Morgan is a Rock Star

About 6 months ago (I think??) Morgan decided she wanted to learn how to play guitar.  So Michael enrolled her into The School of Rock (yes just like the movie).  Their premise is to teach kids how to play instruments using music they actually LIKE rather than teaching them Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  When a kid signs up, they actually ask them questions about what kind of music they listen to and then assign a teacher/group accordingly.  Brilliant.  Anyway, when they asked Morgan, she started naming all kinds of Rock and Roll songs, not the cute pop songs that you would have thought.  Michael was even surprised.  Thus, she began learning the electric guitar.  He bought a guitar and an amp.  From there she began learning/practicing at her typical "I will be perfect at this" rate and was consequently asked to join the band.  The band's age group usually starts at 12 (11? I can't remember but it is older than she is) but in this case they wanted to make an exception.  Of course they did. This past weekend their band played put on a concert at Hard Rock downtown.  A gig, if you will.  #ofcoursetheydid

 Of course I stalked her until I found her pre-show.   When I called out her name to get a pic, she looked up and yelled, "NO! I don't want any magnets."  Looked away, but then looked right back again with a big smile.  Whatever.  She's totally hoping I make posters and everything out of this moment. Which, of course, I will.

The first song:  she is on the far left.

Obviously they realized her full talent by the time they got around to stage placement for this number. 

Here she is being awesome:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_eaONX1TQU&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

And here she is performing a SOLO!!!!!!!  It starts at 36 seconds. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfFPvmPAP5Y&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ   If you notice the camera moves quite a bit a couple times.  It is because she kept looking at me (I found out later it was because the drummer was going faster than he was supposed to so she was worried about it messing her up), but I kept giving her thumbs up.  I CRAZY LOVE THAT SHE WAS LOOKING TO ME FOR ASSURANCE.  Love my Morgie Porgie.

 Afterward we walked down Beale Street.

 Watching the flipping guys.

 We went into A. Schwab's where mom bought them these jellybeans.  They were all these gross flavors like boogers.  Notice Morgan's face.  She just had a nasty one.  Really gross, but it did remind me of the ones in the Harry Potter books!! Incidentally, that is going well, we are even calling Morgan at night and reading through face time!  But we haven't gotten to the nasty candy part so I am excited to see their reaction when we get there.

 And they tried on goofy hats :)

Jacob's 10th Birthday

So I used to take pics of the cute decorations for Jacob's birthday parties. 

When you are preparing for a 10 year old sleepover-this is the decorating:  

Putting all of your breakable stuff into a tub and taking it ELSEWHERE.

*Not shown:  couches moved around, rooms gated off, etc..

What.  Just, what.  Sighs of sadness.

The original plan was to take them to play laser tag but that did not work out.  So we took them to Buffalo Wild Wings where we managed to take over the patio.  It was actually great.  There were tvs with football games playing, a dart board, and cornhole games.  Plus, we didn't have to stress about them making a mess.  We were outside.  

For my own memory, starting at the person closest to the camera and going clockwise:  Brayden, RJ, Jacob, Julian, Alex, Beau, Michael.

Here is an audible sample of the car ride coming home from BWW.  I think they had been talking about/making fart sounds, but stopped once I started recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30EHBQi7QJY&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

Along with putting all breakables away, I also put all sugar away.  I left a table full of popcorn and chips on the table when Jon and I went to bed.

 This was the set up:  we brought down Jacob's tv from his room, the one from ours, and borrowed 2 XBoxes.  That way we had 3, yes THREE, gaming stations set up in the living room.

A video of the set up:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ_xs4RTbDw&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

He only got 1 actual gift from friend, the rest gave him money.  Also, he is a Zachary clone because he does not like cake.  

This was the gift he got, a football that came with these glasses.  The football has reflector strips on it so that when you wear the glasses at night you can see the football.  Or, you can just turn out all the lights in the house and run around like a crazy person.

Aunt Debbie had challenged me to do the ALS Ice Bucket challenge the day before, so I decided to wait until the boys came over and let them dump the water.  They had a little too much fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx4xKweo9m0

I totally had my list in mind for who I was going to nominate, but once that water hit, unexpectedly, I completely forgot and just named all of them.

Jacob:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CfSESOIWEI&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

Julian:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72pKDufBAUc&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ&index=5

Michael:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQyVGNjrplo&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ&index=4

Alex:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOSwmQ90G3c&index=3&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

When it hit me:  the following Sunday evening, and the next and the next.  This is because every Sunday night I print out Jon's schedule for the coming week for 2 reasons:  first, for our own uses; second, so I can text Abby and let her know which nights he is off so she can pick which ones to come over.  Sigh.

 Just a sampling of the load.  We fit it all into two car loads, but one car being a small SUV.  We did pretty good I think.
#sonicboxes

 Her name on the door!
Using her key for the first time!

 Jon needed to see if he had hooked up the DVD player correctly so he popped in a disc to see.  He chose My Girl  :)

 Abby's new laptop we got her for graduation.

 Her deco was an assortment of stuff from our house and her mom's.

 Her room is kinda crazy nice.  During the selection stage we put down our top three choices.  I was aware of the top two (because I gave my stamp of approval on the cost) but did not see what she and her **roommates put down.  But since I was in super control mode, I had tracked down someone (one of the crossing guards at Jacob's school)  with a daughter at UTC, and she gave me the low down on what to do to make sure I got into a good/reasonably priced dorm:  i.e. put your apps in early.  So we did.  Except that the above mentioned **roommates were not cooperative because apparently hyper active control freak does not run in their moms' bloodlines.  Long story short, we ended up with their 3rd pick AND neither of those 2 girls ended up even going to UTC.  Thanks.  It just so happened that this 3rd pick was $523 more a semester than my 1st pick, and $515 more than my 2nd (yes I did the math).  Whatever.  The set up is the same for all 3 choices:  her own room but part of a 4 bedroom apartment type situation.  It's just that this room is bigger.  And has a bigger closet.  And much more storage-a chest and under-the-bed drawers.  Oh, and a dishwasher.  So there's the extra $500.

 About to open the computer we got her for, ahem, graduation.  We waited till tax free weekend which came 2 months later   :)

Abby and 2 of her good friends got together and painted each other things for them to all take to their dorms since the 3 of them were going to different places.  Abby painted the eye below for herself, and her friend Lauren painted the guy (someone famous I can't remember) and Kristina painted the quote above.

Abby sent me a progress text during rush week.  She got cut from the one of the sororities she was interested it.  We think it was because it had to do with a girl who is in it who is dating one of Abby's ex boyfriends.  Anyway, the snapshot is the conversation between Abby and me where we are declaring the sorority a group of petty bitches.  I sent it to Jon and his response was, "I'm ready to drive back up there."  #protectivedaddy

Here is official announcement!

And below is her in her DZ bid day tank :)

I swiped this from the DZ insta page :)

Abby is right in the center with her hand on the Z

This is after their first meeting.

Abby is sort of in the middle, to the right a little.

 Meanwhile back in Oakland, our dogs were living the tough life...