Let the Festivities Begin!

Thanksgiving is over and now the hustle and bustle begins! We spent Thanksgiving with Darin's family, we ate, watched the Seahawks lose and played a few games. Did you know that Gargoyle is Popeye's Girlfriend?? No really, just ask Darin. We were playing Taboo and I was trying to get him to say Olive Oil without saying the other 5 words on the card. (Yes, Dear, you eventually did get it, but it's still a really funny story!) We also played this dice game called "Farkle" this is where we learned that our daughter is a gambler. We would tell her to quit rolling the dice and she would say "One more time" and roll to get massive points. I guess she knew what she was doing since she skunked us! We've got to figure out a way to sneak her into Vegas!


Friday night, Maddie was invited to spend the night with our nephew, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Sara. We took full advantage of our alone time and did a little shopping and then had a date night! We went to dinner and to see Four Christmases. It was hilarious! Maddie had an amazing time and all 3 of them looked a little tired when we picked Maddie up on Saturday.

On Saturday, we went to my mom's house to make gingerbread houses. We've been making them after Thanksgiving for about 10 years now. We all bring candies and get creative.


Maddie hard at work:



Showing off her work with her blueberry teeth:

Our friend Brandy working hard:

My finished house:

Maddie's work of art:

Sunday we got our lights up! I love seeing our house with the lights on! We even had a few cars slow down to look at the lights tonight! I was so excited! I haven't gotten a picture of them all put up yet, but I will soon. Until then, here's our little helper!

The countdown is on! Let the festivities begin!

From Our Family to Yours!

The Reunion

Oh, where to begin?? First off, let me say it's a good thing that I get to type this and not have to use voice commands! That's right, my voice is GONE!

My mom and I made it to our hotel around 4:30. We stayed at the Best Western Tacoma Dome Hotel, I will never go to a concert at the T-dome again without staying at this hotel. We got out of the car to check in and hear all of this massive screaming coming from next door, apparently, the 5 Bad Brothers from BeanTown had gotten out of thier buses and were walking into the dome. Damn, if only we had gotten there 10 minutes sooner we could have seen them!!

Anyhow, the hotel is right next door, provides free parking, clean rooms and a free breakfast! It was so nice to not worry about fighting the traffic for the long ride home. We got to our room and were deciding what we could do to kill a couple of hours. We decided that we would go down and grab a bite to eat at the hotel before getting ready for the concert. The hotel had what they called "The New Kids on the Block Dinner Buffet" Sounded alright to us so off we went to the Taco Buffet. We sat down with a super cute couple and started talking to them about the concert and what not. One girl was a total New Kids Fan and had drug her girlfriend to the concert. (Did I mention that the super cute couple were lesbians?) Her Girlfriend was a Beatles fan and about choked on her taco when my mom told her that she had gone to the Beatles concert. We really enjoyed our dinner and our company but said our good byes to go and get ready for the concert.

We spent a while primping and making ourselves beautiful, just in case we got called up to the stage or were asked to come back stage. =) Kidding! But we did look good! About 6:30 we headed to the Dome. The first thing we notice in side is that they are serving beer and wine! This definatley didn't happen 18 years ago! I guess since we are all of age, things have changed! We make our way to the souvineer stand to take a look at all of the treasures. Of course they had T-shirts and pins the normal stuff, but added this time around were shot glasses and onesies for babies! A sweatshirt-coat caught my eye until I saw the $85 price tag. Even the t-shirts were $45! I guess they figured if we are old enough to drink now we must have jobs to pay for the shirts! We didn't get anything.

Made our way to our seats, which were ok. Section 18A Row 15 seats 1 & 2. We were really early since the show didn't start until 8, but they had this thing where you could send in text messages to try to win front row seats and they showed the texts on the big screens. I sent a couple in , but we didn't win the front row and of course mine were never on the screen! Oh well, just as well I suppose. But the best part of waiting for the show was people watching! Let's just say we felt really thin and sober! LOL There were all types of people! We were especially laughing at the husbands who were there with their wives! They didn't look very excited to be there!

Finally the lights went out and the first act came out. First off let me say that I am old. I am starting to feel older and older all the time. However, I feel like I can hide the fact that I am old, most of the time. But when this character called Lady Gaga comes out as the first act I am turned into an old woman. I didn't like her. In fact I think we sat down for most of her performance. I just didn't get it. I vaguely knew of her because I read Perezhilton.com but I had never heard her music. Finally she finished and Natasha Beddingfield came on, she was much more my style. I really enjoyed her.

Then it was time.

The lights went back out and the place went nuts! The Tacoma Thunder was loud and the estrogen was running high. Then they took the stage. It's bringing chills to me just typing about it! I was litterally screaming and jumping up and down! Yes, kids, I jumped. A lot. I sang and danced and had a merry time. They sang a combination of old songs and new songs. On the screen behind them they started showing an old video, I knew it right away. Joe started singing "Please Don't go Girl" and I lost it. I cried. Joe and I were sharing a moment. All of a sudden I was transported back to my bedroom and I was 12. I was taken back to a time when I was still a die hard romantic, didn't know anything about Kidney Transplants or Premature Babies, I didn't know about divorce or other grown up struggles that I would later face. It was a time when I thought I would find my prince charming (Joe McIntyre of course) and live happily ever after. I was not 32 anymore, I was 12 and he was singing only to me. *sigh* They sang a few more songs and it went dark, but they were showing some pictures on the screens, all of a sudden, there they were about 20 rows in front of us! They had a small revolving stage in the middle of the floor! It was awesome! Of course we didn't bring a camera and I only got a couple of crappy pictures with my cell phone. But they were right there!

