Branson full day #1

Today was the first full day in Branson...  Woke up this morning to thunder and rain (a little after 7AM).  Got up, looked out the window...promptly crawled back into bed.  :)

Got up again a little after 9AM and began the first full Branson day.  Today was designated as a shopping day, due to the weather.  It was dark and dreary....and rainy...and cold.  I don't know that it got above 45 degrees today (according to the car).  And the wind chill was in the 30's.  And it WAS windy.  So we made the most of it and drove around to stores that I could park in front of.  ha ha!

Tonight was night number 1 for the Oaks.  I have been using a different camera this week, so I didn't take as many pics as I usually do.  Wanted to get used to it and get back to the laptop to see what they looked like. Not much different from my regular camera, I'd say.

There are no scenic pics from today for obvious reasons....but here are a few from tonight's show.  This was the first time I've seen the Boys for 2013.  The set list was much different than usual, because this is their 40th Anniversary tour (and I've been going to see them for 29 years, myself!)...so there are a lot more of the older songs being worked into the shows.  It was a GREAT mix of music tonight...and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it.  Of course half of them probably didn't know that some of those songs hadn't been sung on stage in 20 years....but that's okay.  :)

The view thru the window after I'd parked.  Pretty much what the day looked like all day.

Duane Allen

William Lee Golden

Joe Bonsall

Richard Sterban

Oak Ridge Boys

Fun pic

End of night #1

Hopefully the rest of the week's blogs will be more exciting and have more variety of pictures to show...  :)

Blast from the Past

When I think of my college days, I think of the music.  Granted, I was living in Nashville at the time, so I was literally surrounded by people who lived and breathed music.  Plus, I was a Music Business Major at Belmont University, so I was one of the ones who moved to town to try merge into the world of living and breathing music.  All I had ever seen myself doing when I "grew up", was being involved in the music industry.  My original plan in high school, was to go off to Tennessee...meet all these wonderful people who felt the same way I did...and then magically become a Road Manager for some new up and coming artist who was trying to break into the business.  I wanted to help that artist and give them everything I had, in order for them to become  a success.  Then whenever I got tired of touring all the time, I figured I'd settle down and become a Record Producer, allowing me to stay home most of the time.  I had it all figured out, right?  Yep.

Halfway through my freshman year of college, I actually attained a piece of that goal.  I was taken in by someone in the business and given a job to do, helping out with a Fan Club office.  It was so much fun, I could hardly believe I was being allowed to do all that I was being allowed to do.  I just knew it was the "big break" custom made for me, to get my foot in the door.  And it was...for a time.  I met a lot of great people, from all types of industry positions.  Managers, musicians, Label execs, artists, songwriters, etc.  The whole broad spectrum.  But what nobody had told me, was that for every genuine and sincere person out there, there are five who want nothing but to take you down.  Therefore, my fun run in the industry was short-lived and I was forced to get out while I could still hold my head up (even though there were some days it was the hardest thing to do).  And sadly, some things just never change.

All of that to say...on the flip-side of the sad parts...in the end, it was truly the music that got me by.  The live shows that I continued to go to and the friends that I'd made.   The friends I made through the artists that I was privileged to see perform together tonight, are the ones I will always and forever think of with the fondest memories.  So thank you to the music...and the artists....especially the boys I saw tonight.  They, too,  are forever in my heart for their own reasons.

It was a great way to spend the first official night of my 2013 vacation...  Thank you Puckett's Franklin for having these two!!

Easter!

Easter was a lot of fun this year!  Preston dropped Dakota off at the house that Saturday morning, on his way to work.  That afternoon, we all met up at the church for the big Easter egg hunt.  The hunt took place during what is normally Dakota's nap time...so there had been no nap yet that day.  Needless to say, that made for a very clingy and cranky little boy.  But we managed...  :)

Dakota stayed at our house the rest of the day...and spent the night.  We stayed up late coloring Easter eggs.  He was completely fascinated by the whole process...

The next morning we got all dressed up in our Easter outfits and went to church...

And here are the "official" Easter pics for 2013...  :)

And something fun....  A comparison between last year and this year...  :)

Books!

Recently I introduced my 2 1/2 year old nephew to the town library.  He has tons of books at our house, and I'm sure at his own house, as well.  But I'd been waiting patiently for Dakota to get to an age where I thought he might appreciate a visit to the library...and that time is now.  :)

The first day I took him, he babbled as we walked down the sidewalk, noted the police cars parked on the street (the police station is next door to the library), and then babbled some more as we walked up the steps to the door.  He took the first step inside and stopped dead in his tracks, saying  "Whoa!  Books!  More, more, more books!"

We went to the children's book corner and he immediately started pulling books off the shelf and looking through them.  He was so excited!

Once we got a good stack together, we took them up to the desk to be checked out.  While I was signing all the cards, Dakota found the bean bag.  And then Miss Cindy, the Librarian, gave him his first bookmark and then he grabbed a book and ran to the couch to read it.

Then it was time to leave....and we said our goodbyes.  Since that first trip, we've made a trip once a week.  We take our books back and pick out some more to bring home with us.  He always gets very excited about getting to go to the "Brary" with Aunt Manda.  But a little secret is that Aunt Manda is always very excited about taking him....  :)