CMA bangs and busts

It was Country music's biggest night, so of course I had a running commentary going while watching the show.  I am a big fan of DVR when it comes to these awards shows.  We fast forwarded through the commercials, and through the annoying acts (Reba, Sugarland, and Rascall Flatts), and the boring acts (George Straight, Blake Shelton, and Dierks Bentley), and skipped straight to the banter between hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood and the acts and awards we wanted to see.  Without further ado, I give you my biggest bangs and busts of the 2010 CMA awards:
Performances:

Bangs:  Brad Paisley with his awesome tribute to country music

Taylor Swift- she looked elegant at the piano, and for one who's usually pitchy live, she got stronger as the song went on.

Carrie Underwood- her dress was gorgeous, the stage and setting was regal, and she did was she does best- stood still, looked pretty, and sang!
Miranda Lambert- for a girl who's as country as cornbread, she can really rock.  (with one caveat- she came dangerously close to pulling a JoDee Mesina dance move twirling in circles on stage- my Nashville girls will remember this horror)

Busts:  Sugarland.  Yep, I fast forwarded through this and still can say without a doubt it was awful.  Jennifer Nettles theatrics at the song's opening complete with "the robot" dance and a fake tutu were enough to make me want to throw the remote at the tv.

Rascall Flatts- I hate the song that they performed, and the cheesy Vegas wedding chapel backdrop and stage props

Hosts

Bangs:  Brad mistaking Lady A for Lady Gaga..."are you gonna at least wear your meat outfit?"

            I know the millions of fans who are watching on tv are probably thinking right now, where's Modern Family?

Busts:  a far-stretching that's what she said joke

Fashion

Bangs:  For her age, Cheryl Crowe looked amazing.  If only we are well so blessed with great genes, and a great plastic surgeon.

Reba Mcintire sparkled in a royal blue gown

Carrie Underwood- I liked all her dresses, with the exception of the tutu one that was her last outfit, but specifically this dusty purple ball gown was gorgeous, and she pulled off the messy hair where others before her failed.

Busts:

Kellie Pickler, what has happened to you?  Is she prego?  Nope, she's just filled out, and that big hair and dress didn't do her any favors.

Another bust- EMO goes country with the Family Perry

Other honorable Bust mentions: LeeLann Rimes in her fierce 'do, Martina McBride's awful hair, and Carrie Underwood's last tutu dress.  And I can't even mention Kid Rock's t shirt and jeans that looked like he rolled out of bed and came to Nashville.  What were they all thinking?

Power Couples:

Bangs:  Power Couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert each took home their respective vocalist of the year awards, and every other award or act it seemed featured Miranda.  I'm personally happy for them.  Neither of them are newcomers, and its nice to see them rising to the top after hovering in medicrity for so long.

Busts:  Tim & Faith have long faded into the distance, and there's really no other strong couples making headlines these days.

Closing Thoughts:

Gweneth, we get it.  You're promoting your what-looks-to-be-cheesy upcoming film.

I am always pleased when Brad Paisley wins (Entertainer of the Year) and could someone please explain to me, and the people who vote and nominate, the difference between song and single of the year?  It's late, people.  That's all I got.

Crestfallen

For my birthday I was given a selection of truffles from a local chocolate store.  These truffles were hand picked for me and my tastes.  A couple of days after my b-day, mom asked me if I had tried any of them yet.  I had completely forgotten about them- they'd been buried at the bottom of my bag with all my other gifts and cards.  After dinner that night, I went up to my room to try some of the chocolate and satisfy my after-dinner sweet tooth.

Imagine my dismay when approaching my room, and I spot a ripped bag, and an empty container on the floor with tiny empty papers where chocolates once were nestled.  Crestfallen.  That's the perfect word to describe that moment.

Stockwell had struck again.  Yep.  About ten years ago for Valentine's Day the canine chocolate connoisseur ransacked my brand new box of Godiva truffles leaving me with a shiny gold box and no chocolates to enjoy.  And darn it if history didn't repeat itself!

