FANTASTIC!!!

Sunday night my friend and I went to see Carri Underwood in concert. She was the winner of American Idol 5 years ago (where does the time go) and was my pick way back when to win it. She has been a huge success ever since.

I absolutly love country music and she is part of that and my goodness can this gal sing. I don't know how she can talk after one of her concerts because she has such a powerful voice and she can carry a note for a long time.

While I love her as a country music singer I also love the songs that she sings. I find them very touching and moving all in the same. Her first hit was "Jesus Take the Wheel" and it has just gone on from their. Funny thing when that song came out we had recently be talking in church about how so many people want to be in the drivers seats of our lives but we need to give that control over to Jesus. So fitting!!! Her second album hit me very hard as my cousin a couple years older than I am, 3 kids with one on the way and her husband was killed in an accident. Literatly right after that happened Carries song "Just a Dream" came out. It made me want to cry every time for my cousin who was now faced with raising her children with out their father and one child who will never know his father.

Ok, Ok... enough of the sad stuff. Sorry!

On Sunday April 18th Carrie Underwood won the Artist of the Year award at the Academy of Country Music awards. The only female artist to have ever won this award twice. She won last year also and was the first female artist since the 90's to win this award, beating out some powerhouse male artists.

The song that she currently has that just moves me every time I listen to it is "Temporary Home". If you are not a country music person but want to hear an absolutely beautiful song please listing to this link here (Click here for CMT video of song). At the concert she said she cries about 50% of the time when she sings this song. She didn't cry at the concert I went to but she did cry when she sang it at the awards show and it was so moving for me.

At the concert when she sang it she had this beautiful house on the screen behind her and as she sang this house faded away and fell apart just as all material things will do in our life or after we are gone. It was also very touching.

If you watch the video link sorry, I don't like how it interups the song at the end for the video part of it because by far the best part of this song is the ending.

I would love to know if you are a Carrie fan? If not, are you familiar with her songs? Do you watch American Idol? I haven't watched for a few years (probably since Carrie won actually) but Carrie has been one of my favorites from Idol.

Early Preschool

Can someone tell me how, what seems like yesterday, I was holding this cute little thing in my arms.
How is it he is now this strong and very independent little guy who is in preschool.


We are well into week three of Thomas's Early Pre-school program so today I thought it would be fitting to give you a bit of an update as to how things are going.

First his class is made up of boys and girls ages 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years old. Thomas technically isn't 2 1/2 yet but he will be in another month. I pushed for him to be in this class because they have curriculum that they learn from everyday with a weekly lesson plan.

They let me put him in this class because he is doing well on potty training. Let me re-phrase that, he is doing well potting everywhere except at home. That's right, he will potty all day long in a toilet if he isn't at home. I don't get it but I am being patient and waiting for him to come around and he will.

He cried the first week every morning, the second week not once and this morning once I got him settled in with a book he was fine.

He seems to really like his teachers and seems to be having lots of fun.

While I love having an in home baby sitter when my children are babies, I also love what a preschool program does for them once they are a little older.

First off, since starting preschool this child has slept all night every night like a dream. What is the difference you ask, it is getting him away from the television and mentally and physically wearing him out every day. I had a great sitter don't get me wrong but the TV was on all day long and my child never would sleep all night long. Just two months ago I was often getting up twice a night with him. I had the same experience with Luke when I put him in early preschool at 2 also. So I expected it, and looking back at my lack of sleep not sure why I didn't do it sooner.

The third day at preschool one of his teachers asked me if I considered putting him in underwear. I like the idea but told her we should wait a few weeks to see how he does. I don't want to get to far ahead of things. Pull-ups are good for now.

I haven't heard much about new friends yet but it will come with time. Luke made lots of wonderful friends in this very class room, some of those boys are still his friends today. So I am looking forward to the friendships that will develop.

Never Cease to Amaze Me

Sometimes my kids cease to amaze me in the things they know and I often wonder where they have learned some of the things they know.

Here are just a couple of those fun moment that I have recently experienced with my kids.

Last week I was watching Dancing with the Stars (a show I sometimes watch/sometime don't), anyway out comes one of the professional dancers and my husband says, who is she, she is smoking....

