Party in PDX

Many months back I searched in vain for a Maroon 5 concert to attend, but I was looking too late and most of their North America tour was over. Oh well, maybe next album. But then!* The band announced a special "summer" tour sponsored by Honda which was co-headlined by Kelly Clarkson! What? Still weren't coming to Boise, but at least there were some nearby options so I put the word out for who would want to attend with me and together we decided where & when. Lucky me, Tamara spoke up and we were both interested in the "Portland" option on Friday, September 27th. I got us the best tickets I could manage, it being a few days after they went on sale, and then it was a loooong wait for the event weekend to actually arrive.

*Since then I've noticed several artists end up adding tour dates or festivals. Point is that it pays to "like" your favorites' FB pages so that you catch these kinds of announcements.

Anyways we hit the road late Friday morning, a super easy trip simply following I-84 alongside the Columbia River. When we got to downtown Portland, it was a little less easy (so many bridges/one-ways) to find our hotel and parking. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott.

(Last image is the view from our room.) Once we unloaded our things and freshened up, we really didn't have much time to get to the venue outside of Portland. (The Sleep Country Amphitheater, also called the Clark County Amphitheater, is actually located in Ridgefield, Washington.) We grabbed dinner from a food truck, had an almost-emergency stop for gas, and then made our way in the dark and stormy weather.

Parking was insane. It was quite a hike from our spot somewhere in Field I to the entrance. I felt so bad for all the general admission people having to stand in the grassy knoll in the rain without umbrellas. Even though our seats were in Row T of the second level, at least they were a little closer - and covered! (Stock image of venue from the air.)

Just as we entered the 202 section to find our seats, Kelly Clarkson took the stage! I immediately recorded this video (without waiting to focus or thinking about orientation).

She has so many big hits, it's crazy, but she also sang a couple covers and an unreleased country song for her next album. Her voice - live and in the cold - was impeccable. She had several costume changes. And she was funny! Absolutely loved her set.

During the intermission, I scoped out the seating and security situation to see if we could improve our lot. I am ever determined to get the most out of an event. During the second song of Maroon 5's set, I went to the center aisle and down by the stairs to the 100 level. After a couple songs there, and Tamara joining me, we got shooed away and found the best possible alternative. Ended up having room to dance, a great view, and weren't a fire hazard or taking anyone else's seat/view. Sa-weet!

Adam Levine was sporting a Freddy Mercury mustache, the band were in all white, and they sounded excellent live. They performed early hits as well as songs from the current album, Overexposed. Some songs that only Adam provided vocals for (by other groups). AND a cover tune (Lucky from Daft Punk).

Their staging was exciting, with changing angles of video screens (to accommodate a giant disco ball at one point), glowing balls for the audience, and spraying confetti. SUPER fun, and I danced so much I ended up taking my jacket & layers off down to a light tee!

(It should be obvious that while some of those images are from my camera phone, some are professional promotional images provided by the official Honda Civic Tour webpage, taken the same night. The three videos are my own.)

The next morning we grabbed a coffee & scone at Stumptown and began exploring the city. Starting with the Saturday Market and then window shopping our way to Anthropolgie and the Pearl District. We met up with some of Tamara's in-laws for lunch at Little Big Burger.

I was happy that Tamara had family to visit with, as my next stop was Powell's Books, where I hoped to spend as much of the afternoon as possible. Tamara ended up escorting her little niece to the children's area and reading to her for most of the time I was absorbed into the endless shelves and rooms of books. I filled a basket to the brim with books for me, books for Mark, books for my kids, some for now and a few for gifts later on. But carrying a huge, heavy, PAPER bag of books the couple of miles back to our hotel, in the rain, was daunting. Again I felt fortunate to be with Tamara who helped shoulder the load once I started to falter.

After drying and resting in our room for a while, we headed downstairs to have dinner at The Original - a modernized 60's style diner. Then we walked back to the Pearl District (this time with umbrellas borrowed from the front desk) to catch the dancing/casual portion of the wedding reception of Tamara's step-sister-in-law, who invited us once she heard we were in town (despite us having nothing to wear but jeans). When we arrived we could see they were in the middle of toasting and speeches, so instead of making an awkward grand entrance right then, we ducked into the sports bar around the corner to keep dry until a family member texted us the music was on. Then we danced! And I was really enamored of the bride and groom (Alicia and Edwin). They were adorably happy, and flirty with each other, and having a great time at their party.

