Tigerama

I attended Tigerama (a concert by the LSU Wind Ensemble and the Golden Band from Tigerland) Monday night with a 15-year-old girl from my ward (she is a drum major at her high school). Both groups sounded GREAT. The concert was held at the PMAC (Pete Maravich Assemble Center, the LSU basketball arena). Since I was in the band for 5 years, the concert brought back lots of great memories. The concert has changed a little bit, though--when I was in the band we did this concert either at the LSU Union Theatre or the Baton Rouge Centroplex Theatre. The other difference was the LSU Jazz Band always performed when I was there but I guess they don't anymore. Also, they dropped a ton of purple and gold balloons onto the audience during the last fight song, something they didn't do when I was there. Here are a few pics of the concert:

{The wind ensemble played first}:

{Mr. Wickes conducting "Let Us Break Bread Together"--he's facing the audience because the Tigerband brass come down into the aisles of the audience and play part of the song with the wind ensemble}:

{Here's the Tigerband, color guard and Golden Girls included--~324 people total}:

{The band played the Indiana Jones theme, the song they played to win the ESPN Battle of the Bands this year}:

{Indiana Mike}:

{And here are me and Ashlee, the cute girl I took to the concert}:

We had a great time at the concert and beforehand--we went and ate at Louie's Cafe, which is right off the LSU campus. That brought back tons of memories, as well, because I ate there often since it was so close to the School of Music. I even got Shaq's autograph there one night at 3am! The only bad thing about the concert was it didn't start until 8:00 and ended at 10:30 and I had to get up the next morning at 5:30 for my epidural injection. I'll post about that later...

Dr. Oz

Those of you who watch Oprah regularly know who he is. I love when he is on her show. He is so informative and will talk about anything health-related (I could never go on her show and discuss some of the embarrassing things people do but I'm glad other people do it, hee hee!). This week, he was on her show talking about anti-aging tips. Here are some of the things he shared that I thought we could all use:

Dry, cracked heels (I'm posting this for someone in particular--you know who you are, ha ha! Love you!):

• Rub heels with Stridex pads (yes the acne pads)--the salicylic acid is a great exfoliator
• Apply a thick layer of 100% cocoa butter, Vaseline or a great lotion like Eucerin to the heels
• Put socks on and go to bed

To prevent wrinkles:

• Use creams with vitamins A, C & E
• Put niacin cream on
• Exfoliate

To prevent age spots:

• Use creams with vitams C & A or licorice extract
• Apply niacin cream

For younger-looking skin or to help with dry skin, eat lots of the following:

• Legumes, avocados, soybeans and nuts (they all contain biotin)
• Salmon (contains carotenoids that keep the skin's elasticity)
• Tomatoes--best when combined with olive oil, which helps to absorb the lycopene

If you have dry/frizzy hair, get a charcoal water filter shower head--it filters out the chlorine, which obviously damages your hair.

I hope you find this info helpful. Love you all!

My new favorite album is...

David Archuleta's first album! I LOVE it! I've listened to it every day since Tuesday. I like every song on it. My favorites, though, are "My Hands", "To Be With You", "You Can", "Your Eyes Don't Lie" and "Angels" (which he sang on American Idol). Here's a review of the album that's on Rhapsody:

For an artist who won over audiences with a platform of preternatural talent, endearing naivete, and a baby face just asking to be pinched, David Archuleta's ability to sound so ... adult always comes as a surprise. Here and there on his debut, a lack of depth and dimension -- musically and emotionally --hints at the Idol runner-up's youth. But for the most part, the vocals are rich and mature, and the tracks are sensitive and even a litle all-grown-up sexy ("My Hands"). In other words, just what the man-voiced baby-faced crooner's devotees (tween girls and their middle-aged moms) ordered. -Rachel Devill

If you liked him on American Idol, you will love this CD and must buy it! :)

I also like Taylor Swift's new CD that also came out this week. I'm not sure I like it as much as her first one but it is good.

LSU vs. Bama

I don't even want to talk about the game but here are some pictures from Saturday--we went to my parents' house to watch it, along with Ben and the girls, Tim, Greg, and Chad (and Hanson showed up later). My mom wasn't there because she had gone to Mississippi to watch the Little River Band with a friend. My dad made hot wings (and boy were they hot!), Greg brought Velveeta and Rotel and I made the dip, and I brought brownies. Lots of yummy stuff and we had fun, even if we lost:

{Little Miss Brenna}

{Look what her dad did to her hair!}

{Paw-paw & Brenna}

{Chad & Greg}

{Ben & Tim}

{Belle had fun playing on Maw-maw & Paw-paw's computer and with lots of toys during the game.}

{Jared & Hanson}

I just realized that I had forgotten to post these pics a couple of weeks ago. These are from the Sat. before Halloween (10/25). I had gone to my parents to watch the game with my dad, brothers, Greg and Chad. Ben had the girls with him since Becky was working. We had BBQ hamburgers and lots of snacks. Ben and the girls went to a Halloween party after the game; here are the girls' costumes:

{Brenna as a cat}

{Belle as a witch}

Aren't they adorable?!

