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Archive for January, 2010

I Am Somebody’s Living Room Phoenix, Arizona…

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I’m sooooo excited that I am somebody’s living room!  It says so on Jon Troast’s website in the Upcoming Concert List!  That living room that he is scheduled to play tomorrow in Phoenix, AZ is mine!  Want to see for yourself…well go visit his site.  Don’t know who he is or why I am screaming from the roof tops?  Okay, let me back up.  This is Jon Troast…

Jon Troast

Jon Troast

The story goes like this…

Four summer’s ago, Travis, Brook and I went to Lake Geneva, WI to go hang out and grab a bite to eat for lunch.  It was our first summer at our lake cabin in Burlington, WI and we were exploring nearby towns.  We went into the sandwich shop Potbelly and chilled out with a few sammies.  While we were there, Jon Troast was playing some awesome cover music plus a few songs of his own.  We were quite impressed with his talent and couldn’t believe that he was playing in the sandwich shop instead of a record studio.  I bought his CD, Second Story and thanked him for entertaining us and we were on our way…

If CD’s were anything like the old tapes, I would have worn it out I listened to it so much.  He really has a unique song writing voice and it’s real and heartfelt.  I love this CD!

Now honestly I didn’t follow him on the internet or anything.  I just was happy having his CD in my collection and telling my friends and family about this local Wisconsin artist…

Then last year when Travis and I went out to see a movie at the Showboat in Lake Geneva, we noticed that he was going to preform a concert and we said to ourselves…”Let’s go!”

And we did…We had no idea that it was the special 100th concert from his 100 concerts in 100 days tour.  Basically he drove himself around the country and played in peoples homes for $100.00 for 100 days with one concert each day.  And the concert that we went to was his 100th.  It was amazing, but I must tell you that I kinda felt like a fraud fan since I didn’t know much of his music other than the one album.  Nonetheless he had an amazing performance and I bought another album A Person and a Heart.  Yup, fell in love with that one too!  My favorite part is that Brook loves to sing to Track 2, What We Become, and nothing is cuter than a 4 year old singing!

So now I am jealous that 99 people had Jon Troast playing at their homes and I wasn’t “with it” to be one of those people.  I instantly became a fan of his on facebook and on his website and wrote a handful of times begging him to come to Phoenix.

And then he sent out an email saying he was doing another living room concert tour and he wanted to know if he could stop by my house.

Is HELL YEAH enough of a yes for you!?

Okay, so I didn’t say hell, but I did accept and now after some planning, he is coming here tomorrow!  I have invited all of my local friends and family and we are going to cram in this house to eat some yummy pasta and listen to some amazing music.  I can’t wait.  I will fill you all in later but for now, please go and take a listen to his stuff….He is really great and he just wants to play music and be heard.  Here is a youtube video of one of his songs for those interested….Love it!

I’m just so passionate about people who go after their dream…that live their lives knowing that today is the day to make it happen, whatever it is.  And to be witness to that, is an honor…so Jon if you read this, thank you for letting us witness your talent and passion.  We are happy and honored to have you in our home.

My 2010 Goals…

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

I think goals are better then resolutions.  I’m not trying to right some major flaw in my life, I just want to put forth goals and reap the rewards of fulfilling those goals…

My goals were made before January 1st, but I am just getting to writing them down and committing them to blog world memory.  Don’t worry, I won’t get to the Christmas blog until even later…backwards I know, but hey my blog…my choice!

So without further adieu…

1 – Re-instating the Athletic Challenge of 2007 for a second time…We will call it the Athletic Challenge of 2010!  The premises is to commit to one athletic event in which I propel my body at least 6 miles or a minimum of a 10k.  Shannon and I did it in 2007 and succeeded with flying colors.  The greatest part is we became extremely fit and healthy as a consequence.  So, hopefully that same outcome will occur.  I can’t blame my monster thighs and jelly like belly on just having a baby any more!  No Excuses!

2 – I want to learn how to properly fillet a whole fish and how to “french” a rack of lamb…I will need to take a class to learn those techniques.  For those of you who don’t know what a “french” rack of lamb looks like, here is a picture.

Rack of Lamb that is French-Cut

Rack of Lamb that is "French-Cut"

3 – I want to organize all the cabinets in my house.  If you come over, chances are you’ll find a relatively clean environment.  Things are where they should be and we are clean, neat and tidy.  DON’T LOOK IN THE CABINETS or THE LAUNDRY ROOM!  Chances are you will be injured when things come toppling over.  We just throw everything in “there” and close the door.  It’s our nasty little secret and it is my intention to fix it this year.  So far, I have cleaned, organized and labeled the playroom and the kitchen pantry…So far so good!

So, that’s it…all doable and all needed.  Updates will of course be posted.  Good luck to me!

Another Killer Saying From the Four Year Old…

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Last night we met up with some friends to watch the Packer / Cardinal game…Amazing game…it just ended the wrong way.

What you may say?  Don’t you live in Arizona?

I do, but my loyalties will always be to the Packers…they were my first football love.

