He has truly become one of us.

Note the way he casually lounges in his chair with his feet propped up, watching the latest Sesame Street. When you see your child exhibit some of your own shining traits, it just melts your heart.

In Theaters this Summer: "The Elephant that Loved Me (and movies)"

After a desperate attempt at an intervention, Chuck and I have finally faced the elephant in the room. He has an addiction. It is watching movies. Yes, yes, I know, most everyone enjoys movies. What you don't understand is, the man HAS to watch a movie if we are at home. He can't just entertain himself by fiddling around the house like I do. If we have down time, he will spend hours searching for a movie to watch on the 500 channels of cable we have. It's driving me insane. So, I think I have found a solution to his problem.

After months of listening to my friends rave about Netflix, I finally gave in to the peer pressure as a last ditch effort to help my husband before I send him off to therapy. I signed up for the two week trial, which will surely turn into a subscription because I'm lazy and always forget to cancel things like these. As luck might have it, it's one of those that automatically signs you up if you don't cancel. Hooray!! (note: sarcasm) However, so far, I am impressed. If you've been living under a rock and don't know what Netflix is, let me fill you in with a little copy and paste...

About Netflix
Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is the world's largest online DVD movie rental service, offering more than 4 million members access to 55,000 titles. Our appeal and success are built on providing the most expansive selection of DVDs; an easy way to choose movies; and fast, free delivery.

Members have the choice of eight subscription plans, starting at $9.99 per month for unlimited rentals with one DVD out at a time. With the most popular plan of $17.99 a month, members rent as many DVDs as they want and keep them as long as they want, with three movies out at a time. Members enjoy fast and free delivery: We reach more than 90 percent of our members with generally one business-day delivery and provide free, prepaid return envelopes. With no commitments, members can cancel anytime. Our "no late fees, no due dates" online movie rental model has eliminated the hassle involved in choosing, renting and returning movies.

And if you would like to read this in it's entirety, go
here.

Basically what you do is create a "queue" (a list) of all the movies they have available that you would like to see. Their collection is actually pretty impressive since I haven't found a movie that they don't have, yet. You build your queue, ranking the movies from top priority to lowest. Based on the plan you sign up for, they send you those movies. As you return them, they send you the next available movie from your queue. It's pretty simple and they get them to you quickly, so it seems. Tonight we should have "Walk the Line" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" waiting for us. So our trial has begun.

As for Chuck and his addiction, I'm hoping that this will help us (him) cut back on his channel surfing. Because, seriously, I'm about to destroy the thing. Thank you everyone for all of your well wishes and support in helping us get through this troubled time. Somehow, I think we'll make it.

Who could leave a face like this?

When someone looks at you like this as you are leaving for work in the morning, it's very hard to go. *sigh*

The evil that is the camera flash.

**Note to self: Always be prepared to bust out some kung fu while at QuikTrip.

I stopped at a local gas station on my way to work this morning. I hadn't dropped Chase off yet so he was in the back seat as usual. It happened to be a little chilly here this morning so I hopped out, put the nozzle in the car and got back in. As I was digging through my purse, this crazy/high looking lady appears at my window out of nowhere. She motions for me to roll down my window so I did, just a little. (I'm not a complete fool. I was in RAYTOWN after all) She points in the opposite direction of the way I would be going after filling up and asks me "Are you going that way?" I just said "No, sorry". She stood there and stared at me for what was probably a full 30 seconds. Finally she blurted out, "I'm late for work and need a ride". I just told her that I was sorry, but I was late for work too and it was in the opposite direction, which was completely true. She pointed over to the gas pump and said, "Your gas is done." I glanced in my side mirror and could see that it obviously wasn't. Not to mention I could HEAR it running. I looked her right in the eye and firmly said, "No, not quite yet. Thank you though." So she, again, stood and stared at me. It was kind of like she was deciding what to do and she was trying to get me out of my car. I stared right back at her all the while feeling my blood start to boil. This was the first time I've ever felt the protect-your-child-at-all-costs urge so it was new to me but whoa. I would have ripped that lady's throat out. I mean, I was getting ANGRY. She finally walked off and started harassing someone else. As soon as she was a safe distance away though, I was out of there.

This has just got me reevaluating a lot of things. What would I truly have done if she made an aggressive move towards me? I assume I would have just driven off with the nozzle still in my car, after all, people do it accidentally all the time. What if she had caught me before I had gotten back into my car though? I've been trying to make light of the situation by convincing myself that I would have busted out some kung fu on the crazy lady but really I think this is something that will be bothering me for a while.

