Kansas City Loves David Cook!!

My friends, kids and I had an awesome time at the David Cook concert last Friday, May 9th. The top video is an amateur that was right below him and the sound isn't good but you get an idea of what it was like and then he pans at the end to the huge crowd (more than 10,000 of us). The 2nd video is the local Fox station's coverage of the beginning of when he finally showed up and sang.


The gates were supposed to open up at 3:00 pm so we showed up at around 1:15. There was already a line but we ended up getting fairly good seats on the left side of the field. For quite awhile it was cold and cloudy. Yet, by the time the gates opened up and we got our seats the sun came out and the sky was gorgeous. There was a parade in his honor from 3-4 and of course it ended up running late so he didn't show up until around 4:20. It was a long wait, but worth it.

Kelly Urich from the radio station, Mix 93.3, MC'd the event and he did a great job. My oldest daughter and I are fans of 93.3 so we enjoyed seeing Urich. Here is the interview Cook did earlier in the day at the radio station. The Chief's Cheerleaders were also there.

The only irritation was when the Mayor of Blue Springs decided to start introducing City Council members. We all groaned. We had just waited 3 hours to hear and see David Cook. I didn't know or care who was on the Blue Springs City Council, and I'm a political junkie. Other than that, it was all good.

As we waited in line many of us talked and we all agreed that Syesha will probably go home this week and the finale will come down to the 2 David's. It will then come down to who has the bigger fan base. If this past Friday is any indication, David Cook's is big, strong and loyal.

It also has a lot more to do with him just being from Blue Springs. If David Archuleta was from Blue Springs you sure wouldn't have seen me giving up a day of my time and waiting for 3 hours. I am a HUGE David Cook fan and it just turns out to be AWESOME that he is from the Kansas City area. I think he is going to be a huge hit whether he wins or not, just like Daughtry has been and I'm a huge Daughtry fan.

So, Good luck to David Cook over these next 2 weeks and if you haven't been, VOTE FOR DAVID COOK!!!

Laura and Jenna Bush in Kansas City!

First Lady Laura Bush and Jenna Bush came to Kansas City yesterday to promote their new book and I got to be there. They came to Unity Temple on the Plaza for a short presentation and then they autographed copies of their books. Rainy Day Books sold 1,000 tickets and books ahead of time. Several friends and I got to go and we met up with Heidi and her husband.

Thankfully, Heidi called and found out the doors opened even earlier than what they had previously said and she saved us seats. I was so bummed, because Rivka was supposed to go with us, but twisted her ankle the night before and wasn't able to come.

There were only 3 pathetic protesters and none of them assaulted us like has happened at previous events. Perhaps, if we had been able to rent Rivka a wheelchair and bring her with us they would've been braver. I wanted to say something to them but one of my friends urged me not to. Instead, I made eye contact with one of them and glared. I just find it absurd that they have nothing better to do with their lives than to protest at something that isn't even a political event.

Laura and Jenna Bush were both wonderful and gracious. Laura looks even prettier in person and so wonderful for her age. Jenna is very charming and articulate. It took hours to get through the line so we weren't supposed to say too much, but I did let them know it was an honor to meet them and that I home schooled my kids.

It was hard to get a decent picture and I don't have the best camera so I wasn't able to get a good picture of them. Instead, I did have someone take a picture of our group with us holding our books. The problem is, I left my camera in my friend's car. So as soon as I get it back I will add the picture to this post.

Shooting in KC

Its always sad when Kansas City makes the National News because of Crime. The details are still coming in but it looks like the gunman stole a woman's car (who happens to be dead), was pulled over by a police officer who he shot and then he went to Ward Parkway Mall and shot and killed 2 people in the parking lot and injured 2 more. He was then gunned down by police in the parking lot of Target. This mall is on the other side of the city from me but its always disturbing when this happens in your own backyard.

I'm still preparing my post on why gun-control isn't the answer but I need to do it soon. A local, liberal blogger is already screaming that we need to confiscate everyone's guns, except each person will be allowed a hunting rifle. While stripping everyone's rights to defend themselves what would this actually accomplish? People kill each other with all kinds of weapons, are we going to ban knives too? Unbelievable!! He can move to a socialist country in Europe where they have his mentality and see how safe that country is, yikes!!

