My Beach Babes

Today I decided I needed a break from unpacking so I took the girls to Salmon Creek. Emma would have run around on the shore all day if I had let her. Brooke, on the other hand, was much more comfortable playing in the sand. And I, of course, enjoyed taking pictures of my California beach babes.

DAD'S 50TH BIRTHDAY BASH!

My mom threw my dad a big birthday bash last weekend to celebrate turning 50!!!
We ate a fabulous dinner and mom decorated beautifully, as usual.

Dad was roasted by his buddies. We laughed all night as they told funny stories about him.

It was a Western theme so many of us dressed up, but some people took it further than others. ;)

Auntee Carli dancing with Brooke!

Yippy-Ky-A it was a BIG Birthday!

Spicin' Things Up

Lately I've been feeling the need to spice things up in my life. Sometimes the daily grind cramps my spirit of adventure and spontenaiety. So guess what -- I tried out for American Idol today!!! As you might have seen in my last post, I had so much fun at the concert last week, and I saw they were having auditions for next season in San Francisco today, so I decided to go for it! I wasn't chosen, but I'm not upset because they were turning down people more talented than me left and right, which tells me there must be another factor involved. But of course no one knows what that factor is. It became obvious to me today that the rumors are true: you have to have whatever the producers are looking for and being a good or even a great singer just isn't enough. (Contrary to what it looks like on TV, you actually have to go through several rounds and days of auditions in front of the producers before you can even be considered to audition on camera in front of Randy, Paula, and Simon.) Today they chose about 40 people out of thousands. It seemed like there was no rhyme or reason for who they chose and why. Like I said, there were MANY incredible singers that were turned down by the producers. It's all very mysterious, but it was still really fun to be a part of it and it was a great growing experience to get out of my comfort zone. I'll explain what the day was like:
I got up at 4:30AM and drove 2.5 hours to the Cow Palace. As I walked up to get in line, I was talking on the phone with my mom and a camera man came over and filmed me and had me put my mom on speaker phone and say why she thought I would be the next American Idol. It was exciting. When I got inside the building, I found my seat and the producers had us cheer and say things like "Welcome to San Francisco!" and "Randy, I'm your Dawg!" as the camera swooped over head. We also sang, "Get Ready" and "We Built This City" as a group. I was sitting in front of a guy who made it to Hollywood 2 years ago and he gave me a lot of the inside scoop. (He said when he was cut in Hollywood, they were told that they were good singers, but American Idol needed to pick people with more interesting stories because they need to produce a good show).
After many takes of us cheering and singing, they had the first section of contestants begin lining up to wait for a turn to sing for the producers. There were a few crazies, but nothing like they make it seem on TV. They magnify the few people that act weird and tell them to do crazy things in front of the camera. I had to wait about 5 hours for my turn to finally come around. I was so nervous the entire time that I thought I would die! I sang, "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Rait. I felt really good about it and I'm so happy I actually did it! I met many interesting people and had so much fun having a new experience. And maybe you'll see me on TV in January when Idol airs again! :)

I will say that it was somewhat of a let-down to confirm that the competition is first and foremost a "reality TV show" and it is not solely based on finding talent. For example, only ONE person from my whole line was chosen and it was because he was one of the ones they are going to make fun of.

American Idol is tons of fun, but it is very much motivated by ratings. At the end of the day, I felt a lot like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" after he received his long-awaited decoder ring and was disappointed to discover that the day's secret message ended up to be merely an ad that said, "Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine."

I echoed his sentiment today when my American Idol experience was over, "I left to face the world. . . wiser."

ARE YOU READY TO READ THE ROCKINEST POST OF ALL TIME?!!!

Last night as a gift from my mom for my 26th birthday, I went to the Sacramento Acro Arena with her, my hubby, and my sister Cori Ann to see The American Idols Top 10 Tour 2008!!!! It was incredible! These pictures don't capture nearly how spectacular it was, but hey, it's better than nothin! They came out in order of number 10 down to number 1 and did 3-4 songs each.

#10 Chikezie. He opened the show and he rocked-- I think he was voted off way too early for how good he is.

#9 Ramiele. I didn't get a picture of her, but her choreography was fun to watch.

#8 Michael Johns. He has such a great personality. He rocked some Queen songs. I'd buy his CD for sure.





#7 Kristy Lee Cook. I didn't get a good shot of her, either, (my camera's batteries were low and I had to save them for my beloved David A.) but she has gained tons of confidence and looked very natural on stage.




#6 Carly Smithson. All I could say was "Wow." She absolutely blew me away! She was friendly and funny with the audience and her vocals were powerful and flawless. She looked like a pro. She has a big career ahead. She sang "I Drove all Night," by Celine Dion, one by Evanessance, and one or two by Heart.






#5 Brooke White. She was at her best last night. She's another one that has seemed to gain a lot more confidence. She played the piano and the guitar. She sang "Let it be" and "Yellow."






