A NEW PET AND BEATING ALLERGIES

JANUARY 5, 2015 PAM LEAVE A COMMENT EDIT

HAPPY NEW YEAR! January 1st brought a welcome change to our family. We added this big guy to our small brood.

He came with the name Deuce, but my guys didn’t want a dog with a name that is used for potty talk. We’re classy like that. So, we changed it to Zeus. It’s similar enough that it didn’t confuse him and much more befitting for a family protector. He’s a one and a half year old Doberman. Obviously. I know you didn’t mistake him for a teacup poodle.

Chris has always said that he’d like to have a big male one day, but we didn’t have that on our current radar. Plus, we always thought we’d bring home another puppy when that day finally came. But, when the opportunity came to us like it we did we knew we had to explore further. First we met him and found out his back story. He’s from a champion line of show dogs and was intended to be a show dog himself. Long story short – the person who bought him never worked with him and didn’t bother to train him to show. He was co-owned with the breeder and she ended up with him with the intention of making him a champion. She is super busy with her other show dogs and farm (I don’t know how she does it all) and realized that she didn’t have the time to show him. She thought the best thing for him was to live out his life as a happy pet in a loving home. We knew we liked him, and he liked us, too. We needed to see if Layla would agree, so the breeder brought him to our house to have a meet-and-greet with her. That was going to be the biggie for us. She’d have to like him. We knew that there might be an adjustment period (if it was going to work at all) because she’s always been the lone dog in the house. When we saw that it looked like she was going to take to him, the breeder suggested that Layla come spend a week at their house so they could get acquainted better in a setting where she wouldn’t feel like she had to be our protector. We picked them both up New Year’s Day and began the process of adjusting to our new family dynamic.

Zeus has a very sweet and silly personality that made it very easy to fall in love with him. He is a great fit for our family. He has quickly learned the way we do things at our house; no dogs on the furniture or eating off of the counters. Yeah, we’re mean like that. We’ve really only had one small hiccup in the adjustment period – Isaac’s allergies.

It’s never been too big of an issue before. Whenever he would be done playing with Layla, Isaac would simply go wash his hands and that was that. Adding a second dog to mix immediately set his eyes to itching and nose to running – no petting required. He spent Friday night at his mammaw’s and his nose cleared right up. When he came home Saturday the flare-up started within minutes of entry and the allergy pill he took didn’t even alleviate the symptoms. I had intended to make him an appointment with the doctor this morning to see if she had something that would help him. It looks like that’s not going to be necessary.

To continue reading hop on over to my new blog, Still Playing House. 

A CHRISTMAS STORY – PAM’S TALE PART 2

DECEMBER 16, 2014 

I promised that I would finish my Christmas tale today. If you need to catch up, read Part 1 here.

Isaac didn’t want physical gifts for Christmas this year. There were two concerts he wanted to go to instead. Yesterday, I shared a bit about the one we went to this past weekend. The first one we attended was last month. Allow me to share with you the saga it took to actually make it there.

This concert featured Francesca Battistelli

and Sanctus Real. These guys are from my neck of the woods, so I was pretty excited about seeing them in concert.

We had the whole thing planned out. We’d leave the house at 3 PM and make the hour drive to Fort Wayne where we’d grab a bite to eat somewhere and make it to the concert by 6 PM. We didn’t concern ourselves with the need to be there too early to stand in line because we had tickets for the Artist’s Circle. We would just get there when the doors opened. Let me reiterate here – that was the plan.

Click over to my new blog, Still Playing House, to finish this saga.

A CHRISTMAS STORY – PAM’S TALE PART 1

I have a little Christmas story to tell. But, it’s not your typical Christmas story. It’s personal. It’s the story of Christmas 2014 in my household. Specifically, Isaac’s Christmas gift. You see, when we asked him what he wanted for Christmas this year he didn’t ask forthings. What he really wanted for Christmas was to go to two concerts. Last night we saw Toby Mac and Matt Maher.

It was SO good! I swear, TMac is 50 years old and dances around the stage like he’s 19. Needless to say, it was a very high energy concert.

