Idol girls.

Chelsea Sorrell... Nasal is right. She's no Carrie Underwood. I predict we won't have to see her for much longer. Plus, you know how I feel about country.

Erika Van Pelt... This girl seems like somebody i'd be friends with. She reminds me of Kelly Clarkson a bit. Strong, confident, effortless. Great song choice. Let's keep her!

Jen Hirsch... Risky taking on an Adele song, but Wow, this girl's got mad skills. Love her voice.

Brielle 'aka Snookie' Von Hugel... Her performance was the complete opposite of that song and its lyrics. Why are you screaming at me about sitting on the dock of the bay?? Wrong, wrong song choice, no matter what the judges said. She's so tacky.

Hallie Day... An adult among a bunch of children. It's a wonder she's not a professional singer already. She reminds me of Jessica Rabbit, am I right?? Wow, she's good.

Skyler Laine... Reba??? Reba wannabe, maybe. She does not have the legs to be wearing Tinkerbell's dress, honestly now. Nick says she has Smurfette's hair... Spot on. This is one of the reasons I love my husband... He can be as snarky as me about Idol contestants.

Baylie Brown... On key much, honey?? Per Nick: she performs like she's on the talent portion of a Miss America pageant... And guess what, she wouldn't win there either.

Hollie Cavanagh... I think I have a new favorite!!! I was a little worried when the song started, because Christina Aguilera's voice is a hard act to follow, but she Totally rocked it. Loved, loved, loved her performance.

Haley Johnsen... Annie Lennox you ain't, Sharon Stone you are. Strong voice, horrible performance. She won't last through tomorrow's cut.

Shannon Magrane... If we're talking about lookalikes, she reminds me of Carrie Underwood. Her voice and performance are VERY impressive for a 16-year-old. Wow, she's good, hope she stays.

Jessica Sanchez... If you've seen Dreamgirls, you'll know that this was just about as brilliant as Jennifer Hudson's rendition. This girl is phenomenal. And she actually looks her age, which I appreciate. Standing O indeed.

Elise Testone... Okay, she's good too!! Love the tone of her voice, but I'm never a fan of her outfit or makeup choices.

So who I like... Hollie Cavanagh, Jessica Sanchez, Hallie Day, Erika Van Pelt, Jen Hirsch, Shannon Magrane, Elise Testone

Idol.

Well, it's about time for my narrative, isn't it?? I know you've all been waiting on pins and needles for all of my insights! I really did have to wait until all the riff raff was gone, though. Now that we're down to the top 24 (25?) I can post with my thoughts. And so far I've been ... Underwhelmed. But it is what it is, so here goes.

Reed Grimm... My favorite guy by far! I think he's got skills by far beyond anybody else on the show. Not sure I liked the maroon 5 song because I really don't like maroon 5, but I liked what he did with it. He's just so darn interesting... can't wait to see what he does next.

Adam Brock white chocolate... Shouldn't he be on a karaoke stage somewhere, or performing at a corporate event maybe? Always feel like he's missing something. Doesn't do anything for me.

Deandre makinmesick Fro dude... Yuck, yuck, yuck. I want a guy to be at least a little manly, please?? I cannot STAND his falsetto.

Colton Dixon... Okay guy, if you're going to do the indie alternative rock thing and have THAT hair, please embrace it and start wearing some guy-liner. Seriously, your look is just off. I'm still trying to decide whether I like your voice. Adam Lambert you are NOT.

Jeremy Rosado... Again, with the non-manliness. Yawn. Go home please.

Aaron Marcellus... Wow, this is the first time I've really noticed him. Great song choice. Definitely a contender! He might be tied for my "favorite" with Reed.

Chase Likens... Ugh, I hate country music, but he actually wasn't bad. Though he seems like the most generic country guy ever. No style. Steven pegged it with the Brenden Fraser reference!

Creighton Fraker... Needs to change his name... Love his story... the fact that he's a street performer? Too cool. I like his style and personality. He might be Justin Timberlake's ugly cousin, but I adore his voice. Also a contender.

Phillip Phillips... His twangy accent makes me nuts, and I feel like he is trying too hard to get that Kurt Cobain vibe going. I DO like his voice though, as long as I don't watch him sing while doing that whole pulling-his-legs-up-thing when he plays the guitar. Hey, I guess if American idol doesn't work out he can do Huggies Pull-Up commercials with his "potty dance". . I would like to see him go on though, and see if he can get over this little quirk.

Eben Franckewitz... wrong song choice, buddy. You just showed how NON-powerful you are. Thanks but no thanks. Stay poppy and Bieber and you might have a chance of staying longer. Pitchy too. For the love, please stop saying "one step at a time".

Heejun Han... I love this guy, he is hilarious. I also love the quality of his voice... And he's got a slight chance if he can lose the accent when he sings. Big fan though. Wait, are those lens-free frames? Really? Who wears those?

Joshua Ledet... Shall we call him Mantasia, or is he Tracy Jordan's little brother?? Or is he channeling James Brown?? Pretty good, no matter who he is! One of my favorites.

Jermaine Jones... Really people?? Awful. J-lo says you have a special voice, I hate. It. So. Much.

So my vote on who should be in the top 5? 1- Aaron Marcellus, 2- Creighton Fraker, 3- Joshua Ledet, Reed Grimm, Heejun Han, Colton Dixon, Phillip Phillips. Oh wait, that's seven... eek, tomorrow night's cut it going to be rough.

