First and foremost, Coldplay was awesome!! Drew and I had seats the were dead center facing the stage. While they weren't floor seats, we were only three rows back in the first section (right behind where the mixing boards were...let me tell, watching those guys work the sound and visual effect boards was almost as entertaining as the concert itself).
The band treated the audience to a little in-audience performance, which I thought was pretty cool. They went to one of the back sections and actually sang 2 songs surrounded by all of the fans (picture included in this post). Oh, and before I forget....no, I don't have totally awesome camera skills or the ability to fly around the venue to get these awesome shots. These are, however, pictures that were taken from the concert last night in Dallas.

Oh, and one final note...besides the fact that the concert was awesome...Gwenth Paltrow was there. She was a few feet in front of us, hanging in the area with the mixing boards. While I am not a celebrity hound, it was still pretty exciting to see her. Drew wasn't nearly as impressed with her sighting as I was. All in all, though, we had a really fun night. Thanks again Layla for making this night happen by taking care of the little man!!

Nothing To Blog About....Really???

It is hard to believe that I just went through the last week and didn't take a single picture of Jackson!! I was a big dummy and didn't hand the camera over to Drew when he took Jackson to the Backyardigans Live show....nor was I there, so I am unable to share the experience with you : ( All that I do know is that the show was fun, it cost $30 for a few drinks and 2 bags of popcorn (ridiculous), and that the show was about knights.

What I can tell you is that in the course of one weekend the vacuum broke, the seal under the shower broke, and our kitchen is still a work in progress. The hood we ordered for the kitchen is still not in, which keeps us from being able to finish the work we not to complete on the wall for the vent...without finishing the wall we can't paint...without paint we can't have the cabinets installed...without cabinets we can't use our brand new dishwasher and stove that we recently purchased. Oh, and did I mention that our vacuum cleaner broke and the the seal under the show broke too. Did I mention that the way the j-hole builder put in the plumbing under the shower that we have to rip out the current shower in order to fix the problem. While we had planned on redoing the master bathroom (yes, we still have just concrete floors in there right now), the little shower incident is forcing our hand and our pocketbook for immediate repair. Luckily we have two other bathrooms with showers in the house...so we are able to buy a little time until the master bathroom project commences. Please, can't we just finish one project at a time!!!!!

Fall Leaves...And We Thought We Wanted A House With Trees!

We always look forward to Fall in Texas. It means cooler temperatures (our electric bill last month was $65 since the A/C has been off), a slight change in leaf color (nothing like CT, CO or UT), and the beginning of the holiday season. What it also means, especially now that we are in the house in Grapevine, is that we have to deal with massive amounts of leaves in our front and backyard!!
This past Saturday Drew and I decided that it was time to begin the process of fall cleanup. Mind you, during the summer we were out in the yard at least once or twice a week raking up the pine needles that would cover the lawn. So, we are no stranger to the rake and bags / garbage cans full of lawn debris. Long story short, we ended up with about 20 bags full of leaves. Yes, we were Eco friendly and bought Home Depot bags that will decompose along with the leaves, as opposed to 20+ plastic bags that would sit in a landfill for who knows how many years.

Normally Jackson loves to help us when we are working in the yard. While short lived sometimes, the fact that he offers to help is just so sweet. While he did pick up a few handfuls of leaves, most of his time was spent either riding through the piles on his bike or his electric "car movie" car. At one point he ran head first into a pile with his car, and then proceeded to drive all of his other vehicles (bikes, trucks, etc) into the pile too. Drew and I didn't have the heart to be mad, even when he started loading up his large dump truck with piles of needles and leaves and began making his own new piles : ). He was a kid being a kid!! The good news is we got the yard cleaned up and looking good. The bad news is that there are a TON of leaves still on the trees....this was just one of many yard-work-leaf-pickup weekends : (

Another Successful Season

A week ago Jackson officially ended his second season of baseball...or as Grapevine likes to call it blastball (modified version of t-ball for 3 and 4 year olds). The season ended on a high note with a pizza party and award ceremony at one of Jackson's teammates home. The kiddos were more interested in playing with the mass amounts of cars than in the coveted baseball trophy. But, in the end it was a fun night and a fun season for the boys. Go Braves!!!