This one pretty much went off without a hitch. The concert was held in the Performing Arts Center at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne. It was indoors, but set up like an amphitheatre. Every seat in the house was a great one. As a family who doesn’t particularly care to be crowded in swarms of people like a can of sardines, we choose to sit directly in the center section in the very top row. There were still a lot of people at this sold-out concert, but we felt like we had a little more breathing room up there. Here’s the thing about sitting in the top row – heat rises.

A little back history on me. At some point in my adult-hood I became allergic to the cold. That’s my doctor’s official diagnosis. I live in Indiana, y’all. I get to have more fun than a barrel full of monkeys in the fall, winter and most of the spring here. But, here’s a little tid bit that makes that even more exciting. I have some hormonal issues that causes wild temperature swings. That means I’ll go from covered in painful, itching hives because I’m freezing my tail off to profusely sweating femininely glistening five minutes later. It’s so much fun that I feel like I live in my own personal carnival i. I’m my own Circus Freak. Thank God that at least I don’t also fill the bill as The Bearded Lady.

If I don’t quit finding stray hairs to pluck out of my chin, lip, and yes, nose I might still be able to manage it. Are you jealous of all this sexy, yet? So, back to my story…

The line to get into the building was wrapped all the way around the block. It’s December. In Indiana. I’m kind of like Diana Prince when I’m out in the cold for very long. I morph into my alter-ego.

To continue reading, hop on over to my new blog, Still Playing House.

My Anniversary Weekend

Hello, Hello, Helllllooooo... Hi! Hey, Y'all! So glad to see you! Thank you to everyone who has expressed an interest in my health and well-being. And, to those who'd wondered if I'd turned to poop and the hogs ate me. So, let me start by saying that I have not turned to feces and been eaten by the other white meat. Also, I am fine and dandy. I have just been extremely busy and my brain has been on overload - incapable of trying to string together coherent sentences that anyone would want to read on this little ol' blog of mine. Hopefully, now that homeschool group is done for the year, I'll be able to get back to blogging a little more regularly. Now that we've gotten that out of the way...

OK. So what in tarnation have I been up to exactly? Well, of course you know that I started a business this year and opened a shop on Etsy, PURE YANKABILLY - All Natural Skincare. That's where the majority of my brain cells have been recently. Y'all, there is a LOT of work that is involved in starting a business. It's not just making products, taking pictures and uploading them to Etsy. That's actually the smallest part of it. Who knew?... Anyway, Isaac is still homeschooled and we are part of a homeschool group. So, we've had that and several days of Stanford Testing. And, for some weird reason my family expects me to still feed them and make sure they have clean undies and all. You understand about that, right? In the midst of my new normal, though, we've tried to squeeze in a few fun thing, too. Today I'll share a bit about one of these mini trips with you.

Last month Chris and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. In trying to think of something fun to do in honor of it, we decided to take a weekend trip to Columbus, OH where it all began for us. We wanted to take Isaac along and show him all of "our" special places - where we met, where we went to school, where we dated, our first apartment, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The closer we got to the city and as that lovely skyline came into view, we got really excited. Well, Chris and I did anyway. Floods of old memories and the feelings that came with them started rolling in. Then, we came to the area that we once called home. To say that it had changed would be a colossal understatement. It had been really nice when we lived there. Now, not so much... Anyway, we checked into our hotel and began our expedition. Oh yeah, our hotel wasn't even there 17 years ago. Neither was the mini city that used to be cornfields surrounding it.

Y'all, it was CRAZY! CRAZY, I say! Our journey to 'us' began when we met at Meijers (a northern version Walmart, only nicer), where we both worked. We got off of work at 2 in the morning and the only place open at that time was the Waffle House that occupied the front of the Meijers parking lot. So, that was where we went every night when we got off work to drink tea and talk until we had to go get a few hours of shut-eye before school. People, they closed Meijers down! It was just an empty, dilapidated shell of a building! Then, they had torn down the Waffle House and built a new one in a different location of the same parking lot. So, even though there was still a Waffle House there - it wasn't "our" Waffle House. Bummer... After that disappointment, we decided to go see our first apartment that we lived in after we got married. It. had. changed. ALOT. It was a pretty new and pretty nice neighborhood back in the day. Now, though...well, let's just say that we were afraid to slow down to snap a picture of it.

