The Great Pumpkin Carving

My sis came into town this weekend and first on our list was getting some pumpkins for a little carving showdown. We headed to the K-Rogers and picked up their finest along with a carving kit (that, by the way, we got for free thanks to my keen eyesight noting the wrong price on the ring-up. Two points for me!).

We headed home and started the cavity exploration.

My boys, who are normally not afraid of anything whatsoever, were a little creeped out by the pumpkin guts.
We were armed with large spoons and other equipment (and our serious de-gooping faces)....
But in the end it was our hands that did most of the work. We ain't skeerd.
Some folks, as you'll note, enjoyed the cavity exploration a little too much. I'll let you decide which one based on the picture below. One loves. One....well, not so much.
Some were just put out by the whole idea and could care less.

Finally the actual cutting started. We stepped it up a notch this year and were going for the gold with these carvings. No triangle eyes and notched out teeth on these babies.
It's really not fair to be in a carving competition with someone that wields a scalpel at least 100 hours a week. Can you say unfair advantage??
Bobby wasn't going down easy though. He brought serious concentration to the table. Just look at that determination:
Cade was having a great time being that he passed the hard part (the actual carving) on to Bobby.
I've lived with these boys long enough to know that letting them handle sharp knife-like objects in the company of others (or themselves for that matter) is NEVER a smart idea. Not if you like your appendages anyway.
Tracie's headless horseman turned out pretty good!
It's an understatement to say that the boys were excited to see the finished products. It was really cool to see them lit up on the porch. From left to right: Jared, Tracie, Me, Rhett, Grant, and Cade.
Impressed? You should be. We all experienced cramping pains in our hands from the carving pressure. You've got to be willing to get a little carpal tunnel to have the best carved out pumpkins in the neighborhood!

Play On!

So, I was getting really nervous that 2010 was going to slip right off into the past without Bobby and me getting in our concert fix. Luckily though, with my handy-dandy great ticket getter, we scored some 2nd row seats to see my best friend Carrie Underwood perform! Yeah! We turned it into a mid-week date night and had my gals and their guys join us.

Well isn't this picture just cutie-patootie.
We missed Sons of Sylvia, the opening act because our dinner took a little longer than expected and the traffic was atrocious. We did, however, make it in time to hear Billy Currington. I think Bill has a great voice but he was slightly low energy for me.
And, I could barely stop staring at his hairy hairiness. So much hair. Lots of scruff. Don't get me wrong. I like a man with curls but I prefer a more Deirks Bentley kind of curly look. The old woman behind us was all things Billy Currington and her dancing made me agree (mostly) with his song, God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy. Most of you know I'm not into beer. I would much prefer some of Mrs. Bell's sweet tea. Moving on.
We had a brief intermission while they were setting up Carrie's elaborate concert set. Here's our token concert shot taken by my outstretched arm.
A'lyce was my second row girl buddy. Ash didn't have tickets in our section :( We got a quick shot of us before the show started. One of these people was not invited in this shot. I'm talking to you in the back, Cyclops.
I'm going to go ahead and say that I was truly ecstatic to see this concert. I'm sure I felt that way because I'm pretty much responsible for Carrie's success. If it had not been for me feverishly voting for her in Idol Season 4 she'd still be singing at the pumpkin fest in Checotah. It's true. One person really can make a difference.

She came up out of the floor singing Cowboy Casanova. I was lovin' it already.
Did I mention that we were on the second row? Oh yeah, up close and personal. I was pretty happy that I caught this picture. She's noticing and pointing at.......
Ashman. Oh yes he did. He sported his Carrie Underwood t-shirt. Talk about impressed. I'm sure she was. He was awarded with a quick point/eyebrow raise/tiny wave. I'm sure she then pressed her secret "creepy" button on her mic that initiated additional security detail to eyeball the big guy in the little t-shirt.
In any case, we all got a great laugh out of it.
In Jason's defense, his buddies got him the shirt and he was just man enough to sport it.
Besides myself, I'll tell you who has some serious pipes. Carrie Underwood. She blew me away with nearly every song. Gerry House on 98FM always calls Martina McBride "two lungs and a larynx" because she has such a big voice in a little body. I think Martina just met her match!
Let's talk about outfit changes. There were lots of them. Pink puffy tulle dress. She looked a lot like my Peaches and Cream barbie doll. I loved that thing.
She can sing just as well suspended in the air on a swing as she can standing flat footed on the ground.
Somewhere or other she lost the tulle and was left with the black jeans. As great as the 2nd row tickets were, they were too close for me to be able to get a picture of her shoes. It was the height of the stage and the closeness of my seat working against me. How sad. I love shoes. I'm not sure that any of the three of you that read this blog would know that.
If Carrie ever sells this shiny bustier on ebay I'm going to bid on it.
Her perceived number one fan.....still watching intently.
Who'd of ever thought a truck would've come out of the stage and that she'd ride around the crowd in an old Ford? Not me.
But it was cool. Once again, heights have no effect on her singing ability.
The truck came right next to us. I wanted to use this opportunity to tell her that I live close by if she ever wants to hang out but time was limited so I didn't.
Next outfit: lighted metal stand alone dress thing. When she was done with this song she literally just walked out of it.
I was so glad she went old school and set up her Grand Ol' Opry mic stand and belted her duet with fake Randy Travis. I say fake because they pulled that trick that makes the whole crowd go bonzo because they think the second half of the duet is actually there but then it turns out that he's just being played on the stage screen in the back. I don't know how many times I'm going to fall for that before I wise up.
She sang a beautiful song to her Mama while she played a little piano. I was unaware that she also played instruments. The smoke added a nice effect but really made my voice scratchy so the chance of her asking me to be a back up singer was totally shot. Durn that smoke.
When she got up from the piano half of her dress was missing. Given our seats, I was a little nervous about the view that we might get. I was really relieved to see that she kept it G-rated by sporting some spanx under that little dress.
Her last wardrobe change was my favorite. So cute and flirty. Such a sweet looking outfit to wear when you're talking about busting up someone's souped up 4-wheel drive. Guess even the sweetest thing can turn ugly when a man does you wrong :)

