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We took a less-than-24-hour whirlwind trip to College Station this weekend, but it was so, so nice. Thanks to A'Dell for putting us up for the night and to her family for being so welcoming and warm.
My family is swell.
More pictures.
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We took a less-than-24-hour whirlwind trip to College Station this weekend, but it was so, so nice. Thanks to A'Dell for putting us up for the night and to her family for being so welcoming and warm.
My family is swell.
More pictures.Jen L. asked "If you were to make me a mix tape of your all-time favorite songs, what would the first 5 tracks be?"
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I'm not sure these are my five favorite songs, but they're the first I thought of, and I love them all, so much, in their own way.
(And I'm making this a take one, so I can potentially fill the tape up with subsequent posts.)
1. "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel. I used to sing this in the car when I was a little girl, at the top of my lungs, and no one ever told me to stop.
2. "18th Floor Balcony" by Blue October. This wasn't the first dance at our wedding, but it was the last. I listened to this song when Mike and I were fresh and new, coming off weeks of staying up all night, getting to know each other. I knew it could end -- plenty of good relationships do that -- and we both had all these plans that didn't include each other.
Falling in love tends to change a few plans.
Thankfully.
3. "Sky Blue & Black" by Jackson Browne. My father and I have an up-and-down, ebbs-and-flows, interesting relationship. One that no longer makes me sad or disappointed. But it does make me reflective. This song makes me think of him.
4. "She Likes Purple" by Wideawake. Come on, how can I not give a little credit to this song. It inspired this space. Without this space, well, let's not even think about that.
5. "The World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies. This last pick was tough but this song just ... moves me. In a way few others do. It reminds me, every time I hear it, to live. Not to think about living or to talk about it but to actually do it.
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What's on your mix tape?
First, a question:
HOW THE HELL IS IT SEPTEMBER?
It's all a bit mind-boggling, that we have a mere four months left until a whole new year. That means Halloween is right around the corner, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, THEN 2011, HOLY SHIT.
But, for now, August.
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This past month I started regularly doing two things I haven't done in as long as I can recall: going to sleep at a reasonable hour and reading.
I've been offline in the evenings just as often as I've been on and let me tell you, as much as I love the internet, there's nothing quite as nice or as vital to one's peace of mind as a good book and an early bedtime.
(Unless that good book keeps you up until 1:30, I'M LOOKING AT YOU HUNGER GAMES.)
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This month we also didn't eat out (for the most part) and, hey, we didn't die! We made a few exceptions, which I was fine with, but for the most part we ate all our meals from our own kitchen. It basically confirmed something I already knew: we spend entirely too much money on unnecessary meals.
I'm going to try very, very hard to bring my lunch to work every day and to limit eating out to the weekends, for date nights or special family outings.
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I've lost 31 pounds this year and have 17 more to go. It feels as if the weight is falling off ever-so slowly and that I'll never reach my goal. It's hard to keep perspective when you plateau, you know?
But, there's this: I enjoy food, I enjoy cooking (here's my September menu, if you care about that kind of thing), I enjoy running. Those are three brand-new things for me. It's hard to say I ever really enjoyed food before, not when there was so much fucked-up guilty aftermath that went along with it.
But, I no longer view food as a crutch or my particular form of self-medication. I feel I've done more for my family in terms of taking care of them and providing meals for them this year than all other years combined, and I feel I've done more for myself this year, as well.
I'm not there yet, no, and that's just frustrating, no way around it. To be close but not quite there.
But I'll get there.
When I do, drinks for everyone!
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Style Lush continues to blow my mind. The content is just hands-down incredible. We consistently have great giveaways and fun features and the most talented DIYers I know.
Make no mistake, I am not one of them. I just organize all that talent in one place while contributing very little of it.
(Oh, and our one-year anniversary is in October. I'm lining up some great giveaways for that week. If you have a shop or store or hidden talent and want to contribute to a giveaway that week, let me know.)
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This month I also: saw Greenday in concert, had a fancy date night with my husband, threw a party, and went to BlogHer.
Phew. Maybe it was less of a low-key month than I thought.
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Then there's Kyle.
Oh Kyle.
18 months has been, for us, just blissful. (Now 14-15 months was not.) He understands so much, and is so easy to talk to and get through to, and while he's doing all that BEING-A-REAL-PERSON shit, he's still a baby. There's chub, everywhere, and he's still toddling around in diapers and a little wobbly, and so soft and sweet.
(Although 18 months did bring the toddler feet of doom. THEY SMELL OF DEATH AND ROT.)
He holds my hand, without me asking him to, and while the tantrums are brutal, they're also quick.
He's talking more, he's laughing more, he's dancing more, he's just more, while still being so little.
He has a sense of humor and while it's a little, uh, strange -- he thinks it's HILARIOUS when we sneeze -- making him laugh has got to be the best thing on the planet. Sorry, boss, can I just quit my job and make my kid laugh for a living because I appear to be awesome at it?
Every stage is so fleeting, so hard to remember without the help of a blog, so full of highs and lows that if you sit around think about it for very long, you can't help but cry. It's cruel, the way we are given these gifts only to have them morph into something else entirely so soon, but it's so beautiful that they're replaced with something even more amazing.
Missing who he was before is like missing a light while I live with the sun.
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September holds: Kyle's first college football game, my first 10K (and lunch with Natalie), our nephew's birthday party, another birthday party, a handful of other birthdays, and the end of summer. NOT SUMMER TEMPERATURES, THOUGH, OH NO. Texas is an overachiever when it comes to being stupid.
What are you looking forward to this month?