Taking the Car over to The Turnip Truck

Queen MAB picked me up on my usual street corner (no, really!) and we went to the Tunip Truck for lunch today.  Apparently there's one location in east Nashville, and then there's this new locale in the Gulch.  What is the Turnip Truck?  Well I'm glad you asked!  It's an organic/natural foods grocery store with a cafe/food bar inside.  MA selected a salad, I chose a cup of french onion soup, and we both opted for hot pressed prosciutto and goat cheese paninis.  We also each selected bottles of organic iced tea to compliment our fare.

The weather was mild enough for us to take advantage of their outdoor seating, although there is indoor seating available as well.  Food wise, the panini was heavenly; the soup had an odd taste to it.  I probably would not get the french onion again.  We also sampled fresh homemade juice before we left made from carrots, apples, and ginger.  I'm not a fan of ginger enough to want to drink it in a juice I discovered.

After finishing our food and conversation, MA and I walked around the store to see what they had to offer.  Somehow the first aisle we perused happened to be the baby items, and as I pointed out the gdiapers (biodegradable liners that insert into a re-usable outer shell) a quirky stock boy caught wind of our conversation and inserted his two cents.  "Fuzzy bunnies,"
he said out of the blue,
"that's what we call them"
(referring to the diapers).  I think our blank expressions caused him to regret the interjection, and I believe it was Mary Anna who responded, "we?"
inquisitively since she expertly noted that he was not wearing a wedding ring.  All he would say was that "they" had 2 little ones at home, but it was kind of weird since he didn't clarify that they were his kids.  At any rate, he did make me feel rotten by quoting one statistic says that half of the waste in landfills are disposable diapers, and that the disposable diapers aren't biodegradable, aka, all two-plus years of Bradley's diapers are sitting somewhere rotting and stinking, but not breaking down or decaying the way a McDonald's french fry will stay in tact essentially forever in your stomach.  This tangent with the quirky stock boy went on for several minutes before he awkwardly agreed that this was a random conversation to be having, and walked away with us still having no idea what he was talking about with the fuzzy bunnies comment!

Let's just say the Turnip Truck is an interesting place both to dine and to shop.  I will be returning in the future as there is rumor of a gelato bar opening in the summer months. 

Just another Saturday night

Only 6 days into this whole NaBloPoMo and already I'm struggling for inspiration.  Back in the infant years of the Divadomain, my blogs documented the concerts, movies, and nights spent at Tootsie's and all the hilarious anecdotes that went with those events.  Now, the most exciting thing about my weekend was getting to spend my birthday gift cards at Target today.  And with those gift cards came new anti-aging moisturizer and one of those cool roller ball eye thingies meant to alleviate dark circles and puffiness.  Is this what it means to be 30?  To spend the weekend grocery shopping and watching Redbox rentals?  (Datenight was tonight- definitely work renting, but glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater).

I suppose so, but it also meant snuggling on the couch watching The Jungle Book with Bradley, and playing chase with him, and organizing the kitchen pantry; also things I enjoy very much as it were.  And I guess I'm okay with that! 

PS-I'll let you know how the eye-roller-ball thingie works.

Fire Drilled

This has been one tough week at work.  No matter how hard I work, the assignments continue to flood my inbox as fast as I can crank them out, so you can imagine how dismayed I was yesterday afternoon when the fire alarm went off in our building.  A booming voice came over the loudspeakers and assured everyone that this was only a drill.  Immediately people started to get up from their desks and confer with one another.  Does this mean we have to exit the building?  Normally they warn us the morning of fire drills via email.  They also threaten to fine us if we don't comply with the drill procedure and meet outside on a particular street corner so everyone could be accounted for. 

Today there was no warning, and I hesitated to leave my desk, knowing how much work was looming over me.  Would I really get fined?  Or fired?  Not likely, but the rule follower in me felt compelled to grab my jacket and down the 19 flights of stairs I went.  They close the elevators down for these stupid drills.  Ugh.  As soon as I started down the staircase I realized I had to pee.  Why oh why hadn't I gone a half an hour an ago when I needed to?  Now here I was being herded like cattle down the stairwell, getting dizzy from circling round and round 38 times (2 flights of stairs per floor) and it would be who-knows-how-long before we'd be able to return.  Once we finally reached the great outdoors, down to our specified corner we marched.  I am thankful I wore my jacket.  Others were not so insightful to think to put theirs on as it was chilly and windy.

