Is this really all we have to be proud of?

My in-laws, though originally from New York, now live in the tiny town of Liberty, North Carolina.  Every time my husband and I go to visit, we pass a sign at the Liberty city limits, that proudly boasts they are home of Craig Kirkman, 1987 World Skeet Champion.

I'm really afraid that, in 50 years, Garner will still be displaying a sign that they are home of 2011 American Idol Runner-Up, Scotty McCreery.

Now, let me start by saying that I'm not much of an "American Idol" fan.  I watched the first couple of seasons because I was in high school and no one had invented TiVo yet, and I followed a little bit of the season where the infinitely more-talented Adam Lambert lost to some boring nice guy.

I did watch a little bit of the beginning of this season because I'm an Aerosmith fan and Steven Tyler's drug-fried brain forces him to say hilariously inappropriate things.  But it became obvious early on, when all the superior female singers kept getting voted off, that it was truly just a popularity contest, and crush-obsessed tween girls were dominating the voting.

Unfortunately, living in the Triangle, I can't avoid what has to be the stupidest side-effect of "American Idol":  Scotty McCreery Hysteria.

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Starting Point Church in Raleigh

Just had an amazing Easter service at Starting Point Church and, I had planned to take this weekend off, and not do a weekend post, but I just feel so strongly about what God is doing in my life and in my church, that I wanted to share this video showing a little bit about Starting Point - Raleigh.

I know it's 5 minutes long which, in internet time, is like sitting down to watch "Gone With the Wind", but it's a really amazing video.  It's got everything, including bathtub baptisms and toilet-chucking.  (Look for "toilet-chucking" in the next summer games.)  Watch the video, and check out the awesome things that are happening in Raleigh.

We were hit hard.

The photo to the left is of an area less than a mile from my house.  Everywhere around here looks like that.  None of my family and friends, nor even their property, were harmed.  We were very lucky.

I'll admit, growing up around here, I don't always take severe weather as seriously as I should.  I've been through major hurricanes, tornadoes, and once lost power for two weeks during an ice storm (we showered at the gym).

So, when I heard that thunderstorms were being predicted for this past Saturday, my only real concern was how much it would affect the church Easter Egg Hunt.

I was volunteering, so I got to the egg hunt early.  We had a bouncy house set up, tents for candy, food, and hid eggs everywhere outside.  Our contigency plan was that, if it rained, we'd just move inside.

The sky darkened, but there wasn't any rain, so we were go.  We had our first group of egg hunters, no problem.  Then the wind started to pick up.

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I want YOUR reviews!

I've got talks in the works with a couple of places to do some reviews on Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) kid-friendly businesses here on the site. (Look for those posts coming up in the next couple of weeks.) But the problem is, as only one person, I can only cover so much ground.

So I want your suggestions. Where in the Triangle are the best places to bring kids? And I'm talking stores, restaurants, entertainment, you-name-it. Tell the place and what you like about it, and I'll try to contact them to arrange a feature. Easy as that!

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