It all started because we have limited cash flow...

James and I love Weezer. Love with a capital L. James was so excited that they were coming to Seattle. I hated having to tell him no, because lets face it, tickets are stinking expensive! Anyways he heard on the radio that 107.7 The End was looking for people to play their instruments on stage with Weezer. Didn't matter what you played. Just sign up on line and enter.

So I did.

I didn't hear anything back after a week so I really didn't think too much of it. Until Friday. We were at the Point Defiance Zoo (pictures coming soon!) taking advantage of the nice but cool weather and a day off from school. I get THE phone call. "You want to play your sax onstage with Weezer tomorrow night?".

"Uh. Yeah!!!"

So, I'm bouncing off the walls. More so than the normal Onica bouncing off the walls. I have a perma grin. I start freaking out about what I'm going to wear (Thanks Kelly for the use of one rad t-shirt and scarf). Where am I going to find a sax (I play one, don't necessarily have one, borrowed one from the Fletchers). Who's going to watch my kids? (Tia, you KNOW I owe you HUGE).

I go online and youtube Weezer's Hootenanny Instructions. Learn the chord progressions. Have a mild panic attack. Tried to sleep. Woke up at 5am. I knew THAT wasn't going to be a good idea so I finally forced myself to go back to sleep around 7. Aidyn wakes up at 8:30... sigh. James was already at work otherwise I would have stayed asleep. It's ok. I'm WIDE awake. I resume the bouncing and the perma grin.

Gabe had a soccer game at 11:30. We were late. Why were we late? Because I had to call everyone and my brother and their brothers to totally brag about the fact that I WAS GOING TO PLAY ONSTAGE WITH WEEZER! My mom didn't know who Weezer was, but she's good now. She knows how to use Google. At the soccer game I proceeded to tell anyone who remotely looked like they knew who Weezer was that I was GOING TO PLAY ONSTAGE WITH THEM!! A few people were sufficiently jealous. I loved it. You know I did.

I get home from the soccer game. James gets home from work. I start getting ready. And posting on all my boards that I was GOING TO PLAY ONSTAGE WITH WEEZER!!! My friend Alaina tries with all her might to get tickets because she's a huge Weezer fan as well. Alaina lives in Portland. I'm bummed she didn't make it. But let me tell you, Alaina, you rock and I love you so much for even trying.

I start getting ready. I go from this:

To this:

And Gabe did this:


I looked HAWT! I haven't felt like I looked that good in a long time. Must have been the cute shirt from Kelly.

James and I drive up to Seattle. We waited around with the other 30 musicians that also won the contest. They were cool. We get everyone checked in, go through security, get our little pass things and start warming up.

They had some of their tech guys come in and go through chord progressions and stuff. I was playing the alto sax. Anyways- we had our own green room where we rehearsed and then Brian came in to rehearse with us. I had him autograph an album for me and took a very crappy picture with him on my cell phone.

Crappy Cell Picture:

The Vinyl and Pass and Ticket:


Then they let us run free and we listened to the concert. Met back up in our green room at 10:30, rehearsed a teensy bit more and then went backstage to wait to go on. It was a crazy fun. That guy sax player who did the rocking solo was awesome. I wish I could play like him, but it’s been a LONG time since I played.

I was the cute girl in the back w/ the black t-shirt and the purple scarf. (And the one that got to hug River!). The put all the winds in the back (minus the cool soloists). So I'm behind the Ukelale players.

Group Shot:


Trying to get a close up of me:


At my seat:


Man these guys are AWESOME!


Angels & Airwaves played also. I love Tom D!


Me after playing in front of 10,000 fans.
I wasn't nervous at all, but probably because it was a rather large group onstage. The roar of the crowd was sweet. I rather liked it alot. But then again, I love attention. The only thing I don't recommend is getting up at 7:30am the next morning for church. It's two days later and I'm still tired!

I'm sure I'll post about this again as the radio station and other people put their stuff on You Tube. Dang. I still can't believe I got to do that!!!!

If you haven't seen this already...

What's so wrong with being a SAHM?

I just turned down a job. It would be working at a lawyers office answering phones and doing some data entry. It would have paid $15/hour. I would finally be able to get a car. But lets be honest, after daycare that pretty much is all it would help us do. And I think that's a dumb reason to go back to work.