Eddie & Alicia's engagement photo - totally shows the same personalities I met at their reception.

We got back to our hotel in time to watch Saturday Night Live. Deciding we deserved a superior breakfast to the previous day's scone, we headed to Mother's Bistro for brunch on Sunday. There was a 45 minute wait, but it was worth it. Following our big meal, we walked to Voodoo Donuts to get an assortment to bring home to our families. We had to stand in line in the rain, while being serenaded by a homeless trio, but it too was worth it.

Then we loaded our stuff back into the van and drove home, singing and chatting the whole way. Fantastic girls' weekend!

[Side note: Despite my plans for this weekend being in place for at least four months, Mark got an offer he couldn't refuse and ended up going away during very same time frame (plus a couple days) - riding along as our brother-in-law drove home from here to Iowa. So grateful to a saintly mother-in-law for watching our kids while we were away.]

I (heart) Books

Saw that ^ on Pinterest, and knew I had to use it for this post!

One goal I stuck with in 2011 was keeping track of all the books I read. I used Goodreads to rate each book and write a short review so that I could remember why I rated it the way I did. I'm so glad I kept it up! It was something I'd been intending to do for years. For the first time, I have an actual count of how much I've read: 45 books in 12 months! I included books I read to/with the older boys for homeschool. Here's how it breaks down:

11 books with the boys
5 adult contemporary fiction
11 YA fiction
20 non-fiction (13 memoirs/bios, the rest topical, 5 related to education)
1 comic/memoir
2 were re-reads from years past
9 were parts of series
10 were worthy of 5 stars

Obviously, those numbers overlap in some categories. So, what do I recommend (besides just having you follow me on Goodreads)? Well, here's my 5-star list...

For You &/or Your Kids (Deep + Fun Fiction):
Chronicles of Narnia series (the last 3 of which are part of my 2011 tally)
Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers
Calvin & Hobbes collections (10th Anniversary is intermingled with memoir)

Change your look on life (Non-fiction):
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
Outliers: The Story of Success
Infidel (a prominant Muslim woman's amazing life story)
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
The Read-Aloud Handbook

For a Good Time:
The Help
Stories I Only Tell My Friends (for 80s pop culture fans)

Some 4-Star Honorable Mentions:
The Boy Who Dared
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Andre Agassi's Open
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
The Happiness Project
Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives
Adventures of Pinocchio (original by Carlo Collodi)

Your turn: Leave a comment with a book recommend for me!

Life Lately

Halloween was not a big event for us - Charlie couldn't even be persuaded to dress up! But we did go to the church building's Trunk-or Treat and that evening I took Sam (wearing, by request, the same costume as last year) and Isaac the Knight around the block - so I dressed my belly up as a Jack-o-Lantern.

Mostly lots of just regular life lately: Isaac & Sam are in a music class Monday afternoons in Ontario; I have Young Women's activities each Wednesday night at the church; then there's our regular library visits, play dates, craft projects, a John Birch Society meeting or two; and there's been a wedding and the baptisms of two of Isaac's friends. (In our faith, children can choose to be baptized beginning at the age of eight.)

We've also done one cool field trip: to the World Center for Birds of Prey located just outside of Boise. We got a fabulous grandma-age volunteer who followed us around the whole time giving us extra information, worksheets, setting up a film for us to watch, etc. She even gave Isaac his own little tour of the Peregrine Falcons' sanctuary in back while I tended to the want-to-get-out-of-here-NOW boys (understandable as we'd been there for two hours)!

The big boys are as much into animals as ever and love the two boxes of Illustrated Wildlife Treasury (from the early '80s) that their Grandma Dame found and lent to us... But ten minutes of frustrated, unattended Charlie (and Sam) one evening led to this:

Followed the next day by more than three hours of me, Sam & Isaac reorganizing the cards. Ugh!

