The Last Day of 2nd Grade...

Today is the last day.
The last day of 2nd Grade.
The last day of Mia's 1st year of Multiage class.
The last day of teachings by two of the best teachers on EARTH!

This school year blew by so fast my head is spinning. I feel like I have been so busy and preoccupied with work this year. It makes me so sad that it is coming to an end.

We are so very blessed to have had Mrs. Anderson for two straight years and Mrs. Robertson this year. They are two of most awesome ladies ever, not to mention great role models and teachers for the kids! Mia would do ANYTHING to please them. That makes me smile.

I hope they know how much we all LOVE them.

We will miss them so much.

Thanks Mrs. A and Mrs. R!!!
XO-
The Eberhardts :)

GLO!!!

You know how much we love music and we went to a concert last weekend with our friends. OMG...Fun!

The Band: Ghostland Observatory

The Venue: Cain's Ballroom Tulsa, OK

In Attendance: The Whites, The Rossows, The Kirchhoffs, The Eberhardts and our "Driver" Brian

I really think it is funny to say our "Driver", but really it is a safe, responsible, heck of a good time. So we were all happy we splurged and rented a limo. The driver just happened to be Randy and Kendra's neighbor. He was very cool. He even took us to his recording studio which is located right by Cain's Ballroom. Little did we know Coach Michael (for some reason when I blog I must still call him Coach Michael even though he and Troy no longer coach the girls' soccer team anymore) can really bang a drum. Holy smokes! He just walked in and plunked down in that seat and went nuts. We were all shocked, and he is now going to get a new drum kit. I'm buying Kelly some earplugs for Christmas. I'm sure the kids are going to dig the new instrument as much as Dad!

Anyway...back to the concert....

OK, so we hit a few bars on the way which was fun in itself. (The Treehouse and McNellie's were our preconcert stops.)

Once we got to the venue the night really took off. I met this guy...

Randy and Kendra introduced us to GLO and we were all hooked and excited to see them live. They are a two man band out of Austin, TX. Their live shows are packed full of choreographed lasers. This is one show that will be making an encore on our concert list. Their music is awesomely catchy and the laser show is just an added bonus.

Here is someone else's video footage. I'm kinda lazy right now, but more than anything wanted to show some good video. I was busy enjoying the show close up...You just need to see them live. But buy your tix in advance. They SELL OUT!

This was my first concert at Cain's Ballroom. I will definitely go back SOON!

My Little iTunes Buddy

Mia, Maddison and Kayla @ D&B's

Mia received an iTunes gift card for her birthday from her friend Kayla. We all met up at Dave and Busters two Sundays ago for a celebration lunch for Kayla’s birthday.

I just wanted to report with all of Mia’s findings on iTunes! (You know we are both pretty much obsessed. I have passed it on to her!) So that gift to her was PERFECT! Thanks soooo much Kayla!

I sat down with her and made her make a list of everything she wanted so we could plug in her gift card and use it all at one time. (It would have been dangerous leaving any balance since we all use the same iTunes account and I purchase items daily. I wanted to make sure that she utilized the whole card.) She had noooo problem spending every last cent!

Here’s what she got:

Taylor Swift’s self titled album. (The first one - she did not yet have it)

“Back to December” and “Speak Now” - Two of Taylor Swift’s new singles that are being released one by one to count down to her new album.

The Big Time Rush Album (it’s on sale for $6.99 in the iTunes store…get it while it’s hot!)

The single “Live Like There’s No Tomorrow” by Selena Gomez – From the movie Ramona and Beezus

And…The paid version of the App called Sound Hound. It does what Shazam does, but pretty much always returns lyrics. You can get unlimited song identification and lyrics for $4.99.

Mia loves to retrieve the lyrics to songs via the Sound Hound App and sing along! I think it was totally worth the $4.99. She has so much fun!

Sing your little heart out Girl!

