Sports Fan?

Something has happened to me since Maddie was born. Russ says that I can no longer call myself a sports fan since I don't actually watch the games. O.k., that makes sense, but I must explain that I do love sports and I used to really love watching them.

When Kirby Puckett played for the Minnesota Twins, I could tell you the entire roster and even the batting order. I loved the Twins. I also could tell you the name of everyone on the LA Lakers when Magic Johnson played. And the 49ers were my football team. I loved Joe Montana and Steve Young. But the excitement of sports slowly starting wearing off when we had kids.

I don't know if it's because I need to take care of the girls, I'm too tired and would rather take a nap, I need to clean the house, or a million other things on my "to do" list. I just don't understand what has happened.

Some of it could be blamed on Todd and Terry. :) They would call up Russ and give away their wives' tickets if they couldn't make it to a basketball or football game. At first I was very jealous, because I wanted to go. Especially to the football games. When I was at the University of Iowa, I had football season tickets. I love the fall- "football weather" as I call it. I had to get over it, because I wanted Russ to go and have fun. Yes, I wanted to go too, but I was too cheap to hire a babysitter and pay for a ticket for myself. So slowly, the sports fan in me died.

March madness is always fun though. I always fill out a bracket. If nothing else, than to see if I can beat Russ. No, I didn't pay attention to anything during the season. But about 2 weeks before the tournament starts, I secretly watch Sports Center during the day. I pay attention to everything they say and then choose my teams.

So far, I am kicking Russ' butt. We do points by taking the teams' seed and multiplying it by 1 (in first round) by 2 in the sweet 16, by 4 in the elite eight, by 8 for the final 4, by 16 for the final two teams and the winner is x32. So, right now, I have 188 points. Russ has 151 points. I have Kansas and UCLA out of the final 4, Russ has North Carolina and UCLA. He also has both of them in the finals and UCLA winning. I only have UCLA in the final game, but losing. So Russ does have a chance to beat me. But it has been fun so far picking the "right" games.

So maybe I'm back on track to being a sports fan. Well, that is until this baby is born, then I'll have something "better" to do. But if any of you wives want to give your husband's football ticket away- give me a call. I will be more than happy to leave Russ at home with the kids and go to the game with you! ;)

My music

I've added a playlist of music to my blog. I picked out some of my favorite songs to put on it. That is hard for me, because I love music and so many different types of music. But these are a few songs that I could listen to over and over again.

I hope it works. And I hope you like my music. You can click on any of the songs to hear them.

Oh, and it drives me crazy when people use the incorrect spelling of your or you're. On James Blunt's song "You're Beautiful", they spelled it wrong. I just wanted to be sure you all didn't think it was me! :)

1500 miles and snow

We went to Iowa for Spring Break. (Not as exciting as Mexico- Pam!) It sure didn't feel like spring! The temps were mainly in the 30's, a few days in the 40's. It was stinkin' cold up there! And what did I do? I forgot my winter coat. Can you blame me? It was 80 degrees here the day we left. I had on flip flops and a t-shirt. At least I remembered the girls stuff. They definitely needed it when they hunted for Easter Eggs on Saturday. It was 34 degrees. CRAZY! Their little noses were bright red and their hands actually hurt from being out in the cold. But they still had fun.

We got back Sunday night and as we were unpacking, I turned on the tv. The weather was on. Russ was in the other room and I just started yelling- "I love Oklahoma!" I saw that it is supposed to be in the 70's most of the week. And even in the 80's on Thursday. Yeah, I get to wear my flip flops!

Anyway, I love Iowa. I love my family and Russ', but I sure hate the weather up there. I have become a complete southern girl. Oh, and traveling that far when you are pregnant is NOT fun. My ankles didn't swell too badly, but my legs sure hurt a lot in the car.

I'm just glad to be home and in MY bed!! I love my king size bed. I love my pillows. (which I also forgot- we had to stop at Wal-Mart on the way up to buy body pillows. I can't sleep without one) I'm telling you. Pregnancy sucks the brain cells right out of your head!

Maddie Girl

Maddie is going to be 6 in a month and I can't believe it! Time goes so quickly. She is turning into this wonderful little girl. She is so caring and so sensitive. Maddie loves Becca to death and does so much for her. It is fun to see her be such a great big sister. She is very inquisitive and asks questions that bring me to a loss of words. She asks things that I've never stopped to think about. I think the older Maddie gets, the more I'm going to have to study to keep up with her.

