Cell Phone Pic Monday

Well, it's finally that time...

It was going to be cell phone pic Sunday, but since it is now 2:28 a.m. it is officially Monday. I'm late for my own post. LOL (Shhhh.. don't tell anyone.)

At any rate, I have been taking a lot of pics with my cell phone lately, either becaue I see something really cool, and it's handy, OR I'm killing time somewhere for some reason and it seems something to do to pass the time.

On the way to work last week it was definitely something I thought was cool. The mountains are especially pretty to me in the spring before the snow totally melts off and the sky is blue. So, I've been using my cell to capture it. Last week was especially cool as some of the mountains had the fluffiest white clouds sitting on top of them. Check this out (from April 25):






This is what it looked like on April 15, when skies were not so blue:

You can tell the windshield needs washing. LOL
These lovely shots are from Sunday afternoon on the way to "Babies R Us":




And, of course, I had to get something cute for my grandchild that is due on Dec. 5. The little one is still to small to ascertain the gender, so these were pretty neutral. :)



And this was the view of my counter top for a couple of days... someone is waaaaaaaay to into the seriousnous that is known as paintball. LOL Camo paint ball canisters. He converted his weapon to automatic. Think Tim the Tool Man Taylor and paint ball, and you'll get the idea:

And who can resist sleeping chocolate labs:


And like my birthday rose (shown here on the 27th), all good things must come to an end:


Peace Out,
Melanie

Grandma Times Two

My daughter Deidre is due on December 5.




My daughter Bethany is due at the end of August. She's having a girl. (Avalyn Grace)




Hi Grandma!! :) My niece happened to mention that it looks like ASL for "I Love You" and it really does. How cool is that?! :)

Superchick = Superfun

April 14 was Superchick Day. Those that made the trek out to see Superchick in Salt Lake City Tuesday have no idea how close it came to being cancelled. The band had bus issues and ended up leaving a day late. With 2 bus drivers they managed to make the 24+ hour drive arriving just 3 hours before show time, and pretty famished from not having had "real food" for a couple of days. I personally want to thank the bus drivers. I'm not sure I was able to meet them, but they were awesome for getting the band to us.

We knew ahead that the band would probably not arrive until about 2-3 p.m. I was secretly predicting 4 and hoping it would be earlier. We decided to meet early anyway and I arrived at the venue at 10:22 in the morning and began unloading.
Just about the time I arrived I spotted Liz and she helped me unload. Then I set about trying to find the coffee. I never did find it. It did finally show up later, but we used some of Calvary's coffee for the first pot at least. Calvary Chapel Salt Lake City has some of the best, most giving staff I have ever met. They truly see everything they have as God's and always share freely. For that I am eternally grateful. I know this is how it is supposed to be, and how it isn't far too often.

Anyway, we set about fixing lunch, and had plans to fix a lunch/dinner combo. In the end, with the band to arrive at 3, we just fed some of the volunteers some of the salad, tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. We saved out the rest of the salad, a fruit tray, and vegetable tray, and lemon/pepper chicken for dinner. While we waited for people to arrive, we started preparing dinner, finishing touches on the roast, seasoned baked chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, peas. There was lots of food. Everything turned out very well!

David was first to arrive as he flew in (someone even made the obligatory joke later in the evening about his arms being tired. LOL). A while later we finally heard that the band had arrived and we took care of feeding them as they made their way in.
Some had plates taken to them as they worked like mad to get everything ready in time for the doors to open at 6. Since it was raining it was decided that everyone would be wristbanded and let into the merch area later, which took a small bit of rearranging. I had come out to the merch area to find out if I could get a seat and get approval for my camera and was drafted to put on wristbands for a bit. It soon became apparent that the ticket takers were only going fast enough for two of us to stay busy, so I bowed out and went back to the kitchen.

Before long the show was starting so I finished helping a little, by putting some things away, and then went to see the show and take photos. First was Tal & Acacia sang for us. There were a lot of comments throughout the night about how fun it was having 2 sets of sisters on the tour. They are beautiful girls and I thoroughly enjoyed their set.



Then Rachel Hockett spoke. She talked about her struggles with being a people pleaser as a result of things she experienced, and eventually an eating disorder and about letting go of the things that hold you in bondage, the things you think you can control, that control you (my paraphrase and take on it, anyway.) She is an engaging speaker, and a sweetheart of a person.


