Words

"Song For A Winter's Night"
by Sarah McLachlan


[Written and first sung by Gordon Lightfoot in 1975]


The lamp is burnin' low upon my table top
The snow is softly fallin'
The air is still within the silence of my room
I hear your voice softly callin'



If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
Upon this winter night with you




The smoke is rising in the shadows overhead
My glass is almost empty
I read again between the lines upon the page
The words of love you sent me




If I could know within my heart
That you were lonely too
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
Upon this winter night with you




The fire is dying now, my lamp is growing dim
The shades of night are liftin'
The mornin' light steals across my windowpane
Where webs of snow are driftin'




If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
And to be once again with with you
To be once again with with you


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06t60Ei_8Vg

Oh, My Stars!

If you know me, you know I love to decorate.  Huge passion.  I wish I would have gotten my degree in it just about every single day.  I absolutely love making my home feel cozy and welcoming.  The biggest compliment you could give me would be to fall asleep on my couch, not out of boredom, but comfort. 

My favorite is the country look, just shy of  true primitive.  I love the lived in feeling of it.  The "life" and story in it.  I think it fits so well with raising a family.  I love filling up and living in every nook and cranny of my home. The girls and I were watching an episode of "Little House on the Prairie," yesterday and I honestly think my love for this look started back when I was about my daughters' ages.  To this day, I would live in the Ingalls' house. 

One of my most favorite magazines is Country Sampler.  I literally get giddy when it comes in the mail and have to wait until it's quiet in the house (ie. no interruptions), grab my coffee or glass of wine, and kick the cat off the coziest part of the couch, cuz Momma's sitting for a while.  I want to liiive in this magazine every single time.  (see pics above--you feel me?)

You can imagine one of my favorite pastimes is decor shopping.  For a few years I was an Independent Consultant for Southern Living at Home and At Home America. I LOVED these jobs that didn't feel like jobs at all to me. I got to decorate my house at huge discounts and pay for Christmas!  Craig's List was a good friend when we moved here and I needed to furnish my house. I have a great affinity for the stores, Real Deals and Simple Folk.  Momma's gonna have my own store some day.  You watch.

Thankfully I have ONE friend in my life that gets the goosebumps along with me.  She gets me.  I get her. We shop together (though we've made a pact not to garage sale together to maintain our friendship), pick each other's decorative brains, and sit side by side reading our latest issue of Country Sampler together.  It's written on our calendars.  It has status.  Priority. 

Occassionally we get grief about our decor passion from people who don't get the goosebumps.  Rolled eyes. Near-snarky comments.  She mentioned a recent convo to me and I got my back up about it as well.  Might as well've been said to me. 

Side Note That Totally Fits With This Story:  Last night, my daughter decided to count all the stars in our house--"for fun".  Amazingly, she got The Hubbs to participate.  Well, we have just under 600 stars...downstairs. 

So this morn, I was talking to The Hubbs about said convo my friend had and The Hubbs then proceeded to bring up the 600 stars bit to me.  (Oh no you didn't)  He was on the verge of complaining about (gasp) my decor (my passion), the way I decorate (make our home!).  He was very close.  He knew how close I was to bringing up his passion--BEER--and just how much he spent on beer in one pop and oh yeah...did I mention the beer glass collection that makes my head want to explode?  I was very close to doing that.  So you can see--my friend's convo/argument just about became The Hubbs and mine. 

So I took a deep breath and asked him (all sweet like)--what DO you want our house to look like?  When we got married, what did you imagine?  He thought about it for 5 seconds.

Here's what he said:  Battlestar Galactica. 

((faint))

Battlestar Galactica Bedroom

I Just Like This, That's All (and you should too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfYkPYFKBXE

Why no,really, Thank YOU...

With every day getting closer to Thanksgiving I notice a lot of (Facebook) friends reflecting on things they are thankful for. Their lists vary from being thankful to be alive to Peppermint Mocha's.  I love it!  I love that there is just always something to be thankful for.  Really. 

So here's my, extremely random and in no particular order, list (thus far...you know I will think of five more things, the moment I click "publish"):

I am thankful for my family.  All of them.  Even the one that says the "f" word on their Facebook status updates. 


I am thankful for my hubby and children. Even though they make gray hairs.  Make me cry.  Make me turn into a werewolf.  Make me long for an island.  They make me happy MORE.  They make me have purpose MORE.  They make me laugh MORE.  They make me want to do better MORE.  They make me believe in God MORE.

I am thankful for my dog.  She's my best friend.  We are ((tight)).  Sometimes I wish I could text her and say, "Hey girl...you watching the house?  Everything good?  Staying out of the litter box?  Good giiiiirl."  But that would be weird. 

I am thankful for my mean old cat.  He makes me appreciate the dog and *sometimes* he likes to cuddle.

I am thankful for "select-a-size" paper towels.  Where have they been all my life?

I am thankful for music that says what I want to say better and can take me away when I can't literally get away.

I am thankful for Jazzercise, cuz it really, really works.  AND I can pretend I'm a ballerina, Blazer dancer or background dancer in an Usher video.  And it really works.

