fabulous confabulations & random ramblings
off the top of my head…tales about the absurdity of every day life
Happy New Year, dear reader. I don’t know about you, but for me 2013 was the longest year ever…yet I still can’t believe it’s over.
Our little family went through a lot this year, and I won’t rehash it all for you now, but I feel like I’ve aged a lot in this last trip around the sun. But with feeling a little older comes the sense that I’ve (hopefully) grown a little wiser too. Continue reading “new”
I’ve been on a big reading kick lately. But after some heavier material, I decided to go for an old friend from my college days: the trashy romance novel.
Sure, the writing is mediocre at best, and the character development usually stops at “washboard abs” or “desperate, smokey eyes,” but there’s something relaxing about getting lost in someone else’s drama that can’t possibly concern you.
Yes, escape is good :)
In recent weeks I’ve been in the habit of getting up at 6:00 (or a snooze button push or two later) and working out, packing Trey’s lunch, and enjoying my quiet time all before the rest of the house started stirring. But not today mes amies!
Today, as the rain came down soft and steady, the covers came up and I snuggled in for a few extra “have-the-bed-all-to-myself” Zs.
And while I genuinely feel bad for not getting up early to help Trey get out the door, I must say it was absolutely glorious.
Some days you just gotta take advantage of the cozy moments. I’ll get back to my routine (and an early 4 mile run) tomorrow – but for now, I’m hunkering down and snuggling up with this handsome devil.
In the past month I have read 3 1/2 books…and it’s been glorious! It’s been so long that I had forgotten how much I truly missed getting lost in a good book.
I started off with Pride & Prejudice (how I have I only just now read this for the first time?), and I officially have a writer’s crush on Jane Austen. She’s hilarious. But in a witty, clever way that you don’t see coming. Elizabeth Bennett’s father is one of my new favorite characters in all of literature. After that I promptly started on Emma (I told you I had a crush), but have had to put it on hold because two other books entered my life on a timeline and I just finished the second.
Since W. Paul Young (or William P. Young – depending on where you look), author of The Shack, is coming to speak at our church this coming weekend (****MY BIRTHDAY IS SUNDAY PEOPLE! IN LIEU OF GIFTS, PLEASE SEND LOTS OF HOME DEPOT CARDS TO OUR HOUSE SO I CAN DO SOME AWESOME LANDSCAPE WORK, OKAYTHANKSBYE****), I wanted to reread the book so I could get the most out of his message. While I was at the library picking it up (because either Mom or Amy has my copy and they each keep saying the other one has it), I stumbled upon Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, which was recommended to me to by the fabulous Jay Coffman as something he knew I’d enjoy – and boy was he right! Um, absolutely hilarious. I’ve never enjoyed so many stories about animal carcasses, and lady bits, and zombies…
So today (or tomorrow), I dive back into Emma and will vehemently resist the urge to watch Clueless until I’m done!
In short…if you’re a reader, and even if you’re not, don’t let so much time go by that you forget what it’s like to lose yourself in someone else’s story. Because life is nuts, and sometimes reading a book lets you forget.
Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it…
I love spring. Not as much as fall, mind you, but still. I like the cool/hot weather that can never seem to make up its mind. I like seeing flowers bloom – what an awesome reminder of new life and rebirth. But most of all, I love that it’s the kick off of Yard Work Season.
Yes, you read that right. What I love most about spring is that it gives me the opportunity to work with my hands. Nothing says a hard days work like a day pulling weeds and shoveling mulch. Mowing the lawn (while it’s hard work) is INSTANT gratification – and who doesn’t love that?
We’ve already had 4 humming birds grace our kitchen window. The daffodils that Grandma sent last fall are in full bloom. I keep finding lots of awesome big rocks to include in our flower bed. We bought a lawn mower (FINALLY! Thanks to the Watts and Schroeders for letting us borrow theirs all last season) and a weed-whacker. Man, that thing is much more powerful than I expected…I LIKE it! But we’ve got one super springy problem…
I’ve pulled them, I’ve sprayed them, I’ve cursed their very existence, and I still can’t seem to rid our yard of weeds. HELP! Seriously, help. It seems like no matter what I do, they come right back.
But that won’t stop me from tryin’!
First of all, let me apologize for not posting a blog yesterday. You see, Trey is out of town, and I woke up with a down-right painful crick in my neck, and I had about 5 movies that I recently picked up from the library in anticipation of Trey’s absence, AND when my “post blog entry” alarm went off yesterday morning I was in the bathroom. So, when I finally remembered that my alarm had gone off several hours later, I just wasn’t in the mood.