Afterwards, there was a video about Melissa's trip to Uganda to visit her 2 children sponsored through Compassion International. You could tell how much the trip meant to her and how much she thought of Compassion. Then I went back into the kitchen and tried to help out a bit and went back out as Tal and Acacia were singing one song before Superchick took the stage. First off Trisha had everyone in the Gold Circle seating come forward, and stand next to the stage. Then they fun began. There were some children up by the stage to the right and they were having a blast. This one little boy was jumping up and down, dancing and just having a great time. He was a crack up.. and cute. LOL I stood next to him for a bit and took some pics and finally went to the other side of the stage and took photos there and enjoyed the show. IT really was a lot of fun. Some of the highlights were Matt's challenge with the audience to a dance off (and I'm sure a certain little boy spurred that one on by his exuberance), Trisha talking about Matt's sweat, etc., and joking about the things that come up on stage when one is in front of an audience, and hearing Stand In the Rain performed live. It's such an amazing song.

Anyway, the concert ended and there was an autograph signing. They tried to do paw prints of Trisha's dog, but it didn't work. It was a cute idea, though. I went over to the merch tables and bought a few things, took a few photos, had a photo taken with Tal & Acacia and Rachel, etc. Then I went over to have a pic taken with Superchick. They were so nice about everything and took the time to talk to people, including me... being my usual chatty self.

Then clean up began in earnest. A lot had already been done, so mostly it was just sorting through everything, loading, chatting, etc. There was a mix up with my coolers being accidentally loaded into other vehicles, which was semi-amusing, and finally I went to put the last cooler away and my car floor on the driver's side was full of water. Good thing I didn't put my camera down there (I almost did) so I drove home with a big puddle on the back floor, which leaked up to the front. What a mess!

I finally arrived home shortly after midnight, and was one tired individual.

God's blessings,
Melanie

Birthday Rose

A few days ago another birthday came and went. It seems that they come and go just a little faster every year. Individual moments can drag on an eternity, but the years seem to soar past me faster than I can comprehend.

Anyway, I've been taking snapshots with my cell phone of daily things that I want to remember, mostly because the cell phone is the handiest thing about. For my birthday, my husband came home with a rose in hand. This was well appreciated as gift giving and romantic gestures are not my husband's strong suit, so for him to do that was extra special. :) So, here are some of my cell phone snaps of my beautiful rose.




I see some metaphors to my rose and life... probably not terribly original, but I'll see where it leads.

It is probably almost time for a cell pic blog day soon. Leave 'em wanting more.. (uh, yeah, right. LOL)

Another Wasatch Front Sunday (sung to the tune of Pleasant Valley Sunday?)

I went to bed rather late (or is that rather early) Saturday night/Sunday morning. My husband was already awake so I decided I didn't want to worry about setting and resetting the alarm clock, so I asked him to be my alarm clock. He's fired as an alarm clock, as he was 10 minutes late. LOL So I threw on my clothes and headed for church. I was a little late, but still arrived in the middle of the worship part of the service so it still worked out well. My "usual" seat was taken, so I sat in the back and waited until the worship was over. Since there was a special guest and visual aids were involved, I thought I would get a seat closer, so I moved up. I really think it's a good thing I did as my 5'0" short body wouldn't have seen much over the other heads had I stayed where I was.

The special guest was with Jews for Jesus and he went over the passover. I had done a passover meal with Jews for Jesus with a homeschooling group a very long time ago, so I was really looking forward to this. We weren't doing the whole meal and it was more of a presentation. The speaker presented everything, and although I know the passover itself is a solemn occasion, there was much humor involved and the speaker was really pretty funny at times. I took a couple of cell phone shots of during the service, and a few of the table after the fact. It isn't all set up as a real seder, but you can see some of the items on the table. At one point he had kids 10 and under come up and look for the matza. Afterwards I went to leave a gift and pick up a few books and realized I had no checks left. I asked our pastor if there would be books in the bookstore, so the books I wanted he pulled aside for me. How cool is that? So now I have some reading to do during my breaks at work. :)



After some conversation, I headed for home and was just dazzled by the view leaving the church parking lot. Although there was still a little "bite" to the air, it was absoultely beautiful out. The moutains still had snow, and the clouds just accented them well. The sky was beautiful, clear and blue. I stopped right there and took a couple of snapshots with my phone through the windshield. Then I pulled out, and pulled over and took a few looking out of the door of my car.



