American Idol

I've never been a huge fan of American Idol, but have drifted in and out as the seasons have gone on. When I knew though that this fella was going to be on this season, I just knew I'd have to watch. This fella happens to be David Osmond.
I can usually get away from work pretty sharpish and be home by 7pm but wouldn't ya know, on the night that David was going to be on, we were short staffed, busy and I couldn't leave. I left at 7.10pm, raced home all the time hoping that he'll be on after I got back but when I burst through into the living room with the words "Have I missed him?", Brent told me that he was the first one on. Drat. Anyhoo, thanks to the Internet, I was able finally to see his performance today.
Overall, I thought the judges comments were constructive and accurate. His song choice wasn't the best and he should have chosen a solo song rather than one that a group had sung.

Regardless, here are my reasons why I would love to see David as the next American Idol.
1) I'm biased. The Osmonds have been a part of my life since 1972 and I happen to agree with the old adage "It doesn't matter who's on stage, as long as it's an Osmond".
2) He's quite the hunk! I remember the first time I saw him was outside the Orleans theater in Vegas. I turned around and he was standing right behind me. Whoa, 6' 4" of pretty good looking guy. Now if I was 20 years younger, he's probably be in direct competition to his uncle.
3) I happen to think he's a really good singer. He's been the lead singer with his brothers since he was about 4 and whilst he's done some good stuff with them, of late he's predominantly been a session singer and has done some great stuff. Last February, I went to see his uncles in concert and he and his wife Valerie were in the audience sitting at a table behind me. They called him up on stage and he proceeded to sing and dance with them for probably about 30 mins. He was great. He's definitely versatile.

I have my concerns though. The very name he bears will probably do him no favors at all and I think he needs to work very hard to get away from the "lead singer in a group" and the "Christian artist" in order to become what the judges are looking for in American Idol. Whatever happens, I hope he enjoys the ride and I'm sure he'll be successful no matter what happens on the show.

Here's a couple of video's I found on Youtube that shows just a small part of what David can do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l9W25I7PjQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hc5ejUJjPI


And talk about him singing with his brothers. I just LOVE this video. It was never aired on Oprah but was recorded backstage and was their tribute to their Grandpa who had died just a few days before. Get the Kleenex out! Remember to switch off my music player at the bottom of the page first.

Different Perspectives

Do you ever wonder why some people just have different perspectives than yourself? The "some people" I'm referring to at this time is my dear sweet son Jordan.
Let me backtrack a little. We have a small strip of land (that sounds too grand) along the side of our house and garage. It's about 3 or 4 feet wide, covered with small rock a la AZ style and has a wall at the front and a gate at the back. It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever except to give access to the house and consequently we never go down there. At the end of last summer, I made sure that I pulled the stray weeds that had grown and sprayed weed killer down to prevent any sneaky lurkers that might decide to show their faces in the future. Low maintenance is what I like!
A few weeks ago we had an unusual spell of above average temperatures in the 70's followed by rain and I just happened to notice last week that a weed or two was peeking out from underneath the gate. No problemo, I thought, I'll simply pull them like I did the last time. When I opened the gate though.....AARRRGGGHH!!! There was a jungle there. No kidding. The weeds were all down the strip and about a foot high.
This is where Jordan comes in. Always eager to earn a buck or two, he told me that he would get rid of all the weeds. That just confirmed why I love him so. Such a sweet helpful boy I've raised. He called me at work one day last week and said "I've done the weeds. How much do I get?". Don't you just love his entrepreneurial spirit? "I don't know", I said "we'll see" (my stock answer for many kid situations).
Well, on Monday I did see. He had raked all the weeds, chopping down as many as he could, left a big pile of them near the gate with the rake propped up against the wall and a six inch jungle instead of one that was a foot high. See what I mean? A different perspective to mine. Needless to say, no money earned. Just perhaps, I am thinking, I need to learn to be a little bit more specific in explaining my expectations. Another one of life's lessons for both of us I guess.

Trip to the dentist

This morning I had a trip to the dentist for a root canal and crown. Aaarrrggh!!! Whilst I'm not frightened of the dentist chair, it's not what I would choose to be doing on my day off. A filling had fallen out a few months ago but I had to wait until my Medical Flexible Spending Account got loaded at the beginning of the year to start treatment, then on Saturday, even more of the filling came away leaving hardly any tooth at all.
The dentist told me that my tooth was performing its own root canal, but I didn't get an ounce of pain from it which was really lucky. The root canal went great and he was hopeful that he would be able to seat the permanent crown today as they make them on site, but it turned out that not quite enough tooth was left and he had to remove some of my bone beneath my gum for the permanent crown to sit on. He gave me a temporary crown and said he wanted me to heal first and go back for more torture in 2 weeks. I was in that dentist chair for almost 4 hours!!!
I came away with prescriptions for Penicillin and Vicodin (yeah baby!!!) then went to the store for chocolate ice cream so that I can baby myself when the pain kicks in. I've been home 2 hours now and am waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Chicago