 After that, I had Chris drive by my first apartment there. And, lo and behold, it hadn't been torn down or moved or changed into a new super center or anything.

I lived in the first floor apartment right there where the grill is. Ironically, the name of the apartment complex is "The Moors" and my new last name is also Moore. I think it was destiny. Yep. Lots of memories there. I lived there with 4 other girls. The people above us sounded like they moved the furniture at least a few nights a week to hold line dancing parties. Of course, we probably weren't much quieter. That apartment complex was more like a dorm and our place seemed to be a major hang-out. At least one thing about Columbus hadn't changed so far...

We moved on to see the old school. You guessed her... The old campus had been sold. It wasn't there anymore. The school had relocated and had changed names. See, I told you it was crazy. By this time it was getting late so we hit the Walmart that hadn't existed 17 years ago for drinks for the night, grabbed some take-out from the Popeye's that popped up out of nowhere and headed back to the hotel that used to just be a cornfield.

The next morning dawned with fresh hopes of finding and exploring the parks that we used to picnic at and walk the trails. We also thought we'd head out to Hocking Hills, which is only a short 40 minute drive away. But, alas, it was not to be. It was raining. Not that all out frog chokin' kind of rain - just the kind that was light enough to be a nuisance. We knew Hocking Hills would be a bad idea because you just really don't want to go walking trails high in the cliffs on wet rock. We figured we could still go find our old parks, though. But, you guessed it, we could not find them for the life of us. Everything was so built up and new roads and towns expanded to the point where nothing was recognizable. And, if it hadn't been for GPS we would have been totally lost.

On to Plan B. We decided to go find one of our favorite towns, Granville, OH. It's a beautiful little town nestled in the hills and home to Denison University.

We used to love to take the beautiful back roads and drive through those gorgeous hills, enjoying each other's company as well as the view. It was magical - especially during Autumn when the leaves were in peak color. It was also the place where this incident happened.

Although it was rainy, it was still beautiful. Here's a bit of it's charm - although there ain't nothing like the real thing, Baby.

brick roads

quaint churches

lovely houses

and this charming town full of incredibly cool restaurants and stores

like this one.

It's a very French-y type store

with darling vignettes every place you look.

Granville also has this hotel.

It's supposed to be haunted. We didn't go in to find out.

A brief trip through Granville was all we could handle. Not only was it still drizzling, it had gotten c.o.l.d. It looked like everything we had planned for our anniversary get-away and trip down memory lane had been doomed from the git-go. I didn't even mention how our original hotel reservations had fallen through when we were only about an hour away and our room ended up costing more for one night than our original reservations had been for 2. So, we decided that we would stop for a nice, warm lunch and head on back to home-sweet-home.

Although nothing went as we had envisioned for that weekend, all-in-all it was still nice to get away for the night. We also learned a good lesson. You can't relive the past. Time marches on whether we want it to or not. So, it was a good reminder to enjoy the memories of our lives just for what they are - good memories - and focus on making new ones. Which is exactly what that weekend ended up being. Now we can look back and say, "Hey, remember that time we went to Columbus to show Isaac all of our old places and our history and not one thing went right because everything had changed?"

Have you ever tried to take a trip down memory lane only to find it had turned into a super-highway?

Can A Cavity Be Healed?

OK, y'all.  I have something really cool/freaky to share with you that happened to me yesterday. But first, you need a little back story. :0)


My dad was an auto worker, so we had AWESOME insurance when I was growing up.  This meant that I saw the dentist every six months for my entire growing up years. Then, as an adult I couldn't rely on Daddy's insurance. Unfortunately, Daddy's insurance is hard to come by. My husband's insurance rarely included dental, so I would go years without seeing a dentist. We all would. Anybody relate to that? 


