If you are computer shopping here is my advice: Do not buy a Dell. Do not buy a Toshiba. Our best computers have been Gateways. Before I bought the Toshiba I did a lot research. I read a lot of reviews and finally picked the Toshiba brand. And what happens? Six months and it dies! Perhaps we are cursed. I don't know. The hard drive went out of it but it was still under warranty so they fixed it for free. We now have it back and here I am! But I have a ton of things to write about. A ton, I tell ya! So this will probably turn into more than one post. I hope I don't forget anything. Oh, and by the way, I lost all of the stuff that was on the old computer. I hadn't backed anything up (my fault, I know) but the computer was only six months old and I wasn't worried at all about it dying. I lost all of my pictures, my children's book that I wrote, part of a novel I'm writing, all of my newspaper columns, and who knows what else. It's sad, isn't it? The bright side is that you don't have to scroll through five hundred pictures of my kids doing incredibly cute things from the past month.
Okay, so the first major thing that happened after the birthday blitz was my Nashville Trip. I went with my friends Deb and Kate. Our other two friends, Leslie and Holly, couldn't make it on this trip but they were with us on the last one. That was the trip where we met Cowboy Troy and Gretchen Wilson on the sidewalk downtown. We totally topped that trip this time. It was the best trip ever! Deb has a friend from school that now works at the Grand Ole Opry and he offered to get us tickets and backstage passes for Friday night's show. It was amazing! The backstage area was awesome. There were big framed portraits up and down the hallways of past performers. It had all been completely remodeled since the flood last year and was gorgeous. Deb's friend gave us a complete tour of the Opry house and introduced us to some famous people and his coworkers. I met Jimmy Wayne. He sings "Do You Believe Me Now?", "Stay Gone", and several other hits. He was very nice and so was his girlfriend. I talked to them both for several minutes. Jimmy recently finished a walk across the U.S. to raise awareness for foster kids and for kids living on the streets. He lived in lots of foster homes as a child and on the streets as a teen. He was just really nice and laid-back and didn't mind talking to a chatty fan backstage at all.
We also met Kellie Pickler! Yay! Here is what I noticed first about her: her heels were probably six inches tall, she was short, and she weighed about 90 pounds. She was tiny! She was very friendly too. Here we are:
We also met several other lesser-known celebrities backstage. We watched the Gatlin Brothers perform and they were great. After the show the final curtain went down and Larry Gatlin started singing "Amazing Grace" with his brothers and some other people. Everyone crowded around and we all sang along. Now I can say that I sang Amazing Grace onstage at the Grand Ole Opry with Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers. How cool is that??
After the show we all went to a nearby steakhouse with Deb's friend for an extremely late supper. We saw several of the performers from the Opry eating there as well and they sat us down at the table right next to Jimmy Wayne and his girlfriend! He recognized me and waved, smiled, and said "Hi again" or something close to that. The other girls teased me that he was my new best friend. He also spoke again when he left. I'm tellin' ya. He's a nice guy.
It was a late night for us. Let me put it that way. We three girls stayed out very very late. The next morning we got up and went to a cool little bakery/coffeehouse and had breakfast. It was deee-lish. Then we went shopping! It was beautiful weather in Nashville and the shopping was fabulous. We did the same thing on Sunday and drove home that evening. Highlights of the trip: famous people, meeting a lot of Australians everywhere we went (They were having a convention. Seriously.), TJ Maxx (I'm a Maxx-inista), fresh made-at-our-table guacomole, and good times with good friends. I can't wait to do it again next year!
It was good to be home though. I missed my family. Here's the updates on my family:
Maleah - She has had strep throat and missed two days of school last week. She had perfect attendance up to that point and was only about three weeks from the end of school. I thought she was going to make it but oh well. She is fine now. It is going to be a long summer with that kid. She was bored out of her mind the whole two days and was driving me crazy. She needs to be on the go all of the time or so she thinks. The best Maleah quote from the week is: "The Easter Bunny is real, right? I mean, surely it is. Santa Claus is real, so why wouldn't there be an Easter Bunny?"
Carissa - or shall we call her Honey? When asked her name, she sometimes replies "Honey" now but sometimes she still calls herself "Map". What's really funny though is that she ends almost every sentence with "Honey". She calls me Honey, Daddy Honey, Maleah, everybody is Honey. The best Carissa quotes from the past few weeks are: "Have a seat, Honey," "Oh-tay Honey," "Love you Honey!" and "Come on Honey." She says Honey is a real slow sweet way with a slight southern drawl to it. She is not related to Paula Deen I swear, although that would be nice. She loves to play outside and get dirty. She will spank herself and say "Bad, bad, bad!" when she does something wrong. She tries to be funny so she won't get in real trouble. She knows how to work the cuteness factor.
Jason - He is working a different shift now and is adjusting to that. He is fine and there is not much new with him. He got a haircut. There, that's all I can think of.
Me - I am going to be in the Depot Variety Show on May 13th and 14th. I won't tell you my part, so you can wait and be surprised. The show is a holiday show and will highlight different characters from all the holidays (witches, pilgrims, elves, Easter Bunny, Santa, etc). It will be funny and I can't wait to do it. I hope I don't mess up my lines! It is my very first play and I am a little nervous. Maleah is also going to have a small part in the play. She won't have any lines but I do think she will be onstage. She is super excited about that. Both performances are at 7 p.m. and all money raised goes toward further renovation of the Flora Depot. My favorite Beth quotes from the past week or so are: "Do not poop in the litter box! That is for the cat only! Pull your pants up and stand up! Go to the bathroom!", "Do not brush your hair with the cat brush! That is for the cat only!", "Do not unwrap that. That is not candy. It is a tampon." (Don't worry. It was clean.) and finally "Quit taking your pants off!" (directed toward Carissa, not Jason).
That's all I can think of for now. I will write more later!
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