Asa poses for a quick pic

Asa hanging out with me- watching me do my hair

La Voz (The Voice)

He's kind and generous with his time and talents. He's cute and I like his shoes. He's thoughtful and caring with his employees, the tools. He is bilingual and always teaching us new words in spanish. And if Mr. Lopart was my neighbor, I think I would've offered to cut the comb-over myself. But not him. His name rolls easily off of my tongue- heck it even rhymes! Come on people, you know who I'm talking about. Handy Manny is his name. If you have ever seen his show on playhouse disney, you understand.

Manny's a handyman and routinely fixes random things in his town that break with his talking tools. One of my favorite episodes was when he was called to the city's Christmas tree and had to check all the bulbs one by one. Pretty realistic, I'd say. But what I really want to get at here is his Voice.

I LOVE IT.

When I first saw the show I actually sat down and would watch it with Anna because I was completely taken with the voice. I am not kidding- I would sit down and analyze what it was I liked so much about it. I like its tone- midrange-y with a little rasp. And hey, I'd learn a little spanish along the way. So would Anna. AND AND AND she would learn how to use tools and fix things. Sort of.

But really, lets be honest here... I'd watch a kids show because I was hung up on a voice, basking in the slight accent and silky tone. Secretly, which now is not secret, I'd wonder who it was that did the voice. Did he like his job? Did he do other voice work?? And if so, where could I find it! Did he realize he had the sexiest voice in kids TV programming? It could very well be that I love it so much just because its not your typical high pitched squeaky kids show voice. Or maybe I like the mystery of not knowing the person behind the voice. I don't know. But what I do know is that Anna and I watch Handy Manny most mornings and we both enjoy it. But I'm certain that our reasons for liking the show are quite different.

Need a laugh at politics??

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

Keep in mind my love for Palin- but you just can't help but love this video!

Creaky House Saves the Day

I once was frustrated by the squeaky floors in our house and Anna's door that creaks every time you open it. When we redid her room, we even tried screwing down the subfloor to keep spots in the floor from squeaking. It didn't work. I wasn't really happy about that- especially because I spent a while on my hands and knees trying to make it work.

However, what I thought was a rickety house has now become my most prized possession and ally in the fight to raise my child the right way. Let me explain:

The door, oh the magnificent door... I send the child to her room and I can hear her shut the door as per my instructions-0r not. I can hear when she opens it and she's supposed to be up on her bed being disciplined. I can also hear when she gets off her bed to play in her room. Thank you oh my once despised subfloor! Today was a thank you-rickety floor and door day. Lots of time spent in the room around 5:30 and while trying to juggle the fussy infant, I was able to monitor my child's misbehavior- coming into her room when she got off the bed to tell her she would now be spending more time there, and giving a nice swift swat if necessary. I'm not really a tyrant-really! But some things need to be corrected.

So you see, what was once a major annoyance of mine has become a wonderful child monitor.
Now, for the day I have eyes in the back of my head... Science may not be far off.

Up at Night

Well, I am back to nursing an infant 2-4 times a night now. This also means I have to deal with that half sleeping state. Everyone with small children- you know what I mean. The state in which your body rests, but your mind does not turn off and sometimes goes on hyper mode. This, to me, would be defined as cleaning out old items you have not thought of in a while or have been meaning to do but not done. What better time to think of it than when you can't totally function as a normal person! HA HA! Says your brain and body. Its a sick joke I think. I have come to have a love hate relationship with the half sleep and the dead of night. But here are some of their redeeming qualities:
1. Its quiet. There are no other voices except for the cry of your baby. And that usually doesn't last too long.
2.You are alone. Sometimes I'd rather not be, I'd rather Dave take over. But there's something very basic about the job. Feed hungry child. And I'm not doing formula, so I am the only solution. I have a love hate relationship with that fact too, but I think deep down every woman loves it most of the time.
3. God can bring things up to you that you haven't thought of in awhile. I think he uses hyper mode in your brain. And it's here that I had an interesting experience.
I had a falling out with my roommate from my first year of college. We had a great first semester and were fast friends, but second semester I did something in response to something she did and that wrecked everything. I basically tattled on her for something, and that was the end of us. I have occasionally thought of her over the past 9 years, and wrote her a note once but never heard anything back. And then I had my newborn and was up feeding him at 4 am. There I was -half sleeping-mind on hyper mode- and this roommate issue started surfacing again. I got this idea out of nowhere: I bet she is on facebook! So I took my little guy who wasn't falling asleep, and went to the computer. There she was-and I wasted no time in writing her another apology note and sending it on its way. To my surprise I had a response the next night! We managed to mend our relationship and have been talking via email ever since. Its been fun to catch up, but to be honest its been better to have the weight of that incident off of me. Something from so long ago, still weighing on me. And I didn't realize it until it was all over.
So, the next time you find yourself up and don't know why or are getting up in the middle of the night to feed a baby, maybe you'll have a similar experience. Maybe if I started to think of those middle of the night killers as middle of the night opportunities to be alone with my thoughts- with my God, I'd have a better attitude.