On the way home I stopped at the post office and had a fun April Fool's Relient K poster that Kara sent me waiting as well as another copy of This Providence's new cd. I know I double ordered, but I'm fairly certain that I didn't triple order. LOL One would think I liked This Providence or something. LOL Then I stopped at Smith's to pick up my Nexium, and get something for dinner. I decided I didn't want to drive to Wal Mart as I am a tad sleep deprived. As I was leaving I noticed that my husband had called, so I called back. He was planning to go to Wal Mart when I arrived home. So I ended up going to Wal Mart after all!

While I was at Wal Mart I picked up two really adorable baby girl outfits.


I've been dying to do that, and I finally did. I chatted a bit with a mom with her sweet little 6 month old baby girl. I also picked up a few more groceries, a document frame from my April Fool's poster, a real bargain at $2.50. In the process I ran into my lead at work (not literally, of course) and we teased each other a bit, as we often do. When I finished shopping, my husband was waiting for me in the cd section and had found a movie dvd, a Meatloaf cd (which is now playing) and a Shirelle's cd. Finally we checked out at the register, spent too much money and came home.

I know there are a few hours left, but so far, that's my Sunday. Hope your day is/was blessed.

Peace out,
Melanie

Ultrasound

This is a pic of my granddaughter who is now 18 weeks old in utero. :) She was 16 weeks in the ultrasound.



My daughter took a pic of her ultrasound photo with her cell phone, sent it to her sister, and her sister put it up on our family site, and from there I saved it. Technology is amazing, isn't it?

Trying to fit the Ocean in a Cup

Sounds, cool, doesn't it? Its from a song by Josh Wilson. He was the opener for Big Daddy Weave on Thursday. The song talks about trying to find words for God, to describe him is like trying to fit the ocean in a cup. I rather liked that comparison.

I started out Thursday morning by getting off work - at 1 a.m. I headed for home knowing I had much to do and needed to sleep sometime. Sleep ended up being an illusion. I managed to make it to bed between 3:30-4 a.m., which is earlier than I often get to bed, so sleeping wasn't happening real quickly. Finally I dozed off and too soon woke to my alarm set for a few minutes before 7. I needed sleep, so I set the alarm rather last minute and hoped to get out the door quickly. It almost happened -- almost. I figured I'd end up being a few minutes late, but close to 8 a.m. if traffic allowed. I had to drive about 45 minutes or so. After all, I reasoned to myself, it did snow and most likely the bus wouldn't be exactly there on time. They rarely are. We were supposed to be serving a full breakfast, which accounted for the early hour. I managed to get everything loaded into my car that I needed to take. I have a two door car with a convertible top, so I put the top down to make loading easier. The top decided not to go quite all the way down. I literally had to use all the force I could muster. 20 minutes later, I had the top up on my car, but the back window wouldn't go up. Fortunately after a couple of tries, the window finally went up and I was on the road. Now I was REALLY late, but I tried not to panic. I got on the road and made a call to let the person I was working with about my expected tardiness, and she hadn't even left yet. She lives further away from the venue than I do. I kept myself calm knowing somehow things had always worked out in the past, and that usually full breakfasts end up being brunch anyway. LOL Still, I made incredibly good time on the road and arrived a little before 8:30 which I could NOT believe. Lynn arrived shortly after with a few others. We were scrambling to get breakfast ready. There was no word from the bus yet, which meant they still weren't too close. AS it turned out we got word that the bus would be there about noon just as I was getting ready to cook up some scrambled eggs, so I decided to wait until they were closer before cooking them. We were well into fixing breakfast, so we just decided to start on lunch and serve both meals simultaneously. At noon, just as I was finishing up scrambling the eggs, the word came. They're here! :)

It was a fun and busy time of putting out food, serving, and meeting everyone. Everyone in the tour was extremely nice and polite and gracious, and thanked us lots for the food mostly with really cool southern accents. I don't think they could believe all of the food. LOL

After "brunch" we cleaned up a little and did some prep for dinner. Then I took a bit of a break and took a few snapshots with my point and shoot and found my seat for the evening, front row and just right of center. I think a few chairs were added and I was ended just a little more centered than when I started out, though.

