Roll Tide!!

We are only 2 days away from the SEC Championship Game and I can feel my stomach starting to knot up already. No matter the outcome of the game, our guys played one hell of season. Back to back undefeated regular seasons! How many teams can say that?! Not many.

I saw this video this morning and it made me teary eyed, proud and fired up all at once. Here's to a great game on Saturday! Roll Tide!! Beat them Gators!!

Veteran's Day Thank You

Today is Veterans Day. If you know or see someone who served or is serving in the military, make it a point to stop and tell them 'THANK YOU' today.

I myself want to say a few thank yous today to the thousands of men and women who are serving our great country in Afghanistan or Iraq as well as at our many military bases here and overseas.

Thank you to my Daddy for his service in the Navy. He would not want me to say when/where his service was because military guys don't like to brag. After all, "Loose Lips Sink Ships!" But suffice it say it was during a time when guys came home to a not so great welcome. But Daddy, I want you to know that I am proud of the time you spent in the Navy defending your country and today, I say I love you and I thank you!

Thank you goes to my cousin Bryan who is in the Navy and is currently on deployment. He is a brave guy who is away from his family a lot serving and protecting our country. The sacrifices he makes and has made for many years are hard to fathom. Yet, he does his duty with such dignity and pride and never complains. I am very proud of him and pray for his safety daily. Thank you Bryan! Come home soon. I love you!

Thank you to all the military wives, children and families out there. YOU are the ultimate warriors! You hold down your forts in your loved ones absence and your strength during their service is awe inspiring. This especially goes out to Bryan's wife Hillary and their daughters Emily and Allison and their angel who watches over them, Natalie. Hillary, you are an inspiration and a blessing.

Finally, to the families, friends and soldiers of Ft. Hood. You are in my prayers.

God bless all military personnel everywhere and God bless this great country!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Today is my Mommy's birthday. I just got to see her 2 weeks ago when I went home to Alabama. Me, her and Louis went to an Alabama football game and had such a good time. I am so glad that she was able to go to the game with us.

I love you Mommy and I hope that you have a great birthday today!

Silverado High School Homecoming Dance 2009

Last night was Chris's first high school Homecoming dance. He looked so sharp in his suit and tie. And his little date Mackenzie looked very pretty. He didn't tell me that he was going and even had a date until the 3 days before the dance, so we went to the florist on Friday after school to order her corsage. He went into the cooler and helped pick out the flowers and even helped pick out the ribbons that went in it. Then it was off to the mall to find him a suit. He wanted a purple tie to match Makenzie's dress, so he picked out a tie, tried on a suit and he was set.

Louis and I picked it up the corsage on Saturday morning and it looked so pretty. I knew that it would look really good with Mackenzie's dress. I showed it to Chris when we got back home and he said it was pretty and he had a really big smile on his face when he saw it.

We went over to pick up Mackenzie about 5:45 and both me and her mom had them stand for the mandatory picture taking. Neither one of them seemed to mind and I discovered that I really like Mackenzie after she told her mother to make sure that she got her shoes in the picture! A girl after my own heart!

So, pictures taken, and we were off to the school to drop them off for the dance. Chris was a total gentleman and opened the door for Mackenzie to get into the car and ran around the car and opened it for her to get out once we got there. I was caught up in watching him do this, that I didn't get a picture of him opening it to get in, but I remembered to get one of him holding it open for her once we got to the school. Then they were off! They went to Red Robin and ate afterward with Chris's friend Tucker and his date.

Chris said that they all had a really good time.

I can't believe that he is already in high school and is starting to go to semi-formal dances! Wherever did the time go? *sigh* I know that this is just the first of many more dances to come and I am both excited and sad that he is growing up. But I am so proud of the young man that he had turned out to be!

Chris and I might not see eye to eye sometimes, but I am very proud of him and I can't wait to see what the next few years of high school hold for him! Chris, I love you buddy!!

Chris and Mackenzie

Isn't he handsome?..

Such a gentleman!!

