If a natural disaster can't get me to post on my blog, I don't know what can.

Mostly for my own benefit (but you are cordially invited to read along with me), I'd like to post some of my thoughts on the tornadoes that slammed though my state almost a month ago, disrupting everyone's lives, and teaching us all some important things that, like I said, I don't want to forget.

Things I was grateful I had on hand:

(Numbers one and two were far and away the things I was MOST grateful for, and, of course, number 7)

1. My full gas tank. Bizarrely enough, maybe a couple weeks before the tornadoes hit, I had decided, because of rising gas prices, never to let my tank get below a half tank of gas. Usually I'm a "ride it until it starts sputtering" kind of girl. I have to say, the very most comforting thing about hanging around in a disaster area (we did hang around for 3 days with no power) is that I COULD leave if I wanted, at any time. Now, what started as a way to save a few dollars has become one of my essential emergency preparedness routines: never ever let either of our cars get below a half tank of gas. That way, if the crap hits the fan (again), we could always siphon Dave's tank into mine and have that same comforting full tank every time.

2. My extra propane. A while ago, Dave and I decided to always have an extra tank of propane on hand, just in case. How great it was to be able to invite all our neighborhood friends over to cook our soon-to-be-spoiling food and not worry even a little bit about running out of propane.

3.My water storage. We store water in 4 50 gallon barrels. We also store some bottled water. When no one knew when the water treatment plant would run out of generator power, it was really nice to know that if it did, we would still be OK for quite a while.

4. My candles. I have tons and tons of scented candles. Just because I like them. I also have multiple and many ways to light those candles. I'm not sure why. I also have an oil lamp, which I loved, but which I admit, is probably not necessary for Your Emergency Preparedness. But I loved that there was absolutely no chance of running out of light (when no stores in a 10 mile radius had any batteries), and that my house smelled AMAZING every night.

5. My bike. I like to bike anyway. It was nice to use it as an actual mode of transportation.

6. My emergency radio. We have a radio that can be powered by a cord, batteries, a hand crank, or solar power (the one we used the most, by the way.) It was so important to be able to hear what was going on, especially while the tornadoes were still happening, but the power was out.

7. My friends. Oh, goodness. How to survive things like this is there's no one to talk to, no one to support you? I was so very grateful especially that we had friends that were within walking or biking distance, and that we could support each other. And, of course, the beach house of a certain friend that we could escape to. That was important too. :)


I sound So Prepared from all that, huh? That's because I haven't done my second list yet.


Things I wished I had on hand (over and over):

1. An organized house. Oh, to have not let the laundry pile up for days. I was planning on my (procrastinated) laundry day being the day after the storms hit. Crap.

2. Paper plates. Not that I'm not capable of doing the dishes by hand every single meal. It just would have been nice not to have to, that's all.

3. A charged cell phone. Alas, I am not one to make sure my cell phone is at full charge all the time. Or even at any charge.

4. A generator. Just one powerful enough to keep my deep freezer and/or fridge going, at least. It would have been nice not to have to worry about (and eventually throw away) all of our food.

5. Batteries. I didn't have many extras. Wished I had.



Now, you may (or may not) have noticed that that entire second list is composed of ways to help me keep the electricity-laden leisure lifestyle that we are all used to. Because I didn't have all those things, I washed dishes by hand, did the laundry by hand (yes, yes I did), figured out how to keep food coldish the old fashioned way, etc. Which brings me to :

Things I learned from living power-free:

1. We save a LOT of time by having electricity that our ancestors didn't have. As I was washing my dishes and laundry and remembering that I didn't used to have to do it, I wondered: what do we do with all this extra time? It seems we are always busy doing SOMEthing, but what is it really? With the couple hours I save myself by not washing things by hand, what do we do? Is it worthwhile? Does it justify spending our precious time on it? And I found that while sometimes the answer is yes, too often it is no. Too often in my leisure-filled life, I spend my time on something worthless. Over 300 people's time ran out in that storm. It taught me to try to use mine more carefully.

2. I don't actually have to turn on the lights in my house during the day. With the exception of bathrooms and closets, all of my light needs were filled by opening windows. I think I was just turning on lights before out of habit when I entered a room. I also learned that when the weather was nice, although there is slight variation on the temperature, that brings it outside of the Ultimate Comfort Zone we are all used to, we experienced precious little discomfort by not having and using air conditioning/heating. Just because we have air conditioning doesn't mean we can't open a window and get the same effect. Who knew there was such an easy way to help out the environment and save on electricity bills?

3. It's really nice to spend a lot of time outside. I should do it more often.

And finally, I learned once again that people are generally good. Seeing good souls mobilize again, and help again for yet another disaster is always inspiring, but it's especially so when it's your disaster. Even though my family were some of the lucky ones without damage or loss, I think all of us in Northern Alabama consider this--the problems, the heartache, the hope, all of it--ours. When I heard the news that Japan--which is still recovering from its own much, much worse tragedy--sent relief to us... well, that touched my heart deeply. It is good in a world of sorrow and problems to be reminded so strongly and vividly that God is also there, as evidenced by the hearts of people who care.

Random story #42

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm not sure if this is actually random story #42 or not. I didn't go back and count. Although I wouldn't put that past me. Hence the need for clarification. That's right. I just said "hence." I'm reading Austen stuff again.)