From the time Maddie was a baby, she has loved books. I have pictures of her crawling around with a book tucked under her arm. She had to have a book with her at all times. Most kids needs a stuffed animal or a blankie to sleep with... not Maddie. She HAD to have a book in bed with her in order to fall asleep. And from the time she was 9 months old, she knew which way a book was to go. Russ and I watched in amazement time and time again when she would pick up a book and flip it around the right way.

That love of books has not ended. One of Maddie's goals in Pre-K last year was to learn how to read. Her Pre-K teacher was so great and really worked with her. By the end of the year, she was reading. She read all summer long. And going into Kindergarten she was reading far beyond what a Kindergarten kid does. She reads very fluently and quickly got out of "kindergarten" books. So at Christmas, her teacher asked me if she could start going to the gifted and talented program. Well, yeah! So Maddie goes every Tuesday for an hour and also sees a reading teacher to read with once a week. At conferences a few weeks back, they told us she was reading on a 4th grade level. Wow! I knew she was over 1st grade, but 4th grade? She is reading chapter books and actually comprehends everything she reads too. She just amazes me.

So I know this was a braggy post. Sorry about that. I'm just so proud of Maddie and who she is. I'm so proud that she is my daughter and I love her to death!
Maddie's 5th birthday was a tea party.Maddie with straight hair.

Maddie was a bubble bath for Halloween this year.Last year, she was the Statue of Liberty. She decided this after her Daddy had gone to NYC on a business trip.

Russ took this picture in Iowa. I love it!

Holy God Recording

I had an awesome experience this past weekend. On Friday, a group of eight of us from church took a little trip to record a cd. We were invited by Keith Lancaster. He is one of the men behind the group Acapella and AVB. He is on a mission to restore 4 part harmony in the Church of Christ. He said everywhere he goes, he hears churches singing the melody and nothing else. He also mentioned how so many C of C's have gotten pianos to "help out" their singing.

So we recorded a cd that will have 25 tracks on it. It will be a 2 disc cd. The second one will be a learning cd. You can just put in the right ear phone and only hear alto and bass parts. It is meant to teach people the different parts of these traditional hymns.

We got there around 4:00 on Friday. We arrived at the church at 5:30 because singing was to start at 6:00. Well, Keith got nervous and didn't think he would get it all recorded in time, so he started early. So we couldn't break in in the middle of recording. So we waited around until 6:30. We then proceeded to sing until after 10:00 pm!! I was one tired puppy. Everyone was standing the entire time. Well, all but the altos. He realized after singing for about an hour, that the alto section was way overpowering the others, so he had us number off 1-2. And we then took turns singing every other song. That was totally fine by me because that meant I could sit down when it wasn't my turn to sing.

We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner (at 10:30 at night!!) It was yummy! When we got back to the hotel (at 11:30), we were walking to our rooms together. I had to pass by Jenny and Amanda's room to get to mine. When they opened their door, it felt like a dragon had just blew out fire from their room. Apparently when they got there, their room was cold, so they turned up the heat. So from 5:30-11:30, the heat was a-blowin'! I thought I was going to wake everyone up in the hotel from laughing so stinkin' hard. They had to come over to our room and hang out while their room cooled off. Too funny!

Saturday morning was spent singing (and sitting for me). I sat every chance I could. And it ended with the entire group (of around 250 people) singing praise and worship songs. It was beautiful. The angels in heaven definitely had some competition this weekend.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Oh, none of us remembered a camera, so these were all taken by Mary Lewis, Adrian Steed and Keith Lancaster. I looked through over 1200 pictures to find pictures of our group. I decided that the camera people are in love with Joan. There were probably 20 pictures of her. They seemed to like Greg and Amanda too. But poor me and Kevin. We were hard to find. Most of the pictures with us, we were in the background. Maybe that's because I was sitting down so much! :)

Oh and if you want my autograph, you should get it now. Because once the cd comes out and people see my name on the back (with 600 other people), I know there will be a line at my door for autographs and pictures. I promise I'll remain grounded. The money won't change me. I'll still be the same Michelle. Just a lot more famous. :)

Me and Jenny J. Greg giving Theck a big elbow. (neck rubbin' time)If you look just over Keith's left shoulder you can see me holding my belly. I was actually standing up! :)Joan and Amanda.This is a great picture of Joan laughing.I wonder if Jenny was praying - "Please let us sit down".Sean and Greg.Keith Lancaster giving us the "it's all good" sign. See me holding my belly again. My stomach muscles really hurt from standing so stinkin' much! "Ahhhh" Don't I look angelic?Kevin and Jenny on the far right. This is a really good picture of Amanda. Joan singing.

