In exactly 60 days we will be climbing aboard this:
We'll be on it for 6 nights in the western Caribbean, doing this:
and this:
and this:
and this:
and this:
We've
booked our first ever Disney cruise. Actually, our first ever cruise.
And actually (this is kind of embarrassing) our first ever family
vacation with just our family. Since Sawyer was born we've always gone
with extended family or friends. I am beyond excited to spend some time
doing amazingly fun things in warmer weather with just the three of us.
Well, just the three of us and a couple thousand new friends.
And
yep, if you looked at your calendar you're right - in 60 days it's
Christmas Eve. This will be an unconventional Christmas for sure but I'm
very much looking forward to not having to cook or clean or wrap a
bunch of gifts this year. After everything we've gone through in the
past several months, we all need a break. And we desperately need
something to look forward to other than shots and procedures. My beta
test following this next FET is December 12, and the thought of spending
Christmas at home a couple weeks after another negative or chemical
pregnancy is too depressing for words. This way even if the results are
bad, we'll be busy getting ready to travel and will have lots of
pampering and excitement in the future. And if the results are good,
even better. The countdown is on!
Sawyer turned 5 years old, and is attending the special education preschool program again with his beloved teacher Ms. Brenda. We're trying to get him as ready as possible for kindergarten in the fall, and at this point it's looking like he'll do well in a mainstreamed class. It's amazing how much he has improved. Still no diagnosis but we're working on it along with his teachers and developmental pediatrician.
I planted more tulips. I will not rest until every inch of flower bed is full of tulips!
We finally replaced the dirty white carpet in our family room with hardwood - so much easier to keep clean!
We had lots of playdates with cousins Caroline and Mary Grace, always Sawyer's most favorite friends.
I went to Girls Camp as a stake level leader, and it was the highlight of my summer. I'm now working with the young women at church, and I get to be a level leader again this summer - yay!
The other highlight of my summer was spending two whole weeks at the Outer Banks with my family. Relaxing, refreshing, rejuvenating...take your pick. Eric even came for about 5 days.
Penny picked up a bad case of scabies at the boarding kennel while we were gone. It took us 3 vet visits to finally figure out why she was so itchy all the time. Poor doggie in the Cone of Shame.
In September we adopted another rescue dog, Duncan. He's a 1 year old Golden Retriever and loves every human being in the world like crazy. We love him too, even though my vacuuming has tripled since we brought his furry butt home.
Sawyer had a blast being Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. He was a big hit at the town parade - even though he wasn't actually in it. Kids from the floats kept yelling "Hey! I see Buzz Lightyear!"
We attended the Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30. Sawyer loved it, especially when we had to force our way onto a packed Metro car to get there. He kept telling everyone we saw "I'm going to a rally!"
I completed the Couch to 5k program in preparation to run my first 5k (the "Freeze Your Gizzard" in Leesburg) but unfortunately got injured the week before the race (not from running - from Duncan running into my shin! No break, just a bone bruise but the doctor was scared about blood clots.) I'll do another one someday.
Maybe.
In December Sawyer lost his first tooth. He didn't even tell us it was loose, I just went to put him in the bath and noticed that it was missing. We found it on the kitchen floor.
We stayed in Virginia for the holidays this year. For Thanksgiving we had dinner with Robbie, Michael, Erin, and her friend Avery, and a fun brunch at Megan and Ryan's the next day. We spent Christmas Eve attending church with Megan, Ryan and their kids and had dinner at their home (where Sawyer lost his second tooth - Santa and the Tooth Fairy came the same night!)
We took Sawyer to his first Kennedy Center performance - The Nutcracker. He loved it and, to our great surprise, sat still through the whole thing.
After Christmas we flew to Utah to see my little sister Tori get married to Billy Strong during one of the biggest snowstorms of the year. It was wonderful to be there for their special day as well as to spend time with my mom. Another shining moment was spending New Year's Eve in a sports bar called Wing Nutz trying desperately not to laugh as a group of very white Provo rappers "performed" a few feet away from us.
Concerts! I got a few good ones in this year - Ray Lamontagne and David Gray at Merriweather Post Pavilion in August, The Weepies at State Theater in November, Joshua Radin at the 9:30 Club February 15, and David Gray again just last week at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda. The last one was quite possibly the pinnacle of my entire concert-going career - front row, dead center, acoustic tour. Perfection.
