Mirror Mirror....A Giveaway

So, Here's how it works. The first 15 readers that log onto the website above (click on the photo to enlarge it) will receive a family pack of 4 passes to see Mirror Mirror. Ready? Set... GO!
Hope to see you there!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Admittance to the screening is first-come, first-served. Please arrive early (30 minutes). Seating is not guaranteed.

HUMAN NATURE~ A Giveaway!

To Repeat:

Send your full name, age and address to Pittsburgh@43Kix.com for your chance to win tickets to the Pittsburgh Show. 

The show is April 5, at The Benedum Center. 

HUMAN NATURE is a group of four high school friends who forged one of the most successful careers in Australian music history and today are one of the preeminent vocal harmony groups in the world.  They will be performing in Pittsburgh for one night only at Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.  

This show is definitely the ultimate in family entertainment - one that is appropriate for multi generations.  Older audiences will enjoy the nostalgia factor of reliving the music of their youth; families will enjoy spending a night out at entertainment that is appropriate for all ages, with a high-energy show on stage that gets everyone up on their feet and dancing in the aisles.

This sounds like a lot of fun, and will be a date night for Glenn and I. Even if you don't win the tickets, you should probably buy a pair and join us for a date! 

See you then! 

Teachable Moments

I love it when, in the Spring, a mama robin builds a nest under our deck, and the kids can peek through the cracks to see the eggs, watch them hatch, and see the little naked birds grow fuzz and then feathers. We haven't been fortunate enough to see them grow up enough to leave the nest. I swear something gets them. One morning we will hear them screaming for food, barely opening their eyes, and the next day they are gone. Raccoons? Cats? I'm sure the mama bird is having an anxiety attack every single time our dog, or cat, or one of us step out on the deck above her. She might be the one to sacrifice the little things, I have no idea. My kids are disappointed every single year.

So in an effort to show my kids that cycle of life, I found a live streaming at Ustream.tv where they are filming Decorah Eagles ! You can go there and see a  gorgeous pair of Eagles sitting on one heck of a nest. How cool is that? Apparently we will be able to see everything. The eggs hatching and the baby eaglets growing, all from the safety of my computer. Yes! The website also has updated information, and a live chat where avid fans can chat with each other about the current happenings.

 Today when I peeked in on them, the father Eagle was  hunkered down, protecting his eggs from a nasty storm, as the tree sways in the strong winds. The mama Eagle came in and out, bringing more fodder for the nest, rearranging things, and then taking off.
The kids so far are enthralled, asking to see them every chance they get.
This is a great teaching moment for us.
Here is the live stream by Ustream. Enjoy!


Stream videos at Ustream

So Happy

Photo Credit: Michelle Hammons

I LOVE that guy. 

Disappointed

Today was the advance screening of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, and I was SO excited to go. I was able to give away about 26 seats altogether, and had secured a babysitter for Isabella since her attention span is NOT 2 hours long.
Our babysitter was supposed to show up at 9, so that we could get down to the theater by 20 after, and wait in line. I knew that there would be a lot of interest in going to see this screening, and I knew that the theater was first come, first serve.
Our babysitter never showed up. We waited, paced, waited, checked our watches, and finally, Glenn called her. She was sick. Throwing up, feeling crappy, sick. She had sent Glenn a text which he didn't even realize, and so plans change, right?
Glenn stayed home with Bella, and off I went with the rest of the crew. I didn't leave until 20 after, and didn't get to the theater until 9:45. By then, the line was a curvy snake, weaving around around of excited little ones waiting to see the movie. I knew we would have a very slim chance of getting in. Dang it.
They were letting in a group of people, then waiting, counting seats, bringing more people in, waiting counting more seats. The line never got smaller. We never even got close. The room was at capacity with 50-75 more people waiting, hands full of popcorn and sodas.

One blogger who ran the same promotion as I tried really hard to get her group of readers in. She begged. She cajoled, she negotiated. She had 25 people. She wanted the managers of the theater to let her group in, ahead of the rest of the people in line. While I appreciated her tenacity, I don't think she realized how that looked to everyone else, that she was attempting to cut off.
The manager didn't budge.

I'm not entirely sure why the theater didn't open up another theater, or offer another showing. I guess it's not their policy. I did ask the manager why they let so many tickets go out for it, knowing full well it would be double capacity, and she said that it wasn't her call. I think I might have made her feel bad, when I shared with her how disappointed I was that there were so many sad little faces in the line who were so looking forward to the movie. She sighed, and offered to take everyones name and email down, and said she would mail out free passes to come to the theater on a different day. That was nice.

So a few friends and my family decided to make the best of a bad situation and we went out for coffee. And pastry. And then to the book store. Which is my version of heaven. And then to lunch. That was fun. It didn't take away my disappointment, but I had a great time connecting with my friends, without having to be hushed by an audience.
So I call it a win after all.

We will go see Dr. Seuess' The Lorax eventually, and I'm sure we will love the movie. I chalk it up to a learning experience.

You and Me Make Three

All Photos By Michelle Hammons

Michelle- a professional photographer and blogger, did a photo shoot for Glenn and I, and Isabella tagged along. We weren't initially going to have her in our pictures, simply because we didn't have any of just us as a couple, and Izzy had just previously had her photos taken with Michelle (I will show you soon!)
But candidly, Isabella was there. And as she is such a big part of who we are, and makes us united, it was fittingly perfect that photos were taken with her. I absolutely LOVED them. There are more, and eventually I will show them all. But for now, I hope you like these. We certainly do and wanted to share.

Writing Down Our Lives

In each moment of our lives, we never know what might happen that could be life changing. It's all a mystery. Each moment of every single day we make a choice on how to live our lives. We process ourselves in our own ways. Some of us go to therapy when it gets rough. Some of us talk to our friends. And some of us write.
Claire Bidwell Smith wrote her memoir out in the pages of her book The Rules Of Inheritance. It wasn't a gentle story. It was raw truth. Her story dances with grief and all it's stages as she learns how to cope with both of her parents and the struggle with cancer. How to "be" without them.
How she comes through that dark night of the soul that we all go through at some point in our lives.
She took it all in; her pain and sorrow, her trials and tribulations and she demanded that she feel it all. To be as present as possible for her own experiences. To be whole and healed for another person, to be a strong mother when she birthed her much wanted and loved child.

The truth is, she made her beautiful story come alive on the paper, made me feel her feelings, made me think. Claire's truth rang out in my heart, and I realized that within my own truth, my own narrative, I have gone through the same stages of grief for some of my darker moments, in my own personal way.
It's that connection that people strive for in order to understand each other. To be heard, to be validated, to be loved. It's the human condition of how to process love and loss. To find our way through that dark tunnel and back into the light, to find acceptance for ourselves, and our place in the world.

Would you want to change any part of your story?


This is a paid review forBlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.