Amiee's AI Recap - Michael Jackson Theme

Well well well. The first "REAL" show with the Top 13. I couldn't wait to watch it! I have to say that I am REALLY liking the new judge, Kara. I have a soft spot in my heart for Paula but dang--sometimes it is so frustrating listening to her speak bc it's like "get it out already!" I hear it's her last season on the show anyways, which is why they brought on Kara. Ok let's get to the meat & potatoes of the show!

1. Lil' Rounds - Sang "The Way U Make me Feel." I like this chick. Super cute personality. Seems like a nice person. Thought she did well on the song--but I didn't love the song choice. Kind of hard when you have to pick a Michael Jackson song!
2. Scott - Never ever heard of this song! "Keep the Faith?" I did like him MUCH better on the piano. His hair is driving me INSANE! They even had stylists this week--so what gives?
3. Danny - "PYT." Good vocals. He was dancin' like a crazy man. Really got into it! Ha! Actually reminded me of Taylor Hicks.
4. Michael - "You R Not Alone." Better vocals than I expected but his voice does NOT match his look to me at all! Bugs! I'd rather he go country. But whatever. He loves R&B so that ain't happenin'. Good part was that the song did NOT remind me of MJ's version.
5. Jasmine - Why does this girl bug the livin' daylights outta me??? WHY? Oh I thought her version of "I'll Be There" was soooo boring and blah blah blah.
6. Kris - Well his wife sure is cute! He is cute, too. Liked him with the guitar. Lots of sharp notes on the bridge. He sang "Do U Remember."
7. Allison - Wow this chick can SANNNG. I love her songs! I think she is like a little Kelly Clarkson all the way. She's confident, has great tone, and seems already like a signed artist. She sang "Give Into Me." I really liked it.
8. Anoop - Yay they kind of "fixed" his hair a bit! And the outfit was a HUGE improvement from the previous shows (thanks stylists). Hated his version of "Beat It." Agree with Paula. Should NOT have touched that song. Bad idea.
9. Jorge - aka eyebrow man. Sang "Never Can Say Goodbye" which I've never heard, either. Eegh. I just didn't like it at all. I can see him being popular in the LatinAmerican culture. Reminds me of Marc Anthony a lot.
10. Megan - Can this girl get any prettier? Seriously! I thought her vocals sounded good but the song choice of "Rockin' Robin" was just "coo-coo" if ya ask me. Like WHAT was she thinking picking that song?
11. Adam - *sigh* I just don't get the hype over this guy. Yeah, he can sing. But I thought the "Black or White" song was sooo "hairband" for me. Like he would rock it out if he were in a band like "whitesnake," AND if those bands were still popular today, ya know? Ha ha ha.
12. Matt - I was feelin' the JT/Robin Thicke vibe from him, too. I thought he overdid the riffs a bit, but overall I liked it. He made "human nature" seem like his own song and kind of current.
13. Alexis - I thought she did pretty well on "dirty diana." It was good. I do think she oversang it a tad...but overall it was pretty good. I hope she sticks around.

Ok so my top pick of the night is ALLISON. My 2 choices to get kicked off are JORGE & JASMINE. What do y'all think???

King Cake

So since I'm from the New Orleans area and all--we had to celebrate Mardi Gras with a little party at my mom's. My cool Uncle manages a restaurant in the French Quarter called Acme Oyster House and shipped us up some authentic frozen entrees (woo hoo). Mom invited a few friends, and I was in charge of making a king cake. It's a tradition that is a really long story that I don't know how to tell very well...but the "cake" is basically a cross between pastry & a donut, with sugary frosting and some sort of cinnamony filling. They get more fancy that that, but that is the basic idea. I searched online for a few ideas and whipped one up. Well I shouldn't say "whipped," because it took MUCH more time than that. I made mine with a roasted pecan, brown sugar & butter filling and cream cheese icing. I have to say it came out BEAUTIFULLY. And it tasted EVEN better. It was a hit! Here's a couple pics:
Mom even had a little plastic baby doll for me to insert into the cake. Tradition goes that whoever finds the baby in their piece of cake has to host the next party. The baby is representative of the baby Jesus, believe it or not. The entire Mardi Gras celebration really is based off of the Christ child and such..."funny" because the holiday is the OPPOSITE of churchy! it is an all out PARTY! I think the idea is to party it up before the Catholic lent. Ok I should really go online and read up on it, but I'm not in the mood.

