Idol Watch

Here's my "duh" moment, but does Paula look especially weird tonight? There's something strange going on with her eyes (besides the glitter eye shadow).



Here's my assessment...

1. Lil Rounds - Eh........ Her blouse was cute! You know the singing was so so when all Paula can talk about is her outfit and make up.
2. Scott MacIntyre - Started out good. The piano playing was great, but as usual, IT WAS PITCHY, DOG!
3. Danny Gokey - GO DANNY! Yes, the dancing was dorky, but he made up for it. Loved it!
4. Michael Sarver - Ummm, divided. There were good moments, but he clanged it on some of the notes. Is it just me or has he lost a little weight?
5. Jasmine Murray - Solid beginning! Gosh she's cute! I think her nerves got the best of her in the second part of the song, though. The ending was better than the middle.
6. Kris Allen - There's something "Corey Haim-ish" about him - before he got strung out. I thought he did well, he took the song and put his own spin on it and looked like he was having fun.
7. Allison Iraheta - She seems so much older than she really is! And MAN does she have a set of lungs! Great control on a hard song to sing. And she got rid of those awful extentions! YAY!
8. Anoop Desai - "ANOOP DOOOOG!!!" I liked his take on "Beat It" and he looked very confident.
9. Jorge Nunez - Once he gets rolling he's good, but he started off kinda - eh....... Bummer because I liked him.
10. Megan Corkrey - I'm glad she finally took the mic off of the stand for a change. But, to borrow a phrase from Simon, it was very karaoke-ish....
11. Adam Lambert - Questionable song choice - he sounded kind of shrilly! He might have been a little too theatrical tonight. I'm not sure the judges heard what I heard....
12. Matt Giraud - I liked his performance, but wasn't crazy about the ending. You can tell he's really confident behind the piano.
13. Alexis Grace - I liked it but she kinda clanked it on some of the notes. She repeated some of the phrases too many times I think.

Seriously, Paula's eyes are freaking me out.....

Don't Ask!

I have a request for all friends and family. Please don't ask if Hayden is behaving at school anymore!

I'll explain!!!!!!!

I know you guys ask because you love him - and us - and you just want to hear us say that he's doing awesome. But, each and every time he begins to behave, get good marks in conduct, I don't get an email titled "Hayden" daily at 4:15.... someone will ask... "So, is Hayden doing better with his behavior at school?"

I always cringe a little and look around for a piece of wood to knock on before I say, "Yes, he's doing great!"

Up to last Wednesday, he was doing fantastic. He was getting all stamps in his folder, and he even got to be a special helper for his teacher, which he was very proud of. But Wednesday, my mother asked the question and I answered her.

And sure enough.

I won't go into details, but please, PLEASE don't ask anymore!!!!!!

I Can Blog About American Idol????

My cousin Dawn has pretty much introduced me to the world of blogging. I'm sad to say that when she visited this past July, it was the first time I had to guts to ask the question "What is a blog" out loud. She explained it to me and warned me that it can be addicting.

For the most part, this is true. It IS addicting, but for those of you (you know who you are, and I LOVE YOU) who actually read my blog and comment to me about how long it's been since my last post, I feel I've let you down. By the time I get home from work, rounded up kids, figured out something of sustenance for dinner (Mike does a lot of that - Bless him!) complete and check homework, and bust up the sibling rivalry that is rampant at my house, I hit the hay as soon as Boo is in bed. So I'm sorry. I'll try to do better.

But back to Dawn. Reading her last post about The Bachelor (which, by the way.... why???? I mean, I know I don't have much room to talk because I really love The Surreal Life, but that show seems to be so devoid of morals! AND there was a CHILD involved this time!!!!!!) it dawned (get it) on me that HEY! I can blog about American Idol!!!!!

I'm relatively new to that format as well, with last season being the first season I ever watched the whole way through. Usually, we always watched the open auditions and cracked up non stop at the people who thought they could sing. But that was it. After that, we'd lost interest. So last year, I just kept watching, and WHAMMO. I'm totally hooked. I didn't really have a favorite, I just loved to see who was going to bomb and who was going to shine. But based on the fact that I just downloaded David Cook's CD to my iPod, it's safe to say that America did pretty good. He sounds very "Daughtry-ish". (Yep, have Daughtry too, and nope, didn't watch his season. Dang it.) I love Carrie and Kelly, too.

SO! THIS YEAR!!!! I'm predicting this guy is gonna run away with it.

One gripe I have though is the producers of AI are driving me nuts with bringing up his back story. Yes, I feel for Danny Gokey losing his wife. Gosh, he's so young. BUT. Don't they think it might be a tad painful to keep hearing about it in the press and on the show? PLUS, I don't want anyone to say he won the competition because of his back story. This guy has an amazing voice. Kinda rough, very soulful. He's cute too, so he could pull off the rock star thing. (I mean, if Clay Aiken is a star.... come on!)