So we went to the greenway today. We went to chick- fil-a, got our free sandwiches, took them to the playground at the greenway, then took a walk, and generally had a great family time. Until Conner got run over by a bike. Before I go on, I need to say, he was surprisingly fine. A couple scrapes, a minor bang on the head, and that was about it. How it happened was that Conner was headed for the bike. We yelled (as he was a good distance in front of us) "Get out of the way, Conner!" Which he apparently took to mean, "Dart back and forth in front of the bike as unpredictably as you can!" Unfortunately the bike rider, trying to swerve and miss Conner, happened to make the exact same unpredictable swerves that Conner himself was making, right to the end. The end being, of course, when the bike ran over him. I ran up to him, completely terrified, and picked him up to cuddle him. Dave ran to see if the biker was OK. (the biker was significantly less OK than Conner, having admirably thrown the bike over himself to limit damage to Conner, but OK enough to continue his bike ride.) It was only a few moments into the traumatic occasion that I realized that I just left AJ in his stroller back a few feet wondering why he stopped moving. And here, in the aftermath of the Reynolds Trauma of the Month, I relearned exactly why it is I love my kids so much. Because Conner's first words, and the only words he said for a good five minutes, after having just been RUN OVER BY A BIKE, were "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Only Conner could get run over by a bike and worry only about the other guy.

So finally the whole ordeal was over, and we were walking back to the car, and what, you may ask, were the first words out of Christian's mouth?

"So Dad...what are your thoughts about inventing a two-headed Moose?"

Holy crap, how do I even start?

OK, so I have been a blog-slacker for quite some time now. And I've accepted that. Not everyone can be on time to everything and remember everything and update their blog every week. Or every month. Or every two months. I have other talents. I make pretty dances. For example. But then I started blog-stalking again, and every time I clicked on my blog in order to get to all of yours, I saw snowflakes and snowmen and a Christmas post glaring at me, seeming to say, "This is embarrassing, even for you." The snowmen and snowflakes, weirdly enough, are actually not that outdated. Because it snowed last week. Which is really weird because the weather was in the 80's today. But I digress. (IMPORTANT NOTE: You missed me. You know you did.)

But the problem with blogging again after THREE FREAKING MONTHS is what the heck am I supposed to write? If I were to think of, say, the last week or two, and try to come up with interesting things, it wouldn't be so hard. In fact, here, let's pretend I've only been gone a week or two. Here's what I'd say:

So Christian started soccer! Only 2 people on his team have ever played before, so in scrimmages, he does great. In actual games, if they were keeping score, we would get completely slaughtered every time. Thankfully we are not keeping score, so we don't. And we (that would be the parents I'm talking about) may not have sons who have played soccer for long, and our sons may not score many goals (1 today to about 20 on the other team), but danged if we aren't the loudest, most enthusiastic parents (Great try! Don't worry about it! You'll get it in next time! Good kick, but you're going the wrong way! ) of the whole bunch. And the kids seem to have a good time anyway. Conner wishes he had also started soccer, but I thought I'd better ease into the whole soccer mom thing. My voice is gone as it is.

But see, if I try to catch you up on absolutely everything that has gone on in the last three months it just gets overwhelming. Watch.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: For your reading pleasure, this is a lot more fluid if you pretend I just went from the last sentence of soccer to here. Thanks.)

Speaking of Conner, it's so much fun to watch him in any kind of social setting. If there is a child within, say 2 years of his age in a 20 foot radius, he will be friends with him or her within about 10 minutes. It's crazy. But it's really fun too.

Oh, and he had a birthday! It was great. He's really cute. His Granny and Papa came that weekend. And I had a birthday too.! I'm 29 again. I got an Ipod touch!!! That's what I wanted! And the cutest dress in the world! And AJ has become really cute. He said "bye bye dada" the other day. He giggles a lot and says really cute things and gives me hugs and whenever he's excited he screams "MAMA!!!!" That's fun. He also waves at everyone in the whole world. Most of them think that's cute.

And I took my dancers to their first competition ever! They did good!

And we decided we are going to Hawaii! How exciting!

SEE????? I can't write like this. Too much pressure. See you next week. Maybe.

The Spirit of Christmas, disguised as a four year old

This post is dedicated to Conner. He is my own personal little sunshine. He is also the spirit of Christmas. Not only does he sing Christmas songs all (and I mean ALL) the time, but he really wants to make everyone in the world happy. He loves Christmastime, I think, because everyone in the world becomes a little more like him. OK, sure, I'm his mom, I'm a little biased, but he really is one of the nicest people I've ever met. Like when we went and did an angel for the angel tree. We picked a 4-year-old, and I told Conner his name. We ended up losing the ornament (despite my amazing organizational skills), and I told Conner we might not be able to get the presents to Bryan (his little four year old). He burst into tears, saying "Bryan will never get these Christmas presents????" It's just the way he is, and I honestly don't know what I would do without him. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments, though. If he is being mysteriously quiet, watch out.

He might have the camera:

Or he might have gotten a hold of some scissors:

But he's a boy, so the resulting haircut wasn't a huge deal. Most of you probably either a)didn't notice, or b)noticed, but thought it just wasn't a great haircut and were nice enough not to mention it. But it was pretty silly looking for a while there, and makes for a good picture. When I told Conner his hair didn't look cute that way, by the way, he cried and cried. Me:"Why are you crying?" Conner:"My hair doesn't look cute!"

So I suppose the moral of the story is, if you are incredibly loving and cute (even if your hair isn't) and happy, you can get away with almost anything. Ah, well.

Ha!

Surprise! I'm back. And it's for a stupid reason that only like 5 of you will get anyway. But so worth it. Oh, so worth it.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/TOUSLED

Notice the CORRECT pronunciation, naysayers. Who's making fun of Dahnelle NOW????

Edit: so you'll have to copy and paste because I can't figure out how to make the link work. So I guess the making-fun can resume:)

I dare you to read this whole thing...

