I sing, as many of you know. Way back in 2005 I drove to Denver to audition for American Idol, and didn't make it very far... so why not try again if it's in my own back yard? When my brother said he wanted to go, and Thunder offered to work from home for the day, how could I resist? Now, in the last 3 years I have determined that pop music is not really my personal style for singing, but despite that, it still seemed to be a fun way to pass an ENTIRE day, right?
We registered earlier and arrived this morning at 5 AM. Yes, you read that right. Then we sat and WAITED, until about 7:30 when they opened the doors to the Energy Solutions Arena and we found our seats. Everyone had been given a seat ticket and a wristband. And they took all our outside food when we checked in! Once everyone was inside, we were taught "Ain't No Mountain High" and "Get Ready" for our crowd song. After over an hour of crowd camera shots with their long-armed jib camera (we were in a great spot, look for us in January!), they set up several tables on the floor of the arena.
Groups of 4 people were brought up to each table, with each person given 15-30 seconds to sing a song a capella. They started auditions around 10 am, and went for about a half hour, when all of a sudden they stopped, because the Man of the Hour had arrived:
This required another hour of camera shooting... at this point we were still only 1/5 through people who needed to audition. So we thought, since they confiscated our food (except for the contraband fruit snacks we snuck in) why not get something to eat? 2 HOURS later, we had managed to scrounge up a $3 churro. But boy, did it taste good. So back to waiting for our turn. Around 2:30, it was finally time for us to rise from our seats and descend to the arena floor. We turned in our release form and seat ticket and got in line. Now everyone was practicing their songs and tension was high in the air. We got to our judges table, ready to go.
All of a sudden she said she had to take a minute to text her family because there was a big earthquake in Los Angeles. My eyes snapped open, because Grandma and Grandpa Boyd live there, as well as several aunts, uncles and cousins. I asked how big, she said it was around 5.4 (our family is fine by the way), and then I had to sing my song! My brother sang after me, then all 4 of us in our row were called up to the table and given the standard schpeal letting us go. I wasn't that surprised. In fact, it was nice to get out of there, honestly. I have other music things I am pursuing anyway, and this isn't my style... but still an interesting day!
China= rice
Hi all- just a quick note to say I've uploaded some more music to the music site. You can find it here. Thanks for listening!
My 25-pounders
cherry tomatoes, zucchini,
yellow squash, onions and broccoli......
and then we cooked it and ate (well, we saved the broccoli for dinner)! The kids each tried three bites... and that was about it. And I told Tornado to try the food in his bowl, and he just said one word: "yucky." I didn't even know he knew that word! At least they tried it, right?
... and we even called my sister and left a message saying that they were drinking RasBub for the first time! I mean, I was passing on a family tradition! Then my brother came home, and informed me that I had it all WRONG. Oops. It is CranRaspberry and SPRITE!!! "Hence the 'bub' in RasBub" he told me. It does make sense.
So here is the real RasBub. It's good stuff! And actually, the orange juice and CranRaspberry combo is pretty good too (which I did confirm that my mom drank when I was little).
The kids love to help hoe the weeds and pick the fruits of their labor. They helped plant all the starter plants and the seeds for beans, pumpkins and watermelon (a no-show this year, thank goodness).
So now, my problem is... what do I do with all this yellow squash?
Ah, the joys of swimming lessons for 2 of 3 kids- poor third kid! Cloudburst and Sunshine have loved learning to float, kick and play fun games in deep water. Poor Tornado just has to watch everyone swimming, so we try to keep busy! After the first day, we found a rhythm and it's actually fun for me to have some one-on-one time with Tornado. Too bad they are over in two days!
We registered earlier and arrived this morning at 5 AM. Yes, you read that right. Then we sat and WAITED, until about 7:30 when they opened the doors to the Energy Solutions Arena and we found our seats. Everyone had been given a seat ticket and a wristband. And they took all our outside food when we checked in! Once everyone was inside, we were taught "Ain't No Mountain High" and "Get Ready" for our crowd song. After over an hour of crowd camera shots with their long-armed jib camera (we were in a great spot, look for us in January!), they set up several tables on the floor of the arena.
This required another hour of camera shooting... at this point we were still only 1/5 through people who needed to audition. So we thought, since they confiscated our food (except for the contraband fruit snacks we snuck in) why not get something to eat? 2 HOURS later, we had managed to scrounge up a $3 churro. But boy, did it taste good. So back to waiting for our turn. Around 2:30, it was finally time for us to rise from our seats and descend to the arena floor. We turned in our release form and seat ticket and got in line. Now everyone was practicing their songs and tension was high in the air. We got to our judges table, ready to go.
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