Flashback Friday

Me in my Michael Jackson shirt around the time
the Thriller album came out. I was a HUGE fan and
am so sad about Michael's final years and his death.
I'm looking for another pic and will post more when

I find it...

Wordless Wednesday

Thrift Store Remix - Frame

Before:

Goodwill find that someone probably spent a lot of time on.

After:

This hangs in the hallway between Reese's room and my
craft room. I'm working on adding pictures, quotes,
and other fun things framed in black and white.

Flashback Friday, aka The Goldfinger Riot

In June of 2005, George and I went on one of our many vacations to Los Angeles. As soon as we landed at LAX, we rented a car and drove 7 hours to San Jose so we could see our favorite band, Goldfinger, perform a free concert. It was a concert experience we'll never forget.

We hit traffic and were running late to the concert, so we had to park and RUN through downtown San Jose. We made it to the concert just in time. Goldfinger took the stage and everything was wonderful.


Except for the fact that after about 15 minutes people started jumping onstage with the band. Now, this wasn't a problem for the band, as they like for fans to jump onstage with them.


But it was a problem for security. The concert was put on by the city of San Jose, so several police officers made the band stop the show for safety reasons. Well, John Feldmann, the lead singer of Goldfinger, has a bit of an issue with authority. (Isn't that a prerequisite for the lead singer of a punk band?) He was not happy being told his fans couldn't get onstage and that he had to stop his own show. He yelled, "F--- the police!" and all sorts of *fun* mayhem ensued.

We were a tad bit uncomfortable, as we're normally fans of the police, and we worried about how this would all end. We stood around for what must have been 20-30 minutes, thinking that we'd wasted the past 7 hours of our lives in a rental car for no reason. Finally the show continued without further problems. George even got his picture taken with Feldy after the show.


The next day back in L.A. we ate at our favorite vegan restaurant, Native Foods. George learned about Native Foods from an interview he had read with John Feldmann. Besides being the lead singer of a punk band and music producer, he's also a vegan and animal rights activist. We had visited the restaurant on previous trips to L.A., and each time we hoped we'd run into Feldmann. When we're in L.A., we always eat every single meal at Native Foods. I'm not joking. It's that good.

We sat down to eat our food in the tiny upstairs eating area, and George ran to the restroom. I looked over to my right, and there sat Feldy and his wife! I was so shocked to see him I could barely contain myself! I was grinning ear to ear when George came back to the table. He said, "He's here isn't he?!" We knew we had to say something to him, and I could barely eat the rest of my yummy Native Nachos I was so nervous. What if he acted like a jerk because we were imposing on family time?

When they got up to leave, George stopped Feldy and told him we were huge fans. We talked about the good vegan food in L.A. and the lack of it in Dallas, the crazy concert experience in San Jose, and his wife took our picture.


He wasn't a jerk and it made our day whole trip.

We've Got a Toddler!

Learning to walk wasn't enough excitement, so Reese is also cutting 3 molars at once. All are poking through his gums except for one. Once it's in, his tooth count will be 12. 12!!!

Lunchtime with Reese

Now that I'm a stay at home mom, I often get asked what I do all day. (As if Reese just takes care of himself!) Sometimes I feel as if I spend half of my day watching Reese eat. Every meal goes just about the same.

My lunch date starts out happy and eager to see what's for lunch.


He dives in eagerly and tries everything to see if he likes it.


Once he starts to get full, Reese slows down a bit.
I try to get him to eat more, but he covers his face.


Then he gets mad and throws the food off his tray.


Next he tries to break free.


Still trying his best to break free from the highchair.


Then he realizes he's not going anywhere and decides
to entertain himself. If his gums are hurting,
he chews on his bib or tray.


I'm glad my lunch date is so cute. It makes up
for his questionable table manners.

The Break-In The Break-Out

Monday morning started just like any other normal day. Reese and I woke up, let Rudy outside to sniff around, let him back in, and then I jumped in the shower. When I got out of the shower, I heard Rudy barking non-stop, like I've never heard him bark before. The only problem was he sounded like he was outside, and I thought I had let him back in the house.

I sat Reese down in the living room and ran out into the backyard to see what the fuss was all about. No Rudy. No sign of him anywhere in our entire backyard. But I could hear him barking outside.