This Is What Happens When Mommy Is Sick.....

...and Daddy isn't around...

I asked Jackson to get himself dressed, by himself so that I could remain comatose in bed. The madras shorts and tie dyed shirt are the combination that he came up with. Gotta love this kid!!

NASCAR...Really???

This is not a joke....Drew, Jackson, Drew's Father and I braved the redneck crowds and headed out to the NASCAR race this past weekend. Those funny movies, like Talladega Nights, aren't far off in terms of the crowd that attends one of these races....especially in the great state of Texas. People were shirtless, toothless and had hair in all the wrong places. I was in AWE! Drew and his father did their own impersonation prior to leaving for the race (no, they did not wear their garb to the race...thank goodness)!!

Now, I do have to say that I understand the fascination with the race itself. It is full of pomp and circumstance prior to the beginning of the actual race. They roll the cars out and line them up. Then they drive each driver around the track in the back of a pickup truck so that they can wave at the fans prior to the beginning of the race. Finally...the moment that those cars start their engines the crowd really picks up and the heart starts pumping with anticipation of the pending race. Even though we were wearing ear plugs, there was a moment during the race when it was a little too loud for Jackson...Daddy had to cover his ears and comfort him a little bit. Other than that, Jackson LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the race!! It was Lightening McQueen in real life...what little kid that loves the Cars movie wouldn't love a day at the race.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon. We managed to avoid most of the traffic by leaving with over 100 laps left to go (there were 330 in total, so we saw more than 1/2 of the race). Thanks to Otto for the tickets!!!

1st Black Eye

Well family, Jackson got his first black eye. I would love to tell you that he received it during a rousing game of baseball or wrestling around with Drew. The truth of the matter is that Jackson received his first black eye from a GIRL!!!

Many people thought that the black eye was part of the costume...that Drew and I had used some sort of makeup in order to get that effect. Alas, it is a real black eye delivered by a little girl in his classroom (he was bending over and met her elbow on the way up...all very much an accident). It certainly did add to his pirate look : )

Halloween Fun

Another fun Halloween has come and gone...and more importantly my son continues to shy away from any kind of candy with chocolate. Score one for the parents!!! I am sure any parents would be happy beyond belief to have a child who only cared about the "suckers" and other chewy-fruity candies : ), and left the chocolate alone (since most people hand out chocolate candy).

The week leading up to Halloween was really busy for us. I spent a half day getting our kitchen cabinets ordered and assorted problems that arose with that order (missing pieces, etc). Jackson had a Halloween Carnival at his school on Thursday night, so we had to carve our pumpkins on Wednesday night. I was afraid about the pumpkins holding up until the big day, but they did just fine.

So the pumpkin carving began. Jackson wasn't too keen about pulling the "guts" out of the pumpkin...in fact he wouldn't even try : ( Don't worry...Drew and I got him with a few seeds and strands of "guts" during the course of the pumpkin carving session. I went with a more traditional pumpkin look, while Drew and Jackson went a little more non-traditional with added bats and snakes attached. We had a lot of fun!!

The Halloween Carnival was a big success and Jackson really enjoyed himself. His teachers really enjoy him so much, which as a parent is so nice to see. It was a trial run for his pirate costume, which was a big success. Several of his little friends called him Captain Jack Sparrow, which I really think that he loved (even though I am not really sure if he knows who Captain Jack Sparrow is).

Halloween night was really a blast for all of us. First and foremost, how great was it that Halloween fell on a Friday night!! There was no need to worry about wrapping things up early in order to get the kiddos home to bed. The cousins were all together for the night and were treated to a hay ride around Ma-Ma's neighborhood making periodic stops for trick-r-treating. It was another fun and very successful Halloween, costume and all!!