Jase's All Terrain Wagon

We bought him a pair of sunglasses the other day (SUPER cheap at Children's Place)--anyways we wanted to see if he'd really wear them. Do you know he did not take them off AT ALL? He had them on for like 40 minutes. It was too cute! We are both so proud! We also got him this cool Radio Flyer All-Terrain wagon. It has wooden things you can put on all 4 sides of it--but for now we just put on the back one so he could climb in and out on his own. We finally had a "somewhat" warm day and had to try it out. Here's a quick clip of his cool ride.

New Favorite Commercial

I'm Too Old

Thanks for your comments. I can't audition for A.I. because I am way older than they allow. I would be terrified out of my MIND to hear what Simon would say to me anyways. Yikeski!

You Were Meant for Me

Roob was kind enough to play the guitar for me on this song. Smart idea on my part :)

American Amiee?

Ok, I know many of you are just dying to see this clip. I do not say that this is my best performance--nor is it my worst. It's an "okay" one in my book. Don't laugh at the guy holding the mic, either! This was a very casual event and I thought it would be a good time to see what it was like to sing while playing the guitar (normally I just sing). It definitely motivated me to practice the guitar a lot more. Those musically inclined will hear a few mess-ups on the chords. I was so nervous I kept forgetting to play "Em." Gah. Anyways, I want to play more so that I can just play without thinking about it so I can focus more on the vocals.

P.S. American Idol has inspired me to dig out my ol' singing videos. More may be surfacing!!!

Amiee's American Idol Recap

A friend inspired me to blog about A.I. every week because I am so obsessed with it. Seriously. All I can think about while watching it is "what would they say to me?," "how could I improve?," etc etc. Like I said, I'm obsessed. That being said, as much as people love to hate Simon, I usually agree with him 98% of the time. Here's my take of Wednesday night's show:

1. JASMINE - Something about her just rubs me the wrong way. Didn't like "love song" for her, either. She sounds like she'd be much better on a nice soulful song.
2. MATT - Piano dueling guy. He could possibly be good, but this Cold Play song was whack. Very pitchy. He tried to jazz it up way too much w/ runs, etc.
3. JEANINE - Oh my goodness I hated it. Seems like she is probably an awesome singer so why the heck did she sing that Maroon 5 song? It was all wrong for her. I was happy when it was over. And could those shorts have been any shorter?
4. NICK or should I say NORMAN? - Ok he is funny & entertaining, but I don't think it's fair that they even put him through this far in a serious singing competition. I would be so mad if I were in his group and had to compete for votes against him just bc he was funny!
5. ALLISON - Ok love "Alone" by Heart, and I thought she did really well. Reminds me of Kelly Clarkson. However, when she was chatting with Ryan she was being SOOO WEIRD. What was that about? I'm hoping she was just super nervous bc that was just strange. Once she sang, though, she was pretty good. And she's young--so that's always a plus in the industry.
6. KRIS - Man in the Mirror is such a random choice to sing but whatever. I thought it was good but I wasn't blown away by any means.
7. MEGAN - This girl is so pretty (except I don't like the huge tatoo) and definitely different. Thought her body movements were a bit quirky--but I guess that could work in her favor. Cool tone to her voice.
8. MATT B. - Seems like a nice guy. Good vocals but boring performance for me. He sang "If you Could Only See."
9. JESSE - Very comfortable on stage. Cool tone to her voice, also. I liked her personality. She seems real and cool.
10. KAI - Nice guy but way cheesy song and performance! Song was just too old--blah.
11. MISHA - Ok I thought this chick has tonnnns of potential. She has a really good voice! Even though that song was a bit boring, I'd like her to get through bc I think she will improve a lot.
12. ADAM - I'm on the fence with this guy. Is he an amazing singer? YES. But since he is already successful with theater in California, I'm kind of pulling for some of the other singers to get through instead of him that could use a chance at some success. I thought some of his song was WAY cheesy (dramatic/theater style) but other parts were freakin' awesome.

So who would I choose at the 3 to get through??? Tough decision. (First of all can I say that I don't think it's fair how they do the highest voted boy, highest voted girl, then next highest vote? I think it should just be the top 3 people with the highest votes REGARDLESS of gender. Regardless! Why does gender matter???) It seems so unfair to have to judge these kids based on one performance (especially those who have had like zero camera time earlier in the season).