Before long we were setting up for dinner. Dinner was at 5 p.m. and I could not believe how quickly the day was going. After we served dinner, and did a little clean up, I ditched the kitchen and went out to watch the concert. Just before the show started, one of the guys with security asked if that was my seat and I said "yes" so he said come with me. My first thought was, "uh oh, what did I do." LOL As it turned out, Josh Wilson wanted me to record his song, "Savior Pleas" on his little mini recorder. (I haven't done much video. I hope it turned out o.k. LOL I was a bit nervous about it.)

The concert itself was awesome as always. Josh demonstrated what a looping pedal can do, and sang 4 or 5 songs before Big Daddy Weave took the stage. Mike Weaver has a way of making worship fun and meaningful at the same time and that is one thing I have always appreciated about Big Daddy Weave (which isn't just Mike!) LOL I did my best to get some photos, although I was having some issues with clarity and exposure. You think by now I'd remember to check the ISO settings, but I didn't, so for most of the concert I was shooting at ISO 400. That means, basically, the shutter speeds were slower, so the pics weren't as sharp. I also had issues with my usually trustworthy 100mm lens focusing a couple of times and it even gave me an error message once (take out the battery, putting it back in worked.) Hopefully I will find some decent shots in the next day or two and add them in, so keep checking.

After the concert was over, I took pics of a friend from church with her friend who was in a wheel chair, so they let her at the front of the line. Then I went to visit and went back to the kitchen. I told Lynn not to worry about clean up and to leave whenever she wanted and I would finish up. Then I went and took pics of several people with Josh, bought his cd, and waited a while for a pic with him and then tried to get pics with the Big Daddy Weave guys and almost succeeded. LOL As it turned out, the guy in charge of maintenance (who does an outstanding job, btw)encouraged me to just leave everything as is for the cleaning crew coming in the next day so that the building could be cleared in a timely fashion. So, I loaded my car, helped a little with loading for someone else, and headed for home with Jimmy Eat World keeping me awake. I made a quick stop to my P.O. Box to find an Ace Enders cd I didn't recall ordering (was it a preorder at a show? It seems like I might have done that, but it was a long time ago.) At any rate, I am too blessed.

The only downside to the day, really (other than the car top incident) was that I was overtired and made a few comments I shouldn't have that came out even worse than intended. My apologies if I was stupid and rude to anyone. Sometimes when I'm really tired I should just bring a zipper. LOL O.K. That just gave me an idea. If it ever comes to fruition, I'll blog about it. ;)

Hope everyone has a good and restful week.

Peace out,
Melanie

Simply stunning!!

This Providence and The Academy Is sing Jimmy Eat World acoustic. They performed this in Boise and it was even better than this. It gave me goosebumps. I love great
harmonies.

Fun Times and Exciting News

Should I post the exciting news first, or the fun times...
Fun times or exciting news? ;)

O.K. I have to spill the beans. Relient K is coming to Salt Lake City!! I was so excited that it took me hours to calm down and get some sleep. But it was a good thing, really. It's just that I saw Thiessen's blog about tour dates, and was preparing myself for disappointment. Instead, I saw June 4, Salt Lake City and did a happy dance (well, in my mind I did a happy dance, anyway.) Murray Theater is not a terribly huge venue. I have only been there one time before to see Secondhand Serenade, My American Dream, Play Radio Play and Rookie of the year show. It is an old theater made into a concert venue, and it's actually kind of a fun place. Tickets go on sale Saturday, and now I just have to figure out for certain which promoter so I know where to get them. LOL

As for the fun times, Saturday was fun - really fun. I started off the day on the right foot, by getting a whopping 2 hours of sleep before heading for Boise. I am quite sure I was barely coherent most of the day. We did have a nice drive and arrived in Boise at 2:30 p.m.

I had hoped for a wee bit of early check in and hoped to be to the venue by 3 p.m., but instead we had to wait until 3:20 for the room to be ready. I probably arrived at the venue around 3:30 p.m., so you know I didn't waste a lot of time at the hotel. It was a nice room, though, at a pretty reasonable price and only .9 of a mile from the venue.


