My Only Sunshine

iPhone Thursday

Here's the Bug in her swim warm-ups at the end of the first day.  Doesn't she look like the cutest little athlete?

This is the way the swimmers remember where they need to be and when.  The big numbers are the events and the smaller numbers are lane and heat number.

Isn't this costume for Bitty's tap recital cute?  Her sassy little personality should pair with this perfectly.

Last but not least, my favorite little elf pixie face at the pet store playing with the 8 week old ferrets.  Think the little critter liked my Bit?

iPhone Thursday - Did I make you wait long enough?

Thank you for waiting so patiently to hear who won the KLUTZ books.  I was waiting to tell you until I had gotten the delivery of their books all set up with KLUTZ.  Now that the books are on the way I can announce that Stacie, Wendi, and Brittany won the fun little books.  They should arrive on Monday and I can't wait to hear what they think of them.

Now for a little iPhone Thursday action, today we have Video! This is Bug in Tuesday's "mini-meet". She recently joined the swim team (which is amazing since she was scared to get in the water a year ago) and had her first competition this week. The coaches are amazed at her strength, from all the dancing, so are working hard to teach her the strokes fast so they can get her competing against kids outside her own team. This mini-meet is just for kids on the city wide swim team. In this video Bug is swimming her first ever race. It's the 25meter Freestyle and she is in the middle lane.

Did you notice that Bug totally killed the other kids? She's so amazing. She went on to win the 25m Backstroke as well, which she taught herself. Then she placed 3rd in her final race which was the 25m Breaststroke. She had only done a single lap of breaststroke in her life before that competition.  I'm a pretty proud Mommy, as you can imagine.

While Bug has been swimming, Bitty has been playing volleyball.  She's tiny and sometimes has a hard time serving the ball over the net.  At the same time, she is more into the game and practice than any other kid on the team.  She LOVES it and you can tell in everything she does.  It's amazing.

So my next post will be about my whirlwind week with Provocraft.  Right now it's time to head to the school library for a little book shelving.

iPhone Thursday - Paul McCartney

Last night Buster took me to the new Cowboys stadium for our 12th Anniversary.  He had given me tickets to see Paul McCartney on his last summer tour date and only show in Texas.

 

Before I can talk about Sir Paul McCartney I have to comment on the new venue.  Having grown up in Dallas and being a life long Dallas Cowboys fan I've been to Texas Stadium many times.  I was very excited to see and experience the new place and I wasn't disappointed.  First of all, it's huge.  I mean really massive.  Second, the design is based on the original home of the Cowboys and I like that.  Third, the new stadium is very lovely inside and I felt like a celebrity with the treatment we received.

 

We were able to park very close which I love.  Our tickets were on the club level which was very nice.  The food was not at all standard ball game fare.  We could have had Kobe burgers but opted for fajita tacos instead.  The drink prices at the full bar were steep but the drinks were good and the plastic cups were so nice we weren't sure it was safe to throw them away. (that was a little weird)

Our seats were squishy and soft and I had plenty of room to be comfortable.  We also had a very good view.  Straight in front of us was the world's largest HD screen.  To our right was PAUL McCARTNEY!!!  I've seen him in concert before but this was better.

The opening band was a group from Ireland called The Script and they were very good.  Paul started very late but we still got a full 3 hours of wonderful.  I made a note of the play list.

Drive My Car
Jet
Only Mama Knows
Flaming Pie
Got To Get You Into My Life
Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady ending (After playing a little tribute to Jimmy Hendrix he told a funny story about being friends with Jimmy Hendrix)
Highway
All My Loving
The Long And Winding Road
My Love
Blackbird (We got a little choked up when he talked about this song being about the plight of the black American fighting for their civil rights)
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Calico Skies
Mrs Vanderbilt
It's so Easy (This song was performed only in Dallas as a tribute to Buddy Holly)
Eleanor Rigby
Sing The Changes
Band On The Run
Back In The USSR
I'm Down
Something (Paul opened this song by getting his ukulele and talking about George Harrison's skills on the instrument.)
I've Got A Feeling
Paperback Writer
A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance (there isn't much in the world like listening to tens of thousands of Texans singing Give Peace a Chance)
Let It Be
Live And Let Die

 

As always, Live and Let Die was an amazing experience.  It isn't often that you get to see full fireworks inside a building.
Hey Jude

At this point the band left the stage.  There was no chance the audience was just going to let him go.

First Encore
Day Tripper
Lady Madonna (Can't go wrong with a Mommy song)
I Saw Her Standing There 

Second Encore
Yesterday
Helter Skelter
Get Back
Sgt. Pepper Reprise/The End

 

We really weren't supposed to take pictures during the concert and I didn't get many good pics at all but this one turned out pretty well.  The screens on either side of the stage were really cool.  Paul was so personable and fun and he often spoke right into the camera that showed up on that screen.  He read signs in the audience and was chatty, it was great.  Another amazing thing about this concert was that it went on for 3 hours and he didn't leave the stage until after 30 songs.  No breaks, no stopping for a bottle of water.  What a performer.

