Something I wrote earlier

I meant to post this earlier, but this is a poem I wrote late last night/wee hours of this morning before going to bed. Tell me what you think.

Keep the Night
by Candice E. Brewer

I would chase down the dawn
And bury it with the sun
If the blankets could be the night
Or the memory be undone.

I would capture the stars
And hang them on my wall
If this night has to come to end
Or your name I'd never call.

I would take down the moon
And put it on my nightstand
If this could be my light
Or I never filled your hand.

I would chase down your heart
And bury it in my soul
If the blankets could be memories
Or if the night lost its glow.

I would capture the kisses
And hang the taste in my mind
If your name should come to end
Or love I never find.

I would take down your face
And put it on my pillow
If this could be my comfort
Or I could never let go.

Current Mood: Inspired

The Unimaginable Happened!

Oh, and by the way, Memphis BEAT LOUISVILLE!!! Final score, 37 to 7!! HOLY COW!! Why is it that whenever I have a bad feeling about a game (football OR basketball), they WIN, and whenever I have a good feeling about a game, they LOSE?

Current Mood: Surprised and Confused

Convictions

Some people have some really strange ideas on convictions. We used to be members of a rather strict Independent Baptist Church that preached against some things that would make the average Christian's chin hit the floor. Not that there is really an "average" Christian...you either ARE or you AREN'T. But you know what I mean. Anyway, just as an example, this church we used to be members of preached against going to the theater to see a movie, and there were plenty of church members that had these very convictions. What's funny is that instead of going to the theater, they rent the movie, justifying that this is okay. Why is that? I personally do not believe there is anything wrong with going to the theater to see a movie. Not that I get to go that much lately because I'm broke most the time, but I do go when there is a really good movie out that I want to see. I guess my point is, I have a hard time understanding if these certain people are so strongly convicted against going to the theater, what is so different about renting the same movie and watching it at home? Is it simply the fact that they do not want to be seen in the theater? Seen by who? Seems like anyone that they wouldn't want to catch them in the theater shouldn't be there either, don't ya think? We have a small collection of DVDs sitting on a shelf in our living room, and Michael tries to tuck a few of them away that might look "bad" when someone from church comes over. We keep our CDs hidden away in our bedroom. So I guess I am talking to myself just as much as I am anyone else that reads this.

Another thing this same church preaches against is secular music. So there are teenagers that go to school there and try to hide their personal choice in music from the teachers so they don't get caught with it, because if they DO get caught with it, serious consequences will follow. So basically, this church and school is only teaching kids to be someone they aren't. The truth is, people are going to watch the movies and listen to the music they want to. If they are truly convicted, then they will not watch/listen to things they feel isn't right. It is between the individual and God. Not the individual and Man. At one time, I gave up secular music for awhile and listened to gospel music only. But once I realized that I was doing it for all the wrong reasons, I began listening to other music again. Don't get me wrong, I fully enjoy and get a lot out of listening to gospel music. But there are many kinds of music that made me into who I am and the kind of musician I am, and without all of these influences, it's difficult for me to be inspired to write or play anything.

So who are you trying to please? Are your convictions, if you have any, for real? Or are you just trying to look like someone you really aren't?

Current Mood: Thinking too much

Will Memphis pull it off?

Just sitting here eating lasagna (yes, I'm just now eating lunch...tends to happen when you have a 2-year-old and 5-month-old), enjoying watching the dreary rain outside, and watching football. Yes, the Memphis Tigers are playing the Louisville Cardinals, and I just have a bad feeling about this game. The Tigers just make stupid football moves. Heck, the Tigers make stupid basketball moves. Actually, all teams make stupid moves. I think you just notice it more when its your own team and you want more than anything for your team to win. I am going to finish my lunch now. I will update about the game later.

Current mood: Indifferent

My son is pure evil...

My 2-year-old son is pure evil! He gets it from his mother, I guess. I ran outside, in the rain, barefoot and all, to get the mail. I warned Travis not to follow me outside because he's already been sick and I don't want him getting sick again. So guess what the little monkey did?? He locked me out of the house!!!!!! Thank God my truck was unlocked so I could push the garage door opener and get back in the house through the garage!! I probably should have spanked him for it, but when I got my way back into the house, he gave me this evil "HA HA!" and I just cracked up! That boy!!!

Current Mood: Rolling with laughter

Good Morning!

