10 on Tuesday

1. Alright, alright. I know. It's Wednesday. Oh well. It's been so crazy here with all of the weigh ins that I didn't have time.

2. The Biggest Loser Challenge started. It has been a little insane with all of the weigh ins. I have 2 more coming right now and that will bring the total participants to 34. More keep calling or emailing me to join. There is still time to join. Just email or call me for rules/info/weigh in time. Feel free to join if you don't live near me. You can be in the no pay/no win group. You don't win anything, but maybe it's extra motivation knowing that someone will know how you did that week.

3. I have been doing really well so far with my eating. I have been walking to pick up Courtney from school so that's an extra mile every day. Other than that I haven't exercised though so I need to pick up that.

4. I have had a cough for over 2 weeks now. It's driving me nuts. I started taking Sudafed yesterday and I'm hoping that will help get rid of it.

5. A great quote from yesterday, "If you have 15 hours to spend on facebook, you can spend 15 minutes with God." One of our pastors, Sherry Mortenson said that yesterday at our bible study. How true. We waste time away like it's nothing on facebook or blogs or whatever else it is you do. So, I did it yesterday. I read the bible yesterday for 15 minutes while Courtney was doing her reading for school. I even kept reading after to finish the rest for the study. We were talking in our group about even 5 minutes. I then said "God will use whatever we have to give."

6. Someone on my facebook put that she thought I was going to say you can find 15 minutes to exercise. I believe that is true too. Most people think they don't have time to fit a workout in. But they usually are wasting time doing things that could be done another time or not at all. Even if you were to fit 10 minutes in here or there, you would still get the benefit of it.

7. We are deciding to not order soccer pictures for Skyler. That seems sad to me, but really, the picture is horrible. We get the team picture and one of the pictures of her already. So we will have a copy of it. But we are refusing to buy more. I got a much better picture of her outside anyway. So, if anyone wants a soccer picture of her I can email it to you and you can print it in whatever size you want. She had her first game last Saturday. She plays at 8am every Saturday if you want to come and watch.

Ok, really bad picture, but I am up there somewhere. This was in 2008.

8. Oh Candlelight. (I could only find the link for the one in Disney World.) For anyone who doesn't know I will explain. Disney does this huge musical presentation one weekend a year. It's pretty much the one time you will hear any kind of religious music or anything like it in Disneyland. It's always the first weekend of December. So, you have to try out to sing in the choir. I got the chance to do this one year with our choir from church. It was an amazing experience. I have the chance to do it again this year but now I can't. I am so bummed. I didn't realize how much I wanted to do it again until I realized I can't. I already have made a commitment on the same day as the performance. Many many choirs audition for it and about half of them don't make it in. You have to record your choir singing their songs and then they pick who gets in without knowing which groups they are when they are picking. There is a massive processional all the way down from Small World down Mainstreet. Until we get to the performance area on the backside of the train station. Oh the memories. I'm going to have to try to do it next year. I also have a blog about it from when I went if you want to read more.

9. The more and more broke we get, the more I think I'm just going to go for the photography business. I think I might ask a couple families to do a setting just for practice first. Then just go for it.

10. I'm so excited for MOPS to start next week. We have our "Meet Your Table" day tomorrow. Let the fun begin!

Candlelight 2008

Wow, what an amazing experience it all was. Such a great show and amazing reaction from those who watched as well.

Our day started off by arriving by 12:30pm. Then waited for the practice to start. We went through all of the songs with just the choir and then added the orchestra, hand bells, and heralding trumpeters. Wow, were they loud. Beautiful, but loud. Then we had a break to eat and after that we started getting ready to line up and for more instructions. Then we lined up into 6 huge rows and got our robes on and our little stoles (little collar things). We got to get our fake candles too. :)

Then we started walking. We had about a quarter to half mile walk to get to the right gate to start. We went under the train and everyone was waving their candles. It was awesome. 4 cast members started it and everyone followed. Then we started the procession down the parade route. The funny thing is that we didn't even know what songs we were going to be singing as we did the procession until we heard them playing and started singing them. We knew they were just random carols, but still. I think we should have at least known what songs they were. We sang the same like 3 songs over and over and over until we were finally all up in the risers. We ended at the beginning of Main Street (right in front of the train station).

John Stamos was the narrator this year. He read the Christmas story and it was so awesome to have this message being said to all of those people at Disneyland. It's the most "christian" day at Disneyland. He did a wonderful job of narrating and told of how he used to come to watch Candlelight and how he is a local and goes to Disneyland a lot. He was such a jokester when we were rehearsing. It was cool to see that fun side of him.

The performance went wonderful. Scott and the girls were there watching the first one. Then they went to go on rides. We got to hang out in the Lincoln Theater during our break. They even had a cool dance light on outside. We took a group picture with everyone we could find. Before we knew it, it was time to line up again.

My foot was already hurting before I even got to Disneyland. Let alone all of the walking and standing we did. At one point I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to walk off the risers. But then the pain would subside and I could move it again. I don't know what I did to it. It was hurting on the arch of my foot and radiating to the outside and up. I wasn't the only one who had some kind of thing happen. From what I heard, 3 people went down during the first performance. I didn't see it happen cuz they were all on the opposite side of where I was. We were crammed like sardines, so it's a miracle how they got them off.