So I'm sitting here by myself right now, Dave is away on travel, the kids are in bed, and I am doing some blog-stalking. It's great. I hardly ever just go around reading people's blogs anymore. And then I start to think how shameless it is, that here I am doing nothing, NOTHING, and yet I'm still procrastinating updating my own blog. See, some of my friends update lots and lots. So it's cool if they blog about Interesting Daily Events, Fun Grocery Shopping, or Fun Things to Buy. But after leaving you all hanging (desperately on the edges of your seats I'm sure) for a freaking month and a half, it better be this great post, right? The bright red hair, if I do say so myself, met my standard of "It's been forever, so this better be good." Back in the day when I used to blog all the time, I had a couple posts like that too. The airplane one. The Christmas Poem. And, in it's own incredibly long and somewhat indulgent way, the Disney one. Never mind, not the Disney one. But now? I finally am shamed by my lack of excuses and complete and utter boredom into updating, and I find myself, instead of actually WRITING anything, giving you all an entire paragraph of Journey to the Center of my Blog Post.

Lovely.

How about a story? Before I tell this story, lest you think I am a heartless and neglectful mother, I will tell you that I did call poison control, and they said he would be fine. So I guess Conner tasted some of my nail polish remover. I found him in my bathroom, and said to myself, what is that smell? And then I recognized it, and (rather frantically) pointed to my nail polish remover and said, Conner, did you taste that??? And he said, "yeah, it was spicy." Thankfully it was the kind that you have to squirt it up into the top first, so he didn't get a whole swig of it. But I swear, it is rather amazing that I have managed to keep him from going to the hospital yet in his young life, what with all the things he climbs on, gets into, and puts in his mouth.

I appear to have covered Interesting Daily Events now, despite my entire paragraph of nothingness telling you that I wouldn't. What else is there to do, but to move on to Fun Grocery Shopping? Couponing rocks. For quite some time, I was in the habit of blasting my food budget out of the park. In my Post-couponing world, I'm going to have to move it down if I don't want to come in way under budget every month. And I don't. Because then I would have to, you know, SAVE that extra money. And I already save plenty of money. I either need to move it down, or make it, instead of my "food" budget, my "food and whatever I want to buy for myself this month" budget. I like that one better.

So about two months ago, we went on vacation. It was fun. Yeah.

[IMPORTANT NOTE: It's really a lot harder to write about something interestingly if you wait so blasted long between when it actually happens and when you write it down, you know? Let's try again.]

So about a million years ago I went on a vacation that seemed really interesting at the time. It started out in a rather un-fun way, though. When we got to the airport an hour and a half early like the Seasoned Airline Travelers we are, we had no idea we would be in that airport for HOURS. First we stood in line and went through security. Apparently AJ was not accounted for on our tickets, so I had to go back and stand in line to get my ticket changed and then stand in line and go through security again. Not a great start, but it was about to get a whole lot worse. We apparently weren't sitting together on the flight after this one. So Dave went to the desk and asked if he could fix it. And apparently it didn't matter that we weren't sitting together, because this flight was delayed and we were not going to make the connection. You notice that the only reason they informed us of this is because we asked about our seats. She said she'd work on it. Meanwhile AJ, in his baby bjorn, has decided that now is the perfect time to leak out of his diaper and onto me. I go into the bathroom and do the very best I can with my very limited cleaning supplies, and am still feeling pretty nasty. You all know how much I love those types of bodily whatever. So after about half an hour of Good News Lady trying to come up with a flight (ANY flight) for us to get there, she came up with one that would have us arriving in Salt Lake City at 1:00 AM our time. (We were supposed to get there at 3:00 in the afternoon) Nothing else available, apparently. So we suddenly had HOURS to kill in this tiny little airport. We decided we would try and get on the standby flight in a couple hours, and then that would put us in the airport slightly sooner so that we could maybe get on the standby flight that would get us there by 8 instead of 1. In the meantime, a very nice man came and asked the kids if they wanted some horse stickers. Which they did.

This is a lot longer than I meant it to be. Oh, well. Anyway, we went to the flight and made sure we were on the standby list, and began the waiting game. Slowly our names crept to the top until--hallelujah! They called us up. And said that our party of 3 could get on that plane. Wait, we said, there are four of us. Oh, they said. Well nevermind then.

So then we had a couple more hours to kill, and I decided I was going to have a good attitude if it killed me. So I went exploring with each of the kids in turn, and we found a giant lego house, and actually had a decent time for those couple of hours. As long as I didn't focus on the horrible 1 AM end to the day coming up, I was good. Then a nice man came up and asked if the kids wanted some horse stickers. Which they did. Again. So we got our names on the list for the standby flight that was going to arrive at 8 anyway, because even if it was going to be a little tight, we could still make the connection if we hurried. Then THIS flight was delayed. And they said, Oh. Well, probably not now. So I asked if there was any way we could tell them that we were coming in case our names were called and we weren't there yet. And they said "no." If we weren't there when our names were called, we were out of luck. And then a nice lady came and asked the kids if they wanted some horse stickers. Hey, why not?

So we got on the super-ultra-delayed flight, and Conner fell asleep. Which would have been okay except he wet himself. So there was that. And yet, despite everything, I refused to give up hope. I prayed for us to make it on the standby flight. I came with a Plan. I would wear AJ and the backpack and tear though the airport as fast as I could while Dave brought the kids and carry-ons on the off chance that maybe THAT flight would be delayed and they would call our names. So I put on those, and THE MOMENT the seatbelt light turned off (which was approximately 20 minutes before the standby flight was going to leave), I TORE up the aisle--and got about 10 feet. Then I was waiting, waiting, until it was my turn to get off the airplane, and I started a very level and smooth (wouldn't want shaken baby syndrome) but fast run that was really quite exhausting. I got to the gate (two concourses over, by the way), and I said, "I know this is a long shot, but you don't happen to have any seats left for standby on this plane?" They said (very predictably) "Sorry, no." " Well, thanks anyway," I said. I think. It might have been more like 'NOOOOOO!!!!" or "&%$$##!!!!" but I think it was "thanks anyway." "Wait," they said, "what is your name?" "Reynolds," I said. "OH, they said, we have tickets for you!" "WHAT?????" I said. "Yes, Reynolds, party of 3, right here." "PARTY OF 3?" I said? "Oh, wait," they said. "We have tickets for four of you." And at this point it was only my excellent upbringing that prevented me from climbing over the desk and kissing all three of them right there. But the story's not over yet, my friends.

