I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's weekend! I watched part of the Kennedy Center Honors this week, and I wanted to share with you my favorite performances of the night.
Here's No Doubt honoring the great Paul McCartney with "Hello, Goodbye" and "Penny Lane." I heart Gwen. I hope there is a new No Doubt album soon.
Next is one of my fave musicians, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters/Nirvana), and the beautiful Norah Jones singing the gorgeous song, "Maybe I'm Amazed. Enjoy and happy new year! May 2011 be your best year yet!
Today is the Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest, hosted by Jen and Melissa! Check here for more fabulously festive links!
This year my house isn't as decorated as ushe (how do you spell the short word for usual?!), because my house is for sale. But here's a peek at our tree!! You only get a peek, because I have a string of lights that are out. And because I've already been to the store twice to replace other LED strings this year, I refuse to go again! It's the principle (and it's cold outside)! My three kids love to help me decorate the tree each year. We put on the Christmas carols (My Chem, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Elvis, and other rockin' tunes of course), trim the tree, and then have hot cocoa. Our front lawn is sporting our Polar(k) bears, but no other lights outside this time. For a giggle, check out these hilariously crazy nativity decorations at List of the Day blog.
For a special treat, I make these easy Holly Cookies that my kids love. You can also make them into the shape of wreaths, but glopping a spoonful on the wax paper for the holly is much easier than shaping a wreath. It's busy this time of year, you know! Here's the recipe:
32 large marshmallows 1 stick butter or margarine 1 1/2 green food coloring red cinnamon candies (my kids don't like those, so I use red sugar sprinkles)
Heat butter and marshmallows to melt. Pour over 3 1/2 cups cornflakes. Stir. Set on greased wax paper. Add red candy. Eat it up!
Here is my favorite holiday tune, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" My fave part is the Simon LeBon part. (I'm a rocker who loves Duran Duran you know!)
Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends. See you next year!
Yes, I have a love affair with concerts. It's one night where I'm not a mom;I'm not washing the dishes;I'm not worried about my word count;I'm not in my sweats. Concerts recharge me. I go nuts and sing as loud as I can. And guess what? I got to see a band that I've been dying to see live forever on Wednesday night: My Chemical Romance! My sister and I went to the House of Blues for the show. I've been there several times, and this is the most packed I've seen for a concert. I still managed to squeeze my way to front row - the best place to be! The band started with "NaNaNaNa" from their latest album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and ended with "Vampire Money," with favorites from all of their albums in between. Gerard Way's voice sounded awesome, the music was loud (could it be because I was right by the speaker, too?), and lots of crowd surfing going on (and no way was one of them me!). An amazing night! Here's a clip of their second single from Danger Days, "Sing"
Here's Frank, who I think I look like with no makeup on (which is half the time). I glance at myself at the mirror and think, "I look like Frank!" One day I'm going to put red lipstick on him and see if he resembles me at all. Here's my sister, Denise, and I from the free photo booth! We also got free tshirts for being registered organ donors! And lastly, another pic of G, but you can't see his tight pants in this one...
Also, it was my lucky day for many reasons! I won a contest at Gayle Krause's blog. Thank you to Gayle as she'll be sending me her picture book, Rock Star Santa! Now does that sound like a perfect book for my rockin' kids or what? Thanks, Gayle! Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!
WRITING I printed my manuscript on Tuesday, and I'm tweaking it line by line. I used the word "looked" a few too many times. Yikes. But it's much better now, and I still love it!
READING
1. I finally read Mockingjay over the weekend. I could not put it down. I read it in two evenings. I was satisfied with how it ended thankfully. What an amazing series.
2. I just started reading PJ Hoover's, The Navel of the World. My 6th grader recently finished reading it and did a very cool reading project on it for school. J-Man created a sequencing game based on the book. He said the book was "awesome" and asked for the next book in the series, The Necropolis, for Christmas. I love when my kids get excited over books! (Thanks, PJ!)
LIFE
How is your holiday shopping going? I have two more gifts left to buy for Christmas. Most of my shopping was done online. I had a fun shopping (and champagne) day with some girlfriends yesterday in which we all bought the new Miraculous bras at Victoria's Secret and then changed into them so we were extra busty while shopping (it may or may not have been the champagne). We also got a glimpse of Victoria's Secret model, Adriana Lima, who is just as beautiful in person. We did not though wait in the neverending line to meet her, and Adriana may or may not have been bustier than us.
