"Sweet Caroline"

We had such a great time with my mom being here this past weekend. The kids enjoyed showing off, talking her ear off and fighting over whos turn it was to get to sit by her at the dinner table! She helped me make some dinners (19 to be exact) to put in the freezer for my "too busy to cook" days. I couldn't believe how many meals we made until we were done and I started counting things up. WOW! Those are really going to come in handy the days that I teach piano lessons.

My favorite thing about this weekend was getting to spend some one-on-one time with my mom. That doesn't happen very often because of the kiddos. I say one-on-one time but I should really say that I spent time with her and around 20,000 screaming fans. We went to the Neil Diamond concert on Friday night in Glendale, AZ. We had such a good time hanging out with one another and looking at all the different kinds of people that were there. Let's just say that some didn't have a lot of CLOTHES on, some went way overboard on their DANCING, some WAVED at him throughout the entire concert, and some had extremely LOUD voices! Every age group was represented at the concert. There were people with walkers down to little kids. It was great to see such a wide variety of age groups having fun. When the lights would flash around you would see the audience (even the walker people) up dancing, singing and just having a good time. I have never seen my mom burst into song in the car or even at home, I have only heard her sing at church. It was fun to see her having such a good time and singing along with everyone else.

My favorite part of the whole concert was when he sang "America". He finally sang it close to the end of the concert. I know that both my mom and I were hoping that he would sing that song. They had put a video together that went along with the song. It was so moving to see all these immigrants coming to America with our flag held high for all to see. I got a little emotional during this song. . . I can honestly say that I haven't EVER gotten emotional at a concert before.

I was impressed with Neil Diamond . . . he seemed to me to be a very humble man. He seemed amazed that so many people came to his concert, especially the people that bought tickets and sat behind the stage. He says that his mission is to touch as many people as he can with his music. I know that his music is a big thing in my little family. Even Jacob who isn't much of a dancer can't help but bob his head and move his little body when his songs come on. No wonder his music is still so popular among all the different age groups. He is 67 years old and he still was up on the stage dancing around and singing for over 2 hours. WOW! I have to say that I was impressed that he didn't take an intermission or have an opening band. I was surprised that his voice was able to carry out throughout the entire night. I thought that he sounded just as good as he does on his albums from years before.

I have decided that I need to take more opportunities like these to go and hang out with my loved ones more often. Do things that they enjoy so that I can see them smile and maybe if we're lucky, hear them sing out loud!