I am so dang tired this morning. We didn't go to bed 'til after midnight last night, Travis climbed in the bed with us around 3 something, and then he was ready to get up and watch cartoons at 6:45. So I conked back out on the couch while he watched Rugrats. I woke up again around 8:00 while Michael was up getting ready to go to work. It must suck to have to work on Saturdays. Especially as many Saturdays as he works. But it really messes you up when you get 5/6 hours of sleep, you get woke up, then go back to sleep, because when you wake back up, you feel like you've had NO sleep. It would have been better to just stay up the first time. If I could have slept until 7:30 uninterrupted though, I would feel quite rested and not have the need for a gallon and a half of coffee. I had some good eggs for breakfast though. I scramble them and sprinkle ranch powder in them while they are forming...the stuff that comes in a packet that you use to make ranch dressing. It sounds weird, but it's GOOD! That stuff is also great mixed in with your hamburger meat when you grill burgers.

Anyway, I really need to practice my music tomorrow given that I will be on the piano in the MORNING since Joy is going to be out of town. But I am putting it off as long as I can right now. Kenneth picked out a bunch of songs again that I don't feel good enough about playing on piano. I wish I could go back to picking out the songs. It's not that I can't play those other songs, but I like to play the songs that I play really really well. It's like he gives THOSE songs to Joy on Wednesdays when SHE plays. :::shakes head::: I don't understand his psychotic ways of picking out congregational songs, and I probably never ever will.

I guess I will blog more later. Jacob has decided to be a fussy butt at the moment.

Current Mood: Tired & Annoyed

Bored...

I'm sure all 3 of my readers are tired of me blogging so much because it's getting too tedious keeping up with my life, but oh well. I do this for fun and to maintain sanity. Of course, times like these it's not fun...it's just for the later. I have been kind of antsy today. Like, I want to do something with my website, whether it's change something or add something or both, but I just couldn't think of anything. I'm having one of those non-creative kinds of days.

Christmas is inching closer and closer to us by the day. November will be over before we know it, and we can then sing...:::turns up radio, music swells::: "It's the most wonderful time of the year...." :::turns radio back down::: What do my readers want for Christmas this year? The main thing I want is for my kids to have a good Christmas. But if Michael reads this, I want a Memphis jacket to wear to the basketball games so I don't have to wear my good leather jacket. Maybe the new Jewel CD would be nice. Maybe something from the Victoria's Secret catalog. Perhaps an Old Navy giftcard. Other than that, I can't think of much I really am dying to have this year. What do you get a girl that's got everything? I'm really not bursting with ideas on what to get Michael. I am sure anything "Memphis" will satisfy him just fine, but I think his main objective is for the kids to have a good Christmas, too. Travis, more than anything. I mean, Jacob is not old enough to have a clue what's going on yet, so we will probably do the most for Travis this year while we can still get away with it. So shhhh, don't say anything! Anyway, I'm pretty tired, so I might try to go snuggle up in my warm bed a little earlier tonight. :::YAWN:::

Where Nemo Go?

Michael brought us some supper home tonight and rented a couple movies. We started out with "Finding Nemo" and now we're watching...well, MICHAEL's watching...Terminator 3. Travis was so cute during Finding Nemo...not even 15 minutes into it, he asked all sincere-like, "Where Nemo go?" We were cracking up! It didn't take him long to figure out the whole point of the movie. Travis is going to be asking to watch Nemo every day, so I'm sure we're going to have to break down and buy it for him. Okay, gotta go now, I just saw Arnold Schwarzenegger's butt!!

Blast From the Past #2

Wow, check it out...I figured out how to do titles for my entries, I think. Maybe since I have a habit of doing more than one entry per day, this will help differentiate between them a little easier.

Anyway, I had another "blast from the past" this evening. Earlier in the week, it was seeing the ancient episode of Dallas. Just a few minutes ago, I was listening to a local radio station (FM100) and every day they do a "5 o'clock Flashback" where they play a song, and if you can call in and give the correct year it was a hit, the title, and the artist, you win something. Well, the song was "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany from 1987. I remember that song as being the one song I COULD NOT WAIT to hear on the radio. Typically they played it after 9 o'clock at night, which was my bedtime when I was7, and I would always have the radio on FM100 when I'd go to bed every night. I was in the 2nd grade, and that was the one cassette tape I LITERALLY saved my pennies for...NO JOKE. I can also remember going to my friend Heather's house for her birthday party and she received that Tiffany tape as a birthday present from someone and I was GREEN with envy because my mom would not buy it for me. So I was determined to get it with my own money. I even used my Kennedy half dollar I'd been hanging onto forever so I'd have enough to buy the Tiffany cassette. Anyway, I knew that year vividly and just now tried and tried to call in to the radio station (not even knowing what I could win) and of course I never got through, but oh well. It was just really neat hearing that song again.

