Jars of Clay

Happy Anniversary to us!!! Justin and I decided that the perfect way to celebrate our 6th anniversary would be to go to a concert! Not just any concert...but JARS OF CLAY!! Thank you Mike for taking our picture!

Got to hang out with some youth/sponsors from our church before the concert.

We were about to take this awesome picture when...oh, snap, it's Austin!!!

Laurie Herbers, Shawntel Shirkey, Mandie and Mike Carroll(our bearded youth minister who got a picture with Jars...blasted old man), Sadie Williams, Austin Callahan and Randy Williams.

Me with Laurie and Mandie...our re-do shot. Our chaperone, Shane Powers. He goes to our church and didn't want to sit with the youth by the speakers. Can't say I blame him. This is why....Canadian band FM Static started off the night. Very loud. He sang one of my radio faves, 'Take Me As I Am'. Trevor McNevan This Beautiful Republic....even louder. Good band, though. Can you see the drummer's hair flying? He was 3 rows away from us!

Lead singer, Ben Olin.

This is B. Reith(not wreath, rythe). He is our new favorite artist. After all of the extra loud evasive music, this guy rapped! He was like Justin Timberlake, Jason Mraz and John Reuben all rolled into one!

B. Reith also was the host for the night. Emily loves his song 'Go On'.

Surprisingly, Audio Adrenaline stole the show. Well, I shouldn't saying "surprisingly". I was there to see Jars and I was swept away by Audio A's music, instead. I've seen them twice, both times in high school...even have their autographs. If you've ever heard Mark Stuart of Audio A sing, you know he has a very distinct voice. Years of singing damaged Mark's vocal cords and he was forced to announce his retirement in 2006. You could tell his voice wasn't the same, but you still heard that epic sound despite the rasp. It gave me goose bumps listening to him sing the old school songs 'Big House', 'Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus', 'Get Down', 'Ocean Floor' and 'Hands and Feet'. I even sent my brother-in-law, Jason a text saying I was listening to him sing 'Big House' LIVE. Ja use to play that almost every Sunday in Kids Church when he was the Children's Minister.

Singing 'Get Down'. Will McGinniss with a beard. So weird. Thousand Foot Krutch. Kinda felt like I was part of an anarchist movement for a bit. They were a really good band, though. A lot tamer on the radio. Trevor McNevan, the lead singer, also sings for FM Static.

JARS OF CLAY!!!!

Stephen Mason...one of my all-time faves.

Lead singer Dan Haseltine singing 'Two Hands'.

Charlie Lowell.

Matt Odmark.

This is my favorite picture of the night. Great night. Great show. We even got a card for 20 free iTunes from the shows artists. Awesome. Best anniversary ever! We owe a big THANK YOU to my friend, Jen. My sister's grandfather went into the hospital on Thursday night...she was suppose to have the kids spend the night at her house. So, I called Jen (extra last minute)and asked if she could stand to have 2 more kids. What a trooper. Then, I thought the concert would be over around 10pm. We were out the doors at 11:45pm!! Yikes. To top it off, Aiden stayed awake til we got there at midnight...super hyped up, too.

While Justin and I were picking up the kids and getting them to bed, our youth minister was waiting around to meet Jars and have them sign his vinyl copy of their new album. Lucky Mike Carroll. As Justin commented, Jars of Clay is so old now. What Justin doesn't realize is that these guys are 35-36 yrs old...so Jason's age. :) This pic is from their 1997 album Much Afraid. It's one of my personal favorites.

No School!

Just some shots of the cousins. Maize schools had conferences, so the Blase kids invaded our home today. We put them to good use. :) They helped Justin wash his police car this morning.

Oh, how we love our cousins! They are all wearing shorts today, but the fall leaves are already starting to find the ground! I'm so excited. They're so pretty!

Aiden.