So there I was, blissfully happy, and waiting for Dave. They called final boarding call. Still waiting for Dave. They tried to do some paperwork something to give me extra time, but the nice man said they had to close the doors now. I said, "Can't you wait one more minute? He can't be that far behind me. We can't miss the flight after all this!" and he said," I'm sorry, ma'am, I have to close the doors now." I did one last frantic sweep of the airport, and THERE HE WAS! I said, "I see him! He's right there!" And the guy said, "Tell him to run." And so I yelled across the airport, "DAVE!!!! RUN!!!!!" And so he ran. Right into some poor guy's lunch. He apologized to the poor guy. still running, right onto the airplane. As we were walking to our seats, Chris said, "I think we're going to make it!" And everybody laughed.

We weren't sitting together, so Chris ended up sitting next to this nice man and telling him absolutely everything about us. (Chris and I had a talk about how much to tell strangers later.) But one of the things that he said to his new friend was, "My Daddy said that we're not going to give this airline any more money. He said they care more about making money than keeping people happy." Conner, meanwhile, was looking at the safety instructions and trying to figure out how he could get to go on the slide. He finally said, "If the plane will crash, THEN we will go down the slide?" So I guess in Conner-land, the plane crashing was a small price to pay for such a fun-looking slide.

So anyway, we got there and I was ecstatic after a very long hard day because it wasn't as long and hard as it was supposed to be. And I thought that was nothing short of my own personal little miracle.

We interrupt the chronology of this blog to bring you an important update on my hair...

So, It's been about a month and a half since I last posted. That's because I'm a slacker. And a ton has happened, including, but not limited to, my recent trip to the mountains. I will post on that soon, as it includes a couple pretty good stories. For now, however, there is a more pressing matter to attend to. You may or may not remember a few posts back in which I so boldly declared the next American Idol. You also may or may not remember what I even more boldly said I would do if he was not, actually, the next American Idol. [IMPORTANT NOTE: That would be "Adam Lambert," who didn't, in case you didn't know, win, and "dye my hair the color of Allyson's," whose hair, in case you didn't know, is bright red.] Well, far be it from me to go back on my word. [IMPORTANT NOTE TO SELF: Next time you make a bet with yourself, do not involve your hair. Also, give yourself something great if you win. Like a manicure. Or a new car.]

Yesterday I bought the dye, which was as close to the color of Allyson's I could get without bleaching my hair or spending more than $10. Neither of which I was going to do for this. Here it is:

I showed it to Chris and asked him what he thought about me dyeing my hair that color. He said, " I think it will look GREAT! But make sure you always wear a name tag so that I still know you're my Mom. "

Today my good friend Jessica came over to help out with and document the dyeing process. Unfortunately for you all, the "before" picture didn't meet my "I'm willing to post this on my blog for all the world to see" standards. But once you see a couple of the pictures I do post, you will see how low those standards really are. If you must have a "before" picture, there's one right down there in the Wicked post that shows the color of my hair quite well.

And now for the real fun: This was while I was waiting for all that fuchsia deliciousness to set into my hair:

And rinsing it out (notice the blotches of pink dye on my neck that are surprisingly resilient and hard to get out of my skin):

Me checking out my new red hair:

And finally, (drumroll, please), the new look itself:

What do you think???

We're famous.

So if you don't live here, we had a mother of a hail storm yesterday. I couldn't stand it, because Chris wasn't here. He was at school, and even though I knew in my mind that the school was about ten times safer than my house, I was suddenly a mama bear who did not like that my cub was far away from my personal protection. In any case, Dave took a couple pictures of the gargantuan hail, and when we were watching the news (you know, to see if any tornadoes were coming), we saw some very wimpy pictures of marble-sized hail. So we sent this one in:

And it made it on the news! So we are now officially famous, in a "quite a few people that we have never met have now seen Dave's hand and our baby tray" kind of way.

We had a Wicked time...

For my birthday Dave gave me a trip to go see Wicked in Birmingham. My parents came and watched my kids overnight (!) so we could go down and enjoy ourselves for the night. And it was so incredibly good. I love love LOVED it. Dave had apologized for not getting me many "things" for my birthday, but as I told him, this experience brought me way more joy than any "thing" that he could have given me. There's actually studies that show that money does buy happiness (in a way), but only if you spend it on experiences instead of things. I'm a believer. I also told him that this is all I need to be excited and life-high all the time. Just take me to an incredible Broadway musical, say, every other week. I'll be the best wife ever. So what if we have to sell the car???

Anyway, if you haven't gone yet, and have the chance to, go see Wicked. The lead (Elphaba) was the best female performer I've ever seen outside of Broadway. Glinda was pretty good too.

The only damper on my whole evening came in the second act when some girl behind us brought her popcorn back. I thought that was against the rules? Anyway, we put up with it (and it was only distracting a couple of times) until she finished her popcorn. Then she started shaking her bag into her mouth and chewing up the unpopped kernels. That was a bit too much. Dave gave her The Look. She stopped then, and I got to enjoy the rest of the musical popcornmunchingless.

It was Just. So. Good.

The Happiest place on earth. Really.

IMPORTANT NOTE: So we've been home a while. But that doesn't make my trip any less fun and exciting, so here's what you're going to do. You're going to sit there, you're going to read my Disney post, and you're going to be thrilled and excited with me as though I just got home yesterday. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTE NUMBER 2: This is long. Sorry.

