"He's as big as my pinky!"

I went online to day to see if there were still any Buble tickets available for his Greek Theater-August 21st performance.

There were...in row "B" of the BENCHES section...which essentially means we'd be all the way in the back of the Greek Theater. Please view the Greek theater seating chart above.

Not sure what would bother me more:

a) Sitting on a bench for an entire concert--Ouch!

OR

b) Saying things like, "Geez, Michael is as big as my pinky from way back here!".

Either way I know I'd have a blast with Bibi, no matter where we sit. Tickets go for $60 each after all fees and charges...what do you think? Should we go for it?

A Popular Post

On Monday I posted about my new Grey's Anatomy Board game...

On Tuesday I checked if there were any comments on my posts...

There were! FIVE to be exact!

It's been the fastest that anyone has ever commented on any post on my blog. And in record numbers too...all of my blog friends commented!

Thank you Howard, German, Bibi and Janette for making post #188 so popular!

I Met Brad Arm Yesterday!

Yesterday Marlen, my sister, and I spent the day (or at least part of it) at the Disneyland Resort.

Don, my brother-in-law, had offered to watch the baby and the kids after school so my sister and I could ride the "grown-up" rides...and just spend some time together, minus the little ones. (I must admit...he's a pretty cool husband!)

Once we showed up we got the "Our park will be extremely popular with our guests today...." note at the entrance of the parking structure. Of course, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage just opened on Monday.

The first thing we did was ride a double-decker old fashioned car down Mainstreet and got dropped off at the entrance of Tomorrowland. We'd never done that before...it was fun--here we are on the car! We rode on the top deck.

All we did at Disneyland was ride Space Mountain. All the lines were so long!?!

While in line we were hit with a terrible B.O. smell. We realized it was the junior highers behind us and couldn't stop laughing.
All we did was laugh and tell stories the entire time...so much fun!

We cruised the shops and then headed for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.
They sat us at a small, dark, cave-esque corner (since it was just two of us) where the "storms" got quite scary at times.
See...here we are:
Our server Brett AKA "Brad" was amazing! He was so spunky and fun. Every time he'd come around to check on us I'd forget to look at his name badge to see what his name was so I conveniently named him Brad, so that I could make comments about every time he left our table.
At the end of our meal I admitted to Brett that I named him Brad...he joked that he didn't mind me confusing him with Brad Pitt...I joked his last name must really be Arm (Arm-Pitt...get it?). We laughed...it was fun!

After lunch he rode California Screamin' and Tower of Terror twice! Spectacular.

It was so great to spend the day with my sister. We have SO MANY jokes that I almost forgot how alike we are....it was amazing...she is amazing!

A Pharmaceutical Find

Last Saturday night my sister, Marlen, and I went to Walgreen's to buy Baby Don some formula and to buy me some Us Weekly.

As we trotted down the isles looking for some junk food to take with us I ran into a Grey's Anatomy Trivia Board Game! Two of my favorite things in life packaged together so nicely-board games and Grey's!

Truth be told, the first thing that made my eye catch the game was the $9.99 bright yellow tag hanging under it.

Maribel had told me about this game (said Becky had gotten it), but never did I think I'd find it at Walgreen's! I bought it on the spot!

And just in case you're wondering I did open it to see what kind of format the game was in...but I didn't even peak at the question/answer cards...I'm still waiting for a Grey's marathon night in...I want to play fair.

Who's up for some serious Grey's Anatomy butt kickin'?

*My game is in a cardboard box...not in a nice tin box like the one pictured above.

Unofficial List: Cities of the World I'd Like to Visit

1. Paris for all the sights and romantic locations.
2. London to see what Sinatra was singing about.
3. New York on new year's in Time Square.
4. Orlando for Disney World of course.
5. Berlin because Jason told me to.
6. Capetown to see what I can help with.
7. Venice for the food and gondolas.
8. Jerusalem for obvious reasons.
9. Athens for the rich history.
10. San Fransisco so I can walk through Lombard Street.

Pending Movie List

KNOCKED UP
**Will undoubtedly make me laugh.

WAITRESS
**Will undoubtedly make me cry.

Who's in?

Clear Sunshine at Midnight

Last night Bibi and I saw "Little Miss Sunshine".

I bought it a couple of weeks ago but never had the time to sit down and watch it. So yesterday at 11pm we saw it.

It was GREAT!

Bibi warned me to not have such high expectations, fearing that I would end up disappointed. But I did have high expectations and all of those were met.

I love the fact that it resonated so deeply with the family. What an amazing reminder of how amazing families are. With the quirks, problems, shortcomings, twists and turns that life takes...your family is there...like it or not...and they are a source of faithfulness and stability in your life.

One part almost made me cry...when the Grandpa was telling Olive she was beautiful.

P.S. Watch "Little Miss Sunshine", it will make your day brighter! I'm watching it again tonight.

Step by Step

As many of you know (those who know me well), I love order.

I love to do things in order (one thing after another). I don't like to mix things up, but thoroughly enjoy clarity and neatness in all things...at least in most things.

I noticed last night, as I was lying in bed and contemplating a shower, that I even take a shower with each "shower activity" being done in a particular order.