Call me crazy, call me lazy, call me what you will – but sometimes, even though I love writing, I just don’t feel like it. Some days the pressure of saying anything remotely interesting at all is just too much. Other days I fancy myself as something brilliant and can’t wait to pour out whatever words are floating around my gargantuan noggin’. But yesterday wasn’t one of those days.
Yesterday was a lazy day. Yesterday was a paint my toenails and eat couscous and watch old musicals kind of day.
Speaking of old musicals, you know what gem I uncovered at the Patrick Heath Public Library? Pete’s Dragon.
PETE’S DRAGON! Seriously, Disney, why don’t you make movies like that anymore? Why must we tolerate things like Hannah Montana instead of the soothing image of Helen Reddy telling me she’ll be my “Candle on the Water”???
Ya know, for a film that debuted in 1977, they did a fantastic job editing in that cartoon dragon…better than some modern editing. It honest to goodness looks like Pete (played by Sean Marshall, who is stinkin’ precious, by the way) is climbing up on Elliot’s tummy (Elliot’s the dragon…duh) to eat those apples!
Anyway, I realize that this isn’t the intellectual prose you were most likely looking for (ha!), but it’s what’s on my mind. I just miss the movies I grew up on: Pete’s Dragon, Pollyanna, Annie, Mighty Ducks, 3 Ninjas – they just don’t make ’em like that any more!
Okay, it’s Tuesday. My calendar reminder went off about 20 minutes ago prompting me to write this week’s blog. And I got nothin’.
The one thing I can think of to write about is a sensitive matter and effects more people that just my household so I feel like it’s not my place to say anything. Other than that I can’t think of anything worthwhile to type.
So here you have it, my weekly message:Â I can’t think of anything to write about.
But on the plus side, Rufus apparently likes us now :)
Is it just me or is any one else thankful for the Super Bowl Power Outage of 2013? 
Let me explain myself:
First and foremost – the game up until that point was flat out boring. I mean, it’s like San Fransisco forgot where they were. And I’m a 49ers girl from way back (I’m pretty sure my fandom is solely based on the fact that a cute boy let me wear his 49ers Starter Jacket [remember those?] once in middle school).
Secondly, (and more of what this post is all about), it gave the world, or the US at least, the chance to pause and joke about it. I mean, once I stopped holding my breath and praying that we weren’t about to witness some horrific terrorist attact, I thoroughly enjoyed perusing Twitter and Facebook to see what other folks thought about the outage, the game, and the commercials in genteral. And as I read (along with Ayesha who was seated next to me on the couch reading her own Facebook and Twitter comments), I was overcome by this feeling of commeraderie. An internal “It’s A Small World After All” kinda glow. I mean, here we were, in our pajamas, watching the Big Game and eating nachos and wings with friends, and through the wonder of technology (Trey’s never gonna let me live down using that phrase…) we were enjoying one-liners and quips from Steve Martin, Neil Patrick Harris, Dave Ramsey, and dear personal friends from a thousand miles away.
Anyway, in honor of my warm and fuzzy Super Bowl moment, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the evening:
@AyeshaSchroeder – Wow #SuperBowl I was rooting for the Ravens, but now I kind of want SF to win!
@DaveRamsey – Ram wins with Paul Harvey or you have no heart
@SteveMartinToGo – Thank God I have this “Superdome Lights-On” iPad app.
@DaveRamsey – Super Bowl needs an envelope for their electric bill?
@ActuallyNPH – All the lights are out!! It’s pandemonium!! Thank God we have our Beyonce finger lights!
@SteveMartinToGo – I didn’t realize there would be commercials
Justin Seay – I sure hope leon sandcastle falls to the panthers in the draft…woot woot.
Blair Hamilton – Beyonce was so fabulous she blew a fuse- Holt McCarley.
Logan Archer – SUPERBOWL monday???!! Thats right its 7:35 am over here in korea and we get a day off to watch the superbowl gotta love america!! :) ooo and btw as a football fan i know the ravens are goin to win haha
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, M&Ms was my favorite commercial of the night.
Happy New Year!
I hope, Dear Reader, that your Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year were full of love, laughter, and lots of delicious food. I know mine were!
In the spirit of the New Year, I thought I’d share a resolution with you – because, Dear Reader, it involves you (if you’ll still have me)!
This year, I resolve to post a new blog entry each week. I’m sure you’ve already guessed…new blog posts will appear every Tuesday. I’m setting my calendar reminder as soon as I post this entry (which, I realize, is not on Tuesday). So each week, as soon as that alarm sounds, I’ll post whatever thoughts happen to be rolling around in my head. I sincerely hope this will get me back in the swing of things, and back in your good graces, as I realize it has been months since my last post.
So there you have it, my resolution to you. Please take me back!