Soapbox time.

I just got'ta. (And I'm only about a week late, but I don't care. Something happened again this morning, and set me off!)

I'm from the south. And extremely proud of it. (Insert whatever redneck smiley you can think of here. I don't care.)

Since when is North Carolina SUPPPOSED to be hugely prepared for a snowy January? Since when is it CRAZY for our public school systems to call off school a whole day in advance - even when the snow has not yet fallen? Since when did people from all over the northern and particularly colder regions of this great land decide that making a mockery of the place where they choose to live is cool? Responses to the missed school days and missed time at work and even lack of milk in the grocery stores like "This is CRAZY!" or "HILARIOUS!" have me really peeved. THIS IS THE SOUTH!

All done. :)

(*Note - this is not directed at any particular individual - I've heard these comments so much in the last week that I can't even keep up with the offenders anymore.)

Oh, and now that I am done - I'll share some of my favorite pictures (Already posted on FB, but wanted to post them here, more for my posterity - who will remember in this post that sometimes, Leah didn't know how to keep her mouth shut.)

A tale in Rolesville

The date is January 20, 2009. The TV is not changing from a network station airing live streaming video of the Capital City. Through tears, and a trembling voice, a mother tells her 5 year old son, "Today," she pauses, "is a really... exciting... day."

A few seconds pass, and he replies, "I know!" She momentarily thinks he's realized the weight behind her words. "Today is Tuesday, a school day, and we're home getting to play in the snow!!! I thought we already talked about this."

brrrr

Brady & I had a really cool outing today with our friends from our neighborhood - the Keslers. :) Owen and Brady are two peas in a pod - 'specially on the little power wheels rig Owen got for Christmas. :)

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Ice Skating Rink in Wake Forest. A FABULOUS time was had by all. :)

~looking on the ice at the fun that would shortly commence:



























~ready to get this party started!




























~taking a little break after our 15 minute trip around the ice (one revolution)




























~"how can i keep from smiling?!"




















~whoever said you can't get a workout on ice with your 3 1/2 year old didn't know what he was talking about. ;)


























~friends

"somewhere in my memory"

if i let myself, i could get depressed that christmas is over.

the things i miss can be summed up like this
~the thrill of the season
~the music

the presents and decorations, and even the food are just fluff - kwim?

every morning when jackson wakes up, he turns on the living room tv, and selects something from dvr to watch for a little while while i get some more zzzz's (this morning it was 6:40)... so today, he chose "home alone" and when i did finally get up - i walked out into the living room - and "somewhere in my memory" (the theme song) was on... and i just about welled up with tears!

tell me i'm not the only one! ;)

age, ethnicity, religion, or time of day

does not change the fact...
~*~*~*~boys will be boys~*~*~*~

This left hand

of mine... is very, very bad.
Just today, it has been responsible for opening the refrigerator at least 12, maybe 15 times to grab a mouthful taste of land-o-lakes version of reddi whip. in the words of brady (who got this expression from "i do not know where"), "what tha!?!"

Maybe it can be redeemed by the fact that TODAY it has also wiped my dear 19-month-old's stinky bottom about 5 times, driven my eager 5 year old to kindergaten and back, applied shoe after shoe to foot after foot, built blocks, thrown balls with the sweetest 3 1/2 year old ever, emailed friends and family whom I would have otherwise not been in touch with, prepared a divine supper of spaghetti and garlic bread for my favorite 30 year old, and will soon flip through dvr for appx. 2 hours before it holds my head in it's favorite position as I drift into lah-lah land.

It is forgiven. After all, I can't be mad at it, when in fact, it will be the vehicle of the divine whipped goodness in a few minutes tomorrow when I just HAVE to have another taste. Oh, and let's forget about the 5 oreos that it placed in my mouth last night (today too) around 1:30 am when I decided I wasn't up for popcorn.

More updating

Aside from my new groovy layout (which is still a work in progress, btw), I took a few minutes to update my shutterwhimsy website with some new gallery pics and such. Just sharing here 'cause I'm feeling all accomplished at 1:20 am. I promise to get the Christmas trees off the homepage by Monday. ;)

My stomach is growling. I think I'll go pop some popcorn and watch my dvr'd "The Bachelor."

Lisa Kudrow

is making me laugh again.
Do check out her online comedy, "Web Therapy," at lstudio.lexus.com.

You'll find some familiar faces, "Best in Show" fans. Such as...


Bob Balaban







Tim Bagley









And the every reigning queen of the dryer side of comedy
Jane Lynch. *LOVE HER!*








You are all smart enough to NOT need me to set you up, so I won't. But I will say that in the clip above (number 7 of 13 episodes, I believe), do note the conversation that ensues at the 2:09 marker when the man asks her, the Psychologist "Where do you come from?" Reminds me of the line from one of Pa's favorite stories to tell, "Now you've stopped preachin' and started meddlin'.

Enjoy.

a resolution of sorts

i'm going to own my crazy hair.
there. that's it.