What A Weekend Part 3 ~ The Cousin Connection!

Last, but certainly NOT least, after the Awana Derby/Float-a-Boat, we cleaned up and went home for a couple of hours. Then we loaded up the karaoke equipment and headed to the Kelly Inn in S.C. for the "Cousin Connection" get-together. I did catch a bit of a nap on the 40 minute drive there.

The idea for this whole thing came about when my cousin, Marty and my sister Kathy put their heads together and decided that all of us first-cousins needed to get to know each other again. After all, we used to hang out together as kids, and even though most of us still live in Minnesota, we barely know each other anymore.

The above picture is Marty, Kathy and my sister Laurie, who saw to it that we had door prizes. I can't remember which one Marty won here though. They had a prize for the couple that was married the longest, (Cindy and Dan), the one who came the farthest, (Mona from Rochester), the ones with the most kids, (Don and Shawn who just had child number 7 last week), the ones that got their first, (us because we set up the karaoke). There were also prizes for the oldest, (Sue's bf Denny), and the youngest, (Bob's wife Rose). Actually, neither the oldest (Peggy) nor the youngest (Laura) were there. Coincidentally, they share a birthday TODAY and are exactly 18 years apart! Happy St. Patty's Day Birthday to BOTH of you!

First of all, there was a "social hour", here's a bunch of people being "social".

Next we had a Pizza bar from "Green Mill" next door.


After dinner, we started singing karaoke. I was glad to see that we "Felix kids" weren't the only ones participating. There are a lot of talented singers in the entire Lansing clan!

Here's Cindy's hubby, Dan. He's a very good singer. Well, at least Cindy thought so! Just kidding, he really was a great singer.

Here's Don, Mona and Sarah singing "Too-ra-Loo-ra-Loo-ra" -that's an Irish Lullaby. I guess they were trying to put us all to sleep.

I think this one was, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling". Can you tell there's a bit of Grandpa Donald's Irish blood running through all of our veins? We toasted him, and also did a toast to our two "St. Pat's". We lost our Sister, Patty to breast cancer almost 6 years ago at age 43, and sadly, our cousin Patrick just passed away in February of a melanoma skin cancer at the age of 51. I'm pretty sure their "Irish Eyes" were smiling down on all of us that night.

Here's my brother Bob, trying to find his lost shaker of salt:

A little later on, my cousin Sarah had a brilliant idea. She thought it would be fun to have EVERYONE, (in-laws and outlaws included), run from one end of the room to the other and line up in order of age. There was to be no talking during this exercise, and we'd just see how well we did. Actually, it was kinda fun...and we weren't too far off. We had already established who was the oldest and youngest there. We just had to find our place in the whole scheme of things.

Here we go, from Rose and Kathy, (who are still 39 and "holding")...

to Joyce, Marina, Donny, Fuzz, Susette, Jenny, Mike, Sherry, Lori, Jill, Bob...

...Doug, Tracy, Sarah, Randy, Don B., Connie, Steve M., Cindy and Marty, (who are all 40-something)...


To Mona, Jim B., me, Dan, Tom, Joe Walsh (Marina's hubby), Sue, Dan E. Steve S., Laurie, Ray and Denny P. who all range in age from 50-55 years old, believe it or not. We did end up having to do a little bit of switching during the picture taking, so I'm not sure if I got everyone here.

Eventually, my camera sort of ended up as the party camera, people were picking it up and snapping pictures...which was fine, I just had no idea what I was going to find on it! I guess I should have warned them that if I find it on my camera, and it's "bloggable", it just might end up here for all the world to see. I'm not really sure what this one was all about, what was this, Jill?

Peek-a-Boo??

After a while, the crowd thinned out and a lot of people went home. We had decided to stay, we were at a hotel after all. We ended up hanging out in Cindy and Dan's room until 3AM! Security only had to come and tell us to quiet down once. Dan said the guy had his taser drawn! Cindy said that if they came back again, she was going to tell them, " Oh, thank God you're here, I've been trying to get these people to leave for hours!" We did have a LOT of fun, and then Sunday morning, good ol' cousin Marty had arranged for a poolside breakfast buffet for those that stayed or wanted to come back for it. We all had a great time, even though I ended up sleeping most of Sunday away trying to recover from the approximately 5 hours of sleep I'd gotten in the previous 48!

Anyway, a good time was definitely had by all, and we've decided to not only make this an annual event...we're going to plan a Summer get-together too! So all y'all cuzins that live a "fur piece" from the rest of us, can make plans to attend the next one. Thanks for all you did to make this thing happen, Kathy and Marty!!!