Chris and his friend Tucker

Alabama Homecoming pictures

After a really ugly 12-10 win tonight against Tennessee (hey, a win is still a win!), I thought that I would post a collage of pictures from the Alabama-South Carolina game that we went to last weekend. I took my Mom and this was Louis' first Alabama game ever and it had been 11 years since my last live Alabama game. It was extremely cold (for Las Vegas standards) and we just about froze to death, but I had so much fun. The only thing that would have made it better is if my cousin Bryan had been able to have been there with us. We had 4 tickets and the 4th one was supposed to have been his. But he is out defending our country, so I made sure that I had plenty of fun for the both of us! We did almost everything that I had wanted to while we were there except going to the Bear Bryant Museum. (That gives me a good excuse to go again next year!) We got to the campus really early and got great parking and got down to Bryant-Denny Stadium before most other people, so I was able to get pictures of it and us in front of it without a ton of people milling around and messing up my pictures. :) Then we went up to University Blvd to stake out a good spot to watch the Homecoming parade. We got hungry, so we got some Chik-fil-a chicken biscuits. And they were sooooo good! I miss those biscuits! We watched the parade, saw The Million Dollar Band and they stopped right in front of us and played "Yea Alabama"! That was so exciting! We also saw Richard Todd and Big Al. After the parade, we headed back over to Bryant-Denny to get us a spot to be able to watch the team at the Walk of Champions. We stood out there forever, but it was sooo worth it because we were on the front row and as you will see from the picture collage, that I got a really good shot of both Coach Saban and Mt. Cody! (And while I am talking about Mt. Cody, can I get a big ROLL TIDE for those 2 outstanding blocked field goals he did tonight?!?!)

(click on the picture and you can see it larger and see more detail)

After that, we hurried over to Coleman Coliseum to locate me and Mom's bricks so we could get pictures of them. Now, if you have ever been to Bryant-Denny, you know that Coleman Coliseum is a long way on foot from Bryant-Denny. But somehow we made it there and back with enough time to spare to get into the stadium and get comfortable before the game started. Now this game wasn't pretty either, but we came out on top 20-6, and that is all that matters!

All in all, I had the best time ever! I know that my Mom had a good time and Louis even said that he had a good time. He is such a great guy for enduring that cold weather for me! And I am ready to go again! Too bad I would have to take out a war pension in order to afford it! Anyways, hope you enjoy the pictures and ROLL TIDE!!!

Snow in Vegas??

Yes! It did snow in Vegas! We started getting snow starting around 11:30 a.m. on December 16th and it didn't stop until well after we went to bed that night. When all was said and done we had somewhere around 6 inches! The kids were even out of the school the next day! Louis had taken off work that day to go get the brakes on his car fixed, so luckily he wasn't at work on the other side of town like usual. My office left a little early around 4:15, but by that time, the roads were already pretty bad and what is normally a 10-12 minute drive home for me took me almost 50 minutes.
I was freezing when I got home after my 50 minute drive! (my car never got really warm during the drive) I got cozy in pajamas and settled in under a blanket while Louis and the boys went to a church that is around the corner from our house to play in the snow that accumulated on the large grassy area around their parking lot. Just when I had gotten warm, a neighbor came knocking at our door to see if the boys wanted to come outside and make a snowman. I told her that they were playing at the church, but that I would come out. So she, her husband, a couple other neighbors and I built a snowman and a snowlady. We all had a good time playing in the snow. And of course, I had to put an Alabama cap on the snowman!
When Louis and the boys came back home, Chris and I walked around the entire neighborhood and made pictures. It was a sight to see snow in palm trees! And a lot of the poor trees in our neighborhood buckled and collapsed under the snow's weight. And then after walking through the neighborhood, we went back inside and I made homemade hot cocoa for everyone. That was a nice treat after being outside in the cold for so long!
Here are a few pictures of our short lived Vegas Winter Wonderland! I know that it wasn't near as much snow as they get in Chicago, New York or Boston, but for Vegas, it was more than enough. Good thing it only happens once every 30 years (so they say)!!

Love to all!

