For whatever reason the little man and I spent a chunk of yesterday afternoon looking through iPhoto. It started with him wanting to see some pictures from the 4th of July, so we did, but then we just kept going and going and going until we were looking at pictures of our dogs from eight years ago.

We used to take a LOT of pictures of our dogs, y’all.

And I’m not saying that we babied our dogs before Alex came along, but, um, look:

And in addition to loving our dogs to pieces (we still love our dogs, by the way – we just don’t obsess over them quite as much as we used to), we may have watched a little too much MTV, because, um…

OH YEAH I DID.

Not only did I go to an *NSYNC concert, but I spent an entire Saturday morning on the computer (dial-up internet, no less) trying to get the BEST. POSSIBLE. SEATS. for the concert.

I loved Justin. My friend Merritt loved Lance. And she would get VERY DEFENSIVE whenever people would imply that Lance might not be as vocally talented as the rest of the *NSYNC boys, to the point that when we would watch the live concert DVD (YEAH WE DID), she would often say things like “Do y’all SEE how hard he’s working? Do you see? He’s giving it everything he has! Everything!”

And WE WERE THIRTY.

But then everything changed.

For the better.

In a million different ways.

But you know what? Even though I wouldn’t trade my current life for anything in the world (hello? motherhood? you are awesome.), I still love looking back on that pre-young’un time of our lives. We had so much fun. We weathered some big ole (BIG! OLE!) storms, for sure, but we traveled, we went to movies, we played videogames into the wee hours of the morning (“Fusion Frenzy,” anyone?), we never missed televised SEC football games, and we didn’t think twice about spending an entire Saturday afternoon on the couch while we watched a “Real World” marathon.

Before “Real World” got all trashy and stuff, of course. Because I’m telling you, after the second New York season that puppy went downhill fast.

So what about you? Whether you’re married with kids or married without kids, what are some of your favorite early marriage memories?

And if you’re not married, what are some things you love to do as you bask in your glorious freedom?

Besides watching television shows that don’t have puppets and going out to dinner at restaurants that don’t serve chicken nuggets and sleeping as late as you please on Saturdays?

Not that I miss sleeping late, of course. But OH, the memories. Sweet, sweet memories. Precious memories of All The Sleep.

See y’all in the comments.

All righty, interpeeps – according to Ye Olde Random.org, here are the ten lucky winners of Third Day’s Revelation:

134 – Erin
414 – amy (no blog – favorite travel music is U2)
108 – Erica
152 – Andrea
54 – jubliee
341 – kelli in the mirror
121 – beth
357 – Lysa
182 – lynn (no blog – comment starts with “I love oldies.”)
208 – Headless Mom

If y’all will email me with your mailing address, I’ll pass along the info to the people who are mailing out your CDs. And if you’d put “Third Day Revelation Winner” in the subject line of your email, that would be oh-so-helpful since I tend to be a bit organizationally challenged.

Congratulations, everybody – you’re going to love this CD!

Lately I feel like I need to apologize every single time I start a blog post, sort of like that sweet Jennifer on this season’s The Next Food Network Star who can’t so much as boil a potato without telling everyone how sorry, how terribly sorry she is that she maybe didn’t boil the potato quite like they would have liked because she really doesn’t know that much about potatoes except that they are delicious and she enjoys eating them but oh look she’s rambling, she can’t even believe how she’s rambling when she really just needs to describe the potato and she’s terribly sorry about the boiling and the eating and the rambling, ALL OF IT, EVERY SINGLE BIT.

But my word, y’all. I can’t seem to to write anything that has, you know, a point. And points are good when writing. Or “writing,” as it were. And so when I start writing a post that doesn’t have a point – LIKE THIS ONE, FOR EXAMPLE – I immediately feel the need to apologize and beg for your forgiveness.

Not that the begging for forgiveness part wouldn’t be just a smidge overwrought, of course.

So. All that being said.

Yesterday we tackled a mighty big to-do list, the boy and I, and by 11 AM we had conquered the bank, post office and library. The next item on our list was getting Alex a hair cut since lately his hairstyle has been looking eerily reminiscent of David Cassidy circa 1972, and quite frankly I’m not so sure that long, feathered wings are the best look for a five year-old.

(Sidenote: it’s now an hour after I wrote that last paragraph, because thinking of long, feathered wings reminded me of that Showbiz Moms & Dads show that was on Bravo a few years ago, so then I had to consult Google to check in on all involved parties, and I have been clicking away on a gloriously aimless YouTube journey ever since.)

(Addition to sidenote: perhaps this is why I’m struggling with the writing. Because I’m too busy chasing interweb rabbits.)

Anyway. The haircut.

When we walked in the salon I noticed that the girl who usually cuts the little guy’s hair seemed to be squinting, and upon closer inspection I realized that she really wasn’t squinting at all, it’s just that her right eye was almost completely closed. So I asked her if her eye was okay, and she said yes, it was fine, but over the weekend she was involved in some sort of minor accident involving errant fireworks and suffered a scratched eyeball as a result.

And then, in what had to have been one of the most surreal moments of my entire life, that kind girl proceeded to cut my child’s hair with only one eye open, all the while offering him valuable tips on fireworks safety.