Once we got the all-clear, hundreds of employees all started hovering around the two sets of doors into the building, and then once inside, we made our way towards the elevators.  Have you ever seen so many people eager to get back to work? I remarked aloud.  It really was quite humorous.  You'd think we'd all be grateful for a paid break in our daily activities, but instead it seemed people couldn't get back inside fast enough.  Maybe it was because like me, they'd been too busy to pee and were now paying the price.  I pushed my way to the front and got on one of the first elevators, making a pit-stop at the bathroom before getting back to work.

I'd say this was a learning experience for me, and that now it's been (fire) drilled into my brain:  when you gotta go, you gotta go.  The work can wait.  Other things can't.

Halloween recap

Last year, Bradley didn't know what candy was, and couldn't understand why we would knock on a person's door but not go in.  This year, he did much better.  With my prompting, he would knock on the door, say trick or treat, happy halloween, and thank you.  And we watched the post Halloween candy sugar rush happen before our eyes, and right before bedtime no less!

Because I'm tired and getting sick, and because I am sticking to my NaBloPoMo goal to blog every day this month, I got lazy and created a Halloween picture collage.  As you can see, Bradley was an adorable dinosaur.  I had to correct one well-meaning lady who thought he was a dragon when we trick-or-treated at her house. 

I was sick as a dog on Halloween, but I put on my big girl panties and carved pumpkins that morning, took Bradley to the trunk or treat event at Rolling Hills Community Church late that afternoon (which was excellent, for any of you in town with kids) and then trick or treating in our neighborhood that night.  By Halloween night I was beat!  I had some kind of stomach bug, and now it looks like there may be a sinus infection creeping in.  Anyways, B loved Halloween this year.  Any ghost he saw was always a "friendly ghost" because that's what they're referred to in his favorite Karen Katz Halloween book, "Where is Baby's Pumpkin?" 

In fact, Bradley liked trick or treating so much, that a few days later on my birthday, when prompted by Grandma and Papa to knock on my door that morning to give me a present, he said "Trick or treat" when I opened the door instead of "Happy Birthday."  It was too cute.

Oh, one more thing of note- I attempted to carve an Elmo face on our pumpkin, but you can't really tell. 

Alright folks, this Diva is off to to her reading and then to bed! 

Remembering Sarah Bayrd

The world is now short one great educator.  I was truly saddened to learn this morning that one of the best teachers I ever had as a student, my high school AP U.S. History teacher, Ms. Sarah Bayrd was killed in a car accident while traveling in Greece with a friend.

This woman commanded attention.  She was a big lady with an even bigger personality.  Each day she greeted her "ladies and gentlemen" and read us random historical facts from her famous Book of Days.  "It's 1929, Ahhh, Mr. President, you are????" To which someone would answer with the corresponding president in office during the fact from that day in history.  She would always point out historical biographies as "poolside reading" whenever appropriate in the lesson, and classes years above you would warn you for your turn for the infamous Meat Packing Plant lecture day when she would enlighten you on Upton St. Claire's The Jungle, which brand of orange juice continues to allow the most bugs with the FDA (Donald Duck OJ), what hot dogs are really made of, and the legendary Bacon Hands anecdote.

The outpouring of comments on the Facebook tribute pages set up for her from decades worth of students is proof enough that this educator touched lives in a way that is larger than life.  Ms. Bayrd, you will be truly missed.

The Milliblog

Drumroll, please.  This is Divadomain Blog post number one thousand... and on the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday, no less.  Wow... I didn't even realize I was close to hitting this blogging milestone until I clicked on new post, and the "old posts" number was at 999. 

Turning 30 today has been suprisingly wonderful.  I am beyond blessed with amazing family, friends, and coworkers, and even Facebook friends who come out of the woodworks just to say Happy Birthday, and then don't talk to me for the rest of the year (It's okay... I do that too).