This is me wondering when we get to sit down again.Cute picture of Jenny. Good picture of Theck. Joan and Amanda singing.

Sean. Me- SITTING next to Amanda.

Another Ultrasound

I just wanted to share a couple of good ultrasound picture with you all. I am now 18 weeks along and things are going well. I'm slowly starting to come out of the slump. I am not nauseous all of the time. So that's good. I was sick to 20 weeks with Maddie and 21 weeks with Becca. So I can handle this for another few weeks.

We decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Russ told our ultrasound girl that he is not mentally prepared for it to be a girl at this point. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Not finding out with Maddie was really hard- first baby and all. But I know this baby will be here soon enough. There are so few surprises in life. And this will be a good one.

So I thought I would share two of the five pictures she printed for us. The other three aren't as clear. They are a picture of the legs, a big yawn (from the front- it kind of looks like a scary movie picture) and another one of it playing with it's nose.

All in all, it was fun to see it moving around. I just started feeling it move this past week. I'm anxious for the girls to be able to feel it. Even though I know that will be here quickly, August still seems like a long ways a way!

This is a good picture of it's lips and nose.

It kept reaching up and scratching it's nose. Poor thing all ready has allergies like it's mommy and big sister Maddie. :)

Concert

We went to see Matchbox Twenty in concert last night. They were awesome! Thanks to our friends, Rick and Amanda, we got to sit in box seats across from the stage. It was really fun!
The concert opened with a group called Mute Math. I had never heard of them, but they were good. On their closing song, the lead singer kept throwing his body up on the keyboard. His hands were still on the keys, but his feet were in the air. After he did this 3 times, he flipped over the keyboard. We weren't sure if he did it on purpose, but it sure got the crowd going.

Then came Alanis Morissette. She was awesome! I had forgotten how many good songs she sings. She has an amazing voice. It sounded so good live. I love "Jagged Little Pill".

After Alanis sang about 6-7 songs, it was time for Matchbox Twenty. They rocked! We bought their new cd a month ago so we could be sure we knew their songs. I was surprised at how many I all ready knew. My favorite is "Unwell". Russ calls it my theme song. The chorus of the song says, "I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell. I know right now, you can't tell. But stay awhile and then you'll see, a different side of me. I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired. I know right now you don't care, but soon enough you're gonna think of me and how I used to be." They sang that in their encore. I was so excited! Amanda and I were ready to go to the mosh pit. :) Is that what it's called? See how uncool I really am?

Rob Thomas is an amazing vocalist. To sing that well for that long amazes me. My voice gets worn out after singing 5-6 songs. He probably sang 15-20. It was for nearly 2 hours. It was so great.

It had been a long time since we had been to a concert. Russ and I used to love going to concerts. That of course was BK. (before kids) I've been to... now don't laugh- New Kids on the Block, Back Street Boys, Amy Grant, Janet Jackson (the best concert I've ever seen!), Def Leppard, Page & Plant (Led Zepplin), and a few other little ones here and there that must not have been great, because I can't remember them. We had tickets to Sheryl Crow last year, but she cancelled her tour when she found out she had breast cancer. We were really bummed because Russ had actually gone down town to stand in line to get front row tickets. (Oh, my husband is in love with Sheryl Crow). So we were extremely disappointed. We almost had tickets to Madonna in NYC, but our friend who was ordering the tickets got cut off when she was about to give her credit card number and couldn't get back in when she tried calling back. Madonna ended up canceling because of a sore throat, so that worked out o.k. for us.

Besides Sheryl and Madonna, I'd really like to see U2, Lenny Kravitz, Sarah MacLaghlin, and Tom Petty. Russ would go to all but Sarah. He's all ready been to a bunch of great concerts- Pink Floyd, Doobie Brothers, Van Halen (twice), ZZ Top and U2 (Actung Baby tour).

Anyway, it was a great time! I was tired by the time we left. We found out later, that there were tornado sirens going off all around us. We had no idea though. We knew the weather was bad, but that's a little scary to think about! All of those people in that building. There's no way they could evacuate us all. Thank you God for keeping us safe! And thank you Rick and Amanda for inviting us!