It's that time of the year again, when everywhere you go stores are playing Christmas music. Or holiday music, if you're more inclined to celebrate Hannukah or Kwanzaa or Festivus (anyone know any Festivus carols?) I love most Christmas music, but if I really want to get in the mood (the Christmas mood, get your mind out of the gutter!) I'll listen to traditional hymns and carols. This one might be my all-time favorite.
Or this:
Lest you think I am a fuddy-duddy (did I really just type "fuddy-duddy"?) I do like some of the more modern offerings, like this:
And this:
And even this:
Now for the question I was thinking of as I started this post: If you could eliminate any Christmas song, completely get rid of it and never hear it again, which one would you choose?
I don't need to think about this one for very long; it would definitely be "The Little Drummer Boy." It is ridiculously repetitive and contains far too much onomatopoeia (although if I'm being honest, the only good onomatopoeia is NO onomatopoeia.) The only rendition that does it justice is Dwight Schrute's.
I am almost 32 years old, and part of me still wants an American Girl doll for Christmas. When I was a kid they only had the historical dolls representing various periods of American history, and I wanted a Kirsten doll something crazy. My friend Ashley had the Samantha doll with all the accessories and I practically boiled with jealousy every time we played with it. My parents never had the budget to get me a Kirsten - actually, I suspect that they could afford one Kirsten doll, but not five, and since I had four sisters it wouldn't really be fair for only me to get one. American Girl retired the Kirsten doll this year, so it's officially too late for my wish to come true.
Don't cry, I'll be OK. I'm getting a Wii.
But if I had a daughter, I would TOTALLY get her an American Girl doll, probably this one, even if she didn't want one, just so I could play with it too.
I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Las Vegas. Girls only. No kids. No husbands. No cooking, cleaning, picking up or dropping off. Just girl talk, good food, 85˚ weather, shopping, and less than 8 hours of cumulative sleep. It was amazing.
These are the girls I got to spend time with:
And this was the reason for it all:
This was my fifth time seeing Rob Thomas. It only takes once to realize that the guy is freakishly talented, and he puts everything he's got into each performance. This time was no different. It helped that we had second row seats, and that the Pearl (in the Palms Casino) is an amazing smallish venue. I didn't keep track of the set list, but luckily the lovely Tiburon of Shark Bait did it for me in great detail. She got lots of great video and much better pictures than my iPhone can produce (one of these days I'll get a compact digital camera - my Canon EOS never gets past security, which is a bummer, because I could get some pretty sweet shots with my long-focus lens. Oh well.) Here's the best shot I managed to get, during "Fire on the Mountain."
And another kind of cool one, I think this was during "Sunday Morning New York Blue."
I did get some pretty OK audio, although it takes me a few seconds to start recording so I cut off the beginning of these songs. (Also it took me a while to figure out that it was loud enough that I didn't need to hold my iPhone up to record. Just holding it in my lap while recording worked much better. Duh.)
My favorite moments of the evening were, predictably, the acoustic ones. He covered Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You," which was a welcome surprise - I have always loved that song. He more than did it justice. If you listen closely you can hear Tiburon professing her love for Rob, and you can hear me singing along. I like to pretend I was up there on the stage singing with him. I'm weird.
"Baby Can I Hold You"
Rob explained that he had run into a couple that day who told him they got engaged at one of his concerts a couple of years before. They were in Las Vegas on their honeymoon and were at the concert that night. "Ever the Same" was their wedding song, and he dedicated it to them. It's a really sweet version.
"Ever the Same"
He also played "Smooth," which isn't quite as awesome without Santana, but is still one of the sexiest songs ever if you ask me. I like the classical guitar action on this one. (This video is from his Soundstage performance, not the show I was at, but it's almost the same arrangement. He had Zach Filkins, the guitarist from OneRepublic* accompany him.)
And I just have to post this because it highlights his best dance moves: the hip circle, the chest pat, the jump up and down in place, the crouch, and the point at the audience.
Although it is missing the finger twirl, demonstrated here (at around 1:04).
Seriously though, I love his dancing because he puts his entire body into his performance. The amount of passion he exudes is incredible. (I mean passion for music. Ahem.)
Sing to me Rob. Sing in my ear.
Thanks so much for an unbelievable weekend ladies! Thanks especially to the gorgeous Mindi of Word to Your Mother, whom I've never met but who let me have her ticket. I hope your generosity comes back to you in spades. Or in the form of free concert tickets. Or whatever you wish.
*Speaking of OneRepublic, they were the opening band. They were AMAZING. Ryan Tedder, the lead singer, has one of those voices that is even better live than recorded. He was jumping from microphone to keyboards to guitar and back, crooning and belting and generally blowing me away. I will be buying their new album for sure. Check them out, they are way more than just "Apologize."