The whole experience was so oddly touching and undeniably strange that I didn’t even care what Alex’s hair looked like (and it looked perfectly fine when she finished). I mean, have you ever tried to cut hair in a straight line with one eye completely shut? It cannot be easy, my friends.

We came home after the haircut so that I could turn my house upside down while I looked for a Payless receipt because I needed to return some shoes, and after about thirty minutes of TOTAL OBSESSION, I remembered that I’d put the receipt in the secretary in our bedroom before I left for SheSpeaks, and y’all, when I put my hands on that receipt I sighed with such relief that David actually looked up from his computer, laughed, and said, “This is when I wish that I had a blog.”

I thought it was real sweet that he would want to give the internet a whole new perspective on my crazy.

So Alex and I left the house again to go to Payless and the grocery store (I was in desperate need of Mrs. Meyer’s countertop spray; whatever would I do if I couldn’t make my kitchen smell like geraniums?) and finally around four we returned home so that I could cook supper and gear up for the MOST DRAMATIC BACHELORETTE EPISODE EVER.

So.

Alex wanted to play a game on my computer while I cooked, but when I tried to put the game CD in my disk drive, I couldn’t. This is no doubt related to when I dropped my computer in the airport right before I left for Africa and dented the area around the disk drive pretty badly, but for whatever reason everything has been functional up until now. However, clearly something has happened to jam the disk drive, and as a result of that my computer has gone from needing some minor body work to being a full-on – and much-beloved – Hoopty Laptop.

(Other things wrong with Hoopty Laptop: it will not shut, the fan does not work, the power cord won’t stay plugged in and I cannot run more than two applications at a time without being hypnotized by the colored spinning wheel.)

(Also: F and H pop off of the keyboard if you click on them the wrong way. Or if you click on J and G the wrong way. I think F and H are sort of over me at this point, truth be told.)

So I found a screwdriver and pulled up the frame surrounding the disk drive (I seriously doubt that prying apart the Hoopty Laptop frame with a screwdriver is a Hot Tip in the Mac forums), and I finally managed to insert a CD. I was even able to eject the CD once Alex finished his game, and I didn’t even have to use tweezers to pull it out. I thank the Lord for small mercies.

I would also thank the Lord if someone from Apple emailed me this afternoon and offered me a new laptop for free, which, by the way, is totally not at all likely.

After supper I started watching THE MOST DRAMATIC BACHELORETTE EPISODE EVER, and since I am Very Refined I was enthralled from the get-go. I won’t spoil the ending for anyone, but I have to say that my absolute favorite moment was when Jesse presented DeAnna with a small scrapbook of their time together, and he referred to the scrapbook as A Book of Thoughts.

I have never loved Jesse more than I did in that moment. Because he had some thoughts, and he put them in a book, ergo: A Book of Thoughts.

In fact, I’m contemplating changing the name of my blog to A Blog of Thoughts. Because I have some thoughts, and I put them on a blog, ergo: that title I just mentioned.

And do you know what would be super awesome? If I could take those thoughts and turn them into points.

Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll even have A Blog of Points.

An Unapologetic Blog of Points That I Composed On My Hoopty Laptop.

A girl can dream, internets.

A girl can dream.

As part of our ongoing efforts to convince the five year-old that an indoor activity can actually be fun EVEN IF IT DOESN’T END WITH THE LETTERS “ii,” I pulled out the paints and canvas this afternoon so that the little guy could exercise his inner Picasso.

And apparently, if what I’m seeing on the canvas is any indication, the inner Picasso sitting next to me has quite the thing for brown.

He’s gettin’ his earth tones on. That’s all I’m sayin’.

So anyway. I thought this might be an excellent time for me to share some announcements with the class.

1) Several of y’all emailed me asking if Believing God is available online. And the answer is yes, it is – videos and all. You can find all the info right here, and I’m sure there’s some sassy way several of you could go through the study together. I’d actually love to go through the study again, but I can’t right now seeing as how I’m seriously overcommitted and all.

2) I mentioned Brooke Fraser a few days ago on my links page. LOVE HER. And last night, when I was looking around on iTunes because WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO DO, CLEAN OR WASH CLOTHES OR SOMETHING, I noticed that her most recent CD is an iTunes editor’s choice right now, which means you can download the whole thing for $5.99. Personally I think that is quite the bargain.

3) If you live in the same area that I do, you can find BlawgHer information right here.

4) The Third Day Revelation giveaway will be open until 6 PM central time Monday. Then I’ll shut ‘er down and draw for winners.

5) On the 4th we went to the symphony pops thing in my hometown. It was a typical July night in the Deep South – maybe just a smidge cooler than usual since it was only about 85 degrees with 98 percent humidity. I wore shorts and a tube top.

OH HOW I KID.

I mean, I think we all know that I like to save my tube tops for church.

So I wore shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Mama and Martha wore long pants. No surprise there since neither of them, to my knowledge, has bared a leg in public since sometime around 1974.

But here’s the kicker: do you know what they wore with those long pants on Ye Olde Independence Day? They wore blazers. BLAZERS. Just in case there was a chill in the air.

In Mississippi. In July.

And as I sat there with them I couldn’t help but think that if I too had been wearing a blazer, I would have sweated off fifteen pounds in water weight before the fireworks even started.

Either that or I would have died.

Now do have a lovely Sunday evening.