Hello my name is Lauren, and I like to do drawings.

It's amazing how Lauren has changed in the last month. We continue to be stunned by the things that she come out her mouth, but now her drawings are becoming more and more detailed. In just the last couple of weeks, she's begun to draw stick figures. That's her in the picture above, holding an elephant.



Speaking of elephants, this is the best one yet. It really looks like an elephant!



And this is all of us holding elephants while standing under a rainbow.

While my daughter's artistry (TM Kara Dioguardi) is on the upswing, my creative energy has been ebbing. I have a couple vacation days scheduled this week leading up to Memorial Day, so hopefully I'll have a chance to work on some projects, as well as clean out my closet, find some furniture for our addition, organize my photos, find some new recipes to try, and write some long overdue e-mails. Oh, I did make some animals out of pipe cleaners this weekend. I picked up a Martha Stewart Crafts kit at Wal-Mart a couple of months ago and saved it for a rainy day. Yesterday was appropriately rainy, so out came the kit. They were a lot harder to make than they looked though - I was too weary to make the zebras. Lauren really likes them, so that's all that counts.



***Begin American Idol blabbering***

I admit it. It was me. I voted for three weeks straight. Many times. Yes, I am the one responsible for Kris Allen making the finale.

And I couldn't be more THRILLED!

Here's the deal. I love Adam Lambert. There aren't enough words to describe his awesomeness, so I'm not even going to try. I've purchased almost every one of his studio recordings from iTunes. I think he should win. However, I feel that Kris is what this show is all about. The guy who came out of nowhere, who kept plugging away week after week bringing solid performances. He didn't have a sympathetic back story like Scott, Lil and Danny. He didn't have the judges brain washing the audience week after week after week proclaiming that he would in finals. He had little to no exposure in the eariler rounds and on average poor placement during the performance rounds (Usually singing early). He made it here on his own merits and hard work. Kris is the story that Jason Castro should have been last year, if Jason wouldn't have ran out of steam. So it's only natural that I'm drawn to him - I love an underdog.

Kris caught my attention during the Top 13 round when he sang a very catchy version of "Remember the Time," but the only time I voted for him was when he stumbled during the week he sang "All She Wants to Do is Dance." That changed three weeks ago because he might as well have been wearing a sign that said, "Dead Man Walking" around his neck. On Rat Pack night, he didn't deliver the best vocal (Everyone but Matt Giraud pretty much outsang him), but his performance of "The Way You Look Tonight" was my favorite. That week, he survived a bottom 3 scare (with Adam), and went on to stand once again on shaky ground during Rock Week. I thought that the judges gave him a raw deal on "Come Together," especially when he pulled off that snazzy acapella interlude in the middle of the song.

This is off the subject of Kris, but we can't move past Rock Week without mention of Danny's "Dream On." When he unleashed that scream at the end of the song with the strobe lights flashing on his face like crazy - I was literally rolling on the floor laughing. It was just so silly and over-the-top. Poor Danny - even after that performance, the judges were very kind to him (With the exception of Simon, but it's his job to be the mean one.). Overall, Danny was a consistant performer, but the judges rarely called him on any of his weaknesses, and because of that, he wasn't given the opportunity to understand his limitations (Hence the scream from the bowels of hell). And that's the problem with the emphasis on the sympathetic back stories. How could the judges criticize a man who lost his wife without coming off as being a bunch of meanies?

Which brings us to Top 3 night. Now Kris is wearing a sign in flashing Adam Lambert Neon Pink letters - "I AM GOING HOME TOMORROW." Except, nobody told Kris that. Instead, he comes out onto stage all by his lonesome with nothing but his guitar, and sings a rap song. THAT took some guts, especially when the two guys he's competing against have such big voices. Kris's "Heartless" was definitely one of the "moments" of the season, and he pulled if off just in time. The only problem is, how can he possibly top that during the Finale?

So suffice to say that I will be pleased with whoever wins American Idol Season 8. I may just let the chips fall as they qill, but I do feel guilty that I've never voted for Adam. Maybe I'll vote once for each of them.