Dreams of Midnight

For nearly two weeks, I had told JR that he wasn’t allowed to plan anything for Friday, June 19th. He was wigging out, wondering what was going on. But I had a plan. I wanted to be sneaky about it, because it was I had such a very, very cool plan.

You see, I was listening to the radio, 94.9 The Point, and heard that the band - OUR BAND! - Lifehouse was coming to town to play an outdoor concert in Norfolk. I just KNEW I had to take JR as a his Father’s Day present. So I arranged for a babysitter to watch the kids for that Friday.

The Wednesday before the show, The Point announced that they were going to give away backstage passes to a lucky few listeners. I wanted so bad for JR to be among those few. So I quickly penned up an email and sent it off to the station, addressing it to Chuck and Woo of the Afternoon Point. I had no idea whether or not it would actually be read by them or anyone who could do anything within any time before the show, but I figured it was worth a shot. Click here to read the email.

Sign in to view this scrapbook

I didn’t hear anything back on that Thursday, so I figured it was a done deal. It was okay though, because JR was still going to get a great surprise regardless. Well, around 4pm, Friday afternoon, while I was still at work, I got a phone call from Chuck and Woo! I was so excited AND nervous! They’d received my email! And it had won us the Meet & Greet backstage passes to see Lifehouse! I was so shocked, and just about started crying, which of course Woo Woo thought was the sweetest thing.  (We’re trying to get the audio from the station, and I’ll post it if/when we get it!)

I got off work early and rushed home. On the way there, I had to call my sister to let her know the good news, and to get some of the excitement out before I saw JR. I didn’t want my over-excitedness to make him even more keyed up than he already was.

Just as I arrived at the house, the babysitter was driving up. I got her settled with the kids, and then threw myself into the shower. An hour later, Jared and I rushed off to the concert site. He was bugging me the entire time wanting to know what we were doing, where we were going!

Unfortunately, it was a long drive, and we got stuck in traffic, then got lost because GoogleMaps told us to turn left when we should have turned right! We finally made it there. As we were driving into the parking lot (which was really just a muddy field), I saw all these signs saying that recording equipment wasn’t allowed. So we left our cameras in the car. =(

We finally got into the “arena” (another field with a stage), and I had no idea where we were supposed to go. The instructions the radio station people gave me ended up not being very clear. They’d told me to go to a specific tent, but there were several tents that all looked the same. So I called the number they’d given me and talked to the promo chick.

That’s when we found out that because we were so late, we had missed the Meet & Greet all together! I was SO upset and disappointed. Nothing ever cool seems to work out for us…

Luckily the The Point’s promo chick, Cindy Crawford, hooked us up with VIP passes. We got to meet all the radio personalities, and then Barry McKay, one of the main DJs, snuck us backstage! It was real quick, but we got to see the guys just before they were about to walk out on stage! =)

Jason Wade, the lead singer, was in this intense meditation mode. He just kept pacing back and forth and didn’t really acknowledge us. But it was cool just to be that close. The other guys were more observant, seemingly curious. They actually tried to chat with us. Barry and another promo chick were going to try to get a picture with us and the band, but a security guy shooed us off before we could make it happen. =( They literally walked out on stage about 30 seconds later!

We got to stay in the VIP area though, and sat seriously close. The show was GREAT!! I was so glad that they played most of our favorites. Towards the end of the show, during their encore, we went right up near the stage. Id forgotten how much I love live shows.  It was such an incredible experience!

Unfortunately, all I have are snapshots from my cellphone. They’re not all that great actually, but at least its something. I tried to take a few videos, but the sound is horrible. But again, better than nothing!

Sign in to view this scrapbook

We were fortunate enough to have my parents come up to visit us the weekend of Easter. They arrived the Wednesday before. Kimberley took a few days off of work to fully enjoy the family time. Thursday we all went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday, which was great. They then “kidnapped” the kids and told JR and I to go “have fun”, which we promptly took them up on. JR and I went out to the movies. We saw Fast and Furious, which turned out to be excellent! Then Friday, they volunteered again to watch the kids for the day so that JR and I could go play at Busch Gardens. It was a much needed break for both JR and I. We had a great time riding the roller coasters and just hanging out in general.

Sign in to view this scrapbook

On Saturday we enjoyed some more time together as a family.

Sunday we all went to church for Easter services. We joined the congregation for a nice potluck lunch. Then Brandon and Keira enjoyed a wonderful Easter egg hunt with the rest of the kids. Brandon collected a lot of eggs and was very kind by sharing them with some of the other smaller kids, including Keira.

Sign in to view this scrapbook

Since the weather was just so perfect, we all went out to the local park after church. We flew kites and played on all the playground equipment. Keira really enjoyed going up the steps and coming down the slide. Brandon learned how to pump his legs on the swings. We all had a very good day.

Sign in to view this scrapbook

This past weekend, Brandon and Keira went up to their Pappy and Grandma Maureen’s house. They spent the weekend hanging out with their step-cousins Kaytlyn and Brenna. They played on the swing set in Pappy’s backyard and visited a Toy Train show. They also got to go on a nature walk through the woods behind Pappy’s house. Brandon found a “beaver stick” and Pappy wrote all the kids names on it.  They had a great time.

Fawn and Steven flew in from Germany to surprise me on my birthday. Wee!

Last night we got a surprise! It started snowing around 10:30pm. I didnt think it would stick, but for some reason JR was very sure it would. Sure enough, when we woke up in the morning, there was a very nice layer of bright white snow over everything.

The roads were still pretty icy so, I ended up having to work from home.

