Simply Me

Adele: If you haven't listened to her stuff...you are missing out big time!

I can't decide if it's the voice? the lyrics? the arrangements?  All I know is when combined, it's sheer perfection to my ears.

 

I would kill to here a song with Adele and Josh Groban together! Just saying....

What do get when you add a goofy cat and crazy dachshund together?

A whole lot of fun and a bit of aggravation too!

(the following is a direct lift of a post I did on TwoPeas a few days ago)

Our little Simba is not so little anymore!! Since his arrive in mid-June, he has tripled in size. He was neutered on July 11th and come through with flying colors. 

He is by far the funniest and most affectionate cat I have ever met. He loves to be cuddled and will lay in your arms like a baby or like a rag doll. When he's not in your arms, he's jumping around in silly fashion. Alternately attacking piles of hay I put out for the horses, flying bugs, an empty feed bag or one the toys we've bought him. He thinks the tack room where we have hay stored is his personal playground. So many things to attack, places to climb and jump from, not to mention great hiding places. 

By far though, his favorite past time is annoying our dachshund. Once he realized that the dogs can only go so far (constrained by the invisible fencing we have), he has come to delight in sitting *just* outside of her reach. I happen to place a "camp chair" just outside of this zone and he has come to consider this his very own thrown. He climbs and plays on it or just lounges as the dog sits mere inches away, going mad at the sight of him. 

Today, I heard the usual mad barking from the dog and went out to tell her to knock it off. This is what I found:

At first I thought Simba was "trapped"...when I got closer (with the camera I had gone back inside to get), I discovered that he was actually a picture of relaxation. My guess is that he purposely went up the tree in his on-going plan to drive the dog totally and completely out of her mind. 

This brush is a favorite toy. He was so focused on playing with the brush that he nearly fell out of the tree a couple of times. 

And here's a closeup of the poor dog who has met her match in feline form. I couldn't have come up with a better exercise program for her...she will spend hours running back and forth in front of the fenced area where Simba rules. 

Glee: I love this scene and song!

I was remind if it thanks to a commercial for the new Winnie the Pooh movie:

 

Happy 4th Everyone!

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.”  -- JFK

Josh Groban: More great images from a fellow Grobanite!

Another fabulous lady from the FOJG (Fan of Josh Groban) boards, Megan (jsgirl44), shared some of her great shots from the concert! I'm am telling you, never have I seen this kind of generosity in a venue like a message board! Most photographers, even amatuer ones, protect their photos like precious gold. And rightly so...I am so thankful that my fellow JG fans are so willing to share. 

So, enjoy! And thank Megan, if only in your mind : )

Finally, Our Night with Josh Groban!

I was reminded today that I should really get around to telling my story about our Josh Groban concert adventure. You know, the concert that I’ve been talking about since February?  It’s been nearly a week already! Be warned, this is not a short post!  I’ve inserted several images and a video or two to keep you from getting too bored though : )

I nearly had heart failure when Casey’s school called at around 10:30am. It was the school nurse calling to say that Casey was having an issue with his braces. I had NO time to take the boy to the orthodontist to deal with such nonsense! Luckily, by the time she heard the phone ring twice, he had fixed it himself but she didn’t want to hang up knowing I was likely to answer any second. Dodged that bullet!

We left nearly as soon as Sarah arrived home from school at 2:15pm. The plan was to meet Laura (friend who was going with us) in Shrewsbury at 3:00pm as that was where we planned to get on I-83 to make our way to Hershey. Everyone arrived on time and we got on our way. It was a good omen that we had no difficulties making our way to Hershey and finding the arena.

We had to pick up our tickets at the will-call booth and I simply could not relax until I had them *in* my hands. That also went smoothly and we found ourselves with just a little more than 2 hours to kill before we could get into the arena. Our original plan was to go to the Outback Steakhouse some 15 minutes away but we had passed the Applebee’s on our way to the Arena. I was concerned about getting all turned around trying to make our way to the Outback and back. So, we chickened out and went to Applebee’s. In the future, I must remember that I really do not like Applebee’s and should avoid it all costs. Again, it worked out despite the food and we found ourselves with still too much time to kill before we could get into the arena.