Angela, Louis, Chris and Mark

Mark, Louis and Chris

This is our street

Our little catcus plant in our front yard

One of the poor palm trees in

the neighborhood

The Snowman and Snowlady

(notice the Alabama cap on the snowman)

Busy Bergmanns

Boy have we been busy lately! Chris is in Madrigals Choir at school and he made the Clark County School District Middle School Honor Choir as well. He has been attending rehearsals for the last 2 ½ weeks for the Honor Choir. This past week he had 3 rehearsals in a row for it leading up to the performance on Wednesday October 22nd at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The middle school choir performed 6 songs and then a 7th song with the high school honor choir. Chris was very excited because Z. Randall Stroope who is the composer of his favorite piece, Omnia Sol, was their conductor. He was, however, slightly disappointed that the honor choir girls got to sing Omnia Sol instead of the boys. Dr. Stroope actually called him and another boy from his school down from the back row and put them in the front row during rehearsal because he liked that their voices were so deep and wanted them to be heard more! I cannot even describe the proud look that was on Chris’ face when he came home after rehearsal that day and told us about this! He was just beaming!! The performance was so good! Louis and I are so proud of Chris! He looked so grown up standing up on that stage during the performance and I think that he was actually proud of himself too! Those kids all sounded so good. It’s hard to believe that they are just in middle school.

And let me tell you, just the fact that he is even in Madrigals and Honor Choir is something that makes us proud. You see, Chris gets extremely bad stage freight if he has to perform by himself. And this is exactly what he had to do to tryout for both Madrigals and Honor Choir. We found out about his stage freight a few years ago when he was in elementary. He wanted to tryout for a school talent show and had a panic attack during the tryout. The teachers said he turned white as a ghost, started breathing hard and sweating and they were concerned that he was going to pass out! So last year when he decided to tryout for Madrigals (he had to sing by himself in front of 3 judges), I was concerned about how he would handle it. I got the music for the piece of the song he had to learn and played it on the piano for him so he could practice. He and I worked and worked on it and I thought that he had it down really well. But on the day of tryouts, he didn’t go. But his choir teacher Mrs. Fleischer didn’t take to kindly to that, so she cornered him the next day and had him do the piece for just her and then gave him a shot at being in Madrigals. And I am pretty sure that she is glad that she forced him to tryout!

Fast forward to this year….imagine my surprise when Chris decided that he was going to tryout for the CCSD Honor Choir!! He seemed to be doing well with it all, until Friday, the day before the tryout. Mrs. Fleischer had a rehearsal with all the kids trying out after school. I went to pick up Chris and when I saw most of the other kids coming out and no Chris, I knew something was up. I walked into the choir room and saw Chris, pale as a sheet, shaky, breathing really shallow and sweating. I immediately had him take off his backpack and hoodie and sit down. I fanned him while Mrs. Fleischer worked with all the other boys and then saved Chris for last. She talked to him and encouraged him and got him to sing the song. And without prompting, he sang it perfectly in pitch. She told him that he is a talented young man and that she wouldn’t let him tryout if she didn’t think he was capable.

He went to tryouts the next morning and afterward he was sure that he didn’t make it. He said that the judges had warned him that the music they were using was a lot slower than he had practiced with. But even with that warning, he said he wasn’t able to keep up with the song and that he was just terrible. Nothing I could say made him feel any better. My Mom even spoke to him over the phone and nothing she said helped either. But, of course, we know that all this was for nothing, because he made Honor Choir!

This whole experience has really helped his confidence. He is helping Mrs. Fleischer out in Concert Choir (which he sings with as well) by working with the other basses and he really is becoming a leader! Both Chris and Mark have performances coming up. Chris has a Fall Concert with Madrigals and the advanced orchestra and band this Wednesday, October 29th. I will update on them with pictures and hopefully video soon after them as our schedule permits. Chris also has performances next month for 3 different Christmas lighting ceremonies. Whew! We are going to be busy!! For now, here are pictures of our handsome boy from the Honor Choir performance and links to videos from the performance that I posted onto YouTube. Enjoy!



Much love to all!

Angela, Louis, Chris and Mark

Chris and his autographed sheet music

from Dr. Z. Randall Stroope

Me, Chris and Louis

Chris is just to the left of the boy sitting down

Chris with Dr. Z. Randall Stroope






YouTube video links:



My Dancing Day



Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One (boys only):

The Heavenly Aeroplane

Sit Down Servant (with the high school honor choir)