Soccer...Soccer...Soccer

Princess Strikers Get Outta Bed For This Game

Fall soccer season is in full swing. And now we are even more immersed. Mia is playing on her regular Friendship Rec Team, but she also joined an Academy team. We were going to eventually join a team like this, but really weren't planning on it Spring or next Fall. One of Mia's good friends from her class also played on a Friendship team at Metro Tulsa Soccer club. Her team broke up and some went to this academy team this season. Aftere talking to Amber, her Mom, we decided to go check out a practice one day just to see how different the team dynamic was. And also to see how Mia reacted to the coaching. The coaches on Academy are paid coaches who live and breathe the game. After just one practice we knew this was something that we wanted for Mia. We called a family meeting and discussed possibly joining the team this season. It was unanimous. The next day we were registering and ordering her uniforms.
Now we are practicing with our rec team on Tuesdays with games on Saturdays. Plus, practicing Monday and Thursdays with our academy team with two games on Sundays! So far Mia is having a great time and responding so well to the coaching. Troy and Coach Mike (who are the coaches for the rec tream) are enjoying some soccer from the sidelines now on Sundays!
Today was Mia's first game with the academy team. The whole team does not play both games every Saturday. So she just played game two today. She did AWESOME for her first game! In fact, she almost scored a goal in the first half! I thought she was going to fall over from the increased amount of running in the game. The fields are bigger, and they stay in a long time in between subs. We were so proud of her!
She is in full soccer mode, as I type this she and Troy are practicing out back.
This is going to be a really fun soccer season!
I didn't get any pics from today's games, as we were so engrossed in the action. I will try harder next week!

Mia @ 8am Princess Strikers Game

You Can Find Me Here...

I am going on Hiatus. I love keeping up with all of my friends. Near or Far. But I have decided that I needed to take a little break from that lovely social distraction that is Facebook. Don't worry...It has nothing to do with you. Or YOU. Or even you. It has everything to do with me. I need to focus on some things right now and life is sooooo busy and crazy. I need to wean myself off of that site for a bit. We have so much going on with Mia's now two soccer teams, work, homework, three crazy hounds, and fixing up the casa. I have a lot of work ahead of me, so I am taking this time to focus.

You can find me here every now and then. I will try to post meaningless nonsense like I normally do on Facebook. It just will not be as often and it will not take away from my other obligations.

I will see you back there though! Believe me! I think Facebook rocks! I have caught up with soooo many friends since logging on.

Until then...Be Good!
See you on the Flip! :)

B Sides R Hits 2 Me

In less than 24 hours we will be rockin' out to Tom Petty! We are totally ready! Outfits picked and plans made! We are taking off a half day tomorrow and all day Friday to celebrate Tom Petty in Tulsa! The limo arrives at 5pm to take us downtown Tulsa for some Spirits before the show.

All day today I filtered my iPod to play nothing but Tom Petty. It made me excited about what I wanted to post about today. B-sides!

What exactly is a B-side? Back when 45s were the thing, they were the secondary song on the other side of the "hit" record. You can touch up on your vinyl knowledge here. Let's face it...we are almost out of the CD era already and our hard drives are overflowing with digital music files. I guess now a B-side is kind of an antique, huh?

Tom Petty has been around long enough to have them. And if you are lucky to own it, he has one whole "album" dedicated to B-sides in his box set Playback. Disc 4 is called The Other Sides and it holds one of my favorite Tom Petty B-sides, Gator on the Lawn. This one reminds me of Marley. She loves to do a gator roll and she TOTALLY would steal a steak off the counter. To be completely honest, I have no idea what this song is really supposed to mean! It is just a funny, catchy tune. Catch it here!

Another fun song is Spike. I am not sure if it is officially considered a B-side, but it is on the album Southern Accents.

Music has such an effect on me. Hearing a certain song gives me butterflies in my tummy and I can feel the memory in my body. Tom Petty's music has been with me for so much of my life, so there are soooo many of his songs that have that strong effect. Music is what I collect, and I love to boast about the "pieces" that I have of his.

I also collect coffee mugs, but they are harder to store, and they don't create memories or make me feel nearly and good inside!

Oh My My!

In honor of this Thursday's full moon @ Autumn Equinox, I decided that I am going to take the next few days to write about none other than Tom Petty! Well, it turns out, we are heading down to the BOK Center on Thursday to see Tom himself as he stops by Tulsa to share his Mojo tour with us! As you may know, we were supposed to see Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers earlier this Spring in Dallas. After the front half of his tour got redirected to the end of the tour, he announced he would be adding Tulsa to his list of cities! SCORE! Believe me...I lost a lot of sleep in the weeks that led up to the announcement. It is incredibly hard to sleep with all of your fingers AND toes crossed. But in the end, they signed on to perform at the one year anniversary for the BOK Center. Since our Dallas tickets got changed to a Wednesday instead of a Saturday, it was going to mean more time off of work. We were eligible for a full refund due to the postponement. As much as it pained me to not attend both dates, we could save us some dough and make our Tulsa concert experience even better with that savings. We are going with a group of our great friends. Even renting a limo and taking the next day off of work so we can truly party like rock stars that night! We have sixth row...YES...6TH ROW seats. This will be the closest seats we have had for one of his shows. (BIG, HUGE grin....SMILE)

I don't even know how to express my pure excitement for this event. I am sure to be posting all of our Petty Pics on Facebook that night. Stay tuned for the one of Tom and I backstage after the show! Until then, I will be celebrating like no other fanatic by dedicating my blog to them for the days leading up to what will be FULL MOON FEVER!

