The First Outdoor Event of the Season. . .

Our busy season has officially arrived. Although it feels like our busy season never really ended since we've managed to stay pretty busy all winter! I'm hoping that our first event of the season sets the tone for the rest of the summer. The weather was perfect, the event was well organized, the equipment operated exactly as it was supposed to, everyone was nice and no one was crushed by our line array or canopy. Those are pretty much all of my requirements!!


It took us longer than usual to set everything up because we are using a new trussing system for our roof. It's not much different but it's a little bigger, a bit heavier and it has corner blocks instead of a steel plate holding the corners together like we've used in the past. Basically, it's stronger and prettier! It's still a lot of work to set up!


We started the set up on Thursday and finished it up on Friday morning. The event was also a fundraiser for the Humane Society so Gloria spent a lot of time visiting the animal trailer and giving me this pouty look:


The finished product still makes me smile and say, "wow". . .

The event was held at Hawk's Stadium and was the second annual "Blues, Brews and BBQ's". . .

We ran sound for the event last year but I didn't enjoy myself nearly as much. . . You'll have to search the archives if you really want to know why but I believe we had 6 events in 3 days. That might have had something to do with it. Oh yeah, and it was about 100 degrees outside and I was in a van stuck in road construction with no air conditioning and windows that wouldn't roll down. And a mean man made me cry. Yeah, this year was much better!!!

Todd and Gino. Todd is the GM of the team and Gino is hilarious!!

The bands were all very happy with the set up. . .

Day 2 started bright and early on Saturday morning. . .

We had more happy blue's bands. (Can blues singers be happy??)

There was a bbq wings eating contest. . .

(this guy REALLY reminded me of Gregg Koskela!!):

We eventually had to take everything down. Steph came out to help us and passed the apprentice test by pulling out a stake all by herself!! Good job, Steph, practice up. . .

It was hard work but Steph was a trooper. Even Gloria chipped in and made the tear down go a little faster. . . The more, the merrier!!

This stage trailer that Kurt and Rob built 2 years ago has served us well. This will be it's third season and, with the exception of replacing some of the plywood decks, it's holding up amazingly well!!

The festival season is here whether we're ready or not!! Pretty much every weekend between now and the middle of September is booked!! Guess I'll see you in the fall!! :)

Photo Scavenger Hunt. . .

In an attempt to get Zach to pay attention to something besides his Ipod, I sent him on a photo scavenger hunt when we were at our Hawks event on Saturday. I made him a list and he found everything on it! Here is what he came up with:

A girl in a pink shirt:




A cowboy hat:


A bald person:





A Vendor:


A Hawk's Employee:

Someone drinking a beverage:

An animal (I meant for him to find an animal that was ALIVE but I guess I wasn't specific enough):

A picture of Rob:

A person wearing a ball cap backwards (it was kind of cheating to take TWO pictures of Rob. . . )

A picture of Kurt:



An advertisement:

He had fun finding and zooming in on his subjects and it kept him walking around and busy for at least 30 minutes! I'll have to try this again sometime!!

What I've Been Up To. . .

I have a problem. My problem is two-fold, at least. I enjoy blogging but I'm busy. But I keep taking pictures and they stack up in my photo file and I become paralyzed by not being able to post them and at least say some little thing about them. I get stuck and I can't move on until I manage to get caught up. As busy as my life is, I realize that catching up on my blog is sort of like catching up on laundry or finishing the Internet. It can't happen. So, you'd think I'd just move on and post in the present. But I can't. Because I have a problem. I've solved this problem in the past by posting Random 7 posts where I catch up everything that has happened in the last week by posting bits and pieces all in one post. Unfortunately, that still takes a bit of organization and time and I'm WAY beyond 7 days so, if you'll bear with me, I've put together a post that will get me beyond this momentary problem I have but will probably make no sense at all. I didn't even bother to put the pictures in order. . . So, here goes (think of it as a speed post and scroll through quickly!!):

Every year we have to replace the canopy that we put over our stage. The only place to do this big project is in the gym at church. We replaced all of the truss we've used over the last few years so it became even more important to construct a "roof" that would fit. We needed it for an event over the weekend so we were down to the wire when we "built" it on Wednesday! The kids chipped in and we made pretty fast work of it!! It has to be cut and measured to a very precise size and then all of the sides are triple taped with clear duct tape before we punch in grommets every 12 inches. I'm glad we only have to do it once a year!

