Straight No Chaser Video

This is the video I took at the concert. It is short but came out pretty well. We had fairly good seats especially considering the concert was sold out.

Straight No Chaser

Towards the beginning of September we were flipping channels and happened upon a concert on PBS of a group called Straight No Chaser. They are a group of 10 young men from Indiana that sing and preform with no accompaniment. We had never heard of them but were very impressed by their singing and comedic performance. Dennis said he would love to see them in concert so I grabbed my handy dandy laptop that is always close and found their web page and and tour dates. Found out that the only place in Kansas they would be was Salina on Thursday, October 21st. Knowing the concert wouldn't be over until too late to drive back I suggested we take Friday off and spend the night in Salina. He agreed that would be a great idea and I bought the tickets. They preformed in an old theater in downtown Salina that reminds you of the Orpheum in Wichita, if it were finished. The one in Salina is beautiful. The concert was fantastic - the group told the audience to ignore anything the ushers said and take all the picture and videos they wanted to and post them on a blog, Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else we wanted to post. They became a hit because of You Tube so they want the exposure. I have accidentally taken video with my camera but never on purpose so it was not easy to figure out how to do it in the dark but I got a snip of one song. If I had known it would come out so good, I would have taken a longer video. The group also stayed after and gave autographs and visited.

And more pumpkins

My church has a pumpkin sale each year with the money going to the youth. The church is not far from the kid's house so each year we take the girls over to pick out pumpkins and support the church. The first year we took a blanket and laid them with the pumpkins and took pictures and each year it is a little more fun. We cheated a little this year and stopped and got a couple of big (and very cheap) pumpkins at Walmart before we went to the church. Then at the church we picked out one big one and let the girls pick out quite a few little ones. They had so much fun. They were so proud of their daddy for being able to carry their big pumpkin. Lily said "this is the biggest pumpkin EVER!" Izzy said "yes, it is heavy but daddy can carry it"

Saturday, October 16 part two

This weekend was the annual Haysville Fall Fest where the entire town descends on a small park at the same time. Or that is the way it felt this year. The beautiful fabulous fall weather we have been having continued this weekend so the turnout was huge. We enjoyed going through the craft area - there were so many cute things. The girls got balloons - twice - lost or popped them - twice. They loved the bounce house - even Lily bounced in it. We didn't go through much of the car show but saw some of it.

Saturday Part 1

This weekend we had more fun. Saturday started with Laura and I meeting Jimmy and family to watch the girls take gymnastics. The family sit in a room on the other side of a glass and watch the girls. Three year old gymnastic classes are pretty amusing I felt bad that I didn't have any small bills on me - the gymnastic teacher asked if I was their "aunt" and I thought handing her a twenty might be a bit much. :)

Another Sunday afternoon

Been a busy busy week - Lily was still sick Monday and Tuesday so I worked half days those two days. It works out pretty well - Jimmy stays home with the girls while Maranda goes to Allison to teach first thing (her class is at 7 am) then she comes home and he goes to work. I come at noon so she can go back to Allison to teach her afternoon class. By Wednesday she was back up to par so everyone went to day care and hopefully they all have had their turns at this bug and I am skipping my turn!

Wednesday Laura had an MRI on her wrist which is still hurting from a fall she had in July. When she was leaving the hospital she and a truck backed in to each other in the parking lot. The truck had parked so Laura started backing out and the truck decided to back out to straighten her placement without looking back. Laura had her car towed to Wichita and stayed with us until yesterday. She went with us to the trailer and we had a very relaxing time sitting on the porch while Dennis found projects to do. Her car won't be done until next Friday so we took her home in the afternoon. She assured us she had plenty of food and would be fine without a car for a week. Her arm hurts too much to drive far and I am sure a friend will help her if she needs something at the store. Thursday we will go back to Ponca and get her and then drive her home next weekend, Will be glad to find out what the MRI shows.

Today we had a fun time going to a pumpkin patch with Jimmy's family until the rain started. We have been in a long drought but it ended today! We got to ride on a wagon and found pumpkins so the girls had a lot of fun. The wagon ride was probably the bumpiest I have ever been on - that place needs to put some hay on those wooden trailers! The girls had a hard time deciding on the perfect pumpkin. It didn't start raining until after we got in from the field and the girls were in a bouncy house so we still had a full visit. I can't believe how many pumpkin patches and the variety of pricing structures there are in our area. Bergmans seemed to be the best value and the people there are very nice.

"Cool Shoes"

We had great plans for last Saturday which fell through but we managed to have a pretty good day anyway. Dennis and I picked up doughnuts and went to Jimmy's house early Saturday morning. The plan was for Jimmy and Dennis to go buy sheetrock and do some repair work to the attic ceiling while Maranda and I took the girls to gymnastics and shopping. We had our doughnuts and visited a bit then started to gather the girls to go to gymnastics. As Lily was walking to the back door she stopped and started to vomit. Lily vomits pretty often but always at the end of a feeding, not just out of the blue like that. She felt warm, but she always seems to feel warm so they took her temperature and it was over 100. Their family has had the strangest virus. Izzy had it first, ran a temperature for at least five days then the next week Audrey and Jimmy had it, the next week (last week) Maranda had it and now Lily had decided she needed a turn. So as anyone with kids knows, you make plans then change plans. Maranda would take the other two to gymnastics and I would stay at the house with Lily. Izzy started crying because she wanted me to go too and Lily started crying because she wanted to go. Audrey was ok with the situation.
So Lily and I watched a couple of episodes of Mickey Mouse until the tylenol kicked in and then she was ready to play. When Maranda got back Lily was feeling quite well so we went shopping for a little while and picked up lunch and came back to their house. The guys were not making great progress but we have learned in the last four years to multiple by three the amount of time you think a project will take at that house.

Lily fell asleep during lunch so we laid her on the couch and after we ate Izzy and Audrey went upstairs for their nap, the guys kept working, Maranda went to Target and I stayed with the girls. When she got back from Target Lily was awake so she showed her the new shoes she bought her. These shoes are the cutest little shoes I have seen and Lily was thrilled. When Izzy and Audrey woke up Lily and I went upstairs to get them. When we walked in the room Audrey was still half asleep but Izzy was wide awake. She took one look at Lily and stood up and said "those are cool shoes Lily". Lily said "thank you". With the mention of shoes Audrey woke right up and said "how you get those shoes, Lily?" and Lily said "mommy got them" At that point Audrey and Izzy were racing to the stairs to go see if mommy had gotten them a pair too. Of course she had and they were very happy.

I still laugh when I think about Izzy though - "those are cool shoes, Lily" Yes they were.