What did YOU do for Valentine's Day?

Ok, so Magnum turned 50 last Friday.  I know I've posted more than once about how his birthday is the day before Valentine's Day, and how I always used to make it a big, combined celebration back in the day.  Well, I managed to tie the two together again this year.  I surprised him the night of his birthday with concert tickets.  For a concert that was the next night.  Valentine's Day.  And, man, did I do good....

We went to see........

Ok, they actually look more like this now.....

 We freakin' saw Fleetwood Mac!!!

Man, oh man, did they put on an incredible show!!  I don't know if you are aware of this, but they are no longer spring chickens. (Mick 67, John 69, Christine 71, Lindsey 65, Stevie 66)  We were seriously impressed with the show they put on that night.  They played for 2 1/2 hours, with no intermission.  There was a point, about half-way through, where everyone but Lindsey Buckingham went backstage for a few minutes, and he did a solo, but it was less than 10 minutes.  We were amazed at their stamina.

Speaking of stamina, let me just say, Lindsey Buckingham is a freakin' MACHINE!  That man was up and down, back and forth, all over that stage.  He can still play that guitar like a rock star.  It was incredible.

Stevie's pipes aren't quite what they used to be, but she still sounded great.  She can't quite hit the top of her range anymore, so she adjusted a few notes here and there.  But, it took nothing away from the show.  And, let me tell you, she can still dance and move, and play The Diva.  (She actually did two costume changes, which for some reason, amused the hell out of Magnum.)

It was really just an awesome night.  We were cracking up, though, at the crowd.  They were all geezers like us!  Most of the men were gray and/or bald, and we lost count of the number of canes/walkers/wheelchairs we saw.  For real!  We thought it was so funny.  Although, I didn't think it was funny when none of them stood up during the show.  I was dying to get up and dance, like I've done at every single other concert I've ever been to.  But, I didn't want to stand in front of the people behind me unless they were standing, so I just kept my behind in my seat.  Although, we DID get up during the encores, and I got my boogie on.  There was a group one section over, and a few rows back, from us, who were up and dancing the whole time.  I kept telling Magnum that I wanted to move over where they where, but I didn't want to make the people in my row stand up and let me out!

While we were waiting to get into the venue, we noticed a sign hanging on the wall above the doors.  It was one of those "we are not responsible....." type postings.  But, in the wording, the old name for the venue (The Rosemont Horizon) was used.  (It is now called the Allstate Arena.)  That made me think about the very first time I was there.  (Actually I feel like I shared this story before...)  It was the very first concert I ever went to, and Magnum took me.  We went to see ZZ Top.  As we were talking about that night, it suddenly occurred to me that that was ALSO for Magnum's birthday.  His 21st, to be exact.  It was almost 29 years to the day.  (I actually looked it up, and that concert was on Feb. 27)  The part I think I shared before is how, after the concert, on our way out, I fell down a whole flight of stairs.  Magnum jokingly asked if I was planning to do that again that night and I said, "Jeez, I hope not, cuz this time I'd probably break a damn hip!"  He then made some kind of crack about how he'd just borrow a walker from somebody there for me.  Ah....the joys of aging....

I hope you all did something great for your Valentine's Day, too. =)

2013 Day Two

Ok, so I forgot Jimmy Kimmel airs repeats on Friday nights, so clearly there wasn't a new "I Ate Your Halloween Candy" video played yet.  But, that's ok, since it gives his staff a little extra time to put a great one together.  I can't wait for Monday night!

So, since I can't share the cuteness of random children I don't know, I guess I'll just have to share the AMAZEBALLS CUTENESS of my favorite Monkey!!!  (Oh, come on now, I haven't made you sit through this in a LONG time, so quit rolling your eyes!)

Guess who's been trying to make the switch to Big Girl Panties!!

It's a work in progress.  The last couple of weeks have really been good, so I'm hoping by Christmas, she'll be ready for Santa to bring her some cute panties.


As has been our tradition for nearly two decades, we went to the pumpkin farm on Columbus Day.  It was Monkey's first time, and she LOVED it!

My sister and I have a picture of our kids standing in front of this gauge just about every year of their lives.  It was so cool to finally take one of Monkey.  (And, yes Jo, I threw in plenty of pictures of my brother for you.  But, you have to share them with Mark!)

I wish I had a clue what we were all looking at here.  It wasn't until about the 4th time I looked at this that I noticed my sister and I are both in the background, and all four of us are looking at the same thing, but I have no clue what it was.

This cracked me up!

My oldest niece and her friend joined us at the farm.  Naturally, she had to get her annual photo!

One day, we were playing dress-up at Nona's house, and she put on her Snow White outfit, along with a tiara.  I know it's a blurry picture, but her adorable face still shines through!

 

Actually, all these pictures are crappy, I know, but 1) my iPhone sucks, 2) She's still cute as hell!! and 3) No, she STILL doesn't have any hair. =(

Yay!  Day 2 - over and out!

FINALLY!

Wow, do I have lots to catch you up on!  I have no less than 50 posts stored up in my brain.  Good thing it's so empty, or I wouldn't have enough room for all of them. =)

Let me start by going back a couple weeks.  I did something BIG!  Are you ready?

Here are some not-so-recent, random "before" pictures.  I picked this one cuz I think I was really having a good hair day here.  This is actually from about 2am, after a full night of dancing with Stud at the Mother/Son Dance.

This one is from this past Christmas, with my beautiful niece.  You can't really see my hair, but she's so darn cute, I wanted to post it anyway.

Well....a couple of weeks ago, I did this....