Disney Moos

They make milk now. Am I sure? Yes. How do I know? I saw a 'vignette' on it between disney shows this morning. No I'm not lying. They had a little girl be the newscaster and she went out to the farm and watched them milk cows, and then watched as the milk was put into cartons with the disney logo. Yes I'm sure! Stop asking! I'm not lying!
Okay, lets see what disney has their hands in...
1. kids
2.Milk
3.gay people
4.theme parks
Hmmm....

Jo Jo on Disney. It is the devil

I'm talking about Jo Jo here. Jo Jo on playhouse disney. One of the little 2 minute or so segments they do in between shows. My blood pressure rises when it comes on. And I say IT because WHO THE HECK KNOWS WHAT JO JO IS?! Male? Female?? Its like SNL's "Pat" for kids TV. So, Jo Jo or I may just call it IT for short, has a pet Lion. A lion with a little squeaky voice. Why? I don't know. But this I do know- they do YOGA. You heard me right, the squeaky lion and IT roll out their gay little yoga mats and try to tell kids things like this:
"Hey Kids! When you're feeling like you're getting angry, do the upward facing dog!" And then they show you step by step how to do the yoga pose. If you ask me, its a rogue show - the programmers randomly put it on so the parents never know when its scheduled. If I miss it and Anna ends up watching it, she is mesmerized, which makes me so mad at IT. I usually end up interrupting IT when it says "when you're feeling angry... " and say something very loud like, "we ask JESUS TO HELP US!" which is usually my generic answer to anything Jo Jo says. Because I am always caught off guard. Because its a rogue show. Mind control. I'm convinced they are trying to do mind control. So the other day I walk in the room and IT is on and I come in right when IT says, "so when you're afraid of the dark, all you have to do is..." and I yell, "JESUS IS WITH ME I WON'T BE AFRAID!!" and Anna turns and looks and me and I say, "right honey?" "mmhmm" she says.

SNOW MACHINE RACER!

Ok, first of all, let me say that I really like Sarah Palin and she makes me tolerate John McCain more. I like that she has a whole mess of kids and they all have wierd names like Trigg Traxson Van Palin. It sounds a bit like Van Halen, doesn't it? And you can't help but stand in awe of someone who has a baby and goes back to work 3 days later. Anyways, that's neither here nor there. My point in this whole rant is that when she talks about her husband, she mentions his job and this and that, but then she mentions that he is a world champion 'snow machine racer.' I don't know if its an Alaska thing or what, but what they call snow machines we call snow mobiles down here in the main 48. I can't help but laugh about it. Its just all a little bizarre. Keep in mind I like sarah palin. I just have never given a regular person a thought before- as in running for the second highest office in the US. Its always been career politicians and people who smile and wink and wave. And then make us pay taxes thru the nose. But that's another rant. Snow machine racer husband and vice president have NEVER gone together in my mind. But, hey, I'm open to it I guess. Its just that whenever I see her speaking and they put the camera on her husband, I start yelling "THERE'S THE SNOW MACHINE RACER!" Kudos to Sarah Palin. Stick it to em' girl.