I don’t even know how many concerts I’ve attended in my lifetime.  There are a handful, though, that I’ll remember forever – Garth Brooks in Kansas City in 2008, Newsboys in Tulsa in 2000, New Kids on the Block in Atlanta in 2009, NSync in Little Rock in 2001, and DC Talk in Springdale when I was in 7th grade.

Last Wednesday night I added another one to the list (although, it still includes one of the afforementioned artists) – NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block + Backstreet Boys).  I saw them in Atlanta with my friends Penni & Karah.

We had a great view of the stage.  We were 4 rows up from the floor down beside the tip of the stage.  Both groups spent quite a bit of time all over the stage so we had a great view.  (As Penni said, the guys were lifesize.)

Highlight of the concert was this…

This is NKOTB’s Joey McIntyre standing right in front of me.  The guys came down in the audience at one point and Joey ended up in our section.

Here are some more pictures from the concert (& then a link to a slideshow of all of my pictures).  Enjoy!

The first event I was able to attend was the Ladies Luncheon.  This year’s special guest was 2010 Miss Arkansas/2011 Miss America Runner-Up Alyse Eady.  She spoke to us and also performed her pageant talent - ventriloquism.  Here is a video I took of her & her friends singing Rockin’ Robin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeY8y_8SaDw

Her singing voice alone is very good.  Couple that with having to sing in 2 other characters’ voices and she is quite the talent.  I can see why she won the talent portion of the Miss America pageant.

The other event I attended was the concert Friday night.  In the past, I’ve seen Blake Shelton, Chuck Wicks, and last year Randy Travis.  This year Little Big Town (opening act Eric Paslay) was in concert.

Eric Paslay opened for Little Big Town.  Cool fact: Eric Paslay co-wrote Jake Owen’s current single Barefoot Blue Jean Night.  Ok, maybe that’s just cool to me.  That song has my in rotation on my iPod since it first came out.

I’ve wanted to see Little Big Town in concert since Boondocks first came out.  They have just great harmony.  Their concert definitely didn’t disappoint.  At one point, they said they like to cover a song and had a fan once dare them to cover this song…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiiV22kLAjY

I think they did pretty good!  (Some Lady Gaga fans might disagree but it seems like the general consensus of those in attendance that night was that Little Big Town did pretty good.

I definitely recommend seeing Little Big Town in concert if you get the chance.

Flowers are a bloomin’.

Calves are a bein’ born.

Summer is here in full force.  It’s hot.  (Although, I’m pretty sure it will be hotter before too long.)

Speaking of heat, I’m going on vacation in Florida & Georgia starting next weekend.  What was I thinking?  Well, I was thinking – NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block + Backstreet Boys)!  The heat part is an unfortunate byproduct.

What about y’all?  How are your summers so far?  Anything major planned?

My friend Penni mentioned to me in early spring that the Backstreet Boys were going to be pretty close to her hometown in concert June 5 at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA.  Penni is a HUGE Backstreet Boys fan.  I had been wanting to visit her in Georgia at some point in the near future and decided I might as well come at that time and go to the concert with her.  Our friend Karah was gracious enough to get us front row (and center) seats.  (Thanks, Karah!!!)

I’ve never considered myself that much of a Backstreet Boys fan.  In high school and early college when they were at the peak of popularity, I listened to and liked their music.  I was more of an N Sync fan, though.  The concert didn’t make me like BSB better than NSync (sorry Penni & Karah) but I did come home and add quite a bit of their music to my iPod to listen to.

The highlight of the night wasn’t necessarily even music related.  Brian Littrell’s 7 year old son Baylee came out on stage after the opening act.  The crowd was already going nuts in anticipation.  Baylee came out and simply said…”Are you ready for the Backstreet Boys?  Here are Nick, AJ, Howie, and <insert pause> my Daddy.”  It was adorable and the crowd went crazy!

The worst part of the night was my camera situation.  I didn’t want to lug both a point & shoot and my DSLR camera through the airport while traveling so I opted to just bring my DSLR.  I wasn’t allowed to use it at the concert, though.  The photos in this entry are courtesy of my iPhone.  Penni & Karah are sharing their photos with me but it isn’t quite the same.  Lesson learned.

I have been out of town, actually out of state, this week.  It’s been a week full of a lot of miles and a lot of fun so far.  I’ve been spending most of the week in Penni’s hometown of Waycross, GA.  On Wednesday, we went to the Okefenokee Swamp.

I can now say I’ve been to a swamp.

I’ve only been to the beach a handful of times in my life so I requested a trip to the beach while I’m this close.  Today, we went to Fernandina Beach, FL.

On Sunday, we went to the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC.  (I’ll have photos and a blog post talking about that in the near future.)  I’ll be heading back home on Sunday but, before I go, we are attending a Backstreet Boys concert at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA with Karah.