February.

I'm trying to get on here and post at least our happenings week-by-week each month... I can't believe it's already the end of February, gah, where is this year going already?? It's going to be blistering hot before I know it, yuck.
• New glasses have arrived, and are being worn non-stop. HOORAY for being able to see again, now my friends can stop making fun of me for closing one eye when trying to read.
• Sickness. It's run rampant through most of us, me especially this month. I'm tired of paying for co-pays and prescriptions, when it seems everyone is still coughing!
• Parent-teacher conferences. Girls are doing great in school, and have lots of friends. A's teacher is just SO darn impressed with her and her love of reading. A had three As, and M only had two. It's a little disconcerting to me to see all those Bs on a report card, but I just have to keep reminding myself that they're only in 4th and 2nd grades, we're not trying to qualify for any scholarships quite yet, and they know the material really well... sometimes there are just silly, sloppy mistakes that are bringing down the grades.
• Boys. M thinks that one of the boys in her class likes her. (Alex? Alan? I can't remember.) He's constantly fawning over her, and it's kind of funny to hear her reaction to him. A had a friend from school call her the other day... and she actually went up in her room to sit in her chair to chat with him. I haven't gotten the scoop on who it was or exactly why he was calling, but it kind of gave me a flash-forward on the teenage years, woah. A has started to ask questions... it's time for a talk.
• I was in charge of A's MUCH ANTICIPATED Valentine party at school. With the school being so rigid and structured all of the time, the kids really look forward to the few events they have each year... I'd have to say this party was a hit. Sugar cookies & milk and a few super-fun games was all it took to make a bunch of 10-year-olds go crazy!
• We made homemade Valentines this year, which made me remember why we do not make homemade Valentines anymore. We made about sixty "I Mustache you a Question - will you be my Valentine?" cards for the girls' classes, along with sticky-felt mustaches to go along with them. The kids LOVED them. When I walked into A's class half the class were wearing them... too funny! I never did get the grandparents' cards sent, sigh. Yet another of my unfinished projects. Story of my life.
• Valentines Day came and went with lots of thinking about Grandma V and her sweet influence she has had on our family.
• The weather is awesome! Seriously, you gotta love AZ.
• Friends. Our kids have started playing in OUR backyard a lot lately, which is such a relief... I was so tired of them escaping to other kids' houses in the neighborhood and never knowing exactly where they were. Just in the last week, they've started playing a lot with the neighbor girls that live directly behind us (ages 7 and 4) and that's kept them at home. Yay!
• Vinyl. Still a slow trickle... starting to think about putting an actual website together, and getting the ball rolling for that! Excited.
• Doctors, doctors, doctors. Finally went to see someone about my knee pain. Prognosis? Doctor thought it was meniscus damage, but it wasn't. MRI Results? Couldn't understand the lingo they used on the message they left me, but the next step is picking up those MRI files from them and seeing an orthopedic surgeon... so I'm assuming that means I'll be having knee surgery soon. Which I would rather do VERY MUCH SOONER than later. SO Tired of not being able to exercise. I'll be calling the surgeon in the morning! I wish somebody would just tell me whether I needed surgery or not!!!
• Slowly but surely working on house to-do lists... I spent a couple of hours yesterday cutting in paint (SO SICK OF PAINTING) while N installed smoke alarms and weather stripping around the back door. For the first time in six months, there isn't a ceiling fan in a box somewhere waiting to be installed, either! Just three more of these babies

in the last three bedrooms and then we're done with that project, at least! (But hard to justify spending money to replace fans that work just fine with some that are prettier) Gotta get two new outdoor fans for the patio, though, first... N took them old ones down when painting and threw them away rather than putting them back up.
• Spring break is just two weeks away, wow. We don't have any plans yet... anyone want to invite us somewhere? !

Priorities and Pointlessness.

Since I saw this, I've been thinking a lot about my own social media habits...

Four years ago, my main priority in life was scrapbooking. Recording the stories and photos of our family in books that I'd have forever. I was calling it journaling and family history and such... Permanent.
Three years ago, my priority was more about my blog. Hopefully, making sure that I was writing down important moments and thoughts and stories about our family, but mostly trying to record everyday life, cute projects I'd done, etc. Not as permanent, but at least somewhere I can scroll through posts and get an idea of what was happening month by month. Semi-permanent.
Two years ago, life became more about Facebook... barely posting photos, mostly trying to post something clever and witty as often as possible. Not permanent at all. Yes, there are photo albums but mostly... it's a lot of crap. It was then that I started doing vinyl quite regularly, and all scrapbooking pursuits went out the window.
A year ago, I got on Pinterest. Sheesh. Great online collection of "stuff I like" and "my style" and "decorating ideas" but wow, can you think of a bigger waste of time? It's a big popularity contest, too, with people "liking" your pins, "following" you, etc. But really?
A few weeks ago I actually signed up for google plus. Ridiculous.
Now it's all about Instagram. The most non-permanent way of recording life. Ever. Thie February-photo-a-day thing really made me sit up and wonder what the heck I was doing... when taking a picture of my front door was actually on my to-do list one day last week. Stupid. Pointless.

What do you think? I know at least for me, priorities need to change.