Most of you know how incredibly excited I was to go to Disney World. Well, on the drive down my excitement held steady. But when we arrived at Epcot the first day and I saw the little "Welcome to Disney World" arches, that did it. I couldn't contain myself anymore. I was literally bouncing up and down in my seat. I think I was the most excited one in the car, and that's saying something.

At Epcot. Chris had his first taste of high-speed thrills. We rode test track--even though the line was an hour long, and the only long line we waited on all week. The rest were 20 minutes or less with the exception of the Thunder mountain fastpass line, which was inexplicably a half hour long. The first time he (and Conner--who wanted go on the "really fast cars" the first time...) rode, he thought it was great.

We got off, and he said "I've never been on a real race car before!" And he danced around, all excited. Conner, on the other hand, got scared and cried. This was pretty much a theme for the rest of the thrill rides we would try. Thunder mountain: Before the ride: "Are you sure you want to go on the roller coaster train, Conner?" "I do!" After the ride: Chris: Woohoo! (general dancing around) Conner: "I'm so sad!" (General crying). Splash mountain Conner decided against. Tower of Terror we didn't give him a choice, because we are not stupid.

We did, however, run into two different sets of parents who tricked their kids into going on that ride. One told their four year old son that at the top of the elevator was a candy store. I wish I were kidding. I can see the conversation in a few years. We told you drugs were bad! Why are you doing drugs! Well, you also told me that the top of the tower of terror was a candy store, so...

Conner's favorite ride of the day by far was "living with the land." Yep, the one where they grow the food. He said, " I like this!"(As in, I think, "wait, rides are scary! This isn't scary! This is fun!") when we were first on it. He danced around to the music. He and Chris also loved the little jumping-water fountain that is outside Imagination. Here is his little joyful face.

So the next day we went to the Magic Kingdom with my parents. We went on the Astro Orbiter, and everyone hated it. Never go on that ride for any reason. We rode the carousel, which was another favorite of Conner, so we were interspersing the happy rides with the scary ones at this point I guess.

Then we headed over to Frontierland, to try out Thunder Mountain. Perhaps we should have learned our lesson at that point, but we did not. Plus, Conner wanted to go, even after he saw how fast it went. So we took him. And he cried. Chris loved it. When we were going to go on Splash mountain, Conner saw it, and I guess somewhere in his head it clicked that fast other people+Conner going on that ride= fast and scared Conner, because he decided not to try that one. Chris loved it. My son, he is. We took the regular train, and Conner got happy again. He danced. He bounced. He saw a railroad crossing (which in Conner world is pretty much heaven).

Next day was Disney's Hollywood studios which I have a hard time not calling MGM still because it's been so very long since I've been there. That was what I would call the perfect day. The kids were great, and we all just had so much fun. Chris was introduced to the Tower of Terror. At first we were a little nervous. I was too, and I'm not sure if it's just because I haven't been on there in a long time or because I was feeling his nervousness, but regardless, we were both a bit anxious. Then the ride started, with us holding hands tightly. When the elevator moved forward on the track, Chris said, "Awesome! I never saw an elevator that moved before!" And then, all too soon, came the crucial moment. The elevator dropped us, rebounded, defying gravity for a moment, and plunged us over and over into darkness. When it first showed signs of stopping the first thing I heard from my terrified Chris was "AWESOME!!!!!" He absolutely loved it, and rode it a total of at least 6 times on the trip.

Another favorite of everyone except Conner was the new Lights, Motor, Action! stunt show. Holy sweet. If you're ever in Disney World, you have to go to it. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, though, the stunt show itself, or Chris's incredibly excited reaction to it:

Conner was scared of the fire and explosions (and everything that had fire the whole trip):

But I think he liked the show better than he let on, because later, at home, I caught him playing with his hot wheels making screeching noises and spinning them around. When I asked what he was doing, he said, "I'm playing lights motors action."

Chris was also super sweet about the one ride he wasn't tall enough to go on. We told him that he needed to wait while we went on the ride, and he said, "well it's fun that you get to go on it." After we came back he asked if it was fun and he said that he was glad that we had fun on it. How cute and sweet is that? He didn't complain even a bit. He just was happy for us that we got to go on another fun ride.

We saw the Muppet show, which thankfully did not freak Conner out, and rode Star Tours, which did, but of course Chris loved it.

Chris and Conner also watched the Jedi Training Academy show. Darth Vader would keep pointing at kids in the audience (one of them almost started crying she was so scared) and every time he did, Conner would smile and point at Darth Vader. I'm pretty sure he wanted to make friends with the Dark Sith Lord. We went back on Friday, and this time Chris got to be in the show! Here he is, learning to be a Jedi, getting ready to fight Darth Vader. You know, Conner's friend.

Conner's and my favorite ride to ride together, though, was Toy Story Mania. It's a 3D ride that you pull this little ball and shoot various 3d things to hit various 3d targets. And it's pretty much the best freaking ride ever. It goes kind of fast, and sometimes when you hit targets a little gust of air puffs at you and something flies at you in 3D, so I didn't know if Conner would be scared. But he loved it! When it took us from game to game, He said "whee!" and then he kept trying to shoot at stuff. He asked right away to go on it again, but it was late in the day and the line was (and always is) incredibly long. So the next time we went there we took him back, and I asked him "what are we gonna do?" and he said, "we're gonna go on this ride!!!" "Why?" "Because it's FUN!!!!" Here he is enjoying himself:

The highlight of the next day, believe it or not, was dinner. We had dinner at the Garden Grill (the rotating restaurant in the Land), and it was so very worth the incredibly inflated price we paid for it. The kids had a grand time with Mickey, and even AJ got to join in the fun. The characters liked to play with him. He tried to eat Pluto's nose. Conner liked it the best, I think, just eating dinner and having Mickey and Chip and Dale and Pluto come visit.