My voice is still hoarse from screaming Sat. (all for nothing, since we lost in overtime). I made it worse by singing a lot at church yesterday because we had our Primary program and, since I am a teacher, I sat up there with the kids and sang with them (although I wouldn't really call it singing--more like croaking). Plus, we went on a drive to visit Jared's boss and a co-worker so I chatted a lot with them and their wives. It sounds pretty bad today. At least it doesn't hurt, though.

My back and neck MRIs

So the verdict on my back is I have several bulging discs, one of them protruding into my spinal cord. The next step is to get epidural steroid injections on both my back and my neck to try and shrink the discs. My dr. can only do the one on my back so I have to go to another dr. for the one on my neck (the one on my neck will probably be three different injections over a period of three months--yikes!).

Y'all know that I have a MAJOR needle phobia, right? I am already freaking out. I have no idea how I will be able to go through with it but I have to make myself because I just can't handle the constant pain. The good news is I no longer have to go to physical therapy three times a week! But the sad thing is I went for three months and it didn't help that much. I hope, hope, hope that these injections will help me be in a lot less pain! That would be so wonderful!

I did it!

I went and got my hair chopped! I didn't get it cut as short as I had originally planned. The hairdresser thought this length was better for the shape of my face. Plus, she thought it would be best to let my hair train itself to this cut for a few weeks, then cut it a bit shorter. I already have an appt. to get it cut again the first week of Dec. Anyway, here's the new "do":

So tell me--do you think I should have it cut shorter? Any other suggestions??

Help me pick a new hairdo!

So I found this site, http://www.taaz.com/, and did a few make-overs on myself. I really need to and want to cut my hair (get rid of some of the weight that my neck has to hold up, as my hair is getting way too long and heavy). So here's some of the hairstyles I played with; let me know which one you think I should really do (I am honestly looking for some input here):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

I'll tell you later which one Jared and I like the most and which one Jared said "no way!" to. :)

Another new nephew!

My sister, Kiki, had her third child Thursday morning--Wyatt Eli at 8 lbs. 5 oz., 20 in. A friend of mine and Kiki's, Jamie Garner, took these pictures at the hospital:
I am very sad that I wasn't able to be there for the birth and that I can't hold him and see him in person. I'll see him in December, though, which won't come fast enough! :)

Home decor advice needed

My mom and I have been talking about doing a painting for my dining room. I finally bought a huge canvas (3' x 4') from Hobby Lobby last week--used a 40% off coupon, woohoo! The idea I have is to just add some color (I'm thinking orange) in there by doing some sort of abstract art piece. Something like these, maybe:

I really want something more like layers of color, all blended into each other. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for online, so I just went and painted this on cardstock with acrylic paint:

So tell me what you think. Keep in mind that this was done in about 2 min.--the real one would have more depth of colors and shading. Is it too bland? What else do you think it would need? Or should I just leave it simple like that? Or do you think I should use shapes (squares or circle)? Do you like any of the ones above better? Your opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Civility

I watched a show last week that Oprah did on civility and it has really made me think. It does seem that civility has all but gone out the window these days. They had a list of questions that the audience answered with one of those hand-held voting mechanisms. Here are the questions to show whether you are a rude person or not:

• Are you chronically late? This is rude! They mentioned that someone else's time is just as important as yours so why would you make someone else wait on you?
• Have you ever typed an email while on the phone with someone? I used to do that all the time when I worked (multi-tasking) and I've done it from time to time here at home but I will try not to do it anymore.
• Have you ever interrupted a face-to-face conversation to take a non-urgent cell phone call? I don't think I do this but I will definitely make sure I don't now.
• Have you ever gone through the supermarket 10 item express lane with more than 10 items? Nope, I always count my items and make sure I don't have over 10 if I want to use the express lane.
• Have you ever let your dog "go" on your neighbor's lawn? No. We hate when other people do that to use so we don't let our dog do that to others.
• Have you ever stolen a parking spot from someone? No, I'm pretty patient and would rather just go and look for another one than make someone else mad at me.
• Have you ever gossiped? Uh, yeah, and I don't personally know of anyone who hasn't. The audience poll showed that 97% of them had gossiped and one of the people who answered no said she hit the wrong button so really 98% of the audience has gossiped. This is something that I really try not to do but it is very hard!
• Have you ever taken someone else's food or drink from the office fridge? No, I never did that when I worked. I wouldn't have the heart, plus that is stealing.

A really cool quote they stated on the show is: "We never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace." --Peggy Tabor Millin

This is so true! We really need to think about the way we treat others. Think about how you feel when people do things to you, like in the list above. Why would you want to make someone else feel that way--whether you know them or don't know them? Even if it's just a 2-minute interaction with someone at the check-out counter, we can make an impact on that checker for either good or bad. There's just no excuse to be rude to others just because we're in a bad mood or whatever. Just food for thought.