I figure, if Jesus can begin his public ministry at age 30, then it must be an okay age for me to have new beginnings too.  Here's to being, as Jennifer Garner would say, "Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving!"

NaBloPoMo

I'm joining Natalie and others in this- the National Blog Posting Month.  The goal is to post something- anything- every day for an entire month.  I already blogged tonight about my trip to Lexington, but here's another quick update.  I'm still doing the Daily Walk reading through the new testament, and have been so excited and encouraged by all the people coming out of the woodworks to tell me that they have joined me in this venture.  In fact, I'm running upstairs now to catch up on my chapters in John.  I'm also trying to wait it out and see if the Giants are going to win a world series here as I write this.  But I digress.  Happy NaBloPoMo, everyone!

Big Blue Weekend

Last weekend I took a road trip to my old college town Lex-vegas.  I drove up Friday after work and stayed with Ellen, who was my potluck freshman roommate.  We met up with Stephanie, a friend we met in the dorm our freshman year, and who would later become my roommate senior year at the infamous Sugar Shack.  Stephanie's friend from summer camp counseling together, Camper Anne also made the trip up.  

We met at a Mexican restaurant in town late Friday evening, and reconvened our "Group Therapy" meeting back to Steph's house as we shared relationship stories and cackled over 2 bottles of wine and stayed up til 3am.  Stephanie, ever the consummate hostess had even bought these cute little cocktail napkins for the weekend.  Here's a picture of them, but in case you can't read the text from the photo:

Top 5 Reasons Why Women Drink:

1.  Lying Men

2.  Cheating Men

3.  Insensitive Men

4.  Helpless Men

5.  Lack of Men 

Saturday we met up on campus at UK to tailgate for the Kentucky-Georgia game.  We had a great spot on south campus where we watched girl after girl on her way to the sporting event wearing a blue top, black mini skirt, and tall brown boots.  Oh, and they were carrying wristlets, and carried no jacket.  WTH???

Um, I guess I'm too far removed from college to understand this, but I have a few questions:
1.  Since when did it become acceptable to wear black and brown together
2.  Why did no one tell these poor coeds that it was a chilly night game
3.   Did someone really send out a campus-wide email to let the females all know exactly how they were supposed to dress?  I wish we'd snapped a picture of them coming through in hordes, all dressed alike.

We gave Steph a hard time all night because she chose to wear a hot pink t-shirt, when we were playing the Georgia Bulldogs whose fans were clad in the similar shade of red.  Here's the UK game montage:

The next day was my sorority's Founder's Day.  It was Delta Zeta's 108th birthday, plus The Alpha Theta chapter at Kentucky's 10th year of being on campus since recolonizing the year before I pledged.  It was nice to catch up with some old sorority sisters and reminisce about our days of living in the house together.  We also toured the house and marveled at all the improvements that have been made since our time in college, and we took the customary picture in front of the tree in the front yard of our house.

Rounding out my girls' weekend in Lexington was a day at the races at Keeneland.  The weather was windy but warm.  I only bet on one race, but chose my lucky horse based on two very important factors: The horse's name, Sing a Few Bars, and the color of the jockey number on the horse:  pink.  These 2 factors lead me to believe that this was my lucky horse, going to make me rich.  I placed my $2 bet, and was out $2.  The dumb horse didn't even place!  Oh well.  It was fun for about a minute which is about how long the race lasted.

Thank you to Ellen and Stephanie, my wonderful hosts.  It was a busy weekend, but should definitely be a yearly event.

My, My My, twice bitten, never shy

Last week there was an "incident" at daycare.  Apparently Bradley tried to take a toy away from one of his friends.  He wouldn't turn loose of it, so his friend hauled off and bit Bradley on the shoulder.  Hard.  There were top and bottom teeth marks to prove it.  I thought it was funny that the daycare director wasn't allowed to say who bit him, but that Bradley told me straight away who the culprit was.

Fast forward to a few days later, I drove straight to Laura & George's Sunday night from Kentucky, meeting everyone else there for dinner.  I was super excited to see Bradley since I hadn't seen him since I dropped him off at daycare on Friday morning.  Also, L&G just rescued a year-old dachshund puppy who needed a good home, so this was our opportunity to meet the little fella, since they just got him on Friday.

