Here Comes Treble

25 September 2008 by

Well, I found tonight’s episode of “The Office” to be delightful in most parts, a little frustrating in others, and just plan weird at times (um, hello? Toby? In the hospital? Sort of bizarre). However, there were plenty-o-memorable moments.

1. Dwight hammering the apple into the vending machine.

2. “What up, 212?”

3. “Under my Ange-rella, ella, ella, hey, hey…”

4. “Dangerous. Tacky. Sharks. Haunted.”

5. “I’ll marry you in the eye of a hurricane in the middle of a snowstorm on top of a monsoon,” OH GOD BLESS HIM.

6. Dwight kicking the cheesecake.

7. Ryan’s back. And Kelly Kapur likes him.

8. “…and you burned over a thousand calories walking home…PHYLLIS NANCE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.”

9. “Andy Bernard does not lose contests. He wins them, or he quits them. Because they’re unfair.”

And finally:

10. WHO KNEW A QUICK STOP WOULD BE THE SIGHT OF PURE MAGIC?

So. What did y’all think?

Filed Under: Rambling

Such A Tender Time

25 September 2008 by

About thirty minutes after Alex went to bed last night, his daddy and I heard what sounded like a little crying going on in his room. And sure enough, when we checked on him, he was wide awake. He said that he couldn’t sleep, and for whatever reason, he seemed pretty upset about that whole not-sleeping thing.

I was overcome with empathy for my little man, so I crawled in the bed, snuggled up beside him, and sighed deeply as he rested his head in the crook of my shoulder.

We laid there quietly for about few minutes, and I thought about the countless times I’ve comforted him in the middle of the night. I thought about when he was three and getting used to his room in our current house. I thought about when he was two and in a “big boy bed” for the first time. I thought about when he was a newborn and I’d rock him back to sleep after a middle-of-the-night feeding.

And I remembered that when he was a baby, I could always rub my hand very gently across his forehead – back and forth, back and forth, back and forth – and after a few minutes, it was impossible for him to keep his eyes open.

I looked over at him and saw that he was still awake. So I whispered:

“Hey, buddy. You know what?”

“What, Mama?”

“When you were a baby, I would rub your forehead to make you fall asleep. Do you want me to try that now?”

“Sure, Mama,” he said. “I would love that.”

So I rubbed his little forehead – back and forth, back and forth, back and forth – and I marveled at how my “baby” is growing up. His legs stretch out almost to the end of a double bed now. His face is angular and thin. His hands look like a boy’s, not a baby’s.

I was so caught up in my reverie – and right on the verge of getting teary-eyed, I might add – that I jumped just a little bit when Alex’s voice interrupted the silence.

“Mama?” he whispered.

“Yes, baby?” I answered as I pulled him closer.

“Um, you know what?”

I waited for him to finish his thought, halfway anticipating that he was about to tell me how much he loves me, how grateful he is that I’m his mama.

“I don’t think I can really sleep anymore when you rub my head.”

Oh.

Well then.

Duly noted.

Reverie over, I reckon.

Filed Under: Chatty McTalky, Family Fun

T Minus 24-ish Hours

24 September 2008 by

Filed Under: Rambling

And We Will Name Her Marriottina

23 September 2008 by

Now before I tell you this story, I want you to know that while there are parts of my life that occasionally cause some Deep Angst, the size of our family is not one of them. The five year-old who sleeps down the hall has brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined, and as far as I’m concerned any additions to our family would be gravy. Or icing. Or the cherry on top. Or whatever food-themed metaphor you prefer, really.

Bottom line: I’m pretty much blessed beyond measure no matter how the rest of my baby future pans out – whether that means I’m the mama of one, I get pregnant again, or we adopt.

So.

With that perspective firmly established.

When Melanie and I were in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, we had a mighty deep conversation one night at supper as we shared some exceedingly average beef fajitas. We thoroughly examined a variety of topics, including but not limited to Mistakes Of Our Twenties, Qualities We Enjoy In A Shoe, Can You Believe We Met On The Internet, and Being Married To Strong-Willed Men, aka Our Husbands, They Have Some Opinions.

Eventually our conversation turned to Will There Be More Children, because sometimes it’s fun to think about possibilities, sort of like I enjoy thinking about what I might sing on American Idol if, you know, I could actually sing and I weren’t about eight years past the age limit. Plus, it’s always fun to talk about hypothetical babies because RAWR RAWR SWEET SMOOSHY BABY YUM YUM I EAT YOUR CHEEKS.

I mean, just because I’m okay with whatever direction my baby future takes doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be way past overjoyed to have at least one more round of this-here level of adorableness:

Photobucket

RAWR RAWR SWEET SMOOSHY BABY YUM.

So Mel and I talked about all the wonderfulness of babies – the wonderfulness of Caroline and Alex in particular – and by the time supper was over, I thought we might have to swing by Baby Gap “just to look.” Oh, our ovaries were all aflutter – I don’t know any other way to put it.