Do you ever have a day when you really don't feel like making the effort to do ANYTHING or go ANYWHERE? As much as I feel like I've been confined to the house lately, the thoughts of getting myself and two small kids ready to go out the door makes me all the more tired. I don't know if it's the cold weather , or what? I have been feeling extremely witchy and easily irritated today. I think Michael is scared too scared to come home from work. I really don't like the idea of spending a Friday night at home, but I am just too lazy to go anywhere tonight, plus I'm flat broke. So what can you do outside the house that doesn't cost anything?

Sorry for all the smilies...I was just experimenting!

YAY! IT WORKS!! THIS KICKS BUTT!

I just got a new toy, so I want to test this out....



Let's publish and see....

Effective Monday, November 17, 2003, I am closing my accounts with First Tennessee and putting my money elsewhere. This was really a long time coming, given all of the headaches I've had due to this bank's desire to be blood sucking money hounds that couldn't give a rat's rear if we have to go without groceries for two weeks because of their incompetence. I never got the last fiasco 100% resolved, but this one really takes the cake...

I've made it a habit to check both accounts online every single day because it seems like there's always something screwy, at least on a monthly basis. Well, I pay most all of our bills via the online bill payment service, which has its conveniences, but also has its quirks. Today I logged on, only to discover that my car payment had been deducted from BOTH accounts. So as a result, two other transactions went through (the account the car note WAS NOT supposed to be deducted from)AFTER the car payment, meaning I got whopped with 3 $29 overdraft fees, for a grand total of...CHA CHING...$87!! What tha?? So I immediately got on the phone to figure out what the heck happened. To make a long story short, they tried to tell me I paid it out of both accounts, which I DID NOT...I don't bounce payments on purpose here. C'mon! So then the woman over the phone tried to tell me they cannot even stop payment on the mistaken payment since it was done electronically, and that there was nothing I could do. So by this point, steam is coming out of my ears and I asked to speak to her supervisor, in which she said she would transfer me. I was on hold for at least 10 minutes when the same woman I'd been talking to came back on the line. (I would like to make note here that it's real funny she didn't transfer me to her supervisor...I guess she didn't want to get in trouble.) She told me that what the bank would do is issue me a temporary credit since it is a loan installment type payment that was made, and then issue the payment for the car note next month. She also said the one overdraft fee in connection with the car payment would be credited back to my account as well, but the other 2 overdraft fees in connection with the other transactions that went through AFTER the car note, I'd have to take that up with the bank itself, not the online bill payment service people. So I called the bank, and the man I talked to there was very nice and said ALL THREE overdraft charges had already been credit back. WOW. I guess that first woman I talked to must really need her job. I guess I will find out next month when my next car payment is due if this all got completely ironed out. Just what I needed to get my Friday off to a rotten start.

Roy Moore, known as the "Ten Commandments Judge", was removed from office yesterday for going against a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. Yes, denying a court order is BAD, but the fact that the court order was entered in the first place, ordering the removal of the Ten Commandments monument is just WRONG! Little by little, our judicial system is banning God, while endorsing and allowing freedom of other religions. The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ... ." Isn't this Court Order against Roy Moore prohibiting the free exericse thereof?? I am confused here. And it has nothing to do with Congress making/not making a law respecting any particular religion. Moore, along with his supporters, argue that "the Ten Commandments are the foundation of the U.S. legal system and that forbidding the acknowledgment of the Judeo-Christian God violates the First Amendment's guarantee of free exercise of religion."

Now what's really bugging me, is that on the flipside, there is another news story about a Pagan winning a prayer lawsuit. While these two cases aren't about the same thing exactly, the same principles are involved.

Here's the article...I was going to link it, but then I decided to just copy/paste.

Pagan Wins Prayer Lawsuit
Wiccan OK'ed to Open Government Meetings
By DAVID E. LEIVA, AP

RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 14) - Pagans can pray, too, a federal judge ruled Thursday in a case brought against county officials by a Wiccan who was barred from saying a prayer to open board of supervisors meetings.

U.S. District Court Judge Dennis W. Dohnal said the Chesterfield County board discriminated against Cyndi Simpson when it prohibited her from joining a list of clergy who deliver the invocations.

Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

"Chesterfield's nonsectarian invocations are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition," County Attorney Steven L. Micas wrote in a letter to Simpson in September 2002.

The judge said the board violated Simpson's constitutional right of equal and free expression of her religious beliefs, while allowing Christians to practice theirs by delivering the "legislative prayer," which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court for use by a governing body.

Micas did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.