Like a lot of people, I go through phases with the music I listen to. For the past few weeks I've been solidly in a Weepies phase. They are wonderful. Happy, thoughtful, wistful, melodic folk/pop. Here are a few of my favorites.
The first Weepies song I heard, which I still think is one of their best.
Here's the song I wish we had danced to at our wedding. (And in case you're curious, here's the song we actually danced to. I know, SO cheesy, but it's meaningful to us from our high school days, and it hit the radio waves in 1993, the year we met. Please don't judge me.)
And one more for good measure - I sing this one all day long. It's Eric's favorite.
Now it's your turn. What are you listening to these days?
I recently got a notice that my car insurance policy was going to be credited because Geico made a mistake calculating my premium. I waited excitedly for the check to find out how much I would get back - it's not every day that some of that money you pay out in bills comes back! Finally the other day it came.
Yep. They sent me a check for 24 cents. I guess they knew I couldn't get by without that last (less than a) quarter in my budget. Thanks Geico!
Someone on the soap forum I frequent posted a link to this hilarious blog: (The Customer Is) Not Always Right It's a collection of exchanges between customer service employees and crazy customers. I laughed so hard reading some of them. If you've ever worked in customer service you'll relate!
This is my new favorite blog: My Religious Blog It reads a lot like an LDS version of Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts." Here are a couple of my favorites.
Misunderstanding I thought I overheard a couple of guys badmouthing the Church this morning and I got really mad.
But then it turned out they were actually just badmouthing the Lurch (that guy from the Adam’s Family), so I wasn’t really mad anymore.
Because man, I hate the Lurch!
Ideal Meeting Time Some people think the best meeting block is from 9:00 – 12:00 because they like to take a nap after church.
Other people think the best meeting block is from 11:00 – 2:00 because they like to sleep in on Sunday morning.
But I think the ideal meeting time would be 11:30 – 12:00 because seriously…
You know how when you run into an ex you always self-centeredly hope your life is going better than theirs? No such luck for this girl. (There's a bit of adult language right at the beginning.)
Eric and I don't go to nearly as many movies as we used to since finding a babysitter is always a challenge, so when we get a chance to see one we feel pressure to make it a good one. On Saturday my dad offered to babysit and we went to see "Slumdog Millionaire." We weren't disappointed. It's hands down the best film I've seen this year. And since it won a bunch of Golden Globes last night (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score - it won every category it was nominated for) it should be around in theaters for quite a while.
The story is about a young man named Jamal who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, India. Now working as a chai wallah at a cell phone call center, he gets the chance to be on India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." He surprises everyone by answering every question correctly, right up to the final question. Convinced that he must be cheating (he's completely uneducated and even doctors and lawyers haven't made it that far in the game) they arrest him and question him. During the questioning we see flashbacks of his life, and the things that happened to him that allowed him to know the answers to the questions. It's a love story, a coming of age story, and it transports you straight into another world. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Someone posted this on my soap forum and I thought it was really funny. (Warning: he drops a couple of F bombs right at the end, so it's not kid friendly!)
It's nice to know there are men other than my husband that appreciate women who read. Although, for the record, I do like Harry Potter.
Going to concerts is one of my favorite things to do, so I often ask for tickets for my birthday or Christmas. For my last birthday we went to see Matchbox 20. The first Christmas after we got married Eric took me to see Tori Amos. I love getting an experience as a gift, rather than more things. I have too many things. For my big Christmas present this year, I got to see these guys.
But sadly, not this one.
When I saw that Ryan Adams and the Cardinals were opening for Oasis at a venue near us, I couldn't pass it up. Oasis was my favorite band all through high school and college, and Ryan Adams has been my favorite for the past several years. But due to a series of unfortunate events, we were late to the show and walked in right after Ryan and the Cardinals had finished. It wasn't meant to be. Here's what I imagine it would have been like if I had seen them play one of my favorite songs, "Let It Ride." (This was during his scruffy stage, he looks better now. Not that it's about the looks. It's all about the music. Just the music. Ahem.)
Luckily though I'm told he comes to our area a lot so I should get another chance to see him live. And my awesome sister-in-law loves him too so we can go together and spare Eric all my screaming. He lucked out during Oasis since I'm sick and didn't have the energy to get *too* wild. The show was great, although I will say that I would have enjoyed it a lot more had they left out all their new songs and played only songs from "Definitely Maybe" and "Morning Glory." The highlight for me was "Masterplan." Their new stuff just doesn't do it for me. I must be getting old.