Last night Brent and I went to the Mesa Arts Center to see Chicago. We got there just as they were opening the doors so we went in to sit down. That was a big mistake. Our seats were on the aisle and we must have got up about 30 times to let people past, mainly the oldies who passed us to sit down then passed us again when they realised they had forgot those hearing device thingies they can use then passed us back again to sit down. I felt a little like a yo-yo. We had got the "best tickets available" which happened to be on the 5th row mezzanine and they were the same price as the front row tickets, which I absolutely couldn't understand as it was quite a way away from the stage.
Anyhoo, we loved the show. I've only ever seen the movie and I thought that Catherine Zeta Jones and Rene Zelwigger did phenomenal jobs in that so these actors had a lot to live up to. The red haired gal who played Roxie was great, but the one who played Velma should have been a little stronger. I loved the songs, the dancing and the whole atmosphere was electric.
Thankfully the oldies down the row had strong bladders, but one of them who was sat in front of us made both Brent and I smile at each other. When Roxie revealed to Amos that she really wasn't pregnant, the lady sighed "Ohhhh" and showed that she either hadn't seen the movie beforehand or just wasn't getting the plot, but it was probably both.
Anyway, we enjoyed it and I think we're going to try and go see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when it comes in March, although I'll have a real hard time seeing anyone other than Donny in that role.

Every Penny Helps

Brent had a physician's appointment today and we knew it was gonna cost us big time! His glucose levels have been creeping up since he came off a particular diabetes medication a couple of months ago and we knew he would be put back on it as it works so well for him. It costs us $30 a month which by itself isn't too bad, but Brent has 3 different meds for his diabetes, 1 to prevent kidney damage from the diabetes, 1 for lowering cholesterol, 1 to prevent the gout which he's prone to and 1 more just to make him happy (LOVE that one!!!).
All those meds add up, so today I decided to change our pharmacy and take advantage of Frys where we grocery shop. Today I saved $12 but if we get the 3 months supply, we'll be saving $44 on just the 4 medications that qualified for the $4 plan. That's great! The one diabetes med still costs us $30 as it's non formulary and he has 2 others that are $7 each, but in this economic climate, every penny helps.

P.S. Brent will be REAL glad to know that I told you all about his happy pill! If your guy doesn't have one, get him it NOW!!!

My Home

My mom has asked me before to send her pictures of my home so she can visulalise it when I'm talking to her about it. Well, the other day I decided to take a few photos of it, humble as it is, and make a collage of them. Obviously, there were some places I didn't go, such as the kids rooms as you never know quite what you'll find there! Anyhow, there are some room shots here and some more focal shots such as the clogs we bought in Holland, the "duck embroidery" that my mother in law made me and the family plaque that I created.

Remember you can click on the collage to make it bigger.

Cock A Doodle Doo

You may remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned that a doctor at work had a son who raised exotic chickens and sold the eggs. Well after he'd told us all about them, me and Laurel were intrigued and had nothing better to do at work than to get together with our friend Google and learn all about chickens and their owners (hope Cathy T isn't reading this!). We hooted and hollered as there were some weird and wacky things out there about chickens, can you believe.

Anyhoo, we found this blog from a Kansas Caroline Ingalls wannabe (not!) named the prairie chicken lady (check it out, http://www.prairiechickenlady.blogspot.com/ ) who we found hilariously funny and to this day, we check out her ramblings every now and then. Sooooo, me and Laurel kind of have this soft spot for chickens, so you can imagine my delight yesterday when Laurel told me she'd found the perfect gift for me...

My very own Extraordinary Chicken Calendar for 2009. A chicken a month!!! Woo Hoo!!! So to start the year off, here is the January chicken of the month (beats Playgirl!), a Japanese White.

Of course the calender shows a little more than my scanner would scan, but isn't he beautiful? Wonder what February will bring?

An Apple A Day

It all started when Grandad sat Danielle on the kitchen island so she could watch Grandma prepare dinner. Danielle reached around to the fruit basket and took not one, but two apples and started munching on BOTH of them. Then Grandad decided to join in and whenever he tried to steal some bites, Danielle would laugh and giggle.
Ah, precious memories. I hope we have many more of them in 2009.

Remember to turn off the music player at the bottom of the page before you watch the video.

Happy 2009

Pease Pudding

This is a picture of a VERY happy man! Here is Brent with the first container of pease pudding he has had for probably about 15 years. For the ignorant among you (as I was before I met Brent), here is my friend Wikipedia's definition of pease pudding:

Pease pudding, sometimes known as pease pottage or pease porridge, is a baked vegetable product, which mainly consists of split yellow or Carlin peas, water, salt, and spices, often cooked with a bacon or ham joint.
It is similar in texture to hummus and is light yellow in colour, with a mild taste. Pease pudding was traditionally produced in England, especially in the industrial North Eastern areas - although it is now widely available throughout the country, often in butcher's shops (due to the bacon connection). It is often served with ham/bacon and stottie cakes.

I remember Brent's Grandad making this for him but this was the first time I have ever made it myself and the ultimate compliment was "that tastes just like the pease pudding my grandparents used to make".

Personally, I used a ham shank and green split peas with just salt and pepper to taste and it was oh, so simple!