or scarier) version of last year's costume, I felt they had to act mean, too. What kind of sick idea was that, Julie, to ask them to be nasty?!?!?! They just couldn't pull off the mean, scary face, though. Maybe it's because I was laughing too hard.

My latest crush, besides a-hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin'-love Barry, is my nephew, BabyCakes. At Family Home Evening on Monday night, we all came (sorry, they all came - remember, I don't do costumes) dressed up for the Halloween festivities planned by Grandma. Ever seen the Disney cartoon about Lambert, the Sheepish Lion? (I know the whole song, by the way. Ask me - I'll sing it for you.) Well, here's our version and BabyCakes' real name sounds almost like Lambert so I love singing the song to him.

And what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't give the other two youngest nephews some air time, too? :-)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

On October 30th at 7:11 p.m. and weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz., I was born. It's been told that my dad joked with my mom, "Wouldn't you like to wait 5 more hours and have a little goblin?" For those of you who have delivered a baby, you know what my mom's answer was. I'm four hours old in this picture.

These next two pictures were taken of me with my parents on the day I was blessed, Dec. 3rd. I still have my blessing dress in my cedar chest. Gotta love my parents groovy clothes. Even our couch has character.

Life's been grand these last 36 years. I'm grateful to be where I am in life right now. When my mom was 36, and I'm the oldest child, I was 15 years old. I can't even imagine having a teenager right now. Sweet Pea and Jellybean are drama enough right now. I thought my mom was ancient, too. Life's not so bad at this age and I'm not really that old contrary to my children's beliefs.

When my mom called me today, she couldn't believe she has a child that is 36. But her perspective changed a little bit when she remembered that, just a month ago, my grandma said she couldn't believe she has a 60 year old child, my dad. I cross my fingers that my mom and dad get to "not believe" that someday. They both lost one parent each very early in their married life. I don't know how I could survive without their support and knowledge and prayers.

Thanks to my parents for "gettin' it on" many, many moons ago so that I could have this amazing journey and wild adventure. Get ready, though - this ride ain't over. The best, and I'm sure the worst, is yet to come. :-)

I'm a Fanilow!!!

For my debut post to the blogging world, I wanted to share the most exciting event to happen in my life in recent months. My wonderful husband planned the most amazing anniversary get-away. Eric absolutely hates (well, that's a strong word - greatly dislikes) Las Vegas but he chose to celebrate our 14th anniversary there because he knows how much I love Barry Manilow. He got us tickets to Barry's concert!!!!! I totally broke all the rules, every single sign posted as you enter the theater, and all of Eric's warnings to bring you my first blog.

This is screen or curtain thingy (a scrim? Is that what it's called Theatre Steph?) on the front of the stage. Images were projected on it as the concert started. Eric got us super awesome seats - dead center, 13 rows from the front. I had to take a picture of us in the theater to prove that we were really there.

We all got Barry Manilow glow sticks. It really killed me to crack mine to make it glow because I wanted to keep it in pristine shape forever but I succombed to the masses. I had nowhere to put it for safe keeping than where you see it in the picture. One hand was holding my camera, the other had the phone texting my sister. What's a girl to do?

Here's just a few random shots of Barry that actually turned out to some degree.

Now for the best part of the evening (no, not that part - do you really think I'd tell you about that part?!?!?!) The concert was practically over, or so I thought, and he hadn't done Copacabana. That's my favorite song (it's got a good beat and I can dance to it - for all you American Bandstand fans out there). I was getting sad that he wasn't going to sing it but then he said, "We can't end this show and not do this song." Then the music started for Copacabana. I raced for my camera because that's the one song I wanted video of. I missed the first few measures but caught the rest of it. Thanks to Eric's great choice of seats, this up-top part of his performance was right in front of us. Had we been any closer to the stage, we wouldn't have got such a great view of this song!! (Pause the playlist at the bottom of the blog before you watch the video.)

We were really there! I still can't believe it! What an amazing experience! Eric is the best husband EVER!! He was so thoughtful to celebrate our anniversary in a way that was really mostly all about me and doing something that I'd just dreamed about doing for such a long time. I'll never forget that night! (Mostly because it was pretty much my anniversary, birthday and Christmas gifts all rolled into one big present!)