About a year and a half to two years ago I got one of those fliers in the mail for a free cleaning and exam from a dental office. So, I made an appointment for me and Isaac to get our teeth cleaned. It was one of those offices with the newest high-tech equipment that probably cost a fortune and the bill gets passed along to the patients. Both of us had cavities. I don't remember which was which at this point, but one of us had four and the other had five. The estimate they gave us to get them filled was $800 and $900. That just seemed astronomical to me so I called around and found a much more reasonable dentist just around the corner from me. He had actually been recommended by our tax guy. First, I made Isaac an appointment. The dentist found all the same cavities that the high-tech place did using nothing more than his metal pokey thing and his training. We got Isaac's cavities filled for a third of the price it was going to cost us at the other place. Plus, we just love the dentist and hygienists that work there. They have this rare trait called bedside manner. Or, maybe it's personality. It could be that they just care more about their patients than raking in as much dough as possible. Whatever it is, it roped us in.


Well, after we got Isaac fixed up, we got Dad in there. He had some pretty serious dental work that needed to be fixed. My cavities could wait. And, wait they did. Until yesterday.


Now, remember, it's been a year and a half to two years since I had that initial exam that showed I had four or five cavities. In the mean time, we've been slowly making changes to our diet. When the dentist examined my teeth yesterday I only had one small cavity. He said it was very small - just how they like to catch them.  One cavity? Now under different circumstances I would be tempted to think that maybe he just didn't find the other ones without all of the new-fangled, high-tech equipment that the other place had. But remember, he found all of the same cavities that they said Isaac had.  


I've read in several places lately where cavities can actually be healed just like any other bone can be. Although, most mainstream dentists would disagree, the scientific proof is there and the research all started because of a dentist named Weston A. Price. Ever heard of Nourishing Traditions? Evidently, diet plays a crucial role. 


I can't put my finger on one specific thing that we've changed in our diet that would cause these results in my teeth, because we've made a lot of little changes. I began using traditional fats, eliminating most of the processed food we ate, began including coconut oil in my diet and recently we bought a pastured hog and half of a grass-fed cow. I make bone broth. We don't eat nearly as much bread as we used to and started taking fermented Cod Liver Oil.  We stopped using toothpaste that has fluoride in it and just used tooth soap for a while. Some of these things we've been doing for a while, some are more recent. And, we don't do any of these things perfectly. In fact, we still eat too much sugar. We're baby stepping. I think it must be working, though. Even though I can't see the effects of our changes on the outside as much, yet (That stubborn weight!) - the fact that my teeth are actually healing from cavities is pretty strong evidence to me that these are very healthy changes.


This is all pretty new and still wild to me. I never believed that a cavity could be healed because I'd never heard it was possible. I thought that once the damage was done that was the end of the story. But, after reading some about it, the possibility became believable. Especially when I started thinking about how God created our bodies to heal themselves. If a cut, wound or bone can heal - why not a tooth? And then I went to the dentist. I have seen the proof for myself.


Here are a few of links to articles on this in case you're interested in reading more about it.
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/how-i-healed-my-childs-cavity/
http://gnowfglins.com/2010/02/08/rfqm-curing-tooth-decay-by-ramiel-nagel/
http://www.learningherbs.com/news_issue_79.html


So, what do you think? Have you ever heard of cavities being healed? Any thoughts you'd like to weigh in with?


I'm linking this up at Simple Lives Thursday, Homestead Barn Hop, and Your Green Resource.

The Indianapolis Zoo

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently made a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  It's hard to imagine that mid October in Indiana could actually be considered warm.  But it was.  We couldn't have asked for a more lovely day.

Here are a few of my favorite memories...

Rhinos amaze me.  They're built like tanks.  I was surprised at how well they blend in with the dirt and rocks.

So darling!  This baby was just born in July, weighing in at over 200 pounds.  It was so sweet watching mama and baby together.

Who doesn't love a grizzly bear dining at the salad bar?

Did God create a creature any more beautiful?

These are the only sharks I'm not afraid of.  Evidently, Isaac wasn't either. :0) Nope, we ain't skeered.

Happy Feet, anyone?

But this... this was the best part of the day...

...time spent with people you love.