When we got back to our hotel, we were still talking about our young’uns as we walked down the hall to our room. The conversation continued as I tried to unlock the door (the pesky electronic key, it is my nemesis), and when I finally opened the door, this is what we saw, I’m not even kidding:

Photobucket

Y’all. We froze dead in our tracks.

And after a solid twenty second pause – during which we both tried to absorb the fact that THERE WAS A BABY BED IN OUR ROOM – Melanie screamed, “IT’S A SIGN!”

And then I screamed, “SOMEBODY’S GONNA GIVE US A BABY!”

Because, you know, that would be completely logical.

Mel called the front desk and explained that there had obviously been some sort of crib mix-up since we were not in fact traveling with any infants or toddlers, and about fifteen minutes later someone came to our room and took away the baby bed.

We stood in the center of the room all wistful-like for about three seconds.

Then we laughed until we cried.

And in keeping with the evening’s theme of pretend babies, we proceeded to have us some pretend cravings as we enjoyed a large bag of trail mix from the Walgreens along with a couple of packs of plain M&Ms.

We’re all about some realism, people.

And apparently, we’re all about some crazy as well.

Filed Under: My Friends Rock

And By The Way, I Can’t Get The Word “Wertzian” Out Of My Head

22 September 2008 by

Many of y’all know that one of my primary objectives in life (okay. maybe not “primary.” perhaps I’m overstating it. but still.) is to find great music that I can listen to even when there are kids in my car. And it’s certainly not that I have any objections to music that features the song stylings of high-pitched puppets, but I hit sort of hit my limit with that stuff when the young’un was around three.

So, if I had to succinctly state my musical goals, they would be as follows: 1) great music 2) no puppets 3) family friendly lyrics 4) good beat, can dance to it.

I’m not even kidding about number four.

About a year ago I heard a guy named Matt Wertz for the first time. I found him to be oh-so-enjoyable, but for whatever reason, I never transferred his music from iTunes to my iPod, which means it wasn’t getting any playing time in the car. Playing time in the car is critical to entering our family’s music rotation since that’s when we do the majority of our listening and singing and dancing.

Yes, I said “dancing.” I can flat-out break it down at a stoplight, y’all.

Anyhoo.

Back in June I finally put the Matt Wertz tuneage (totally a word) on my iPod, we listened to him all summer long, and we are officially fans. No, we’re Fans. FANS. Love his music so much.

Last week the talented Mr. Wertz released a new CD called “Under Summer Sun.” It’s not only safe for little ears, but it’s also a perfect soundtrack for a date night with your fella. In fact, it’s especially perfect for a date night with your fella, and if you’ve ever headed out for a date night only to have the Veggie Tales blare at you when you turn on the CD player, then you understand why appropriate music is a critical component of the date night process.

Because “O Where Is My Hairbrush” doesn’t really add a whole lot of ambience to a romantic night on the town.

So.

If you’d like to win one of five signed copies of Matt Wertz’s oh-so-excellent “Under Summer Sun” along with a free t-shirt (FAYYYYYYYYN-CEE), here’s all you have to do:

1. Go to iTunes or Amazon.

2. Listen to the song previews.

3. Come back here and tell me which clip you like the most.

4. The end.

I’ll leave this giveaway open until noon Thursday, September 25, and at that point I’ll turn over the proceedings to the fine random number generator over at random.org.

Happy music, y’all!

This giveaway is now closed.

Filed Under: Rambling

Turning To Giveaways As I Abandon All Videographer-Related Aspirations

22 September 2008 by

So I made a whole bunch of videos at the Third Day concert extravaganza last Thursday night, and a few minutes ago I sat down to figure out which ones I wanted to post for your viewing (and listening) enjoyment. I couldn’t wait to provide you with a veritable feast for the eyes and ears. I was awash with giddy anticipation.

But then I listened to the first video. And the second. And the third. And so on and so forth, etc.

It didn’t take long for a decided trend to emerge: there was definitely a bit of a sound problem with my camera. Maybe I was too close to a speaker, or maybe the rock stars use more bass than what I’m accustomed to capturing on my none-too-fayncee digital recording device. Regardless, the end result is some pretty decent video quality and some deeply sub-standard audio quality.

In fact, on every single video I shot of Third Day, Mac Powell sounds like Darth Vader with a spectacularly bad head cold. Which is not at all what he sounded like live and in person (what exactly did he sound like live and in person, you wonder? Well, in a word: BUTTER).

So that to say: I will not be posting video from the concert.

But oh, it was a delight. My friend E. and I had the best time. There are lots of shows left on their tour, and you should totally go (you can check out the cities here).

And speaking of music.

(HELLO, SEGUE’, HOW ARE YOU?)

I have three (THREE!) music giveaways coming up in the next week or so. The first one will go up later today or tomorrow; the next one will be Thursday; and the final one will be next Monday. I can’t wait to share All The Music with the internets.

Finally.

I don’t mean to tease, but I have it on good authority that there’s going to be another one of these up for grabs in a couple of weeks.

OH YES MA’AM.

It’s like Christmas in September.

Happy Monday, everybody.

Filed Under: Rambling
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