Anyway, as we were leaving Brook threw a mad fit because I wasn’t going home right away.  Instead, Shannon and I were going to spend a couple of hours together at the book store and getting massages.

Brook: (screaming) “Mommy don’t leave me!!!”

Me: “But you can go home and have some fun with Daddy…I’ll be home soon.”

Brook: (even louder screaming) “But, I want you to come home too!”

Me: “Honey, we spent the whole day together, remember?”

Brook: “But, I want you spend the whole night together too!”

Me: “Okay, I’m leaving now…I love you!”

Brook: (In a calm voice among her tears) “Well then bring me back a present Mommy.”

Me: “No way Jose…I just bought you new bedding for your room and a Valentine’s Day Shirt from Old Navy…I bought you enough presents today”

Brook: (Starting to get a loud cry again) “You didn’t buy me any presents today because none of that are toys!”

I swear I can’t win…and for the record…she DIDN’T get a “toy” present last night and I did run away for two hours and she was just fine.  But, I have to give props to her because that was some damn smart thinking! :)

Spoken Like a True Four Year Old…

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

I’m getting dressed today when Brook walks into my bathroom and asks what we are going to do today…

Me:   “We are going to go and buy new bedding for you bedroom.”

Brook:  “No thank you, it doesn’t sound like fun.”

Me:  “But, it’s for your bedroom…we will have fun.”

Brook:  (Rolls her eyes while saying this) “Shopping is boring Mom.”

Spoken like a true four year old!

All The Poop Had to Go Somewhere…

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Abby told me in not so many words that this would happen…I didn’t listen.

We were in Vegas for a couple of days, living it up and having fun while Abby watched the kids.  When we came home she said everything went great and the kids were awesome…

Oh and Blake is eating like food is going out of style…

I should have realized she was telling me the poop of the century was about to erupt like a volcano and form a whole new portion of Earth called Poopland.

The day started out innocently enough.  We ran around town doing errands and catching up on non-holiday stuff.  Then we made a stop at Whole Foods for some lunch and shopping.  I am re-stocking our house with fresh wholesome food instead of all the crap we have been eating since Thanksgiving.

It always has to happen in public places…

While we were shopping I noticed the face…you know that I’m squirting a doosy of a twosie out Mom kind of face.  I figured no biggie, they have a nice bathroom with a place to change him so we should be fine…

Should is the right word.

We get into the bathroom and I check the damage…the diaper is completely full…so is his pants, so is his shirt, so is his back.  Okay, I’ve dealt with explosions before, this shouldn’t be a problem…

Did I mention his a wiggle worm now???

Oh yes, that started too.  Now it’s on my hands, my shirt, his hair, his hands and even in that tiny crevice of the “safety” belt that they put on a changing table that absolutely no one uses.  The poop is wedged in  that crevice…Awesome!

I finally kind of get us cleaned and get him changed into a new “just in case” outfit and I attempt to clean the changing table…Well hell, I’m just going to leave the rest of the cleaning of that to the staff here because now my half dirty kid is crawling on the really gross floor in the bathroom, trying to get some more gross germs on him because he doesn’t have enough from his own bodily waste.  Sweet!

I wash the both of us up the best I can in the sink and get back to our cart so we can pay up and get us home.  We both need to be bathed and sanitized.

Don’t worry, I told the staff about the changing table…hopefully someone got right on top of that.

Now we are checking out and I am getting all the groceries out when I discover…yes this is true and beyond gross…there is Blake poop on a portion of the groceries in the cart.  And not just a tini-tiny bit…oh no, there is like a plethora of poop, just sitting there, contaminating a whole slew of things.  The check out people look at me as if I’m one of the grossest, stupidest people that they know.  Luckily someone hands me a container of sanitation wipes and a garbage and I go to town throwing away the food that can no longer be eaten and clean off the cart.  Oh, the part where Blake sits has poop all over it too.  How I didn’t see this before I put him back into the cart is beyond me…so you guessed it, he is now covered in the poo once again…This day cannot get any better!

I continue to clean it all up, pay for what was still okay and embarrassingly get the hell out of there.  One of the employees follow me and the cart out to my car so that he can then take said cart and burn it out back once we are done with it.  He proceeds to tell me that he thought the grossest thing he’s ever seen before was a dirty wet diaper in the grocery cart, but this…this was just spectacularly worse than that.  Thanks Dude, I needed that pep talk!

We get home, we bathe, we change, we finally get clean…the joys of being a Mommy :)

So to recap, Blake ate a shitload of food for a couple of days and in the span of thirty seconds at Whole Foods gets rid of it.  The poop was so immense that it went up and out of his diaper like a waterfall into the cart full of groceries.  We go through two sets of clothing and forced the grocery store to probably destroy the cart and the changing table because there was no other choice in the matter.

Blake, you are one nasty dude…you are sooooo very lucky that you are cute…oh and yes I will tell your girlfriends this story when you are older, I don’t care how embarrassed you get because it will be just a little payback…Love you!