Chaos Is A Friend of Mine

Rob Thomas in Kansas City

Travis and I went to see Rob Thomas at the Midland tonight. It was awesome! Most of his songs were from his two solo albums. He also played Dear Joan from his Tabitha's Secret days - one of the most beautiful songs ever - and a cover of I Melt With You by Modern English. Carolina Liar opened for him. I'd never heard of them before but they did a pretty good job.

We had really great seats on the left side about 14 rows back. Our row was one seat longer than all the rows in front of us so there were no seats in front of mine - I was basically sitting in the aisle. Once again, Travis was heckled by the short girls who were stuck behind him for being too tall and not being into the show. I had no sympathy for them because they talked incessantly through Dear Joan. Sorry bitches - you're not a true fan of Rob if you can talk through that song.

This was my second time seeing Rob on a solo tour. The first time was at the Uptown and Anna Nalick opened for him.

I've seen Matchbox Twenty five times. I can't remember where all the shows were but I've seen them with these openers:

Soul Asylum (the best concert ever - my two favorite bands on one stage!)
Train
Shelby Lynne
Sugar Ray
Mutemath followed by Alanis Morrissette

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day got off to a fabulous start with breakfast and presents in bed. The boys each painted a picture for me and Travis gave me a gift certificate to get my Xterra detailed.

Then we continued with our annual Mother's Day photo shoot tradition. The boys held up their end of the tradition by acting like maniacs.

West refused to put down his juice box for even five seconds to get his picture taken.

Cash was pretending to a lizard the entire time. Apparently, a lizard's facial expression looks like he's smelling something bad.

This is the best one of the bunch:

Then West took over the photography and snapped this photo of Mommy:

After the photo shoot, Travis cooked a delicious steak dinner for me, his mom and my mom. His sister Jenny made a yummy salad and dessert and my brother Nicholas brought some great wine. It was a wonderful Mother's Day from start to finish!

You Say It's Your Birthday

Sunday was my birthday. The boys took me out to eat at Red Lobster. Cash had been looking forward to this for a long time and he and I had many discussions over the course of the week about what sea creatures you can't eat (walruses, manatees) versus which ones you can (pretty much everything else).
He decided well ahead of time that he was going to eat clams at Red Lobster. Feeling proud of his adventurousness in food choice, I asked the server if we could substitute clam strips for popcorn shrimp in a kids meal. "No, Mommy - I don't want clam STRIPS, I want CLAMS," came the cry from the other end of the table. I explained to Cash that Red Lobster doesn't serve clams in the shell, they cut it into strips and fry it like chicken nuggets. This led to a meltdown that required sending the server away so we could regroup. I explained to Cash that if he wanted to eat something in the shell, his choices were lobster tail or crab legs. Thankfully, seeing the lobsters in the tank in the lobby dissuaded him from choosing lobster and he has already tried crab legs so he didn't want those. He settled on broiled fish and I made sure to explain to him before the server returned that it would not have the head or tail attached and he was fine with that. Poor guy - he just gets his mind set on something and gets so disappointed when it doesn't turn out like he wants it to. 

My mom made my favorite birthday cake - strawberry. I had to write on it because her hands cramp up when she tries to decorate a cake.

The boys helped me blow out the candles. West employs more of a sprinkler system approach when he blows. 

My dad sent me this card - I thought it was pretty appropriate!

Not A Morning Person

Travis wakes me up most every morning because he gets up earlier than me and I HATE waking up to the sound of my annoying alarm clock. He usually has to come back a few times before I get out of bed. Last night I told him to wake me up this morning at 6:30am. I must have been really tired this morning because I don't remember our conversation at all:

Travis- It's 6:30. Time to wake up.

Me- Today's my day off.

Your day off?

My day off from running.

I know that but you need to get up for church. What time do you want me to come back and wake you up?

6:30

IT'S 6:30 RIGHT NOW.

Oh. 6:45 then.

Warm and Toasty

It's freakin' cold here right now - temperatures are below zero with the wind chill. It's the perfect day to wear warm and toasty hand knit socks. My friend Jessica knit these socks and gave them to me for Christmas last year. They're so pretty; it's a shame they have to be covered up with shoes and pants most of the time.

The light is better in this picture:

In the Beginning...

Who would've thought that some day these two crazy kids would have two crazy kids of their own? (photo December 1996)

***Sorry, it was 1996, not 2006. The boys haven't aged us THAT fast, although some days I wonder.***

Walk For Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure

I walked in the 2nd annual walk to support the Food Allergy and Anaphlylaxis Network this afternoon. This organization has been invaluable to my family as a source for information and support regarding Cash's life-threatening peanut allergy. If you'd like to donate, it's not too late. Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated - some day we will find a cure for food allergy!

The Happy Homemaker

Cash and I cleaned the refrigerator this afternoon while West was napping. Cash was actually a really big help - he took everything out of the door while I was scrubbing the inside. He thought we should chop the door off with an ax but I talked him out of it. It was dirty but not THAT dirty. Now it's sparkling clean. Cleaning the refrigerator is my favorite chore because it actually STAYS clean for a while, unlike everything else around here. After I clean it, I can't help going back into the kitchen several times to admire my work. Yep, I'm a freak.

Friday Morning Weigh-In

I finally bit the bullet and went back to Weight Watchers to weigh in, fully expecting to take my lumps. I almost fell over when I saw that I lost 0.8 of a pound. Not very much considering I haven't weighed in a month but I'll take it over a gain any day. That brings my total loss to nine pounds. Only seven more to go!

Too Zen to Weigh-In

I didn't make it to Weight Watchers this morning. I went to a yoga class with my friend CW instead. I went to my first yoga class in over ten years on Wednesday night at Shine spa. It was free because they're trying to build up interest and they are having another free class there this Wednesday, the 9th. It's for beginners so check it out. Anyway, I LOVE yoga. I didn't really how tense I am until after the first class when I felt totally relaxed. I'm definitely going to try to make yoga part of my exercise routine. I'll still want to do cardio and weights to keep losing weight; I'm still having trouble getting more than one day a week of that in. If I had weighed in today, I would guess that I've gained at least a pound. We've had a lot of celebrations the past few weeks and I struggle with pigging out in the name of "celebration".

As your reward for reading a long, boring post about me, here are some pictures of the boys eating watermelon yesterday. Happy Independence Day!