Music Monday: Relative Oldies

Posted on May 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

The photo above has nothing to do with anything in this post, but I found it going through my phone and thought I’d share – you should be used to the random by now.

I’ve been perusing my iTunes library, rediscovering some old favorites and thought I’d take a moment to share some with you…

Clocks | Coldplay – I’ve featured their music time and again on Music Monday so I guess I can freely admit that I rather love Coldplay. The best is still the song from Alias – as Sandy said, Vaughn = swoon. Yup.

The Wind | Cat Stevens – This one is an oldie but I first remember liking it after watching Almost Famous, way back before I found Kate Hudson insufferable – I wish she would do back to indie movies, she was brilliant in Almost Famous, or perhaps she just had a marvelous director.

Under the Bridge | Red Hot Chili Peppers – Yet another song with a great guitar intro. True story: Anthony Kiedis (the Chili Peppers’ lead singer) is from my current home town and in college I saw him at a local coffee shop; sadly I didn’t realize it was him but instead thought he was a guy from my college so I kept staring at him, waiting for him to recognize me and say hi – but since it was actually someone famous and not another college student, he just gave me a strange look. I’m sure he is used to people staring at him but after the fact, I wanted to chase after him and tell him that I wasn’t staring at him for the reason he thought I was… a brush with fame and I wasted it on thinking he was someone else. For the record, he looked pretty normal and darn handsome.

I Could Sing of Your Love Forever | Sonic Flood – The CD player in my Focus ate this CD, actually, it got stuck in the CD player when someone shoved another CD in the player on top of this one and I had to have the whole player removed and replaced. I was so sad about this CD.

Cruisin’ | Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis – Speaking of back when celebrities were less annoying – remember when Gwyneth was less toolish? Do you recall that she actually clued the world in that she could sing in a movie (Duets) and not on Glee… here’s a song she performed with Huey Lewis (who played her dad in the movie).

Thank You | Dido – And yet another song from a movie that starred Gwynnie (Sliding Doors – the movie where she has two freaking cute hairstyles)

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Posted in Life in general, Music

Instagram, week eight

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 2 comments

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Love a babysitter who plays outside with the kids and leaves us fun graffiti.

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Date night… Oberon and sangria… perfect.

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Play date with some of our favorite people…loved Jack’s take charge body language in this picture. He and Avery had great fun making “chocolate” soup (dirt, water and sticks).

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A slew of silver vehicles at school pick up.

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Jack zonked out way too late in the day.

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McDonald’s Diet Coke… sometimes you just need one.

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Summer… nothing warms my heart like seeing this.

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Liam’s summer haircut.

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Posted in Instagram, Life in general

Five Question Friday

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 4 comments

Yesterday, after a haircut and trip to the grocery store, Jack fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn’t wake up when I carried him into the house and plopped him in his bed, just rolled over and continued sleeping. If you know us at all, you’ll know that Jack is a non-napper – he stopped napping at 2 years old and hasn’t looked back (which is almost offensive to me because until I had him, I LOVED naps – more on that below) – but he has been napping at least once a week at daycare for the last month (much to everyone’s surprise). I decided to just let him sleep and worry about the consequences later because he had been super grumpy since Simon and I exchanged children/cars. Despite the possible impending doom that could stem from a toddler who napped too late in the day, Liam and I had a pleasant evening without Jack around to get into everything. After two hours (and nearly at bedtime) Jack emerged from the bedroom, bleary-eyed but in a much better mood than his pre-nap self. He proceeded to eat constantly for an hour and didn’t really fight me when I announced it was bedtime. Liam zonked out right away and Jack was mostly quiet, though he did come out of his room crying around 10 (I assume he was awake until then) but either way I couldn’t help but think that this must be what having a teenager is like. Mood swings, insatiable hunger and random sleep patterns.

1. Are you a napper?
I used to be a great napper, but I need a couple of hours for a good nap. My husband can power nap for 15 minutes and feel refreshed, I believe this is because he can fall asleep nearly on command. I, on the other hand, take at least 15-30 minutes to fall asleep, even when I’m dead tired. So I’ve had to give up on naps because when it takes that long to fall asleep, by the time I’ve finally nodded off, it’s time to get up and I’m more tired than when I began. I miss naps.

2. What was your favorite subject in school? Most hated?
If I’m being honest, my most hated subject was gym – so much so that I took it for summer school because the class was only 6 weeks instead of a whole semester. Plus I was such a nerd that I could take more academic classes rather than waste my time with a physical activity. And changing in the locker room did not at all appeal to me (clearly this was before having children which caused me to lose all sense of modesty).

My favorite subject… hmmm… everything other than gym, really. I liked school. I was smart and getting good grades came easily to me so I enjoyed most of my classes. Can I pick yearbook as a subject? Let’s call it media arts… that sounds better. I really loved yearbook and my senior year I was co-editor so I had three hours of yearbook in my schedule for the second semester (rough life, I know). Given how much I enjoyed graphic design, you’d have thought I wouldn’t have bothered being pre-med my first semester in college, but alas, at that stage in life I was still driven for greater success (at least until I realized I didn’t have it in me to be in school for nearly a decade before I ever got to be a doctor and help patients). Plus graphic design and communications so much more fun and thanks to yearbook media arts, I knew this to be true.

3. Did you have the something old new borrowed and blue at your wedding? What were they?
Considering this was just seven years ago, you’d think I’d remember but I’m quite certain I didn’t have all those things – though I can’t be 100% sure. I’m not very superstitious and while I like the idea of traditions, I’m not the best at actually following them.