Last weekend, I went to Oklahoma City with Lindsey, Shelby, Hayley, & Kelly.  The reason we went to OKC was to attend Winter Jam 2010 at the Ford Center.  Winter Jam featured mini-concerts by Revive, Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Newsong, Newsboys, and a grand finale by Third Day.  It also featured a message by Tony Nolan.  Admission to the event was $10 and was paid at the door.  I read comments on Twitter & Facebook from the performers and organizers after the show.  From what I can tell, the OKC crowd was the largest crowd to date on the Winter Jam 2010 tour!

Of the musical performers, I have only heard Newsboys in concert before.  I first saw them probably 10-15 years ago when they were here in Springdale at First Baptist.  I saw them in Tulsa my freshman year in college when they were on their Love Liberty Disco tent tour (which featured the rotating drum set).  Tony Nolan spoke back in the fall at FBC Springdale.  Lindsey, Shelby, & I were pretty excited about hearing him again.  Other than the Newsboys & Tony Nolan, getting to finally see Third Day in concert was exciting.

I really enjoyed the event as a whole.  There were a few performances that really stuck out.  I think the song that spoke to me most during the evening was Sidewalk Prophets’ The Words I Would Say.  The following is an acoustic version of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8UpaifPbqI

So, as I mentioned, I’d seen Newsboys a couple of times in concert prior to OKC.  It had been a while.  Last year, Michael Tait (formerly of the band DC Talk) replaced Peter Furler as the lead singer of the band.  I hadn’t heard a Tait led song on the radio yet so I was curious (but, yet, skeptical) of how he would sound singing traditional Newsboys hits like Shine and Breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The Newsboys closed their set with DC Talk’s hit Jesus Freak.  I loved it!  It wasn’t DC Talk but it was a DC Talk song live which I hadn’t heard since I saw them in concert in 7th grade.  I also kind of found it amusing that Kelly & I were the only ones around us it seemed that knew every single word (including the rap-like portion in the middle) of the song.  Here’s a video from the Winter Jam 2010 tour of Newsboys performing Jesus Freak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xheIKyE84J8

Finally…Third Day…Amazing!  Mac Powell is an awesome songwriter and has such a distinctive voice.  Here is an official video of Third Day singing their recent hit Revelation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u0P9kwfF4s

All of the performances were almost teasers of full sets by some of the performers like Newsboys & Third Day.  I left the event wanting to look up their tour schedule so I could see a full show by each of them in the near future.  I definitely recommend seeing any of these artists in concert!

I did take a few pictures at Winter Jam.  Check out my slide show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

2009 was quite a year.  The most important and exciting thing that happened to me this year is that I bought my first home.  I’ve looked and talked and planned for several years.  The pieces all fell into place very quickly at the end of July for me to officially begin my search for a home.  The house I bought was the first one me & the realtor that assisted me looked at together.  Greg (my realtor & Lindsey’s father-in-law) found me the perfect house.

My other major purchase of 2009 was a Nikon D90 camera.  I’ve had fun playing with it this year.  Although, I haven’t ventured far from the automatic settings yet.  One of my goals for 2010 is to learn more about what all my camera can do.

Lindsey, Kelly, Hayley, & I saw the Paisley Party Tour stop in Tulsa in January.  It included Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker.

My mom’s birthday in January marked the beginning of a very bad ice storm.  I don’t remember ever having weather like that.  The ice was crazy.

In March, Kelly & I went to San Antonio for a few days.  We saw a bit of a history at the Alamo, had dinner on the top of the world, and even visited the beach.

In April, we took our annual trip to Dallas/Fort Worth for some NASCAR.  While down there, we visited the Sixth Floor Museum & Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  Jeff Gordon finally won a race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Charlotte, NC to visit Penni and go to the NASCAR races that weekend.  It was a weekend full of rain but it was a great weekend of visiting old friends and meeting new ones.

In June, I went to a couple of concerts.  The first one was Casting Crowns at the Church at Pinnacle Hills.  The second one was Chuck Wicks at the Poultry Festival.  I got to meet Chuck in person twice (once by accident) that evening.  It was great!  He’s hilarious and very down-to-earth.

Lindsey, Shelby, & I made last minute plans to go to Junction, TX in July to our cousin Lacey’s wedding.  We made Mom come too.  We took our time going down to visit Mom’s brother (our uncle) Mark and also to visit Dublin for some wonderful Dr Pepper.

In the beginning of October, Shelby & I traveled to Dallas.  The University of Arkansas Razorbacks played the Texas A&M Aggies in the new Cowboys Stadium.  Shelby, our uncles Mark & Rod, and I went to the game.  It was an awesome game in an aswesome stadium.  I’m hoping we get to go again next year!

In mid-October, I traveled to Phoenix with a couple others in my department for an SAP conference.  Besides the conference, we took some time to do some sight-seeing.

The last trip I took in 2009 was with Shelby the first weekend of November.  We went back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NASCAR race.

Here are the blog entries I wrote this year related to my year in review.

