I hate Fall!!!

Okay, not really. I'm just frustrated that with the change in weather I am having allergy problems. Normally this would just be a nuisance but I'm going to a SCW retreat this weekend in which we sing for hours and I'll be glad if I can muster up a soft croak. Grrr!!! However, I have found that when I get sick my voice gets deeper therefore taking me from a tenor (okay, contralto) to a low baritone. Yes, I do feel feminine and dainty, thank you for asking.

Speaking of singing...if you're one of the 2 people who read this you need to check out this blog: www.thesearemychurchclothes.blogspot.com. This is an OLD (tee-hee) friend of mine and I just logged in to see what's new in his world. Apparently, it's a song. He recorded it in his garage and I think it's pretty darn good. Despite his disclaimer. Actually, it just dawned on me that one of the two people who read this blog is the person I just mentioned so Robin, go check out Tim's blog. :-)

I just realized when I published this post that the link mentioned above isn't set so that you can just click on it. As my head is in a fog right now I can't be induced to figure out what I did wrong. Let me tell you, though, that it is worth the two seconds it will take to hi-lite, copy and paste the link into the browser.

Okay, me again...I added a link to Tim's blog in my Links section. I already knew how to do that so I didn't hurt any brain cells with the effort. I'm okay...really. Well, sorta anyway.

Fall

I am so ready for Fall to get here. The weather has been cool in Oklahoma the last few days and has really made me anxious to start bundling up in warmer clothes, making cold weather food and kicking back with a good book or movie. Not to mention the fact that it's nearly hockey season. I overheard someone the other day saying that some of the hockey games have been cancelled due to the fact that the games conflict with the OKC Thunder. I haven't checked yet to see if this is right but if it is I guess I'll have to find it in my heart to forgive them.

I am going to the Pumpkin Patch with my family again this year. If we can talk dad in to going it will be the first time we've all gone together. I'm sure that most people would think this is not too incredibly exciting , but I have looked forward to it the last few years. You get to walk out in the patch and pick out however many punkins you want to take home. The kids get in free if they wear their Halloween costumes so it's a lot of fun to see them all dressed up. My niece went through the corn maze last year and had a blast. She got through in no time. I would have been hopelessly lost. Somehow, last year I got wrangled into scooping out all of the punkin guts before we carved them. Oh well.

Not a whole lot else is going on in my world right now but I seem to be constantly busy. How does that happen? I know that once I'm back from the trip to the Pumpkin Patch I'll go full in to Christmas mode. I wish I knew now whether or not I am going to be able to go home for Christmas. Here's hoping.

Mamma Mia!

I saw Mamma Mia! last weekend and in my opinion anyone who is interested in it should see the play AFTER they see the movie or see only the play. I was really psyched about the movie and was highly disappointed. The girl who played Sophie had a good voice and I have always liked Christine Baranski. Pierce Brosnan is a good actor. I'll leave it at that.

I also saw Hellboy II and The Dark Knight. I loved the first Hellboy movie and thought the second one was even better. The Dark Knight was really good. I wish that hadn't been Heath Ledger's last movie. I've always thought he was a good actor(well, at least since I started watching his movies) but he was REALLY good in The Dark Knight. I forgot it was him after a while. He was an excellent villain. Heath, you will be missed.

I will never blog as much as Robin or Tim

This is the pot giving a great big shout out to the kettle! Yo! What up? You know who you are. Once again I don't have much to talk about but thought I should say something so here I am. The only really exciting things that have happened recently are a couple of vacations. In June my dad and I went to Las Vegas. We had a blast! And for 4th of July a friend and I went to visit my folks in Colorado. A good time was had by all.

Let's start with the Vegas trip. I think I gambled maybe $40. I lost it, of course. But I did play for a really long time on that $40. I played video poker. I would probably do a lot better if I actually knew how to play poker. You think? Other than that we went to 3 different shows: Mamma Mia!, Cirque du Soleil's Ka (pronounced "Ka" (tee-hee)) and Blue Man Group. Mamma Mia was wonderful. I can't wait for the movie to come out. I still can't believe they cast Meryl Streep in one of the lead roles, though. What on earth were they thinking? Anyway, if you are an Abba fan you need to see this play/movie.

Now, as far as Cirque goes, I loved it but dad...not so much. Of course it helps that I've seen the DVD's of most of their shows and this was the second show I'd seen live. It was more of a story than a circus which is what some of their shows are. I'm not even going to try to describe it because I just can't. Some of the things they did were SO cool! I realize that the "death defying" tricks aren't really because they have things to land on but still...I wouldn't do most of that stuff even if you put five safety lines on me and 200 feet of padding below me. Nuh-uh...not going to do it.