You can guess what might come next.  After dinner, we were all sitting around, and Max (the new dog) and Juju were playing on the couch, with several of us sitting close by.  Bradley, playing and standing in front of the couch, reached forward towards the dogs, and in a nanosecond, Max bit Bradley on the hand.  The commotion that followed was epic.  I ran over and scooped up Bradley and rocked him in my lap, and then grabbed his hand to examine it, and was shocked to see blood in several places.  George grabbed Max and put him in his cage, then carried him upstairs.  I rushed Bradley over to the sink where we ran his hand in water, so you've got the dog yelping from his cage upstairs, Bradley crying hysterically downstairs, Laura apologizing profusely (even though I do not blame her for this accident in the slightest) and me, mom, and dad looking at the multiple punctures in B's had trying to determine if he needs stitches while trying to calm and distract Bradley.  It was chaotic to say the least.  I decided better to be safe than sorry, so off to Williamson Medical Center ER we went.

In the back of my mind I always knew I'd be at the ER some day with my little boy, I just didn't think it would happen so soon.  Bradley was the darling of the ER, entertaining everyone with Toy Story quotes, and dancing and talking to everyone.  In the picture below you can see the two places on his hand that were the worst.

We had a really nice nurse named Dinah, and since Bradley has a favorite Kindermusik song called Shiny Dinah, it wasn't hard for him to remember her name.  He charmed all the nurses at the nurse's station by telling them all his nurse's name.  Several hours later, they sent us home with no stitches, but B's hand wrapped up in a splint, and gave us an antibiotic to take to try and prevent his bites from getting infected.  Here's a shot of Bradley on Monday morning with his hand all wrapped up.

He really was very good throughout the ordeal, and I got an unexpected day off work on Monday to look after Bradley, and make sure he kept his hand bandaged.  We went to story time at the library and ran a few errands, and I daydreamed at what it was like being a stay at home mom. 

Now, several days later, the hand is healing just fine.  The fate of the fury biter is TBD, but our little guy is doing great.  How bizarre is it to think he got bit twice in a matter of days, though?  It makes me think of that awful 80's song.

Picking out Pumpkins

They say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  Well all I wanted to do was pick one perfect pumpkin today from the pumpkin patch, and things would have been just peachy.  The weather was pretty, with plentiful sunshine.  Alas, the pesky, persistent Tennessee sunshine is why the pumpkin patch at Gentry's Farm in Franklin was all picked-over and pared down.  Apparently the perpetual  heat we had this summer caused the pumpkins to parch and prune up, and thus the salvageable pumpkins had already been plucked, leaving a barren patch.  Instead, patrons perused up and down aisles of pallets with piles of pumpkins already picked from the patch. 

I had my hopes up to get that perfect photo of Bradley in row among rows of pumpkins, and picking out that propitious pumpkin for our porch.  Instead, we posed for photo ops in front of pick-up trucks with prickly hay, painted signs, and of course, pumpkins!

(Yes, they're real, and they're spectacular!!!)

The proverbial family photo

Bradley liked the petite pumpkins and gourds, but of course then began using them as perfunctory balls, projecting them across the premises, so I promptly procured the gourds from him, and pushed him on to pick out a more prodigious pumpkin, one that would be possible to carve, and too portly for him to pitch!

Bradley also played and ran all over the property, pitching a fit when it was time to part!  All in all, it was a rather a pedestrian excursion, but I was pleased to procure the paramount symbol of Halloween for our carving pleasure, posses some good pictures from the outing, and support a local proprietor.

How funky is your Chicken-Raptor?

I took advantage of the warm weather, and decided to take Bradley to the Ravenwood High School homecoming football game this past Friday night.  This was his first football game of the season, except that when we got in the car to leave, he asked about Braedon & Garrick- his cousins whom he visited in August, when he watched part of Braedon's jamboree football game.  I could not believe Bradley's memory goes that far back, yet when I ask him what he did at daycare today, he can't tell me a thing!