 

There was a very psychedelic and cool video during Sgt Pepper.  What a perfect ending.

iPhone Thursday - Changes

This is my handsome Buster on Tuesday.  We've been together for 17 years and for about half of that his hair has been this long.  Right after I took this picture he sat down in my friend Amanda's salon chair (she cuts my hair and the Girlies' too, she's the best) and she cut his hair.

 

One big snip (well really it took lots of sawing, he has thick hair) and he was short haired again.

 

As you can see, it cracked Bug up.  That's when it wasn't freaking Bug and Bit out.  Buster had short hair when Bug was born, but neither of the girls remember him having short hair.  They've always loved making fun of the fact that he had longer hair than I do.  You know, "girl hair."

 

Here's the new hair.

 

He still looks just like the love of my life to me.

The funny thing about his hair cut is the way other people react.  You may have seen these pictures in my tweets in the sidebar earlier this week.  So many people responded to those tweets and even more people at his office had something to say.  What is strange in their reactions is that they seem to think the haircut is some sign of a change in who he is.  I think that people always categorized him as a certain type of person because of his long hair.  Now that he has short hair they feel like he must have changed his thoughts on life, or his goals.  I'm not sure.  He hasn't changed at all though.  He wasn't some hippy liberal before (much to my dismay *grin*) and he hasn't become some uptight suit now.  He's always just been a wonderful geologist guy who loves to put on hiking boots and a Baylor t-shirt and take his daughters fossil hunting.  I really like that about him. (Can you tell I'm smitten?)

You may also have noticed all the tweeting about wall paint.  I've been working on painting Bug's room for what seems like forever.  Black is hard to cover.  I'm nearly done with everything but the trim and built-ins.

 

This is Bitty helping me with the first coat of Caribbean Coast blue.  My Girlies love to paint.  It actually take me a little longer to get things done with them helping but I'm not about to stop them.  They like it, I like the company, and I would never tell them there is something they can't do if they put their mind to it.

 

Bug made me a thank you card.  Isn't it cute?  Oh, and Fiona loves to help with the painting too.  Her orange fur looks great with the blue paint.

iPhone Thursday - Volleyball

See the kid in the bright yellow, with the ball?  That's Bitty.  This week she has been going to volleyball camp at a high school across town.  Neither of my daughters have done much involving team sports in their lives, being dancers.  This has been so much fun for Bitty and for her Mommy getting to watch.  She's far tinier than the other kids though she is roughly the same age but she does great anyway.  Buggy thinks her sister is awesome.  In the fall Bit will play on a team made up of mostly kids from her school. I can hardly wait.

iPhone Thursday - The 4th, Madonna, and PJ painting

I live in the city.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not urban, but I do live in a large suburb that is right on the edge of a very large chunk of urban sprawl.  I love being a city dweller.  I have never ever wanted to live in the country, or even close to the country.  Middle of nowhere is not my thing.  Having said that, I love that the neighborhood we moved to a year ago sometimes has a very small town feel.  Even though we have all the benefits of living in the city we also have a very close friendly community holding us tight.  As an example, for the 4th of July we had a neighborhood association sponsored parade and party.

Here are the Girlies and the cousin sitting on the side of the street just east of our house.  All of their patriotic red, white, and blue looks good against the green grass doesn't it?

 

This is what our parade looked like.  Pretty red cars, flags, and kids on bikes with streamers.  As my SIL says, it's all very Mayberry and I love it.

 

The other day Bitty asked me who Madonna is.  That was after she had come up with the pink and black outfit.  My kids are such rockstars.

 

The Girlies are helping me paint Bug's room.  It is taking forever due to all of the built in woodwork, which is black.  The ceiling, doors, and windows are all black as well.

 

Did I mention the walls were gray?

 

The painting is hard work.  It's made fun by doing all the work in our PJs.

iPhone Thursday - Tonight we dance

Wainy got dressed up on Father's Day and went with us to the movies.  The Girlies took their Daddy to see Imagine That with Eddie Murphy and Yara Shahidi.  It was a wonderfully sweet movie and that little girl is amazing.  The sound track is filled with Beatles songs which made me very happy.  It was a very good Daddy/Daughter movie.

 

I heard a funny noise coming from under the sofa yesterday.  When I went to look I found Bella.  She laid like this, belly up, under the sofa for a good ten minutes yesterday.  Cats are funny.

Are you wondering yet what Wainy the rabbit and Bella the cat have to do with dancing?  The title is a warning.  Tonight is the ballet summer workshop performance and my girls will be dancing in both shows.  Bug and Bit both tell me they have "solos" because they are older than the other kids in the class.  There will be many pictures, and maybe video, so watch out.

iPhone Thursday - Busy Week

My iPhone has nearly no photos since the last iPhone Thursday.  I have been so busy this week I can hardly keep up.

iPhone Thursday - Cousins