Chuck the Truck

Snake Saturday

This past Saturday was Snake Saturday in North Kansas City. For those who don't know, it's a made up holiday so people in NKC can (get drunk) celebrate St. Pat's the Saturday before actual St. Patrick's Day and not have to take off two days of work to enjoy it. You know, one day to celebrate and the following day to recover.

The tradition consists, for me, of watching the parade and then trotting off to the local bars to enjoy the rest of the day. Well, we did just that this weekend. First we took Chase to the parade and he thoroughly enjoyed it as you can see here:



Doesn't he look thrilled to the point of bursting?


He seemed to like the firetrucks the best, as he has been trained well by my firefighting father. He clapped his hands and yelled at all the trucks as you can see, here:




Afterwards, Chuck and I joined my drunken family at the Oaktree Bar (Chase waited in the car-he was being such a party pooper) where everyone enjoyed lots of drunken hugs from Debbie, my stepmom -as you can see here with Chuck:

The photo that was previously posted here has been removed to make room for new pictures. Trust me, you would have been impressed.

here with Mandy:
The photo that was previously posted here has been removed to make room for new pictures. Trust me, you would have been impressed.

here with Brett:
The photo that was previously posted here has been removed to make room for new pictures. Trust me, you would have been impressed.


and here with Gary:
The photo that was previously posted here has been removed to make room for new pictures. Trust me, you would have been impressed.

Overall it was a good day. Obviously since Chase was being such a drag, we tried to keep the bar time under 3 hours and one of us remained sober. And no, after all the celebrating, we didn't even end up seeing any snakes. Unless you want to count these guys:


**Disclaimer: Of course Chase didn't reeeally wait in the car. What kind of mother do you think I am? We propped him up on a barstool and let him enjoy a few drinks with the rest of us.

What's all the hubbub, you say?

TODAY is my Grandfather's 80th birthday! 80! Have you met my fabulous grandfather? You haven't? Oh you must! Grandpas don't come much better than this.



This is him and Chase last summer. Don't they look like a pair about to cause some serious trouble? Well they are. I think right after this picture was taken, they went out and partied all night, hit all the bars and caused some major ruckus. Now that he's 80, I've heard him say that he's not all that interested in ruckus anymore. Now he's toned it down to strictly "hubbub".

Happy Birthday Grandpa Dameron, I love you. I have a beer with your name on it.

Do the White Stripes have bad teeth or something?

Chuck: What did Simon Cowell do before American Idol?

Me: Ummmm, something over in England. He did the same show over there before coming here to do it. Before that he was in the music business-producing or something.

Chuck: What bands did he work with?

Me: Oh I have no clue. They were all from England so nobody we would probably know.

Chuck: That's not true, we know the White Stripes.

Me: *laughs and looks at him to see if he's serious* *yep, he's serious*

Me: The White Stripes are from here.

Chuck: Right, right.

Double the Pleasure, Double the Tiffany.

It's true! Go to this website, type in your name and it will "sloganize" it for you. Because when it comes down to it, "There's First Love, and There's Tiffany Love."

C-C-C-C-C-C-C'mon!!

So you know what is probably not work appropriate? George Michael's "I want your sex". Why this song is in heavy rotation on the radio station that I currently listen to at work solely because it usually is work appropriate, is beyond me. Not that I don't do a little desk chair dancing to it, don't get me wrong. However when a doctor comes in to talk to me about a coding issue or his schedule or wondering why the hell I'm rolling around rhythmically in my desk chair, it's probably not the most appropriate song to be playing at that particular time.

Careful! Those roses look a little frisky.

Me: "Hey, while you are standing there, will you throw away those dead roses?"
Chuck: "Yeah. Are they horny?"
Me: *thinking, Well, I don't THINK so. They look a little limp to me.*
Me: (laughing) "You mean, THORNY?"
Chuck: "Um, yeah."
Me: "Yeah, I think they are."

Katrina and Amanda this post is for you.

*Someone* told me this morning that you have been teaching my son a certain curse word. You have been repeating the same word over and over again so he will learn it and repeat it. For the past week, my sweet innocent angel has been walking around our home mumbling what I thought was his version of "shoe". It was so cute and I was so proud of him for learning a new word. I now know the actual word that he has been mumbling is NOT "shoe". Let's just say, you should avoid me at all costs for the next week. I have something for you and it ain't pretty.

Everything has a place and everything in it's place.

Kevin Spacey, The Mouse, Adorable Kids, and my behind.

