Scratching one more thing off that list....

well, i did it - i finally saw Dave Matthews Band in concert. perhaps not many people knew that that was one of the things on my ever-growing list of "Things to do before I die", but it was... and i did it!!!!!! my amazingly wonderful friend MEGAAAAAAAANNNN made the 3 hr trek up here to share the experience with me and we had a BLAST!!!! this one on the right is a picture from my phone (with 8x zoom). dave is the man in black in the middle. sooooo cooooool. the one on the left is how far we "actually" were away. still good seats though i think. :o) well worth it. charles bought me the ticket for my birthday.. not cheap. about $80 when all was said and done, more expensive than metallica! but again, worth it. i've been to a LOT of concerts, and dave matthews band was BY FAR the very BEST one as far as musicianship goes. each one of the band members play like a machine! they played for 3 solid hours and the styles of each song varied from rock to samba, and every one of those guys hung in there like a champ till the very end and STILL played some pretty kick ass solos at 11:30 at night... not to mention the fact that dave was singing his heart out the whole time and never faltered once. pretty amazing. by far, the best live band i've seen. my only regret is that i didn't know about 95% of the songs that they played, but that's ok. i appreciated them for their musical qualities and the effects they held upon the crowd just the same.

and now, i have nothing left to do but go out and purchase some dave matthews band cds. i used to own one from back in the "columbia house mania days"when they first came out, but it was lost in the first round of cd theft a couple years ago. but thats ok, i'm off to nebraska furniture mart tomorrow and i'm hoping for some really cheap cds there. maybe i can find a live album! that would be cool if it wasnt $40! so we'll see. if all else fails, i'll have charles do some online digging and load up my ipod. much cheaper....

ROUND THREE: Harry Potter break

when did Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows come out? July... bla bla blaa...?? i think it was the 17th, i'm not sure... but i DO know that i was one of the dorks at the book store pre-registering for it and arrived at 1am to pick up my copy (note: i was NOT there at 12:01am in costume, so i'm not that bad). i then came home and was able to stay awake to read the first chapter or so, then fell asleep. however, i woke up the next morning and proceeded to read for pretty much a day and a half straight until it was finished. WOW! anyone who really knows me will know what a harry potter nut i am, and WOA!!!! soooooo awesome!
the most difficult part was waiting for charles and my mom to finish reading it so that i could talk to them about all of the exciting parts - which they have now done. both were equally thrilled by the amazing story (although not as giddy about it as i am, especially charles... although we have shared our private moments of "go Ron!!"'s and exclamatory "Mrs. Weasely!!!!"'s) but i passed the time during which the book was otherwise occupied by reading another book, and now i have decided to read it again - it's that good.
if you have not already done so, go out and pick up the series from the beginning and read them all. not only are they well written, but they're just plain fun!

an ode to my beautiful friends and their adorable kids

when i was home for the previously mentioned fiesta, it was suggested that my 2 best friends and i take a picture together and i'm SO glad we did! i miss them so much and i honestly could not have two more wonderfully amazing friends. God gave me 2 of His most beautiful angels to look after me and they do a fantastic job.

and so, to my judy and my elizabeth: i love you both very much!!!!

ROUND TWO - a trip home for mom and dad

HOLY MOLEY THAT'S A LOT OF RING!!!!!

Who doesnt love my mom and dad?!

this was mom's surprise face

shortly after the news of cameron and krystal's unfortunate circumstances, i got the opportunity to pull a fast one on mom... well... mainly DAD was doing the pulling of the fast ones, but i got to help:

july 29th was my parents' 35th wedding anniversary and my dad had planned quite the fantastic ordeal to celebrate! it's easier if i just go down the list of surprizes i think -

1. sunday morning before church, i walked in on mom as she was putting on her makeup. she had no idea i was in town. i had been in wichita since saturday afternoon having a WONDERFUL time visiting with the stockemer family and my friend judy while the mission impossible theme song played in the background as i drove all over the west side of town hoping that mom and dad didn't stop at the same intersection as me at the same time.

2. sunday morning DURING Mass, dad asked the priest to bless their marriage vows. mom was very pleased and surprised. we went out to breakfast to celebrate. then mom had a bridal shower to go to that afternoon (we made up a fanstastic story about how i had made plans with elizabeth and that she might as well go ahead and go to the shower because i wouldnt be available anyway for her to spend time with otherwise - thus effectively getting her out of the house for speed cleaning and food preperation)

3. sunday afternoon by 4pm, about 30 people were crammed into my parents' house for a bbq and dad was slaving away at the grill as mom came drifting home from the bridal shower. someone shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" (ooohh so convieniently, seeing as mom's birthday is july 30th, one day AFTER their wedding anniversary - so she thought she was entering her surprise birthday party). as she made the rounds to greet everyone, dad prepared the way for surprise number...

4. the man who was the best man at their wedding is now a priest: father mike. father mike made the drive to be at the party and it was a wonderful shock for mom to see him there. also a wonderful shock was surprise number....

5. before saying grace before meals, dad made a bit of a speech: his voice started to shake, and it was at about that time that i started to cry. dad told everyone how glad he was to have everyone there to share the day, especially father mike, and especially mom. then he asked father mike to renew their wedding vows in the living room. he had me stand next to mom and a good friend of the family stand next to him. then he proceeded to pull out a brand new, HUGE wedding ring for mom and have it blessed. by this time, i was balling. and needless to say, mom was shocked beyond belief... although she didn't cry.

overall, it was a rediculously happy weekend, and much needed for the family, i must say.