In Search of... My Elusive Blue Alarm Clock

In the past month or so, I've been awakened twice by a blue jay tap-tap-tapping on my bedroom window sill. The bedroom is right next to my office, where my computer desk sits right next to another window on the same side of the house. Ever since the first time it happened, I've been trying to catch a picture of one of these "natural alarm clocks". I used to think there was only one, or maybe a pair of them. I had seen two of them at a time, now and then...but every time I tried to get a picture of one, it would flit away just about the time I was going to snap the picture.

Our propane tank is right outside the window here, and there is some shrubbery next to it. This is where they like to hang out. Maybe it's warmer there around the tank? Anyway, I had gotten a couple of not-so-great pictures of them underneath the tank...but they're kinda hard to see.

Well, this morning I really hit the jackpot. There were two males and one female on the small trees right outside my window. I grabbed the camera...and my batteries were dead! Okay, so I go put get new batteries and come back to the window. I was not able to get more than one bird in the photo, I've discovered they just don't sit still long enough for me to even focus, but I did get this:

Not bad, for being taken through a window with a plastic insulator kit on it, huh? After I got that, I noticed a 4th blue jay in the trees that are along the edge of the property here. There was a squirrel chasing him from tree to tree to tree! This went on for quite some time, and I wondered why the bird didn't just fly away. Was he enjoying teasing the squirrel? Was he defending his territory? I don't know, but it was quite amusing. I know, sometimes it doesn't take much to amuse me.

Well, I suppose I have about a million things to do before tonight, so I'd best quit bird-watching and get to work. We have Ladies Night Out at church tonight, but first I have to help set up for the derby tomorrow morning. After the derby is our CousinConnection get-together on Saturday evening, where we're doing the karaoke. We just purchased a bunch of new karaoke discs and I've been trying to make copies of new song lists for each book. However, Jessica and I have used up all the black ink in both of our printers already...so I guess each book will not have the new song additions in them...yet.

Monday Musings and Meanderings

It Looks like a very nice day outside again, even though I have not yet stepped outside my door today. I should go for a walk. The only thing is, I told my grandson I'd take him with "next time", so it won't be a very long walk...I don't want to have to carry him back.

Ray is working on a project for some friends of ours this week. He's finishing their basement bathroom. Thank God, (and Dan & Jody) for this job opportunity. If any of the rest of you (in our area), have any remodeling, home repair, room additions, painting, siding, etc. jobs that you have been meaning to hire someone to do, just give Ray a call. He really can do almost anything! And he does it very well.

I'm feeling very old this week. My oldest son, Jeremy will turn 30 on Wednesday! I need to go through a bunch of pictures, so I can do a Happy Birthday post for him. I was thinking this morning, that if we had more money at the moment, and I had only realized that Molly had 5 days off, we could have planned to take a trip to Phoenix, to celebrate with him. Hopefully, he and his son, Alex can come visit us in Minnesota when the heat gets unbearable for them this Summer.

We have a busy weekend ahead. First off, Friday night is our monthly Ladies Night Out! That should be fun, and does not require a whole lot of preparation for me. However, I probably shouldn't stay long because...we have our Awana Derby and Float-a-boat on Saturday morning. I usually run a small snack shop during the derby, so that the racers and spectators can purchase something to munch on during the races. I need to get to Sam's Club sometime this week to pick all of that up. We also have to locate the Pinewood Derby track (that we borrow each year from the local Cub Scouts), and pick it up and get it to church and set up by sometime Friday evening....which should work out well, since I will be ready to hang out with the girls at LNO after we get everything set up, and I'll be there already.

After the races are over, (around noon), we'll have to clean everything up, and come home and pack up all the karaoke equipment, grab some clothes for the night and head to St. Cloud for the first annual "Cousin Connection" get-together. My sister Kathy and our cousin Marty have decided to get all the first cousins (there are about 35 of us in all) and their spouses together at a local hotel. We're going to have dinner there, and we're bringing the karaoke/DJ system so we can all make fools of ourselves have a great time dancing or singing. We're planning on staying overnight, and having brunch together in the morning too, so that should be a nice break for us.

Speaking of karaoke, we just ordered 78 new discs off of ebay. We should be getting them some time this week. This will add around 875 new songs to our collection. I've been busy this morning trying to get a list of them typed up...very time consuming.