Luke says to me: Mommy, I know the second part of that.
Me: What are you talking about?
Luke: I know the second part of what daddy said.
Me: What do you mean? (obviously I am clueless)
Luke: She is smoking, smoking hot!

Yes, my seven year old knows the phrase smoking hot. Seriously, where did he learn this.


Luke loves to play with my scanner. He can scan and print things with out ever accessing the computer. This is a killer on my ink since he will scan just about anything. The other day he tells his dad he can print money. Daddy explains to him that no he can't.

Luke: I can scan it and print it.
Daddy: No you can't, that is illegal. You will get in trouble.
Luke: Money doesn't have a TM on it so I can.

How does a seven year old know and understand Trade Marks? Like I said, they never cease to amaze me. Side note, I think he now understand that he can not make money.


Daddy turns on the TV for Thomas to watch cartoons and an exercise program is on.

Daddy: Do you want to watch this? (daddy teasing him)
Thomas: No that is a mommy show.

I guess this child has seen me working out a few to many times. I am just shocked he is paying this much attention.

I have to say I never know what to expect in my house. I will say my kids can always bring a laugh or two.


Side note: for all you mommies with little ones. I get a parenting newsletter via email and this week has to do with this past years baby product recalls. If you want to see the current list (long list) and keep yourself informed follow this link to Baby Center.

Easter, Finally...

I know I am way behind on posting our Easter fun. I am on antibiotics and improving but very slowly and being sick just does not work for me. I am a go-go kind of gal so having to slow down is no fun.

The boys had a blast making these Easter cupcakes.
The sugar was everywhere, I think I still can feel it on the floor.

Luke came up with this one all on his own. How cute! Little carrots growing.

Our bunny faces.

Then we colored eggs. Luke is at the easy age for doing this and has a good time.

Doing it with a two year old, not as fun.

Finally they had stickers to add to the eggs. Now that part was fun!
Especially for me as they were both so quiet.

Oh, and don't mind the dinning room mess. Someday it will be finished and I will share with you all the work that has been going into our dinning room.

LOST

Something you might not know about me, but I am a Lost junky. Yes, I am talking about the television show. I watched the premier way back when (5, 6 years ago can't remember) and have been watching ever since.

It takes a lot to really get me into a television show and most the time I can take a show or leave a show with out a second thought. This is not the case with Lost. I have been addicted since the pilot and I think my addiction has only become worse over the years.

I am actually kind of mean on the nights it is on. First, kids are in bed long before 9 and if they are not asleep Eric is in charge. I will not be interupted for juice, potty breaks, nothing when I am watching Lost. I do get kind of mean when I am interupted. This is my 1 night a week that I expect full cooperation from my family, and I think they know I mean business.

For the past couple years I have been reading ABC's blog where people post lots of details about the shows that just aired along with many of the theories about how this show is going to end. Learned that I am not the only junky out their and these people have way cool ideas and don't miss a thing.

For those of you who are not fans, boo to you.. LOL. All seriousness, this has been by far the best television show I have ever watched.

The worst part is we are down to our last 5 episodes before the finally. Yes, my show is about to come to an end. While I have been anticipating how this will all end for a long time, I hate to think that my show is about over.

What am I going to get excited about each week?

I just recently bought season 1 and season 2 on DVD and have begun to watch this show all over again, while continuing to count down to the finally. I have done this because the creators of Lost have said they wrote this show start to finish before they ever began filming it. I do believe they ran into so problems along the way and have had to alter the show a bit to deal with a few things but over all I do believe this to be very true. I say this because in this final season we have learned a lot that we did not know before and now watching it all over again the symbolism that meant nothing to me the first time I watched season 1 is all over the place and so awesome to pick up on. I get excited every time I spot something.

Before it is all said and done I will own the entire series on DVD and I will probably actually watch the entire series more than once. Yes, it is that good.

So have you seen Lost? Have you had a show that sucked you in like this one has me?

On a side note, I am still not feeling well. Finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday because it is taking way to long for me to get better. He put me on an antibiotic but so far I am not feeling any better. Hopefully in another day or two I start to notice an improvement.