I feel it's more important to stay home. I have LOVED being home the last 9 months. Not having to worry about my kids. Being there for them. Having them drive me crazy. True, it hasn't been ideal. It's just SO much fun having to get a ride everywhere. But, honestly I wouldn't give up being a SAHM just for a car.

Gabe's First Day of School

Yes. It's September 29th and I am just now posting his back to school pics. What can I say? I've been busy knitting. I know, it's no excuse. But it's the only one I have!

In front of Pine Tree. It's the same school his Dad went to when he was little. Sappily cute, huh?


At his desk! Again... how cute is he? We cut his hair super short before school started. He wanted to have "straight" hair. This is as straight as it gets, buddy!


And the ever important stand-in-front-of-the-front-door picture. He's in a Super Hero phase right now if you can't tell. Somedays I'm surprised we can make it out the door without a cape on.


Another picture from school. He's working on his first project!

Summer 2008

Better Late than Never

So, I completely suck at blogging. I've never been a good journal writer so this is very hard for me.

Our summer was busy and fun. Park days, family reunion, 4th of July, waterparks, camping, Cornucopia Days... whew! James' work schedule is crazy. I'm surprised we actually did anything at all. Anyways- here is a slideshow of summer memories.

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Pictures forthcoming.

Yes I own a camera. Yes, we do use it... often. And yes, it is a HUGE pain in the buns to upload to the computer and then upload to my photobucket account. But I promise, I will get some pics up here soon.

Woohoo! Finally a Harry Potter trailer!

It's just a teaser but who cares! (My geekiness is going to show here). The kid they got to play young Voldemort is Ralph Fiennes nephew. He looks exactly like I thought young Tom Riddle should look like. And that kid has got creepy down!

In case you haven't seen it.... the trailer.

I will update soon. I promise!

Three glorious weeks of summer and I've been....

stuck inside.

You would think I could update my blog every once in a while. Nope. Can't be bothered. It makes me sad to think longily of the days when someone in my house is not sick.

It started with pink eye.
And then Gabe got pneumonia.
And then I was sick with some fever/chills/sore throat thing for DAYS.

We are doing much better. Getting ready to head out here in a few days to go to Boise for a family reunion. Should be fun! (Hopefully)

So much to say and so little energy to say it with!

In the last few weeks:

My sister has gotten married. (Congrats, Sarah!)
I went to my HS reunion.
Girls Weekend Out with 25 friends at an awesome cabin in Eastern WA.

I haven't uploaded pics from the reunion and haven't gotten pics from my sister yet.

My sisters wedding was nice. She's so young though (20)! I really wasn't that much older when I got married at 21. But I still look back and go... I WAS SO YOUNG!

The high school reunion was fun! It was at McMenamins Kenedy School in Portland. I caught up with some friends, took some rather hilarious pictures in a photo booth, and marveled how things really didn't change much in the last ten years. I was still the sober "drunk" girl. I just know how to have fun.

GWO- I could write novels about how awesome/fun/amazing my friends are. I love them SO much and am so excited that I got to spend time with them. My MOF's can do anything. I am lucky, so very lucky to have them in my life and I hope that we will all grow old together and keep on having our GWO's.

My friend Lara came in a day early so we had a good start to our GWO on Wednesday. Thursday we went to the Cabin. Friday we hung out in Seattle. Saturday we had a Super Saturday full of crafty classes and of course playing games. Sunday we came home. I can't wait for next years! (Hopefully I won't be as much of a nerd then)

Some Pics from GWO.

I'll try and not be jealous...

1. James is leaving tomorrow for Los Angeles.
2. It's raining and cold here.
3. He gets to see some old friends.
4. Beaches.
5. Good cheap Mexican food.
6. He'll be warm. Even if it rains, it will be warm.
7. Have I mentioned that it will be sunny?
8. It's just not fair.

(Although 2 out of 3 days he'll be in training... but still.)

What do you get with 3 balls of string and 60+ hours of work?

You get this: (The dress, people, not the baby...)

The Trip, Part 3

Saturday we decided to wake up early so that we could drive into DC and do some touristy stuff. We made really good time and got to DC around 10:20 in the morning. After a few stressful minutes of trying to find a parking spot we got out and started walking the memorials. We didn't have a lot of time so our main focus was to see as much as we could in three hours. We saw a LOT! It's Memorial Day weekend so it got pretty busy. There were people everywhere. It was awesome. All these people there remembering the price of freedom. There were times it simply took my breath away.