To read more, go to these sites:
Crime Scene KC
KC Star
Fox 4

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition KC Style

(I finally got my digital camera issues taken care of and was able to transfer my pics of the house!!)

To be honest I've only seen the show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition twice. Yet there was a lot of excitement here the week before last as they had picked a home and family in KC. I found over 16 articles on it done by the KC Star alone. I was talking to the lady at my hair salon about how I had read that the last time the show came here we set a record of 10,000 visitors a day. We weren't sure what that says about KC, maybe that we are pretty desperate for some excitement here ;)!!

Nevertheless, it was kind of neat because the house that they were working on was only 3 minutes from my house. I figured we wouldn't get this close again so I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to go check it out and take some pictures that I could put on here.


The first time, we tried to go on Friday and it turned into a complete NIGHTMARE!! Even though it was only 3 minutes from my house you had to go to the local mall and take a shuttle bus. Somehow my friend and I picked a bad time to go. We waited for an HOUR outside in the cold for the bus. We finally made it on to one and we were relieved. We were only on it for 3 minutes when the BUS BROKE DOWN!! My friend and I were incredulous. To top it off we had the bus driver from hell who was very rude and mean about everything. I took down the correct info so my friend, Little Miss Rude could call and complain for me since she is a pro at such things dealing with the entertainment industry on a daily basis. What ticked us off the most was the bus driver wouldn't let us get on the next bus, she insisted we get back in line at the end of the line after waiting for an hour. My friend and I both had things we had to get to so we left in frustration.

So the next day on Saturday the kids and I set out again, this time on our own. I was dead tired but we went anyway. This experience ended up being the complete opposite. They were running more shuttle buses that day so we literally drove up, got on a bus and we were on our way. The house was pretty awesome and since it was the day before they were going to present it to the family all of the outside was done.


Of course, the family situation is a tear jerker like always. I do think it is neat to see families like this get something nice. The couple, Jesus and Michelle Jacobo had 4 kids, something happened to a relative and they ended up taking in 5 nieces and nephews. So they now had 9 kids and they had a grandfather come live with them to help. That resulted in 12 people living in one small house. The show sent them on a week vacation to Florida while they worked on the house where for some of them it was their first plane ride, hotel stay, etc... So it is a neat thing what the show does for so many families.

To read more about all of it here are some of the articles I found in the KC Star:
Family awed by others’ generosity
Jacobo family expresses appreciation

The Dead Sea Scrolls in KC

My 3 older kids and I went on a field trip with the American Girls' group yesterday to see The Dead Sea Scrolls at Union Station. They are here for 3 months and there has been a lot of talk about the exhibit. The tickets normally are pretty expensive at $20 a person but we were able to get a major discount since we had a Children's group.

I have to say that I was extremely impressed. It was well done and my kids and I got a lot more out of it than I expected. They gave each person a small device that looked like a TV remote control. At each section they had numbers that you pressed into the audio device and you could listen to commentary about what you were looking at in the displays. They also had a kid version and an adult version for each one. So not only did it keep my kids occupied but I think they learned more as a result. It also enabled everyone to go at their own pace and learn as little or as much as they wanted about each display. It was also fascinating to be able to see some of the actual scrolls.


Here is some of what I learned:

About the only thing I remembered about them from Bible College is that they were older than any other Biblical text even though they were found later than any other and as a result they were considered to be more reliable. So the rest was all new to me or were things I hadn't remembered learning.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were originally discovered in a cave in 1947 by a Bedouin Shepherd at Qumran. The Discovery led to more from 1947-1956 where archaeologists and Bedouin Shepherds found 800+ scrolls in 11 different caves along the shore of the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is 1371 feet below sea level and the climate around it is very dry which is what enabled the scrolls to be preserved for such a long time. Once the scrolls were brought to a different climate they started to deteriorate and the archaeologists initially, unknowingly did some irreparable damage. Soon efforts were made to handle them much more carefully and to preserve them.

Many believe the scrolls to have been written by a sect known as the Essenes who lived at Qumran during the related time period.

If you live in the KC area or even a couple of hours away I would highly recommend the exhibit!!