What A Week!

Two things have happened this week to help make this week great...


1. David Cook won American Idol!!! This is the first season of American Idol that I have really enjoyed watching. Each of the final contestants had great talent and such different styles. I obviously wanted David C. to win. He has such a great voice. I have already told Mike I want his CD once it is released. The best part about his win is that it was a total surprise (I think to everyone). It seemed the American Idol judges had already decided (in their opinion) that David A. was going to win. But America voted and had a different opinion.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS WEEKS

GREY'S ANATOMY THEN DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST!

2. Derek and Meredith are back together!!! This is more exciting to me than the AI win. I have been waiting all season for the two of them to get back together and it finally happened. And yes, I squealed like a twelve year old girl when it happened. I do want to make a prediction for next seasons premier episode: I think Derek will be in a car accident on his way to break up with Rose and then we will be stuck in limbo for another entire season. Oh the drama!

If you can't tell, I have certain TV shows that I obsess over and our DVR has made everything that much worse. Someday I will post an entry of my DVR List (a list of all the TV shows I record each week) and my obsession will finally be exposed!

Nashville Symphony

Lately, Mike and I have been talking about making an effort to enjoy more of what Nashville has to offer as far as entertainment. We find ourselves being homebodies in a city that has a ton of things to do. This past Sunday night our church lifegroup decided to meet at Crockett Park to enjoy the Nashville Symphony. So going to hear the Symphony not only got us out of the house, we also got to spend time with of our closest friends and their little bambinos. This was perfect! Before the Symphony started families enjoyed picnics and the kids got to enjoy some time on the playground, which my husband tells me is one of the coolest playgrounds he has ever seen. Yes, he is 37 years old. The weather was perfect, the Symphony sounded amazing, and the time spent with friends was priceless!

Enjoy the pictures of each family in our lifegroup.

Graduation Part 3: Senior Appreciation

After a whole weekend of events, Sunday night was BJ's last "Graduation Celebration." Our home congregation put together a dinner honoring the high school seniors. The entire church is invited along with friends and family. The event is called "Senior Appreciation" and this event has been going on for years.

It is a really fun night. To make this evening possible it takes months of planning and hard work from various members of the youth group and overseeing adults. The decorations are over the top, the food is excellent, the sentimental video is bitter sweet and the theme of the evening is always well executed. This years theme, "Red Carpet", did not disappoint.

Once we entered the dining area, it was like we were transported to a glamorous movie premier. There was a car at the end of a red carpet, bright lights, stars of the rich and famous on the floor, and all kinds of movie memorabilia on the walls and tables.

After everyone found their seat it was time to introduce all 24 seniors one by one. As each seniors' name was read aloud, a chauffeur opened the car door and the senior stepped out to walk the red carpet and meet their parents who then presented their child with a Bible. Once all the seniors were introduced, dinner was served, and the video presentation began.

The video is something everyone looks forward to. A few months before graduation the parents of each senior are asked to turn in pictures of their child from birth to the present. Then those pictures are made into one large slide show and set to music. It is always fun seeing the pictures of each senior in the different stages of their life, especially their goofy stage:)

Along with the pictures that have been turned in, the parents have also been asked to write a letter to their child. The purpose of the letter is meant to express how proud they are of who their child has become. Once the video was finished playing, the letters were read aloud. Both the video and the letters usually require lots of Kleenex.

To close the evening, a prayer was said to bless all the seniors and then it was picture time. Enjoy!

BJ walking the red carpet

Bible presentation

BJ's and her "Celebrity" star

This is one of the creative decorations. They took BJ's senior picture and made it into a movie poster.

Downtown C of C High School Seniors

Graduation Part 2: Pomp & Circumstance

This past Saturday night was BJ's actual Graduation Ceremony. Traditionally the ceremony takes place on the high school football field. This year the ceremony had to be moved to the Benson Auditorium on the Harding University Campus because of weather. When I say weather, I mean heavy rain, strong wind, tornado sirens, the whole nine yards.

