life rocks

Smell me!

2008-11-10T18:38:00.008-06:00

So, Myles and I have this little routine after he gets out of the bath tub. He always runs to me with his arm outstretched screaming, "Smell me, smell me!" And I take a big whif and go on and on about how delicious he smells.

Well the other night when I was bathing him, we had this exchange:

myles: smell my arm!

me: mmm....you smell so clean!

myles: smell my hair!

me: mmm...that's my favorite smell in the whole world

myles: smell my foot!

me: mmm....very clean

myles: smell my penis!

me: (picking mouth up off the floor) no, i'm not going to do that.

myles: why? is it b/c it's yucky??

me: no, it's not yucky, it's just private so i'm not going to smell it...and neither should anybody else.

myles: what happens if somebody else smells it?

me: i want you to tell mommy or daddy do you understand?

myles: i do understand. smell my hair!

Whew....I was glad to be out of that conversation! But what an important one to have. I guess I just wasn't expecting to start having that conversation with my 3 yr old; but I certainly was glad I did.

A scary morning...

2008-11-03T13:21:00.006-06:00

I had a very troubling experience this morning at the Racetrac on Siegan Lane. I pulled up to get gas and as I was getting my stuff together before getting out to pump, I witnessed something that left me completely shaken.

A professional looking woman (in her 40s) was walking out of the Racetrac store to get into her car. As she was opening the door to her car, 2 young (probably 19-20 yr old) guys came out of the store, walked up behind her and pushed her causing her to fall on her car. My mouth fell open b/c I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The woman turned around and yelled, "Get your hands off of me!" The two guys proceeded to get into the woman's face and "bow up" to her....I kid you not, I just knew that woman was going to be punched in the face. I started reaching for my phone to dial 911 - still in shock over what I was witnessing. I then realized that there were 7 construction workers standing around talking right where this was all taking place; and no one did anything to try to stop this.

Finally a man started screaming at the guys as he was walking into the store - but he walked right in front of the woman and didn't even stop to ask if she was ok! The guys started to walk away, all the while screaming obsenities at the woman. The guys walked right in front of my car and 'bowed up' at me! My hands were shaking uncontrollably. I could not believe that this was happening right in front of my face.

After I was sure the guys were gone, I got out and filled up my car. Keep in mind that no one ever went over to the woman to see if she was ok. After I filled up, I drove over to the woman and asked her if she was ok and if she needed anything. She thanked me and told me no that she was on the phone with the police.

Unbelievable. What kind of scary world do we live in where this happens at 8:00 in the morning and nobody goes to offer help or assistance.

One of those days...

2008-10-07T20:50:00.003-05:00

Today was one of those days. The morning started out with massive temper tantrums from a certain 3 year old boy. Said temper tantrums continued all the way to school, once we walked into the school and as he told me goodbye. I don't think we've had a morning that bad in a long, long time. I fought back tears the whole way to work.

Work had its own separate drama that I don't even want to get into. I just basically tried to make it through the day.

I looked forward to going to pick up my little guy. He greeted me with a big smile and part of my really bad day chipped away.

After dinner we watched The Jungle Book; and he actually wanted to cuddle with me. Even more of my really bad day chipped away.

After the movie it was bath time. While he was playing in the bath he looked up at me and said, "Thank you." "For what?" I asked.

"Thank you for being Mommy." Wow. Whatever may have been left hanging around from my really bad day quickly fell away. What a cool moment that was.

Today ended up being a really great day.

ACL 2008

2008-10-01T08:43:00.013-05:00

Xavier Rudd=AWESOME!!!

sunset on ACL

at the entrance to the festival

waiting for The Mars Volta to start

bikes, bikes and more bikes (and this was only a tiny piece of the bike parking lot)

mmm.....

Xavier Rudd!

Well, I'm not a big blogger, but I thought it would be fitting to blog about our recent ACL experience. Let me start by saying, WOW. We had so much fun!! There's something so cool about sharing a musical experience with 65,000 other people. Don't get me wrong, it was unbelievably HOT out there...but there were various shady areas where you could escape and there were plenty of "misting stations" throughout the park for cooling off. I guess I'll just take you through each day since each day had it's own highlights.

Day 1 - Friday: We arrived and walked around for what felt like several miles just checking out where everything was located. They had 8 different stages and 130 bands scheduled to perform....first order of business was to scope out which bands we'd like to see, and then eat! The food was unbelievable. I ate so much, it was a good thing that we had to walk about a mile to get back to our car :) After getting our first tasty treats, we stumbled upon a gospel group singing under a tent....the tent attracted us (it was 1:00pm and over 90 degrees). The first thing I hear them sing as we walk up is, "Ain't no party like a Holy Ghost party 'cause a Holy Ghost party don't quit." haha! Love them.

Once the sun started going down it actually felt really amazing. It was breezy and cool and there was no better place to be than outside listening to some good music. The main attraction for us on Fri night was The Mars Volta (honestly, I'm not really that into them, but Bryan is). They actually put on a great show...I think it had something to do with the amount of people out there all grooving to the same thing. Very cool. Day 1 was fun, but exhausting.

Day 2 - Saturday: We didn't get out there quite as early b/c of the heat so we slept in and grabbed a bite to eat at a diner that some co-workers recommended to me (very good by the way). Sat. held a lot of excitement for me b/c Beck was scheduled for that night! So, we ate a lot (again) and listened to some jammin' music from Drive By Truckers, Erykah Badhu, John Fogerty, Yonder Mountain String Band and my favorite of the day......BECK! All of the artists put on a great show, but Beck's show really took the cake. Every single person at the festival was watching Beck's show...I've never seen a crowd like that - it was unbelievable. We had so much fun! I was sore the next day from dancing so I guess it was good that I ate as much as I did since I used up a lot of energy dancing and walking.....yeah, that's it. :) Awesome night.

Day 3 - Sunday: Our last day of ACL. And as much fun as Saturday was, Sunday was the best day for me. It was perfect. We got out there early and ate (of course). The first show that we caught (and one of the most exciting for us) was Xavier Rudd. I've been a huge fan for a long time but haven't seen him live. His music is amazing....but seeing him live was unbelievable! We were right up front by the stage and I got some really awesome pics. We knew that he'd be doing an autograph signing so I planned ahead and brought a pic of Myles playing the didj for him to sign (Myles loves him!). When we met Xavier at the signing he was so cool and down to earth. He shook my hand and introduced himself to me (which I thought was funny) and I proceeded to tell him about Myles and how much he loves his music and how he plays the didj as well When I showed him the picture he just stood silently staring at the pic with a little smirk on his face. After what felt like 5 minutes he looked up at me and so incredibly genuinely said "He's absolutely beautiful." He signed the pic with a really cool message to Myles, shook my hand again and that was that. So COOL!!! Now I'm going to frame that pic and hang it in Myles' room. :)

As if that wasn't enough....we still had several hours of festival left! After the autograph signing, we saw Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs, Galactic and the closer was Foo Fighters. Talk about an amazing day!!!

All in all it was an incredible experience and I was so glad that Bryan and I were able to go. I think we may have found a little tradition for us :) Can't wait to see who is on next year's lineup!