It seems like we've been even busier than usual this time of year so Gloria has been able to spend lots of time with grandma and grandpa. I am so very thankful that they live nearby and are so willing to step in and entertain my kids in a pinch! I LOVE my in-laws!!

Sometime last month we ran sound for a big concert at The Egyptian. It was a lot of work but it went very smoothly and according to plan. I love when things go according to plan. It doesn't happen very often! The first group on stage was the Boise High Orchestra. They were good!

Second group was a band called "A Seasonal Disguise":

The main band for the evening was Built to Spill. They have a huge following so the theatre was very crowded and lively! It was one of the loudest, rockin'-est concerts I've heard in The Egyptian. . .

On Mother's Day I volunteered to work in the nursery at church (I warned you this was random!!). My three kids helped me out! Steph . . .

Zach (with Zack):

And Gloria (with Eva). Needless to say, I didn't have to do much. . .

I really didn't intend to throw McKenna's birthday into a random post but I didn't have my camera at the party so this was the only picture from my phone that really turned out. Happy 5th birthday, McKenna!!!

Melanie and Byron organized the 2nd annual Spring Phling and Philm Phest for the youth group. . .

I wish I had copies of the philms to put on here because they were really good. The kids were split up into two teams and they had about 2 hours to come up with a movie plot and film a short clip. The only requirements were that they had to include 3 provided props and 1 specific sentence in the film. The three props were: the creepy monkey, a bust of an Indian head and a sturdy pair of goggles. The one sentence was: "Why yes, these are my grandfather's pants."

This film clip shows the goggles and the bust of the Indian head:

And here's Steph and the Creepy Monkey. . .

The films were well thought out and funny. Zach's team made a scary movie that was set in a library and, of course, had plenty of Zombie action while the other team made an "after school special" about a girl who was dating a monkey and a friend who just wanted to help. . . "You're right, the monkey needed to die. . . Thank-you!! sniff, sniff . . ."

No party would be complete without a rousing game of Musical Chairs combined with a cake walk. . .

Good times. . .



No words for this one, I just like the picture. . .

During Mother's Day weekend, we had a two-day concert at South Jr. High, of all places. It was interesting. Everything went just fine, but we had quite a few communication barriers that made it just a little more difficult. We were hired by a local Spanish church to run sound for 2 special services; one on Saturday and one on Sunday. They didn't even contact us until Wednesday about the event and then they didn't speak English very well so we were faced with a lot of unknowns. When we unloaded our gear at the school to set up on Saturday morning we were helped by a school custodian. He was nice and helpful but he spoke with a very thick Bosnian accent and we really didn't understand each other. When we finally met someone who spoke plain English, he introduced himself as the sound and lighting tech for the venue. He looked like he was 12. At any rate, the event went just fine in spite of the language barriers . . .



I'm ready for school to be over. I'm ready for Zach to graduate so that I don't have to fill three pages with numbers and symbols before I come up with the correct answer. I get great satisfaction from solving Algebra II problems but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that comes along with it!!!

Zach and Rob are working on a project in the backyard. I'll post updates and more info as the project progresses. . .

I can't keep it a secret any longer. I think everyone has figured out by now that Rob hit the house with the back hoe and this is what happened:

It could have been much worse since he was only a few inches away from the window! The outside of the house shows hardly any damage at all and now that Rob and Zach have replaced the sheet rock and repainted the kitchen, everything is back to normal!!!

No harm done. . .

Well, that's it for this very random post. I have two more posts that I'll try to put up later today and then, hopefully, I'll be back to posting one picture/day. (Yeah, right. . . )

River Valley School Carnival. . .