The ceremony was your traditional ceremony: singing of National Anthem, awarding of diplomas, singing of the Alma Mater, and closing prayer. One of the most exciting parts of the ceremony was arriving to our seats and opening the program and seeing BJ was one of four women selected to sign the National Anthem. She did an awesome job!

BJ singing the National Anthem

To sum up the rest of the night, BJ received her diploma and was officially named a graduate. I will close out this entry with several pictures that were taken after Graduation.

Receiving her Diploma

Caps in the air

Dad, BJ, & Mom

Siblings

BJ & Aunt Sara

Mike, BJ, & Me

Graduation Part 1: Celebration

This past weekend Mike, Martini, and I travelled back to Searcy to celebrate BJ's High School Graduation. This blog entry is the first of three Graduation entries. Yes, you heard me correctly, BJ's "Graduation Celebrations" were so numerous that I am going to have to break them up into 3 different blog entries:)

The first "Graduation Celebration" took place Thursday night. It was the Senior Assembly at Searcy High School. The purpose of this assembly is to honor the seniors and all the hard work they did throughout the year. The majority of the assembly is scholarship announcements. The students who are awarded the scholarships have not been informed so it is a complete surprise to the student and their family when their name is called.

Our little BJ did not disappoint. She got not 1, but 2 scholarships! BJ received an Academic Scholarship from Harding University and she also received the Rotary Club-Barron Gray Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations!

BJ receiving the Barron Gray Memorial Scholarship

Friday night brought the next "Graduation Celebration." Mom and Dad threw BJ a cook out and invited all of her friends. Dad grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, Mom made a bunch of food and a family friend (Pam R.) made the cakes for both the cook out and the open house on Saturday. The kids had a lot of fun. They ate, played Guitar Hero, and watched movies. While the teenagers entertained themselves inside, my parents, brother, and I played "washers" in the back yard. Dad and Mom were on one team and Kyle and I made up the other team. Who knew my mom could throw a washer:) Needless to say, Kyle and I were got our butts kicked. For all of you who are wondering what "washers" is, it is a game that has the same premise as horseshoes, and for you southerners is the equivalent to "corn hole".

Also, I am excited to announce that while we were home my dad made Mike and I a set of "washers" so now any of you Nashvillians can come over to the casa de Organ and play until your hearts content. Thanks Dad!

Dad Grilling

Some of BJ's Friends

I had to add this picture. This came about because one of BJ's friends thought it was a little over the top to have pictures of BJ all over the house. So as a joke she put a picture of BJ in her cake and started bowing down and paying homage to BJ. It was really funny because everyone in the immediate family had been giving BJ a hard time about seeing her face every where in the house, and now here friends were following suit. We love you BJ:)

The next "Graduation Celebration" took place Saturday afternoon. This gave family and friends the opportunity to stop by and celebrate with BJ this great accomplishment. The Open House was really nice. Mom went out of her way decorating the house and getting all the food together. In addition to the food that mom provided, family friends, Mike & Vicki, made their famous crawfish etouffee, which was absolutely phenomenal. It was great seeing the dozens of family friends that stopped by to congratulate BJ. Unfortunately, I was too busy talking to everyone and didn't take any pictures of the people that stopped by to visit, so here is a picture of part of the house all decorated.

"Guys Night"

This past Friday Mike got to have a much needed "Guys Night." Since we were already in Arkansas, he headed to Little Rock and met up with his life long-best friend Jamie Golleher. After eating dinner with the whole Golleher family, Mike and Jamie headed to a local bar called Juanita's to watch the band, The Bravery.

Here is where the story gets interesting. One of the bands that opened for The Bravery was a band called Fictionplane. Joe Sumner is the lead singer of Fictionplane and he just happens to be the son of the legendary singer, Sting. The neatest part of the whole night is that Mike and Jamie got to meet the band, got some merchandise signed, and got their picture taken with Joe and another band member.

Guitarist, Jamie, Joe Sumner (Sting's son) & Mike

On Saturday morning, Mike told me about the encounter with Fictionplane. He also played their CD for me and I have to admit, that not only does Joe Sumner sounds exactly like his dad, Sting, the band was also pretty good!

