Tonight I attended the Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson concert with my friends Laurie and Joyce. Laurie bought us all tickets for our Christmas present and after meeting at my house after work for pizza and martinis we headed up to the Kansas Coliseum with the rest of the sold out crowd to attend the concert. I didn't take any shots of the actual concert. Because, let's face it, those shots never turn out. But we took this one before it started. I like it because you can see up our noses.
We decided Joyce's arms aren't quite long enough and this next picture was taken by an adjacent seat holder and shows my I-shoveled-the-driveway-before-work-this-morning hairdo. I know you're all jealous that your hair doesn't look as good as this.
The concert was fabulous and those two shared the stage the whole night. They harmonize very well (to my untrained ear) and it was a wonderful show. One of the highlights of the evening was an opening 15 minutes of comedy by Melissa Peterman who played Barbara Jean on the "Reba" television show. She even came out while Reba and Kelly were singing and "helped" them with the song "Survivor" which was the theme song for the TV show.
It was a great evening of music and friends. Thanks again, Laurie!
This picture is of my niece Katie and nephew Zach taken two weeks ago. I gave him the onesie he's wearing for Christmas.
My niece Victoria took some pictures of Zach with his pants on his head last week. I don't know who is more silly, Victoria for putting them on his head or Zach for not minding. In this one you can really see his bottom teeth. And the drool.
I took this video when Zach was eating a little bit of a pancake that my Mom made. That boy does love to eat all kinds of food. This is my first foray in video, so be kind!
A little over a week ago I went to Ellinwood to see the fam and spent some time with a couple of my favorite little boys. I went over to Zach's house to see him Friday night and then Saturday he came over to my Mom and Dad's for most of the day. It's amazing how much he and Caden have changed since Christmas. Zach's been pulling himself up next to things and the boy has six teeth! His new favorite thing is to stand next to his excersaucer instead of being in it. Notice the big boy clodhoppers!
These pictures have been on my Mom's camera and she just e-mailed them to me today. I'll have her e-mail some of the Caden pictures from that weekend as soon as she can.
Before I post any pictures, it needs to be said that I'm the fifth child of five. Consequently there are approximately 17 million pictures of my oldest sister, Teresa, doing anything and everything about every day of her first year. And the amount of photos goes down exponentially as the rest of us came along.
This first picture is my favorite of the sibs before I arrived on the scene. They're in line by age, youngest to oldest, obviously. John, Jenny, Mark and Teresa. Teresa still does that thing with her mouth that she's doing in this picture.
Here's a picture of me at age two or three. Yes, my hair's still this straight and flat, I'm just much more advanced at using hair products now.
We were never really big on taking studio photos during the poor years. This was taken on Thanksgiving Day 1972 at my Grandma's house. I was probably about the same age as I was in the previous photo, give or take a year. Notice my brother John having a facial conniption, Mom's stylish hair and blouse and Jenny and Teresa with their shirts buttoned up all the way. What dorks! But I think I look fabulous, as usual.
This next one is a Polaroid masterpiece. I'm guessing I was either in kindergarten or first grade. It was taken inside my Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve. Mark looks incredibly bored with all of us.
This studio shot, circa 1978, was taken at Riggs Studio in Great Bend. I loved that red and blue striped dress.
This next one was taken by Tim Basgall at his home studio when he lived north of Ellinwood. He was so funny that he got us all to laugh and that's quite a feat. I know it was the early '80s by the wings of my hair.
Be gentle, blog readers.
I've been absent from blogging a lot this past week. There are a lot of reasons, but mostly I've just been taking a break from everything and blogging has been a casualty of that. But now I'm back, baby. And I've got something to get off my chest.
I got an e-mail from my British friend Lucy this week. I had sent a package with various gifts for her kids and for her and her husband and she sent a message on Sunday saying that they had received it and everything was a big hit (big relief for me as it's hard to buy for kids who live 5000 miles away). I'll post another time about how Lucy and I met and put some photos up of her family, but this post is about something specific I've been thinking about since she wrote. This will prove how idle my mind has been this week. If you're looking for a post heavy on deep thoughts, this is not it and you should stop reading now.