While we were there we had the unusual opportunity to witness another young couple's very private moment.  Chris noticed the man on one knee and before I could pull the camera from my purse and snap a picture for them, she had already said, "Yes!" with tears flowing and they were in a tender embrace.  It was all very sweet.  Can you feel the warm fuzzies?

People you love... that's what makes a day wonderful!

Peace, Love and Warm Fuzzies,
Pam

Recently, my parents came down for a visit.

We had something to celebrate.

This guy's 11th birthday.

It's hard to imagine that my baby is 11 years old.  It seems like these years have flown by.  He is growing into such wonderful young man.  He's so polite, helpful and funny.  He seems to have inherited a very off-the-wall sense of humor.  That's a good thing...I think. :0) I see another change taking place in him lately.  You know the changes that signal that they're maturing into a new phase and leaving a little bit more of your 'baby' behind?  Yeah, that kind.  It's really bitter-sweet. {Now I'm totally singing Whitney's version of "I Will Always Love You" in my head. Sorry...}

He had a very low-key birthday this year - just like he wanted.  His grandparents went with us to eat at his favorite Mexican restaurant.  Then we came home to open presents and have cake and ice cream.  He told me it was the best birthday he's ever had - having all of his grandparents with him.  My parents came down for his birthday a few years ago and we had a party with kids, games and the whole she-bang then.  I asked him if this year was better than that.  He said it was because - get this - it was just with the people he loves most in the world.  Sniff, sniff... For him, nothing could top an intimate birthday with those closest to him.  Sometimes he still amazes me.

I love this picture.  It's the only one of him and his grandparents. (Neither of us got to meet his other papaw before he went to heaven.  That's a reunion we still have to look forward to.)

So, here's to savoring every moment, because each phase passes way to quickly and I don't want to miss a single instant...

Pam

Through the Eyes of a Child

A child's perspective can often be very refreshing and even help me look at things a little differently.

This past weekend my sister and her family made the 3 1/2 hour trip to spend some time with us.  Usually, we make the trip north.  The last time they were at our house my now 7 year old nephew, Jacob, was pretty young.  He doesn't remember seeing the bed Chris and I sleep in.  Really, it's nothing special.  Actually, it's probably a little retro - a full motion water bed that we bought new for $500.00 when we first got married.

Anyway, when he found out that we slept on a water bed, all of the curiosity that accompanies any normal 7 year old kicked into gear and he had to lay on it.  My sister went in there with him and came out laughing.  With awestruck eyes he said to her, "Mom, you must have to be RICH to have a bed like that!"

I had to laugh, too.  I AM rich.  And, sometimes it just takes looking at life through the eyes of a child to remind me of that.

A Bunch of Random Updates

So, I know I've been MIA for quite some time, but thought it was high time for an update. :0) This one's for you, Becky! :0)

Life has been very busy lately (and not so lately).  Back in August my hubby got sent out of state for a week on continued education.  Due to the fact that we had not spent more than 1 night apart in the course of the past 15 years, he took me and the boy to stay with my parents in Michigan for that week so at least we wouldn't be as lonely.  Thankfully, we survived.  :0)

When we arrived, however, my dad was down with his back to the point that he couldn't even get up to come greet us.  By the next morning he knew that a trip to the emergency room was in order.  The problem was he couldn't even walk.  Chris ended up having to carry him like a baby out to the car.  He spent most of the week in the hospital having tests done.  Dad had a bulging disk that was pressing on the nerves.  To make a long story short - nothing was done for him while we were there.  He ended up having surgery shortly thereafter though, and me and Isaac made 2 more trips 'home' to be there. 

Dad is on the mend now and I have spent more time away from my husband in the past 2 months than the whole time we've been married.  I hope we're done with that.  Me no likey.  I AM glad that at least we're just a one tank car trip away now instead of the plane flight it used to be when we lived in Florida.