Chris liked it too, though, because as we were going to the parking lot on the last day, he saw the names of the parking lots and said, " Look, mom! Look what that one is called!!!" And it was called Chip and Dale. But I think Chris's favorite part was the dessert, make-your-own cupcake. He got very excited about that, and then he noticed that the sprinkles were Mickey Mouse Sprinkles. He said, "oh look, cool!" But even though my kids thought it was pretty cool to have vegetables that grew downstairs in the Land ride, alas, that did not help them to eat them any better.

So the next day, we went to Animal Kingdom. This was the first time for all of us. Chris here discovered Expedition Everest (and by this time we didn't doubt that he would love it and not be scared) and he, predictably, loved it. Through a clever combination of Fastpasses and Baby Swaps, he was able to ride this 6 times that day with almost no wait. And I have to say, I rather enjoyed this one as well. I bought the picture at the end because it so very embodied what Chris was about this vacation, and how much he loved these kind of rides. I bought it even though it was a spectacularly bad picture of me. So here's just Chris.

Must...edit...

...must...not...subject...you...to...every...detail...of my...trip...

The last day we went on Pirates (again, and among other things), and we ran into Jack Sparrow himself. Here we are with him.

If I didn't know that Johnny Depp would not likely take time out of his busy life to stroll around Disney World in pirate garb, I would have sworn this was the real thing. What do you think?

So instead of the rest of my play by play, let's sum up with this:

Favorite Conner Rides (according to Conner):
The regular train

The splash mountain of yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me ride
The ladder to the slide (Honey I shrunk the kids playground)
It's a small world after all boat (Why do kids like that ride? What is it about the same song blaring over and over with lots of dolls dancing in various cultural ways that makes kids so happy?)

The slow boat ride (either Mexico or living with the land, I'm not sure.)
The slow car ride (Tomorrowland speedway)

And from my own observations:

The carousel

Winnie the Pooh
Toy Story Midway Mania
Kilamanjaro safaris
Jungle cruise

Top ten Chris Rides (But he insists he doesn't have a favorite because ALL the rides are his favorite)
(This is the order he told them to me)
Expedition Everest
Splash Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Tower of Terror
Toy Story Midway Mania
Toy Story Buzz Lightyear
Test Track ("oh! I forgot about Test Track!")
Kali River Rapids

Mission:Space
Peter Pan ("because you really are flying") (That's why I used to like it, too, for the part where everything gets smaller when you fly over it. Isn't that fun?)
Tom Sawyer's Island

So one of my favorite things that Chris said about the trip was actually after the trip was over. Some kid came over and Chris was talking to her. I heard him from the other room say, "You've NEVER been to Disney World?!? You HAVE to go! It's SO fun!" Then Conner and Chris started talking at the same time about all of the DW things. It was a great trip, and my only regret is that I can't go about once a week.

And just to let you know that AJ was in fact there:

Adam Lambert rocks my world (in an I'm married and he's gay kind of way...)

OK, so I LOVE Adam Lambert. He is sensational. He is not only probably the best that Idol has ever seen, but he's one of the best singers/performers that I have ever heard, period. Idol or no idol, the boy is phenomenal. I have had a special Idol-place for him in my heart from the moment I first heard him sing. It's just gotten better since then. Unlike my last Idol fangirl moment, this has nothing to do with me thinking he's a great guy or nice or anything. He just can SING. If he doesn't win, I will dye my hair the color of Allison's. And don't think I won't do it.

But I won't have to, of course. Because he WILL WIN. You heard it here first.

The post you've all been waiting for!

Yes, that's right, I have FINALLY gotten around to posting about the topic you've been waiting to hear about: baby shampoo! I love it. And not just for babies. What happened is this: I ran out of my facial cleanser, and I was allergic to the new one. So I looked around my shower and tried to figure out what I could use instead. And I decided to try baby shampoo. I kid you not my friends, my face has never felt more soft and smooth or blemish-free! And I've used some pretty high-end cleansers, too. So what you need to do is this:

1. Go buy some baby shampoo, even if you don't have a baby. Generic is OK.
2. Wash your face with it.
3. Delight in the softness and smoothness of your face.
4. Thank me later.

So there you have it.

What, were you expecting me to post about something else?

On perspective...

I had a rough week last week. Or at least that's what I thought.

I got a nasty cold, I had very long hard days, I injured my leg one day, had to teach dance that night (and did a very poor job of it, which doesn't usually happen, if I do say so myself), and two days later I injured my back really, really bad. I was in the mall with my 3 kids. I had to lay down on a bench because I could barely move, and call Dave to come help me get home. Everything was going wrong, and all I'd wanted to do for like a year was to go to Disney World this week. But, see, I couldn't do that with a back that hurt so bad I couldn't walk. Why, I asked myself, was the universe converging to ruin my trip? Why can't I have this one thing? And then I got so sad (not just about that) and asked God to help me feel better. He didn't. I felt so alone.

Oh me of little faith.

Dave called my Dad for me to talk to him. I didn't really want to, but I talked to my Dad and (among other things) told him about my prayer. My Dad not only helped me smile again, but he also helped me out in some general-life things. Things I desperately needed, and that needed to come from my Dad. And you know what he said? He said, "It feels good to be an answer to a prayer." No, God didn't pierce through my sadness with the Spirit. He did better. He didn't give me what I wanted. He gave me what I needed. As for my back, I'm better now. Almost all better, and this was only 3 days ago. I'll be fine in time to go to Disney World. And you know what? I changed my perspective, and it changed everything. What if I hadn't hurt my back on Thursday? I have a generally bad back, and I don't always take the best care of it. What if I had been bending and lifting the Monkey in and out of the stroller all day at Disney? Could it be that I was injured now, not so that my trip would be ruined but so that it would be saved? So that I would know to be extra careful there and not be lying on my back for three days in Orlando instead of here? And that got me thinking...

