Farewell to the King of Pop

We were in LA when news broke out that Michael Jackson had died. To be more specific, we were at Sea World and saw that the cartoonist had drawn a picture of him and it was captioned, "RIP Michael Jackson". We were like... "what??!!" The whole city seemed to be in disarray. Everywhere we went people were talking about him, every car stereo was blasting his music, only 1 day after his death... already there were street vendors with Michael Jackson T-shirts for sale, commemorating his life. We were in Hollywood on Friday night and walked down Hollywood Boulevard's "walk of fame" We saw stars for Kermit the Frog, Britney Spears, Sandra Bullock, Jackie Chan, Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington and many more. What we were really looking for was Johnny Depp... Ciara was hoping to get her hands on his star. :) as we continued on, we passed people we had never even heard of... it became glaringly evident that something MAJOR was happening up ahead. There were police helicopters, fire trucks, news crews - it was chaos.

We soon realized that people were lined up for probably 2 blocks (I'd guesstimate approx 1000-1500 people) just to get close to Michael Jackson's star. Fans wanted to take pictures, put out flowers... and just somehow feel a little closer to the king of pop. Something I thought was pretty cool, was a street preacher that was in the middle of the line. I've heard of street preachers such as this, but never seen one. He was standing on a box above the crowd saying, "Michael Jackson was the king of pop... but there is a King greater than this, it's Jesus Christ..." What a message!

They were handing out fake money with the gospel message on it and come to find out - it was Living Waters Ministry. (Kirk Cameron's ministry.) Pretty neato!

In jr. high and my freshman year of high school, I was a crazed fan, myself. I loved his appearance, his music and of course his sweet dance moves. I'd stay up half the night just hoping that one of his videos would come on Night Tracks. Remember Night Tracks? :) Little did I know at the time that he was breaking all the rules - becoming the first black man to have his music videos aired on these shows. I was totally crazy about this guy that would soon become the king of pop. My walls were covered with posters of Michael Jackson. I swore that I would marry him one day. ha ha. (uh huh....) :) I recently found some Michael Jackson keepsakes including a gigantic satin silk screened poster of him in white pants and a yellow sweater vest. (This isn't mine, this is a paper poster, but you can see how cute he was!)

He was so handsome then. I also have a book about him that I'm sure (along with the satin poster) will no doubt be worth some bucks eventually.

Having been such a fan in the past, I'm surprised that I wasn't more upset when I learned the news of his death, but I am sad. I'm sad that a man with such incredible God given talent would end up this way. I guess I was naive to the fact that he was taking so much pain medication and that his health was so fragile. When you think about his lifestyle and what he put his body through, physically - performing, and also through the number of reconstructive surgeries... I guess it shouldn't be a surprise. And for all his fame and wealth, he wasn't seemingly a happy man. Just goes to show, fame and fortune don't necessarily = happiness.

I saw this video today, it displays a progression of the changes that Michael Jackson went through over the years. It's astounding! And yes, this too makes me sad. He was beautiful from the beginning, but as a People magazine article mentioned, his father teased him about his big nose. Eventually he did something about it, and while he only admits to 2 nose reconstructions, it's very apparent that much more had taken place. The face changes are incredibly drastic. I was a bit taken back by it. Just thought I'd share this for those of you out there that have ever loved Michael Jackson. Farewell Michael... rest in peace.



I'll be back soon with more to share about our fabulous California vacation!!! :)

California Dreamin'

Santa Monica Beach

I have been dreamin' about a family vacation like this since my kids were too little to even consider taking along on a vacation! When Ciara was young, she carried on about wanting to go to Disney World. We told her that when she was 10 we would go to Disney. Well... we're nearly 8 years past that promise and now her and I both get sick on rides at the amusement park (bummer) - so when the opportunity came up for the kids and I to join Luke on business and mix in a little family fun in the sun... we jumped on it! If we wait much longer, our precious grown up daughter will be too busy living her own life to join us on such a trip. Brandon and Ciara have never flewn on an airplane or seen the ocean... so we're gonna wrap it all up this go around and I can't wait!! Luke's travel schedule has been horrible the last few months. I feel like we've barely seen him. He's been flying all over takin' care of business for his ever growing division. (that's another post all together!) He will attend 2 meetings while we're in California, but we can handle that - there will be things the kids and I can do to occupy our time in sunny California until Big Daddy can join us. :)

We will leave Wed. a.m. (that's tomorrow!!!!) and drive to Denver, Colo. where we'll catch a 3:15 flight into Los Angelos. That would be enough travel for one day, but once we arrive in L.A. we'll take a rental car down Pacific Coast Highway and go on into San Diego where Luke will have a meeting on thursday a.m. Once that's done, it's Sea World. Should be a fantastic time. I checked the show schedule and it looks incredible! We are gonna try to get in some beach time too. Then on Friday a.m. we drive back into L.A. where Luke will drop us off in the Santa Monica Boulevard area to hang out while he gets his meeting there out of the way. I'm sure we'll find plenty to while we wait for him... what with the pier and beach right there and shopping galore! After the meeting we'll hook up for lunch and then spend the day sight seeing. Each of the kids picked one BIG thing that they wanna do. Brandon wants to go to the Getty Villa Museum which is a Greek and Roman Museum, Ciara wants to check out Santee Alley which is supposed to be pretty incredible shopping. Also on the list of things to check out are Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Sign, China Plaza, and Venice Beach. I hope we can squeeze it all into a day! :) Doesn't it sound fun??!! The girls wanted to go on a celebrity home tour - but I don't think the guys will go for it. Maybe we'll get lucky and see a celebrity or 2 out and about on our L.A. exploration. That would just be too cool! Saturday morning we catch an early flight out of L.A. back into Denver - hop into the hespe mobile and head for Larkspur, Colorado where we'll take in a Renaissance Festival. I think the whole family will will be highly entertained by that activity! We'll rest Saturday night in a hotel in Castle Rock then once we're up and about Sunday morning we are homeward bound.