I, as usual, have lots of big plans for the next year. Most of those plans involve traveling which I really, really enjoy. I have 4 trips planned as of right now and I will now ramble about them for the next four paragraphs.

The first trip is to Georgia to visit my great aunt who is 90! And still drives! I'll tell you what, if I am as mentally capable and physically able as she is when I am 90, I'll be happy. Well, I'll be shocked... but happy shocked. (I'm pretty firm in the belief that my death will involve snakes and a minivan but that's a story for another time.) So my sister, my mother, and I will be going at the end of April. We'll be visiting my aunt in the small town where she lives and then all going up to Savannah to spend some time there. I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing but all I know is that a Haunted Ghost Tour will most definitely be involved. And I will be sure to speak slowly and with a long draaaaawl the entire time I am there. I will also be on the search for this man.


The second trip is still in the works as well but a friend of mine is getting married and asked me to be in her wedding! Yahoo! I'm really excited about this trip too. Chuck will be joining me and it's in one of my favorite places, the magical city of Orlando. Go ahead, roll your eyes, but there is something about that place that I just adore and will make me return there as often as I possibly can. Yes, I will be wearing my mouse ears. What? You don't think I truly own them? You don't think Chuck owns them? You think we are way too cool of a couple to own mouse ears? You would be wrong.



My third trip will be to Texas to visit my stepbrother, my sister in law, and their adorable sons, Adin and Benjamin. Proof of their adorableness..




I can't wait to see them since we so rarely get to. This trip will be with Chase and my stepmother, Debbie. I'm really hoping this one works out since it sounds like so much fun!

And then...the grandaddy of them all..we'll be going to Cancun for my 21st (30th) birthday next year in February!! I'm trying to organize as many people as possible to go with us. So far, we have a great group including my friends and family and I couldn't be any more excited! It will make turning 21 (30)less painful. This is me on the beach next year. Would you kindly stop staring at my shapely body? Thanks.

The view from my desk chair.

Well, ok, "the view" zoomed in a little. They aren't actually an inch from my face. Happy (late) Valentine's Day!

My favorite part of the day.

The captive waits patiently for his rescuer. Every day around 5:30, she arrives to take him from his evil captors that make him play with toys, watch children's shows, drink from a sippy cup, and use the bathroom in his own pants. His rescuer whisks him away to his home where he plays with toys, watches children's shows, drinks from a sippy cup, and uses the bathroom in his own pants.

Someone was smiley on Saturday.

A new Jack! A new Jack!

Yes, it's true! After months of watching the same episodes over and over and over and over and over again, we finally get a new Jack's Big Music Show today. We've been watching a lot of Jack recently, I'm ashamed to admit. Yes, it's a great show but it's probably not good for any of us at home to be watching it 3 times a day. It's become part of our bedtime/naptime routine and it works so well. Chase and I curl up on the couch with a sippy cup and blankie in hand, watch Jack, and then he's ready for bedtime. If we fail on any of those requirements, he's a very unhappy camper when left in his crib. I'm assuming that he feels gipped.

So needless to say, I've become very well acquainted with each and every episode and it's left me to wonder a few things.

1. I really wonder what the set looks like in real life. I'm assuming that the puppeteers have their hands up the butt of each character so I'm wondering if the set is built fairly high off the ground, so the puppeteers don't have to squat down.

2. I also wonder how they move Jack's arms at certain points. Obviously I can see the black stick coming down from his arms in certain scenes but there are some scenes that he doesn't have the black stick but his arm still moves. For example, when he is playing the guitar, his right arm moves up and down the arm of the guitar but no black stick. So, how the heck is that happening?

3. How many puppeteers work the Schwartzman Quartet? You would think that probably 2 people do it. However the lead singer always moves independently from the back up guys. So I guess one of those puppeteers is pretty talented and can move the lead singer along with the backup guy that is coordinated with the rest of the backup guys? I would think that would be pretty difficult.

4. Originally I believed that the voices of the puppets and the movement of the puppets were done at separate times. The more I think about it however, I'm guessing that the puppeteers are the ones doing the voices at the same time as the movements. So, do the puppeteers have to memorize their lines or do they get to read off of a cue card?

5. And finally, just what the hell ARE Jack and Mary? And how did they get such a cool clubhouse? And do they realize that they are musical prodigies? And how did Jack teach Mel to play the drums?

*sigh* Maybe Chase and I will figure all this out one day. Until then, "You're always welcome on Jack's Big Music Show!"

Happy GHD!