A few short weeks after our last trip to Michigan we were expecting some of our dearest friends from the Sunshine State, whom we hadn't seen in four and a half years.  I suddenly felt the urge to complete every task on my barely started to-do list from the summer - all in 2 weeks.  I don't know why that maniacal urge kicks into gear when company is coming.  The good thing was that it hit all three of us.  We painted, cleaned windows, washed walls and baseboards, did yard work, cleaned upholstery, carpet and rugs...  No corner was safe from the rags and cleansers.  And, you'd never know it to look at my house now. :0(  I'm thinking about adopting the new philosophy that I won't bother cleaning because you can't tell anyway.  I'll have to let you know how that works out.

We did have a WONDERFULLY, FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLE time with our friends during their stay, though.  We spent a lot of time doing one of my favorite pastimes - laughing.  It's good medicine, you know!  The kids have grown so much.  They are so sweet, well-behaved, and well-spoken - a true joy to have around.  The kids got on so well that they were up until the wee hours of the morning all weekend!  I was happy that the little Floridians got to see snow for the first time while they were here, as well as elk and bison.  My friend, Jessie, has a couple of posts from their visit here and here over at here blog Overflow of a Forgiven Soul, if you're interested.  One of them includes a really simple, really yummy recipe.  Now you have to go visit, don't you? :0)

Things are getting back to normal now, I think.  I'm not sure things ever really are normal.  What's normal anyway?  All I know is that a) we're still playing catch-up in school from my maniacal cleaning, projecting spree; b) Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away; which means that c) Christmas is directly upon us; d) I am totally not ready for that. 

I had all of these sewing projects lined up in my head for making adorable Christmas presents.  Pretty sure that's not going to happen.   I pulled out my sewing machine a couple of weeks ago to get started and found out my machine isn't working.  The needle won't go up or down.  Neither me nor Chris could manage to get the machine apart to see if it was something like a belt that had come off.  Of course, when I started calling around to see about getting it fixed, it's going to cost more than the machine did in the first place. So, I think I'm just going to get a new machine instead - for Christmas.  Which means I won't be able to make sewn presents this year.  Any ideas for gifts would be greatly appreciated. :0)

So, that's about it for now.  I'm totally out of the blogging mojo.  I'm sure you can tell by my complete lack of focus and rambling.  :0)  I wanted to do a quick update anyway, though.  If I don't drop in again before hand, I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful holiday season!

Hugs to you all!
Pam

Hooked!

Monday evening I accompanied my guys fishing.  Chris was fishing for catfish on bottom.  Me and Ike were fishing for blue gill with bobbers.  Ike had caught 3 blue gill.  Before too long he threw out his line and almost immediately he yells, "Somethings messing with my line!  I got something!  I need some HEEELP!"  Chris grabbed the net while Isaac was realing in his catch.

We were shocked, to say the least, to see this 14 pound carp hooked and caught on a #10 blue gill hook (the smallest).  It was the largest fish ever caught where we were fishing.  They were really surprised to find out it was caught by a nine year old!  That's my boy!  I couldn't tell you who was more excited, though - Isaac or his daddy!

Shortly after Ike's big catch, I caught a rather large catfish using the same small hook.

Unfortunately, we had to throw the big carp back.  I've always heard that they're good eatin'.  They're actually a delicacy in Europe.  A lot of people open pay pits stocked with carp over there for this reason.  But, you have to know how to get around that mud vein when you clean them - which can be a pretty crappy job.  Sorry, couldn't resist!  Since, we (and by saying 'we' I really mean Chris) don't know how to clean them - back into the water it went.

The catfish was another story.  I already had planned to make tilapia for supper last night, so we fried it up and served it along side the other fish.  Can you say, "YUM!"?

We had so much fun we're going back tonight!  That leaves me with just one question:

Anyone know how to clean a carp?

Finally...Winter Jam '10

As you may or may not have caught in my "To Do" list for Spring Break last week - we went to Winter Jam '10 this past Thursday.  The original plan was to meet up with the gang at 4:00 pm and head up to Fort Wayne.  But, when Chris' boss found out where we were going, he wanted Chris to drop off some equipment at another shop up there.  That meant we needed to leave earlier (without the rest of the gang) so we could find the place before they closed.  Naturally, when you change your plans and try to hurry, it throws some sort of wrench into the mix...