I am thankful for books--especially fiction--cuz they help me go to sleep every single night.  And again, the whole getaway deal.

I am thankful for teachers, cuz every single night when I'm working on homework with my kids (specifically multiplication at the moment), I know I could not be a teacher.  How in the world do you explain THAT at a 9-yr-old's level of understanding? My head wants to explode every time. 

I am thankful for flush able wipes.  (aren't you?) 

I am thankful for a sister-in-law that loves to play Farkle at the kitchen table.

I am thankful for friends that feel like family.

I am thankful for my PTO position.  It makes me use my brain and I love when those kiddos wave and say, "Hi Sunshine!"  They might as well give me money. 

I am thankful for Cracked Pepper Triscuits.  (it's a meal)

I am thankful for Google--it knows stuff.

I am thankful for Dr. Laura.  Even Dr. Laura.  Cuz she *sometimes* says some good stuff.  AND I can turn her off when I get mad at her.  Cuz she can be a real "B". 

I am thankful for forgiveness, cuz I can be a real "B" sometimes too.

I am thankful for Gap's Long & Lean jeans.  They make me feel skinny.

To be continued, cuz there sure is more...

Tina, Call Me

And now...for your reading and viewing entertainment, I will break it down and show you how ABC and NBC are following me around, digging into my past and basically using my life to make the funny.  I know there's a word for this...you know where people think that the world revolves around them. The fact that I know this word, uh--the round-a-bout definition of it, shows you that I am NOT one of these people. Right?  Say yes. Let me enter these words--Dorothy Hamill haircut.  That helps considerably.

**I would like to make a note here that this is going to look like I watch a lot of friggin' TV.  That's not true.  What IS true is that I watch a lot of friggin' Tivo.  I am very busy.**

Okay, so time and again when watching my fave ABC and NBC shows, I see references to my very own little life. How do they do that, these writers? How in the world do they get so specific?  Are we really all the same like that, and we can relate at such an intimate level?  To the select few I've shared my Ponch and John dreams with, I think not.  The reactions I get back are not, the "Me too!" kinds. 

And really, how do the writers of The Middle and Modern Family portray the very exact conversation I had with The Hubbs the night before?  Verbatim.  Or that Tina Fey had the crush on Grizzly Adams AND Larry Wilcox back in the day.  It's freaking me out.  Or just very much proving that Tina and I would be instant BFF's.  She'd suggest me moving in with her and Matt Damon and it would be AWESOME.

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-middle/episode-detail/halloween/588424?cid=abccomsearch_results

Onwards--let's talk about ABC's, The Middle.  I can relate to this show so much. The parents.  The kids. The decor (right down to the insides of their master bedroom closet). The very same Rockin' Red piggy bank with the black polka dots that I made at Ceramic Cafe last year, that was sitting on the hutch in the dining room of last week's Halloween episode.  Oh yeah, and church on Halloween.  True. And look right there--Sue's ("Sue"--that's a laugh right there) big ol' glasses.  Accurate.

And then there's Modern Family.  This show.  Fantastic!  Do you even know how much I Facebook status update quotes from this show?  Just to draw one little example (of many, many) from the Halloween episode--Phil freaks out when he finds out his neighbor is getting a divorce for what he sees as no good reason.  Phil needs a reason why they are getting a divorce, so that he can make sure he doesn't screw up in his own marriage.  So he spends the whole entire episode overdoing it on the lovey dovey and over analyzing his own "stuff".  In one part of his analysis he makes a list of things about their relationship that make him feel like things are "good".  I love it when he says, "I'm a monogamous, social drinker and Claire only sleep hits me."  Mmmmhmmm...accurate.  The sleep hitting part stands out in this one for me, because well--every. single. night. 

Phil's character is The Hubbs a very good chunk of time.  Did you see last week's episode where the smoke detectors were chirping--YEP.  Accurate.  And I would say the picture above of Claire about to go into Freak Out Land...that's me a very good chunk of time.  Accurate. 

http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/episode-detail/halloween/588430


Okay, now for 30 Rock.  All I need to say right here is that Tina Fey and I have the same brain.  Please refer to all of my Dorothy Hamill, Grizzly Adams, Larry Wilcox and Matt Damon comments, pictures and videos.  The end.

Look how cute you are, Larry Wilcox.

Larry Wilcox on 30 Rock.  Tina--CALL ME.

http://www.nbc.com/30-rock/video/ep_505_lizs_flashback/1255408

And last but not least.  The Office.  The last two episodes have rocked.  I just have to point out in the Halloween one where Pam and Jim dress up as Popeye and Olive Oyl for Halloween.  SAME.  Yes, yes yes..Snooki was a close second for me, but you can go right ahead and ask Cindi, Val, Bridget, Rachael, Jennifer, my mother-in-law, the cashier at Party City, the waitress at The Carver Cafe, Amy and Gabe in the teacher's workroom and like five more people--I had the Popeye and Olive Oyl costume idea before I watched The Office.  Freak.it.y.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/costume-party-102810/1256764/

So there you see.  You see it, right?  Say yes.

Tina, call me!