Tag Archives: music

Brad Paisley Concert

Last night, I had the opportunity to see Brad Paisley in concert and let me tell you, he was amazing! As evidence of his love for me and the fact that he’s a patient man, my husband agreed to accompany me. Saying “Mark isn’t a country fan” is kind of like saying “Hugh Jackman isn’t a bad-looking guy”; a gross understatement.

We were able to get to the amphitheatre with enough time to find a decent piece of lawn before the first opening act. Jimmy Wayne (who I’d never heard of) was about as country as Case Western, which I guess is why Mark liked him. I felt bad for the guy…he knew no one was there to see him. Dierks Bentley was the second opener and he was excellent. My only gripe was the length of time it took to clear and re-set the stage between sets.

Now rest assured, we weren’t bored. Because we couldn’t see the stage too well from the lawn, a large screen was erected. During the set changes, a cell phone company sponsoring the concert offered audience members the opportunity to text them and have their texts appear on the screen for everyone to see.

Some of these were pretty typical:
“Crystal your the best friend ever! Thanks for the ticket!”
“Happy birthday Allie!!!”
“Brad, your awesome!”
“Will you marry me?”

Some were perhaps better left untyped:
“I’m drinkin tonight because I found out I’m not pregnant.”
“Matt, you have a sexy girlfriend!”
“N*Sync needs to get back together.”
“Brian I wanna baby lets make one!!!”

“Hey, give me your phone!” Mark commanded at one point. “I am going to send a text!”

A few minutes later he proudly pointed and read (shouted) aloud as his message ran across the screen:

“Stop misspelling “you’re”!”

Yee-haw.

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Advice

Got to hit the gym for the first time in a couple weeks today! My doc had changed the dosages on my heart meds and that left me practically a zombie (definitely glad to be getting back to my regular dose!), so there was no way I was going to be exercising. I never thought I’d say it, but I missed working out! I usually feel exhausted afterwards but I also feel like I really accomplished something (much like when I did swim team in HS, which is actually a pretty funny story!). Anyhow, I love listening to ska/”punk” (think Reel Big Fish or Yellowcard) and Will Smith when I work out. What are your favorite gym soundtracks?

Also, I need some advice. As I mentioned before, I have been asked to speak on the Living Successfully panel at the National Marfan Foundation conference in 3 weeks. However, I really don’t know what I should speak about. It’s pretty open-ended…I need to speak on something that relates to living successfully. I’ve got 5 minutes. My question to you is this: Now that you’ve heard some of my story (I still have one entry left in the My Life With Marfan “series”), what should I talk about?

Some ideas I’ve thought of:
– How and why I started volunteering/why it’s important to me to volunteer
– Being a mom with Marfan
– My surgeries (which I’ve had, how the recovery was)
– Something else?
– Some combination thereof?

Any suggestions are very welcome! I need to get writing in the next few days so I’ve got time to send it to Eileen at the NMF for editing. Thanks!

Oh! One other thing! Any advice on freezing fresh veggies and drying basil? And when I’m harvesting basil, how do I do that? Just pluck off the leaves? Cut a certain length down on the stalk?

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These are the Moments

Happy moment of the evening:

1 screaming baby Menininho
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2 parents singing songs from the Primary Children’s Songbook online
=
1 quiet baby Menininho

Some of our favorites:
Mother, Tell Me the Story
Families Can be Together Forever
A Child’s Prayer
I Love to See the Temple

Menininho’s birth story coming soon….

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