"At Home With Friends"

Joshua Bell's "At Home With Friends" was recently released on September 29. I will be honest and say while I had heard his name I have never listened to anything by him. But when I say the track list and some of the "friends" performing with him. I love Kristin Chenoweth so I was excited. I will have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this. I normally am not a fan of retakes but the version of Eleanor Rigby was probably my favorite and shhh don't tell any Beatles fans but I liked it better than the original! I highly recommend this even if you think that you don't like this type of music, I have to say that there is something for everyone on it!

Please be sure to check out his fabulous website at http://www.joshuabell.com


Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):
I Loves You Porgy featuring Chris Botti, trumpet
Come Again featuring Sting, vocals
Oblivion featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Cinema Paradiso featuring Josh Groban, vocals
Para Tí featuring Tiempo Libre, various
My Funny Valentine featuring >Kristin Chenoweth, vocals
Maybe So featuring Edgar Meyer Sam Bush and Mike Marshall, strings
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff (Zenph re-performance)
Eleanor Rigby featuring Frankie Moreno, piano & vocals
O, Cease Thy Maiden Fair featuring Nathan Gunn, baritone
Il Postino featuring Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon
Left Hand Song featuring Regina Spektor, piano & vocals
Chovendo Na Roseira featuring Dave Grusin, piano
Look Away featuring Edgar Meyer, bass and Chris Thile, mandolin
Variant Moods: Duet for Sitar & Violin featuring Anoushka Shankar, sitar
I'll Take Manhattan featuring Marvin Hamlisch, piano
Left Hand featuring Regina Spektor, vocals

Thanks to One2One for sending me this great album to review!

Our New Etsy Store is Open!!

Finally after months of talking, my friend Debi and I finally have our Etsy store up and running!!! I am so excited. It is a big relief to actually have items in it. Please go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7980249
to check out what we have for sale. You can also check out the link over on the right of this blog! I would love any feedback that you have! Be sure to check back weekly as I will be adding new and different items!

Harry Connick, Jr

Have you heard? Harry Connick, Jr has a new album out called Your Songs. I was so excited when I found out that he was releasing a new album. I have always liked his voice not to mention that he is very easy on the eyes. So thanks to the

One2One Network

I was able to preview this album. It was a rainy day, perfect for crafting and a little crooning by Harry. I will say that I really enjoyed my afternoon. For the most part I really enjoyed the album. I do personally think that there are just some artists that should not be covered, Elvis Presley and the Beatles are two. It was hard for me to enjoy those two tracks because I could not get the original artist's voice out of my head, but other than that it was fabulous. Perfect for a cold rainy day because it warmed me right up. Be sure to check out his website

HERE

And you can watch a behind the scenes video HERE

Here is a list of the songs:

Album Tracklisting (Originally performed by):

All The Way (Frank Sinatra)
Just The Way You Are (Billy Joel)
Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
And I Love Her (The Beatles)
(They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters)
Besame Mucho
The Way You Look Tonight
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
Your Song (Elton John)
Some Enchanted Evening
And I Love You So (Don McLean)
Who Can I Turn To? (Tony Bennett)
Smile (Charlie Chaplin)
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)

Free unit study and lapbook!

Click on the button below to download a free unit study called Autumn Treasures from This Old Schoolhouse!

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=191_202&products_id=12934">http://trish.theoldhomeschoolhouse.com/christie_files/mscgrfx/AutumnTreasures.jpg" alt="Download N Go" border="0">

Tot School

*Shelby is 27 months*

Well we had a slow start back to Totschool this past week. Here is what we accomplished:


I got this puzzle a the Duck, Duck, Goose consignment sale in Knoxville, TN. Let me say I have been to a lot of consignment sales but this was the Granddaddy of them all! I mean it took me 3 hours to check out and that was a the presale that wasn't even open to the general public!!!
I was very excited about this puzzle/game and couldn't wait to show it to Lil Bit, but of course she didn't find it very interesting. She really doesn't like puzzles, I think it is because she is very impatient, something I am trying to work with her on. She gets very frustrated if she can't do something correctly the first time (she is just like her daddy!) He said he didn't really care for puzzles either as a child, which makes me sad because I love them!


After these pictures were taken she was over this activity. The good thing was when I said clean up, she help me put every piece back in the box. Normally she only will put away one or two items and then tell me she is done. As part of tot school we have been working on cleaning up and having to implement some timeouts when she refused to help. And I am happy to say this week we only had one timeout and the rest of the time she was very helpful and had a sweet attitude about cleaning up!

This next activity was a surprise because I really thought she was too young for it and thought it may bore her. Boy was I wrong! She played with this for a long time! I will definitely be bringing this out more!

I picked it up at Ross for less than $5! The possibilities are endless with math and pattern teaching tool. For our purposes this week I just got out the first sheet and only one color.




We had recess this week with daddy at a new park we found. It had a great play set but best of all it had soccer field which were fenced in with really nice artificial turf on them. We practiced hopping and running. I can't wait to bring our ball, hula hoop and other outdoor toys there! Since we don't have a backyard this is a great place where she can run and I feel safe. I just wished I had found it at the beginning of the summer! Here are my favorites and I had a bunch!









I had to share these next pictures of her wearing this hat before we left for the park. She really didn't like it at first and then she was ok with it.

What a mean mom for trying to make me look cute, she says!

"Well I guess it is not such a bad hat"

Mommy says she is jealous of my curls!

Here is another cute outfit from this week. I got this one and the previous one at consignment sales, except for the hat that came from Children's Place.

Be sure to hope on over to
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/10/tot-school.html
to see what Carissa and everyone else did this past week!