Here's how the football game went: 

1st quarter:  After purchasing dinner from the concession stand, Bradley sat on Grandma's lap and ate cut up hot dog, chips, & popcorn.

First half of 2nd quarter:  He entertained those around us by shouting "Go Raptors" and crawled and climbed from lap to lap.

Second half of 2nd quarter:  Mom and I took Bradley down to watch the band play, and meet the "chicken."  No matter how many times I corrected him, Bradley firmly believed that Ravenwood's mascot was a chicken.  Bradley then ran around, dancing and jumping in circles, gaining the attention of many a high school girl. 

He stood at the fence and watched the older kids play football longingly.

Too wound up to sit still in the bleachers

Mom and Bradley in their Raptors shirts

Halftime:  we made our way back up to the stands by bribing Bradley with fruit snacks when we got there.

 

3rd quarter:  Bradley climbed from bleacher to bleacher, lap to lap, and I did my best to keep him from eating food crumbs from the stands.  Ravenwood was losing to Emo's alma mater, so we left soon after the 3rd quarter started as it was already past B's bedtime. 

 

Not a total failure as far as outings go, but it's a good thing Ravenwood was losing and I didn't care about the game, because I cant you a darn thing that happened in the game from keeping track of a two year old!

Fun with Frinkles

This working thing's for the birds!  I am too tired at night to do everything I need/want to do after Bradley goes to bed, so my blogging has lacked both in content and in frequency.  My apologies to my two readers.

Getting into the Halloween spirit, Mom & Laura made cupcakes on Saturday, and decorated them with Halloween candy sprinkles.  They left a single cupcake for Bradley to decorate, and I gave them crap about that.  "As much as you two love to cook, and be in the kitchen, and as much as you (mom) love to let Bradley help out in the kitchen, and all you leave him is one measley cupcake to decorate??!!"  Yeah, I came down a little hard on them. 

So we grabbed 2 more scantily sprinkled sweets, and let him decorate a whopping 3 Halloween cupcakes!

Please note the amount of orange and black sprinkles on the table!

Getting a mouthful of "frinkles"... we're having a hard time saying "SP," so we talk a lot about Fiders, Busghetti, and Frinkles these days.

Showing off his messy face, and consequently, his new big-boy hair cut that he got this day.

'Bama with the Baileys

This weekend was spent catching up with old family friends.   Don & Jane were my parents' college friends.  They were in each others' weddings, and have 2 daughters the same age as me and Laura.  In the past several months, we have all wound up in closer proximity to one another, so Becky and Sara orchestrated a surprise visit for their parents' 35th wedding anniversary, and we all convened on Don & Jane's Birmingham, AL house.  I wish I had taken a picture of Jane's face when she opened the door- it was priceless!  She and Don had no idea that we were coming.

The weather was gorgeous, so we let the kids play outside, they played with old toys of Becky and Sara's that I can remember playing with when we were kids, and of course, football was on the agenda.  Them Alabama people take their pigskin mighty seriously!  At least the Tide were playing against Florida, so I had no trouble cheering for Alabama, and against the Gators.  I had never met Becky's husband Corey before, but I can say with certainty that he loves his Alabama football possibly more than I love my Kentucky Wildcat basketball. 

Bradley really liked "Miss Becky."  He sat perfectly still on her lap and let her trim not only his finger nails, but toes too.  I have never ever seen the child sit so still while the dreaded chore is performed.  It might be worth the gas money to pay a little visit to Miss Becky every few weeks and let her clip B's nails from now on!

Becky's daughter Kinsley on the other hand, really seemed to like me.  She would reach her arms up to me and want me to hold her, and we read book after book together amidst all the chaos and chatter going on around us.  Since Bradley's never been much of a snuggler, I was happy to oblidge!

As is typical in child group photos, there wasn't a single one where all 3 were looking, so here's the best that we got- Bradley, age 2, with Becky's two children, Kinsley, age 2, and Kyler, age 1.

The Lens:  Michael Len, Becky Len, and Kinsley Len (the younger two are named after the elder)!