Simpson, who had not seen the written opinion, was delighted with the decision and said it would bring credibility to witchcraft as a religion.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simpson, 47, last December after she was turned down by the board.

Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU, called the ruling a victory for non-majority religions.



Okay, now wait just a darn minute here. "The judge said the board violated Simpson's constitutional right of equal and free expression of her religious beliefs..." Don't these judges need to get on the same page here? Now I'm really confused. One judge rules against someone expressing his beliefs and standing up for them, but then another judge rules FOR someone expressing her beliefs. I do not understand this one iota. I guess only non-Christians get the right to equal and free expression of religious beliefs. When was THAT put in the Constitution?

Well dang it, the pre-game predictions came true. Memphis lost to Wake Forest, 85 to 76. At least it wasn't a total blowout. There were a lot of great moments in the game, like in the first half with all the 3-pointers made. But there were some really stupid moves, too. I'm sorry, but Red sucks. I miss Chris Massie terribly. And Kendrick Perkins screwed us royaly by changing his mind about coming to Memphis and taking a U-turn to the NBA. Ah well, it's the first game...plenty of games left. Oh, and my opinion about these babies going to the NBA? I think there needs to be a rule that players cannot be drafted into the NBA without first having played at least one year in college, getting the valuable experience they NEED. Why do I think this? For one, what if a basketball player goes straight to the NBA, gets injured the first game, and that injury is bad enough to keep him out of the season, or much worse, keeps him from ever returning to the game again? Then he has to go BACK to school to get a degree, no basketball scholarship, and has to pay his way through college if he's not smart enough to get an academic scholarship, which let's face it, a lot of these basketball players struggle to have a 2.0 GPA. Not only that, but these players are missing out on experiencing the college life. Just my opinion, but college basketball is way more exciting and dramatic than NBA. Once you hit the NBA, yeah, you're making the big bucks, but you are on the road from November to June...the season lasts twice as long as college basketball...82 regular season games. The road life has got to be hard. Besides, I don't think an 18 year old ball player knows how to maturely handle the road life and all that money!! Most 18-year-olds I know have a hard enough time handling a normal paced life! Just my opinion. Anyway, it was still a good game. Better luck next time, I guess. Just remember...Syracuse lost their very first game last season, too.

The following picture sums up the reason I love Tiger basketball....






Are you ready for this?







You sure?






Keep going....






Now be sure you're sitting down.







As Michael put it, this is Coach Cal in his element.

Tonight's the BIG GAME! I have been reading some stuff on ESPN's website about the polls and crap. Those polls can burn in a fervent heat for all I care! All the hoopla about Cincy, Marquette, and Louisville, but no mention of Memphis. WHATEVA!! Memphis was RIGHT UP THERE with those teams last year. I still have no idea what factors they use in determining their rankings. I think it's a bunch of coaches that vote for their team of choice based on a bunch of stuff, but I sure would like to know what those things are. I think people just don't like Coach Cal. I do find it amusing, however, that if teams DO NOT get in the top 25, they say the polls don't matter, and then if they ARE ranked in the top 25, they break out the beer kegs and celebrate and tell all us other teams we suck. Well, I say to the teams that ARE ranked, YOU SUCK! Well, um, actually, most of you really don't, I just think Memphis always gets the shaft.

And a little trivia fact for you...Wake Forest has not lost a season opener since 1993. Well it's about dang time the do! It's 10 years later, right on the money, so GO TIGERS!

Okay, I am really p'd off. As you already more than likely know, my plans for the evening are to watch the Tiger's first televised basketball game of the season tonight at 6, and as tradition would have it, we are ordering pizza and sitting in front of the TV and yelling and screaming at the players. (Like they can hear us. See more on this topic below.) Michael apparently did not realize how important it was to me that this be a family event, for just us. A friend called him up this afternoon, and asked if we wanted to come over to their place this evening, since we hadn't had a chance to get together lately. So Michael, knowing that we were planning on watching the game tonight, asked him if he just wanted to come over here. My only problem with this is when we have company over (non-family or people that we haven't been friends with for 20 years, etc.), I can't just sprawl out in the floor and pig out and be myself. Not ONLY that, but it's considered rude to have company over, and be paying attention to a ball game and not what the person is saying. Even if it is unexpected visitors, the polite thing to do is turn the TV off, or at least turn it way down, and then sit and chat and offer them something to drink. So anyway, Michael told him to come over here (I'm assuming just him, and not his wife also), and THEN proceeds to call me and tell me about it. For one thing, I've been doing the abominable all day...LAUNDRY. I haven't been focusing on cleaning today...just getting clothes washed and dried and folded and put away. (I have to be in a mood to do the folding and putting away part.) For another thing, I have been looking forward to this for the past 8 months and would prefer to stuff myself with pizza and pay attention to the game, not be the one entertaining guests. All Michael could say to me at first was, "Don't nobody care about the house" to which I replied "I do!!!" Hmmm, he sure cared about the house last night! (Another story) So after I expressed my p'd off-ish-ness about him telling someone to come over here without even telling me first, he called this friend back and told him I reminded him that we had other plans tonight. But then the friend has to ask WHAT? So Michael has to make up a lie and say "We're going out to eat with her parents." WTF? Why did he have to lie? That just made matters worse, I think. On second thought, why did the friend even have to ask? That's being nosey and that's just rude. I hate nosey people.

