4 Day Hanksgiving Weekend Redux

We had an amazing weekend as usual. The four days off were great.

For Hanksgiving we had some good friends over to enjoy my domestic-ness. I made a full traditional holiday dinner. My favorite was the dessert of baked stuffed apples with ice cream (recipe below).
Hayden doesn't eat any of the foods that are included in the traditional dinner except the pumpkin pie. We did convince him to try onion dip. He's up there in the pic mixing onion dip, chips, and carrots. He savored the flavors with his eyes closed like the character from Ratatouille.
Our friend Calvin took a great family pic for us as well as the golden turkey picture.

Our tradition is to put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Hayden was on it. I played video games a little too long for his taste so he recruited Brian to get the new tree out of the box and start pressuring me to do the rest. We got the new tree up and decorated within an hour.

I love that Hayden is so into decorating for the holidays and that Brian and I have done a good job creating our own little traditions.

Over the long weekend Hayden wanted to play some board games. This revelation is a first and I am totally stoked for it. He discovered Scrabble and we played twice.

On Saturday we chilled for a bit, drank some awesome coffee topped with whip cream, watched some lame movies and then headed downtown to support some small businesses. One of them is the amazing Cowtown Guitars. When I was in high school here in Las Vegas they were one of the few music gear stores in town. I worked down the street from the shop at a used cd store and would see the local bands hanging out there.
I wasn't in a band yet so I felt like it was this sacred place for cool musicians and would sometimes go in just to feel a little closer to cool.
Well, on Saturday they were giving away guitars in support of Small Business Saturday. Hayden won an awesome Ibanez Gio (SG style) electric guitar. At first Brian and I were way more excited for it than him, but once we got it home he didn't want to stop playing.
Thanks to Roxie and Jesse at Cowtown, you got a customer for life!

So yeah, our weekend was awesome.


Baked Apple Recipe
6 large apples
Instant Oatmeal (1 package) - I used cinnamon swirl
2/3 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
6 tablespoons butter/margarine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
Lemon Juice

Core the 6 apples and place in a large casserole dish.
Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Mix Oatmeal, spices, butter, raisins and brown sugar. Stuff apples.
Bake at 420 for 25 minutes.
We topped them with Vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream.

Thanks-

I am thankful for so much. My wonderful family, amazing friends,  great career, a fun and talented band and all the happiness my life is full of.


I sat down this morning to explain Thanksgiving to my son.  I wanted to know what he thought of it. He said it was a day to eat food and have a party. He's not wrong. We do this every year.

I tried to tell him about the Pilgrims and the real history of this celebration.
He said " I know Mom, we read a book in school called The First Thanksgiving," complete with eye rolls.
He told me the cookie cutter version.
I expounded with the history of the Native Americans and how even though the Pilgrims and the English came into their land as strangers they helped the pilgrims survive.

 This is Massasoit, read about his legacy on wikipedia.  He prevented the failure of Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation of the Pilgrims. He kept his people from converting to Christianity. He pushed peace between tribes and the English. He was a great man, and the main reason there is Thanksgiving.

The sad facts of American history are too much to explain to a six year old but I do want him to know as much truth as he can comprehend. He wanted to know more about the Native Americans, but after a few more sentences, he got bored and ran upstairs to play video games.

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving. Be mindful of our history in this country but grateful that we've come far for human rights. We have even further to go still and I believe we are a country changing for the better.

Domestic Rockstar Holiday Wishlist

I've compiled a cool little list of awesome gifts to keep in mind for the Domestic Rockstar in your life.

1. Ciat Velvet Manicure in Berry Poncho- This manicure set is only $19.00. For the lady that likes to do her nails herself but wants a luxurious texture.

2. BLACK SKULL NECKLACE USB Flash Drive - This awesome black skull pendant doubles as an 8g USB flash drive. It comes in the sweet little black box and is only $12.99 Perfect for the techie rockstar.

3. Yahtzee The Nightmare Before Christmas - Who doesn't love Nightmare Before Christmas and YAHTZEE? As low as $13.33 this is a great family gift.

4. SKULL MARTINI Glass- This rocking martini glass comes 1 per package at $7.34 a piece.

5. Victoria's Secret Love Rocks Lotion-Victoria's Secret makes the best lotions. This one is an alluring scent that stays on for hours. Starts at $15.40.

6. Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen: Cookin' for Trouble- Nadia G is a rockstar in the kitchen! This is one of her awesome cookbooks. Starts at $13.25

7. Iron Fist American Nightmare Bag Purse - This big 'ol bag is wicked. It's big enough for the mom gear, and the music gear. $50.

