Look what I can do!

Getting My Toys

Where I share my love of Rick Springfield

Today, my friends, is a very important day. It is the birthday of a very special person in my life. If you weren't around in the eighties, you might have to google him to know what I'm talking about. Today is the birthday of Rick Springfield. I LOVE HIM! I have loved him since I was in the fifth grade and he first appeared as Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. I would go home everyday from school with my friend Sherry and her mom would let us watch GH together and we were gaga for Dr. Noah Drake. He was so dreamy what with those piercing green eyes, and lush black hair. And the DIMPLES! I died for those dimples.

That same year he also became famous for his first love which is singing. Who hasn't heard Jessie's Girl? LOVED that song! Still do. I am not a good dancer, but if I hear Jessie's girl I will shake my booty no matter where I'm at. The only other song that has that effect on me is Dancing Queen. Seriously, who can resist grooving to Dancing Queen?

When we weren't watching GH, Sherry and I would watch this new show called MTV where they played music videos from current musical talent. We would watch for hours hoping to catch Rick in one of his videos. If that wasn't enough, we always had our magazines. Can I tell you how many Tiger Beats, Teen Beats, and Seventeen magazines our moms bought us just because they had a picture of Rick Springfield somewhere in them? Enough to pay for our first year of college, I bet! It was ridiculous. At one point, you could not see blank walls in my room at home. Every single space was plastered with posters and pictures of Rick. If I could have reached the ceiling I would have had him up there as well. My parents were sneaky enough to send me to church camp one summer with the sole purpose I'm now sure of redecorating my room while I was gone. When I came back, most of the pictures were off of the walls. To make sure I wouldn't put them back up again, they went and painted the room a very pretty pink and got me a new bed and curtains and everything. It worked. I couldn't deny the room looked better sans all of the pictures, but still I missed him.

I still remember the day in junior high school when mom and dad told me I could go to my first concert. Of course it was Rick. Amy (who also shared my passion for this man) went with me to that one. We actually made it down to the very front row and stayed there most of the concert. I got to touch the girl beside me who touched Rick's shoe! (Yellow and white high tops if I remember correctly.) How exciting! There were some very mean girls behind us who pulled our hair halfway through the concert to get in front of us. That was very disturbing. I have since seen him in concert four or five more times. One loses count. Every show has been the absolute best! Even at fifty eight he has so much energy and I'm sorry but he is still sexy! Look at his arms!

I know it is somewhat pathetic that here I am at thirty-something and can still tell you that Rick Springfield was born in Sydney, Australia and that his favorite color is purple and that his real last name is Springthorpe and that his favorite band used to be Led Zepplin. All I can say is that my dreams of someday meeting the man who only wished he had Jessie's girl were what got me through many an akward time in my teenage years. And I just still haven't outgrown those dreams.

The only celebrity who has come close to rivaling my adoration for Mr. Springfield is Tom Cruise. I have loved me some Tom. However, if I had to choose between inviting Rick or Tom over for dinner, I would definately choose Rick. I mean, he has that cute Australian accent and everything. And besides, I'd be afraid of Tom jumping on our furniture or something.

And yes, Mike was slightly miffed that my post for Rick's birthday was a little longer than my post for his birthday. This in no way means that I love Rick Springfield more than I love my husband. It's just a quirky little obsession of mine. And if I had a t-shirt that said "Mike's Girl" on it I would be wearing it right now instead of my "Jessie's Girl" tank top. Happy Birthday Rick! Rock on.

Zoe

This is our cat Zoe who thinks she is a human baby. She also loves Jake's toys and occasionally goes for rides in his swing. Please also reference back to the pictures below of our son Jake who thinks he's a dog. And then there's our dog Brady who doesn't think much at all! It's a zoo over here.

I learned this by watching the dog.

Captain Moo

Harry Potter Madness Finished

It is done. I finished the book today which allows me to catch up on cleaning the house, posting to this blog, and solving the world's problems one problem at a time. The book was so good! If you haven't read Harry Potter then I know you don't care, but you should! Go buy the books and start reading today. I have to say I'm sad to see the series end, but I thought this last book ended just perfectly. I couldn't believe it when Harry did the--KIDDING!--you didn't think I would spoil the ending for you did you? Seriously, as soon as someone who reads this finishes the book either call or email me! Can't wait to discuss. Hopefully, I'll be able to remember the one question I still have by then. Just ask me about Draco and perhaps that will trigger my memory.

THE SMILE

The Teething Biscuit Incident

Alia

Here are a few pics of Jake's little cousin Alia. She was born in March!

Harry Potter Madness

I got mine! After going to Borders books to buy the long anticipated final installment of my pal Harry Potter, I found out that you had to pre-order the book to get it from them today. Even though they literally had hundreds of the books in boxes behind the counter. I saw them! Silly me, I thought stores liked to service all of their customers. So, instead I had to drive all the way across the parking lot to WalMart where they had stacks of the new book for $18.00. That's four dollars cheaper than Borders was giving it to those people who had the foresight to pre-order. Lucky me! You might not hear from for a few days until I finish the book. Only 650 pages left to go! It's a sickness people.

A Boy and His Dog

Houston, We Have a Crawler

My parents have been in town for the last few days visiting. It's been so good to see them and watch them interact with Jake. He loves his Grandpa and MeMaw. He's been getting so close to crawling in the last week and we were hoping they would get to see him succeed. I'm happy to say he took his first official crawl yesterday afternoon with both of his parents, one set of grandparents, and his aunt Cheryl watching! It was very exciting and he seemed so happy to figure it out. He also got to go swimming with the family yesterday afternoon which made him so hungry that he ate a whole container of green beans last night and slept an extra forty five minutes this morning. We should do that more often!

