Archives for August 2008

A List. Imagine That.

22 August 2008 by

1. I’m sitting at the airport, waiting for my flight to San Antonio. I’m listening to some people talk about cows and grandbabies. They’re making me laugh with their enthusiasm about both.

2. Today – in about four and a half hours – I’ll get my first taste of authentic Tex-Mex. REAL-LIVE Tex-Mex. Last night David asked me if I was excited about that, and I honest-to-goodness said, “Yes! Because I hear they sometimes make the guacamole at the table!”

I am so easily entertained.

Anyway, I’ve thought for weeks now about what I want to order (the fact that it will contain cheese is pretty much a given, isn’t it?), but I think it’s safe to say that I’ll take lots of pictures of what ever it is.

Sweet, sweet memories.

3. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but our child is officially the best waker-upper on the planet. He’s the total opposite of me in this regard. Regardless of how early he has to wake up, he jumps out of bed happy and ready to face the day. I MARVEL at his level of cheerfulness.

4. The guy next to me is talking about how he’ll get to work on a diagram ASAP and CC so-and-so on it. Y’all. If had a job where my paycheck depended on me generating some sort of diagram, I would last at said job approximately forty-four seconds. I’m totally stressed out for this guy and I don’t even know him.

I have some codependency issues.

5. College football and a new season of The Amazing Race are right around the corner. I am understandably giddy.

6. Somebody just mentioned that they wanted to get “a soda.” Which was a dead giveaway that she’s not from here. I do love me some regional dialect.

7. Flight boarding. More later. From TEXAS. Yee-haw.

Filed Under: Rambling

He Loves It. A Lot.

20 August 2008 by

Well, my little man started kindergarten. And I was surprisingly not-at-all sad because it was such a happy time. Seriously. Not even a hint of a tear. I think it was because he was SO STINKIN’ EXCITED that there was just no way to be anything other than thrilled to pieces about the whole big school adventure.

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The back-to-school breakfast? Grits, of course. And a few minutes of Star Wars. Because OH MY SWEET MERCY the Star Wars obsession around here is somewhere around mach-five-Death-Star-Obi-Wan-warp-speed-squared levels.

(No sense I make.)

(Eluded me always science-fiction has.)

Anyway.

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The first day marked the return to tennis shoes after a summer of Crocs and flip-flops. The little man was so happy to see a pair of REAL LIVE SOCKS when he was getting dressed that you would’ve sworn they were long-lost friends. Which I guess they sort of were. Since he hasn’t worn socks since May and all.

A. adores his teacher, who, by all accounts, is the Mary Poppins of the kindergarten set. I also adore her because she has more of a Southern accent than I do, and that is NO SMALL FEAT, my friends.

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After the first chock-full-o-fun-day-o-school, we went to lunch with my sweet friend NK and her girls. We did this last year after the first day of preschool, and we decided to make it an annual tradition. The kids had a great time comparing notes on their kindergarten classes, and then they enjoyed a lively game of hide and seek on the restaurant’s patio.

Yes. You read that correctly. I ate a meal in the out of doors. In Alabama. In August. And somehow lived to tell the tale.

So, to recap: my child started kindergarten and I did not cry. Then we went to lunch and I ate outside. Either I’m in the midst of a profound hormonal imbalance or I experienced two miracles within six hours of each other.

It’s probably that first thing.

But even still. It was a really great day.

Filed Under: Family Fun

Hymned Again Winners

19 August 2008 by

Okay. I don’t know what it is with the blogosphere and the name “Amy,” but there were NINETEEN Amys who entered this giveaway, and two of them won. I’m borderline obsessed with this phenomenon, because please remember that the winners are always selected RANDOMLY, BY A COMPUTER, and yet AT LEAST ONE AMY ALWAYS WINS.

Maybe the Amys of the world are secretly controlling the internet.

At this point I’m open to all theories.

Anyway.

Here are the ten winners of Bart Millard‘s (phenomenal) “Hymned Again” CD, TWO OF WHOM ARE NAMED AMY, OH MY WORD:

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And by the way, in case you were wondering, I can tell which numbers match up with which commenters because this is what I see when I do a print preview of my comments:

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It’s some bloggy numbering magic. And thanks to this handy print preview numbering system, I can now announce our winners in a remarkably stress-free fashion that requires no counting at all and therefore enables me to continue to avoid math.