8. Kat Von D Shade Shifter Eyeshadow - I'm not one to usually spend so much on an eyeshadow, but this color is one of a kind and totally worth the splurge. Starts at $16.00

9. Hanging Glass Globe Terrarium with Air Plant - This cute little terrarium can be hung on a nice cord of hemp, or a chain and features a very low maintenance air plant.

10. Mastodon T-shirt- One of my favorite bands. Most metal/rock fans would love a new shirt to add to their collection. This one starts at only $14.99

Weekend Redux: Amazement

We had such an amazing weekend. Saturday we played an awesome show at the Cheyenne Saloon. Our friends came out and supported us and we made some new fans.
It's our last show of the year as we take a break to celebrate the holidays.

Our good friend Daniel came in from Sacramento to see a concert with us on Sunday. He rocks a killer stache and Hayden think's it gives him super powers. He dressed up with a stache of his own and proceeded to run around the house hurting invisible bad guys.

That evening we got to see our favorite band Deftones at the House of Blues. It was awesome. They always put on a great show, and the venue was packed with screaming, sweaty, fans wanting to take away an amazing experience.
At the Deftones show we attended last June, we met our guitar player Rob. He was parked next to us and Brian started up a conversation with him as he was stuck in a line of cars trying to get out of the parking garage. He gave Brian his phone number and two days later our previous guitar player Dave quit. A month later Rob was in the band and played his first show with us.

We had such a wonderful time this weekend but it didn't include a lot of sleep so we're dragging today.

Fact: It snows in Las Vegas

We moved here in 2008 from Sacramento, CA. Every November or December since it snows at least once here.

Hayden loves it. It snowed a little bit on Saturday here and he just wanted to eat it all.
It didn't stick enough so we could play in it but we had fun running around.

It's starting to get chilly and we actually had to turn on the heat in the house. We bought a new TV last week so we've been curling up under blankets and watching too much tv together lately.
I've been doing some housekeeping here on my site with ads over there to your right and working on a better system for organizing my posts.
I also have been working on the band site, some advertising for us, and then we were able to get our new album up in our store here: bipolar music store.

I love having a laptop.

Things I Love Thursday for November

Lately I feel like I've been doing a lot exhaling. A lot of looking around and being grateful for all the amazing stuff in my life. These are the things I LOVE. Absolutely LOVE with a high squeaky voice, rosy cheeks and really big hugs!
My wonderful husband with whom my relationship is better than it ever has been. My son who is so smart, loving, and just plain perfect. My friends who fill our lives with support, fun, and appreciation. My career which has finally gotten to me a place where I can grow and be financially stable.
Thank you 2012 for being MY year. Here's to 2013 being even better!!

To Vote or Not To Vote

The fact that voter records are public is one of the main reasons I don't like to vote.

I don't like the phone calls, the mail, and all the crap that the greedy people who get my public information do with it.

It's my right to vote, but it's also my right not to be pestered. 

During Woodrow Wilson's term hundreds of women fought for my right to vote. They were beaten, arrested, and publicly humiliated. And here I am complaining about some extra mail.

 For the most part I've kept my opinions to myself. But I live in a battleground state here in Nevada and this is the first time that I feel like vote might actually matter.  So I am voting today for the first time.

And even though I don't care much for Lena Dunham, I did like her commercial and thought it was ridiculous that there was a controversy over it.

Halloween 2012

Last night was an unusually quiet Halloween for us. We usually have a house full but last night we only had a few guests. It was nice though.
Hayden had talked about his costume for a couple months. He had originally wanted to be either an Angry Bird or a Ninja. When we went costume shopping two weeks ago we were browsing through some ninja costumes and Hayden was disappointed "These ninja's look cheap!"  He was right.
When we went to the party store he saw lots of costumes that he liked that were just too expensive. Then he found THE ONE.
It was perfect.

He found a Star Wars character: Savage Opress. They only had two sizes and one was his.

We had decorated way more than ever before this year. A lot of the smaller kids didn't want to walk up at all. One little girl was crying the whole time she walked up to our door, took the candy and ran!
Hayden really had a blast handing out candy, scaring the kids with our smoke machine, and the mustache I had found while we were trick-or-treating.
Our neighbors also decorated pretty well. Our two houses were the best in the whole housing complex.
We had a blast!

Friday we're hosting a Zombie Party for our Cd Release show. I'm getting some great ideas for makeup and an outfit!