At the end of Lucy's message she said that she was making cottage pie for their tea (evening meal). For those who don't know that's a very delicious casserole dish that's made with meat and vegetables on the bottom and mashed potatoes on top. Once assembled, it's baked until the mashed potatoes are a little crunchy on top. It's awesome comfort food. Anyway, ever since I read that I've been thinking about cottage pie vs. shepherd's pie. I got schooled by Lucy on my first or second trip across the pond about the difference between the two, which is that shepherd's pie is made with minced (ground) lamb and cottage pie is made with hamburger.
On the Planet Tess blog, I saw where she'd posted a recipe for shepherd's pie back in November, in which she used sausage. Interesting choice. I might have to try that. So to further my research, I went to Wikipedia and searched for cottage pie, which pulled up the entry for shepherd's pie. They did explain what I've already said, but that Americans generally use shepherd's pie no matter what meat's being used.
Any opinions? Got a great recipe for shepherd's/cottage pie that I need to have? Need to get rid of some leftovers? Send them my way.
Don't care? I don't blame you, but thanks for letting me purge my soul. I feel so much better now!
Since my friend Denise laid down the challenge for posting Olan Mills photos from the 70s and 80s, I've been trying to scrounge up pictures from my past that would be suitable for posting. I have one particular one in mind of me and my siblings, but just haven't been able to land my hands on a copy to scan in. It totally slipped my mind when I was in Ellinwood over the weekend and now I can't find a copy at home. Luckily, my Mom is coming to my house this afternoon. I'll call her and see if she can bring a copy that dorky picture.
Stay tuned!
UPDATE: My Mom found the photo. But the bad news is that she isn't coming today. I may have a copy at home and I'll do some more searching tonight. Rest assured I will be posting some photos soon. Because I know you've all been worried about it!
Pardon the song lyrics...
But the heat is, indeed, back on at my house. Bryan (as I've learned the correct spelling) brought the part, did the deal and charged me $140. Could have been worse. I was actually hot last night under my big down comforter.
Can you tell what's wrong with this picture? Yeah, neither could I.
This is a picture of the inside of my furnace. Monday morning it stopped blowing warm air and started blowing cold air constantly. So I shut it off and went to work. I figured I'd deal with it when I got home and had more time. Besides, with a forecast of around 60 for Monday, it was very low risk leaving it off.
Monday night I called Brent, a friend from church who knows about such things. He gave my number to a guy named Brian who he said would be able to help me out. Brian came over last night after work and looked at the same thing you're seeing in the picture above. It took him about 3 seconds to say, "Oh, it's your igniter. It's cracked. See?" Not really, but I trust you.
Brian didn't have the part because it's "rare" which I immediately translated to "expensive" and when pressed further for a price, he said he wasn't sure how much a new one would cost. After more pressing from me, he guessed it might be about $85. Well, that's better than it could be, but I'll reserve judgment until I know the actual price.
He lit the furnace for me last night and it ran for about three hours warming up the house before I switched it off and went to bed. At 9:30 it was 70 degrees. This morning at 7:30 it was 58 degrees. Good thing I have great insulation. And it was darn cold last week, so I'm glad it was timed to coincide with nicer weather.
He's supposed to come back tonight with the part and fix it for good. I suppose this is one of the joys of homeownership I don't like -- paying all the bills. But consistently having heat again sure will be nice.
Today is a special day. It's the day my paternal grandmother and Elvis were born. It was my Grandma's birthday first and I remember her fondly on this day each year. Even though she's gone, I think back to the times spent at her house helping her clean or going for a swim with her down at her sandpit. I was also fortunate to take a trip with her and Grandpa one summer to South Dakota. The picture I took of Mount Rushmore on that trip is still one of my favorite photos ever. I may have to dig it out and scan it to post. But in the meantime, Happy Birthday to Grandma S! Thank you. Thank you very much.
