Woo hoo! Saw the best Concert EVER last night!

Last night Kelly, a friend, and I went to the Rascal Flatts "Unstoppable" Tour with Darius Rucker as their opening act. Loved, loved, loved it! We had excellent seats at the Resch Center in Green Bay. I got to use the new Nikon camera I got for Christmas. The zoom worked absolutely great! I got really good close up zoomed pictures. I took a total of 68 pictures, but I'll show you only seven of them that I think tell the story.

Kelly and I went to Anduzzi's Restaurant for dinner and to park my vehicle for the concert. Their food is excellent and they are only two blocks from the Resch Center. The concert started at 8. Because I got the tickets through where I work at KI, I got free passes to the Oneida Lounge where they had appetizers before the concert. Just outside the lounge they had this huge cut-out (if you can call it that, it was so big). Kelly and I had our picture taken in front of it.



For some reason concerts never start on time. This one was no exception. Darius Rucker (formally Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish) and his band got out on the stage about 10 after. Secretly this is who I really came to see, not that I wasn't thrilled to death to see Rascal Flatts. I think his voice has got some quality that draws me in. He co-wrote all of the songs on his very first country CD. Some I love better than others, but their all really good (some may be a little bit too country for my taste). My favorite song of his right now is "History in the Making" - very cool.



After Darius sang for just under an hour there was an intermission so that the set could be changed. The next picture I captured is of the fireworks that opened Rascal Flatts turn on stage. It was absolutely blinding.



The next picture is the three members of the group, Joe Don Rooney, Gary LeVox (lead vocal), and Jay DeMarcus. The fog and colors made this a really cool picture. They were harmonizing during this photo, which is one of the traits of the group that made them popular. Later in the show they lowered a mirrored piano form the ceiling that Jay played.





When the group started playing their song "Take Me There", Gary spotted a little girl in the audience and got her onto the walkway to walk with him. She was maybe 4 or 5 years old I'm guessing. The lyrics of the chorus to the song are:

I wanna know, everything about you,
And I wanna go, down every road you've been.
Where your hopes and dreams and wishes live,
Where you keep the rest of your life hid.
I wanna know the girl behind that pretty stare.
Take me there.

Very appropriate and adorable. Both Darius Rucker and Rascal Flatts said several times how appreciative they were for the audience coming to the concert. They were very interactive with the audience by shaking hands, holding cameras to take pictures of themselves with fans, and signing autographs during the concert. They seemed very down to earth and realize that it's the fans that make them as successful as they are. At the end of the show Darius Rucker came back out and they did a couple of songs with him. They all seem to get along really well.





Well, what a night! I really enjoyed it.

Finally had a chance to relax and create in my basement sanctuary. My godson's birthday is in March so I decided to work on a little container to put his gift in. He's a cutie, so when I saw this monkey paper at Micheal's this past weekend I thought it would be he perfect choice. I, of course, used my Cricut for the Monkeys around the top and for his name on the cover. Can't wait to give it to him!



Still trying to catch up on pictures of years past. My mom and my MIL enjoyed going to Grandparent's Day at my daughter's grade school together. In these pictures my Mom took pictures of my daughter with my MIL (isn't my Mom awesome?!). The owl and the snail are from the Paisley Cricut cartridge. I think this cartridge is really appropriate for girl pre-teen and teen-agers. LOVE the google eyes on the owl, too.



Here's an idea I came up with to give a teeny little treat to a fried. Just bake a cookie or two to put into the tin, and viola!, you have the perfect little gift. Proving once again how wonderful she is, my Mom got me the stamp set and the Cricut cartridge for this project (not at the same time, just so happens they work well together). Thanks Mom!



Let me know what you think . . .

4-Wheeling!

Just got this scrapbook page done tonight. Since the pictures were taken in 2005, it's about time! Added a little bling for a little girly fun for me. Alyssa would probably like to rip it off. These are some of the last pictures of her wearing anything pink. I'll treasure them forever.

The teeny tiny bike we got by pulling it out of the garbage from my sister's neighbor (I don't think they saw us). It was used by every kid in the neighborhood for years - even the boys - before it finally died. The 4-wheeler we got from my brother after his boys used it. Alyssa nicknamed it Wheely. When we sold it she was very unhappy. She thought she should have been able to keep it forever. She did get an adult size 4-wheeler in her favorite color to take it's place.

I used my Cricut cartridge "Going Places" for the embellishments.

Owl Card

Just had to add this today. I've been wanting to make this card since I saw something similar on the Cricut web site. I'm giving it to my daughter when she gets home from her Uncle Eric's house tonight. She's not a girly girl, so pink for Valentine's Day would be out of the question. Hope she likes it!

New Blog

I'm just starting this blog, so I have a lot to learn. I hope to put things I'm interested on here so that I can share with others interested in the same things.

At the bottom is a picture of a bouquet I made for my husband for Valentine's Day. It was made using my Cricut Expression - to which I am totally addicted. I go to the message boards at Cricut.com all the time and I've seen bouquets made by others. This is just my version. I think it turned out cute!

Just before Christmas our TV in the living room died. It wasn't that old, maybe eight years or so. Well, now all you can get are flat screens, and that wouldn't fit in our entertainment center. My husband was totally fine with putting it on the coffee table against the wall, but the decorator inside me said absolutely not. So we bought the TV, then had to buy an entertainment center. Then as long as we were moving the furniture, we might as well paint the walls, right? And as long as we were painting one area of the house, why not the bathroom? (It's fun to put those secret messages behind mirrors with your daughter). Here's a couple of pictures of the last month.

Busy, busy, busy!! And $$$$$$ !!