Well I guess I'd say Allison, Misha and Jesse or Megan. Dang I know that's four! AND there's not a boy in there. Ok well if I had to pick just one boy, I'd pick Matt the piano guy. I think he'd be much better if given the chance. He just picked a bad song tonight.

The Pioneer Woman

I have a link to this site on the side of my blog BUT since "P-dub" has changed my life--I thought I would do a lovely post about it. I love her site! It's a cooking blog (she also has a photography blog, home & garden blog, and I think something else, too) with tons of pictures and funny comments to boot. But the food blog is my FAV. Most of her food is pretty simple and of course, not necessarily low calorie--but they are easy enough to lighten up if ya need to. Anyways, I recently shared it with a good friend of mine, and she liked it just as much as I do! So now I know it's not just me. Ha! Hope you enjoy it! You can click on the title of this post to link to it, too.

VAleNtinEs Day & Jasey Stats

Hi. Just thought I'd do a quick update. So far it seems the splint for Jase's hand is helping! He has been using that finger more when the splint is off, and he also keeps it a bit straighter than he used to have it. So yay for that!

Jase had his 15 month checkup this past week, too. I think he's starting to remember the pediatrician's office now bc as soon as he saw the nurse, he started screaming (he's never done that before). He cried even more when the doc was looking in his eyes & ears than he did for the shots! Poor baby!) Here's his latest & greatest:
WEIGHT = 27.29 lbs, 82%
LENGTH = 33.07", 92%
HEAD SIZE = 19.5", 95%

We didn't really do anything cool on Saturday for Vday (well we drove around town all day & ate a lovely meal at McDonalds since the restaurant waits were ridiculous), but I cooked us up a romantic dinner this evening. I have to say everything was exceptional except the steak was a bit tough (I think it was due to where I purchased it). *note to self*--get online and research tips for tenderizing steak--Anyways, I also made shrimp scampi (minus the noodles), steamed asparagus with butter & parmesan cheese, mashed potatoes, rustic artisan french bread, and little mini chocolate lava cakes. I also made some chocolate dipped strawberries. Did I mention I need to open up a restaurant??? It was way yummy and my stomach is a little sick from eating all of that...oh well. It was worth it. We sort of ate by candlelight (with Jase, of course) and then put him to bed and hung out with each other for a while. It was really fun! I have to say I love the Roobenator so much! He is the BEST and takes such good care of me and my boy. I hope you all had a good day, too!

We're Number One!

Well what is this, you ask? It's Jase's super cool new splint. We took him to an orthopedic surgeon about his burn scarring since he can't really straighten out his pointer finger. In an effort to stretch it as much as they can (the scar tissue will still "form" for about 2 more months), he has to wear this every night and about half of the day.
I say it's super cool because it constantly reminds me of one of these: (hahaha)
As you can see it's rather long down his arm. They made it that way so it wouldn't be as easy for him to take it off.I had to post this picture because it cracks me up! He was getting SO MAD that I wouldn't let him have the digital camera. FUNNY!
Ok here is a cute pic of him so he can redeem himself from that last one! :) It already seems like the splint has made a difference, too. He uses that finger more AND keeps it a little straighter than he used to. I am HOPING he can avoid surgery all together. But just in case, they scheduled him for hand surgery in May. We'll keep ya posted.

Cake-Maker for Hire??

Ok y'all remember my snail birthday cake?? Well my lovely friend Erinn called the other day and asked me if I'd like to make a panda bear birthday cake for her 5 yr. old daughter's birthday. Sure, I was up for it. She brought me the stuff and I got to working...I think it came out pretty cute. It was MUCH easier than the snail cake (that was 2 layers w/ lots of complicated pieces and fillings). This one was one layer, but it did have a 3-d nuzzle on its face. I ran into a few problems along the way (such as BLACK icing is ridiculous to try to MAKE). I ended up using Wilson's ready-made icing in a tube! I had just barely enough to do what I needed--while still compromising a bit on some of the other things I wanted to do. Anyways, I thought it would be cute to make this panda a little girly--so I added a cute flower barette in her "hair," and also some eyelashes! Ha!
My one regret was that I think its ears are a tad big--more like mouse ears. I hope all the little girls at the party don't notice! Hee hee. Well, here's a look at the side view:
After all of this cake making, I started feeling like maybe I should learn more about this and start doing cakes on the side for a bit of extra cash. It's pretty fun, after all. Unless you have a 15-month old holding onto your ankles while you're piping on icing! :)

Spaghetti Fun!