I've found a new favorite holiday treat: Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares. I think they've actually replaced Cadbury's Chocolate Balls on my list - that's how good they are. The chocolate is so smooth it rivals any European chocolate I've had. The best part is that Eric doesn't like the mint/chocolate combo, so he never steals them. They're all for me!
From the creators of Fail Blog comes.... Engrish Funny! I have been looking at these and cracking up for the past few days. (Just a warning that some of them require a crass sense of humor and tolerance for unintentional profanity.) Here are a few of the less offensive ones.
(Actually a pretty good name for the whole Disney Princess phenomenon.)
"I'll tell you one thing, I am not going to be one of those women schlepping her kids around in a minivan. I want an SUV... with three rows of seats." -Kelly Kapoor, The Office
Until recently, I had been driving our Honda Accord that we bought soon after Sawyer was born. We picked it out just for me and I was very happy with it. Comfortable, easy to clean leather seats, XM radio. But with Eric's new office being a bit farther away and gas prices being so high, we figured out that we could save over $300 a month just by switching cars. So now he's driving the Accord, which means I get his car: a big manly Dodge Durango. Not the car I would have chosen for myself, but I'm finding that it is nice to have all that room for strollers, toys, groceries, etc. in the back. And that third row of seats has gotten a lot more use than I thought it would - you know, considering that I only have one child. The gas mileage is truly horrible, but I so rarely drive more than a few miles at a time that it isn't too much of an issue. Of course, I had to personalize it immediately by putting my LOST sticker on the back, and before long I'll have it decorated to the point that Eric will be embarrassed to drive it from now on (I think something along the lines of "Breast is Best!" or "Soapers do it with bubbles" would probably do the trick.) Yep, I'm living the dream!
This week I started a new exercise routine: walking on a nearby bike trail. I've been doing three miles a day, which for me is a lot (all you serious runners, please don't laugh at me!) It takes me about an hour, so I'm not going super fast either - but since prior to this week I was doing almost nothing, I feel good about it. I'm footsore and muscle sore, and it feels great. Today I went the extra mile - literally - and did four. It hasn't been hard to get up and go because the weather this whole week has been fantastic. Cool in the mornings and evenings, breezy, and never too hot. Virginia in August is usually so hot and humid that you get drenched in sweat just cracking open the front door, so this is unseasonably temperate. Nature must approve of my attempts at exercising.
I brought the camera along today so I could capture some of the beauty of the trail. For some reason everything came out a bit overexposed (I'm the epitome of "amateur enthusiast" when it comes to photography and generally have no idea what I'm doing) but I got some good shots of some flowers and critters along the way. And one near miss that could have been a great photo, but isn't.
The trail.
Ready to hit the road in my new shoes.
The underbrush is so dense this time of year. It's no wonder Sawyer always says "It's a rainforest!"
Part of the trail goes past a quarry. Sawyer loves to stop and see the huge trucks.
Goose Creek. Sorry about the chain link. For some reason they want to make sure the bikers don't fall off the bridge. By the way, you should know that it was a personal triumph for me to actually stop in the middle of the bridge to take this picture because of my crippling fear of heights. I was white-knuckling the camera the whole time.
Virginia countryside. I love the color of the grass at the end of summer, all bleached out by the sun.
Sawyer squinting into the sun and showing me his flower. He held onto it until it wilted away completely.
I wish I could tell you the names of all these flowers, but I have no idea what most of them are. Maybe a Virginian naturalist could step in and enlighten me (Katy??)
With Sawyer's help, I saw a lot of animals today.
A little groundhog that ran off as soon as we got too close and dived into his hole.
A moth that was fluttering around the wildflowers.
A large bird (how's that for descriptive?)
A heron and some Canada geese (I know what those are!)
Circling birds.
And the worst, which could have been the best:
Can you see it? Me either. I had stopped to photograph a bird that was perched on a branch, was just zooming in and focusing when I heard a crash in the brush close by. I jumped about a mile and looked up to see a male whitetail deer with a huge rack of antlers about 10 feet away from me. I was so startled that it took me a few seconds to get the camera pointed at him, and by that time he was completely covered by the bushes. Too bad I'm not Dwight Schrute.
I started writing here back in 2004 to document my adventures with infertility and IVF. Why The Growing Season? Because with every challenge that comes along the way, there's an opportunity for growth. But don't worry, I rarely get that deep.
Me and the Mr.
Bickering over the covers since 2002
Big Guy
Light of our lives and prodigious guzzler of chocolate milk
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