The OllieBlog: 2009

Well, the first day of school has come and gone.

Ben was very excited. I could hardly get this picture before he was running away to wait for the bus....

It it was MUCH easier to get him to pose for a picture at the end of the day after he got off the bus...

There's not much to tell about his first day b/c I still don't know much about it. He didn't really tell me much.

Ben is just like me.

I get it.

I mean, where do you begin answering the question, "what did you do today?"

Seriously? I just did 8 hours worth of stuff and there was something new every 15 minutes. Too much. Too much.

His first day and week, as far as I know, were uneventful.

I'm glad, really.

It's stressful on a little person to start a new school year. New teacher, new people to get to know, new schedules. So, I'm very happy that he didn't come home with a look of terror on his face and that he wanted to go back the next day.

I'm glad that he likes his teacher and being a third grader.

I'm glad that there was no drama.

I'm looking forward to hearing about what he's doing this year.....or not.

We'll see how much he tells me.

I will be finding out soon about the pilot program that his class is participating in this year, though. There's a lot more science involved.....that's right up his alley.

I'll keep ya posted.

I will, however, tell you everything you want to know about the little adventure that Erin, Laura and I had in Tulsa. What was this adventure, you ask?

Why, it was a DEF LEPPARD, POISON AND CHEAP TRICK concert!!!

Yep, that's right. It was time to re-acid the acid wash and de-gunk the spray nozzle on the aqua net bottle.

We had some 80's moments to re-live.

I was so excited about this concert. It's been a long time since these bands were at the front of my cassette tape collection.

We loaded up Erin's Jetta, wished it was a t-top Camaro, and set the GPS for the BOK Center.

Now, by the time we realized that these guys were going to be in Tulsa, tickets had already been on sale for two months, so we knew going in that we were going to be in the nosebleed section. We had no idea that we would literally be four rows down from the spot light guys and eye level with the flag hanging from the ceiling.

No matter. Takes much more than that to keep these rocker chicks from having a great time!

First up, CHEAP TRICK!!!

Check out how long his shoes are!!

Finally, a place where it's acceptable to do "rock fingers"!

Next was POISON!

(see how far away we are?!)

It's all good, I've got zoom!!!

I see you and your hair, C.C.

Laura with her lighter.

And then, it was REALLY showtime!

Ladies and gentlemen (really didn't see many of those, btw), put your hands together for DEF LEPPARD!!!!!

Now all this is fine, but I know what you really want to know.....

You want to know what kind of people were there, don't you? I was curious about that, too.

There were a lot of people just like us, excited to re-live some of the glory days. Some of them even had their kids with them...not my choice, but ok.

There were MANY people who had been living those glory days for a looooong time. Maybe time to let go?

And then, there was this guy.

This cat was having a GOOD TIME.

He was more than happy to pose with his coozy when I pointed my camera at him and said, "hey"!

We also had a couple of really nice guys behind us that came down from Wichita, KS. They were fun. I think that were probably my age when these bands were at their peak.

I believe I sent a picture of these two to my Facebook page from my phone.

Not important.

Nice guys.

Let me sum up this evening for you:

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

I'm not going to lie, I was extremely excited about these shows. I LOVED all these bands....still love 'em!! But I expected it to be more funny than what it actually turned out to be.

I mean, think about it: these guys are, what, 20 years past their prime?

But listen, it rocked. It was a blast! Each of these bands put on a killer show and I LOVED IT!!

They sound just as good now as they did back then, maybe better.

We had a KILLER time. It was WICKED (and all that other stuff we used to say).

My hair is a lot less, well, permed now and I don't have bangs that stand 6 inches off my forehead like I did when I listened to all these guys the first go 'round. My acid wash jean skirt....excuse me, PLEATED acid wash jean skirt is no longer a staple of my wardrobe (although acid wash is DEFINITELY out there. If you don't believe me, go to a Def Leppard concert).

I have moved on, but it sure was fun to visit.

This guy......

...not so much.

For now, for me, the 80's have left the building.

Q: What completely wears your kids out, costs $7 and insists that you run around in socks?

A: A little slice of Heaven called...

Jump Zone!

I'm behind on this discovery, so I have to thank Elyse and her tiny tot, Jackson, for the invitation. For those of you not familiar, although I think I'm the only one, this is Mecca for the bounce house. Nothing but HUGE, floor to very high ceiling bounce houses.

Ben's eyes just about bugged out of his head when he first got a glimpse of this bouncy playground and he could hardly stand the 90 seconds it took to pay to get in. But once we were in, I gave the thumbs up and he was off, leaving a smoke trail behind him.......

They were massive! There was a giant Tonka truck and a Batman (I think this one had an obstacle course inside), a Spongebob house, a roller coaster and a giant gumball machine.

The biggest was a really tall pirate ship:

You can't really tell by my pictures, but this was probably 25 feet tall. This one was a little intimidating to Ben at first, but he did it. Then he did it again and again and again and again. In fact, that's where I found him when it was time to go.

He was so SWEATY!!

Oliver and I hung out in the little toddler area.

There was a smaller toddler bouncy area that we crawled into, but he didn't like it very much. It was like being on a trampoline in that there was never a solid step under your feet. Nope, he didn't care for that much at all.