We've never taken a vacation like this before - could be a once in a life time for all 4 of us... so I'm really excited about this precious time together experiencing something new. My cousin is staying at the house with little Shoogsie and taking care of the house and outdoor pets. I'm so thankful! Now we can just enjoy our getaway. Please pray for our safety and with a shutterbug like me... you can count on lots of photos when we get back!! Until next time... PEACE OUT!

Whatsoever you do to the least of my people...

That you do unto me. Regret. Guilt. These are things I feel when I think about the opportunity I had and didn't take (on the advice of my husband). We pulled into downtown Denver - 16th street mall, to be exact. FABULOUS! Hardrock Cafe here we come!! We had just spent 2 glorious days in the mountains and we park the car to see the man in the photo. A shabby man. A sad man. A hungry and thirsty man - probably a lonely, homeless man.We sat and watched him through our dirty windows. He had his shopping cart and was filling it with "treasures" he was finding in the trash can. Clearly things put there by blessed people like me who had plenty and didn't mind throwing away perfectly good stuff, or half eaten stuff. So he dug,and chose for himself the things that he apparently thought "looked good". Then I saw it and that is when my heart started to break. He pulled out a half drank bottle of water, examined it, then opened it and drank from it. My heart sank, I entered a state of disbelief of what I had just seen. I'd never seen anyone do this in all my 37 (soon to be 38) years. I was burdened and overcome with sadness for this man. I instantly said, "we've got a cooler full of cold drinks, I should give him a water." Luke said, "No... we don't want to get something started, you don't know... he will follow us all over."

Now I don't know if that's true, but what I do know is true is that I spent $12.00 on fudge at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and this man was drinking discarded water out of the trash can. Wow. I can't forgive myself. I can't stop thinking about how I could have given him a fresh cool drink, not to mention fed him that left over sandwich in our cooler. "When I was thirsty you gave me a drink, when I was hungry, you gave me food to eat... whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me". (Matthew- paraphrased)This keeps running through my mind and I keep asking God to forgive me for not sharing with this man. Sharing my food and water, and maybe even sharing God's love. I think I've learned my lesson.

Bargain Shopping Get Away

Okay, so Luke had meetings in Wichita this week and Brandon was going to go and hang out with his dad at work. My little resourceful brain started workin' and I thought... "if Ciara and I go, we can go shopping." We have totally been missing all the good shopping and other fun stuff in Wichita, so we tagged along. We had to get up and be ready to go by 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, but you know girls will do just about anything to get their shopping fix - so we made it. We really did have a great time, it was just nice for me to get away from work for a day or 2, we also got to stop over at my brother's house and spend some time with him and his family. It was fun. Abbi cried cuz she wanted to come home with Aunt Jami, you can't imagine how sad that was. :( I felt bad I couldn't bring her along.

So Brandon hung out at work with Luke at the office all day Wednesday and Ciara and I had a blast. We first visited a friend of hers that was in the hospital at Wesley Medical Center. I had a consultation to see if I would be a good candidate for eye surgery and they said I could have PRK which is basically where they go straight into the cornea and correct the astigmatism and reshape the cornea. I'm going to do some more research, but the idea of waking up and seeing the alarm clock sounds pretty good- it would be the first time in nearly 30 years. I'd really like to have it done.

Then we proceeded on to Krispy Kreme. YUMMY. (I needed donuts like a hole in the head), but anyhoo... OH HOW I LOVE KRISPY KREME. Only when they're fresh and hot though. Then we went shopping and got some fabulous bargains. Ciara got 2 formal dresses for around $50 total. They are beautiful, so she is all set for Snoball and Prom this year. (sigh) We also got some really good deals at Old Navy, American Eagle, Abercrombie, Famous Footwear and Gordmans. A good chunk of the school shopping is done, so that is a really good feeling. Best of all... I didn't buy anything that wasn't on sale or clearance. YAY for bargain shopping - I love it.

Last night we had supper at Sal's Japanese Steakhouse. It is more than a meal, it's entertaining. We had a very witty chef. They cook the food right on your table, and do all kinds of cool stuff. Luke and Ciara both caught a shrimp in their mouth when the chef tossed it to them. It was really fun. These are the kinds of things I miss about being closer to the city - but ya know there's a lot to be said for the simple life too. It's pretty quiet here in the prairie lands and I can drive just about anywhere I need to go here in less than 15 minutes. Today Brandon did a little shopping with the girls and managed to get a some new things for school including 2 cool pairs of shoes - 1 cool pair of brown suede converses and a neat looking pair of black canvas Rocket Dogs. He didn't last long though... he was shopped out by lunch and we took him for a half day at the office with Dad. *smile*

I'm glad My honey let the girls tag along, and now when Brandon's classmates talk about what their dad's "do" ... Brandon might just have a little better answer than, " I don't know, he mostly talks on the phone all day." :)