Trans Siberian Orchestra

On Tuesday Brian and I headed to Denver to take Amy to the TSO concert at the Pepsi Center, and what an amazing night it was! We had fabulous seats within spitting distance of the stage. Amy was mesmerized, and it was such fun to see it thru her eyes. If you've never seen TSO you just can't begin to imagine what it's like. You just have to see it to believe it! What I can't understand is how I can sit with a silly grin thru their whole show...no earplugs at all. Yet I don't care for loud rock music under any other circumstance. There's just something about TSO. The talent and energy on their stage is pure poetry, and the lights and pyrotechnics are spectacular. I've seen them twice now and I hope to see them many more times in the future. The highlight of the evening was about 30 minutes after the show. Tables were set up for the performers and we were able to shake hands and get autographs for every single one of them. Amy offered to be their personal chef, and when we got to her favorite performer, the violin stringmaster, she actually proposed to him. My sweet, shy (*cough) little Amy actually proposed to someone! I asked her later what she would have done if he'd said "yes" and she replied, "I'd have married him on the spot!"

An empty nest trial run...

Never a dull moment in the Anderson household! Bethany is on a 2 week fall break. Normally working at the hospital on the weekends prevents her from spending much time with her sisters. But due to the recent swine flu outbreaks, the teen volunteer program has been temporarily suspended. So yesterday I dropped her off at Mines to visit Laura for a couple of days. They were going to do some Christmas shopping and have girl time since Laura is also on her fall break. Tomorrow she'll take Bethany over to Amy's campus to spend a few days. All this to say that Brian and I are getting a small taste of what the "empty nest" thing feels like. He arrived home last night from San Diego and will leave again tomorrow morning for LA, but today we had one glorious day to just enjoy being together. We caught up on some things around the house and did a little bit of shopping ourselves. Mostly, though, we just caught up on all that's been going on with his job and things around home. It was nice to relax and talk. I love spending time with Brian. I think we'll be good at the empty nest thing someday. (Not too soon, though, thankfully!)

FYI...I'm reading an interesting series by Francine Rivers about women in the lineage of Christ. Although this is a fictional account based on Biblical facts, I found it quite fascinating. Now I'm excited about studying these women whose names I've heard but never really studied before. So far I've read about Tamar, Bathsheba, and Mary. Two more books to go.

whirlwind

What a crazy couple of weeks it's been for our family! My birthday has come and gone, and a week later Bethany turned 16. That one is still hard for me to believe. What a beautiful young lady she is, though. No matter how much I still feel like a teenager myself, when I look at our girls it's pretty obvious they're growing up beautifully despite my denial of the passage of time. Annie is finally feeling better after her many days of vet visits. She's now on prescription dog food (who knew there was such a thing!) She's also on a couple of medications and gets B-12 injections every Friday for several weeks. At one point we thought we might lose her, but other than having to give her really smelly dog food, which she loves, things are much better. In the past 2 weeks we had 3 sick....Laura, Ian, and Bethany, but I think they're all FINALLY feeling better. Ok, Bethany and Ian are. Laura keeps relapsing. The health center at Mines thinks she's had swine flu. We're just not sure. I do know that her dorm is quite cold since the heat hasn't been turned on yet. Her grandparents all came thru, though, and showered her with warm clothes, blankets, slippers, etc. Hopefully this will help. She has 2 windows in her room and she said if she sets a mug of hot cider on her window sill it only takes about 30 seconds to become apple juice. That's cold! Last night Brian drove up to visit with her and they spent the night at a Hampton Inn. She was happy to get a decent meal and a hot shower. Hopefully that will help. And on his way home this morning he'll stop at Amy's campus to bring her home since she has a long weekend! She's bringing at least one friend who wanted to get away...possibly more. Never a dull moment! Culinary school agrees with her and she's loving college life. Other than weekends, Brian will be gone for the next 3 weeks. Hopefully we won't have any health, technology, or home repair emergencies while he's gone. And soon after he gets back we'll be headed to Denver to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra's 2009 Christmas show! It's so hard to believe this year rapidly heading into my favorite time of year...the anticipation and celebration of Christ's birth!!! For now, though, I'm just going to enjoy each day as it comes and continue to pray for health for our family and for several friends who have health concerns. To quote my favorite t-shirt..."life is good!"

"happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me...!"

What a wild adventure turning 50 turned out to be! Things started getting a little bit crazy early last week when Annie got so sick she couldn't keep anything down for days. Our vet was quite puzzled. He did x-rays and blood work and a few other unmentionable tests and could find nothing conclusive. He sent her home on Thursday evening with an IV which we had to monitor all night. On Friday morning I was supposed to head to Denver to pick up Amy for the weekend, so Brian and my dad took Annie to the internal medicine vet. (Who know there was such a person?) After shaving her belly, which embarrassed her greatly, she had an ultrasound. Again, nothing conclusive, but at least a tumor or an obstruction was ruled out. Back to our vet they went. Meanwhile, as I was just about to pull out of town to head north I got a phone call from Bethany who was running a fever. A quick U-turn and I headed back to the high school to pick her up. After tucking her in and putting Mom on alert (thanks, Mom!) I headed to Johnson & Wales to get Amy. As we walked toward each other on campus I was trying to remain cool and calm...didn't want to embarrass my girl. But when we were just a few feet away she yelled "hi, mom!" and flew into my arms and that was one of the best hugs ever!!! We had a quick trip back from Denver...she told stories the whole way and the time just flew by. Ten minutes after we got back, Brian walked in with a silly grin on his face. Right behind him was my sweet friend, Susan, who had flown in from Alabama for my birthday! I was shocked! She's a piece of my heart and I was just thrilled to wrap my arms around her. I know she had to move mountains in order to make the trip happen, and I'm stunned my family kept such a secret from me. I had NO clue she was coming. If it had been just about anyone else I would have been a basket case at being surprised. But this was a no-brainer. She's family! We laughed and told stories and tried to catch up on each other's lives (although there's NEVER enough time to do that.) I was a happy, happy girl. On Saturday, Laura and Ian arrived and my brother, John, also came down with his 2 kids. Could life possibly get any better? Oh yeah. On Sunday we went to church as a family and it was the first time in weeks I was "high on Jesus" on a Sunday morning. The music and the message were awesome, and I couldn't think of a better way to start my actual birthday. We had a wonderful meal of southern bbq afterward and then helped the college kids get on their way. And THEN Susan produced tulip and daffodil bulbs and proceeded to plant them in my flower beds! I couldn't believe she'd brought them all the way from Alabama! For 9 years I've thought, "this is the year I'm going to get bulbs in the ground" but somehow it never happens. ( It's probably no surprise to anyone that the green thumb gene skipped right on by me.) But in the spring I'll have beautifull flowers and I'll smile to be reminded of this very special gift from my sweet friend. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and early this morning I had to take Susan back to the airport. Now it's back to reality for me. Brian is upstairs recovering from steroid injections, Bethany is snuggled up next to him trying to get her strength back after her feverish weekend, and Annie is sleeping in the sun after spitting out her medicine (which I'll get down her soon.) Time to wash sheets and towels and pick up the clutter. But it's ok. I'll do it with a smile. it was such a lovely weekend! Who knew turning 50 could be such a blast?!!