It's Done!!!

After a long 12 months in the works, the Up Kind of Day (formerly known as FlyKids) CD is finally done! Wahoo!! We are SO excited (can you tell?) and extremely happy with how it turned out. Marla has it up for sale on her site at FlyLady.net.

From Up Kind of Day Graphics

Here is the list of songs:

1. Up Kind of Day
2. FLY Kid
3. Rockin' Routines
4. So Long Dust Samba
5. Camp GonnaWannaFLY
6. Boogie
7. Clean Up
8. Room Patrol
9. Toy Box Tango
10. Launch Pad
11. Veggie Blues
12. Good Deed Doer
13. Time to Dream (Mairin's Song)
14. Wings to Fly

Congrats and thanks to Ali, Val, John, and everyone else who did so much to get this put together. We feel like we've just birthed another child. We wish we could send you each a free copy but we're not the ones paying for this one. :-) Hopefully they'll be up on iTunes here shortly where you can download them if you'd prefer.

FlyKids Countdown

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...

OK, we'll stop there for now, but we ARE getting closer to getting this FlyKids CD done! It feels like we've been running a marathon at a sprinter's pace for over a month but we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. We're supposed to have all the editing on the vocals wrapped up tomorrow and then they'll be shipped off to Nashville for the final editing. For a preview of the Camp Gonnawannafly song visit the FlyLady MySpace page (be patient, it takes forever for the page to load). Fun stuff!

We're still working on the graphics and will be frantically trying to get them pulled together this week so we can get them ready for the printer about the same time the CDs go for duplication. Here's an early beta of an idea for the logo to be used on the cover:



I just realized that the link I sent to the Lacey side of the family I don't think made it to anyone when we posted the audio site after the first demos were finished back in April. Not sure what happened there, but I'll re-email it to you after we get the site updated with the new MP3s tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out some of the pictures of what we've been up to for the past month or so. They include pictures from here in Vegas, some from our recording session with Eric and Andy Dodge in St. George, and from when we were up in Logan when Amy was working on the vocals up there. Sorry they're not all labeled, but it's way past my bedtime and I need to get some sleep. Click through the slideshow below for a closer look.



Off to bed now...

BlackBerry Float

Next time you go swimming, make sure your cell phone/PDA is NOT on your person when you enter the water. I thought I was going to be footing the bill for a new BlackBerry after what happened a few weeks ago. We were getting ready to go swimming in St. George with the kids and I specifically clipped my phone to the OUTSIDE of my shorts so I wouldn't forget to take it off when we got down to the pool. But Anna was anxious to get in and I was excited to start an early weekend with the fam so the last thing on my mind was to check for some little black gadget hanging from my pocket.

So...after about 2 or 3 minutes I felt this incessant buzzing coming from my left hip. UH OH! I took it out and it was just freaking out: BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ...



Sad, huh? Notice the water level about 1/3 of the way up the screen!

[I should have taken a shot of Amy. I think she was really having a hard time keeping the grin off her face once she realized it was dead. I think she was jealous, though, that she couldn't have been the one to chuck that $%^&@! BlackBerry in the water!]

A closer shot here:



So I took the battery out and left it for dead to dry out. Come Monday morning I stuffed it in my pocket to take to work and see how much I owed. When I pulled it out at my office I noticed the water had drained out. I put the battery back and and much to my surprise it started to boot up!



That T-Mobile logo never looked so good! I guess it wasn't completely dry, though - notice the white/gray shape that somewhat resembles Greenland? That's moisture that was still in the display. It eventually went away after another couple days.

And here it was after it finished booting.



Notice all my data was still in place - look at all the email that I wasn't able to get to over the weekend! And the battery even still had about 30% charge left!!

[When I called Amy she said she was happy that it was working (and that we didn't have to cough up some cash for a new one), but I think deep-down - or maybe just under the surface - I think she was mad that the Berry would be returning home with me that afternoon. :-) ]

Summer home in Alaska, anyone?

Whoo boy! When did someone remove the second half of May and June from the calendar?!? It was 105 - yes One-Oh-Five - degrees here in Vegas today!! Egad. Kristy, you better make room on your couch, 'cause I'm heading up for the summer. :-D You wouldn't mind good 'ole Uncle Paul for a little extended stay, now, would you? It's 11:00 at night and the A/C is blaring full blast - ugh, I don't want to see the power bill. But it looks like "relief" is in sight...


Check out more below for news on last week's fun adventures!

Weekend in Nashville!

Last weekend Amy, Ali, and Valerie got to head to Nashville for the recording of the FlyKids album. Marla Cilley (a.k.a FlyLady) flew them out, along with Eric and Andy Dodge, for a few days of seeing the sights of Music City and a full, long day of recording their follow-up to their first album.



They got there Thursday night and their session wasn't until Saturday so they got to spend much of Friday checking out the Nashville scene, including the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, etc. After their session Saturday night they got to see Dierks Bentley (yes BOTH of him!) and Vince Gill perform, as well as Garth Brooks induct Carrie Underwood as a member of the Opry - what a night!

Amy said the recording session was just AMAZING! The session was held at Omni Studios, along with an "A" list of professional musicians. They had listened to the versions of the songs Amy had worked on in Logan back in March and, along with some pages of what would look like chicken scratches to me, they were able to record perfect tracks in pretty much one full take per song. The songs sound SO GOOD! I can't wait for y'all to hear them. They only got the instrumentals done so it'll be back to the studios in Logan, St. George, and probably here in Vegas to get the vocals all finished. Should be fun!

Father & Sons (+ Daughter & Uncle) Outing

This is a week late, but better late than never...

We decided to not feel too sorry for ourselves while Amy was in Nashville last week by heading to the hills. Our ward had our Father & Sons outing up near Mt. Charleston, just about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas. It was nice to get out away from the busy city life and let the kids get some fresh air. I called Brent last week to see if he would want to come join us and he was great to sacrifice a free flight - and a weekend with Allison - to hang out with us. The kids loved playing and hanging out with Uncle Brent. They even got to go to a baseball game with him, courtesy of Daddy's work!

Phamily Photos

Here are some photos we recently took of the kids, some of which we shared with our Moms on Mother's Day. For those that didn't get some in the mail feel free to click through the slideshow below and look at the individual pics.