A little background info... Our neighbors next door have this little fenced in area between our fence and their house. They never go in it and apparently have no clue there's a possum colony there. We know, because the mother possum likes to run along our fence at night and hiss at Rudy. And, a few months ago, some baby possums showed up in our backyard. Rudy managed to kill at least 4 of them, and George has trapped 2 of them in a cage we rented from the city. They then take the possums to a nature preserve, where they live happily the rest of their days.

So, when I heard Rudy barking like crazy and couldn't see him, I thought he had jumped the fence to get a possum and was stuck in the neighbor's yard. I went back in the house and looked out the front window. I couldn't see Rudy, but when I turned around, I saw this:


That's the front door - OPEN. I panicked and yelled, "HELLO?", fully expecting an intruder to answer. There have been some home invasions in our area recently, and I thought we were the next victims. I honestly thought someone attempted to break into our house and Rudy ran them out. Because if he'll bite me, just think what he'd do to a burglar!

I scooped up Reese, grabbed the phone, and ran out front to call George. Now, remember that I said I had just showered? I was looking quite lovely. I had wet hair, no makeup, a green and yellow Napoleon Dynamite "liger" t-shirt, and purple yoga capri pants. Hideous. But I was trembling with fear by this point, and didn't care.

When I got outside, I realized I could hear Rudy loud and clear. I ran to the side of the house and saw this:


Look closely - that's Rudy barking at a trapped possum. Yeah. Rudy was violently attacking the cage, biting and pawing at it, trying his best to get that possum. The poor critter was hissing and putting his paws up to protect himself. I'm really surprised he didn't have a heart attack.

Did Rudy learn to open the front door? Did someone break in? Now I was really confused.

I called George and we figured it all out. He had gone out front to check the cage early in the morning, but it was too dark to see if anything was in it. He forgot to lock the front door back, so when I let Rudy in first thing in the morning, it created a suction which opened the front door.

We solved that mystery, but I still didn't know what to do with Rudy. I could not even get him to look my direction (even when I offered treats), because he was so enthralled with the possum. There was only one option. George had to drive 20 minutes home from work to get Rudy. The stupid dog barked continuously the entire time. Reese and I prayed that Rudy wouldn't bite George when he came to get him, and just a few minutes later, George sped up to the house. Thankfully, Rudy saw George and raced to him, and George was able to drag him into the house.

I think it took Rudy about an hour to quit panting and it took me just about as long to quit trembling.

In case you're keeping score:

Rudy: 4, George: 3

Wordless Wednesday

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go - Indelible Grace Style

This is one of our favorite songs right now, which we sing often at church.

Here's what I found about the history of the hymn:

“O Love That Will Not Let Me Go” was written on the evening of Matheson’s sister’s marriage. His whole family went to the wedding and left him alone. There is a story of how years before, he had been engaged until his fiancé learned that he was going blind, and there was nothing the doctors could do, and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one who had taken care of him all these years, but now she was married and gone.

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

1. O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

2. O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

3. O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

4. O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

Flashback Friday

This photo was taken 1 year ago today. Last year on June 5, I worked my last day at school while my mom kept Reese for me. I came home for lunch only to find him napping - for 4 hours! He loved sleeping on his tummy, but we continued to make him sleep on his back. Now that he can choose, Reese almost always sleeps on his tummy.

Man, he sure did grow fast.

One Day at a Time

A few months ago I lamented the fact that we cut our cable. Thanks to my friend, Gloria, it hasn't been so bad. She told me about Hulu.com. It's a free website that has lots of clips of tv shows, and even full episodes or entire seasons of some shows. I just realized yesterday that it also has movies, including Super Size Me, which is one of my favorites.

I'm working my way through the first season of One Day at a Time right now. If you've never seen it, you should check it out. I remember watching it when I was little, but it premiered in 1975, which was before I was born. I must have watched reruns. Even better than the show is its theme song. I sing it day and night. Just ask my husband - I know he's tired of hearing me sing it!

If you hover your curser over the box below, the play button will appear, and you can watch the first episode of One Day at a Time. Just don't blame me if the catchy theme song gets stuck in your head too.