music monday: new feature

ok kids. in order to try to be more active here at the mockingbirds, i thought i'd try to incorporate something weekly. i'm not always good at giving recipes or menus and i haven't remembered to be thankful in forever (bad bad bad.) so i'm trying to get with it. an idea came to me while ironing last night. i'm gonna start music mondays. most people hate mondays, am i right? it's back to work. or back to work for your super helpful husband. too much to do. not enough caffeine to do it with. but i have to tell you, before my love of all things fizzy and caffeinated, is my love of music to get me going. i wash dishes to single ladies. i pumped gas to daughtry. i was ironing to michael franti (see below.) i sent some music to some friends last week, just being silly, and i thought it was a good break in our usual conversation and a mood lifter for sure. it's been said around here more than once that my taste in music is extremely eclectic. i have no shame in admitting that i can find love in nearly all kinds of music. (sorry, there is no place for techno or polka. i'm just sayin.) that being said, i hope to bring you something every monday that is music related. i hope to broaden your horizons by maybe introducing you to someone you haven't really listened to, revisiting some oldies but goodies, and make you get up and shake your booty for a much needed energy boost. i personally have found that i cannot get through any of my chores without my MP3 player. and i don't mean IPOD. i'm not that nifty. mine doesn't do neat-o things like have seperate playlists (although i am holding out for a microsoft one.) i just put music on it and it's all jumbled together. i don't even DARE go to walmart without it. i have to drown out that craziness. you really can see me boppin to the tunes in my head in the produce aisle and i'm not even a little ashamed. i may have accidentally ignored a check out guy once. if my dishes are gonna get clean, then i need music to soothe away the sounds of yo gabba gabba that are coming from the next room...do yall get what i'm sayin'?

now, i have recruited my girls from last week to help me with some suggestions. but i also want your help. everything is welcome here. i rarely discriminate. (but i DO reserve that right.) you are welcome to email me by sunday night with a suggestion of a song or just an artist that you enjoy. be sure i can at least find it on youtube or myspace for everyone to have listening enjoyment. i hope you'll play along. (btuckerrn@gmail.com)

for this week, i'm using my friend kristen's suggestion. one play of this song and i was hooked. it's just general feel good, get you up and going music. download it. you won't be sorry.

MICHAEL FRANTI--SAY HEY (I LOVE YOU)

surprise!!

so i have left yall hangin' because i have had a crazy couple of weeks. i have had a birthday surprise to plan for my hubs that was immediately followed by his week long work trip. and i didn't think i needed to broadcast for the world that i was alone with the kiddos for a week, so i just left that part out. and after a week of absolutely no time to myself, i was backed up on my blogs again. so again, i've been reading about your little lives and how fun they are and the neat things you have been doing this morning while i recover from my week long hiatus from sanity. however, some of you have been asking what i did for micah's birthday, so this is what you are getting today. first of all, there are no pictures. cause we didn't really do anything exciting, but that's pretty much how we roll. we are completely content to just hang out. we've always been that way, which may be partly what has contributed to the fact that micah and i haven't been anywhere alone together in 8...EIGHT years. eight. why? well, at first it was a work/vacation issue. yall may or may not know i'm a nurse by trade, even though my job of choice these days is wife and mama. however, when i worked full time, i worked for an internist who has an insanely busy office and the only time you could have off was if he put you in the hospital...i'm only partly kidding. but i loved my job. anyway, after that, we kept on having kiddos. and we'd get one ready to where we thought they'd stay away overnight, just to have another one. but that baby train has made it's last trip, so it was time.

on to the show...
first i wanted to get micah some kind of tickets to a sporting event for a "boy date" for his birthday. then i thought "well, that doesn't give me the opportunity to do anything with him for his birthday." so i started thinking about what would be fun for us to do. so i started thinking i'd take him to the opry. but the good shows are on saturday nights and don't start until 7:30...so that was kind of out due to the babysitting factor (i mean, who wants to get up 3 kids on a sunday morning to get them ready for church if they don't belong to ya??) so i started thinking about an "overnight date". and once i had checked all necessary calendars, i set up the getaway. and while plotting that, i called our friends the tate's (who have FINALLY moved back close to us...a day trip anyway) to see if they wanted to meet us for lunch on saturday...a "double date". thus, giving my husband what i like to call "the dating trifecta" for his birthday. a boy date, an overnight date and a double date with awesome friends that we have missed BIG TIME. and the best thing is that it was all a surprise!! yall, i had to go all covert on planning this mission. i had to delete history on the computer, not that he checks, call his mama to procure babysitting, ask friends who go to nashville a good bit (oh yeah, that's were we went) to ask about hotels and restaurants, get his brother in on the hockey game (that was the boy date. we have a minor league team here in HSV.) and ask our friends to meet us on saturday. there was texting, secret phone calls, emails...gracious. but it was sooooooo worth it. he knew we were going on a date, but that was it. i told him the first part was a surprise. so he relented and wore a blindfold for about 20 minutes of the drive...until right as we got to the TN state line. that was how i told him we were leaving the state for our date. he was surprised for sure. like i said...EIGHT YEARS!!!! oh, and since he was out of town for his actual birthday, i called the cookie company in cool springs to order his birthday cake so that it could be a surprise too. it was awesome and i'm glad that we went. hopefully we'll get to do more of those in the future!!

braggin rights

ok. i'm not one who usually condones braggin. but this time, i'm just gonna do it. so if it's not really your "thang", then just skip to the end to where i decide to keep it real for ya.

