my, how times have changed

At dinner tonight, we had a little family sing-a-long. Jeff had his Droid phone flipped open, and we were singing along with Moose and Zee from Nick Jr. courtesy of YouTube. I remarked to Jeff that 100 years ago, we would have all been sitting around the piano, or maybe if we were a wealthy family, the Victrola (that's record player for you new-fangled types.) 1910, when 3 of my 4 grandparents were born, was still a few years before Marconi perfected radio (although ship-to-shore communication would be just 3 or 4 years away...one of the first messages ever received was from a ship traveling near the Titanic as she went down.) Philo T. Farnsworth (now THAT'S a name) and the rest of his cronies were still a few decades from mastering the picture tube that we know as television. Cell phones were about 65-70 years away from being invented, and, ahem, Al Gore hadn't quite put the finishing touches on the Internet just yet.

And to think...we were watching a song from TV that someone downloaded onto the Internet by searching with a hand-held computer that we also use to make phone calls.

Now, what would Grandpa think of THAT?

i'm smiling

Anytime




and



lose, I'm a happy girl. And when one of them loses at the hands of the



that REALLY makes me smile. Way to go, Badgers. And YEAH, HAWKS!

see? i told you i love lists.

Things I've been really into lately:

pumelo (it's like a giant, sweet grapefruit) You. Must. Try. One.

running- I'm "training" to train for my first marathon in May...I've run a couple of 1/2 marathons, and NEED to do this. God bless my IT bands...

scrapbooking (finally getting around to some "me" time!)

my husband- he's the BEST and is pretty cute too ;)

reading with Emerson- always one my most fave things to do with her.

watching "Sister Wives"- a TOTAL guilty pleasure. It's a reality show about a polygamist with 3 wives who is engaged to #4. Total crap, but a fascinating study on human nature. At least that's what I tell myself.

The Big Bang Theory- nerds, physics, a man with a phobia of speaking to women, and Sheldon. 'nuf said.

baking- fortunately, as I said, I'm also into running. Otherwise, this could be problematic.

fall- my most favorite time of year!

Happy Thursday~

i heart lists

I am a listmaker. I make them for the week, for the day, for whatever. I have a running grocery list and Target list. I have a list of meals that I'm planning to cook each week. And lately, I've started a weekly "free time" list. I'm finding a few minutes here and there during the day to myself (PRAISE GOD!!!), but end up literally walking around in circles trying to decide what to do with myself. By the time I make a plan, the window of opportunity has closed. What a waste! So now, when I have a second to myself, I consult my list. It says things like read Revelation (I'm doing Beth Moore's study on this last book of the Bible. It's heavy stuff, but such a blessing to have such a wonderful teacher.), scrapbook, order prints, organize my magazine binder, look into making Halloween costumes for E & P. You know, fun stuff that is also productive in some way. At no point on any list does it say "fart around on Facebook." And yet, that's what I did today. Just sat in my kitchen with my phone in hand, wasting time. I HATE wasting time. And I hate it even more when it's my fault.

Tomorrow, I'm going to refocus.

my little apple dumplin'

So I was reading a link to a blog on a blog that I follow, and saw some super cute ideas for portraits. Since Emerson is so over being corralled into sitting still and smiling pretty, I set my sights on Pete-adorable, smiley, immobile Pete. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Or baby in a bushel, as it were. We were at Jeff's parent's apple orchard this weekend, and they had the perfect props. I may tweak the coloring a bit, and change some to black & white...What do you think?

a self psycho-analysis

So, lately I've been having a recurring dream. Or, shall I say nightmare. It's happening about once a week, and it has two alternating, horrific endings. Sweet.

Version 1:

I'm walking with the kids in our little downtown area. Pete is in the stroller and Emerson is on foot. She's skipping happily about 10 yards in front of me. As we approach the train tracks, I shout to her to wait, but she starts across without me and the gates go down, stranding her on one side and me on the other with a moving train between us. While I never witness anything awful happening, the dream does not end well.

Version 2:

Same story but as the gates start to go down, I quickly set the footbrake on the stroller and dart after Emerson, leaving Pete on a steep incline on the other side of the train. Because of my haste in setting the brakes, the stroller rolls down the hill and into oncoming traffic. Again, this does not end well. I literally shuddered as I typed these, even though they're MY dreams and I'm quite familiar with them.

Not coincidentally, the Green Eyed Monster has been rearing her ugly head around here and Emerson has an accute case of siblingitis. She's VERY jealous of Pete these days, and says many unkind things about him..." I want to HIT Pete," "Let's leave Pete outside," "No Pete, you can NOT play with my toys," {which, by the way, he could care less about at this point.} Not only that, but her 3 year-old self can be quite challenging, and Pete, well, he's just Mr. Mellow. No sassing, no rudeness, and generally a joy to be around. Um, which would YOU prefer? I'm trying very hard to show equal attention, but I'm still new at this whole multi-kid thing, and being an only child, I don't have a lot of background experience.

I'm sure that these dreams are just a manifestation of my stress and concern with the situation, but really, brain? Can't we just focus on this during my WAKING hours and let a mama get some shut eye?

Ah, parenting...The ultimate rapid-aging remedy.

hawkeye pride

Ok, if you've read this blog for a while or know me IRL, you know that I bleed black & gold. My Hawks shined on national tv last weekend when they beat the heck out of Penn State. And, not to be outdone by their team, the fans did an awesome job of showing their pride in the stands.

I don't care who you are...this is just cool! LET'S GO HAWKS!