Everybody

Okay friends, I need a little help.

Ingrid Michaelson is having a contest where people cover her song "Everybody" and post it on youtube. The 10 people with the most view counts by the 29th will go on to a voting round. The top 5 of those videos will be viewed by Ingrid and she will pick a winner to perform the song with her on stage at one of her shows. My good friend Melissa made an awesome video and has submitted it. We need to get as many people as possible to watch this video and if you can, watch it a lot (sound is optional, seeing as we realize how listening to the same song over and over again can eventually get old).

We're not sure if the play gets counted if the video is embedded, so here's the link! Watch and enjoy. Then tell all your friends. And watch it again. :)

Snowfall

In case you were wondering, I've had enough winter for a while. Don't get me wrong, there was fun to be had during the "snowpocalypse" of 2010, but I'd be okay if I didn't feel like I was in Rexburg anymore. The weather has been in the high 30's to mid 40's, so I'm thinking the end is in sight. We may even be able to see brown grass before April! Here are some pictures of our 7 day snowed-in adventure:

I tried to get pictures similar to the ones I took of the last snow storm as to compare the difference, but I waited a little too long. These are pictures after a little melting . . .




Ingy and a friend sliding down 4.5 foot snow mounds.

Matty and a friend working on one of 3 snow forts.

Me and Ingy embracing the all the snow we got. Ingrid more so than me. ;)

We spent most of our time indoors playing wii, watching movies, doing puzzles, dressing up like princesses, making art projects and building intense lego structures that took 2 days. At one point I showed the kids the "Photo Booth" on my computer. Whenever I had my computer out they'd ask to take pictures:



Sometimes it's hard to get us all in . . .

The Ingrid mask.

Matt's pose of choice.

This is me as an albino Avatar.

This once cracks me up! The kids always ask for this setting, I think it's their favorite.

Ingrid all decked out and dancing at the ball.

It wasn't enough for Ingrid to dress up, she wanted me to put on my princess dress and go to the ball with her. We had a good time. She even helped me do my make-up.



Enough of the winter fun, let's get on to playing at the park and swimming!

Everybody

The day we've all been waiting for! Okay, well, the day that I've been wating for . . . the release of Ingrid Michaelson's new CD Everybody! You can listen to it here and see if you want to buy it, but trust me, you will. You can download it for $6.99 on Amazon.com or $7.99 on itunes. Talk about a deal!

I love this album! All the songs are excellent! Except for maybe Incredible Love, I don't so much care for that one . . . My favorite track, however, is Are We There Yet? followed closely by Sort Of.

I can't wait to see these songs live on September 17th! And again on Nov. 4th. And possibly one other time this fall. Hey, if friends want to go, I'm there!

Giving Up

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2009 is to give something up each month. The idea behind it is that hopefully after the month is over I will have proven to myself that

1-I can live without something, and
2-that the thing I gave up really isn't as great as I once thought it was.

For example, in January I gave up fast food.


I had come to rely too much on the convenience of the drive-thru. I generally make the healthiest choices possible when eating fast food, but it's still not the best habit to form, so I gave it up cold turkey. It was so much easier than I thought it would be! Sure it took a little extra planning and/or effort, but I did it. If I needed something quick I would go to a grocery store (and make a healthy choice) or Subway (because I don't consider Subway "fast food"). The healthy habit has stuck and I've only been to a drive thru once since then . . . with a friend, I might add! :)

Now for my current goal. Working and living in an environment with young children pretty much guarantees that you have easy access to treats whenever the craving strikes. And that is dangerous! So this month I gave up candy and desserts.


February probably isn't the easiest month to do this, especially around the 14th, but that's one of the reasons I chose it. The other reason is because, let's be honest, 28 days is more realistic than 31! Again, it has been a lot easier than I had anticipated, but it's been incredibly difficult too, especially when making homemade truffles with Spencer and our friend, Renee. My mouth was watering like crazy! (Don't worry, there is one of each kind of truffle waiting in the freezer to be sampled in March). It is going to be hard not to let sweets creep back into my diet on a regular basis, but I really think I can do it!

I have a few ideas of what I can do, or rather not do, in the coming months . . . eating in the car, snacking throughout the day (other than designated healthy snacks of course), fried foods, and maybe, maybe even do a month where I give up chocolate in all forms (fyi, there are chocolate breakfast foods that are not considered dessert). But I'm struggling to come up with something for next month. You see, I'm planning a fantastic little road trip with my former roommate, Allyson at the end of March and I would hate to eliminate any option of edible goodness that we could enjoy between DC and Boston. I'd also hate to not meet my goal, which is why I'm having such a dilemma. I still have five more days to come up with something good . . . Suggestions are welcome! :)

P.S. Big thanks to google images! Also, sorry about the over-use of parenthesis.

