Monday Mish Mash

If you came looking for a post that was short and to the point, you might have clicked on the wrong place. But if you want to pretend we're sitting at the kitchen table having a cup of coffee, come on in! I've got a lot to tell you.

Guess where we went on Friday night? (Said in a sing song voice). Remember this post? Well, we were there. In Row 9!

And oh, my word! What a great show! Hubby and I both agreed it was the best show we've seen together. Celtic Thunder really outdid themselves in song, music, and humor! So, so good. If Celtic Thunder is coming to a city near you, it is well worth it to go. Even my teens enjoyed themselves. My 14 year old girl even managed to leave a little bit of skin on my arm every time young Damian McGinty, the youngest of the group, now 16, came out to sing. She was a bit disappointed he didn't sing "Puppy Love" and "Young Love" but hey, the kid is growing up too and his songs have to get a little older too. And it just wouldn't have computed correctly to hear someone singing Puppy Love when his voice was now deeper than the oldest member of the group who was 45. This song video courtesy of a couple years ago when he was only 14, was beautiful but now you just have to imagine his voice being an octive or two lower. LOL.



Tia was happy, I think, when he did "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" and "Breaking up is hard to do" complete with the Fonzie kind of outfit and combing of the hair back into a duck tail. But her favorite of the night is still the song on the above video. My highlight of the night was when Paul Byrom sang my all time favorite song "You Raise Me Up". He sings tenor opera and it was amazing. Blew. us. away. It was totally a surprise as it's not on their concert DVD. Every single song was enjoyable, "Danny Boy" and "I Want to Know What Love Is" being another couple favorites, oh heck, we loved every single song they sang! And the sell out crowd really got behind them in clapping along and sometimes even singing along. Really funny listening to a crowd of Canadians singing belting out the Irish rugby team's theme song. LOL.

I had great plans for a gazillion pictures except for the fact that they announced that there was to be absolutely no pictures or recording devices and if you got caught your camera could be confiscated. So sorry, guys. Getting pictures for you was not worth getting thrown out and having my camera taken away. A blogger's nightmare! What a dilemma. Take a risk or post no pictures. I did get a couple before the concert started and they made the big announcement.

Tia waiting for it all to start.

Whoa! Zoom out, zoom out!!

Saturday, I survived the big youth group fundraiser: the dreaded highway cleanup. But it turned out great. While having to be there at the ungodly hour of 6:40 was a killer, the day was beautiful and it turned out fun. Thirty six people turned up to help the youth group out, a record, and so we finished our 20 km of highway on both sides in about 3 1/2 hours. So much nicer than the almost eight hours it took a handful of us to do it the very first year we did it. Whoo hoo!

Sunday, my wonderful hubby started putting the mulch and cedar chips under our trees that surround our backyard. And he even forked out the moolah for it. What a good guy! Now instead of the the ugly grey dirt that surrounded our yard we're going to have a lovely natural finish. And does it smell good! Just look at it before: Boring!

And now? Much better and smelling great!

And he also sprung for most of my bedding out plants. Thanks to his Canadian Tire bucks that he worked so hard to save. Now that's love, when a man gives up his Canadian Tire bucks for ya! And you all in Canada know exactly what I'm talking about. So here's my stash waiting until the last week of May to be put out into their summer homes. We don't dare do it earlier around here because even though it might be really nice and warm during the day, the nights can still get below freezing right up until the end of May. There's some geraniums, petunias, portulacas, ivy, statice, lobellas, and a few violas. I just need to find some impatiens for my pot that's in total shade.
Sunday we Barbqued steaks. Our first steaks of the season. Yum, yum. And just for fun I tried Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. It was easy, it smelled wonderful. But I think my sheet pan was a tad on the small side. While it didn't run out during baking, it did rise right to the top, so the icing was a bit of a mess, as it ran off the side of warm cake rather than being contained. But hey, when you've got two teens volunteering to lick it up, what's a little chocolate on the counter top. If you like chocolate, this cake is chocolate nirvana!
So that's a wrap for my weekend. Back to work today. But that's okay. I'll be doing it listening to the CD I nabbed at the concert.