Charlie wants to watch "Poppins Poppins" every day, and is soooo dang cute hopping around the house shouting "Step-in-Time!" or singing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" which he sometimes changes to "Up to the Fire Truck" (sung while wearing one of our plastic firefighter hats). Trucks, especially construction and fire-fighting varieties, is his other current passion (well, buses too).

Isaac has lost another top front tooth, leaving him with the classic childhood two-front teeth gap as you can see. He decided he should learn all the words to that Christmas song about it, but he doesn't have the awful lisp that goes with the original version. A new interest of his is the card game Uno. We played it while we were in Mesa a time or two and now he wants to play every day. He beat me nine hands in a row one day!

I gave, or rather attempted to give, Sam & Charlie haircuts the other day. Neither would hold the least bit still and both got their ears buzzed for it. (By accident!) Sam's was just a little nick and his hair was pretty well done, no big deal. But poor Charlie... he kept swirling his head around and I was stubbornly, stupidly, determined to fix the truly constant mistakes that were happening that it all came to an early and crashing halt with an ear bleeding profusely and him wailing. He is currently sporting the worst haircut ever (back of the head/sides). Happily, he enjoys wearing hoods. I'm vainly dreading bringing him to church in the morning, though.

Mark is... awesome. Working hard at the pellet factory. Things are going better than ever there this fall. And he still has energy to wrestle with and/or teach the boys almost every night. The other day I came home from a meeting and he was showing them how to do the math related to selling truck loads of pellets - and how to do it in an Excel spreadsheet! (Or maybe he was just doing his bookkeeping?) We're looking forward to a full-day date for our 8th anniversary coming up this week.

As for me, I've been reading more again lately - one of my spurts. Nothing from any of my lists from the beginning of the year. I have picked a few of those titles up during my dry spell, but just wasn't in the mood. The past week-ish I've read a book on homeschooling, Ella Enchanted, and I'm half-way through a political memoir. They've all been fabulous. And I'm also about half way through re-reading the October General Conference talks in the Ensign. I've been blessed with a little extra time to read as the boys can a)read so well themselves and b)play together fabulously most of the time. Here's them earlier today, playing in Sam's "sleeping fort":

Charlie is a Mo Williams Fan

A couple of the books we brought with us on our trip were of the "Don't Let the Pigeon..." variety and Charlie requested them daily and repeatedly. And so, by the time we were hanging out in Mesa, he could "read" them to himself! Here he is with the last few pages of "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late." (Sorry if the audio isn't good enough for you to follow the story. I began recording about the time the pigeon was yawning...)

Love/Hate with Diapers

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping friends in need. I got to watch their five kids while they (mom & dad) were (still are) at the hospital. Spending my day this way was really great - I'm not being sarcastic. Their kids are so good at playing together, helping, obeying, etc. I was able to reflect on a lot of positives from the experience. But. Well, these dear friends of mine use cloth diapers. And their second-youngest (who wears cute little panties) refused to try going to the bathroom any of the 100 times I reminded her. So I got to clean up her mess (unexpected accident of #2 in her pants, ugh) but even worse (though just slightly) was the cloth diaper inside her little brother's rubber pants. I will spare you the gruesome details, but anyone who used/uses cloth because it was/is your only choice - like my mom - I admire you just a bit more. (Maybe I should admire the current women doing it out of choice but hey - it's their choice if they want to deal with that disgustingness several times a day. No bonus points for insanity.)

When we lived in Brazil there were only two brands of diapers available, in very small packages, and both were, I assume, more like the first American prototype of disposable. Which is to say I used them gratefully but longed for and thought I appreciated what we have here in the States. I now know that I have never appreciated disposable diapers as I ought. I am fully aware that these kinds of diapers are on the banned list of all "environmentalists"and because I now, more than ever, looooooove disposable diapers probably labels me an Evil Earth Hater.

Charlie, on the other hand, might be trying to send me a subtle planet-hugging message...

He prefers going natural.

Charlie takes his diaper off every chance he gets (then puts shoes back on - in this case his brother's snow boots)! I wonder if there is any connection between his diaper dislike and his recent favorite book?
He's 26 months old now. If he really wants to be done with diapers, he will be my youngest boy to do so. But I don't think I am ready for the constant viligence (and inevitable accident clean-up) just yet. It's bad enough, really, that I have to read that book every day!