My rocknroll weekend and tornadoes

My weekend- Saturday morning i picked up my niece and went to garage sales. I totally scored on some vintage Christmas items!! I got that awesome Christmas tree that is narrow for a window sill from an estate sale. Then the next stop, I came across this box of vintage hand blown glass ornaments that are 2 layers in the box. Yall i got for 2$ on those ornaments.  I also grabbed some old silver items for my Steampunk party for Holliween.  I also bought a bumper boat raft that goes in the pool for 2$! It was originally 160$, then had a clearance sale price of 57$ from Macy's and i paid 2. Yay!! My nieces had fun playing with it on Memorial Day when they came over. I wish there would have been 2 of them. It does a good reverse and you can steer it. 

 The BFD concert was a long lineup of bands : The Dirty Nil, Glorious Sons, Bad Wolves, Thrice, LIVE, In this Moment, Seether, and Shinedown.  We missed the first 3 bands because Todd didn't want to go down there in the heat all day. I did want to see Bad Wolves but it was a good compromise because we still got to see 5 bands.  It was soooo fun!! We went to this event 3 years ago when Shinedown was headlining then.  I was not too familiar with Thrice but i ended up liking them. There were people that knew every word to their songs so they were popular.  Live was of course excellent and one of the main reasons i bought the tickets. That was my 3rd time to see them and i saw Ed Kowalcyk when he was solo.   In this Moment was a shocker. They were very much all about the theatrical side and WOW did they!! Truthfully, i wasn't a fan of them live but have since listened to them on Spotify and i like many of their songs. The singer is female and she's a screamer.
Seether was flipping AWESOME and i would definitely see them again !!  Shinedown never disappoints and they were the headliner for a reason. Great stage performance - lots of fire and lights, etc.  I just really enjoy them and pretty much like every song they do.  It was a great concert and i got my moneys worth!

Oh did i mention i got a tattoo our last day in Amsterdam? I got a raven for my mom. When she turned 50 she got a raven tattoo, i was going to do the same last year when i turned 50 but didn't quite make it.  I am so happy with it! 

Our gardenia bush that smells amazing the second you open the back door. I am so happy to have it! 

Yesterday, we were under Severe weather and tornado alerts in our area. My supervisor came running out of her office and told all of us to head home now because it was heading our way. Some funnels had already been seen and wasn't sure if they were going to touch down. A few minutes from home, the radio broadcast told exact times that the weather was hitting our area. It was 2:07 on my clock and the storm was going to be over our house at 2:20. The alert said clearly to Take Cover!! I rushed home and let dogs out of kennel and we ran outside in the rain so they could take potty break. I was yelling Hurry Hurry hurry!! Then we ran into house and i scooped them up and got into bathtub.  The dogs were so good and they could tell something was up. They didn't fuss and try to jump out .  Once it passed over- we had thunder and sideways rain, we got out.  Todd is in New York and Jersey this week on business. They too were under tornado watch. 

Everything is Ok at our house. Just debris and leaves to pick up but no damage. Unfortunately, the tornado hit down an hour east of us and tore things up pretty bad. They got hit last year too so its so sad.  I saw today that the US has had over 500 tornados in the last 30 days. yikes!! 

Stay safe!!

Castles and stuff

Hey my lovely peeps!! How is everyone? I didn't get to visit a single blog this week and i'm just skidding in on making my post for the week.  Its been crazy busy in graduation season. My stepdaughter graduated high school this past Wednesday night. I have a wedding and 2 more graduations to make in this next week. I am soooo ready for this long weekend!! We're chilling tonight and eating leftovers and watching Dateline. That's usually our Friday night routine and i'm more than Ok with it. Tomorrow we're going to a swimming party at some friends house and eating tacos so that makes me happy. Sunday, we're going to be at that all day music fest concert that i'm soooo excited about. The top 3 headliners are Live, Seether, and Shinedown. I know i mentioned recently in one of my posts.  Monday, chilling in our pool and my cousin and her family are hanging out with us. That's my weekend plans.  Do yall have anything fun planned?
I thought i would wrap up with more Amsterdam pictures.  On one of our day tours, we went to Haarlem which happens to be the original Harlem and its what ours in NYC is named after. Haarlem is also where Corrie Ten Boom hid Jews from the Nazis.  We didn't get to tour that but it was cool to see the building where it happened. There were some buildings that dated back to the 13th and the 14th century.  That blows my mind!! That's the kind of stuff we enjoyed seeing and experiencing while in a different country.
We also toured a castle called Kastle De Haar.  The original castle was around 1391 and it eventually burned down. It was rebuilt in 1892. It had a beautiful church on the property that we didn't get to tour but a wedding had just taken place there a few days prior.  How cool would that be?!!  I  have always wanted to visit a castle in Europe so i can scratch that off my bucket list.
So here are a lot of pictures.

Please be safe this Memorial Weekend.