The second performance in my opinion was the best. I was able to hit every high note and it felt very good. I was trying to conserve my voice in the first performance so I didn't attempt every one the first time. They told us to do this. Not go for every one if we feel our voice getting shaky. I didn't want to lose my voice. And I didn't...so I was glad I did that. What was awesome is that I could actually see my friends, Don and Amy in the audience. I couldn't believe it. I didn't think there was any chance of seeing anyone I knew in the audience. There were just so many masses of people there, that I thought it was impossible. But there they were cheering us on. I was trying so hard not to wave. hehe

We got to re-enter the park if we wanted to. Plus, they gave us 2 free tickets to come back anytime. So, I'm sure we'll be giving those to someone to use. We also go the opportunity before that night to purchase sweatshirts. And the only way you can get these sweatshirts is by being in the choir. So, of course I got one. I'll wear it proudly.

We caught up with some of the ladies we came with and hung out at Downtown Disney (DTD) a while. Scott and the girls were already at the car about to leave. We kept getting stopped by people telling us thank you and how beautiful it was. Or how much they love it. Or that they come every year. From what I hear, the seats that are reserved were sold out in 3 hours. It's a dining package plus a seat. (And NOT cheap.) Everyone else gets to stand. We kept our robes on for most of the night in DTD because it was so cold. It felt a little silly wearing them, but it was cool too. Cuz people kept stopping us.

We had a great night and it was so fun getting to know some of the ladies in choir better. We were such a huge choir that I was seeing people everywhere that were with us. We were the second largest choir (80). The largest was the Disneyland Employee Choir (125). Most of the choirs were high school choirs or college choirs. Only a couple church choirs. It really was a ministry because not everyone singing really believed in what they were singing. Not necessarily all people in a high school or college choir would be Christians. And of course the audience.

I really hope people were touched as much as I was by this experience. The ladies talked on our way home about whether we would do it again. We all said yes, because the benefits far outweigh the costs.

PLEASE leave a comment if you were there so I'll know. There really is no way of knowing unless you tell me. :) And of course, feel free to leave any comments. I love getting them.

Scott told me when we got home that they announced what choirs were singing in the performance and when they mentioned Whittier Area Community Church, we got a huge roar of clapping and yelling. That was cool. I wish we could have heard it. There must have been lots of supporters out there from church or fellow Whittierites. Another choir from Whittier sang with us too. The Pioneer High School choir.

Christmas Is Upon Us

What a wonderful time of year. And the running around has already begun. One thing we have as a fairly new tradition (this is the 3rd year). Is that we are doing an Advent calendar. Each day we do something special together as a family. For the first day of Advent I was able to go to the movies with my friend, Monica. We had a great girly time watching "4 Christmases". Then we all (both families) went to dinner at Round Table. Oh...such good pizza. I hadn't been there in so long. It just happened to turn into a celebration dinner too. Because while Monica and I were in the theater, she got an amazingly good phone call from her doctor telling her that her bone scan was good. Benign tumor and no cancer in her bones. What huge news!!!! So we had a good ol' celebration with pizza.

Today is our 14 year dating anniversary (this time). We decided to keep celebrating this anniversary by exchanging ornaments. So, when our kids arrived we started making it a family thing. So Scott and I find an ornament for each other and Courtney and Skyler find an ornament for each other. So that will be our Advent thing for today.

The kids keep saying all of these cute things and I keep forgetting to write them down or get them on here. So, I'll try to be better at that.

Today I have the joy of putting all of the loose ends together for MOPS tomorrow. So many last minute things to get or think about. It's the last MOPS of the semester, so it's a special day. I'll be at church later tonight decorating for it. I'm sooo looking forward to tomorrow. It's always such a special day.

Tomorrow night I have one last choir performance before Candlelight that is on Sunday. Disneyland actually has 2 nights of Candlelight (Sat and Sun), but I will only be performing at the one on Sunday. Not that I would see you, but it would be wonderful if anyone wants to come. I have heard that it is quite the experience and as a bonus, John Stamos is the narrator. From what I have heard, we start at Small World and have a procession (while singing) down the parade route all the way to the end of main street. Then we sing the rest there. The performance times are 5:30pm and 8pm.

Friday is Courtney's musical for school at 7pm. The performance is at First Love Calvary Chapel on Hadley Street and Milton Avenue. And that's after a choir practice at church right before that for her other choir (from church).

Saturday is the Dress Rehearsal for the Choir performances on the weekend. At 5pm on Sat. Courtney has one and Sun she has 2 at 9:30am and 11:10am. Then I'm on my way to Candlelight.

As I said, Christmas is upon us. I think this will be one of our busiest weekends of the season.

A little shout out to Kristy and Jason Rosander for being the first people to send us a Christmas card. You guys are on top of it!! A picture and letter. So fun. We are still waiting for our proofs to send ours out. Not to mention not writing the letter yet either. lol

I can't believe I haven't mentioned this. TWILIGHT came out!!!!!!!!!!! And boy was it good. I have already seen it 3 times. Isn't that a little crazy?! It is to me, but it's so good. I don't think I have ever seen a movie that many times in the theater. We hardly ever go to the movies (even though I love it). So seeing a movie 3 times in 1 week is out of the norm. I saw it once with Heidi, once with my mom, and once with Scott, Bryan, and Shauna. It was so fun to see it through the guy's eyes the last time. But at least they kind of can get it a little bit when we talk about it.

We have all of the Christmas decorations up and the lights. It's so much fun. The girls love looking at lights as we drive anywhere. They have a new and bigger appreciation of them this year. That was very evident when we first saw them. They get super excited. Ooh, a snowman, ooh a tree, etc...

Ok, I hope you liked the "Elf Yourself" below. It was fun making it. It's so much better than the one that was out last year. I'm glad they updated it.

Candlelight

We made it!!!!!!!!!!!!! David's going to get the exact stats for this year, but he says that usually about 220 choirs try out for it and only about 20 make it. I'm so excited.