#4 Jason Castro. The ladies were pretty much ga-ga over him. All he had to do was strum two chords of "Over the Rainbow" on the ukulele and they went NUTS.






#3 Syesha Mercado. There's no doubt that Syesha is an amazing singer. It's not a very good picture, but she looked a lot like Tina Turner last night.






#2 David Archuleta. What can I say about this guy? I wanted him to win so badly, and it seemed like the audience did, too, because they were screaming and pounding their feet so loudly for so long that he couldn't even talk let alone sing. He had to ask everyone to bring the energy level down twice so he could move on to another song. He sang, "Angels," "Apologize," "Stand By Me/ Beautiful Girls," and "When You Say You Love Me." He said he had never had a crowd that loud for him before and that Sacramento must be a "party city." :)

#1 David Cook. Let me just say this guy really knows how to entertain. He was an excellent showman and the crowd loved him. He sang his new song, "Time of my Life," "Don't want to miss a thing" by Aerosmith, and "Billy Jean."








The top ten sang a few songs together at the end including, "Please don't stop the music." It was so fun to see the variety of music they chose and how much they had all improved since being on the show. They looked like they're having a blast.

We went out to eat before the concert at Panera Bread. Loved it!!! This was the funnest birthday I've ever had. I just wish Carli could have come up from San Diego! Fooey!!! And I wish I could say that I crowd surfed onto the stage and the Idols sang me Happy Birthday. Maybe next time! :)


Emma and I were being silly before I left for the concert. (Thanks for babysitting for us Donny!) I was trying to get her to pose like me, but she probably thought I was a big nerd.

THANKS, MOM! YOU'RE MY IDOL!

Happy 4th Birthday Emma!

Emma Nicole Lindsay is 4 years old! We celebrated on Saturday and we have many people to thank who contributed to making her birthday a big success. Compliments to Cold Stone who provided us with Emma's special rainbow cake. Much love to Nana and Grandpa Byron who provided lunch for everyone and gave her a big box of crafts which has been an absolute hit! Many thanks to Grandma Kari and Grandpa Jeff who got her a new big girl bike-- I have to admit that I got a little emotional realizing how big she has gotten so fast! Just yesterday she was still 2 and becoming frustrated because she couldn't even pedal!

Kudos to Auntie Cori and Uncle Don who gave her $10 that she gets to do whatever she wants with! What a cool idea! She also got clothes from Grandma Kari and tons of bubbles from Nana. What a lucky gal! Thanks everyone for making it a wonderful day!

MY QUIRKS

I've been tagged by Yvonne to share 6 quirky things about myself. So here goes. . .

#1 I'm obsessed with calendars and checklists. I can't live without them. I always like to have them with me and I check them several times a day. I get satisfaction out of crossing the days off my calendar and checking things off my lists. Also, I have a calendar in my head that doesn't look like the regular calendar (below). It's a circle that covers the entire year. It's hard to explain but I can see holidays, seasons, people's birthdays, etc. in my head throughout the circle. It pretty much rocks.

#2 I can't go more than a few days without working out. It has to be at least 30 minutes of exercise. And if I don't get my work-out in, I have all this pent up energy and I run around acting crazy (ask Alan) and I get headaches.


#3

I pick out spelling or grammar errors in books, advertisements, and other stuff. The errors annoy me so much and I want to fix them so bad that I get very distracted from whatever it was that I was reading and I start wondering about how it could be that they missed that error. I grew up reading A LOT and I used to be an English/ Essay Writing tutor so I guess that's where that comes from. (But that's not to say that I'm perfect at spelling or grammar so don't look too closely!) Also, if I can't remember someone's name, I will get it 9 times out of 10 by going through the alphabet from A to Z. Somehow my brain stores the letters of people's names and just thinking about the first letter of their name will usually trigger my memory.


#4 A pet peeve I have is guys with long hair. I just want to cut it SO bad that I can't stand it! Tons of surfer guys at BYU-Hawaii had long hair and it would annoy me so much during class that I couldn't focus. It's just wrong! Even for Brad!




Much Better --------->




#5 I know all of the songs to musicals like "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and many Disney movies. I can sing along with pretty much any radio station. It's almost as if I can't stop myself from singing along if I know the words. Weird, huh? So I'm sorry if I've ever annoyed you!


#6 I can't fall asleep if anyone is touching me. Even one toe! But it works out because Alan is the same way! I also can't fall asleep if there is any kind of noise. It doesn't really matter how tired I am either. It's rather annoying actually. I also lay on my right side for a few minutes and then when I'm ready to fall asleep I switch to my left side.


There are other quirks that Alan wanted me to add but they are too embarassing. But come on--am I really the only one who likes to peel the dead skin off sunburns? I don't know why but I get satisfaction out of it. And doesn't anyone else still like Milli Vanilli? So if you didn't think I was weird already, now you KNOW I am. :) If you're reading this, I tag YOU!