What if it's always like this? I stepped back a little, saw a bigger picture and suddenly it changed from the universe out to get me to a loving God protecting my little trip that for some reason is so important to me. I stepped back a little further and it changed from God not answering my prayer to Him taking better care of me than I knew how to ask for. What if I keep going? What if I step back a little further? What is this black thread I am walking through today when I step back and look at the whole tapestry? Is it beautiful? Is it necessary? Would the picture be incomplete and ruined without it?

I believe, my friends. I believe that God IS there, and that he sees the tapestry of our lives as we cannot. I believe that it has lovely threads and ugly threads but that He's not looking at that. He sees the whole picture. He MAKES the whole picture.

And it is beautiful.

Life is beautiful. Even if today is not.

Can you resist the power of my persuasion?

So I started writing about my life and I bored myself. That's a bad sign. So I just saved that for my own records and I'm starting over. It seems like I write better, on the whole, about meaningless things. So let me attempt for a moment to convert you all to saving the environment. Wait, that's not what I meant. I meant "impersonal" things. Saving the environment is totally non-meaningless.

Of course I am speaking of reducing the possibility of ending up like WALL-e (which is a great movie that my kids absolutely love) by using reusable shopping bags. I love mine! Here's why:

1. It, um, saves the environment.
2. They have handles on them that you can fling over your shoulders thereby making only one trip from the car to the house. This is very important to me for some reason. I don't like taking two trips to bring in the groceries. It makes me feel like a failure. Like I just couldn't cut it. I have been known to have little red marks all over my wrists and arms because I stubbornly loaded myself up with groceries so that I could only take one trip. And then I can barely open the door. I sometimes can't. Sometimes I have to put the bags on the freezer to open the door. Which also makes me feel like a failure. I am not a complete success in my shopping endeavors unless I can fluidly take one trip from the trunk to the kitchen. Now I can! And I don't have little red marks on my arms and wrists anymore! Now they are on my shoulders.
3. When I go to the store and use my own bags I feel environmentally-trendy. It's cool to save the environment! Look at all the celebrities that pretend to do it!
4. I'm proud of myself every time I use them because I actually remembered to bring them into the store. It's the little victories you've got to celebrate. I like Kroger because it reminds me. I see their sign that says "Did you remember to BYOB (Bring your own bag)?" And I say to my self, "No! I didn't!" And then I go back and get my bags.
5. You don't have to have a space for all those plastic bags from the store that you think you're going to use and then don't. Now, don't get me wrong. I do use those bags. Just not nearly as many as I used to get from the store. And I forget to use my own bags often enough to still have plenty.
6.You don't have to use those little baskets if you're just getting a few things. You can just put it all in your reusable bag, then buy it, and put it back in. This also saves my arms, because every time I decide I'm not getting enough to use a cart, I invariably get more than I thought, and end up getting those little red marks again.

That's pretty much it. So, did I make my case?

By the way, in random American Idol news, one of my favorite moments in Idol history was last night when they did the Simon-evil-laugh thing. I don't know why.

How the Mom found Christmas (by yours truly)

So. Christmas Day started out great, then we had a bit of a meltdown, and then I figured stuff out and the day ended very nicely. After I wrote this poem. (IMPORTANT NOTE: I have taken a bit of artistic license here. I didn't actually add another present on Christmas Eve, for example. But that's not the point, right? Enjoy.)



Every Reynolds in Huntsville liked Christmas a lot,
But one year they acted just like they did not.
My kids screamed at Christmas! the whole Christmas season!
Now please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.

It could be they didn't get outside to play.
It could be they just didn't get their own way.
But I think the most likely reason to weep
May have been they were far too excited to sleep.

But whatever the reason, the sleep or the cold,
They stood there on Christmas Eve making me old.
Running round by the Creche, and then breaking the baby,
Talking back whether I say no, yes, sure, or maybe,

For they knew that with anything they'd get away,
So determined was I for a nice Christmas day.
For tomorrow I knew that my three little boys
Would wake bright and early! They'd rush for their toys!
And then, oh the noise, oh the noise, noise, noise, NOISE!
That's one thing I loved, oh the joyful glad noise!

Then they'd play, and they'd play, and they'd play play play PLAY!
And the more that I thought of this boy-Christmas-play,
The more that I thought "I MUST have a good day!"
Why for 24 days I've put up with it now!
I must stop the screaming from coming, but how?

"I know just what to do!" I then giggled with glee,
And I put one more present beneath my big tree.
And I chuckled and clucked, "What a great Mama trick!
With this last shiny gift, I will outdo St. Nick!"

And I then said, "To bed!" and the kids started on
Towards their rooms where they'd hopefully sleep until dawn.
It was quarter past 10, all the boys in their bed
All the kids with shut lids, I with with my aching head.
And I put out their presents! the ribbons! the wrappings! the tags! and the tinsel!
The trimmings! the trappings!

Three hours we were up, up til midnight or later.
We put out the legos, and Lightning and Mater.
At last we decided to bed we could creep,
And my husband and I got some much needed sleep.

At five I woke up! I knew just what they'd do!
Their mouths would hang open a second or two,
And then my two boys would both shout "Woo-hoo!"

That's a sound that I thought that I simply must hear!
So I paused and I smiled with a hand to my ear.
And I did hear a sound ringing out from below!
It started in low, then it started to grow.

Every Reynolds in Huntsville (well, only the small)
Was screaming! without any reason at all!
I hadn't stopped screaming from coming! It came!
Some how or other it came just the same!

Then I with my Mom-mood now lower than low
Stood puzzling and puzzling, "How could it be so?"
It came with the ribbons! it came with the tags!
It came with the packages, boxes, and bags!

And I whimpered for hours 'til my eyes were quite sore.
And I then thought of something that I knew before.
Maybe Christmas does not have to be to the letter.
Perhaps Christmas came so we all could get better.

