I Met Danny Gokey

No, I haven't blogged in months. I knew I'd eventually get around to it. I don't know how people blog every single day. OK, so I met Danny Gokey on Monday. For real! My coworker Deb came in around 8:30 am and asked if I had lunch plans. I said, "I've got a Lean Cuisine." Then she tells me that she was one of the first 10 callers into US101 and she was going to meet Danny Gokey at noon and did I want to go? I nearly fell out of my chair. I thought we'd be getting actual food (being lunch and all...) but listening to Danny sing is probably way better than watching him scarf down a sandwich. He sang 3 songs from his upcoming album, and I have to say they were really, really good. I'll be buying his album when it comes out.

God's Chisel

Guitar Recital - May 9, 2009

Samuel's first guitar recital was this weekend. Here is a picture of Samuel with his teacher, Nathan, who is awesome. I was not seated in a place to get a good video of Samuel's face, so you're just going to have to trust me that it's him sitting behind the music stand.

Now presenting, Samuel Riddle playing "Chords in C"

Lazy Saturday

Today has a been a wonderful mix of laying around, eating junk, reading, watching TV and then just doing more of the same. Except for the two times that Jerry (the dog) threw up on the couch, it has been a completely work-free, stress-free day.

This morning Samuel and I mixed up "Chocolate Concoction" in the crockpot, which consists of devil's food cake mix, chocolate pudding mix, chocolate chips, eggs, sour cream and water. We had a very good time licking the bowl for breakfast. Yes, that was our breakfast. I was going to take a picture of the finished product, but after six hours of waiting we essentially threw ourselves at it like ravenous wolves and devoured it all, so no picture. OK, maybe not wolves, and there was the problem of the dead camera battery too, but my point is taking a picture didn't cross my mind when there was so much chocolately goodness to consume.

You'll just have to imagine how awesomely tasty it was. And it was, my friends, yes it was.

Wild Rice Chicken Casserole

Yummm... so tasty! Chicken, wild rice, celery, onions, water chestnuts, cream of mushroom soup, and some good ol' mayonnaise. Love it!

Giveaway - Check it out!

Now all I can hear in my head is Sonny Munroe on the Disney Channel's "Sonny with a Chance" saying, "Check it out! Check it out!" with her tilted head.

Here is a link to my friend Charissa's blog and she is having a cool giveaway so give it a look-see. (Notice how I avoided saying "check it out" again?)

I know I said earlier this week I would blog twice that day, but I totally lied. Twice in one week has to be some kind of record for me though, so please forgive me.

Here's the link...

http://redheadsandrubberducks.blogspot.com/2009/04/word-of-promise-next-generation-new.html

The Neglectful Blogger

I admit it, I have been neglecting my blog. To remedy this situation, I will blog TWICE today. Yes, you heard right...TWICE.

Here is a new picture of Samuel. It was "Crazy Hair Day" at school and he convinced me to spray paint his hair blue. I also painted his ears, neck and forehead blue in the process, but managed to get most of it cleaned off before I sent him on his way to school.


Samuel is doing a "Flat Stanley" project for school, so we mailed F.S. off to Michigan and my family took him to Frankenmuth - to Bronner's - the World's Largest Christmas Store. The Easter Bunny happened to be there that day, so we were able to get a picture of F.S. with him. These are a few of the pictures. My fave is F.S. in the nativity. I included the picture of F.S. with Santa because, frankly, that Santa is a little weird and I just felt like sharing.

At Least I Know Where Madagascar is...

I'm a little surprised that I failed to write a single post during the month of January, considering the insane amount of computer time I engaged in. I have little to show for it, except perhaps a fairly decent Geo Challenge score on Facebook. My casual blogging habits mean that between one post and another I completely forget what I'm doing and I always seem to upload my pics in the reverse order that I meant to. Usually I go back and fix it. Tonight, I'm just going to leave them the way they are and deal with it.

These are some pictures from basketball. Samuel has played Upwards soccer for five years now, but this is the first year he wanted to do basketball. I have to say, I think I like it better than soccer. Maybe because it's indoors...maybe because the games are in the afternoons (not a freezing 9:00 am autumn morning) and I get to sleep in still. I think, perhaps, I am also less anxious at the basketball games. Maybe that's because I'm in the toasty indoors and I've had a good night's sleep... not sure, but I think that Samuel is really enjoying it too.

I love this face...

You can tell from the disinterest of the refs that this

in not actually during a game, but I still like the picture...

The other big thing Samuel did in the past month was participate in his school's Science Fair. This was our first experience with a science fair (elementary one, anyway) and I thought Samuel did fabulous. John helped him with all the experimenting and I swooped in to help with the display board. These school projects really do end up being a family affair. All of the different projects at the school were really amazing and gave us a lot of good ideas for next year.

TA-DA!

Samuel received a new guitar for Christmas and was supposed to start his first lesson on Monday. Due to snow, his lessons were canceled. He will be starting lessons this coming Monday and I hope to post a video of him when he learns his first song. Not quite sure how long that will take...

That's it for tonight. Perhaps I'll post again in February, perhaps not. You'll just have to wait and see.