No Parking

Check out this darling handout for Young Women:

 

Isn't that awesome?  So clever!  It was created by Lori Sume who is a very talented artist and an overall positive person.  I'm sure we'd be great friends if we'd ever actually met.  :)  Happy Sunday!

Our Star

Neil Berg's '100 Years of Broadway' came to our community tonight.  It was an amazing show, giving us a big dose of Broadway with many popular songs sung by actual Broadway stars.  Some of the shows represented were Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, Westside Story, Carousel, Cats, Rent and several others.  The performers we were privileged to hear were Carter Calvert, Ted Louis Levy (he was so funny!), Rita Harvey and Grant Norman.  Neil Berg was the pianist for all numbers and there was also a drummer and bass player.  The acoustics were awesome in our brand new concert hall and it was really enjoyable.

In the weeks leading up to the production, local singers were encouraged to submit videos via YouTube, facebook, or myspace. Then the stars selected one winner and a few runners-up to perform the finale with the stars.  Savannah had been asked by a couple of friends if she would be the accompanist for their audition videos.  At the last minute, she decided to submit an audition video as well.  A week later, she was excited to receive an e-mail notifying her that she'd been selected as a runner-up. 

Among the 7 who were selected, Savannah was by far the youngest.  All were at least in college while Savannah is still in Middle School.  If you were to ask her, she'd say it was the best day of her life so far.  She really had a great time and I'm so happy that she had the opportunity to be a part of it.

Rita Harvey, Savannah and Neil Berg

Ted Louis Levy.  This guy can tap dance!

He called Savannah "the baby" because she was so young.

Grant Norman (a.k.a. Gaston and The Phantom)

 Not pictured: Carter Calvert

Friday Funny

A guy joins a monastery and takes a vow of silence:  he’s allowed to say two words every seven years. After the first seven years, the elders bring him in and ask for his two words. "Cold floors," he says. They nod and send him away.

Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words. He clears his throats and says, "Bad food." They nod and send him away

Seven more years pass. They bring him in for his two words. "I quit," he says. "That’s not surprising," the elders say. "You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here."

Your destination you have reached

We love this clever ad for the TomTom GPS.  Our Garmin is working fine so we won't be switching anytime soon, but this is good for a laugh.  It should give you the option to watch the Darth Vader video when this one is through.  Enjoy!

Before and After: The Storage Room

Before Jeff built our new garage 2 years ago, our old one wasn't ideal for storing all of Jeff's tools.  As a result, a lot of his stuff ended up in our basement food storage room.  Knowing we were going to remedy this situation, it got to the point where we stopped trying to find a place for stuff in the storage room in the months leading up to the completion of the garage.  As you can see, it got a bit out of hand:

 

Now that Jeff's tools have a place of their own, I love my storage room!  We've got plenty of space for the things we use.  Granted, sometimes one shelf or another is overflowing depending on what's on sale, but it's so nice to have my own little store downstairs when I run out of something.  I'm not a big shopper so this drastically reduces my trips to the store.  I love the convenience and the peace of mind.  

 

Friends

Savannah spent most of the day Saturday with her friend, Devanne [Pronounced 'Devin.']  The girls decided to get all dolled up so that Devanne's sister could take them out to a rickety old bridge for an impromptu photo shoot.  These two sure make for some beautiful photos!  Here are a few of my favorites:

 

 

 

Youth In Harmony

Sam spent all day at the University with kids from 11 other schools.  The emphasis of their instruction was the art of barbershop harmony.  The day culminated in an evening concert where the girls sang 2 songs then the boys sang 2 songs, all barbershop style.  The girls did a good job, but I LOVE men's voices in harmony and I wasn't disappointed.  Sam enjoyed his participation and is happy his singing voice hasn't changed so he can still be a first tenor.  After the High School groups performed, the rest of the concert was filled with professional groups.  Other than Sam's numbers, my favorite was the last group, "After Hours".  They are 4 college guys, singing barbershop of course, who were very entertaining.  It was a great night. 

Fright Night

It's tonight!  Sam and Sterling have been working hard.  The two main numbers are listed on the poster, but they are also playing Star Wars which is Sterling's favorite.  The entire orchestra will be in costume as will any children in the audience.  It's great fun.  I can't wait! 

New Release

Sadie and her two little friends were watching our old VHS copy of Snow White.  During the previews, Sadie ran to me, with excitement in her 5-year-old voice, and said,
"Hey Mom, Pocahontas is coming to theaters in 1999!
Can we go?" 

Friday Funny

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?” The boy takes the quarters and leaves. “What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!” Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?” The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!”