I feel better after getting THAT off my chest...

Now onto bigger and better things....tonight's game...

It is FINALLY here. The first televised game of the season. Memphis Tigers v. Wake Forest Deamon Deacons (what a name!). I think the most common prediction I have heard is that Memphis will give them a run for their money, but fall short. I would rather it be that than for Memphis to get skunked all over MSG. At least then we could say "Hey, it was still a good game." BUT, if you remember LAST YEAR, early in the season Memphis won against Syracuse, and Syracuse went on to be the National Champs, baby! So I do not think it's too much of a longshot to say Memphis could very possibly beat Wake Forest tonight. Let's just cross our fingers and say our prayers and CHEER LOUD FOR THE TIGERS! GOOOO TIGERS!!!!!!

And the quote of the week is...

Red: "Eric, did you get the tires rotated like I asked you to?"
Eric: "Don't they rotate every time I drive?"
~That 70's Show

Here's a thought...if your mom discovered your blog, would you be terrified for her to read it?


Unrelated to the above, I found an interesting article about Indians (from India...not Native Americans) using a new cellphone service to find their match. India typically has arranged marriages, but this way they can find a more suitable match. Imagine that. Oh, and by the way, picture service won't be available for another 3 months, so if you have to find your mate before your 21st birthday and your 21st birthday is next week, sorry...you don't get to see what they look like first.


I got a major blast from the past tonight. I found out about Dallas being on SoapNet tonight, so I flipped it on and it was almost scary to think I used to watch that show with my parents every Friday night, without fail. It was even more scary to think my parents allowed me to watch that show! The show was quite racey for its time. What I found amusing was how on every episode at every dinner or lunch or any kind of gathering, everyone's chugging down the liquor, and then they wonder why certain characters have a chronic drinking problem. Like, tonight, all of the Ewings are sitting around what looked like a study or den, all with glass in hand, probably drinking brandy or scotch or something, and then there is this phonecall that Pam's dad is really sick because he's been drinking again, and then everyone in the room looks each other, sincerely worried. So why isn't everyone on the show sick because they've been drinking? LOL

I don't think I've had a real gripe session in awhile, and now that I think about it, I'll save it for tomorrow.

I have accomplished the impossible. I finally found a pair of jeans that FIT the way I want them too! What is amazing about this supernatural feat is that I ordered them online! I can walk into a store and try on 50 pairs and not find anything that works, but I just guessed at a pair of jeans at oldnavy.com in hopes they would work, but figuring I'd be returning them. So my package was just delivered moments ago, I took the jeans out of the box, put them on and zipped them without even having to suck it in! It was truly astounding, especially for someone who has popped out 2 babies in the past 2 years, having gained a huge amount of weight that no one would have other thought possible for me, who once was called "twiggy" and anorexic and "bird legs", and NOW has been struggling with weight ever since I had babies, and trying to find clothes that fit and look good all at the same time. Somebody pinch me so I can make sure I'm not dreaming. I need to find out if they have these in any other shades!! Before, it was like "jeans? I wish I could wear jeans!" I love being able to say I have a favorite pair of jeans again!! Okay, don't wake me.