I also like Anoop Dog, Kris Allen (Oh, he's cute), Matt Giraud and Adam Lambert. None of the girls are really rocking my world.

I'm only going to appease Tatiana Del Toro with these five words. Oh My GOD GOOD RIDDANCE!

And let me bring up one more thing here about the producers and back stories. I've already given my opinion on Danny's, and here's my opinion on Scott MacIntyre. Scott should not NOT win because of his blindness (I didn't type "not" twice accidentally, read it again if you're confused), but he shouldn't win BECAUSE of it either. Yes, he is a good singer, but he was not as good as some of the guys who didn't make it. (I'm not talking about Nathaniel either!) I am really going to be ticked off if one of my guys doesn't make it because Scott is still in it. In order for me to cheer for him, he's gonna have to be MUCH better than he is right now. He's got some really stiff competition IMO.....

MAN! That was FUN!!!!!!!! Now I'm REALLY hooked!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tonight, my best girl her dad attended the Father/Daughter Dance for Valentine's Day. Julia looked lovely, Daddy looked handsome! She was very surprised and pleased with her corsage.

In the meantime, I stayed home with the boys and made Red Velvet Cupcakes - from scratch!

A Necessary Blog!

Okay, so those of you who know my oldest son know he's a pretty sharp little guy. He routinely makes observations that leave us stunned. But yesterday he said something that had both Mike and I left with our jaws hanging open.

"Jurassic Park" was on and Hayden was watching, of course. He wanted to know why the movie was called "Jurassic Park". He went on to tell us that the "tyrannosaurus rex shouldn't be in the movie because that dinosaur didn't live in the Jurassic period; he lived in the Cretaceous period".

Yeah.

Mike and I looked at each other, where I then commented that when he is looking at his many dinosaur encyclopedias, "he's obviously not just looking at the pictures".

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with President Obama on TV. He would like to sell me some pork.

Picture Website Finally Updated

YESSS!!! It took a week but I finally updated SmugMug with pictures from Hayden's birthday. Sorry it took so long.

So click over on the right for SmugMug and look in the January 09 folder.

And as an added bonus, take a sneak peak at my new baby..

Busy January

Judging by this picture, doesn't everything look peaceful at the Masters? I have actually named this picture "A Quiet Moment", because it was.... just a moment....

The first of the year always seems to catch me off guard!

Just when you feel you can heave a sigh of relief that the holidays are over, the tree is put away, the house is put back together - somewhat - and the kids are back in school....

You'd think after six years I would remember that my oldest son's birthday is two weeks after New Year's Day! Right now he is perfectly happy with what I manage to throw together at the last minute, but if I don't get my act together, he may figure it out.

Anyway, Hayden's birthday was Wednesday. I woke him up with the iPod playing "Oh, What A Night (December 1963)", one of his favorite songs. I wish I was a tech-y person, I would change the lyrics to "Late January back in 2003!" and make it sound right. He doesn't seem to mind. I brought cupcakes to school for his class. Later he told me that was his favorite part of the day. (Does he know how to work his mom or what?)

For dinner we had leftover spaghetti. Not too exciting right? Oh, you're wrong! Picky Hayden LOVES spaghetti, leftover or not. And cake! He was really excited to get his Eye Clops handheld microscope. A perfect gift for a Young Scientist (as he refers to himself daily). It's a cool little gadget! It's got a light and you simply point it at something you want to see up close and it displays on the screen. It can magnify up to 400x. I haven't had the guts to look at my living room carpet yet.... He loves it.

Yesterday we hosted his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Not very fond of Chuck E Cheese, although I must say, it was the first time we had ever been there at 10 AM, and it was not as crowded as it usually is. Like I said, last minute planning landed us there, but again, he didn't seem to mind. He had actually been asking, so now I've got that one out of the way - at least until Brandon asks.

We had 7 of his friends come and join us, plus his brother and sister. They ran around like crazy! I think they all had a pretty good time.

Since I have the family arriving in three hours to give a final happy birthday celebration for Hayden, I'm not sure if I will have time to post the pictures on Smugmug today, but I will try my best. Check back with me if I don't get them up right away. I'm trying so hard to keep up with it all!

Two birthday parties this weekend, and a wedding last night! We were invited to my friend Jamie's wedding. She went to school with Mike and I - and was our drum major in band. She looked beautiful and so happy! We visited with another friend, Jennifer. She is still as lovely as she was so long ago in high school. It was a fun date night for Mike and I - and even better because my sister came to babysit the kids for us. You can't beat a free babysitter, you know?