February KOFFEE House Karaoke

We had a pretty good turnout for KOFFEE House Friday night at church. We've been doing this once a month for a couple of years now. It's unbelievable to me that there are still church members that have no idea we are doing this. It used to be the 3rd Friday of each month and we recently changed it to the 4th Friday, but it is always in the bulletin and newsletters.

KOFFEE stands for: Karaoke Outreach For Fellowship, Entertainment and Evangelism. The original idea was that people could invite friends or neighbors, (that may not otherwise go to church), for a fun night of karaoke, to give them an chance to check out what our church may have to offer them. We also wanted to provide a fellowship opportunity for our members, and there is a core group that pretty much comes every month, and we've all gotten to be very good friends because of it. We're all very happy to see new people each month too though, and most people have a great time, whether they are there to participate in the singing, or just enjoy laughing at watching, or visiting with others. We also have had some great snacks, mostly provided by Jody and Lindsay, (Thank you soooo much, ladies!!), but anyone is welcome to bring food to share if they'd like.

I think I counted 34 people there last night. There have been some karaoke nights with as little as 8 of us there, but it seems to be catching on.

Noah and Denver (very bravely) started us off the karaoke for the night,

But, we ended up with a true "Coffee House" atmosphere. Besides karaoke, we had Eric Miller play his guitar while he blessed us with the new song he wrote (that day), I believe it was called "Jesus Will Make A Way." A little later, his wife Padma joined him and they a song that she wrote the lyrics to, and he put to music. Such talent we have in our church!

Awesome job, Padma and Eric!

Here's Anna and her niece, Tami Jo singing a duet

Our numbers increased greatly when the Jerry W. family showed up, well at least PART of the family. Christina must have stayed home with the youngest 3, but Jerry and the other kids all sang more than once. The kids seemed to especially enjoy singing with dear old Dad. Their oldest son decided to get up and play guitar and sing the original song that he had written himself. He did a great job too. The song was called "Remission:

Then, Jason entertained us by using his singing and piano playing abilities, with his rendition of "Piano Man". Jason, you are a very talented young man.

We also had a few couples karaoke duets; Donnie and Lisa sang "Summer Nights", Terry and Sarah did "Love Shack", and Ray and I did our old standby, "Let Me Be There". I got the others all on video too...but my computer is in major MELTDOWN mode at the moment.

Eventually, even the little ones get in on the act. Jody's husband Dan couldn't be there Friday night because he was out of town on business. When he is there, he sometimes sings, "Hey, Good-Lookin'." His sons, DJ and Charlie have now learned the song and sang the first verse for us. The boys appear to be developing very different singing styles already! DJ also sang a "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" with my grandson, CJ.

Little Maddie chose to sleep right through a lot of the commotion, though. But isn't she cute?

All in all, I think everyone had a great time. We won't be having a karaoke night in March, because we're doing our women's retreat at that time, but if you're in the area, drop in next time, which will be April 24th. See ya there!

More Karaoke Night Fun!

We had a pretty good turn out for karaoke night at church this month. I'd say there were 20 or so people there at one point, with a few of the youth joining us for the event. That's Jason, (in the baseball cap), who entertained us with some Elton John songs, and some other oldies but goodies. Sisters, Christina and Shelby and their friend stopped by too, as well as Cedie and her friend. With a little more practice, Christina and Jason could be American Idol contenders someday. Not everyone sang, but I think they all had fun, or at least enjoyed the food and fellowship. Jody had told me on Wednesday, that she was bringing a pot of chili. She said her family doesn't care for chili beans, she makes it with potatoes. I thought chili sounded like a great idea on such a chilly night, so I decided to make a pot as well. My family happens to LOVE chili beans though, so I made mine with lots of beans and chicken instead of beef. They both went over quite well, mine was gone first, but I'm pretty sure that's just because our family ate it. We hadn't had supper yet.

Some of the usual crew was there, Jody and baby K, (her dh Dan was out of town), Lisa and Donnie, Anna and her daughter, Ashley and niece, Tammy Jo. Here they are singing a song:

Sarah and Terry usually come too, but have been rather busy lately, what with having a baby a week and a half ago and all. Sarah said she was going to come, until her little girl got sick and started puking. And unfortunately, our friend Padma was a bit under the weather also, so was not able to make it either. Unbeknownst to her, she had apparently passed whatever she had on to Lisa earlier in the week during their bible study, and poor Lisa started feeling ill by the end of the night too. Before that happened, she did get up and sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" with Anna and Jody though. I thought they did a great job, but Ray told them they probably woke the lion up with their singing. He can be so mean.


