Tommy Emmanuel and Guests

I love guitar music. It stems from the fact that I grew up with a dad that played. He was a member of band in the 70's and has seem to always play at church. He is one talented cookie. I always thought he was a rockstar. Then I went to a concert Sunday night that made me think every male was going to bash his guitar after walking through the exit. My dad is still my number one guitar player and I will always love to listen to him play! He is still a hero to me just being able to play the beginning of "Time in a Bottle."

Concert: Guitar extraordinaire


Two words: Tommy Emmanuel

One word: Phenomenal

I have never experienced that before in my life. Now, I love listening to Jimmy Hendrix, James Taylor and Eric Clapton. I'd rather listen to them play then sing but you can't win them all. This guy, I didn't care. He is from Australia and is just so talented it's sicking. Not to mention that he seems to be a great guy and very humbled. His opening act was Frank Vignola. He worked as a sideman in the 80's with artists like Madonna, Leon Redbone and Ringo Starr. He and his partner, Vinny Raniolo, killed their rendition of "Stairway to Heaven." I have never, ever, heard it this well done in my life. There were times they were playing and you couldn't believe how fast they were strumming. Their hands looked like they were not even moving. The did a fantastic job opening the show. I would have just been happy with the two of them. Not to mention, Vinny was a cute little guy from NY. I wanted to put him in my back pocket for later! 

Here is Frank and Vinny - They did this song at the concert

Vinny - secret guitar crush on this man

Now onto the main event: Tommy Emmanuel. You think you couldn't get better then the other two. Wrong, so wrong. He was outstanding. I can only sum it up as he has tourettes of the guitar. The noises that he can create with his guitar are just mind blowing. I loved seeing all the wear and tear on his guitars due to all the sound effects he can do. He created the feeling of nature. He made his guitar sound like rain and a storm. It was just insane. I had to keep reminding myself to close my mouth. It was just a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness such talent and to really appreciate it. If he is ever here again, sign me up!

They aren't the best quality but here are some videos of his work:

It may be the fact that I'm exhausted today but I was jamming out to Christmas music all day. Yes it is early. I understand that. We are about 90 days out but it is my FAVORITE time of the year. I needed a pick me up in my music and thought I hadn't listened to it since January 1st of this year so it was completely different then the other 5000 songs on my iPod that I listen to year round. Let me tell you, it made my day fly by! Now, this will not happen again till it's November 1st! Luckily, that is a Monday!I had my day and now I am good!

In other news....

This weekend was a blur. I can't even think about what I did.

Things accomplished:

Tons of laundry, although not the pile of things I wanted to wash to begin with.

Shopping, sadly I need to do more

Bought our new bassinet

Bought a new Pack-n-Play

Washed all the blankets we already own for the baby

Started 3 scarves for Christmas, finished 1

Went to the Amana's with my rents for a day in the rain and good conversation

Hawkeyes Won!!!

Vikings finally won! (Mainly more Michael)

Mark Sanchez and his hotness won! (NY Jets if you didn't know!)

Michael's other team, the Colts won!

The stupid Saints finally lost! (Big hooray from me!)

Went to a fantastic concert at Hoyt Sherman with my Fabio! Mind blowing!

Not accomplished:

Did not get a single item of baby clothing washed. I need to get that on that and put it all away

UNI didn't defeat the Red and Gold.

Did not get enough shopping in!

Did not buy Jake's Halloween costume (must do this weekend!)

Did not make my list of Christmas gifts we are buying for everyone. (I know it's early, but when you are suppose to have a baby Dec 6th, you pretty much have to have it all done before hand. Even wrapping)

Did not make either of my lists for Baby needs/Hospital needs.

Still need to send someone a care package that is half boxed!

Still waiting verification on:

Packers winning over the Bears! Both 2-0 but the Bears have had some lucky breaks!

Going to bed as early as I am allowed this evening!

I do love lists! =)

Name game over!

I am really excited to say that the baby name game is over and done with. We have a grand prize winner and we are both way excited about it. It was a total fluke that we even saw/heard this name and we are super excited to name this boy! Only 10 more weeks to go! =)

Another "Sarah" moment for the books

I am on a roll. There must be a dark cloud hanging above my head. That or God really gets a good laugh out of me every once and a while. Today was no exception.

Hidden warnings that were trying to alert me:

1) Pants: I was regularly pulling up my pants today. Not all the time but after I stood up from sitting, or maybe after walking from the parking garage to my desk. Just every once and a while not constantly. This should not be happening due to the fact that I am 7 months pregnant and look like I'm hoarding a pumpkin.

