Thursday Thirteeen : My favourite American Idol performances

I have to admit it, I was a HUGE fan of American Idol. I have watched since season one and I have  loved almost every season. I was so sad that it ended this season, it was truly a show we could watch with the kids that was good and wholesome entertainment. Over the years I have had a few favourite performances. I am trying to recall which of them over the years made an impact on me.



1. Pia Toscano was one of my favourites on American Idol. She sang, I'll stand by you, and the fact she is easy on the eyes never hurts at all.



2. Fantasia sang "Summertime" and killed it.



3. Clay Aiken singing "Bridge over troubled Water".



4. I have had a crush on Kelly Clarkson since the first time I  heard her audition on Idol. I could put all of her performances as favourites and make this entire post about her but I restrained myself. Here is just one of my faves. "Without you".





5. Adam Lambert . Mad World.




6. Chris Daughtry.  I walk the Line.



7. Crystal Bowersox. Midnight Train to Georgia

Crystal gave a better performance in  my opinion of "Come Together" - but I prefer Midnight Train to Georgia.



8. Katherine McPhee.
All of Katherine's performances were good. Black Horse and a cherry tree was great, but I think "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was a bigger fan favourite. Oh, and she is hot.





9. David Cook. Eleanor Rigby



10. David Archuleta. Imagine



11. Dalton Rapponi "Sounds of Silence"
Dalton was my favourite of this last season and I was disappointed he finished third.



12. Trent Harmon "Chandelier"
I was not a fan of Trent  - who won this season - until he sang this song.



13. Lee DeWyze "Hallelujah"
This is one of my favourite songs.

12 of 12 : April

Normally I do much better at this than I did this month and now I am having difficulty with my blog formatting which is frustrating. Oh well. Here are my twelve photos - only ten from today because apparently that was all I took today - and not in order of how the day progressed because that's how they are uploading today apparently.

#1. Here is my girl at the end of the day going through all of her clean clothes and wearing everything she could get her hands on. I used to wonder why we had so much laundry  - but I have to keep a close eye on this one who will put clothes into the laundry pile even if she wears them for two minutes - as evidenced by her actions this evening.

 #2. This is actually a photo from yesterday - Maxie man brought this home from school today. I don't know if he actually does school work but this made me happy anyway.

 #3. My Tibetan Prayer flags hanging outside my bedroom window. I need all the prayers I can get.

#4. It is warm enough to wear my birkenstocks today. I may be a little premature since it is only April, but I am being optimistic. There is even a little green grass starting to show.

#5. It's almost a daily visit to Sara's now that the sheep are lambing and some need to be bottle fed. I don't know if she is sick of us or not  yet but the kids want to go every day to see what is unfolding at the farm and help with chores.

#6. Here is another one not from today. This weekend we raked the yard with lots of help.

#7. Max is determined to have a garden this year so he got some of the seeds started. He wasn't waiting around for me to get to it!

#8. Feed the lambs. Check. Oil the bikes. Check. CJ got done everything on his list today!

#9. Obligatory photo of the  dog.

#10. You cant see in this photo but there is a calf in this pen ( by the name of Steve ) who was the intended recipient of this visit.

#11. Bottle babies. Dr. Pepper is just what the doctor ordered.

#12. The end of my day every Tuesday. Ink Master. Love this show.

Thursday thirteen: My favourite Liverpool FC players

Here is a list of the thirteen former players I love the most from Liverpool FC.

I have linked all of them to pages with more information about them so if you are interested you

can follow the links by clicking on their names. Most links are to Wikipedia pages except for

Micheal Owen and Jamie Carragher who have their own websites.

My personal all time favorite is Daniel Agger.

1.       Daniel Agger

2.       Fernando Torres

3.    Steven Gerrard

4.       Maxi Rodriguez

5.       Dirk Kuyt

6.       Jamie Carragher

7.       Luis Suarez

8.       John Arne Riise

9.       Ian Rush

10.   Micheal Owen

11.   Xabi Alonso

12.   Kenny Daglish

13.   Robbie Fowler

Mud and lambs

Spring has arrived and we are MORE than ready! The washing machine may not be able to keep up with the muddy clothing though. 

Thursday Thirteen: Liverpool FC

1. Anfield was built in 1884 on land adjacent to  Stanley Park. It was originally used by Everton before the club moved to Goodison Park after a dispute over rent with Anfield owner John Houlding. Left with an empty ground, Houlding founded Liverpool in 1892 and the club has played at Anfield ever since.

2. Blue and white quartered shirts were used until 1894, when the club adopted the city's colour of red.

3.The city's symbol of the  liver bird was adopted as the club's badge in 1901, although it was not incorporated into the kit until 1955.

4. Liverpool continued to wear red shirts and white shorts until 1964, when manager Bill Shankly decided to change to an all red strip.Liverpool played in all red for the first time against Anderlecht, as Ian St. John recalled in his autobiography:

He [Shankly] thought the colour scheme would carry psychological impact—red for danger, red for power. He came into the dressing room one day and threw a pair of red shorts to Ronnie Yeats. "Get into those shorts and let's see how you look", he said. "Christ, Ronnie, you look awesome, terrifying. You look 7ft tall." "Why not go the whole hog, boss?" I suggested. "Why not wear red socks? Let's go out all in red." Shankly approved and an iconic kit was born. 

5.  100 spectators attended Liverpool's first match at Anfield.

6.  The song "You'll Never Walk Alone", originally from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel and later recorded by Liverpool musicians Gerry & The Pacemakers, is the club's anthem and has been sung by the Anfield crowd since the early 1960s.

7. Liverpool's longest-established rivalry is with fellow Merseyside and Liverpool-based team Everton, against whom the club contest the Merseyside derby. Their rivalry stems from Liverpool's formation and the dispute with Everton officials and the then owners of Anfield. Unlike other rivalries, there is no political, geographical or religious split between Liverpool and Everton.

8. Liverpool Football Club is a Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The club has won five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, three UEFA Super Cups, 18 League titles, seven FA Cups, a record eight League Cups, and 15 FA Community Shields

9. My first Liverpool tattoo

10. Liverpool have had 21 full-time managers.

11. Brendan Rodgers led Liverpool in the 2013 - 2014 season to a surprise title challenge, however Liverpool ended the league season in second place, despite scoring 101 goals scored, the club's most since 1895.  He was the first Liverpool manager to win the LMA manager of the year award but he was also the first manager of the club not to win a major trophy in his first three years at the helm, and on 4th October 2015, he was sacked. On 8 October, he was replaced by former Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp. 

12. One of the most famous, and most quoted, coaches of Liverpool was Bill Shankley. Here are some of his quotes:

13. 'Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.'

 
*****
 
'If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.'
 
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'Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.'
 
*****
 
'The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don't know the game.'

Bonfire

Since working on renovations to the house we have had a HUGE pile of wood in the yard that needed to be burned at some point. We decided this weekend was a good time to burn it as there is still lots of snow in the yard and so there is less likely a chance of starting an accidental brush fire. The weather was good and Max got us prepared with a water station in case of emergency.

That's a big fire mama.

I love fires but this one was so hot we couldn't get anywhere near it. It did get rid of the pile of wood and we were able to clear another pile also so that was good. It worked out well but we couldn't roast marshmallows :(