Donnie sang a few songs, including "America Will Survive", and I think he did "The Streak", and also joined Lisa in that all-time favorite, "Summer Nights".

Kim O. decided to bring her whole family out to celebrate her 50th birthday with us. If I'd known she was coming...I'd a baked a cake. Seriously. Her husband and son sang quite a few songs, and Kim said she might even get brave enough next time. Come on Kim, you can do it!

Tim even stopped in to say hi. We couldn't get him to get up and sing either, but he did show us his multi-tasking abilities, by holding K while enjoying a bowl of her mother's delicious chili. I was impressed.


Even the little ones got into the act. Kim's daughter (in the pink) and her little friend in the purple, (hidden behind the TV) sang quite a few songs, and Trinity graced us with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Mom had to help her a little bit with the words, since she can't read yet.

Trinity may not be able to read yet, but she does know how to pose for the camera. Here she is with CJ. I guess we'd better keep an eye on these two, CJ seems a bit enamored already.

Come on out next month if you're in the area! You just don't know what you're missing!

A Little Karaoke Night Fun

The fourth Friday of every month, we do karaoke at our church. Ray and I have our own equipment and have done some karaoke and DJ work elsewhere, (where we actually got paid for it), but at church we just do it for fun and fellowship. We've been doing this for almost 2 years now, but there are still not a lot of people that come to it. However, we do have a small group of faithful followers that come out every month, and we all have a blast hanging out, eating, and singing to each other. This is (l to r) my dh Ray, along with Lisa's hubby, Donnie and Jody's other half, Dan singing "Wake Up, Little Suzy".

Here's one of Ray doing a solo. Probably some Elvis song, but I can't remember for sure.

Last Friday, being the day after Thanksgiving, was even a bit quieter of a night than usual. My 11 yo daughter, Molly was bored. When Molly is bored, she tends to like to run off with my camera and take pictures. Mostly of herself, like this one in our AWANA Cubbies room:

I found that one and numerous other pictures of her in various places in the church, (which I immediately deleted). But then...I came across this odd picture:

Okay, this was NOT on my camera before, and by the date on it, you can see that it was taken the same day as the other ones, but where did she find this frog at church??? You all know that I love frogs, but I wasn't really thrilled about having a real live one somewhere at church. Besides, it's the end of November in Minnesota. Where in the world would someone get a live frog this time of year??? I was a bit confused. I showed it to my friends, and they were also befuddled. Then it dawned on me. She had found this frog in the church nursery, which I am in every Wednesday night. In fact, I had put this frog there myself, quite some time ago. This is what my dd had taken a picture of...

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It was a picture of a poster on the nursery wall.

She seems to have some talent in the photography department...and a very quirky sense of humor to boot.

KOFFEE House Karaoke Tonight!

I'm not the only one that didn't realize the first major holiday weekend of the "Summer" was upon us already. I stopped at a garage sale this morning and overheard the lady running it tell another shopper, I planned it for this weekend because I didn't want to have it on Memorial Day weekend! Only after placing the ad in the paper, did she find out she actually was having it on the holiday weekend.

We have no actual plans for the weekend, other than, tonight is our monthly K.O.F.F.E.E. House Karaoke at church. My dh and I own our own Karaoke system, but never really got the business off the ground, for a number of reasons. In addition to the country, rock, pop and folk standards etc., we have added quite a bit of Christian worship and Praise music to our collection over the years. We started doing a monthly Karaoke night at our church about a year ago. We were really hoping to turn it into a low-key outreach opportunity. We figured church members would come, bring along their relatives, friends and neighbors - just to get people in the door, that maybe would not feel comfortable coming to a service on Sunday quite yet. I came up with Karaoke Outreach For Fun, Evangelism and Entertainment for a name, and everyone seemed to like it. So far, it has not caught on as well as we had hoped, but we do have our own little following that come out each month. We serve coffee, my good friend, Jody usually brings us some yummy food to eat, and we all have a great time. The rest of them really don't know what they're missing.

Sarah, (Sassyfrazz) and her hubby usually come out and sing with us. They're both great singers. Our other good friend, Lisa, (QTpies7) and her husband come to, although they don't generally do a lot of singing. Once in awhile we all get up there and sing some favorite like, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". When that happens, there are more people on the stage than in the audience...but that's okay.

If you were taken by surprise by the early holiday weekend too, and find yourself looking for something to do tonight...come on out! We start at about 7:30 pm and go 'til about 11:30. We promise, we won't make you sing if you don't want to...and if you always wanted to try karaoke, but were afraid to...this is a really casual, comfortable setting to try it in.