Like thinking that since your son was already in the car and your husband was on his way to the car, that you were cool to lock the door and shut it.  Except, your husband forgot to grab his keys and you purposely didn't bring yours.  So, you weren't going ANYWHERE - unless your husband did this...

 
Chris had to climb through the bathroom window to get his keys before we could actually GO to the concert.  We like to keep the excitement alive.

We got the the equipment dropped off in Ft. Wayne for Chris' boss and headed over to the colliseum to get in line. 

It was actually a good thing that we went early because this is what it looked like about an hour and forty-five minutes before the doors opened.

We were able to get the most awesome seats I've ever had at a concert - and save enough for the rest of the gang when they got there.

We were right by the sound pit where all of the artist came out and waited before they went up on stage.

Those are the stairs that they actually used.  It was fascinating to get to see all of the behind the scenes stuff that went on.

The crew setting up before the concert.

Most of the groups only did two or three songs.  Except, Newsong.  They hosted the concert and did a pretty big set.

They went all out with confetti and giant balloons.  It was pretty cool.  But, some of my favorite moments were when the bands would just sing with acoustic guitars.  And this...

Let me just say here - I am not one to be star-struck.  People are people, right?  They put their pant on just like we all do.  They just happen to make their living in the public eye.  I've been to lots of concerts.  I got to meet lots of artists when I sang in the choir of the Handel's Young Messiah Tour years ago.  Heck, I even (accidentally) touched Michael English's butt.  But none of that affected me like seeing Mac Powell walk out into the pit to get ready to go onstage.

I suddenly became a thirteen year old girl.  I leaned over and told Chris, "I'm actually excited!!".  I was giggling and waving and trying to take pictures.  It was ridiculous.  I didn't feel too bad, though, because I think my husband turned into a thirteen year old girl, too!

You see, Third Day has been our favorite band since...forever!  Or, at least since the 90's when they actually started producing records.  Or CD's.  Or eight-tracks.  Or whatever the heck it is they actually call them now.  Anyway...we've been fans since their beginnings. :0)

Mac, right underneath our feet with his hairy Jesus lookin' self.

Guess who?  He was so close we could have plucked one of his hairs out.  But, some party pooper would have called security and had us escorted out of the building into another nice, sturdy building with bars and we actually wanted to see Third Day perform.  It was basically the whole reason we came to the concert, after all.  Plus, we had spent Chris' retirement and Isaac's college fund on 2 drinks a piece and a Dippin Dots for the boy - so we wouldn't have been able to afford bail.  We couldn't expect our friends to bail us out, either,  because they have more kids than we do.  I'm pretty sure they left the building missing an appendage or two.

So, we got to hear Third Day end the show with a 45 minute set.  Mac heard how awesome I am when he was in the pit right below our feet and had me come up on stage with him to help him sing "God of Wonders"...Yeah right.  It would have made the show better, I think, though.  No?  Whatever, Loser. 

Then...we were hungry from all that screaming and jumping and acting like thirteen year old girls.  So, we drove through McDonalds at 10:58 pm and this is exactly how the conversation went.  I'm not exaggerating here.  At all.

"Hi.  Welcome to McDonald's.  May I take your order, please?"

"Hi.  Yeah.  We'd like.....and ..... and ....with a ..... to drink with that."

"OK.  So, I have your order as ....."  Then silence before she finished repeating our order back to us.  And then, more silence.  Followed by...

"I'm sorry.  We're closed."

HELLLLLOOOOOO!  YOU JUST TOOK OUR ORDER!!!    I swear, I thought I was back in Florida for a minute.  Except, we could actually understand what she said.

So, we left without causing a scene because, remember we had no bail money left, and went and found a McDonald's that actually stayed open later than 10:58 pm on a Thursday night. 

After the adrenaline wore off we struggled to stay awake on the long ride home.  But, we arrived safely with gratitude in our hearts that we had had a wonderful evening, all in all, and didn't have to climb through the bathroom window to get in the house.  And we all lived happily ever after.  The end.  Well, the end of this story anyway. :0)