Talent Show: Day 2

He speaks Whale....

I especially like the note around second 52 if you have the higher reaches of your hearing. If you don't, your dog might perk up unexpectedly there and that would be fun to watch too. ;) This is one of his favorite things to do so I have several of these vids in my collection. Don't worry, I'll stop after sharing just the one....for now. Baha

Talent show: Day 1

I've decided to do a video talent show since I've built up quite a repertoire in my files. My oldest, always eager to please, volunteered to go first. (Ok, he's at school, but he WOULD have no doubt volunteered had he been available.)

Ratchet is in sixth grade and writes better than many a college freshman! He worked this little piece up for a quick homework assignment. I was astonished at the content in what seemed like busy work for him. I made him read it to me again for the camera since he had included character voices and everything. :) His literary talents are emerging!

(If you are seeing this on facebook, you'll probably have to click on the link that takes you to my blog to watch any videos.)

I'll be back shortly with the next entry!

Ugly Shan

When I saw this ad for Ugly Betty on my google page Friday I thought I'd seen that picture somewhere before. Sure enough there it was in my photos. I guess I've got one Halloween costume idea in the making.....

Get the braces back on, darken up the hair a bit, and I'll be Betty's ugly older sister in no time. Baha

(Sorry to dwarf you Betty dear. I tried to find a bigger pic of you in this pose but failed.)

Love Out Loud-numero deux

The Love Out Loud show was such a fun experience! Friday night tons of people came and got totally rock-us and silly with us. I was so concerned I would freeze up on my keyboard solos, like the one scarring time in high school when asked to accompany our football king and queen's coronation ceremony (Barry Manilow's 'Mandy' has NEVER been so unrecognizable since- I pa-romise you!). I just couldn't entirely relax and enjoy myself until I knew my hands wouldn't betray me.

On Saturday night (since there was obviously no turning back) I decided I was just going to have fun no matter what happened. What happened was the arrival of an entirely different audience! One where in between the contained claps and the next song, you could hear yourself swallow. Gulp. But, not blaming this country/folksie crowd for not easily adapting to techno, we motored on through and had more fun than ever. If I can get a snippet of something presentable(no not the facebook vids) I'll find it for you and post it.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the muppet-esqe video made especially for the opening song played each night. Jamey made a video for all 11 songs we performed, but this one we all got in on. I,unbeknownst to me at the time, literally was in almost every shot-which was not my desire considering I hadn't a stitch of makeup on. J had to photoshop bricks over my head for most of the song.

(That would have been a strange q and a had someone asked what he spent his Sunday night doing. "Oh, just bricking out my wifes giant head all evening. You?")

Jamey is a wealth of creativity and talent, and I enjoyed practicing along to all the subtleties of his music. How his brain comes up with it all and how he executes each instrument in his songs, I have no idea! I had fun being a part of it this time though.

Here are some more snaps from the event:

Herva

Trish and her fabulous purses

Fool For Now from Saturday night(So beautiful!)

Rick's handmade journals and Dean peering over

Freedom and Nancy(the hosts)with an artist whose name escapes me-oops.

Herva donning masks just because we go all the way for our fans. ;)

If you wish to hear the hubby's latest songs and some of the ones we sang for L.O.L., you can find him here.

Object betrayal

I was traumatized by my medical supplies last night and I wanted to share it with my lovely readers today as it reminded me of recent incident that happened to another thumb I'm fond of.

Warning: This post contains some material that may be too graphic for some.

Please read with caution or avoid all together. :}

Were you too busy looking at his sweet face to see this?

On a recent trip to OKC to visit my parents, Monkey Fingers McGraw(a.k.a. Dandy) got himself into a little scuffle with a stapler.

My mom, Dandy, and I had just popped in for the briefest visit to her office for troubleshooting (or something I can't now recall), before heading off to do our favorite form of geocaching-shopping!

Instead, as you can see, Dandy immediately fired a staple into his finger and then began screaming one continuos shrill note that lasted without breath until I airlifted him out of the office and into the car. (Need your workday spiced up? Call on us.)

Now, I've stapled my thumb before as a child, perhaps you have too. Normally, this type of wound is quickly taken care of when you pluck the thing out, daub it off, and get a band-aid topped with a kiss for your troubles. Because this was a stapler that is used to dealing with insurance claims, that thing fired with the tenacity of a tail gunner and went straight into my baby's little thumb bone and it was not coming out!

