Our Night with Christian Kane

For those of you who don't know, Christian Kane is an actor on the T.V. show Leverage which is filmed in Portland, Oregon. The entire cast lives in Portland for much of the year. Christian Kane is also a singer and musician. He performs at Dante's Inferno in Portland once a month while he is living here. Karen and I thought it would be fun to go see him since we like his music (plus he's easy on the eyes) so we bought tickets for 16 dollars a piece. We also invited a friend of ours for her birthday weekend.
I must say it was nothing like I had envisioned. Christian Kane sings country/soul music but the crowd that was at Dante's was very rough and the bar was a dive. He came on stage 30 minutes late and cussing. Apparently his drummer was late and he was non-to-pleased about it. They started singing without him but he showed up half way through the first song. The first couple of songs were good and what I would expect but the rest of the night he turned his country songs into aggressive rock. It sounded fine, when it wasn't distorted, just not what I expected. He also swore a lot and seemed to be in a very bad mood. When his set was almost done, 4 go-go dancers came out, climbed on platforms and gyrated to the music. I kept my eyes firmly planted on the band. That was nothing I wanted to see again.
A nice surprise to the evening was when Timothy Hutton and Aldis Hodge showed up. They are actors in Leverage and good friends of Christian Kane's. They mingled a little with the crowd and I was able to get a picture with them. They seem pretty nice. I was really hoping to get a picture with Christian Kane too, but he doesn't do pictures with his fans. I was so glad I got to spend this night with Karen and Sue, they made it more fun than it would have been and helped the time fly while we were waiting for the performance to start. This has really altered my opinion of Christian Kane. I guess it just goes to show you can't judge someone based on what you see in interviews.

While we were waiting to get in, Sue went around the corner
to VooDoo Donuts to get us a treat. They were pretty good doughnuts.

I think it took her 20 minutes to get through the line.
Here is a picture of the inside of the place.

Christian Kane's name in lights, sort of.

Sue and I waiting patiently in line.
So glad it didn't rain on us!

We were getting bored waiting for the show to start.
We started being goofy. Karen licking the icing off the wrapper.

Me laughing hysterically.

Sue's sexy drink face, oh the fun we had!

Christian Kane on stage, he didn't look that great.
I was surprise he didn't dress better, he looked kind of
grungy, perhaps because of the venue he was playing in.

Here is his band- three guitarist, one drummer and him singing.

Christian Kane. You should go to the link up top
to see a better picture of him. I swear he is good looking!

Aldis Hodge, me, and Timothy Hutton.
I have no idea what is wrong with my face.
I kind of look crazy. Maybe I can photoshop a
better picture of my face on there.

A Weekend with the Girls

I went up to my aunt's house for a fun-filled girls weekend. We started out going to the spa to get a facial and massage on Friday. After that we met Mikaelas at work an took her out to dinner. On Saturday, we picked up our friend Sue and headed to the nail salon to get pedicures. It was Sue's first time, but she loved it.

Auntie and Sue enjoying the leg massage.

Our painted toes; we each got a flower on our big toe.

After the pedi, we went to Quizno's for small sandwiches.

We dropped Sue off then headed to the salon for our color,
cut and style. Karen got in a few shots of me with my hair in foils.

After our hair was done, we picked up Sue and headed to Portland.
We stopped at Macy's to get our make up done. Well, Sue did her
own make up and it looked great. I wanted to check out some new
foundation and got a make up lesson while I was at it. I found
some new colors I didn't think I could wear. It was a lot of
fun and we were all ready for our evening with Christian!

Mother's Day

On the Monday before Mother's Day, my family took me out to Road House Grill where we had dinner and our FHE lesson on Mothers. After dinner, K gave me a package to open and inside was an array of iced cookies, my favorite.
On Mother's Day it was such a gorgeous day. The sun was out and it got up to 70 degrees by the afternoon. In the morning I awoke to a yummy breakfast of apple puff pancakes and bacon. After breakfast we all got dressed up and headed to church were we heard wonderful talks given by our youth and musical numbers by the primary and young women. Everyone did an amazing job. After sacrament, all the women received chocolate truffles from Euphoria's Chocolate, so yummy! In the afternoon, K gave me her creations she made at preschool. A lovely picture of a purple bouquet and a potted purple flower. M made dinner, bbq pork in the crock pot, with broccoli and pasta followed by homemade brownies. Then I opened another gift from the family. A beautiful framed picture with the girls hand prints on one side and a picture of them on the other. Such a wonderful and thoughtful gift.

My iced cookies, very tasty.

Apple Puff Pancakes and Bacon.

My picture frame and my beautiful girls.

K's flower she gave me.

The bouquet she made me.

The delish brownies M made for me.
So much better than box brownies!

A Primary Talk

K came home from church last week all excited because she had been asked to give a talk in Primary the following week. Her talk was to be on "How the Principals and Ordinances of the Gospel bring her closer to Jesus Christ". I was nervous and worried about this talk for her. This was the first time she had been asked to give a talk and I wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Was I supposed to write the talk for her and have her memorize it? How long was it supposed to be? and What exactly was she supposed to be talking about? M and I talked about it and we were both unsure of how to proceed. However, I remembered a book I had bought last year entitled, "Creating Terrific Talks", so I pulled it out and read it. It was a quick read and very helpful. It explained how you should have your child write their own talk, because it helps to make them stronger in the gospel and to build their testimony. It gave great ideas on how to get your kids to talk about their thoughts on the subject their talk is on and how to expound upon it. So we started on Monday night at FHE with teaching her about the 4th Article of Faith which pretty much sums up what her talk should be on. Then before bed we asked her some questions and wrote down her answers for her. We did this on Tuesday too, and by Wednesday I had something typed up for her, completely in her own words. She spent the rest of the week reading it multiple times a day. Today she was able to get up in front of the class, and after a couple seconds of nervousness, was able to give her beautiful talk. We were both so proud of her. I never would have thought a 5 year old could write and read their own talk, but she did it! Way to go K!

K in her pretty Sunday outfit.

I love this picture of her.

K giving her talk like a pro in Primary.