Random crap

Its been a loooong week!  If there was a chance for things to go wrong this week , they did. For real- the list is long and I was going to share then decided to delete everything because I was a whiny baby and no one wants to read that crap! I lost a cousin this week and funeral is next week and I've had a severe asthma flare up with 2 visits to Dr's.  That was just part of the fun .
So most of all you know how much I love Halloween and I host a large party with theme every year. I usually announce the theme for next year during the previous year so they can get their costumes on sale or have a year to prepare.  This year's theme is  Steampunk.  After Christmas I went to At Home ( do yall have those- used to be called Garden Ridge), and their Christmas stuff was on clearance. I was so excited that they had 5 glass hot air balloon ornaments and they were half off. I bought them all. I think I will tie them to some pretty rope and make a garland.  I also have had a connection to hot air balloons. I have one on my wall in front of my desk which is pretty with ornament and pompoms.
Hot air balloons can symbolize uplifting spirit, the love of flight ,a quest for spiritual knowledge and rising above practical matters- letting go of fear and caution.

Our weather is confused. We've had high temps reaching 80 and then this morning it was 25. We've had our air conditioner on and now our heater. 

Have yall watched the Netflix series Tidying up by Marie Kondo? She has also written books and some friends said that the books make more sense then to just watch the episodes.  I watched the series and got the main gist of things.  So I have been trying to clear out some unwanted things and trying to keep things that spark joy for me. I managed to get through one side of my closet last night and I have large bag for goodwill and a bag for a friend who wanted to be my recipient of hand me downs. 

I am so happy that we don't have a ton of things planned this weekend and I can take it easy around the house. What do yall have planned?  Sorry for the poopy post but this is as good as it gets today!

I will end on this note- I WAS able to get my concert tickets! Not the same ones and theyre on opposite side of stadium but I got them and I am excited.  Two of my fave bands Live and Shinedown among a few others will be performing there too. 

Dallas BFD 2016 concert

Hey y'all, Happy Tuesday!!  How was your Memorial Weekend?  I had a good one.  My birthday present from Todd was tickets to the BFD concert featuring Collective Soul, Sixx AM ( Nicki Sixx of Motley Crue formed the band), 3 Doors Down, Drowning Pool and Shinedown.  I've posted many songs of Shinedown here on my blog. I've never seen them live and they are one of my favorite bands.  The concert was on Sunday downtown at our Gexa arena. It has lawn seating as well as stand seats that are covered.  We got real seats which is nice because you can come and go and walk around and have the same seat.  If you have lawn seats, its first come first serve and people will move you out of the way if you leave your spot.
The concert was SOOOO  good!!!  I loved every band and Shinedown was amazing Live! They literally sounded so good like right out of the stereo.  Have you ever saw someone live and realized that if it wasnt for all the special effects in the studio, they wouldnt sound good at all?  Surprisingly every band was great.  It felt good to just rock out and sing along and jump and dance with the rest of the crowd.  I lost my voice from all the screaming and hollering and it slowly came back yesterday.  Now thats a good time.  LOL
Oh the people watching was at its best too at the concert. The concerts actually started around 2 and there were 3 or 4 other bands that i had never heard of and didnt make a point to see. SO by the time we got there around 5pm, some people were already toasted from the heat and beers.  The outfits were very interesting too.  The things people where to an all day concert made me shake my head.  Seriously, its Texas people and its blazing hot.
I know i shouldnt do this but i have bought several "HOT" t-shirts that are unauthorized in the parking lot of events.  I did the same this weekend.  Here's the deal though, i had already bought a shirt at 40$ inside so its not like they didnt get some of my money. The shirts ran real small too so i had to buy a xxl and its another 5 dollars for XXL or larger.  They had shirts of course for all the bands and they had the 97.1 BFD shirts ( our rock station hosts the annual concert). I was hoping to buy a BFD shirt that had all the bands listed but it didnt have it. It just had 2016 on it with the radio station logo and BFD.  So i had to choose which band i wanted which was a no brainer because i was there to see Shinedown.   As we were walking back to our car after concert, sure enough there was a guy selling tshirts . They actually had exactly what i was looking for with all the bands listed. SCORE for 20$!!!!  I was a happy camper. Todd just shook his head and laughed because he KNEW i would be getting one.  I will say that i actually wear my concert shirts quite a bit so its not like they just sit in my drawer.

Our Dallas skyline in red,white and blue

Shinedown 

Yesterday was a great day too. We had some people over and it was our first get together since we moved in. I'll tell you about it more tomorrow. I gotta run now.
Here is a song from all the bands we saw. I recorded a little bit with my phone but they dont sound good so these are from youtube.

Drowing Pool- Let the bodies hit the floor

3 Doors Down- Here without you

Collective Soul- December

SiXX AM- SKIN

Shinedown- I'll follow you

Have a great day!!