I am sure I could go on and on about every detail of the concert, but I won't. I must say that those guys can still put on one hell of a show. And for 2 1/2 hours I was a giddy 12 year old trapped in a 32 year old body. If they come back you can bet I will be right there screaming again.

My Mom and I ready for the show:

So Close!


My Moment with Joey:

I'll Be Loving You Forever

I am so glad it's Friday! I have had a cold most of the week and now it seems that Darin is getting it too. He came home from work and went up to bed. He was kind enough to watch the kids while I napped a couple of times this week, so we are trying to be quiet and not wake him.

I have been waiting for this weekend since June! Saturday my mom and I are going to the New Kids on the Block concert on Saturday! WHOO HOOO!!! Darin got me tickets for my birthday! What a good hubby, he even offered to go with me but was really glad when I asked my mom. We got a hotel room near the Tacoma Dome so we don't need to fight the traffic or make the long journey home. I am so excited! My very first concert was NKOTB when I was 13 (she taught me how to rush the stage), my mom took me to every NKOTB concert. She says it was for me, but I think it was for her also! (Jonas Brothers, anyone??) I thought it would be fun if we went to this one too. Nothing takes me back to being a 13 year old quicker than "Please Don't Go Girl" or "I'll Be Loving You Forever." I think it will be really funny to see all of us old ladies screaming for these guys! I haven't picked out my perfect outfit just yet, you know just in case Joe comes to his senses, ditches his wife and we run off into the sunset together. Sorry, Darin, but Joey Mac will always be my first true love. =)

While I am off reliving my youth, Darin and Maddie have a "Daddy Date" planned. I think there was talk of going swimming and I am sure dinner will be at Red Robin. Hopefully Darin will be able to sleep off his cold to enjoy his date.

Have a great weekend! I'll be back later to update you on all the New Kids' Fun!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

And it's not even Thanksgiving! I turned on 106.9 on our ride to dinner last night and to my surprise and Darin's dismay, they have turned into the 24/7 Christmas Station! How awesome is that?!?!?! I set a record for myself by not listening to Christmas Music before Halloween. Of course all of the stores have had their Christmas stuff out since October, but I couldn't bring myself to look at any of it. But now that I have had a little taste of the Christmas Tunes, I am ready to start my shopping and my favorite thing, decorating! I picked up a couple of Christmas-y things at a couple of the bazaars I have gone to and I am ready to set them out, but I will wait until after Thanksgiving. (Darin won't let me put it out any earlier!)

Maddie is also getting really excited about Christmas. She asks us if Santa can see her sleeping, eating, riding in the car, coloring, she is so funny about it! She's been cutting out pictures from the toy catalogs and glueing them on to pieces of green paper. I think we are up to 9 pages. She was going thru the pages and asked us if Santa could see her pages, we said yes, she looked up to the ceiling, and said "Santa I really want this" and pointed to something on her page. It was too cute.

In other Mang news, we are waiting to see if Darin will go on strike before the holidays. I know the news has been reporting that it looks like the strike has been avoided and that the union leaders are recommending that they accept Boeing's offer, but the union members haven't decided yet. Please don't believe everything that you hear on the news about the offer they are taking so much of it out of context! Darin and I read over the contract together when it came out and looked at each other and said "this is what they are excited about?" They didn't gain much from it and lost quite a bit. It's nothing even remotely close to the IAM contract. We'll see what happens in the next few days. I know it will be all the talk Monday. We'll be sure to keep you posted!

Double Date Update

I guess our double date wasn't such a disaster after all! They asked when we could go out again. Phew!

Mortified!

The weekend started off on a good note. I went bazaaring with my Mom and Grandma. We've been going to the same bazaars for as long as I can remember. It won't be too much longer until Maddie can join us and it will be 4 generations of shoppers! We all picked up a few treasures and had a nice lunch.

Maddie was already scheduled to spend the night with my mom and Mike, so Darin and I made plans with a friend of his from work and her husband. I had never met them and was really looking forward to hanging out with them. We had planned on going to dinner and a movie. Dinner was nice, then we headed out to the movie. This is where the evening went from good to OMG. We went and saw Zack and Miri Make A Porno. Yeah, that's the movie that Darin and his friend picked. I had read the reviews and it got ok reviews and said it could get crude. Ok I can handle that. They didn't mention the FULL ON male & female nudity, super foul language and the graphic, graphic sex scenes. I seriously wanted to die! I was so embarassed! I kept smacking Darin for picking that movie. I was completely mortified that we were watching this movie with someone we had never hung out with before! Luckily they were laughing during the movie. When the movie was over I looked at our friends and said "I guess we should have waited until our 2nd date to see that movie!" I hope they will want to hang out with us again! We just won't be going to any movies!

Sunday Darin and I ran some errands, had some lunch and waited for Maddie to come home. She had a wonderful time with Mike and Grandma, they got to see Madagascar, go in the hot tub, do some crafts, and tons more that I cannot remember! All I know is that she fell asleep at 6:30 and is down for the night.

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

A Historic Day!

November 4, 2008. A day to go down in history. I'm not talking about the election- I'm talking about the other Historic Happening, The Mangs have started a family blog! Since we have family from Washington all the way to our home away from home, Florida, it's high time we joined the high tech world of internet blogging. Instead of getting an annual Christmas Card Reader's Digest View of what'g going on in Mang World, we will try to update our blog frequently.



In all seriousness, Get out and vote- make your voice heard, make it count!