So with an ER visit, an x-ray,one hemostat, and a trip to the pharmacy for antibiotics, our "brief troubleshooting" errand had a lot more trouble and shooting in it than we'd bargained for.

Now, back to me.

I wear an insulin pump that uses infusion sets that have to be changed every three to four days. The ones I use have an inserting device that is extremely spring loaded and tends to "insert" the plastic tube coated needle with a lot of force. (Still with me?)

I've hired this male model to show you what they look like. We'll call him Mylan.

Thank you Mylan for that tiny thumbnails worth of ab you've given us. Next time bring no less than an 8x10 if you want consideration! VERY disappointing sir!

Anyway, I had my spot picked out and was pinching up some skin for the needle that goes in at an angle almost parallel to the surface skin.(Notice Mylan's other hand was well out of frame). I fired it in and got a pain in my thumb that felt like the wide plastic coated needle had poked me and rammed right into my nail on the other side of my thumb! That's because it did.

I said "OUCH!" which sometimes I say anyway, but this time I kind of yelled it indignantly. Then I looked down to find that not only had I failed to get my port inserted properly, I had managed to shoot the two inch needle into my stomach, out through another place and then into my thumb all at the same time!

It totally bruised my thumb and my feelings as well when I realized I'd been shish-kabob-bed by my own "user friendly" device.

After daubing my wounds and inserting a new site, I laid down to go to sleep and could feel that my face was still frowning. I have been known to feel sorry for myself when I get fed up with the ins and outs of stupid Diabetes(like the time when I looked down with a syringe in my mouth and stuck myself in the boob). But, this was a different feeling, like a betrayal of trust between me and an inanimate object. That's strange.

I know that actually it was just a simple case of user error like Dandy's stapler incident (and, yes, my accidental boob injection). And, in the end I found myself saying the same thing he said while holding up his freshly stapled thumb.

"Ohhh, I shouldn't have done that!"

No, you really shouldn't have.

Love Out Loud 2009

Calling all bloglookers(cheeky monkeys, YOU)!!! :D

This weekend (Sept. 25th and 26th) we will be in Fayetteville helping promote the Love Out Loud Art and Music show our Friend Freedom Rodriguez puts on to raise money for his missions work in Africa.

The descriptive from the Love out Loud 2009 facebook page sums it up like this:

"Love Out Loud is an annual fund-raiser promoting the use of creative gifts and talents in cross-cultural ministry.

This event is inspired by exploring the question of the purpose of creativity. We may not all be artistic, yet the truth is we are all creative in various ways — through our vocations, hobbies, our everyday lives are filled with creativity. This creativity is ingrained in our human nature. Yet where does it come from? The Bible says that we are created in "His [God's] image" and we are the "workmanship [craftmanship or poem] of God". What does this mean in our daily lives? Is creativity solely meant for self-expression? Or should we actively pursue to glorify God in our creativity? This and many more questions are being asked. What's your conclusion? Maybe your still seeking. Well, Love Out Loud is the place you can explore these questions and possibly find the answer. Join us and feel the love."

If you are in the area, we hope you stop in to this creative extravaganza. There will be many hand made and painted items for sale, wonderful music by our friends Tab and David from Fool For Now, and I will be there both nights giving my contribution by playing some keyboard and doing backup vocals for the ever talented Herva.

Now, seriously, are you gonna wanna miss out on that last bit? I'm in a band for Pete's sake!! (Can we just guffaw together for a moment? )

Ok, now, back to business.

Here's the video Jamey and Freedom put together for those of you who haven't seen it:

Host:	Vintage Fellowship
Type:	Causes - Fundraiser
Network:	Global
Price:	FREE ADMISSION - Art and gift items for sale, and donations made to OM-ARTSLINK will be accepted.

Date:	Friday, September 25, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:	Vintage Fellowship
Street:	3416 N. College Ave
City/Town:	Fayetteville, AR

Live it. Love it. And then, buy the t-shirt(they're really cool)!!

Love Out Loud from herva on Vimeo.

Homework for the long weekend

"You've got big dreams? You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying ... in sweat! "

Test on Tuesday people!!! ...2,3,4...