New Medicine

The neurologist in Hutchinson gave Jack some fairly decent news. He thinks all of his problems are stemming from a circulation problem. He's put him on Aricept, which IS for alzheimer's, but will help out with this, as well. Mom said this morning his head was very, very clear, but this afternoon and evening was something different. The doctor said that there could be upset stomachs with this med, but that is the only side effect they should expect. So, that is it for now! Oh, AND my mom finally got a cell phone!!! Hallelujah. You laugh, but she really needed one! :) I will end with an old picture I came across this week. My parents with Emily--just 1 hour old. :)

My Mom. Secret Agent.

I think my mom was a secret agent in a past life. She's so secretive all of the time. Slowly but surely, I've been torturing her to share intell with me about what's going on with Jack. If I don't ask, she won't say anything. Some days even if I do ask, I'm not guaranteed a complete explanation. Just bits and pieces. When I talked to her last night, she said that he was being seen by a Neurologist in Hutchinson. He's had an MRI done. Two doctors have gotten together to try to figure out what the cause for his memory lapse is. They've thought Alzheimer's and dimensia, but ruled out both. There is another type of dimensia that they've looked into, one that can only be easily described as having potholes on the brain, memories falling into them, but they aren't positive about that, either. If he has any kind of dimensia, it should be getting worse. However, he has days that are more clear than the previous day, so that boggles them and makes it difficult to diagnose this. Mom finally told me that she first noticed his memory issue in January 2008. He had thought that my Granny passed away in December 2007, when she had been gone 10 months prior to that. Yesterday he sat and stared at his meds, deciding whether or not he should take them. He fought with mom and Greg(on the phone) that he had 10 pills to take. She had set out 4 to take, but there were 6 bottles behind them, So, he just counted them up. Took a while to convince him otherwise. Keep Jack and my mom in your prayers. I know it's difficult for both of them. The only memory issues I deal with over here is Aiden having a hard time figuring out which bruise was left from a fight with Emily or Chloe. :)

Kevan and Ashley Guinn (wedding #5 for us)

Last night Justin and I attended wedding #5, Kevan and Ashley Guinn's wedding. The wedding was in downtown Wichita at the Petroleum Club. Kevan owns Club East Liquor(next to Sam's east) and holds wine tasting parties at the Petroleum Club every year. Bryce Guinn, Kevan's older brother, owns the Club West Liquor Store. If you're in Wichita, you may have seen their commercial...after arguing who has the better store, it ends with Kevan saying, "mom always liked me best". Justin went to high school with Kevan and his mom was like a 2nd mom to all of Kevan's friends, so we always laugh when we hear that commercial. We went to this wedding with my Twi-buddy, Jen and her hubby Grant. I didn't take very many pictures, due to the fact that we were gabbing and laughing so much with the boys. LOTS of laughing. The ringbearers. The back of the Escalade said "ring security". They were too cute.

Okay, I didn't get a pic of the bride...just the end of her dress. However, her twin sister is standing in the cute white dress next to her, so it's close to the same. :) Kevan dancing with his grandma on her 98th birthday. So sweet.

Grant and Jen Whitcomb. Grant was heavily watching his phone...KSU was playing yesterday, and he had to keep track of the game. HA HA!!! I did get a good shot of Justin and I(well, Jen did), but I will wait to post it til Sunday. Justin and I have our anniversary coming up next weekend. No more weddings til November!!!

Jack is BACK!!

Jack has lost 4 lbs of his fluid weight in the last 24 hours and should be heading home tomorrow!!! He was having problems with his bowels not working, which was the reason behind the weight. The doctor said that his lungs WILL NOT get better, but they WILL NOT get worse, either. They took the chest tube out today that he's had in for the last month, as well. The kids and I saw him today and he was walking well, talking well and feeling MUCH better. That's it for now!!! Mom took the kids down to the cafeteria to get cookies, so Jack went for a walk. He's quite the skinny man these days, but he was cruising down the hall with that walker! Sorry the picture is so fuzzy. I took it with my camera phone, since my camera's batteries bit the dust after all the work it did this weekend in KC.

Tuesday Night Update

So far all that my mom has said is that the doctor is still checking different things out on Jack and he has gained 6 lbs in fluids in his feet and legs. That's it for now.