Poor Travis. He has strep throat. His appointment was at 9:10 this morning. It's weird because when he woke up this morning, he seemed his usual active hyper little self and I took his temperature, which was normal, so I almost considered not taking him to the doctor and saving the $70 office visit. But then I noticed when I was giving him his bath this morning, and he got mad because I took his plastic cup away from him that he usually plays with because he filled it up with water and dumped it on the floor beside the tub, he did his high-pitched squeal he usually does, and he couldn't exactly squeal. It was like he was trying to scream but no sound was coming out, so I figured his throat must be hurting. I knew strep had been going around and I have some friends that have had it. That would also explain why he hasn't been eating or drinking much...it probably hurts too bad to swallow, poor thing. Dr. Phillips asked me a bunch of questions, looked at his ears and throat, and sure enough, he has a red throat. So then the nurse came in and did a throat culture (makes me gag just thinking about it), and Travis didn't appreciate that too much. About 10 minutes later, the doctor came back in and said "Well, there's bad news and good news. The bad news is, he does have strep. The good news is, it's very treatable." So I got a prescription of antibiotics for him to take twice a day for 10 days, and hopefully that will make him better. I just hope I can get him to keep drinking stuff so he doesn't get dehydrated. We stopped at Chik-Fil-A after we went to the doctor and I got me a chicken biscuit and Travis a sausage biscuit. He ate more of the chicken biscuit that the sausage biscuit, lol, but I am glad he ate something finally. Poor baby is asleep right now in the chair. He still has his shoes on and everything. He wouldn't let me take them off. My throat has been sore for 2 or 3 days now, so I hope I am not getting it. Having no insurance sucks, and I'm waiting on some lousy politician to do something about it. But that's another blog for another day.

Okay, I just typed up this huge blog entry and somehow it disappeared into nothingness. What the crap?

Anyway, I guess I will give the shortened version, which would probably make everyone happy anyway, lol.

I saw a commercial a few minutes ago that reminded me of something. It was the advertisement for the Lion King at the Orpheum, which reminded me that we have tickets to go to it. I bought them waaay back in July (I think) for Michael's birthday present (September) and it's FINALLY almost here...November 29. Then I realized it's the same date as the Memphis v. Austin Peay game. Oh well, there will be plenty of other basketball games to go to, but this is a one-time thing. We've never been to the Orpheum before, so this is something new and different at least.

The other thing I was going to blog about, I will save for a later entry because I'm too tired to write it now. I guess I'll go back to watching That 70's Show now. Have a good night!

I've been doing some thinking and I think I am going to change the title of my blog to "My Diary For the World To Read" and then under that in smaller type would read..."My real one is hiding under my bed" or something. Just a thought.


I found the following picture on the internet and thought that while it is appropriate for Veterans Day today, it's sad AND truthful:




As an update for Travis' situation, we didn't make the appointment. Instead I had to reschedule for first thing in the morning. Why, you ask? Because I'm a dumb butt who doesn't know how to fix a crappily installed car seat. The last person that installed it (wasn't me) didn't have it in there very tight, or it became loosened somehow or another, and as we left the house and turned the corner at the end of my street, poor Travis, seat and all, was leaning into the middle of the car. He was all like "WHOA!" and stuff, lol. So I immediately stopped, put on my flashers, and tried to fix it. I thought I was successful, but apparently not because as soon as I tried to drive away, I turned another corner, and the same thing happened. I ended up pulling over at the Exxon on the corner, calling Michael, and he couldn't explain to me how to fix the darn seat, so I had to drive like 2 mph all the way home since he wasn't exactly safely strapped into the car. By that point, it was 4 (the time the appointment was supposed to be) and I called and got it rescheduled for 9:10 in the morning. The only good thing I can see out of all of this is that tomorrow we will get to see HIS doctor, Dr. Phillips, whereas today we would have had to have seen this doctor I can't stand anyway, so I guess everything happens for a reason. His fever went back up tonight, so please keep praying for him that his fever will go down. I gave him some Tylenol. His temperature was 102 when I took it a little while ago, and now he's back asleep. Poor baby :(

Travis has been sick ever since Thursday. I mentioned in an earlier entry about him having a high fever. Well, ever since then, he's been acting lathargic and sleeping on and off throughout the day...VERY unlike him. And then this morning, Michael took him to work with him just for fun, and Travis took one bite of his breakfast and threw up. Then he slept a lot during the day. Something's not right. Everyone is saying it's probably a virus, but would a virus last that long? And even if it could last that long, wouldn't he at least be showing signs of improvement right now, and not a turn for the worst?? He has a doctor's appointment today at 4, so hopefully the doctor will be able to tell me something. I will post later to give an update. I need to go get ready to go so that when Michael gets home with Travis, I will be read to leave with Travis to the doctor.

I was going to mention this earlier and forgot...UGH! Last night Jacob turned into a ROLLIE POLLIE! He has already been rolling over for awhile now, but he usually just rolls onto his belly and stays there for awhile, looking like a little turtle. Well last night I spread a blanket out in the middle of the den floor, and I sat down on the couch. Jacob, proceeded to roll onto his belly like he always does, except this time he didn't stop until he got to my feet!! LOL He rolled and rolled and rolled until he had nowhere else to go. He hasn't figured out how to roll the other direction yet, but oh he will, and then we'll have to establish what we call the "No Roll Zone" again, meaning we'll have to put a barrier of pillows around the fireplace and block the walkway into the kitchen.