Let the updates begin: ROUND ONE - "the divorce"

NO IT'S NOT MINE!
well, since it's been a long time since i've blogged anything, and i dont even know if anyone reads this, i figured i'd start back into it by explaining why i've been busy and sort of gotten out of the habit of getting on the computer and writing about my life. so i'll start with the begining of the end: the divorce in the family. i actually debated for quite a while whether or not to adress this in blog or not, but i figure that by now, everyone would probably have heard about it, so if you are surprized by the news, then i guess you can just enjoy the feeling.... we were surprized too.
my brother and sister-in-law are in the process of getting a divorce. aparently their 8-year marriage has been troublesome throughout and they have just done a really great job of hiding this little bit of information from everyone. so about a month ago, krystal came to everyone and announced that she no longer loved cameron "as a husband". *cue the collective "HUH?!"*
needless to say, we were all very confused and shocked by this revealation, and it has caused quite an upheaval within the family since we all love kyrstal so much. but there's not really anything any of us can do except for keep on loving and supporting them. dad hopped a flight to italy and is there now to help cameron sort through the wreckage; and krystal is doing her own thing. we all miss her very much.
life is funny sometimes. i sure didnt think those two would be the ones with the broken marriage. but the whole situation has made the rest of us a lot stronger and has taught us a lot.
so anyway - that's step #1 in the explanation of what i've been up to. more to come...

fun times at the Buford house

i swear - i will post some SUPER fun pictures soon. right now, as i type, i have been banished to the computer room as my husband and his cousin assemble what is sure to be a fantastic amount of glass and metal (which probably in NO way matches the rest of the living room furniture but looks "modern") that holds up the new forty-some inch flat screen something TV that he just bought. please, don't get the impression that i'm upset about it. i'm honestly quite excited! and he even called me at work and asked me if he had permission to spend his own money on this TV that we had been discussing (and he had been given permission to buy) months ago! so it's all totally good here. i'm 100% thrilled to watch Harry Potter movies and chick movies on a big huge tv while he's at work next week! :o) alas, if only we had cable! but anyway, when i came home from work, they met me at the door and made me hold the mail over my eyes and walk with my back to the living room and march straight upstairs without peeking so that they can produce the "grand effect" of a finished product once they get it put together.
why is his cousin here? such grand entertainment!! nikki, matt's wife, is away for her job to dallas, so matt took vacation from his job to spend the week here. SU-WEET! we're having a BLAST! he's here till thursday. charles worked yesterday so matt and i hung out and had lovely conversations and then discovered that the "china buffet" in leavenworth KICKS ASS!! and now that charles is off work for today and tomorrow, they have begun their two day adventure by staying awake all night last night playing xbox, sleeping all morning, and then spending THOUSANDS of dollars this afternoon. tonight we're grilling hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. should be fun times since i dont think any of us really know how to operate the grill. tomorrow we're going to see the die hard movie then hitting dave & busters so that we can all spend lots of money playing video games that those boys could rightly play for free right here. it'll be great!! :o)

well might i say, EVERYONE must go see Transformers!! now. go do it now. you - go see it now.
finished? ok, do you not agree that it is the GREATEST SUMMER MOVIE OF ALL TIME! i mean: "WOW!". totally amazing! many, many very enthusiastic thumbs up!
in other news, i got my hair cut. i even took a picture of it myself this morning because i was able to fix it fairly well for the first time since i got it cut on saturday. but since i am upstairs and the camera is downstairs, the downloading of the picture will just wait until a later date. but i think it's cute. i fancy myself at times to look like keira knightly with my new haircut. i have not made this admission to my husband, i prefer to enjoy the fantastic reality only in my own mind. oddly enough, this comparison came to me the morning after i got it cut when i first woke up and looked in the mirror - who knew that smooshed hair full of styling product could turn into "oooh! now that's a keira knightly style! i'm going to try and deliberately fix it that way today!". and anyone who knows me is well aware, i'm sure, of my lack of skillz with the hair products... but i'm proud to say that i am improving and that my head looks less and less like butt every day!
4th of July: the cliffhanger from a previous post about my volunteer excursions in working with my nemesis turned out to be unfounded. the day actually turned out extremely well and this lovely person with whom i do not get along was pleasant enough. (actually, she has done nothing directly TO me, it is only my weakness as a person which leads me to harbor anger towards her. for full disclosure of my shame, just ask.) so anyway, the 4th of july picnic on base was a downright blast! for my part, i helped my coworkers run a booth (once the rain cleared) where we had kiddie games such as water balloon toss, etc. but the most amusing was the watermelon eating contest and seed spitting contest. the contests were divided into age groups, the best of which were the adult catagories. alas - not much is more amusing than to see a grown man - an officer, no less - shove his face into a huge wedge of watermelon and slop it around like a pig. i'm not joking: these guys were picking watermelon out of their ears. it was AWESOME!
well, i think that pretty much brings everything up to speed. i am almost done with the blanket that i am making and will post pictures of it soon. in the mean time, i think it's time for some ice cream!