The Golden Triangle Experience

Back in March, we purchased two tickets to see Madonna on her MDNA tour in New Orleans!!  I wasn't going to pass up what is probably the one and only opportunity to see the Material Girl in person.  At nearly $400 per ticket for floor, we opted for nosebleed seats because $800 for concert tickets is absurd.  As the end of October neared, I started looking around online and reading about the show.   I stumbled up on The Golden Triangle: 

Basically, pit seats surrounded by the stage.  And the only way to get these rare and coveted seats was to win them.  I went on a mission and stalked the Madonna site waiting for the New Orleans contest to go live.  Two days before showtime, I got my chance.  I had to take a photo of myself holding the already purchased tickets to be entered into a drawing for a chance at 50 Golden Triangle passes.  

Amazingly, this showed up in my inbox: 

Dear Iconer,

I am happy to announce that your entry was picked out of the valid entries collected during our "New Orleans Golden Triangle" contest! Congratulations!

I won!! I won!! I won!!!!  So we went from nosebleed to the rare and coveted Golden Triangle just like that. 

We were going to skip the opening act and show up for Madonna time.  But, we arrived really early to stake out our spot in the triangle.  The Triangle was fairly empty, so we had our pick and chose to stand a little to the back right along the cat walk.  The wait was long. Much too long.  We had arrived well before 7 and Madonna didn't take the stage until 10:30.  Some of the show content was very dark and violent... somewhat disturbing!!  It was cool that we were so close to her and I got awesome pictures.  I do wish she would have thrown in a few more old school songs as I'm not as familiar with all the new songs.  And I wish she would have come back for an encore.  Madonna sure is in great shape and is so tiny!!  She talked politics for all of three minutes and got "booed" and somehow the media went crazy over it. All in all it was a great night and it was awesome being part of The Golden Triangle.  

us before the show

Golden Triangle armbands

Golden Triangle tickets

First glimpse of The Material Girl

Right in front of us!

The end! Goodbye!

Veronica

Veronica has discovered she can record herself with my iPod.  The other night she decided to pretend she was an announcer on Wipe Out.  Funny, funny stuff.

Veronica explaining Wipe Out


She also is suddenly interested in singing rounds all the time.  Here we are singing Twinkle Twinkle together.  She holds her part pretty good for a 5 year old.

Twinkle Twinkle in a round

WINNER!

And the winner of the Shutterfly giveaway is.....

Anonymous said...

I am in LOVE with the Shutterfly Christmas cards! This is our first holiday with our baby girl, so finding the perfect card to send out has been so much fun-they have a lot of great options! Thanks for this great giveaway!
saranorman01@gmail.com

Congratulations!!  Shutterfly has been notified and you will receive your code via email shortly. 

Thanks for everyone for playing along....  Hopefully I will have a few more giveaways in the future!!

The Old Shoes

NOT the actual shoes, but close enough

I close my eyes sometimes and I see black shoes.

It's odd how out of all the memories, the shoes stick out. 

His clothes weren't much better.  But the shoes....  Dirty, heavily worn, black lace up dress shoes.

I'm sure at some point they were shiny and new, but that was many moons ago. For all I know, he had several pairs of the same shoe.   I can remember way back when, my Mom telling him to get rid of them or to not wear them when we were going somewhere.  

Faded, dull, and dusty.  The creases in the bend of the foot has evolved into cracks with flaking leather.  

The souls are worn thin to the point of having holes and also were cracked.  

Faded laces repaired and knotted together. 

Yet he wore them, as if they were his one and only pair of shoes and there were no others.

I see them walking across the kitchen floor.  

I see them kicking sand at the beach.  

Walking up the steps of the seawall.  Playing chase with the girls. 

I see them bike riding.   Walking down the driveway.  Digging in the garden.

I have no idea how old they were, but they were shoes that saw a lifetime.

Now it has been a year since I have seen them at all.  

A year. 

They went in the trash when we sorted through his things.  Because they were not really wearable.  Not to anyone except him.  

Today marks a year of a day I wish had never happened.  A day I wish I could forget, yet I relive.  I can't believe it has been this long already.

Maybe it will become a turning point.  Eventually.  But my heart is heavy and the memories consume me.  

And the sadness of him not being here anymore.

All smiles for my girls, even in his last days.  What a great Poppi.

I miss my Daddy. 

Have you....

entered my $50 SHUTTERFLY GIVEAWAY??

You have a few more days to enter!!!

What are you waiting for?? 

Princess overload

Both Valerie and Veronica decided to be Pink Princesses this year for Halloween.  I was not about to pay ridiculous prices for a costume that they will only wear once!!  I did some eBay shopping and found two gorgeous flower girl dresses for dirt cheap.  They are Hong Kong knock offs of something better I'm sure, but they are just perfect.  And they are REAL dresses - not cheaply made over priced costumes.  Today we did a trial run including hair and make-up.

Here are Val and Roni in their bubble gum princess glory!!

Shutterfly Christmas cards!! (and a giveaway!)

October is almost half way over, so that means it is nearing the time to start thinking about those Christmas Cards!!!  It is never too early to start planning for the holidays!!  Every November, we take a family photo to use for our cards.  My favorite place to order our custom cards is Shutterfly.  Check out these cute and colorful cards! I love that you can put multiple photos on them.  

Shutterfly has SO many great designs to choose from.  I never can decide on just one, so I usually order several different cards with different photos on each.  I just love how simple and elegant these are!!

So, when you are ready, be sure to check out Shutterfly's Photo Christmas Cards for some great ideas.  Also, you can find great deals on other items on Shutterfly's Special Offers Page. 

***And now... a GIVEAWAY!***

Shutterfly will give one lucky reader $50 off their purchase. Please note, it does not include shipping and cannot be combined with any other promos.

Just leave a comment to enter, and be sure I have a correct email address to reach you.  

I will choose a winner at random on October 29, 2012.  

Good luck!!

** This has been a sponsored post.  I received compensation from Shutterfly for sharing their Christmas Card designs.  

Student of the Month!

Valerie has done it again....  she was picked to be Student of the Month!  I surprised her with flowers at school today for the ceremony.  Val had no idea!  She couldn't stop smiling.  

Very proud of my big girl.  Straight As so far this year and now this.