Far Away

Before we get to Christmas, let me tell you about Thanksgiving. (Obviously I'm a great procrastinator). This was the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent away from home, so it was a little strange. Not to worry though, I was taken care of; I had three different offers for places to go for dinner! It was never really a question of where I would go though, seeing as Spencer is family to me, but it was nice to know that there were others out there thinking about me.

Spencer and I started doing prep work for Thanksgiving dinner the night before because we had to marinate the turkeys. Okay, so Spencer was the one doing all the work; I was dead tired so I read the directions to him from a nice comfy chair. But the next morning we got up and started right in on the rest of the food. I now have new found appreciation for my Grandparents! That was a lot of work and we only did appetizers, the turkey, cranberry sauce, and desserts! I can only imagine adding more of the meal to our list of responsiblities . . . It was so worth it though, the food was delicious! See for yourself! :)


Our Maple Orange-Glazed Turkey. Of all the deliciousness that day I'm fairly certain my favorite thing was the apples that cooked with the turkey. Well, that and the bread pudding. Mmmm!


The desserts! Pumpkin Cheesecake with caramel and pecan topping, apple pie, and bread pudding. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!


A close up of my very first apple pie!


The table setting.


The flowers.

Now let's hope Christmas pics go up before Valentine's Day . . . ;)

The Way I Am

I realize a good portion of my posts are about the concerts I've gone to, but it's pretty much my favorite thing to do, so you get to hear about it. :) I think I've gone to my last concert for 2008 though. Just before Thanksgiving Spencer and I went to The Birchmere to see Ingrid Michaelson play the last show on her Be Okay tour. Of course it was fabulous, this is Ingrid we're talking about! She is one musician I will glady see over and over again for the rest of my life. This was my 6th Ingrid show and every single one has been top notch. Not only is she a talented musician but she is one heck of an entertainer! Here are some pics from the show along with a video of an unreleased song she sang at the show. Listen closely and you'll hear someone you know during the intro. ;)


Spencer and me waiting for Ingrid. I promised him it wouldn't go up online, so don't tell him. :)


David Ford, one of the openers. I have a couple of his songs that I really like, so I was excited that he was going to be there. Yeah, I didn't so much love him.


Newton Faulkner, another opener. I'd never heard of him before but was pleasantly surprised. He has amazing talent and was fun to watch. He's not anyone I would listen to on my own, but I'd go see him again.


And of course we have Ingrid!


And her friends. Note the creepy looking guy in the left hand corner. He's not real, just attached to the wall above the door. A little disturbing/hilarious.



Now the whole crew.


Blueberry Boy

It was a great evening and I'm looking forward to more Ingrid shows in 2009!

Be Ok

It all started one fateful night towards the end of February. I went with a handful of friends to the Joshua Radin concert (I'm sure you'll hear much more about him in aprox. 19 more days). Co-headlining with Josh (we're close, I can call him that) was Ingrid Michaelson. You know, the girl who sings the sweater song featured in the Old Navy commercial from last winter. Anyway, I really liked her stuff and went home and bought a couple songs on i tunes. Then I saw her with Josh in Boise two days later. I loved her and went home to purchase the rest of the album. I have also seen her play an in-store concert at Best Buy, with the Hotel Cafe Tour, then a month ago she came back through Salt Lake on her headlining tour. If you count that up, I've seen Ingrid play live five times this year, thus, I have officially deemed this the year of Ingrid Michaelson! She's pretty much incredible and I highly recommend her to everyone! And while there are a lot of simmilar sounding female artist out there right now, I believe Ingrid is among the best of the bunch. Trust me.

Anyway. Her shows are always so much fun and she writes new stuff as she tours. One of her new songs is called Be Ok; it'll be on an upcoming ep she's putting out an she's in the process of making a music video for it as well. She posted a bulletin on myspace asking fans to take a picture of themselves with Be Ok somewhere on their face. Of course I grabbed my eyeliner and camera and went to town. How cool would it be to be in a music video?! I'm sure they'll get way better pics, but I gave it a shot . . .









And a link so you can hear how fabulous the song is for yourself. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4RRXPCY8mU