20 – Amy (OF COURSE) – comment left at 2:22 on 8/18
74 – Stephanie
177 – Amanda
230 – karen
344 – Joanne (The Simple Wife)
377 – Samantha – comment left at 9:40 on 8/18
388 – Shannon
444 – Michelle
531 – Amy K. – comment left at 11:51 on 8/19
554 – k&c’s Mom

Winners, just email me your mailing addresses so that you can get your fabulous prize ASAP.

“Hymned Again” really is wonderful – such a fun, eclectic mix of sounds (blues, jazz, gospel – with just a smidge of big band thrown in for good measure). And if you want, you can order it for yourself right here, with a portion of the proceeds from today’s sales going to the Juvenile Diabetes Association.

Thanks, everybody, for such a great response!

Filed Under: Rambling

Hymned Again

18 August 2008 by

While I recognize that the title of this post might lead you to believe that the choir pulled some sort of practical joke at church yesterday morning, that is not the case at all, my friends.

Please do allow me to explain, oh thank you.

About three years ago I gave the husband a CD called “Hymned” by Bart Millard, the lead singer of Mercy Me. And we were crazy about the CD the very first time we listened to it. I loved being able to play Bart’s CD-o-hymns in the car with my little fella – who, if memory serves, was around two years old at the time. And even though the words to “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior” were a little complex for his two year-old vocabulary, Alex did some mean bouncing in his car seat every time he’d hear that melody.

Anyhoo.

When I found out a few months ago that there was going to be a follow-up CD called “Hymned Again,” I was tickled to death. If you’ve read here for any length of time you know that THE MUSIC, I ADORE IT, and the old hymns are especially dear to my heart. Maybe it’s because I learned them when I was a child and the lyrics just get richer with time, or maybe it’s because I love singing the words that believers have been singing for generations, or maybe it’s because there’s so much rock-solid doctrine contained within four verses and a chorus. Regardless, I firmly believe that the old hymns are a treasure we need to intentionally share with our families.

So. If you’d like to win one of ten autographed (FANCY!) copies of “Hymned Again,” leave me a comment and tell me your favorite hymn. If you’re not so familiar with hymns, then just tell me your favorite song (in other words: no church-y background required to win).

And if you’d like a little hint of the musical goodness on this CD, you can watch the clip below.

This giveaway will be open until tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 central time, at which point I’ll close the comments and Mr. Random Integer Generator will select our ten winners.

Have fun, y’all!

This giveaway is now closed.

Filed Under: Jesus Music

Well Hey There.

18 August 2008 by

Oh, bloggy peoples.

What a delightful break I have had.

I’ve hung out with my family and gotten lots of work done and figured out our schedule for fall and eaten fried chicken and listened to some great new music and watched untold hours of Olympic coverage. So basically, you know, I’ve been living the dream.

One of my favorite things about the break was that since I wasn’t cranking out some average content for your semi-amusement a few times a week, I got to read way more blogs (and also: NEWS! FROM NETWORKS!) than I normally do. And – here’s a concept – I got to THINK about what I read. I got to explore pockets and corners of the blogosphere that I haven’t visited in awhile, and WHOA, NELLIE, was it ever enlightening. I actually had Some Serious Thoughts about how we really should be oh-so-thankful for our (very supportive, encouraging) little online community, and I’m going to try to write about that in the next couple of weeks, hopefully without boring you to the point that you gouge out your eyes with a plastic spoon.

As always, my goals are very ambitiousy.

So.

I’ll be back later today (let’s say 2-ish) with a REAL-LIVE MUSIC GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA, and the giveaway will only be open for 24 hours. You’ll have to CLICK LIKE THE WIND, my friends. CLICK LIKE THE WIND.

My daily links page is up and running again, too. Well, maybe not “running.” Right now it’s more of a slow jog. A slow jog with some side cramps and limping.

Finally: I can’t wait to tell you about the various and sundry funny things that have happened in our house the last few weeks. Or at least they’re funny to me. So maybe you can just indulge me and fake laugh and before you know it “The Office” will be on again and give us something really funny to talk about.

See? We’ll be back to normal in no time at all.

Back at 2-ish. With free stuff. Whoo-hoo.

Filed Under: Rambling

Interrupting The Break To Share My Joy

14 August 2008 by

Oh, I’ve missed them terribly.

Five more weeks, my friends.

Five more weeks.

Filed Under: Rambling
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