Eight is Gonna Be Great!

Happy Birthday to Sweet Miss Mia! Today she turns EIGHT! Yikes how time has flown by!

Saturday We had two soccer games. So we were all excited to relax that night. Our friends had a football party and we decided to bring a birthday cake to celebrate ! After all, this is our Okie Family.

We gave Mia her very own James Avery charm bracelet. She reeeeealllly loves it! Now we always have gift ideas. We also gave her a Middleton Doll. She is obsessed with dolls. Grandma Sherri got her Ivy, the American Girl this summer for her early birthday gift. She got her first Middleton doll with some birthday money she received during the same trip to Wisco. She plays with "Hadli" all the time and really wanted another one for her birthday. After her first soccer game we drove her to Girlfriends Gifts in Broken Arrow and let her pick out her new baby. This one she named "Ashley".



Today she wanted to go to The Funhouse at the Riverwalk. We played some games, won few tickets and cashed in on some Tootsie Rolls. It was great! And turns out...Mia is a darn good driver! She was passing levels on this driving game like a pro!



After The Funhouse we went to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Eberhardt and their friends from Wisconsin, Mike and Lynn O'Brien. We were going to take Mia to Red Robin for a birthday dinner. She got another charm for her bracelet among other things. This charm is a Dachshund. So cute!






It was a great day. Thanks everyone for her birthday wishes!

....back in the day

Our good friend Lex sent me this picture this morning. It really brought a smile to my face. This picture was taken some time around 1996 or so. It is of the old crew at Pacific Cycle. I miss those days of bringing our dogs to work and happy hour at least once a week. Oh and we won't forget the Christmas Parties! We certainly have not forgotten anyone! We got to enjoy a gyro and Heineken with Lex (next to me) this summer. We miss him the most! He is the smartest person I know. Troy is actually in this picture. He's hiding. Goofy boy!
What a trip down memory lane! Thanks Lex!

First Cowpokes!

“Our class is the first ‘COWPOKES of the week’ class! Mrs. Lair is so proud of us! Great job!”
-Tracy Robertson, Jenks West 2nd Grade Teacher


I don't know what this honor means...so I will indeed be asking Mia tonight. But I thought I would post this since it is a picture of her class. This year she is in Multi-age 1st and 2nd. There are 25 1st and 25 2nd graders. Mrs. Robertson is the 2nd Grade teacher and Mrs. Anderson is the 1st Grade teacher. OMG….They are WONDERFUL!!! :0)

This IS Fall!

My FAVORITE Fall Candle Lights Our Home

Even though it is a balmy 94 degrees out, I have officially crowned this weekend the beginning of Fall. It is my favorite time of the year. I'm sure I share this love with soooooo many others. Fall is welcome at my house not only due to my extreme aversion for hot weather and the sun, but mainly because of all the fond memories that Fall has always made in my memory maker.

This weekend we celebrated Labor Day Weekend. Being today is Labor Day, I am looking back on a very wonderful weekend. The last week was so busy for us. Work, soccer practice, BM Wednesday, Twirling class brought us right up to Friday night and we had a party to go to! Kaitlyn, Mia's friend, had her 8th birthday party at The Grand Health Club on Friday night. They rented the upstairs where they had a Camp Rock 2 party. Fun and games and the premier of the movie Camp Rock 2 on The Disney Channel. The kids had a great time! We ended the evening with a couple Modelos...Yum!

Kaitlyn's 8th Birthday Party

Saturday was a total bummin' day. It was so awesome and very much needed. I don't think we did anything productive. We did sleep in until almost Noon. That is kind of productive. In my mind anyway. That night was the OU game against Utah State. We did not watch it, it was on Pay Per View. But I heard that the game was really close and the Sooners didn't play very well. I think they won...but that is all hearsay. :) My lovely in-laws Don and June came over to hang out with us and then later after the game our friends Tara, TJ and Tia swung by to visit for a bit. I had made a batch of chili earlier in the evening. That, yet another welcome to Fall! It was so delicious.