The White House


WWII Memorial


Lincoln Memorial


Washington Memorial


"The Flaming Sword of Justice" aka a WWI Memorial. I named it so because that's what it looks like.


Memorial day brings out the biker vets and their families. I don't know if you can see them well in this picture but here are thousands of bikes parked on the mall. There were biker vets everywhere, it was so awesome! They all wear these vest with patches on them on what war, if they were POW/MIA, their units, and how many years they had done the trip to DC for Memorial day.


Oh, and here is General. Look closely, the guy on the right is wearing his toy dog in a sling. The dog is wearing goggles. His name is General. That dog got his picture taken more than Lincoln himself I'm sure.


My favorite memorial was the Korean War Memorial.


Jefferson Memorial. It's not on the mall directly, we had to drive a few blocks to get to it, but luckily parking there is good. It's incredible how big these structures are. So much time and labor were put into them.


And yes, there are more pics of James than me. He's just more photogenic. Well, I'm going to wrap up here. There are a ton more pictures. It was a really great trip. The weather was SO nice, not too hot and just right warm. Oh, and did you know that North Carolina SMELLS good!! Such a nice change after living in smoggy LA and moldy Seattle!

The Trip, Part 2

Thursday we drove from DC to Durham. The drive was very pretty. Virginia is beautiful. North Carolina is the same. There are trees everywhere. It was very disconcerting in Durham and surrounds. Everything is hidden by a green belt. It was hard to navigate at first, but we soon figured it out. I cheaped out at the car rental place and decided not to get the GPS. Silly idea. We ended up buying a map and had a few interesting side tours while looking for apartments.

We stayed with a friends parents in Durham. They have a beautiful house in the country of North Durham. They were incredible and generous. Oh, and they had deer running through their community. How cool is that?!?

Friday was spent looking at more apartments. (And yarn stores, we hit up Hillsborough and Fiber Loft) We figured out that N. Durham wasn't exactly where we wanted to be and focused more on SW Durham near Chapel Hill since that is where James would be working. We found some good apartments and we have an idea of where we would move if the transfer did go through.

Friday night I met up with some knitting friend that I met on Ravelry. We had a good time. One of the ladies is opening her own yarn shop (Fiber Loft). I got to go in and I bought some really cool hand spun and dyed yarn.



After we hung out at the shop we went out for dinner and some sightseeing. We ended up at Duke Gardens... gorgeous and while we were on Duke campus we went to see the Chapel.

The Gardens


The Chapel





All in all Friday was a very pleasant day and we could see ourselves living in that area. All though I have realized that living in the Northwest has spoiled me with all the yummy yarn stores here.

The Trip, Part 1

On Wednesday we left our kids in the hands of the very capable grandparents and we flew to DC. The flight was long and boring. I knit, James read. I know, exciting. Anyways we got to DC and my friend Tami picked us up. She so rocks! She let us stay at her house for the night. We were getting settled in and funny story... I cut my hand on a tiny piece of glass. It hurt like no one's business. I went into the bathroom to run it under some cold water. And then I started feeling woozy. I called to James and the next thing I knew James was holding me on the bathroom floor trying to wake me. Yes, I was felled by a tiny piece of glass! Want to see the big bad owie that made me faint? Here it is!



Awesome, huh. I feel like a complete moron. I mean, who passes out at this type of stuff? Oh yeah, me.

Here I am with my friend Tami. I thinks she's totally awesome. She's a really good friend and I'm glad that I got to know her better.

Pleased as Punch!

So, little known (or widely known, depending on how you know me) fact is that as much as I am at the yarn store I really don't knit at all. I mostly crochet. And since I have professed rather vigorously that I DO NOT KNIT... here is where I get to eat my words.

I finished this today. Yes, FINISHED. As in actually knit something and didn't take it apart after a few rows. You see, I prefer to crochet. It's faster and if you make a mistake it's not nearly as hard to fix it as it is if you were knitting. That being said, I just love how knit items turn out. They just look more "finished" and not so "homemade" looking. I've always said that I don't have the patience to knit. I guess I must have learned some somewhere.

Here it is, a purple fingerless glove to wear to Gabe's T-Ball games.