I swear the clocked slow down to a crawl at this point. I was starting to think 6:30pm would not come no matter how long we waited outside. I had Laura take the obligatory “outside the venue” photo of me and Sarah:

Finally, the doors opened and the lines started crawling forward. The next decision we had was whether to buy our souvenirs before or after the show (we decided after). Then we found our way to an entrance into the seating area and found ourselves faced with A LOT of steps to go down to get to our floor seats.

It was so exciting to keep walking and walking and walking forward to our 12^th row seats! Then the big wait began. The show was scheduled to start at 7:30pm. We knew there was an opening act that was to perform before JG would come on. I had heard it was a pianist of some stripe but had tried to keep from learning too much ahead of time because I wanted it all to be “fresh”.  While we waited, we practically had to chase down somebody to get the cotton candy guy to come our way. Sarah couldn’t live another minute without some pink cotton candy!

Waiting impatiently!

 Promptly at 7:30pm, the house lights went down and ELEW came onto the stage.

Talk about some funky music!! Never have I heard or seen a piano played like that before. During several of his pieces, he actually reached into the grand piano’s string area and played it like a guitar! I liked him well enough but at a point, some of the songs went on just a tad longer than I would have preferred. I plan on checking out his music at some point to get a feel for some of his recorded stuff. He played for 30 minutes and got a very nice response from the crowd.

Another 30 minutes passed as the stage was reset for JG.  Just before 8:30pm, people in front of us started standing up and turning around and pointing behind us. Obviously, they had heard what was going to happen from previous concerts. After a couple of minutes the house lights went down again, then a spotlight started scanning the whole arena. Finally, screams erupted from the crowd as Josh took to a small round stage on the middle of the arena floor.

He started off by thanking all of us for welcoming him and his crew back to Hershey. He bantered for a bit and then got down to business singing a cover of “Changing Colors.”  I’m not sure who originally sang this but is a fabulous song. I hope to find it on a recording of his someday. If you know of where I can get it now, please tell me!

 

Tags: Josh Groban,

 (video from VH1 website, not from Hershey 06/15/2011 concert)

 

He followed this up with my favorite “February Song.”  I’m not sure how many more songs he sang there before moving up to the main stage. The show was full of energy and amazing music. Josh was in prime form….obviously very comfortable on the stage. He really spent a good deal of time speaking to and engaging the crowd. I feel we got a good glimpse of the “real” Josh. He is quite the cut up and very endearing all at the same time. He went into the crowd several times during the concert. The crowd went wild each time.

Photo credit:  PennLive.com

Some things I did learn about from early concerts were also done at our concert. Including reading questions submitted by txt message from the crowd which included a request to sing with Josh. As had occurred at previous concerts during this tour, Josh brought a young lady up on the little mid-arena stage and sang with her. Can you imagine? As lovely as that girl was and she sang very well, considering how nervous and excited she must have been….Sarah would have done even better :P

Speaking of singing, I sang my heart out with every song. I thought it was loud enough in there that I couldn’t be heard. Sarah said that was NOT the case and she’s sure the person next her sent some dirty looks my way a few times. Oh well, I can’t control myself sometimes and I when I go see him again…whether this tour or the next, I will sing myself silly once again.

Photo credit:  PennLive.com

Sadly, after two hours the show came to an end. Josh initially left the stage after singing “Per Te” but came back for an encore.  He sang a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Play Me” which he did masterfully. His final song was “You Raise Me Up”.  He joked they couldn’t bring along a gospel choir like on previous tours because of the big fake crumbling wall that was built on stage, so he invited the crowd to back him up instead. We were more than happy to comply!

As with any concert event, getting OUT of the parking area was the hardest part of the night…besides waiting for the concert to begin, that is!  Even after we got on the road that would lead us back to our first highway, it took a good deal of time to get to a point where the traffic diverged enough to start really moving. Still, we made good time getting back to Shrewsbury where we dropped off Laura at her car. We hit Wendy’s for a drink and late night snack of French fries. From all the yelling and singing, my throat was raw.