Some pics of Brenna

Here are some pics of Brenna that I took when I babysat her on Tuesday:

{Such a smiley girl!}

{Ya gotta love a chubby baby! :) }
{I could look at this beautiful, angelic face all day.}

LSU beat South Carolina last night, yay! I went and watched the game at my brother's house after going to a wedding reception. The first half was a little nerve-racking but the 2nd half we did much better and pulled off the win. We're at #11 now. I'm hoping we don't lose anymore games but that would be EXTREMELY tough with Georgia next and Alabama a couple weeks after that. I'll be pulling hard for my Tigers!!

Sheri Dew

So I went and saw Sheri Dew Saturday night and she was amazing!  She said so many things that I really needed to hear.  Here are just a few of my favorite parts:

·        She told a story about how she went and saw the male ice skaters at the 2002 Olympics.  All of the skaters looked beautiful as they were warming up/practicing but when they did their actual skate for the competition, almost all of them fell—21 out of the 24 top skaters.  Obviously, they could do the jumps, etc, but not when the pressure was on.  Her point was “can you do it when it counts?”  My thoughts on this:  It’s easy to live the gospel when everything in our life is going good but, when things are hard, we tend to want to give up.  I want to prove that I can do it when it matters—follows the teachings of Christ, even though I am struggling a lot right now.

·        She mentioned that a lot of people talk about how the Lord doesn’t give us more than we can handle.  But she disagrees and said that He gives just a bit more than we can handle so we will turn to Him for help. 

·        Heavenly Father speaks to each of us differently.  We each need to pray and ask Him to help us know how we personally receive answers to prayer—we need to learn how to speak the language and we need to practice often.  We will continue learning throughout our entire life.  This is definitely something I need to work on!

·        We spend too much time acting like we’re here on Earth to stay when we can’t and we won’t.  We worry too much about mortal things, not thinking enough about the big picture, about eternity.  So true!!

 

So I said in my previous post that I was gonna go straight home after the Sheri Dew talk to watch the LSU game (even though a bunch of my friends were going out to eat afterwards).  Well, I called Jared  as I was leaving the church and he told me I should just go out and have fun eating with my friends because the game didn’t look good and I would just get ticked off if I went home and watched the game.  So I went out to eat and I’m so glad I did!  First of all, I had so much fun!  I got to really catch up with an old friend and the food was great (Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro). Secondly, LSU ended up losing 51-21.  So sad.  I was half expecting LSU to lose but I really thought it would be a better game, that we would give Florida a run for their money.  And now we’re out of the top 10 at #13 (we were #4).  Oh well.  I’ll still root them on for every game left in the season and hope that we make it to a good bowl game.

 

Sunday, we went to my SIL’s parents’ house for a steak dinner and cake to celebrate my brother’s birthday.  The birthday boy made the steaks and they were delish!

 

I get to watch my 4-month-old niece today.  My SIL just brought her and she’s sitting here with me now as I type this.  She is such a good baby—so happy and smiley.  And, of course, over-the-top cute! J  I’ll take some pics and post them later.

 

 

Quick update

I got the results for the MRI on my neck on Monday. The dr. said I have a ruptured disk. There's not much that can be done for it--just keep doing physical therapy and see if that helps and take meds and use a TENS unit (electrodes) to help relieve the pain. Very frustrating, since I'm always in pain! He also ordered an MRI on my back and pelvis, which I did yesterday (took 2 hours!). It will be a couple of weeks before I get the results. In the meantime, he ordered another 4 weeks of therapy--oh joy; going there 3 times a week is getting really old! But I'll keep doing it if it helps me feel better in the least bit.

Not much going on besides that. Jared is in Houma today (south Louisiana)--lots of people from our stake went down there to help with the hurricane clean-up effort. I can't help, of course, because of my back and neck so I'm home until I go see Sherri Dew speak tonight in Baton Rouge. Then, I'm coming straight home to watch the LSU vs. Florida game. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Oh and a huge congrats to LSU's Golden Band from Tigerland for winning ESPN's Battle of the Bands. Seven schools (Florida, Univ. of Texas, Auburn, Clemson, USC, Georgia, & LSU) each played their own version of the theme from Indiana Jones. You can see the video of each band here: http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/indianajones/index They announced this morning that the Tigerband won! The prize isa $25,000 donation from Paramount and Lucasfilm Ltd.--which they REALLY need since they are in the process of building a very badly needed new band building!! You should see how small and old the current one is--way too tiny for a 360+ member band. So congrats to Tigerband. I'm a very proud Tigerband alumnus! :)

Picture Personality

My mom sent this link to me in an email. I've done something like it before but had fun doing this:

If you do one for yourself, let me know!

SCATTERGORIES

I got this in an email but thought it would be fun to post it here.

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.


WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Dana
BOYS NAME: David
4 LETTER WORD: Dang
GIRL NAME: Danielle
OCCUPATION: Dietician
A COLOR: Desert sand
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Denim
BEVERAGE: Dr. Pepper
FOOD: Dill pickle
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Dial soap
A PLACE : Denham Springs
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Drying my hair
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT OUT: Darn!

Put your answers on your blog and leave me a comment telling me you've done it! :)