My Goodness - What did I Just DO!?!?!

***Even though I posted this on April Fool's Day - it is not a joke!**

I JUST BOUGHT TICKETS TO THE U2 CONCERT IN TAMPA, FLORIDA IN OCTOBER!!!

Cannot believe it, going to Florida for a concert, but it is the last concert on my list of ones that I have to see and would do anything to get to see and it is a once in a lifetime event. There is supposed to be a show in Las Vegas as well, that if it does come through that they are going to be there we may buy tickets to that one instead and sell our Tampa tickets or it may be a hot weather holiday for the DH and I - the first in YEARS! We could go to Disney World and M is talking of driving down to the Florida Keys and all this dreaming is happening at our house. It would be the first time we go away sans kids and we are enjoying thinking about it.
Anyways... I'M GOING TO SEE U2!!!!
{Can you tell I'm EXCITED!!}

Eventful Weekend

DH's sister, S, is here this weekend visiting from Vancouver. Whenever she is here we go on a date, so Friday night we went out for dinner and a movie. We went for dinner at a place called Van Gogh's, which has awesome Greek and Italian food. I had been craving Greek all day as I ran around town doing errands, so as supper plans were a surprise to me it was a good thing that I didn't give in to the craving and get some. DH apparently knew exactly what the babies and I needed. We then went to "The Bucket List" afterward, which was really good, though I did find it a little depressing and had dreams of people dying all night, random people I didn't know, not family or friends. I was a little perturbed about the fact that I really wanted to see "Fool's Gold" as it had some romance in it and it was a date that we were on and I didn't feel like "The Bucket List" though I did want to see it sometime and DH wouldn't consider it. Then, as the previews were playing and there was one for "Fool's Gold" I leaned over to DH and said "That was the movie I wanted to see" and he replied, "Oh, I was just thinking that I wouldn't mind seeing it." Aargh! Men! Anyways, "The Bucket List" was good and thought provoking and I enjoyed it and spending time with my honey.

When I suggested that S and I go to "27 Dresses" last night, DH was all for it! I really wanted to see this one, though knew DH wouldn't enjoy it at all, so we girls went together. I loved it! I am such a sap when it comes to romantic comedies and I really like Katherine Heigl. Did you know that in addition to being in Grey's Anatomy, she used to be on Roswell, both playing a character named Isabel? At least that's where I first saw her. Anyways, beside the point. I really liked "27 Dresses" and would definitely watch it again.

This afternoon DH and I went to Riverdance - the Farewell Tour. It was awesome! Incredible! Wow, it is amazing what those people can do. They not only had Irish dancing, that was wonderful, but a flamenco dancer, Russian dancers and 2 jazz style tap dancers. They had the band playing Irish music and singers as well that were so good. We enjoyed it so much!

Not to complain after all my entertainment this weekend, but my butt and back and legs are a little sore from spending over 6 hours in total in a theatre seat. The only downside to all my spoiling!

Riverdance

I just purchased tickets for DH and I to go to the Farewell tour of Riverdance in February! I am so excited - Riverdance, STOMP and U2 are on my list of concerts I want to go to when they come to Calgary. Yeah, me!

The Girlfriends Christmas Brunch

On Saturday I went to our church's Girlfriends Christmas brunch. (Here's a pic of me in front of my newly decorated tree. This is how the hair normally looks after I have done it! :) It was good as it was last year - I got to meet some new people. I actually gave a ride to a lady, H, that is friends with K and Ar, who I knew a little bit before, and she was at the party K had last Monday. It was nice to get to know her a little bit better. I sat with her and our interim lead pastor's wife and her sisters and two other ladies. Cathy (Jeff's wife) and her sisters Rose and Laura sing together and they sang two songs - a cappella - that they harmonize so nicely together on that it made me want to cry. They sang "Mary, Did you Know?" and the lyrics to the song hit me again this year. It's always different once you have a child how these things connect with you. Here's the lyrics and then I will tell you what struck me.

Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

Oh Mary did you know

The blind will see, the deaf will hear,  the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

So this line "And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God" always gets me, because I am a baby kisser. I cannot help but kiss the face of any baby that I am holding. At times, I have to catch myself when I do not know the people whose baby I am holding that well. There is something about those precious soft little faces that smell so nice that I cannot resist. But I think about my own little man and how much I love to kiss him that I wonder what Mary thought. Did all the thoughts in this song run through her head at one point or another, or would it have been too overwhelming for her to be coignizant of it constantly, so she forgot more often than not? When she kissed his little face, did she think about the fact that not 9 months before, the person who was her song was in heaven, in the presence of God the Father and she was in fact kissing God? He was lying there as a helpless little baby in her arms. The One who knit her together, was now someone who had grow and developed in her womb. So awing and weird and a little incomprehensible at the same time.
At the brunch I gave away a Tupperware door prize, so now ladies in the church know who I am and that I sell Tupperware. Funny thing is that I won a door prize too! From Scrapbooker's Paradise - paper and a pen and glitter and brads and some blank cards and envelopes and bling to put on cards and rub on words and a scrapbooking magazine. It was better than mine, let me tell you! So I did pretty good, if I do say so myself.
And the last thing about the brunch that I loved was that I got a hug. I know it's a small thing, but I miss all the hugs I used to get when we lived in Brandon. Since then I really don't hug a lot of people. A and K occasionally, my family every time I see them (which is good!) and DH and R constantly. But not people at church. I felt included - because Cathy was giving hugs to everyone at the table and then gave me one too. It was good.
I am so thankful for the church that God has given to us to be our home and that I am feeling a part of things, just because I am me, not because I am a pastor's wife. It's good, very good. We are blessed!

Death by Chocolate Night **Updated**

Tonight was the big "Death by Chocolate" night that our small group had for the Compassion in Action "More Than Words" campaign that RockPointe Church did to raise awareness and support for AIDS and poverty in Africa. (If you want to know more, go to http://www.touchpointe.ca/ for details).

It was good - there was a pretty good turn out and people seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. There was quite a few desserts left over, though we did sell off some for donations and the rest went to the Drop-In downtown. Everything looked good and everyone chipped in and did such a wonderful job. I will update the post tomorrow after I know how much money we raised, but I wanted to get the pics up right away.

Lindsay was able to get all the numbers together and get us a total late last night... we had been given $500 from the church for seed money and our total raised, including that seed money is $1384.20! Yeah!

BNL

Hello peoples!

Well, we had a awesome night last night! We went to the Barenaked Ladies concert.... it was so great! DH once told me if we ever had the opportunity to go, he wanted to and I was able to get tickets in September for it. It was probably the longest concert that I have ever been to - YEAH! (I hate it when concerts are only 1.5 hours long - what a gip!) The opening guy was Tomi Swick who was pretty good, had a different sound, sounded a little like Bono in a few songs, and did a cover of Graceland by Paul Simon. Check out his site and you can listen to his songs - apparently he is up for some Juno awards, as he is from Hamilton, ON. I personally had never heard of him, though I love the harmonies in his songs.

Anyway, the BNL came up after the intermission and were so good. I love that they not only did stuff from their new albums (which I didn't know as well) but a lot of songs from "Gordon" and some of their earlier albums (which I knew really well.) And of course they did all this shtick that made you laugh so hard... and one of the songs in the encores was "If I had a Million Dollars." It's their franchise song, you gotta hear it at the concert, eh? That's what everyone paid for! And the last encore was "What a Good Boy" which made DH's night as it was one of his favorite songs from high school.

Oh, a funny thing happened on the way out - we saw some friends of ours from RockPointe Church who were sitting 4 rows behind us. So, we caught up with them and gave them a ride to their car at the CTrain station near our house as we had driven down. It was so nice. R spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so I am currently still childless. I slept in to 10:30! Well, I have much that I want to get done while I am on my own, so I gotta scoot.