We finally came through the door at 1:00am. Talk about tired!  Boy howdy! The adrenaline that had been pumping all day and night up to that point had a very distinctive crash about then. Still, I was too “alert” to be able to go right to sleep, so I didn’t crawl into bed until nearly 2:00am. I am so thankful I thought ahead and took the next day off from work too. It was probably Saturday before I was truly “recovered”.

I have “borrowed” several of the images seen here are from other sources. I’d like to especially thank Stacey F. for sharing her images with me. She was so kind to send me full resolution files that I’ll be putting into a scrapbook page or two in the coming weeks. Her front row seats allowed her a better vantage point than even my 12^th row seats allowed. I have to say that my fellow Grobanites are some really great people whom I’m proud to come to know through our shared experiences and love of all things JG. I think that JG himself brings out some of the best in his fans who in turn share it with those around them.

It was a special night made even more special in that I was able to share it with my fabulous daughter and with a great friend. Hopefully, I didn’t drive them too crazy : )

More photos:  These are from my fellow Grobanite, Stacey F.

Josh Groban: Amazing, Amazing, Amazing!!!

I'm going to bed. It's 1:35am and I am toast! But a toast in a good way!!! Josh Groban is an insanely talented, fabulous human being who knocked our socks off tonight in Hershey, PA. Because we follow the rules and only took Sarah's little camera, the quality if the images are lacking...but I don't care.

Here's  sneek peek....more tomorrow!!

Resistance is futile, Human.

She is actually a He. And is now named Simba. 

Everyone but the man of the house is utterly smitten. 

Hermione becomes a complete frenzied mess every time we bring Simba into the yard. 

We can't tell if she's simply curious or wants to eat him.

We've decided not to find out for sure just yet.

 

 

A simply fabulous Mother's Day

Spending your Mother's Day at a horse show two hours drive away from home is not the ideal way many moms would like to spend their day, but it turned out to be a fantastic day for us. 

First and foremost, we made it there and back safely. I'm not a seasoned trailering driver, so each trip is one that I'm glad to have behind me. I did forget to take the truck out of 4-wheel drive most of the way home (wet field necessitated I turn it on when we were pulling out). I know that's not a great thing to do to your 4-wheel drive vehicle not to mention it really blew out the fuel mileage for this trip, so I'm chalking that one up to lesson learned and will be adding it to my post-show checklist.

Secondly, what better way to spend Mother's Day than with your teenage daughter? Poor thing was exhausted and dozed most of the way home but she was a trooper for putting up with the whole deal. She even managed to seem like she enjoyed herself a bit. 

And after we made it home?  I had a fabulous dinner prepared and waiting for me. Tom made my favorite shrimp dish:  Shrimp Fra Diavlo. Yummy!!! It was absolutely perfect. 

Finally, the cherry on the topping of my special day was this:

We got ribbons! And honest to goodness earned ones this time! The blue ribbon was for the 2-year old mare halter class. Then we moved onto Grand and Grand Reserve mare halter class. The top two horses from each of the 3 mare classes are then shown as a group, so the top two mares of all entered can be chosen. A lovely mare owned by a really sweet lady named Mary Ellen, took the top prize of  Grand Champion for Mares. My heart practically skipped a beat when they called our number and said we had won the second place Grand Reserve Champion for Mares. 

Seriously, I could not have been more shocked. This little bugger of mine has been a total PITA the last few weeks as we worked on how she should behave in the ring. I was seriously going to be happy if she just went into the ring and walked/trotted on command. That would have been a successful day in my book. Sarah said that during our age class Missy stood absolutely perfectly with her feet placement just so. I was so focused on keeping her *still* and stretching her neck with her ears up and forward that I had no idea what her legs were doing! 

All the hard work of the recent weeks, especially yesterday, gave us this result. Much thanks has to go to Tom for doing such a fabulous job helping me take care of our girls every day. And my show companion Sarah for coming along and giving me someone special to share the moment with.