Murray State alums, a few years post-graduation!  Don, Jane, Mom, & Dad

The girls:  Sara, Becky, and me (Laura, we missed you!)

Thanks to the local Minnonites, we dined on delicious chicken pasta and peanut butter pie, along with Corey's mom's layered salad, bread, and homemade lasagna. 

Bradley & Kinsley:  sharing cheerios and kisses!

Group photo, after very little sleep Sunday morning.  (Bradley doesn't do so well sleeping when travelling.... makes for a very tired Bradley, and a very tired mommy!)

Baileys, we love you, and we're glad you live closer now!  We look forward to many more get-togethers in the future. 

Daily Walk This Way

I'll be honest... at my lowest of the low this past spring I was getting up early and reading and praying every morning. Lately as I've felt less desperate for God, and more self-assured, I haven't done as good a job of doing my daily quiet times. Truthfully, I am probably reading my Bible 3 nights a week right now, and my conversations with God are short and sweet. The only place I've been devoted is in praying with Bradley every single night before bed. It's part of our bedtime routine. But how can I raise Bradley to know that God loves him and cares for him when I'm not truly modeling that dependence on God myself by making quiet times a priority? What I really need is my own bedtime routine, or first-thing-in-the-morning routine, to make my daily time spent reading my Bible and talking things out with Jesus more habitual again. I'm about to have some serious accountability though.


Our church is launching an initiative called the Daily Walk to help its members read through the Bible in a year. It begins Friday, October 1st, starting with a few chapters in the book of Matthew, and finishing up 2010 with the book of Revelation. That's right- between now and the end of the year we will complete the entire New Testament.  You can click here on this link every day and it will tell you what chapters to read. It even has a link to the chapters online so you can read the chapters right from the convenience of your computer if you so choose.

On one hand, if you're not currently reading your Bible daily, this is a great way to start. On the other hand, a girl in my Sunday school class brought up this point- even if you are reading your Bible religiously every day (pun intended), how powerful must it be to have so many believers reading the same scripture every day together?

I am excited about doing this, and have the added accountability that mom and dad are also going to be reading daily along with me. I'd love to know if other BBC-ers are doing this too, or even if any other friends & family would like to join me and Daily Walk this way with me!

Wanted: one hot mama

You know how singletons are always lamenting about where he/she is supposed to find Mr./Miss Right if they didn't meet them in college?  It's like all of a sudden you graduate, and your opposite sex population that you come in contact with on a regular basis suddenly becomes limited.  You don't want to meet a person in a bar because that never works out (been there, done that, on more than one occasion), and you certainly don't want to make the mistake of dipping the pen into the company ink (Again, this one sounds all too familiar), so where the heck are you supposed to meet your future soul mate?

Well I'm dealing with a similar issue.

In Florida, I was privileged to be a stay-at-home mom.  The best thing about being a SAHM, next to the obvious fact that you get to be with your child all day, is all the other stay-at-home mom friends you come to know.  Us moms would get together on a regular basis for play dates, Kindermusik class, work-out groups, and coffees, permitting us to sit and talk while the youngsters would play together.  In Florida, I had an abundant supply of mom friends, many who had kids Bradley's age, or others who had older ones that I could bounce developmental questions off of.  But now relocated, and working full time, I have no idea how to go about finding friends for myself and Bradley!

Don't get me wrong- I love spending time with my family and my friends who don't have children, but every now and then it would be great to be able to hang out with someone who understands what I'm going through as a parent, while Bradley gets to work on his social skills with a little play mate simultaneously, too.

Where can these elusive moms be found?  Do I stalk other moms at the park on Saturday morning, sliding up to them by the monkey bars, ask them  if they come here often, and offer to buy them a coffee?  Am I supposed to subject myself to the McDonald's play place and wait for a fellow mom to McInclude me?  Do I turn to (gasp!) internet searching for them?  What's a full-time working, full-time mom to do?  I know there have got to be fellow hot mamas out there just dying to be my friend- I just need to figure out how to find them.