There is method to my madness (observe):

1. Hop in.
2. Do a full RINSE of the entire body.
3. Shampoo.
4. Condition hair.
5. Scrub in my hair de-tangler (let set in for the rest of the shower).
6. Brush teeth (yes, I brush my teeth while IN the shower).
7. Scrub all over with my loofah.
8. Apply shaving cream and shave (my legs and underarms, not my mustache or beard).
9. Do a full RINSE of the entire body.
10. Remember to rinse out all the de-tangler from my hair.

I do all these steps in this EXACT order every time I take a shower.

I know...border line OCD. If I don't do it this way...just doesn't seem right.

One Week Later

I finally post!!!!!

I knew you were just holding your breath!

Relax...and release...I'm back.

I am proud to be me!

I completed my BLOG-Post list today!

I am so proud of myself!

I can walk into the weekend assured that I completed my BLOG ASSIGNMENT.

Why have I Knott posted these pictures?

Because it takes tons of time for them to load onto blogger.

But here they are!
Our Knott's pictures from Sunday (well, some...but not all).

A picture of a picture.
Funny how the little ones look big and the big ones look little.

Me, trying to do the "Rene".

Tatu, alone on Big Foot Rapids.

My granddaughter and I.

We got really wet!

The not-so-yummy pizza.

Gus wearing girl glasses.

Second trip to Ghostrider.

Fun day!

But next time I'll take my Knott's without a side order of drama...thank you very much! :)

In Memory of Memorial Day

Here are some of my favorite pictures taken at our Memorial Day BBQ.

Note: The adults refused to be photographed, which is why they are not pictured on this post.

Livid at Foster's Freeze

Last night after our preaching team meeting Edgar, Janette and I headed over to Foster's Freeze in Bell Gardens. Janette's leaving to Mexico tonight so we wanted to have a little hang out time before she left.
She had a medium cone while I had the chocolate-dipped, peanut sprinkled waffle cone. Very yummy!

Below are some of the pictures Edgar took.

While we were there, the conversation soon turned to ministry. Mostly ministry misfortunes and flaws. Not so much the programs but dealing with conflict and difficult situations.

At one point, Edgar brought up a difficult discussion that I had a couple of weeks ago regarding a problematic volunteer.

As I remembered the conversation and began to tell Janette about it, all I could say to describe how I felt at that moment (of the discussion) was, "I was livid!". Just like that. Livid.

I rarely use the word livid. It's one of those words that is reserved only for very, most, utterly important occasions. You know, when the feeling is just so powerful that you must draw a special un-used word from you memory bank. This occasion felt perfect!

It felt so good to use the word--and Janette enjoyed hearing it so much--, we even re-enacted the conversation just so I could say it again. Janette and I could not stop laughing. Edgar giggled too, but I think he giggled mostly at the fact we would re-enact a conversation just to repeat a word.

These are the moments that I think make friendships special. Times when in the middle of serious discussions you can all appreciate grammar, language, words that are often not used...like livid.

liv·id

–adjective
1. having a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise, congestion of blood vessels, strangulation.
2. dull blue; dark, grayish-blue.
3. enraged; furiously angry.
4. feeling or appearing strangulated because of strong emotion.
5. reddish or flushed.
6. deathly pale; pallid; ashen.

A Wedding Dilemma

The other day I was on the White House Black Market website, looking around for a nice "dressy" dress, checking out some of their shoe selection (not so good on the shoes).

When I ran into this stunner:

If you know me, then you know I love dressy, strapless dresses. They are so gorgeous. They look so timeless and classy to me. And a dress with a sash around the waist or high waist is like a little bit of heaven. A-line dresses do it for me too...and a sweetheart neckline is something I've wanted to try for a long time!

Needless to say, I fell in love!

As I kept reading and searching for optional colors for the dress I found out that this is actually a wedding dress. And it actually comes with two other color sashes included! Look below:

I would LOVE to buy this dress. And wear it...like tomorrow. But it's so beautiful that no place I could ever go would do it justice.

Then I got to thinking that maybe THIS could be my wedding dress...
then I thought that it might be too simple for my wedding....
then I thought it could be possible that I might want my bridesmaids to wear this at my wedding....
an amazing thought...
but...
I want to wear it, if my bridesmaids wear it, I don't get to.

My wedding dilemma...
What would you do?

From the Desk of Bibi Bracy

Yesterday I noticed that someone left Bibi a note/card on her desk. Since it was the front cover of the note/card I took the liberty of reading it (not the inside, just the outside part).

Here is what it read (exactly):

Dont get tire of
doing what its right,
make the most of
every opportunity.
The time will come when
you'll harvest what you
had sow...

This is who I am:
Did I notice the biblical message in the text? NO
Did I praise the author for writing words of the Lord? NO
Did say something like, "Aw, how sweet!"? NO

My response was:
"Who the heck wrote this? I'm not making fun of them per se, but mostly feeling disappointed in our California School Systems. How could someone graduate from high school writing like this? Where did we go wrong? This is what has moved me to become a teacher."

I know who wrote this (I recognized the writing) and yes I think that the fact they wrote like this is funny (I laughed a little bit). But it actually makes me feel sad that tons of people graduate from high school with poor grammar and poor writing abilities. Actually, they graduate with not even the basic ability to compile a proper phrase.

This is sad, funny, but sad too.