Then I want to give a heartfelt thanks to all the fabulous people of the Mason Dixon Minature Horse Association  for putting on such a nice show. It is such a smooth, relaxed and fun show. I have met some of the nicest, most helpful people within this organization. So many of the members encouraged me over the past two years.  People like Kathy, Linda, Melissa, Wendy, Kris, and Tammy....so many people who genuinely want to help you. It helps that they are all a little horse crazy (like me!) and find this kind of thing fun. 

If it's not obvious by now, I'll state for the record:  I am over the moon about today. Will we have a repeat performance in two weeks at the next show?  Who knows! I won't count any chickens before they're hatched. If this is the only set of ribbons we get this year, I will call it a successful year and be completley satisfied.

And now....I'll stop gushing like I just won an Oscar or something. It's time to go out and feed the girls dinner.

 

Recipes

I'm guessing that I've mentioned before on this blog that I'm not a fan of cooking. I love eating, but cooking it for myself has never been in my top 10 favorite things to do.

Then some things happened:  the economy tanked, husband lost his job, husband began a diet program of his own design, to name  a few.

The combination of these things and others meant that regular eating out was no longer an option. This lazy cook had to come up with meals for the family on a regular basis. This isn't too difficult in the summer, where grilling and fresh fruits/veggies keep most everyone happy.

All too quickly, summer passes and winter comes blowing in. I don't grill outside in temps below 60. We sputtered along with some family classics but this often left Tom in the cold because the calorie values were not within his daily limits. Lean Cuisine has become a very good friend to him.

Now, I give him a TON of credit. He began his diet on January 1, 2010 and hasn't stopped. He's lost close to 70lbs and is keeping it off. I need to lose weight too but am not ready to go it the way he has. I did start feeling a little guilty about leaving him hanging most nights to figure out what to eat. 

A "diet" cookbook was recommended to me by someone I know on Two Peas in a Bucket. The book was from Taste of Home called Comfort Food on a Diet. I bought it last fall. My initial perusal didn't seem to find much that I thought the bulk of the family would be thrilled with, so I put it aside.

At the beginning of the year, I resumed my Family Calendar & Menu habit. I find that if I plan out meals two weeks at a time, I can be assured I have the necessary ingredients on hand and work around various schedules. Meals that take a little longer aren't planned for night where the schedule is tight. And knowing ahead of time what is planned for dinner on a given night actually takes some of the pressure off.  The calendar/menu is placed on the fridge so everyone know's what's coming up both in terms of scheduling and dinner each day. Here's what a typical two week period would look like (at the bottom of each day lists the entree for that evening's meal):

It became clear that many of our favorites were things Tom would no longer eat in an effort to maintain his weight loss. Admittedly, many of these meals are high calorie or the kinds of meals that he feels he can't just eat what is considered a "normal" portion so he would rather not eat it all. He didn't complain at all. He'd simply make himself something else. 

I find myself facing two weeks worth of days to fill with some meal idea and it didn't take long before I couldn't come up with enough stuff to fill a whole two weeks without repeating meals. And you know how boring that gets. FAST.

So, I pulled out the Comfort Food on a Diet cookbook and had a closer look. My fresh eyes started finding more recipes that I thought at least had the potential to satisfy 2 or 3 out of the four of us. I threw caution to the wind and starting adding new recipes to my repertoire. 

I thought I'd share one we had again tonight that has been a pretty big hit. I'm not a big beef fan but even I found this quite to my liking!  It's called "Swiss Steak". If you do a google search for "swiss steak" you'll find a huge variety of dishes that are called swiss steak and look completely different! This is a tomato based version. 

You can find the recipe on the Taste of Home website by clicking HERE. I served it over a small portion of rice. Tom is not a big vegetable eater so he sticks with salad while Casey and I had steamed broccoli. Sarah missed out because she had already eaten out with her beau. 

I'd also add that the recipes I've started using from this book are not difficult to make and go together quite quickly. This recipe takes an hour or so to cook (to get the chop steak tender) but probably only 10 minutes to prepare, maybe less. This makes it an even better recipe in my book!