Still Learning

I just wanted to ask everyone to bare with me while I try and figure out the whole blogging thing. I posted two new blog entries and they were put behind an old entry. Go figure. So there are a couple new entries even though they don't appear at the top of the blog.

Also, I don't want to miss checking any one's blog. So if you are reading this and you have a blog that I don't know about, let me know!

Pampers and Unicef

I am about to make a confession that most people do not know about me. I LOVE THE OPRAH SHOW! I think the majority of the time the material in her shows are very informative and interesting. So, I record it everyday and a lot of the time I make Mike watch it with me (I know I'm such a bad wife).

This past weekend I was doing some shopping for a baby gift and as I reached for a pack of diapers it reminded me of an Oprah show from a few weeks ago. The episode was one of her "Big Give" shows and one of her guests was Salma Heyek. Salma serves as ambassador for the Pampers/Unicef partnership.

Pampers and Unicef have partnered up to provide tetanus shots for mothers in developing nations. From now until June 30,2008, for every specially marked package of Pampers products that is purchased, Pampers will provide Unicef with funding for one tetanus vaccine for a mother in need worldwide. The reason why this is so important is that this disease kills 140,000 infants and 30,000 women each year. While tetanus is life threatening, it is very preventable and what most people don't realize is that this disease is transmitted from mother to child during birth.

Here is where you come in. Next time you are at the store buying diapers or wipes grab a package of Pampers (make sure it has the blue unicef sticker on it). Not only will you be fulfilling your need, but you will also be helping to save someone's life.

Jam Session

When we travelled home to Arkansas this past Thanksgiving, we arrived at my parents house to find a Nintendo Wii in their living room. So, all during the Holidays everyone in the family took turns playing golf, tennis, bowling, and boxing. Mike's parents even joined in on the fun.

Well, last week when we arrived at my parents house an addition had been made to the Nintendo Wii and we were introduced to "Guitar Hero". This game was so much fun! So much fun that Mike, my brother, my sister, and I stayed up until 2am playing and I can't wait to go home in a few days so we can play some more.

Kyle thought the bandannas would help our playing.

Mom even decided to have some fun!

I love this picture because it looks like Martini thinks we are all crazy.

B.J. & Mom

Celebrity Citing

Since living in Nashville Mike and I will occasionally run into or see a celebrity. I thought it would be fun to blog about any celebrity that we may encounter. I will go ahead and apologize to the people that are reading this blog entry and live in Nashville because this will probably not be nearly as interesting as for the people that live elsewhere.

So, here is our first celebrity citing to make it on the blog. Last week Mike was eating lunch at this great restaurant downtown called Radius 10 when a man and a woman wearing sunglasses were seated at the table next to him. Mike looked over and it was model Niki Taylor and her husband, Nascar driver, Burney Lamar.

And there you have your fun celebrity citing of the week:)

Singing Sensation

This past week Mike, Martini, and I traveled home to Searcy for my sister B.J.'s very last high school choir concert. Choir is one of the main things B.J. and I have shared in common and this very important event was one that I did not want to miss. B.J. is a very talented second soprano. She is not only in the high school concert choir, she also auditioned and was picked for two elite choral groups: Chamber Choir and a Female Ensemble. On top of making all region the past few years, she also got to audition for All-State Choir this year. I am very proud of my little sister. Way to go!

The whole family after B.J.'s concert (minus Mike who is taking the picture)

Sisters

I just had to add this last picture. It is a picture I took of B.J. on the morning of her concert, which also happened to be her last day of high school. She was on her way out the door to go to school and I snapped the picture as she was jumping for joy:)

Blogging Addiction?

I didn't think that my blogging addiction could get any worse, but it has. I have decided to start our own family blog! For the past several months I have spent about an hour a day reading other peoples blogs. I first started reading the blogs of close friends and family and then reading blogs of people that I had never met before. That is when Mike diagnosed me as having an "addiction". I think it is more of a hobby than an addiction, but to each his own.

So, whoever has decided that The Organs have been deemed worthy of your blog reading time, I hope we don't disappoint.