Bouncing with Cheryl

Born to Run

Okay, a couple weeks ago, Amy told me that she was going to start training for a 5K and asked me if I wanted to do it with her. Due to my new body by Jake, I agreed. We're following a training program put together by the owner of RunTex. The first thing you should know about me is that I don't like to run. Period. When I was a kid I loved running short distances and was actually very fast. I won many a blue ribbon at the all school track meets. But even back then I had sense enough to know that there was just no good reason to run distances longer than, oh say, 200 meters. I mean I was never going to have to chase down an antelope or anything to capture it for food. I could just always go to the Toot-N-Totem if I needed a snack. And walking there would do just fine.

So, the first week of our training really just consisted of two or three days walking or jogging for thirty minutes walking as necessary. That was pretty easy. Week two got a little more strenuous with one workout consisting of two minute intervals of walking and jogging for thirty minutes. That was a lot harder. But, Amy and I both felt very proud when we accomplished this amazing athletic feat. So, now here we are in week 3 and today's workout was supposed to be twenty minutes long with five minutes of walking followed by five minutes of jogging followed by five minutes of walking followed by five minutes of jogging. Makes me tired just typing it! Amy emailed me when she had finished this workout and was so very proud that she had done it even though in her words she looked "like a geriatric" at the end. I was also excited to do this workout. I figured I was ready to run five minutes straight since I had proven to be an expert at running two minutes straight already. I mean, what's three more minutes? TORTURE! Three more minutes is torture.

I take our golden retriever Brady, who is about 15 pounds overweight, with me on these workouts. I have to say, I take him because it used to boost my self esteem. He had such a hard time walking for thirty minutes, God bless him. I always felt a little superior. It seems that Brady is much better suited for the running than I am. For Brady, running is pure, tongue-hanging out, jumping up and down joy. I don't get it. The really sad part is that today during my first five minutes of jogging I looked over at him to see how he was doing and he was actually just walking. WALKING! I'm running and he only has to walk to keep up with me. And he's not even panting hard. He was mocking me. Then, on my second round of five minutes jogging, he sabatoged my whole workout by jumping in front of me and tripping me. Granted, he had a good reason. There was, after all, a trashcan on the side of the road that scared him because trashcans are SCARY. So after tripping over a 105 pound golden retriever, it seems that I have pulled or stretched or inflamed a muscle running from the back of my knee all the way up to my rear end. This could set me back for days. I'm really upset because I was so looking forward to doing a 40 minute easy walk/jog tomorrow.

Life in Pics

Playing

Face of an Angel?

Well, Mike and I had big plans for the weekend. We were going to go to San Antonio Saturday afternoon because my friends Sharon and Bob had invited us down to their son's birthday party. We were very excited for many reasons. First, I hadn't seen Sharon since our wedding and had never met her children. Secondly, since it was a birthday party I felt sure there would be cake. And lastly, Sharon's husband Bob who works for the Hyatt, had hooked us up with a really good room rate to stay at the hotel Saturday night. And this is not just any hotel. This is the Hyatt Hill Country Resort. It is beautiful! On our drive up, I was telling Mike about all the FUN we would have at the hotel. There's a "ramblin' river" you can float down in an innertube, there's a bar you can get a fruity drink at and take it down the river with you if you want, there's a firepit where they make s'mores at night, and the rooms are so nice! We couldn't wait! The last hotel we stayed at was the Howard Johnson's when we first got to Laramie and let me tell you it is not on the same caliber as the Hyatt. We were in one of their "pet friendly" rooms (meaning, this is the room where we put chain smokers, ENJOY!) with our two dogs and my cat in the armpit of hell. Needless to say, we really needed this stay at the Hyatt.

So, we got to San Antonio and checked into the hotel. Another old friend of mine from my Hyatt days was working when we arrived. He (J.J.) hooked us up with the Regency Club which means we were going to be allowed into the exclusive club for Hyatt guests. Other people have to pay to get this! We could go in there at any time and get snacks, drinks, whatever!

So, we went to Sharon's for the party. It was so nice to see her and Bob again. We really had a good time at the party. I was mildly disappointed that we had to leave before they cut the cake, but Jake was needing a break. We got back to the hotel, put on our swimsuits and took Jake down the ramblin' river for about an hour. Mike and I each had a mojito and a s'more and were looking forward to the bottle of wine and the cheese and crackers that J.J. had delivered to the room while we were gone. That's what they call the Hyatt touch ya'll.

So, we put Jake down for bed and settled down to watch some TV for an hour or so. We had already planned on going back to the river Sunday morning after our nice breakfast in the Regency Club and just relaxing together as a family until checkout time at noon. I was also secretly eying the spa thinking about getting a pedicure. Well, along about 9:30 Jake (who is normally a very good sleeper) woke up for the first time. No problem. Put the binky back in, pat his butt, he goes back to sleep. Only this time he didn't go back to sleep. So, we play with him for awhile and put him back to bed. Oh, the tears! Oh, the crying! Oh, the screams of sheer agony! And that was just Mike! Seriously, the child cried for the next hour and a half. We could hear our neighbors coming out into the hall to see where the demon cries were coming from. Then, they turned up their TV's real loud to try to drown out the noise. We felt so bad. We tried everything to settle him down. I must have sung The Itsy Bitsy Spider 100 times. Nothing worked. So, at 11:45 Sat. night we packed up all of our stuff and fled. We got back home around 1:30AM with a perfectly content, sleeping baby in the car. At least we didn't have to pay full price for the room.