It's a real good thing I didn't eat breakfast before turning on the TV this morning. Travis went to work with Michael today, so the remote was mine this morning. I put the TV on TLC and "A Baby Story" was on. Now I love to watch that show. I always get teary-eyed when it gets to the part when the baby is born. But there was something a little (more like a lot!) messed up about this morning's episode. There was a mommy and....a mommy. WTF?!?! My one question is...WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO? Yeah, I have HEARD of lesbians having children together, meaning that one of the "life partners" is artificially inseminated (or so we should hope!) and they "have a baby together", but to see this on TV nearly made me gag. All I can say is I feel sorry for that baby, growing up, not knowing which one to call his "daddy". SICK!!!

Now for a more pleasant subject change, the Tigers play against Wake Forest in Madison Square Gardens THIS THURSDAY NIGHT. I sooooo cannot wait...I have been waiting for this since March. It almost seems too good to be true that it's time for basketball again. So if you never hear from me again after Thursday, it means I had a stroke. Of course, if the Tigers lose, sure, I will be disappointed, but the wounds will heal if we beat Mizzou or the Fighting Illini. The stroke, however, will be inflicted upon me if the Tigers WIN against Wake Forest. I believe Wake Forest is ranked in the top 25 right now in one of those stupid polls. Don't get me started on those dang blasted polls. So maybe I don't have a lot of faith in my team right now, which is bad, but I need to see them win some good games and then my mind will be more at ease. I just don't want to get my hopes up.

I need to find something to do. Today is going to be incredibly boring without Travis to keep me entertained. :( Oh well, maybe I should go clean something....yeah...right!

I'm sitting here watching the Grizzlies play the Lakers. It has been rumored that Kobe Bryant will be coming to the Grizzlies next season, which makes sense. His contract will be up with the Lakers the end of this season, he has shown no interest in renewing his contract with the Lakers, he hates Shaq because KOBE wants to be the one and only star on the team, and Jerry West is Kobe's mentor. And one thing is for certain, if Kobe does come to the Grizzlies to play, he will DEFINITELY be the star of the show! By the way, has anyone ever noticed how Shaq CANNOT make free throws to save his soul? I swear, he gets paid bazillions of dollars and cannot make free throws! Mind boggling!

I have something else I want to blog about, but that person reads this blog and would probably get highly p-o'd at me if I wrote about it in here. Oh well.

It's official...my brain hurts! I sat down to my piano to try to learn a song that I'm supposed to be playing for a special this coming Sunday, and I told Jenny, "Sure, no problem, come over Thursday afternoon and we'll practice it." And now I'm thinking I want to say, "Can we do this one the week AFTER?" But since Joy (the other piano player) is gonna be out of town THIS Sunday, we've got to find some other specials to fill in the empty slots, so it's up to me to figure out what they're going to be and I really don't want to repeat one I've already done recently, so HRMPH. I guess I need to practice, practice, practice.

I got the kitchen cleaned up and Travis down for a nap, and Jacob is playing happily with his baby gym thing, so I don't feel so bad about sitting down to the computer again :-)

I guess that's it for now. More later maybe.

I have things I need to be doing, but I am procrastinating. So sue me. Well, don't sue me because you won't get much. I'm poor. I think my big project for the week is giong to be cleaning/straightening by bedroom. My bedroom is always the junkiest room of the house because it's so easy to just pick up odds and ends and chunk them into my room and close the door when last-minute phone calls come in..."Hey, we're just around the corner. Be there in 2 minutes!" I haaate those kinds of calls. It's like hurry up and scrub the toilet, run the vacuum over the living room, pick up all the toys, shut the bedroom door to hide all the junk, and put some clothes on in 3 minutes, and then take forever to answer the door when they ring the doorbell. I'm sorry, but when I'm at home not expecting company and not planning to go anywhere, I'm comfortable. Most the time I stay in my pajamas or whatever I wore to bed the night before until after lunchtime. I do not get up first thing and get dressed and put on my makeup and do my hair every single day. And generally my house does not look like something out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine, so if you show up unexpectedly, do not expect to walk into my house and find it flawless. If you don't like it that my house looks like crap, then you shouldn't show up without giving me time to clean it first!