My sister and niece took those at the salon, after my girlfriend finished.  Then, I took a couple more at home, just for fun.  Every single person who looked at these said it looks NOTHING like me.

 I had to see how the new 'do was going to look when I wore my glasses...

I kept this new look for a few days, but then I finally had to see what it looked like curly, instead of straightened.  Keep in mind that this picture was taken on a morning when I had only had 3 hours sleep the night before, so be gentle.

Last Saturday, my cousin and his boyfriend had a big party, and I took this picture with my beautiful niece.  (My other niece took the picture, and she seems to always take pictures at a weird angle.  My legs look like they're 3 inches long.  In real life, they're at least 5 inches long!)

Ok, so that was the first thing I wanted to share with you.  I realize some of you (men!) might be thinking, "Who the heck cares?!  It's hair!"  But, my girlfriends understand.  It's hair!!!  I've had some moments of regret in the past few weeks, especially since my hair was to about my mid-back before I cut it, but for the most part, I'm digging my sassy new look.  My biggest issue is that I can't just pull it back and put it up to get it off my face and neck, but I'm learning to deal with it.

Now, moving on.  You may remember me teasing you the other day with this.

Well, my SIL and I ran The Biggest Loser Run last Sunday!  It was a blast!  If you aren't a fan of the show, you may want to just skip the rest of this post, as I'm sure it will bore you to tears.  If you're a fan though, keep going, so you can be super jelly.

Here we are at the starting line.  How cute are we?!

Even though I have many pictures from that day, naturally I'm only going to share the ones that are the least hideous.

There were professional photographers posted along the entire route taking pictures.  We were then able to go and download all the pictures that were taken of us throughout the race.  Here are a couple of us.

 You have to look closely at these.  It's us approaching, and then crossing, the finish line.

 We did it!!

Now, let me tell ya the REAL reason I did this run.  I just had to go see my "boyfriend!"

OMG, I LOVE DOLVETT!!!

Turns out that one of my SIL's best friends went to college with him, and is one of HIS best friends.  Apparently, she put a call in to her friend, who then spoke to Dolvett.  I was told, on the way down to pick up our packets, "Umm...ok...don't be mad.  Dolvett knows your name, and your story, and he's going to be looking for us tomorrow."  What da WHAT!?!?!?!

He is just as sweet and wonderful in real life as he appears on the show.  He hung out at the finish line, cheering people on, and even crossed the finish line with some. 

When we got to the finish line, my SIL told him who we were, as he was high-fiving us, and he went to talk to us, but I actually said to him, "Um, can I go cross the finish line first, and then come back to you?"  Yes, I really did.  But, I wanted to get in a good finish time!  He just laughed and said yes.

I tried to get some pictures of him from the sidelines, where we stood for a while and cheered on the other runners.

 Yeah....that would be his backside...so what?!

We were able to meet all of the Biggest Loser celebs who participated in this event.  And, God bless my sweet SIL.  She took a ton of pictures of me, and never got into any herself!!

Me and Danni, Season 14 Winner!

Me and Francelina.

Me and Pam.

Good Lord, Pam is a freakin' RIOT!!!!  Every time we met someone, my SIL would immediately tell them, "She lost 75 pounds!"  When she said that to Pam, Pam punching me in the arm, and said, "You fuckin' bitch, that's more than ME, and I was on the damn show!"  I thought I was going to wet my pants from laughing so hard.  She hung out with us for quite a while, and was just hilarious the whole time.

Me and Jackson

He's another sweetie pie.  And, yes, they both have beers in their hands.  Every runner could get a free beer after the run.  Apparently, it's a great way to replace some of the carbs burned while running.  Too bad it was only about 9am when we finished!

Pam, me, Jeff and Francie

When we were looking at these pictures after we got home, it was brought to my attention that I'm in this picture with 3 former contestants, and I appear to be the smallest one in the group. I'm certain that has more to do with the camera angle or something, but it made me laugh.

And, yes, Jeff and Francie are still a couple.  They are adorable together.  Francie wouldn't let Jeff have his beer because she put him on a No Carb diet.  tee hee hee...  (He got one anyway....)

The Whole Gang

Ok, here comes the part where you're gonna be REALLLLL jealous....

SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

They almost immediately posted the results after the race.  Now, for our first 5k, I actually tried to train somewhat, and went running, etc.  I am embarrassed to say that the last 5K was the last time I ran outside until this run.  I ran on the treadmill at the gym twice, and that was in the week immediately after the last race.  I didn't even go to the gym for the three weeks leading up to THIS run.  ~~hangs head in humiliation~~

All that being said, we actually beat our last time!!  Not by a ton (about 2 minutes) but still!  AND, the first run was very straightforward, up and down the streets of the town I grew up in, so it was all flat and easy.  The Biggest Loser run was routed through some really pretty areas on the lakefront, and there was a lot of up and down on that path!  It certainly seemed harder, and we seemed to do a lot more walking than the first race.  But, according to the microchips in our bibs, we shaved about 2 minutes off our last run time.  Hell, I'll take it!!

Here are the results for my age group (AKA-old!):

I came in 48th in my age group, and 695th overall.  There were about 1,000 runners, so as far as I'm concerned, that's not too shabby.  Hey, I wasn't last!!

We had such a blast at this run.  Oo, and SIL and I played a game, and both won exercise bands.  Sweet!  I can't wait to use them, and tone up my Bingo Wings! 

Sheesh!!  Maybe if I posted more than once every couple of months, I wouldn't be so long-winded, huh?  Well, hopefully I'll be back before September.  Enjoy the weekend!