I made the BEST spaghetti sauce the other day, I swear! I am still trying to figure out what I did! Jase was all over it. I bought him this cool bowl with a suction cup bottom. It worked great until he figured out how to remove the suction cup thing. Argh. Anyways, I know he might still be a bit too young, but I have been working with him on how to eat with a spoon. Here's some of his first attempts.
Yay, he did it! I realized I don't let him get messy very often. I'd rather feed him myself than clean him up afterwards! So here he is getting very messy...
Even though he can actually get the spoon to his mouth every now and again, I think he still prefers the good ol' hand-to-mouth method. Here's a quick clip of me helping him figure it out:

Trip to the Aquarium

So I realized the aquarium here is NOT very cool--but it was fun, I guess. The best part for me was petting the stingrays. I was scared to death! All the kids were doing it so I felt like a big ol' wimp. My mom came with us. Here she is pointing out some cool fish with Jase:
This is Jase showing Grandma his belly button! He knows exactly how to find it. It's funny to ask him where it is when he's wearing a onesie bc he gets confused. Heh heh.
Here we are by the stingray "petting" pool. It's deeper than you think! I finally got the courage to basically touch one, then run! Once one turned around and looked at me right before I was going to touch it and scared me to death!
Another pic of us chillin' by the coral reef fish...
My mom and Jase hangin' by the stingray pool. I think the pool was Jase's favorite part, too. He was just a-splashin' away! (And that big brown thing in the water is an actual stingray, by the way).

Before...and After!

BEFORE with lovely light hair...
AFTER with super DARK hair! And shorter bangs! What do ya think? I'm still trying to adjust to it. It's dark brown with a reddish undertone to it. I finally went for it!

Belated Christmas Post

Here's our cute little tree. We opened presents on Christmas eve since got up super early Christmas day to brave the snow and drive to Grandma Jenith's house. I forgot to take ANY pictures while we were there. Argh. Well, ok. Back to our house...
The stockings were hung on the staircase with care...(yes we have them for our dogs, too)
Jase trying to learn how to spin on his cool spinny spiderman toy. The funny thing is that it talks and plays music, too. Ok that's not so funny--the real funny part is that the talking voice totally has a lisp. Yep. Funny.
Checking out his super cool Dr. Seuss themed learning cards--which are currently all over my living room floor. Awesome.
This is what Jase did instead of unwrapping things. He just preferred to climb on them. And I was ok with that.

Lame

I've gotten so caught up in reading everyone else's blogs that I literally have forgotten about my own! Ridiculous. What's also even more ridiculous is that I hardly have any pics from Christmas to post--and NONE from New Years' Eve. Lame. Plus, the internet isn't working on my laptop (which is where I have my very few xmas pics). So the post with those will have to wait. Double lame.

I'm a Cheap Scrooge

We were at the mall today. Santa was there and you could take pics with him. Since Jase has never taken pics w/ him before, I thought it would be a cool thing to do. That is, until I saw the price list. Do you know it was $12.99 for ONE 5x7 picture???? Are they losing their minds? I am new to the world of taking pics w/ Santa--so I'm just curious for you experts out there--is it NORMAL for that kind of pricing??? And I think the next "package" up was like $22, which was like 2 5x7's and a couple wallets. Needless to say, I do not have a pic of Jase and Santa now. Waaah. Maybe I could make one in Photoshop. Ha.

Slacking on the Posting

Yeah so I haven't posted in a while. Here's some fun pics from that drive we took up the canyon. This month has been so crazy busy for me--but in a good way, I suppose. I'll try to post more later!

Mr. Tootles

We took a drive on Sunday and brought our camera along. He looked so stinkin' cute in his church clothes with his hair all done and his pimp argyle sweater--I was inspired for a mini photo-shoot. We got a billion pics of Jase. I am so busy lately that I don't have time to sift through them or edit them (this one could use a little "warming up") just yet--but today Roob told me that he kept checking the blog hoping to see the pictures! So I'm posting this one for you, babes. More to come!!!