All I really should say is WOW!...

...but since we all know I like to be long winded, humor me while I write a long post.

My story starts months ago when I was silly and got mad when Br showed up to the primary activity with news that he had some complications getting Coldplay tickets that had gone on sale that morning. I was more then a little mad/disappointed (mistake 1). He said that he was going to try to get tickets through the Ticketmaster auction and I was skeptical that we'd actually win some (mistake 2). Well we did win some and so I had to eat my words and should have begged for forgiveness for my shortcomings.

Fast forward to last night. It would be a serious understatement to say that Br came through for me with some good tickets... But we'll get to that in a minute. We sat in section 105 row A. If you have really good eyes then it is where the tiny yellow dot is on the seating chart below. For those of you who are wondering why I even put the seating chart in my post because the picture is so small, our seats were in the front row of the section facing the top cat walk that is coming off the main stage. The second I sat down I knew there was a chance that Chris (that's the singer for those of you who aren't fans but really really should be-- BTW I feel like we are on a first name basis now considering our interaction that I will describe a little later) would walk within an easily measurable distance from me. I was so excited.

We sat through about a song and a half of the first opening group Sleeper Car (a band from El Paso). The second opening act was John Hopkins. I think he is best described as what Ross from friends would have become if he had ever made it big with his synthesizer. John was a dude standing at a table with a couple laptops and synthesizer with a single spotlight shinning on him while on the other side of the stage some really weird animations flashed as he pressed and spun different button, keys and knobs.

I kept myself amused as we waited for Coldplay to take stage by watching people walk in front of us to get back stage. We saw both opening acts walk right in front of us to go talk to people in the audience. John even stopped right in front of me for a while to talk to a "fan". A few minutes before the main event four really big guys were escorted from back stage to some seats in the next section down from ours. I guessed that they were athletes of some sort but really had no idea who. Some slight intoxicated girl by us said two of them were Tony Romo and Jason Witten. I wouldn't know then from any other large guys although I've seen a few blogs today that confirm it was them. All I have to say is "HA, I had better seats then Tony Romo!"

Enough of the pre-game report. Coldplay came on and WOW! I mean WOW! It only took until the third song for Chris to finally make it within spitting distance of me. He came right over to our section and said "I can tell this is going to be a good one". It was. Even when Chris wasn't on my catwalk I was still close enough to see him clearly on the stage. I could see the sweat dripping from his face. I could see the sweat knee pit marks on the back of his skinny pants. I could clearly see when he was getting his feet tangled up in his guitar cord as he played and danced all over the stage. It was amazed at how close we were and then...

What I didn't mention was that the cat walk actually stopped about 5 seats down from me so he wasn't actually right across from me when he walked to the end, just closer than I could ever imagine. At the end of the catwalk (Directly in front of where I was sitting) there was a little enclosed area with large things covered in big black cloths. You can't imagine the excitement (complete understatement) when some roadies pulled off the cloth to reveal a guitar, electronic drum, and piano. Yes, I was sitting less a narrow walkway across from what would soon elevate and become "stage B" (that's what the roadie's blog called it). The entire band congregated less than 10 feet from me to sing a few songs directly to me (or at least I'd like to think they were just for me). I mean if I ever had them play a concert in my living room I wouldn't have been any closer. Then the rest of the band left, leaving Chris alone to sing "the Hardest Part" alone- Now that one was definitely to me-- I mean I was at eye level with him and his piano was pointed directly at me. He may have sang another song to... I'm not sure, I was in a surreal daze, (literally he was so close that it didn't feel real at all). I do know that he stuck around and started Vida la Viva and then went back to center stage. WOW! They played a great show. They pull off a perfect mix of music and theatrics including showering the crowd in two kinds of butterfly confetti during "Lovers in Japan". They were nice enough to play my favorite songs including "Fix You" (I almost cried a little during it) and an acoustic version (that included a mandolin-- Yeah for mandolins) of "the Scientist". They played that one in the crowd in the nose bleed section of the stadium. It was great! They closed the show with an encore of "Yellow" and I had a flash back of Spring Break Sophomore year in college when my roommates and I duplicated the video on a beach in Oregon. Good Times!

In short, not that this post could ever be considered short, if you ever have the opportunity to go see Coldplay, do it (They are playing Denver and SLC this weekend for those readers that are in those areas).

THANK YOU BR! You are the best! I doubt we'll ever top this concert experience but I'm willing to try.