And what happened then? Well in Huntsville they say,
That my Mama-perspective grew larger that day.
And as soon as I saw things as He does above.
I felt that I'd found a new kind of "tough love."

I've finally gotten it into my head
The day needn't be perfect, for He was instead.

You don't know the power of the dark side...

So, The other day I was going somewhere. I didn't have any eye makeup on, I decided to wear my glasses (mostly on a whim), and I wore a cute (but not often worn by me) slouchy hat. I looked like this:
OK, maybe that's a slightly-better, picture-that-I'm-willing-to-post-on-my-blog version of how I looked. But the main elements (no eye makeup, glasses, hat), are still there. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I was walking out the door, and I was surprised at how different I looked than normal. I giggled and said to myself (out loud, mind you), "It's like I'm in disguise!"

I wish I were making this up.

Anyway, I went out to the car, where the monkey was waiting for me dutifully, and HE started giggling. He said, "who are you?" (As in, "who are you trying to be?", or, "It's like you're in disguise!") I giggled again too, and said, "who am I?" He said, "Are you Darth Vader?"



What do you think? Is there a resemblance?:











Or perhaps he meant this one????:



In any case, I told him that I was not, in fact, trying to be Darth Vader. He said, "Are you princess Leia?" I liked that better, so I said, " Am I?" And he of course replied that I was, in fact, princess Leia. And then he wanted to know where my lightsaber was.


In completely unrelated news, AJ smiles a lot now. Want to see? (IMPORTANT NOTE: It doesn't really matter if you want to see or not. This is my blog and you're already here.)


He's a happy little guy. In this picture anyway. And at night. And when I am holding and/or feeding him. Otherwise, all bets are off.

The most wonderful time of the year

I love Christmas. I mean, I love it. I'm pretty sure that I have a harder time sleeping than my kids on Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure I get more excited than they do. And what's not to love? It's a whole month where people in general are trying to think of people other than themselves. A whole month of pretty lights, goodwill, nice smells, gifts, good food, and happy family time. And SNOW! Monday there was snow! It didn't stick, but the Monkey and I got to go and play in it anyway. He laughed when we played "catch the snowflake" and he could never quite do it. It was fun. Everything is fun! I love Christmas!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is opening up the 'things I got at the after-Christmas sale last year" box. It's like EARLY Christmas! All these things that I completely forgot that I bought are suddenly here, and it is a very, very exciting moment.

So the Monkey has been excited about Christmas too, and he's been doing some fun things like singing Jingle bells all the time and putting on his Santa hat. As has Chris. I'm excited, the Monkey's excited, Dave is excited, Chris is excited, and AJ is excited. Well, Dave and I and Chris and the Monkey are excited. AJ doesn't even know what state he lives in. (First person who can Name That Movie Quote gets a prize.)

So the Monkey opened up one of the presents early. The good news is that it wasn't his. The bad news is that it was mine. I told him he needs to not do that, and I said if he opens up all of the presents Christmas won't be happy. Then he said, "Will Christmas be angry?"

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I, too, learned from Mr. Grinch that Christmas can come without packages, boxes, or bags.This wasn't my best teaching moment. That's not the point.)

Anyway, the Highlight of the Season so far has to be when the Monkey saw that I had put up the Christmas tree. (You have to imagine this in his little tiny 3 year old voice. Makes it cuter that way.) He said " Wow, the Christmas tree looks so cool! Thanks mama!" Ah, family and love and Christmas. It doesn't get any better than that.

A silver lining?

Not every cloud has a silver lining. Most don't. But every single cloud has some light behind it. The silver lining is just when we can see it. It's always there, even when we can't.

When I got chills from the fever this week, I wrapped up in my blanket and walked to the couch. Chris saw me and said, "you look like an angel."
Me: "Thanks, sweetheart."
Chris:"Remember the angels in heaven?"
Me: "No...do you?"
Chris: "Yeah. You look like them."

If that's not a silver lining, what is?

When it rains...

So everyone knows when it rains it pours. We can't have just one stupid little thing to sort-of mess up our day (week, month, year, whatever). We have to have lots of stupid little things and perhaps one or two real problems until our day(week, month, year, whatever) is thoroughly saturated with nastiness. There comes a point when you are completely wet with the stupid little raindrops. At this point, you can either curl up in a little ball and cry about it or go take a swim. It takes me a while, but usually I can get around to the swim stage. The point at which you can laugh about the pure volume of stupid little things that are wrong. The point at which the one or two big things are better or no longer an issue. The point at which you stop running from the universe, you turn around, you stare the universe in the face and say "BRING IT!!!!"

That's me right now. Bring it, universe. Hit me with whatever you've got. As long as it's just stupid little things.

I'm not going to list all the stupid little things that have gone wrong over the past few weeks, or even the one real problem. I'm done venting. That's the stage before this one. I'm swimming now. It's liberating, really, when you stop caring that you're all wet. To anyone who may be stuck in the rain with me right now, I say, come out! Join me! Have a swim! Because then at least you have a choice about something.

Some thoughts on change...

So. Here we are. I've told you all before that I wasn't excited about this election, and why I was voting the way I did. I think that president-elect Barack Obama is capable of great things. By the same token, he is also capable of terrible things. The problem is, based on his voting record, I thought (and think) that he leans far more towards the "terrible" side. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that in four years all of the Obama supporters that I know and love will come back and say "I told you so." I will be happily wrong.


That said, I have also said--and still think-- that it is amazing and wonderful that we live in a country (and that America has come to the point) where a young black boy who is on food stamps can grow up to be president. Of course I appreciate that. But that doesn't mean that I'm not still scared. Or that I agree with him. I don't, and I am. I hope I'm wrong.

In any case, isn't it great that we all got to vote for who we thought was the best? I'm grateful to live in this country. Even though I voted for the other guy.