The Stalker Song

I was reading a list of 'One Hit Wonders' for the decade and saw one of my favorites on there - You're Beautiful by James Blunt. When I first heard this song on the radio I thought, how sweet to write a song about your girlfriend telling her how beautiful you think she is. Then after I heard it a few times I realized he wrote it about a woman he passed in the subway who was "with another man" but just seeing this beautiful woman changed his life, blah, blah, blah. Okay so I felt a little disallusioned with this song. Then I saw the video that goes along with it. That was just downright distrubing! In the video while he is singing the song he is sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean. He proceeds to take most of his clothes off and in the end he jumps off the cliff. Soooo....because you realized you would never be able to have a relationship with this stranger you saw once in the subway, you are going to kill yourself? I think she dodged a bullet! So although I still like the song - I always feel a little disturbed as I am listening to it.

Then there's Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Ts - which I affectionately call 'The Stalker Song'. Again, I heard this song and thought what a sweet song to write to your girlfriend who you clearly adore. Then I read an article about how the guy wrote the song to this young woman he liked. They had met at a party or even gone on a date but she let him know that she was not interested. Now she has this song written about her that is all over the airwaves that makes it sound like they are clearly a couple. (Note to Delilah...run away...run far, far away!) So now when I hear the song I try to imagine it is really written about two people who are actually very much in love. But it still feels kind of creepy and I'll always think of it as 'The Stalker Song'.

family photos

We took some photos for our Christmas card this year at the Christmas tree farm. They turned out pretty good - here are a few. Oh yea - and we had a great time cutting down our tree as well!

Christmas Traditions

One of our traditions is cutting down our Christmas tree. The boys love doing this. Why? Because it is our family tradition and an adventure that we all do together. And putting up the Christmas tree has a 'magical' feel that we love at Christmas time. After we pick out our tree and cut it and haul it back to the barn to be shaken, we all sit around a picnic table drinking hot chocolate. We live in Michigan and some years it is unseasonably warm (50 degrees) and some years it is snowy and cold. But it doesn't matter because what matters to us is that we are doing this together - going on an adventure.

It was a tradition my mother started after the divorce when I was a kid. We lived in Cincinnati and to cut down your own tree you had to drive about an hour north. My mom packed up my brothers, the dog and me and we headed north. When we got there it really felt like an adventure for us - especially doing it without a 'man' to help. To me it felt like the four of us could accomplish anything as long as we were working together. After we got the tree secured to the roof of our car, we would begin our drive home. The first year, we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch and every year after that my brothers and I insisted we stop at the same McDonalds...."because it's tradition" we would inform my mom.

My husband, boys and I have other traditions we do together as a family during this Christmas season - some more meaningful to the season than this. But somehow this is always the most memorable tradition to me.

What's your favorite tradition?

the sacrificial mom strikes again

It's a little embarrassing but for my 9 y/o son, i am learning the 'Thriller' dance with him. Now that is sacrifice. Look for us on youtube (if we ever learn it all!).

the sacrificial mom

I 'got' to see the re-release of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in a 3-D double feature this week....twice. It was only going to be in theaters for two weeks. I promised the boys we would go. But on Sunday, our planned day to see this big ticket movie, one of my boys was sick - with mono. So I only took the two older boys promising the sickie that I would take him one day during the week while he was home from school anyway. So on Tuesday, I picked him up from school early (mono isn't as debilitating in a 9 y/o) and went and sat thru three hours of two movies-I-have-probably-seen-at-least-a-dozen-times-each.....again! I'm telling you, that is sacrificial love for you. The kind of sacrifice only a mother's love is willing to give.

I was looking forward to seeing the movies....once. They are definitely in my top favorite kid's movies - Pixar does it right! But twice in one week is just a little much. Although I did enjoy hearing each boy laugh during the movie - that makes it all worth it!

What's with the squirrels?

I have had so many squirrels run out in front of my car lately. Is it because its fall and they are all in "gathering" mode right now? I don't know but I think the squirrel population is going to go down soon since they keep running out in front of traffic.

I am always thinking, "Do I swerve to avoid it or hope it gets out of the way?" I don't want to hit the thing but its not worth causing an accident either. Jay has noticed them too and he would be traumatized if I hit one! (I'm not kidding.) So for now I guess I will do my best to avoid them.

And I thought we had dodged a bullet....er a button.

With boys ages 14, 12 and 9 I really thought I had avoided having a child get a small object stuck in his nose or ear. But today my 12 y/o let me check that off my parenting list. I was about to eat my lunch when I hear his panicked voice from downstairs saying, "Mom, I got a button stuck in my ear!" Then he says, "Am I going to die?"

I assured Jay that as far as I know, no one has died from getting a button stuck in his/her ear. At the same time I am wondering if my afternoon is going to be spent at the dr's office or urgent care to get it out. But fortunately it wasn't lodge too far in and Dr. Mom was able to extract it with a pair of tweezers.

Jay promised to never stick a button in his ear again. Glad to hear it!