2) Weather: Rain and wind. As Des Moines seems to be climbing more up the Seattle type forecast, today's weather should not have bothered nor affected me. I love rainy, cooler days. I like them more when I am at home but I embrace them. I even had my umbrella handy and was good to go. I as an overachiever in that aspect!

Event:

I got off work around my normal time. Ferry had left for the day early because he had "things to do". (Right). I pressed the elevator button and the door opened wide and I walked in with a few colleagues from my floor. We continued down the 5 levels, picking up Nationwiders anxiously waiting to bust through the freedom doors. All was the same. Nothing unusual. After riding the carnival ride we call our "revolving door", I opened the main door and headed out. The wind was pretty strong. I would say in the range of about 20-30 mph. I had my purse over my left shoulder and was holding my umbrella with my right hand. After crossing the street, I kept on my track of walking to the parking garage. That is when it happened. Out of nowhere and in a second. Three things happened simultaneously:

1) The wind picked up and started to take my umbrella up in the air

2) I released my left hand that was on my purse to reach up to get two hands on my umbrella so it didn't blow away

3) Due to raising my hands above my head, my pants decided to slide down to my knees.

There you have it, my wonderful moment of the day: de-panted via wind. I had a reaction like a cheetah. Quick on my feet. I lowered my umbrella over my exposed granny panties (hey, I'm 7 months pregnant people) and kept walking the 6-7 feet to the camera store. Under and behind their canopy, I pulled up my pants as fast as I could and walked back out into the rain with one hand on my umbrella and the other holding up my pants. My purse of course was barely hanging on and if another gust of wind came by surprise, I probably would have fallen over. Once I got into the parking garage, I literally ran up the flight of stairs to my car. My face was hot. I could feel how red it was. The embarrassment was plain as day on my face. After I got to my car I was able to assess the damage. There were roughly 5-8 people walking behind me that were there to witness my misfortune. Luckily for me, I did not look back after my incident. Not to mention the crew of people that Nationwide causes them so much stress and hatred to smoke their lives away in the alley, they were all witnesses as well. My underwear aka granny panties were soaked. This then made for the lovely assumption that others probably had that hadn't seen what had happened that I peed my pants. I had a perfect wet spot on the back of my pants. My hair was soaked because I decided to cover up my unprotected behind instead of my head for that 6-7 feet. My socks were drenched through my wet shoes. I was a mess. I finally got into my car and had to turn the seat warmers on to thaw out my backside. I still had rain running down by back and I could feel it settling into a pool of water in my butt crack. At that point, I might as well have been struck by lightning to add the cherry on top of the cake. I immediately picked up the phone and called Jos, who was still at work. I am so glad that I was able to get her to laugh that much. Job well done on my part! I had to call Jana and a few others to let them know of the wonderful luck that I have! Every single one of them could not stop laughing. Glad I can bring joy to peoples lives through my mishaps. Maybe that is my destiny!

Now I am home, my backside is still freezing cold and Michael is still laughing. The only upside to this is that Grey's starts tonight. I am not looking forward to walking into work tomorrow. I can see it now: the security guards looking for the 'Nationwide Flasher' or the people behind me giving me weird looks at work. I didn't see who they were but I will know by their facial expressions tomorrow if they saw what happened. I have my eyes on all of you!

The Name Game

I thought we had it figured out. I won the battle but I guess I didn't win the war. After a delish meal at a friends house, we whipped out their baby name book. We went through every boy name in that book and Michael found a compromise to a name that he loved but I wasn't fond of. Let's just say I don't like the first part of it.

A few things about the compromise name:

1) It doesn't fit our names whatsoever. Michael, Sarah, Jake and _________. Completely out of left field. Also, I never noticed this before, but all our names are Hebrew and this one is not. I repeat it over and over with our names and I just don't feel like it fits.

2) Since it is technically half the name Michael loves, people think we should just name it the full name and call him by the second part. I veto this now! If you are going to go with a "different" name, leave it at that. Make the child stand out. Don't give him a top 30 name and then just nickname him. I still just don't like the first part of the name and I am not breaking on that!

3) You can tell if someone likes the name by the reaction on their face. I mentioned this compromise name to a few people and they loved it! Go figure. I did mention it to some others that had that "I'm trying to make my facial expression less noticable by putting on a face that looks like I'm trying to cover how I really feel or that I am about to fart".

Gleek!

I was over the moon excited for the start of Glee tonight! Loser status, I know but it has to be one of the only shows I watch regularly. I must say it was a good season opener!