Too much too soon

Good morning y'all.  I am just going to tell you straight up that i am sad. I have a sadness that i cant seem to shake.  I may need to go to the Dr for depression because i know its not something to mess with.  For many reasons though i struggled with typing that and saying it out loud. I have had so much sadness around me this year .  Have you had a year that you had more deaths that you can remember form any previous year? 2015 has been that year for me.  It all started as yall remember when i lost my stepdad in January. My dear friend lost her mom in February and then lost her husband 2 weeks ago.  We've had yet another big blow.  Last Thursday we got the news that a friend of ours from church died suddenly from heart complications.  He was only 40.  We had just had lunch with him and his mom who also goes to our church 5 weeks ago.  "J" loved music and concerts. We sat for hours talking about concerts and we had such a great time hanging out.  He had heart problems and had recently started having them again after it being under control for a few years.
"J" was also going through a nasty bitter divorce and yall nothing cant be without drama with her.  Ironically, the divorce would have been final this week.  Now she gets everything and she moved into his house , changed the locks and stole his car.  His mom is devastated and they ( mom and son) were super close.  She went to several rock concerts with "J" and they saw each other almost everyday.  My heart just aches for her. She has another son who is a few years older than J and he came to church on Sunday with her. Wow, he looks just like "J".
So one of the many reasons i love my church is that its not too big.  We mostly know everyone and we are a very tight church community.   It was obvious that we all were so stunned and sad about the news when we came to church on Sunday.  Our pastor was out of state for a seminar and we had a guest speaker. Our pastors wife was to introduce him to us and say a few words.  As she started to pray, she broke down and started to cry and talk about "J" and his family.  We all just started crying then but it was good. We needed to address it and stand together and grieve.  I was so proud of her for saying what was on her heart and not go along with what was already scheduled in her speech.  Our pastor is from Louisiana and so was J.  They got together on Sunday's to watch the Saints play.
Tomorrow is his funeral.  One thing i am happy about is that the attire is to wear concert tshirts and no suits allowed.  There will be some good rock music played because his mom told us on Sunday she's picking out the songs.
I have this trait that i dont like about myself and thats my internalizing others pain.  When someone i know has had a loss, i hurt for them and i'm so sad. It affects my mood. I can go along with my day but i have this heaviness on my heart.   2 funerals back to back though is just too much.  I feel like death surrounds me. I never thought of myself as a doom and gloom person.  I put on a smile and act like all is great.  I dont go up to my friends and start talking about sadness.  I keep it all in.  Until today and i figured i might as well write out my feelings. Its my blog and its supposed to be therapeutic to write it down.   I do have my big Holliween party this weekend to look forward to and i am excited to see my friends smiling and laughing. I need that!
There is a cover that has been playing on the radio more recently and its by Shinedown.  They are one of my favorite "new" bands right now.  I've posted a few of their songs here already.  Well they did a cover of Lynyrd Skynrd's song Simple Man.  Yall i  love it so much. I really really like the way its sung.  I should have been more patient and used it for my next Battle of the Bands.  Heck, who's to say i wont .  I just really want yall to hear it if you havent already.  Music gets me through.  Hard rock really helps more when i'm sad.  This isnt exactly hard but its just right.
I'll be back tomorrow for my results of the battle between Celtic Thunder and The Killdares. Please vote today if you havent already done that either.

I'm going to be OK.  I have lots of joyful things to be thankful for and to look forward to.  I just have had more sadness than happiness lately.

New song for you

It started raining in the wee hours this morning.  I heard the thunder outside our window.  That would explain the splitting headache i had that was killing me.  I have barometric headaches and they get me every time we have a rain storm.  They sometimes become a full on migraine and it was almost there.   I took some medicine at 4 am and i ended up oversleeping.  I hate the panic and stress of waking up late to work. The stress just added to my headache.  I had to come into the office because my quarterly review with my manager was this morning.   I am trying to head it off and i hope it goes away. I am moving pretty slowly today and its supposed to be rainy for the next few days.  I really am glad its raining other than the headaches.  We need it so bad.
Last Sunday while listening to my favorite radio show Six Sense Sideshow, I heard another band that i really liked.  They are called Red Sun Rising.  The name of the song is The Otherside.  Their album was just released last month .  What got my attention is the sound resembling Alice In Chains.  Alice in Chains is one of my favorite bands and i think this song had some of their sounds.  I read some reviews on itunes and others mentioned they sound like Shinedown.  I get that too.

So speaking of Shinedown- Here's their newest song called Cut the Cord.  

I have 2 days to get all my errands done outside of work and get packed for my vacation.  I am so excited but lots to do.  I better start feeling better.  Oh and I got some sad news yesterday that my Dad didnt do so well on his last breathing treatment checkup last week.  To the point that the Dr's wont let him go to Idaho this weekend for the wedding.  I am so bummed for my Dad and stepmom.  Daddy even got a new suit for the occasion.  His health is way more important and when you have a double lung transplant, you cant take chances with anything.
Happy Wednesday Y'all!