Even with the short distance, I saw a tour bus outside a nearby hotel and a sign that said, Joan Baez, 8 p.m. SOLD OUT! I didn't even know she was touring. I would have loved that show!! LOL Down the street, David Archuleta was playing. I heard there was a long line.

When I arrived at the venue, my husband pulled into the lot and I saw the tour bus, and a red car with two young ladies, so I asked them if they knew anything about the venue. As it turned out, they were from Utah. They said I could hang out with them for the evening. They were pretty big TAI fans. They said they had talked to one of the This Providence guys earlier and I gathered from the description that they had talked to Gavin. They told me the tour manager's name so I could ask him about my camera. He said it had to go through the publicist, so I said I just wanted to take pics of This Providence, and he said he'd put something together for me. So my husband left me with cameras. As it turned out the venue pretty much nixed any hope of getting my dslr in and didn't even want to let in ANY cameras, but I mentioned to the security guard what the tour manager had said. Anyway, he finally went in and checked and I was able to bring my point and shoot in. Phew!! I would have been heartbroken otherwise. My new concert friends let me leave my dslr in their trunk and told me where they were staying in case anything happened and we lost track of each other.

After a long wait, lots of conversations, and having a few buckets of rain pouring down on us, it was almost time for the doors to open. The venue staff came out and wrist banded people before the doors opened which made my day since I had will call. I managed to get to the stage, barely on the right. The stage wasn't really huge. It was a small place, but lots of fun.

First to play was Evan Taubenfeld. Apparently he used to be a lead guitarist/back up vocalist for Avril Lavigne. He was a lot of fun and had an amazing voice. I was able to meet him and talk a bit after the concert was over, and he really was nice. I couldn't bring myself to buy his "Cheater of the Year" tee (name of his song.) I just felt funny wearing it. He said I could put an "X" over "Cheater of the Year." I seriously considered it. LOL

This Providence followed Evan, with a great acoustic set. The concert was acoustic, so both TAI and This Providence only played with two of their band members. Dan and Gavin sounded incredible. The very first song, "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" is not what I would expect to hear as an acoustic song, but they did an amazing job of it. They played "Letdown" acoustic and it was great. I'd been singing that one all day. My favorite though, is the "sappy love song" (Dan's words, not mine) "Sand in Your Shoes." It's just beautiful. The gals behind me knew every word to all of the songs. I could hear them well. I'm sure they have some video of me singing badly (I could not hear myself at all) along with Dan and Gavin. The only bad thing, as usual, is that it had to come to an end.



After a bit of time for a stage set up, it was time for The Academy Is. All of the vocals were a pleasure to hear. William has an great voice. He also takes good care of it (at least before the show. lol) I could hear him warming up during sound check earlier in the day. I've seen TAI about 3 or 4 times, but I still don't have one of their cd's. I will remedy that soon. I would have bought one there, but they didn't have any available.




Afterwards, all of the artists hung out with us concertgoers, signed autographs, took photos, etc. I talked to Gavin a while, talked to Dan some, talked to Evan, and had a photo taken, and had a photo taken with Adam Siska. I waited for things to die down so I could get a pic with Dan and Gavin. Then I waited for the line to die down for William. Finally I got in line and the venue wanted to kick everyone out. So, William said we could just go outside and finish. Oh, and I did meet up with my concert friends who were in the lot with me. The three of us, and a few others stayed outside in the lot and talked to William for quite a long while. He was very gracious.





Finally, my new concert friends, drove me back to my hotel (which was pretty cool as I had planned to walk as I didn't want to wake Ed up.)

As it turned out, Ed was awake. Neither of us had dinner, so he ate some brownies he bought earlier at a stop, and I ate the banana I bought. Great meals. LOL Then at around 12:30 a.m. I crashed as I was completely exhausted. At 5 a.m. I had to get up, take a quick shower, and check out. I wanted to be back in time for church at 10 a.m. Things went well, but there was a hang up at the desk and it took 20 minutes to check out. Ed was less than happy that we were rushing back, so that made me feel a little bad, but I made it to church at 10:30. It was late, but they were still in the middle of the worship part of the service, so things went well overall.

Needless to say, it was an exhausting weekend, but a fun one! I can't wait for the next big adventure. I think that will be this Thursday for Big Daddy Weave. I am working, starting at 8 a.m. Who needs sleep? ;)

Peace out,
Melanie