By lunch time, the kids were very eager to get out and play a little in all the white stuff. So I took a break, and we all went out to play. Brandon was excited and immediately ran out into the middle of the yard. Keira, on the other hand, was very apprehensive, having never seen snow before. She followed me tentatively into the snow, and eventually was tromping through it with ease, though she did stay very close to me the whole time.

We posted pictures of our fun.

Please forgive us as we work to redesign our site. It may be a few days or even weeks before we’ve got this thing completely back up and running, so please bare with us. =)

This design is just temporary.  So just keep that in mind, because the next time you come by it might look COMPLETELY different. =)

Update 01.29.09: The forum is now dead. x_x

We will be redoing that board eventually with a new code base which will require completly new logins, but we’ll let you know when thats gone live. If anyone has any questions, please let us know.

This past year was a hard one for us. With JR  unable to find a job but finally getting to start college, funds were running pretty tight. I had started shopping in August, one thing here, another there. But it still wasnt much. We were pretty sure Christmas was going to be very small. It was very discouraging. Both JR and I know that Christmas is not all about presents, and we didnt really care if we got any, but we knew it would be important to the kids, Brandon especially. We really wanted them to enjoy the holiday.

Thankfully, the kids received some very gracious and unexpected gifts from a variety of their other relatives - Granmommie, Dadoo, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Nora, Aunt Fawn, Uncle Steven,  Grandma Maureen and Pappy. They made Christmas a wonderful success! We really appreciated everything they did and sent.

I wrapped all the gifts the weekend before Christmas, so we wouldnt be doing it last minute. I hid them in the garage with several blankets over them. I still dont know how Brandon didnt figure it out. He didnt ask one question about what the huge blanket lump was. *laugh* Something tells me, this is our last gulliable year for him though. He’s getting very smart about this whole Christmas thing.

Christmas Eve, we spent making cookies, like we do every year. We also had a visit from a very special friend, Heather. She came over in the afternoon. We watched Firefly episodes played Legos with Brandon and Heather tried hard to coax Keira to let her hold her. Click here to see pictures.

That night, the kids were very excited and it was very hard to get them to settle down for bed. Around 12 mindight, Brandon finally gave into sleep. Thats when I did my annual trip around the house with Christmas Mouse, taking pictures of all the antics he was supposedly up to while the kiddos were sleeping. Click Here for a story.

Then JR and I started our mission to quietly sneak all the presents in from the garage. It turned out to be quite a haul around the tree. I couldnt help but smile.

The next morning, Brandon surprisingly wasnt awake yet. We got him and Keira up and brough them downstairs. They were so surprised and very excited. First, they were allowed to open their stockings. JR got the camera set up so that Aunt Fawn and Uncle Steven could join us for the holiday via PS3 webcam. I started putting together breakfast. After breakfast was done, we dived into the presents. It was a wrapping paper mess as usual, but it was great fun. They loved their gifts and spent the rest of the afternoon playing.

It turned out to be a terrific holiday.

View Entire Scrapbook

I know we’ve been seriously delinquent on writing lately. But we’ve been pretty busy so hopefully everyone will forgive us.

Everything is going pretty well around here. We’re gearing up for the holidays. I finally put up the tree. And it looks as pathetic as always. I think it looks even worse this year because this living room has a “vaulted” ceiling so it makes the tree look soooo much shorter. It doesnt even reach the height of the window its next to. So sad.

We had hoped to get a new one this year. But we just cant afford it. With JR in school, money is even tighter. But hopefully by next summer, he’ll be in a paying internship, and that will help SO much (assuming not all of it ends up going to daycare for Keira. hrumpf.)

Thats about all I’ve got time for at the moment. =)

JR and I made the decision that it was time to put our family rules on paper. Brandon is getting older, and he understands the concept of rules and consequences much better these days. Unfortunately, he seems to frequently forget what the rules are, even when we’ve gone over the rules on a daily basis.

I’d seen on the TLC program Jon & Kate Plus 8 where they’d created a Family Mission statement and had it printed out. But I didnt like how they did it. Their principals were sound, but it was way too wordy for 3 and 5 year olds. I also noticed that the print was very small. I’d have been amazed if any of the kids could have read it, even if they had good reading skills.

His teacher at school has the class rules posted on large posters all around the room to help the students remember them. So we decided the same thing could work for us. We’re not going to put posters all over the house just yet, but having our family rules printed clearly and placed in plain sight might be helpful.

JR and I brainstormed for about 30 minutes tonight. We wanted to keep the rules relatively simple and to the point. Brandon, and eventually Keira, will need to be able to repeat them back to us easily. So we created six rules that seem to encompass just about everything we believe in but are summed up in to simple sentences. Except for number 5, which is a little more specific. =)

I typed them up in easy-to-read text, printed them out, and hung them in a frame in the dining area. We plan to go over the rules each evening with him for 2 weeks, pointing out each word, to help them sink in. Then we’ll just go over them when needed thereafter. =)

Check out our Family Rules!

Tonight the kids and I went up to the church, who hosted a Trunk or Treat event. Members of the church drive their vehicles up onto the church lawn and pass out candy to kids from the surrounding neighborhood.

Both Brandon and Keira were extremely shy at first. But they warmed up after a few minutes. Keira caught onto the process more quickly than I thought she would.

They enjoyed interacting with the other kids and playing fairground type games. Brandon caught a stuffed animal fish in a “fishing” game. =)

Brandon went as Anakin Skywalker. He even was complimented. They said he even looked exactly like Anakin. And Keira was a pirate, the CUUUTEST little pirate you’ve ever seen! (Sorry. Im a bit bias. Tee hee. )

View Entire Scrapbook