Today was pretty crazy. We overslept an hour, so we had to miss Sunday school. It was pretty obvious Travis still wasn't feeling too great, so Michael kept the kids home while I went on to church. He said, "Church needs you more than they need me today." LOL. So I went by myself. I made it just in time to practice everything once before church started. Then I stayed after to run over some songs I'd been working on with some folks. Then we were supposed to meet Michael's parents at Dale's for lunch. So I got there and it took FOREVER for Michael to get there because he was having to get the kids ready by himself...major ordeal. I had just drove 30 miles from church and he still get there AFTER me and he only had maybe 6 miles to drive, IF THAT?

Anyway, a BIG FAT blonde moment happened tonight, and I'm not even sure whose blonde moment it was, or if it was just several people's blonde moments that happened at the same time to make a gigantic one. Tonight at church, I was sitting up at the piano, and keep in mind we (song leader, pastor, piano player) have a written schedule that tells the order of the songs, when the specials are, the offering, the scripture reading, yada yada. First of all, the Pastor does the offering in the wrong order and almost forgot there was still a 3rd congregational to sing. So the songleader quietly points that out to him. So we have the offeratory, and THEN the 3rd hymnal, which it's SUPPOSED to be the 3rd hymnal and THEN the offeratory. So that wasn't SUCH a big deal and it was easily fixed. So anyway, I'm sitting at the piano, and we've just had the last congregational hymn, which means next is the scripture reading, a prayer, and then it's time for the special song. Well tonight, there were two ladies (the Pastor's wife and another lady, Joy) that were going to be singing a duet, and just as it was time for the Pastor to read the scripture that went with his sermon, the Pastor's daughter started throwing a fit about something (she's 3), so the Pastor's wife has to get up and take her to the nursery. So I'm sitting there thinking "Okay? What about the special?" Another lady in the church tried to tell the Pastor's wife she'd take her daughter to the nursery FOR her, but once again, communication is nonexistent, so the Pastor's wife walks out of the church and I'm clueless as to what's going to happen. So after the scripture reading, the Pastor always says a prayer, and at that time is when the people singing the special are supposed to get up and walk up to the piano. Well, I just got up and sat down in my pew next to Joy because I figured we weren't going to be doing the special, and I whispered to her "Jenny went out" to which she replied "It's okay" so I assumed (there's that word again) she meant she would just sing it without Jenny. It's one of those songs that could easily be sung with just the one part and it wouldn't make much difference and no one would notice anyway. So after the prayer, Joy taps me on the leg like she wants out since I'm sitting on the outside of the row, so I also assume she is getting up with me to go back up to the piano to do the special. So I walk up to the piano, and before I sit down on the bench, I look out into the crowd and Joy is walking towards the BACK of the church to head over to the fellowship hall where her husband is teaching the teenagers. What tha freak?? So there I am, like a dingleberry at the piano, I look at Joy, Joy looks at me with this "OOPS" look on her face, so I dart back to my seat, and the Pastor just says "It's a circus tonight!" and everyone in the congregation laughs and then he looked at me and said "Well I guess there's no special tonight, but at least now you have one for next week!" and I just gave him a thumbs up and said "There ya go!" I mean, I know if I had been Joy, I would have gotten up and sang it without the Jenny just to keep the schedule flowing smoothly, and besides ad libbing is just what I do. I'm the type person that finds a way to smooth things out in a split second, even if it's not the original plan. So maybe it was her goof. She should've just sang it without her. Instead she just kind of looked at me and mouthed "Jenny's not here!" and she had this "DUH" expression on her face, which really p'd me off. So instead I just sat there and laughed it off. Sometimes I wonder about her.

In other news...

You know who gets on my last nerve?? Is it A) Memphis Drivers B) People that don't use their turn signals, or C) Britney Spears?

The answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE, but the one thing that gets on my nerves the MOST right now is Britney Spears. Tonight on VH1 they were showing her "Behind The Music". I couldn't even watch 30 minutes of it without feeling like I was going to get sick. The part that really made wanna hurl was when she was talking about the time right before she really made it BIG, and she was talking about some performance she did on this little stage, and she said "Like, I thought I was this like BIG STAR, like, yeah, and like people would like ask me for my like autograph like and I would say 'YA, you can like have my autograph!'" Like SHUT THE !@#$ UP!! And then she was saying "I had to like work like 6 days a week and like I had to like work on Christmas Day and I like hated that." GROW UP!! And then the thing that takes the cake..."I like don't like know what like drives me." DUH!! It's called MONEY! She gets paid in the millions to dress slutty and dance slutty and get big boobs, but gee, I don't know what drives her to want to do that stuff. I finally told Michael, "Michael? Could you please do something else with the TV? Turn it down, change the channel, TURN IT OFF! I can't listen to her anymore!!"

Okay, I feel better now. I need some sleep!! Been a long day.