A few things I was disapointed in:
1) The fact that Emma didn't make an appearance at all. I thought she would at least get 5 minutes of face time. Nada.

2) I was also upset that Brittany didn't have many one liners. I live for her one liners! She did pull "People thought I went on vacation but actually I spent the summer lost in the sewers." Genius!

On the up side:
1) I love, LOVE the fact that Charice is now part of the show. I remember 3 years ago when of course, Oprah, found this little girl that was in love with Celine Dion. Oprah, being Oprah, made her dreams come true by introducing them and eventually, she got to sing with Celine during a concert. The second this girl opened her mouth, she blew me out of the water. It was shocking to have this little 13 year old sing out this Toni Braxton, heart and soul voice from this little body. I have a few of her songs on my iPod and especially love "If I Wrote A Note To God". Needless to say, I was excited to see her name on this season rooster! To hear her sing "Listen" but the Dream Girls to shame!

2) Some people may agree with me and others won't. I am fine with that. I thought Coach Tanaka was a complete waste of space. I could not stand that man.  His story line drove me up the wall and his character drove me almost as crazy as Teri. I absolutely am thrilled with the edition of Coach Beiste! She is 6'4" and could break you with her small toe. I am sure she will be a great rival for Sue.

3) Sue. Oh Sue. You never fail me. Your dialogue makes me extremely happy. The fact she even spoke the workds "Boobs McGee" in this episode had me rolling on the floor! I love that she points out that none of Coach Beiste's comments make sense and I live for the love/hate relationship of of her and Mr Shue.

I am excited to see how the rest of the season pans out! Next week is the big Britney episode and I'm a little pumped! Not to mention appareances by John Stamos and now even Javier Bardem! (Jana is drooling at this point.) So here is to another fantastic and witty year of Glee!

Day with Thomas and more

Fall is here. Okay, maybe just for the weekend because tomorrow the high is suppose to be 80+. It was chilly and rainy all weekend and I will admit it, I LOVED IT!!! I love hoodie weather! I love having to cuddle under blankets and not having to run any AC and just being cozy. This has been Football weather! Sadly, football has not been our forte this weekend. Hawkeyes lost. We are still not talking about this game. It's a very sore subject. Vikings lost (sorry Michael) and somehow the Bears beat the Cowboys. I think I am living in the twilight zone. Even the Chiefs won. What is going on? He still has hopes since the Colts are playing right now. I hope for his mood for the rest of the week they win!

I feel like we got so much done and yet we didn't this weekend. Friday we turned in some things at Babies R Us and got some major discounts to get our new pack-n-play. We were going to get the bassinet we wanted but they were sold out. At least we got one of the 2 things we needed. We also scored on some completely adorable outfits at Kidding Around. All 4 had never been worn and two of them are awesome Christmas outfits! I can't wait to get him in them and snuggle up! I also went through ALL of Jake's clothes and realized we had more then we thought. I just have to buy some pants but we should be good for a while! We have been buying diapers every other week so we can hopefully get ahead. We crashed around 9 and cuddled up to watch a movie!

Saturday we met up with half the Proctors and half of the Axtells to hit up the baby expo. We went to the Mercy one and it was good. We got a tour of both floors and it was nice to know since this baby is being delivered there. We were wanting Lutheran but since I'm having another c-section they wanted me to go to Mercy. Fine with me. The rooms are amazing. The beds, oh my word. Not token hospital beds. We were shocked to realize we have 2 1/2 months left. Yikes. Time sure is flying by. I think I will hit November and panic! We stopped by my parents house on the way home and got to see two of my aunties! Which I loved of course! The rest of the day was occupied by naps, grocery shopping, laundry and depressing Football games that we stayed up way to late to watch.

Sunday morning (today) welcomed us with another rainy and chilly day. Michael and Jake wanted donuts so bad for breakfast so I gave in. We headed to church and made it home in time to eat and head out to Boone. We didn't tell Jake this whole time we were seeing Thomas with Ethan and Grant. We got there and the kid freaked out. He started dancing and running around like a crazy person. The misty rain that fell the entire time didn't help but it was still a good family day. The boys had fun playing with the all the trains, story time, and riding the train. It was all worth it just for the smiles and giggles that came through Jake. We had dinner in Boone and then headed home. We are now relaxing while sipping hot chocolate and trying to thaw out while watching the Colts/Giants game. I really want to press the rewind button so that I can have another weekend. Someone needs to invent that! I think that should be Matt's project!

Day with Thomas photos!