4. What one thing are you determined to do this summer
Go to the beach and eat ice cream at The General Store on Ottawa Beach Road. Which leads us to the next question…

5. Ice cream or Popsicle?
Ice cream. I really don’t know who would pick a Popsicle over ice cream – I mean, really, there’s no comparison. (Hopefully I don’t offend you Popsicle-lovers out there, but your love for frozen, flavored water confuses me. Maybe you are lactose intolerant?) My favorite ice cream treat… a sundae (preferably with coffee ice cream) with butterscotch and salty pecans. Yes, please.

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday.

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Posted in Five Question Friday, Life in general

What lights me up?

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 4 comments

I just read a post by Ciao Mom about finding the “why” in our lives – why we do the things we do – what inspires us, makes us feel good, influences the decision we make? She explains it in way more depth than I will go into here but you can just click the link above and read what she wrote. Her post made me think about what “lights me up.” It only makes sense to focus on those things, to intentionally seek them out because they fill us up; there is plenty that will drain us (an afternoon/evening spent with whiny children – gets me every time).

Here’s a brief list of the things that light me up, here’s hoping I can seek out opportunities to fill my life with more of them:

  1. Child-free time with my hubby
  2. Live music
  3. An evening of laughter and talking with friends (or just a single friend)
  4. Making food for others – having people over and entertaining
  5. Reading a good book
  6. Helping others however I can – I’m good in a crisis mostly because I don’t freak out but I’m also good at the little things and I like to be useful
  7. Watching my children play (happily) with my friends’ kids
  8. Crafting/creating
  9. A beautiful sunset, preferably on Lake Michigan
  10. Being in a big city (like Chicago) just for a visit
  11. Travel and road trips
  12. Iced coffee and McDonald’s fountain Diet Coke
  13. Graphic design
  14. Finding (and sharing) new music
  15. Real mail in the mailbox
  16. Praise music in church
  17. Cool breezes through open windows
  18. Watching the scale go down
  19. A newly straightened up house (though I realize this directly contradicts my dislike for cleaning, though you should note I didn’t say, newly cleaned house – just straightened)
  20. Writing

What lights you up?

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Posted in Life in general

Everything happens for a reason

Posted on May 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’d like to say that I hate it when people say that… everything happens for a reason – but I don’t. I know it’s so trite and all platitude-y (totally a word, except, not really) but it’s also true. At least, it turns out to be true. When you are in the middle of the thing that’s happening, you often can’t see the reason and that capital “s” Sucks. And in that moment, a platitude doesn’t help (so definitely try to avoid them) but later, you can appreciate it.

Where am I going with this…

On Saturday I posted my normal Instagram recap that included a photo I took of a photo of my dad’s father who he never met because he (my grandfather) died in October 1935 and my dad was born February 1936. At some point I’d heard the story of the circumstances of his death but had mistakenly attributed his head injury to a lead pipe and I knew I was potentially making the details up because our minds recall things differently that we learned in childhood (e.g., bad dreams, being afraid of spooky neighbors who were not at all spooky in real life, being force-fed vegetables, etc…). Anywho, I knew my father would set me straight.

And I was right, Monday I got the following email from my dad:
My  father was  a fun-loving, dare-devil, joker, witty  type of  guy (runs  in the  family [note from Michelle: we are also humble]) and  he  liked to  play  low stake  poker at  the local  pub in Dimondale, Mi. After  one  such  session, which  he was  a winner, an altercation with  a loser  ended up in a fist fight  outside and  my dad  went  down and  head struck curb or the  concrete,  and  he developed a blood  clot.  Being  1935 and medicine  not  like  today, after  a few  days  in Lansing  hospital  he was transported  to Ann Arbor  where he  died like I think in November  and  I  was born  the next  Feb. No lead pipe  was involved.

[now here’s the part I loved]
Think  how  much  life  would  be  changed if that had not  happened.  Would  probably not  met  your  mom  and  no  Mike –no Marty— and  no  Michelle. See all things  happen for  a reason. I’m  very  happy  with  the  way  all has turned out
P.S.  the guy  who  caused  his  death was not  prosecuted  and  died in  W./W.2

I’ve never really talked to my dad about his father dying or everything that happened after – my grandma remarried and moved my dad and his sister to Lansing where he met my mom (his high school sweetheart) in school. And the rest is history. But history that probably wouldn’t have happened had my grandfather not been killed, or had he died at a later point after my dad was born. I cannot imagine what my grandma went through during all this – have two small children and no husband (though she was certainly not alone as there were many wives and children left behind at this time – it was a period of war and depression). But I love how he sees it… that his family came out of it, that we are the silver lining of the cloud of losing his own dad.

Incidentally, I did a little Google-aided digging and found out that my grandma also had a stillborn son in January 1934. I never knew that and as a child would never have known (or appreciated) how much my grandma went through in her own relative youth but as a mother and a wife, I relate to where she was at that time and cannot imagine the strength it took to get through it. I’m sure that at the time there was no comfort in knowing there must be a reason for it happening, but perhaps later, in retrospect, she could see the good that came of it.

It doesn’t mean that bad things are necessary in life but that bad things are not in themselves the end of the story, sometimes they are just the beginning. Everything happens for a reason because God doesn’t make mistakes.

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Posted in Faith, Family, Life in general