Random Things

Like many of you, I have heard or performed the National Anthem countless times over the years.

Yesterday, I heard the best rendition of it that I had heard in years. It was right before the start of the NASCAR Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Sgt. Byron Bartosh of the Indiana National Guard performed the anthem solo on his trumpet.

It was beautiful.

Clean. Simple. Beautiful.

The drivers, their families, crews, friends and 250,000+ spectators stood still and silent for the duration of the song. He did an outstanding job and his sound quality was amazing.

I think too often these days performers try to add too much color. A little color is nice, but I like the clean simple versions the best. And my personal preference has to be an instrumental version whether it is an ensemle or a single performer, I like it best. If it is sung, I prefer a small group/choir over an individual performer. I think sometimes the song loses its meaning when individuals try to "fancy" it up.

There's my two cents for the day.

Happy Birthday to my dad today!!!!!!! Hope you are having a good one!!!

We found out yesterday that Brian is going TDY in September for 4 months. The good news this time is that he is not going overseas. He will be within driving distance so the kids and I will be able to visit him a couple of times. He won't be here for Katie's 4th birthday, Thanksgiving, my 30th birthday, Christmas or New Years. I think the kids and I will be heading over to spend Christmas with him for sure and probably Katie's birthday. I haven't quite decided what I would like to do for my birthday, so if anyone has any ideas - send them along!! I haven't ruled out travel...our doors are open for anyone who might want to come visit - ahem...hint hint ;-)

Finally! For those of you who have been hounding me for pictures of the kids, they are on their way! I was finally able to get them all cut, labeled, separated, stuffed in envelopes, addressed and mailed off this morning. The wait is almost over ;)

I have never claimed to be one of the "cool" kids although I have to say that our little group of friends in high school was pretty awesome. We always had a good time! So...I mention that because I have become even more of a dork over the years. I have recently found myself watching nothing but high school and college drama shows!? What?! I am almost 30 yet these shows appeal to me! I also catch my fair share of Nicktoons (SpongeBob, Fairly Oddparents, etc.) and let's not forget Drake & Josh which has recently become one of my new favorites. Oh and of course High School Musical was on the other day and I had to watch that (even though we have the DVD) AND on August 17 High School Musical 2 comes out and I am actually going to DVR it because I will be up in South Dakota at that time.

I love the DVR! We record SpongeBob a lot...yep, we are ALL addicted to SpongeBob. Every single one of us. I think even Dash and Sully like to watch SpongeBob. There are 5 new episodes on this week and we are recording them because they come on at 4:00 and we can't sit down and watch them together at that time. Sigh.

So what has become of me? Shows like Degrassi, The Best Years and Greek are now on my "must see" list. We still watch CSI reruns every day...maybe it's because it's summertime and Heroes isn't back on yet! And I can't wait for the new season of CSI!

Dork.

I just shake my head. At least I can laugh at myself. I know I am a dork and you know what? Who cares?! Aren't we all a little dorky at times?

Yesterday Kasey woke me up at 5:30am...you know, he just doesn't understand that it's okay to sleep in on the weekend. ;) We both took a little snooze at about 8am to make up for it. I like naps!

We headed over to Destin for some lunch at Olive Garden (thanks mom and dad!). I had the ziti which was pretty good. If it's even possible, I think it had too much cheese...yes, I did just say that! I love cheese! But I gotta tell ya, there was a ton on there!

Then we headed over to Destin Commons for some window shopping. We passed by Abercrombie & Fitch and is it just me or is there continual cologne being sprayed in there? It was quite strong even just passing by on the sidewalk! We passed by Williams Sonoma and I have been itching to get a few things there. But, I will put those on my birthday/Christmas lists as they are pretty good gift ideas.

Of course we had to go to Bass Pro Shops. Katie loves to look at the huge fish in there. We picked up a few small things and then decided to head home. We took the long way because none of us really wanted to go home. We've all been couped up in this house too much recently.

I put Kasey down for a nap when we got home and Katie and I headed to the BX to pick up a few things. Nothing too exciting. By the time we got back home it was dinner time. We grilled some hot dogs and had shells & cheese. Yum!

This morning we headed over to the beach. We saw quite a few crabs today and a ton of hermit crabs. Lots of birds. Brian and Katie went seashell scouting and Kasey and I just took a stroll along the shore. It was nice out this morning. Not too hot, a bit cloudy and just a bit of wind. The water was quite calm so that made it a bit easier for Kasey to get in the water and play a bit.

We were going to go head over to Hershey's for some ice cream, but it appears that they were closed in the location we went to. Bummer! So we headed over to Sonic for some quick lunch and some ice cream and headed home. Kasey just took a bath and is napping and Katie is playing in the tub. It's pretty quiet :) The beach tends to drain the kids which sometimes is a good thing.

I am planning on heading over to the mall this afternoon. It's time to get new tires and since there isn't a Discount Tires around here, I think we are going to get tires at Sears. Maybe get an oil change while we are at it. After all, we are making a trip to South Dakota in a couple of weeks and I believe it's about a 1300 mile drive. Sigh. I don't know what I would do on road trips without the trusty DVD player!!

Here are a couple of photos of Brian and Katie practicing when she got her fishing pole.

I have become so lame at posting! SORRY! I am either way too busy or way too boring these days...hehe.



Brian took Katie fishing on Saturday night and she caught a perch. So cute! It started raining while they were out so they couldn't fish for long, but they had a good time.



They decided to go again early on Sunday as well to see if they could catch anything. Here on Eglin everything is catch and release (which is fine with me because I do NOT like fish!) Katie didn't catch any fish, but Brian had a bite. He reeled it in and it was not a fish, but instead he caught a turtle. OOPS! He was able to get it back in the water. Poor turtle!

Brian and I are celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary today!! Not much to do today...our air conditioner is on the blink and we need to get it fixed so we have to stay put for a repairman to come out. Oh well...maybe we can get a quick trip to the beach in later this afternoon.

at eight o' clock in the morning...

BLAH

I had decided to clean the inside of my van yesterday morning. And although the heat and humidity were not ideal, it had to be done.

On Saturday, we spent the morning shopping. We needed to find a new lawn mower, get some things at Sam's, and run to a couple of pet stores for fish food and snake food (yes, we still have the snake.) And we wanted to find a storage shed to put the new lawn mower, the bikes and a few other outdoor things in and if we found one with enough room, we could put some of the inside clutter out there as well.

The kids were pooped by the time we got home and napped for over 3 hours. NICE! I got a nice little break and Brian ran to the BX to see what they had in the way of storage sheds. We decided they had the best deal and went back after some dinner to purchase.

There were 3 enormous boxes for the shed so we basically had to take the entire inside of the van out. What a great opportunity to get into all the nooks and crannies. There were goldfish crackers everywhere! And a couple of stains under the kids chairs. Not real sure what that was, but I couldn't get them completely out. I love when my van is clean :) I vacuumed and shampooed. The kids were out front with me and Brian was out back with the dog and the storage shed. It was hot.

Two of my best friends are getting married!! Yay! Jen is getting married in about 6 weeks and Jess is getting married next June. We plan on making both events. It will be nice to see everyone!!