Every two weeks on Wednesday I drive to the east side of town and get my nails done by Vicki. She's a sassy redhead who provides as much therapy for me as she does beautification to my nails. We laugh and we talk while she files and fills.
I've been rendezvousing with Vicki for over 10 years. Probably about a dozen. Her youngest daughter was in kindergarten when I started having her do my nails and now Whitnie is a knock-out junior in high school. Not only that, she's a fantastic singer (who writes her own songs!) and has made her first CD. I was one of the first to have the privilege of
buying a copy. You can check out her website by clicking
here.
I stopped going to get my nails done when I bought my house almost 4 years ago. I just couldn't justify the expense. Since it's a friendship as well as a nail appointment and I missed it and her, I went back not quite a year later.So I go and I worry that I'm spending too much money on things that aren't necessary. But I'm worth it, right?
I went to see "P.S. I Love You" this past weekend. There's no doubt it's a chick flick, but I happen to like those since I'm a chick and all. I shed a lot of tears at this movie and I'm not a big crier when other people are around. I usually only let loose when nobody's watching. This movie really was sweet and funny at the same time and sometimes that just gets to me. It reminded me a little bit of "Steel Magnolias" which is a favorite of mine.
Had lunch today with my friend Linda from work (she is the brains and fingers behind Linda's Sunflower blog). I took her out for her birthday, which was back in October. It only took us a little over 2 months to find a day when we were both free. How sad is that? I didn't take my purse (just money) because we walked across the street from work, so I don't have any photos. It was so much fun, we should probably start planning now to go again in a couple of months!
When I got home from work (and NYEve vigil Mass) this past Monday, I had a voicemail message from my cousin, Angie. Her in-laws live here in Wichita and I was excited because I thought they might be in town for the holidays and I would get to see them.
Well, I did get to see them, but they were not necessarily here for the holidays. Angie's mother-in-law had been in a car accident Friday night. She was a passenger in a vehicle that was traveling west on Highway 50 from Newton to Hutchinson. Because of the injury she sustained to her aorta, she had surgery. Although she made it through the surgery, her organs began to shut down and she died on Saturday. Gary and Angie and their three kids drove down from Bozeman, Montana, and got here on Sunday. By the time they got here, she was already gone.
After I talked to Angie on Monday, I flashed back to the night that Angie's Mom (my Aunt Neva Ann, my Mom's oldest sister) died. Angie and Gary were living in Kansas City at the time and Angie got to the hospital in Salina after everyone but us had already gone back to her parents house. We met her in the parking lot and told her it was too late. She broke down in my Mom's arms. I knew I had to get over to see her and her family as soon as possible. I spent the evening playing cards with them and Gary's Dad, brother and sister-in-law. We had a champagne toast at midnight to ring in the new year. Shortly after that, Gary took this picture of Angie and I. You can't really tell in the picture, but I'm leaning down so we're more the same height.
My Mom and Dad and my sister, Jenny, all came into town on Tuesday and we went to the funeral Wednesday morning. It's been so good to see them, but I wish it had been different circumstances. Angie and Gary and their kids all looked so good dressed for the funeral on Wednesday that I had to take a family picture. Meet Michelle, Matthew, Rebecca, Angie and Gary. (See, everyone's taller than Angie! And she's even wearing heels in the picture.)
Happy New Year everybody! I'll post more when I get the chance. It's been a pretty hectic and crazy couple of days and I'm just not up to typing about it right now.
Cheers to a wonderful 2008!
We decided Joyce's arms aren't quite long enough and this next picture was taken by an adjacent seat holder and shows my I-shoveled-the-driveway-before-work-this-morning hairdo. I know you're all jealous that your hair doesn't look as good as this.
The concert was fabulous and those two shared the stage the whole night. They harmonize very well (to my untrained ear) and it was a wonderful show. One of the highlights of the evening was an opening 15 minutes of comedy by Melissa Peterman who played Barbara Jean on the "Reba" television show. She even came out while Reba and Kelly were singing and "helped" them with the song "Survivor" which was the theme song for the TV show.