Tia and Mia Listen to Tunes

Marley Gets Cuddled By Tia

Marley Rockin' Out to Guitar Hero

Tara and I busted out the BM Wednesday Sky and whipped up a couple of Lemon Drops (my favorite shot) and we all took to a couple of rounds of Guitar Hero. Feels like a fun fall game to me! I am going to have to practice up though. It has been over a year since we have played it and I actually got booed off the stage by the computer audience! Yikes!

Sunday we went to lunch with The Buchanans at Los Cabos. Of course it was good! And it was great to see our friends. It had been a while since we got to see them. Later that evening we went over to Tara and TJ's and had burgers on the grill. Standard Labor Day fare. :)

It has been a weekend full of relaxing, hanging out, visiting and we won't forget sleeping in! I absolutely loved it!

Bring on the short week, which I am sure will be totally crazy. Mia turns 8 next week! EEK! We still have not determined what to do for her party. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. :0)

Next thing you know, we will be celebrating Halloween! Lots to do! Lots to do!

Destination: Vegas Baby!

*Due to technical difficulties, this and all other blog entries were severely delayed. Please forgive my absence! We are back!
We went to Vegas for Memorial Day Weekend, and although we can't consider Troy Mr. Papageorgio, we had a wonderful time. Not one big win. In fact, the very best we could say we did in the gambling area was a win of $70 at the Planet Hollywood Casino on the Strip. Bummer! But to be real honest, it does not matter to me. I am not really a big gambler, and would really rather do other things.
Thursday morning we arrived in Vegas after a horrid landing on our last flight! Thank goodness for the Bloody Marys in the airport bar! The whole plane screamed! Ugh! Not cool. But once we made it to Fremont Street, we were ready to forget about that and start our long weekend. Thursday was spent hanging out on Fremont, checking out the street vendors, drinking $1 margaritas and $2 Coronas. We also ate lunch at our hotel the Golden Nugget, where we got to see an old man on a HoverRound run over his wife's foot. It was quite a scene as she shrieked as if she had just won the draw on Keno! The funny part about that was when he yelled at HER for having her foot in the way! Oh, and the fact that Troy and TJ almost got run over by him an hour later as he threw his HR in reverse!
Friday morning we woke up and hit the pool. The newly remodeled pool at the Gold Nugget is gorgeous. Complete with a huge tank of sharks and fish that you can slide through if you should decide to do so. We were starving and even though it was hard to give up our prime seats by the pool, we decided to take to Freemont Street and get some lunch. We ate at a place called Mickie Finnz. Here we had a Bloody Mary and some steak tacos. The BM (as it will now be called) was delish, as was the food. Our waitress rocked. Tara nicknamed her Pumpkin. :). We were seeking a good tattoo shop, so since Pumpkin had a few boldly decorating her bod, we thought she would be a good person to ask. And boy were we glad we did. She pointed us in the direction of a clean, quality establishment. We decided to walk on down around the corner to check it out. Next thing we knew Tara was ponied up on the chair. And I was next! We hung out there and a few hours later the 15 year wish of a foot tattoo was fulfilled! That night was a bit rough as the ladies were limping around in a bit of pain. But that didn't stop us from going to the Hibachi restaurant in the Gold Nugget. It was good! And our table mates were pure entrainment! This couple was certainly enjoying the sake! A bit too much! They were a mess by the end of dinner. Whoopsies!
Saturday was our last day in the desert, so after another wonderful lunch at Mickie Finnz, we caught a cab up to the strip. We started out at The Belagio to walk through the flower gardens. Ahhhh! So gorgeous what those people can do with flowers! We strolled up and down the strip doing some shopping and grabbed lunch at Pinks Hot Dogs. I can't remember what the hot dog was called that I ordered, but it was pretty normal. Nothing fancy. We passed by the Last Minute Tickets booth and decided to see what they had tickets left for that night. We lucked out and grabbed up four to Wayne Brady's show called "Making Shit Up". It was all improv and super funny. Boy are those people talented!
Sorry it took me sooooo long to recap this trip. I actually finished this entry long ago and my lovely iPad decided it would be cool to not save all my hard work. So I gave up and decided it was going to have to wait!
We had a BLAST! Thanks TJ and Tara for being great trip buddies! Now check out a few pics from our trip to the desert!