1.) I have been working on my picture taking skills. and by skills, i mean trial and error with the manual settings plus editing with picnik. i think it's getting better. i took some pictures for my life long friend, Elise, and her kiddos, especially her new baby. i took a few pictures at the hospital for her and then right around christmas so that she could use them as gifts for her family. well, first of all, i was flattered that she thought that my pictures were good enough to give as gifts. but then, after i edited them and she took them to get them printed, they asked her if she had the signature to release the pictures. like someone who knew what they were doing had taken them?! i bowed out my chest a little bit. made me feel all warm and tingly. i hope one day i really do get it figured out. now that would be awesome.






2.) Luke has been taking piano lessons for 10 weeks. they are about to get into the "meat" the the lessons. this is a class offered after school for an hour a week for several students at a time. his teachers have told me he was doing well. but this past monday was the end of the session until they start again in 2 weeks. i had thought about stopping for now, but both teachers pulled me to the side and begged me to let him continue his lessons. they said he was just so smart and had a lot of talent and to "never let him quit". and this was after they said "i can really tell you practice with him." i didn't have the heart to tell them that i practiced with him for 20 minutes on sunday nights. so maybe there is something to him having natural talent. i thought he might, but it feels good when someone confirms it. (and as a side note, i completely plan to let him take guitar lessons in a few years. in 10 years, he'll be 16 and i'll be beating the ladies off of him.) so proud of that little fella.

3.) i am planning micah a birthday surprise. and that is all he knows and that is all you will know until afterward. but know that it has occupied my time and that is why you are getting a post full of bragging all over my little self.

now...to keep my ego in check...
the speaker on the driver's side of my minivan (cause i'm super cool) has developed a buzzing noise in it. not sure if it has a short or is going bad. but no matter how low i turn the bass, or change the balance, it still does it. you have clearly arrived when you can make twinkle twinkle little star sound like it was recorded in the hood and that you sound like you are trying to "git jiggy wit it."

am i the only one?

i only asked for one thing for christmas this year. you may not believe me when i tell you what that was...

that's right. a snuggie. even my friend hillary at The Other Mama can vouch for it's awesomeness. We have wood floors and live on a crawl space so it's gets pretty chilly in the winter at our house. i felt like it would be the perfect accessory for my couch-time "chain reading" i've been doing. and it is. HOWEVER...i feel like "the snug" could be improved upon. like it really needs a button or a snap at the neck to keep it on you when you are forced to get up and walk the 20 feet to the kitchen for your mocha. also, if you have one, am i the only one who feels like they could benefit from a little monogramming? maybe a little ribbon trim if yours is a solid color? yes? oh well...these are my random thoughts on a wednesday...a glorious day for chain reading as i am back to 2 kids from 3. kindergarten and the awesomeness that it is started back today. sanity has returned.

dude...this ain't right

in what world is this even right? i live in alabama. such things ought not be. i have no words. mainly because my teeth are chattering to much to form actual words. and just so you know, that was from 6 tonight. i think brad (the meteorologist) has actually lowered those numbers cause i KNOW i just saw an 8 on there. EIGHT. grrrrr...or brrrrrr...whatever.

time...

it really seems to get away from me these days. especially when there are sick folks everywhere i turn. and those same said sick folks keep me up with their coughing-from-their-toes at night. and because of it, i have taken to reading. folks...i need to confess. i have an addiction. i LURVE to read. i go through cycles. i typically get sucked into an "author" or a series that i can't put down. (do we really need to mention twilight again? ok...yes, we do. my whole family is feeding into my slight addiction. my stepmom bought me a new moon calendar. january is officially a good month on my fridge.) anyway, right now, due to being up at night, i have been voraciously reading. i get it honestly from my mom, and her mom. i mean, i have never seen them have a meal without a book in their hand. promise. and i always have something on my nightstand that is just waiting on me. do yall do that? (and yes, my reading preferences are pretty eclectic...like my taste in music. it's just about what moves me at the time.)

anyway, because i have been reading things other than blogs, i am waaaaaaay backed up. i mean WAY!! (please don't come to my house today b/c it is rank and where normally i'd offer you some sweet tea or hot chocolate or left over santa cookies...it just wouldn't happen today!) when i checked my google reader, i had 223 unread things waiting on me. um....i used to live for my google reader. i obviously haven't checked it in about a week. so i started today by whittling it down by going ahead and deleting all things decorative (except for Urban Grace of course...missing that kind of eye candy would be sacrilege) and by deleting folks that i stalk that i don't actually know (know as in, i haven't left them a comment. cause i consider us officially "friends" if i leave you a comment. i mean, you feel the same about me, right??)

so, this year, my plan is simple. stay on top of things. balance..........(are you laughing? i'm kinda laughing.) but, i DO plan to be better about my blog. while mine is mainly to keep up with friends and family, i DO love to try to be somewhat witty and charming, and sometimes i'm not feeling it and i hate to bore you to death. and so my lovelies, i bid you farewell for this new year's day. i'm gonna get caught up over the weekend and start monday with hopefully something new for you. (beware, i may resort to a great big picture dump if i can't find anything to say lol!)