What I like about you

So I've had a lot of mommy and E time lately. I got lots of cuddling a week ago after E's surgery. We set up a train track today and actually got to play on it a while before E destroyed it (Any of you who have played with him know that is a huge thing since his first instinct is DESTROY). He even let me go into CVS today and get what I needed without pulling things off the shelf or screaming. It was awesome.

In any event I'd like to list my favorite things about him. Don't consider this all inclusive since I really do dig the kid, but I just thought he deserved some props.

*He gives the best kisses ever.

*I love how kind his eyes are and how bright they get when he gives a genuine smile.

*He's recently started holding my hand (which in the past he'd immediately drop to the flow and get mad when I'd do) and walking with me places.

*My favorite thing that he says is please (pronounced peas) because he usually says it with the aforementioned smile.

*My favorite sound is his random really cute "toot toot" when he sees a truck (random tangent- This started when a truck passed us on the freeway and honked it's horn. He immediately imitated it and that gave way my favorite noise. -- Even more random tangent, he cracked me up on the way to preschool a couple weeks ago when he started to sing along with the Rolling Stone's song Sympathy for the Devil (Sorry about the title)--You know the one that has the who who repeated over and over).

*Speaking of singing along, he's recently started lip syncing to songs. He still doesn't talk much so he doesn't know how to sing but he moves his mouth with a really cute enthusiasm when he really gets into a song. It cracks me up every time.

* I love his dancing. I can't help but be happy when I see it.

* You know I just love who he is in general.

Thank you E for being mine!

Oops

So apparently while I was on sabbatical from my blog I was tagged. I guess I'm supposed to post the fourth picture in my picture folder. Here it is.
Random I know. For a while I was collecting cool pictures of letters for a project that I have never gotten around to, and probably never will. I'd like to tag Diana and Amy because I really like their pictures.

Finally... another post

Yes, I know it has been forever since I've posted anything. No, I'm not dead, nor sick, nor anything really except busy. I was really busy before I went out of town and then have been even more busy than that after being out of town. I've got a lot to catch up on work and so I spend way too long on the computer any day and can't bring myself to do anything more (blog, email) after that. Anyway, since I shouldn't be working today I'll try to get a few posts out.

It has been almost 2 weeks since my trip to CA and I haven't written anything about it. It's not that I didn't have a really good time, it's just that I didn't take pictures so I'm waiting for my sister to post some so I can steal them. So stand by.

I guess I'd be a delinquent mother if I didn't write something about E's Halloween. Earlier in the week he had a "Fall" party in his preschool class and so I had my first shot at sending treats to his class. I'm a little embarrassed though since this is the type of thing I live for but didn't have time to actually do it this week. When I signed up to bring cookies I had vision of grandeur. When it was the night before and I still had to go to the grocery store for ingredients I realized it just wasn't happening. So instead of showing some elaborate project like I wish I could have done, instead I'll just share a trick for making cookies that look way fancier than they actually are.

1. Already made cookie dough, already made icing, a baggie with chocolate melts in it.

2. Bake the cookies.

3. Let cool

4. Ice with frosting

5. Make concentric circles on the cookie with the melted chocolate

6. Alternate dragging a tooth pick from the inside out and the outside in.

7. Put on plastic spiders and Viola

Spider cookies (works on cupcakes and other iced yummy things too) that look like you made an effort but really just didn't have time.

Fast forward to the end of the week.

Friday morning E got invited to a little Halloween party at the park. Since his actual costume was still missing a few key seams he went as last years costume (thank goodness he was chubby last year and skinny this year--and yes, I will acknowledge that the hat doesn't exactly fit). He was Tuck from the Wonder Pets (the only male wonder pet by the way). I felt bad because they had all kinds of really fun activities planned but E spent most of the time running toward the forest (there was probably an animal in trouble he was trying to save), toward the other side of the park, toward the playground, toward anywhere he wasn't supposed to be. I guess I should thank him for the workout since I wasn't able to hit that gym.

Friday evening he went to the church Trunk or Treat as Linguine from Ratatouille (It's actually a preview for his birthday party in three short months...Ahhh I better get cracking). He went to most of the cars with a sucker hanging from him mouth with a back up ready to go in hand. I let him use one of my soup pots as his bucket (to go with the theme of his costume). The bad thing is I don't know that I can ever use it again without him assuming that there is candy inside. Oh well.