If I liked Carrie Underwood before this concert, I totally love her now. She put on a great show. She can sing like nobody's business and her rendition of "How Great Thou Art" nearly brought me to tears. Awesome. Really, really awesome.
It was great also, to hang out with my peeps, have a great dinner, and LOTS of great laughs.
And so as not to forget the men, here is a quick after concert mug shot:
Jason put his cover shirt back on. He was tired of all the smirks from the security people.....and he was nervous someone would nominate him to be her fan club president.

Outstanding show, wonderful seats, great friends. What more could a gal ask for??

Talents

Little Buddy has shown talent in some new areas lately. He's been tearing up the soccer field and loving every minute of it.

My favorite part of his attitude about soccer this year is that he's all about his team. He gives an all out "YEAH!" with hands in the air if anyone on his team scores. He hasn't scored one himself yet but if I had a dollar for every near miss he's had I could walk into Dillards and buy myself those leather boots without a second thought.
I love that he says, "If I hadn't passed that ball she'd never have gotten that goal, ya know." He definitely doesn't take himself too seriously either, able to laugh at himself when he kicked over the top of the ball and ended up falling down.
That gave him a good laugh for quite a while. Not as long, though, as when he kicked the ball in practice and it hit the coach right in the tenders. Now THAT was a good laugh for him.
His other new talent is writing his name. And any other word that he might see somewhere. I think he's doing a great job and the major plus is that he's actually using paper and not my walls.
For all intents and purposes, talents are suppose to make a mother proud. I'm not sure if I can say that for his most prized talent....the one he's most known for in small circles: The tongue in the nostril talent.
You can see upon closer inspection that the tongue actually enters the nostril approximately 5cm. Really, how many people do you know that can pull that off?
It's shocking, I know. It's also entertaining.
I wish I could add that it's useful but it's really not unless you're a booger eater. Which, thank the good Lord in heaven, that's one thing Little Buddy is not. Talent: you take the good with the bad and roll with it!

Excitement....

Only not the good kind. Yesterday turned into a whirlwind kind of day. Tee-Tiny had been fighting fever since Sunday. Higher fevers than any of my boys ever faced. After entering the fifth day of running temps between 101 and 104, I decided that another trip to the pediatrician was in store. She was pleasant despite the fever and even gave me lots of smiles. Isn't she cute when she smiles?

MD ordered blood cultures and wanted a urine culture as well. Unfortunately, two tries for a cath proved futile. Instead of smiling, Tee-Tiny looked like this....only times 100.
I had finally gotten her to sleep after all the trauma and not fifteen minutes later she started shaking uncontrollably, her skin became mottled, then she was greyish color and not breathing well. The next thing I know paramedics are at the Ped's office giving her some oxygen, strapping her on the humongo stretcher and off we're rolling to Vandy ER. It was my first time in an ambulance and I can say for certain that I didn't like it one bit. Not with my tiny little baby strapped and still getting an IV.

About twenty minutes later we're checking in at the ER and getting ready to be put in our little room. I decided to stop by the bathroom since I hadn't been there since the early morning and woah. I looked like trailer trash. Not that there's anything wrong with trailers in general.....I just looked like I came from the park that always gets hit by the tornado. My hair was so greasy that I could've gotten a job at the Waffle House as their bacon greaser, (note to self: Your hair does NOT do well being washed the night before. You KNOW this. Don't try it again.), I had mascara from above my eyebrows to the mid portion of my cheeks, (which, by the way, would have never happened if Melissa Radke and Angela Spencer had not set me up with a mascara intervention two years ago.), and the strings that tied in the back of my shirt ripped off when I bent over to pick up Elaina so I looked like I was four months pregnant (another note: Do not tie those things so tight. Apparently my lats are much larger than I thought.).

Anywho, bottom line: Lanie looked much better once receiving fluids, after two more tries for a catheter and ending up with a little pee catching bag, it was discovered she had a urinary tract infection. Once her temperature of 104.9, oh yes, 104.9, came down she was a different child. It is assumed that she probably had a febrile seizure at the doctor's office.

We got home a smidge after midnight, exhausted, hungry and most of all thankful. I'm so glad we got to come home WITH baby girl. She's better today but still on the road to recovery. God is good.

I'm all for excitement, but sheesh, take me to Dollywood or something. That's more my speed.