January 3, 2009 10:57 pm - The Nikon D90
January 4, 2009 5:54 pm - New Camera – Day 2
January 10, 2009 10:32 pm - New Baby
January 11, 2009 2:38 pm - The Red Coat
January 24, 2009 8:56 am - Tulsa Bound
January 26, 2009 6:40 pm - Family Tradition
January 28, 2009 1:34 pm - Be Still!
January 29, 2009 6:32 pm - Tulsa Time
January 29, 2009 8:27 pm - Ice Storm
February 1, 2009 12:02 pm - Ice Storm Aftermath
March 5, 2009 9:00 am - San Antonio Bound
March 6, 2009 9:25 pm - Where’s Dad When You Need Him?
March 7, 2009 8:31 am - 173 Years Later
March 14, 2009 3:03 pm - Life is like a box of chocolates
March 14, 2009 3:59 pm - A bit of history
March 15, 2009 6:38 pm - The San Antonio Zoo
March 15, 2009 6:57 pm - The Texas Beach
March 15, 2009 8:03 pm - Sea World
March 21, 2009 2:40 pm - Tower of the Americas
March 21, 2009 4:15 pm - San Antonio Re-Cap
April 18, 2009 4:05 pm - Who Dun It?
April 18, 2009 4:45 pm - He finally won
June 20, 2009 3:58 pm - Chuck Wicks Times 3
June 27, 2009 4:47 pm - Casting Crowns
August 9, 2009 4:58 pm - My New House
August 23, 2009 5:42 pm - My New House – Before
October 7, 2009 9:52 pm - Long Wait
November 6, 2009 3:32 pm - Shop a Little, Race a Little

As far as 2010, I don’t really have any plans for any major traveling.  I know we’ll go to both NASCAR races in Texas in April & November.  Other than that, this may be a year that I take it a bit easy as far as traveling goes.  I do need to catch up on here with some blog entries.  I really want to share what my house looks like now that I’ve gotten it painted and decorated.

Last Thursday evening, Mom, Shelby, & I saw Casting Crowns in concert at the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers.  (You can see the 3 crosses in the top righthand corner of the windows.)  I think this was only the second time I’ve been in this church (and the first was for Lindsey’s wedding).  We had pretty close seats over to the side of the stage.  Except for the sun blinding us at first, they were great seats.

Prior to the concert, I really only knew of a couple of songs Casting Crowns sang.  (Although, I did realize I knew more once they started singing them.)  One of my most favorite they sing is Every Man.  The song illustrates that there are all sorts of people in the world and that Jesus is the hope that can get “every man” through their trials and tribulations.

Here is a YouTube video (that is actually just the audio) for the song Every Man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pytHn7XJvnE

Here are the pictures I took during the concert.

Last Friday & Saturday was The Poultry Federation’s Poultry Festival.  It was held here in northwest Arkansas with Saturday’s events being at the Embassy Suites & John Q Hammons Center in Rogers.  I was able to attend 3 of the events.  I went to the Ladies Luncheon on Friday, the barbeque dinner on Saturday night, and then the Chuck Wicks concert.

I actually got to technically see Chuck Wicks 3 times Saturday evening.

Chuck # 1: After the bbq dinner, we decided to walk across the street and get some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.  We walk in and there is Chuck Wicks with his mother.  He immediately said hi to us and introduced himself.  He was in buying his mom ice cream before he went next door to get himself a sandwich.  He ended up buying Bailey’s and Marguerite’s ice cream when he bought his mom’s.  (Shelby & I didn’t get any ice cream but I’m sure he would have bought ours too.)

Chuck # 2: We were lucky enough to be given meet & greet passes.  When Chuck walked into the meet & greet room, he immediately noticed us and said hi.  We waited toward the back of the line since we had just met him.  When we got up there, Shelby & I first got our stuff signed and pictures taken.  (Just a side note…See Chuck’s facial expression in this photo?  He is the master of making faces.  He took the cutest pictures with some of the kids – even making Taylor Swift’s heart sign with a young girl.)  Marguerite decided she was going to ask Chuck to twirl her for her photo with him.  Chuck decided he’d do even better and dip her.  It was cute.

Chuck # 3: The concert was great!  We had front row seats!  I must admit that I’m not very familiar with all of his music, probably mostly because he really only has 1 CD at this point.  I didn’t necessarily notice that I didn’t know the songs given the mixture of songs he sang.  He sang Pick-Up Man by Joe Diffie.  He also sang another song that he said was a #1 in 1980 (when he was 1 years old according to Chuck).  I have a bad memory, though, at times when it comes to remembering songs that I want/need to and this particular one has completely left me.  I’ve always loved Chuck’s debut single which was Stealing Cinderella.  His performance of that definitely didn’t disappoint.

Oh yeah…Julianne wasn’t with Chuck in northwest Arkansas.  (This was a popular speculation before the concert.)  She is the opening act for George Strait’s tour and had a performance the same night.

And…Chuck recently co-wrote a song with Brian McKnight for his (Chuck’s) new album.  Chuck sang it.  It’s a very good one!  I look forward to it on the radio.

I definitely recommend seeing Chuck Wicks in concert if given the opportunity.  You can find him online at ChuckWicks.com and on Twitter at @ChuckWicksMusic.

Here is the set of photos I took during the concert and the photos that were taken of us during the meet & greet.  Enjoy!