American Idol Judge Not Lest You Be Judged

I had planned on writing each week about what happened on American Idol, but there hasn't been much to say. Yes, the "Pants on the Ground" guy was funny, but we have seen his type before. We have had the usual sob stories about sickness, dead parents, foster care, etc., but no one has stood out to me yet as great. The guest judges have been nothing to talk about really. (Yes, Posh Spice needs to calm down on the makeup. High definition TV is not kind!)

That all changed last night. There still weren't any stand out singers, but I won't forget the guest judges for a long time!


First, we had Avril Lavigne. Why the heck was she wearing a hoodie with devil horns on it? We get it Avril you're a tough riot grrrl, but this just looked silly. I noticed it was from her clothing line at Kohls so I guess she was trying to promote it? Then, she told a pastor with young children how hard it was to be on the road and away from family. They also talked about how he would have to away from his job. Um, what?!? Single parents and people with full time jobs get put through to Hollywood all the time with nary a word. Avril never said a word about how he sounded! I guess it doesn't matter since he went through with 4 yeses anyway.


Then, there was Katy Perry. What was up with her? She was just plain rude and not just to the contestants. I thought that Kara was going to punch her at one point. It was obvious she was just there to promote herself. She had nothing constructive to say to anyone. I wasn't a big fan of hers to begin with and this appearance didn't help. I guess she has been taking lessons on how to be obnoxious from her fiance Russell Brand. He's a piece of work!

My feeling is both Avril and Katy were still too young to be good judges. They were both too concerned with promoting themselves to worry about other people's feelings. Maybe Katy's worried about being a one hit wonder and so she sees every singer as possible competition. Maybe Avril is worried that she is becoming irrelevant. I don't know. All I know is both girls have a young fan base and we know how fickle the young can be. They both need to remember that same fan base watches American Idol and was watching them last night.

Hopefully, as the auditions come to an end and Hollywood week starts I will find some standouts and have something to write about. So far this season has been boring. In the words of Simon, "This has all been rubbish!"

Football, eh.

OK, I am aware that the football games to decide who goes to the Super Bowl were played this weekend and yes, I even know who won. (By the way, Geaux Saints!) But, in my world an even more seismic event occurred. . .

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reported to be breaking up!!!!

Am I surprised? No, not really. These two had three biological children together and Brad adopted her 3 other children and they still couldn't or wouldn't get married. Can you say commitment issues? The relationship started by breaking up Brad's marriage to Jennifer Aniston, so I guess that set the tone. That's Hollywood for you. Commitment requires you to love someone else more than yourself and that's pretty hard in the narcissistic world Brad and Angelina live in.

Things I Learned Hosting a Sleepover for Teenage Girls or Why I Should be Committed

On Friday, we hosted nine 12 and 13 year old girls at our house for a sleepover for Madison's 13th birthday. (Again, not old enough to have a 13 year old!) When you include Madison that means we had 10 pre teen and teenage girls in our house for about 17 hours. What were we thinking? Apparently, not a lot!

We did learn some things from this adventure. For example, the combination of pizza, birthday cake, Sprite Zero and orange soda is an incredible stimulant. It can keep you going until at least 3 in the morning or until your mom yells at you to, "Go to sleep before I come down there and physically remove your vocal cords!" I wish I had known about this magic combination in college! Also, none of them knew how to whisper. No matter how quiet they thought they were being we could still every word in our bedroom, with the door closed. I learned more about which movie stars are cute and why than I ever wanted to know.

All in all, it wasn't that bad. Yes, I was very tired the next day and no, I won't be doing this again for a while, but the girls had fun. Overall, they were sweet, good kids. There was no fighting and no one was left out. Most of them even remembered to say, "Please and thank you." How refreshing! I have some hope for the next generation now!

Praying for Haiti

I am so saddened about the news coming out of Haiti. The devastation is horrible. Some of the college students from my church were there just last week! I cannot imagine what it must be like there. Eighty percent of Haitians live in poverty. It's a bad situation that has only gotten worse. All I can do right now is pray. I pray God can use this tragedy to show people who He is and what He can do. I pray that he brings peace and comfort to those who have lost loved ones.

Hit the Road!

In this family we love to take road trips. Our girls I have always been great riders in the car and now they love a road trip as much as we do. I like the closeness we experience and its great time to talk and just hang out. We don't even have to be going anywhere sometimes it's just fun to drive around.

On Friday I found out that I was going to have to drive all over North Georgia on Saturday doing a special project for work. Not my idea of fun on a Saturday, but then I realized it was a perfect opportunity for an impromptu road trip. So that's what we did. We loaded up the kids and spent 6 hours driving from our house, to Athens, to Gainesville, to Flowery Branch, to Cumming, to Alpharetta and finally, home! We logged almost 140 miles in one day!

Of course when you are on the road there are certain essentials that you need:


A good driver who doesn't mind good music and junk food!


Good tunes! (On a side note, I love, love, love the show "Glee". If you haven't seen it check it out when it comes back on this Spring on Fox.)


Junk food! Or, as we like to call it, gas station food. This is the kids favorite part of a road trip. I wonder why? :)


Something good to drink to wash all the junk food down. In this case, it was hot chocolate since we are in the middle of one of the coldest Januarys in 20 years!



Good reading material. You didn't think it was going to be The Wall Street Journal did you?



Finally, a way to keep the kids entertained. For Madison its the new iPod touch that Grandma gave her for Christmas. She never leaves home without it. For Ashlyn its her Nintendo DS. I think she was playing Club Penguin.

And that's how we have a successful road trip. This one was a great one even if I was working!

Ice, Ice Baby (And a Little Bit of Snow!)

Earlier this week my children got the news they had been waiting for all winter. The weatherman predicted snow starting Thursday afternoon lasting until late Thursday night! Nothing strikes fear into the heart's of adults and adulation into the heart's of school children like snow in Georgia. Make sure you are stocked up on eggs, milk and bread because for some reason everyone likes French Toast during a snowstorm! Forget about school or work the day after because we crazy Southerners have no idea how to drive with snow and ice on the ground. (It's kind of like how those crazy Northerners don't realize you need air conditioning when its going to be above 90 degrees!)

Sure enough the weatherman was right. On Thursday afternoon, just as the kids were coming home from school, the snow began to fall.




It continued to snow (and sleet) late into the evening.



The next morning we had a nice dusting on our lawns and cars. Not a lot compared to what they see up north, but enough to make the kiddos happy! Of course, as predicted, there was no school. There had been quite a bit of ice during the storm and the roads were rather treacherous. It was also really cold! When we woke up it was about 15 degrees with a wind chill of 6. That didn't deter Ashlyn. She still went out to investigate.





Unfortunately for Kenny he still had to go to work. He called and told me he didn't think the roads were too bad. He did warn me the neighborhood had some icy spots. I had some work I still needed to do so I made the not so smart decision to attempt to go out. I got to the front of our neighborhood and hit a slick spot and slid into the curb. I was going slow so no harm done, but I took that as a sign from God that work could wait. I went back home and spent the rest of the day cuddled on the couch with my kids and a few issues of People magazine. A perfect snow (or ice) day for me!

Roll Tide!

No, I didn't go to Alabama. I am a proud Fightin Texas Aggie Class of '94! But, we have a saying in Aggieland, "My two favorite teams are A&M and whoever is playing Texas!" So for today I am a fan of the Crimson Tide! Roll Tide!