MUSIC 1. I hope to meet up with Candyland on Saturday (weather permitting, there is snow predicted) to see New Medicine in concert! I'll be bringing J-Man and my mom along as well. It will be J-Man's second concert. My 123rd (Just kidding, I have no idea).
2. And to close, here's "Little Drummer Boy" by Jason Segal (from one of my fave shows, How I Met Your Mother) and Jack Black. This song goes on sale on iTunes beginning Tuesday, with proceeds going to Blue Star Families, a nonprofit that connects, supports and empowers military families.
I love hearing what search words bring people to their blog. Tell me what the funniest words that people googled and ended up at your blog. And if you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine! Fun Fact: I started this blog post almost a year ago and never posted it! I added a few more search words, but I will consider this a gift of Christmas Past.
Most common search words (besides my name) that lead people to this blog How to Make Butterbeer (Thanks, Harry) cinquain poem Big Ticks funny frog poems (you would not believe how many people search for this!) cardinal poem (should I include in my query letter for my bird poetry collection that so many people search for this one?!) I said Good Day!
Plus people search Mark McVeigh and Marietta Zacker and get to my blog interviews with them (yay!).
And of course searching names of rock bands also bring people to my blog (and then the teenager gasps at the picture of the somewhat middle aged lady on the right side of the blog and quickly exits).
Searches that made me laugh or cringe include Addicted to Blood (and this search came from the Mayo Clinic!) A Word that Rhymes with Saliva (ummmm, shmabiva?) Spooky Rhyming Poems How to Cook a Teacher? (What?!) Vampire Music (I do love music, and I do love vampires) Kelly 14 Years Stripping (what kind of pervs am I attracting?) Jacoby Shaddix's wife Kelly (No, I am not his wife, but I have seen him with his band Papa Roach in concert five times) my wild and raunchy son (certainly not MY son!) a cinquain poem that teachers don't know (somebody's trying to plagiarize?) Son knaws on his arm (I'm not that bad of a cook) "Heather Kelly" + dance (Heather are you holding out on us!?!) few seconds of awesome (why yes, reading my blog would bring a few seconds of awesome to your day) funny poems about Justin Beaver (so my hubby isn't the only one who thinks that's his name) Jared Leto not aging (what is that guy's secret anyway?)
oldest person at a 30 Seconds to Mars concert (sheesh, don't everyone look at me at once!)
the family that headbangs together, stays together (yeah, baby!)
1. Have you checked to see if you were one of seventeen winners in the Critterpalooza contest? Check the winners here. Congrats to LadyJai who I will be sending a Poetry Pack of Poetrees by Douglas Florian and Stampede by Laura Salas. Douglas and Laura were kind enough to send signed nameplates to go with the book as well.
2. Now that I'm done with the first draft of my middle grade manuscript, I've been breaking it down chapter by chapter. Soon I'll send it to some readers. Maybe to a few agents come January.
3. Still getting the hang of Twitter. I participated (okay, lurked) at my first #yalitchat last night. I also tweeted Maggie Stiefvater about something and she replied back! That made my day! I've been enjoying following some fave rockers and comedians, too, and of course some of you fabulous people!
4. Another awesome webinar is being offered by agent Mark McVeigh! Check out the details HERE!
LIFE
Both of my boys started their basketball season recently. So if I'm not at home, I'll be at the gym cheering them on or chauffering them to and from practice. My daughter's cheer season ends this weekend. She is competing at the state competition. Before she joined this year, I had no idea how involved cheerleading was these days! It is definitely a sport now. I do have to admit they are darn good for seven and eight year olds. I just showed my kids a video of me cheering in high school. We thought we were hot stuff doing a simple stunt. It's nothing compared to what stunts they do now, even in grade school! I'm thankful that my daughter is tall like me and will never be a flyer!
MUSIC
I'm loving the holiday tunes about now. I received Monster Christmas Ballads last year for Christmas. Yes, 80's hair bands singin' the carols. I have been playing a Christmas mix of My Chemical Romance, Smashing Pumpkins, Jewel, Elvis, No Doubt, Chicago plus my new rockin' ballads. Buckcherry just came out with a new Christmas tune, "Christmas is Here," which I promptly bought, too. Just because it's a holiday tune, doesn't mean it can't rock! See the picture for their Christmas single above. I tell you it took me forever to get that paint off my arse!
I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's weekend!