Last...Blue Man Group. Everyone knows who they are and what they do so they don't need much description. It was just really, really fun.

Next was the trip to Colorado. The family got back from a trip the same evening we got to Colorado. Mom cooked for us which is always a good thing. We spent most of Friday walking around downtown Denver. I really like that city. Just thought you'd like to know. Anyway, that evening we went to the Rockies game and if you want to know how fun that game was you should look it up on the net. It was the best baseball game I've ever been to. They came from way behind to win 18-17! It was so cool!

The next day we went to a winery...because we could and then we drove up in to the mountains. Well, not literally in to the mountains because that would hurt. We drove part way in to Rocky Mountain National Park and went to Bear Lake. It is a beautiful lake and I would have loved to spend more time there but someone had the great idea of hiking up to the waterfall. Let me just say that if I were in any kind of shape this hike would have been nothing. Apparently my lungs were not too happy with me. Go figger. However, the minute we got to the top of the waterfall it felt as if it were all worth it. It was gorgeous! I tried to take pictures but they don't do it justice. We had a really good time and were completely exhausted when we got back. I'll spend this weekend making up for lack of sleep and constantly going.

That's about all my excitement for now. I'm making curtains this week but I don't think I'll be blogging about my curtain making expertise in any future blogs. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Oh...and kettle, you and the Mrs. have a good time on your vacation.

Music

I went to Wilmont for the first time in a long time yesterday and I'm sort of glad I did. They had a guest pastor and guest music minister and they were wonderful. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the current pastor and music minister (I can't say anything about the music minister as I don't know anything about him) but I was particularly touched by both the sermon and the music. Mostly the music though. The MM sang a song while a picture presentation was shown on the screens. Sadly, I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the song. What I do remember is that for the length of that song I left the building, the city, the planet. It drew me in and kept hold. It's been a long time since anything like that has happened. I loved it. If it were up to me there would be a lot more music in the worship service. But it's not.

Takyra sang at her church last night. She sang, "He's Still Working On Me." Her mama, papa and mema were very proud of her. I wish I could have been there. They took video of it so I'll get the next best thing.

We Made It!

It was exhausting! I couldn't breathe. My knees hurt. The hills were not as small as I thought they would be and I had to carry a bike across a river that came up to my waist. It was a blast!

On August 19, my sister and I participated in the Muddy Buddy Competition. Note I did not say that we "competed". Let's get real. We didn't have a chance in the world of placing. We were there to do...and we did. For those of you who do not know what the Muddy Buddy is, it's a race involving teams of two people each. One person starts the race riding a bike and the other starts the race running. There are obstacles along the course and after you have completed said obstacle you switch to the opposite of whatever you started out doing. Tam and I had discussed this multiple times and decided (well, I said) that I was going to start off running. We changed my mind at the last minute and I'm so glad we did. Tam ended up doing most of the running.

After the first obstacle I was running along and kept looking for Tam. It took awhile for her to pass me (please understand that she had to carry the bike up a REALLY steep hill!) and when she did I asked how she was doing. She said she was ready for this to be over. She did wonderfully. Technically the person who finished the race on the bike should beat the person who is running. This did not happen. Tam finished the race running and ended up waiting on me. Sad, but true. The person to "finish" first has to stay in a waiting area and when their teammate gets there you have to run (or in our case walk) to the final obstacle...a 50 foot mud pit. This you have to low crawl through. Lovely! As tiring as it was, we can now say that we did it. Why? Because we could.

Takyra participated in the Mini Muddy Buddy and came in third place in her age group. She's a quick little bugger!

Yes. I am still alive.

Just in case you were wondering. Life is still ho-hum. I have decided, though, that if you could make any money being a car singer, I would be rich by now. Yes, that was very random, but there you go. I am a car singer. I am that idiot you see in your rear view mirror just wailing away. In fact, I've noticed people staring at me from their rear view mirror. And the girl who hates attention just does not care. I noticed someone else singing in car the other day and thought, "You go girl!" She didn't make eye contact or I would have smiled or waved or something. I've noticed that most car singers don't make eye contact with those around them. Yes, we know we look like goobers. No, we don't want to know that you think so. My latest choice of music is church performance tracks. They're just fun. Except when it gets to the high notes. I know I probably scare people when I try to hit those. Anyway, that's the excitement in my life right now. Thrilling, I know. Hope you're having a good week.