Having a ball

I do not exaggerate when I say that Bradley loves sports.  He has little use for toys that don't involve throwing and catching balls, and in fact, he turns toys that are not intended to be sports-related into a way to score points or make baskets.  Case in point, Bradley grabbed the cucumber and strawberry from his plastic play food last week, and attempted to play baseball with them.  This week he got some new sheets for his big boy bed, so I snapped a picture of him in his new sports sheets, with his sports pjs on (thanks, aunt Ari- these are the ones you gave him).

Fast forward to Friday night, when we were schooling Bradley in the fine cuisine of Chinese food.  After testing the tasty waters of lo mein noodles, and sweet and sour chicken, B spotted the fortune cookies.  He got a kick out of cracking open the cookie, and taking the paper out.  Not that I put any stock into the fortunes that come of out the cookies, but imagine my surprise when Bradley got this fortune:

Even his fortune cookies are sports-related!!  It's destiny!

The Hunt for Reds' October

Yes, I am fully aware that football season has officially begun (my Titans and Wildcats are both off to good starts), but for some of us, baseball season is still trucking along quite nicely.  Most years I wouldn't care at this point in the season.  Much like the Cubbies, my Reds fizzle out before the post-season is ever a consideration.  Alright, I admit that was a lame attempt to get a reaction out of a few readers who are loyal Cubs fans, and I would also admit that the Reds are usually much more miserable of a team, and haven't come close to winning a world series in a while... 1990 to be exact... but I would say again to those few Cubs fans still reading this, and How Long Has It Been For Your Team??  That's what I thought.

So here we are in September, and as of tonight, the Reds have a 6 1/2 game lead in their division, still solidly in first place, and we are optimistic about our odds at making a run into the October post-season.  Cutie Patootie first baseman Joey Votto is still in the running to win the triple crown (George, do you know where I might snag a rookie Votto jersey?), and we have this insane new pitcher from Cuba who has a 106 mph fastball, aptly nicknamed the Cuban Missile .  I would say besides the one closing pitcher in our bull pen who constantly blows his saves, and infuriates my dad beyond belief, that the future looks mighty colorful for the Reds!

Two at the Zoo

It's Labor Day weekend, so we decided to take Bradley to the zoo and make it an annual tradition since we went last Labor Day too.  Last year, however, it was miserably hot.  This year we were treated to high 70's and beautiful sunny weather.  One of our first stops of the day was to see the meercats.  Please ignore my John Lennon-esque prescription sunglasses, and instead focus on Bradley, pictured here while we were waiting our turn to get up close and personal with the meercats. 

Here's us looking at the elephants- my favorite exhibit, of course

Mom and Bradley, with the elephants in the background. 

Papa and Bradley saying bye-bye to the pachyderms.

 

A collage of some of the other animals we saw:  the Alligator Cove was the coolest I think just because the gators were so active, and came very close to the glassed in viewing area where we were.  The new flamingo exhibit was also impressive. 

In the petting zoo portion, B got to brush a goat.

Snack time!!!  Bradley's favorite part!

Okay, I take that back.  His favorite part was the kids' play area.  He would have spent all day here in this little shaded bouncy house if we'd have let him!  He jumped to his heart's content and dove onto and head-first off of, animal shaped mats.  The play area really was quite impressive, with a huge wooden playground for the older kids, and this shaded bouncy area for the younger ones.

Here's Bradley and I in front of the Nashville Zoo sign at the end of our afternoon.  For the many animals our zoo lacks (bears, lions, kangaroos, and hippos come to mind), it makes up for in amazing kid-friendly features like the carousel, the awesome play area, and the ability to bring your own food and drink in with you and picnic on the expansive grass.  The other great feature about the zoo is all the bamboo and vegetation throughout that not only provides a more realistic habitat for the animals, but gives some much-appreciated shade as well.

Before we could even get out of the parking lot, B was passed out in his car seat.  You can see his souvenir that he picked out in the gift shop, resting safely in his lap- what else- a ball!

I guess this picture is just proof that B had a ball at the Nashville Zoo.  (BTW, the blog title has double meaning, given that Bradley is 2, but he also has a book that we purchased at the zoo last year by this same title- it's a really cute counting book if any other parents are interested.)  Happy Labor Day, everyone!