I Do NOT Heart American Idol

I don't like American Idol. I just never have gotten into it. One season Pootie Pie watched it so I rooted for Chris Daughtery along with her, but that is the extent of my Idol experience.

I especially hate the beginning of the season when all the sucky people are on and the judges make fun of them. Some of them SO deserve it, but to some of them this is their future, their hopes, their dreams but its just a game to Simon, Paula and Randy and it makes me sad so I avoid it.

It is still early in the season and tonight SSB is in Vegas, Pootie is at an away basketball game, Bugaboo is at work and EVERYONE ELSE IS IN MY ROOM WATCHING IDOL. I am trapped. Doomed.

Then Amy Flynn, a 16 year old from a Catholic High School in Knoxville came on. She is on the dance team at her school, dancing all provocatively, but preaching abstinence in the midst. (Oh, I see a lot of Bugaboo in her.)

She gave Simon a little speech about waiting for the right person and not having pre-marital sex. Ha ha! They joked about it, but didn't make fun of HER.

She sang a Christina Aguilera song. Wow. That's hard no matter which song it is or who you are. She did well, but Simon was not very nice. He said she reminded him of the annoying girl singing in her bedroom. She frowned and said. "That's a bit much" but she SO took it. She TOOK it. She looked sad but she didn't crumble at all and she held her own, which is enough to be proud of. And for the first time in my life, though, I agreed with Simon Cowell: the song was too big for her. That's not necessarily a bad thing. She just needs to take a different tack, a different kind of song. Christina Aguilera songs are too big for 99% of the population.

But he said YES. And so did Paula. And so did Randy. She made it! I was so happy. I'm as happy as I'd be if she were my kid. She's too sweet and naive for Hollywood, but that's OK. She may never be a pop star, or an American Idol, but I think she has what it takes to make it in life and that's enough to thaw my cold heart a little bit tonight and make me my eyes leak. Besides she was very cute when Paula said yes and TOTALLY reminded me of Bugaboo then!

I just hope her parents don't whore her out now to make her famous.

Grumblings

Wasn't that a great game on Sunday?? I mean. Until the very end anyway. At least it was exciting, right?

When the Giants missed that field goal right before the end of the regular game sending it into overtime, I think I peed my pants a little. There was much screaming and jumping amongst us. Then we won the coin toss and we were all on Cloud 99. Everyone went back to exactly the same spot we had been lest we jinx the overtime.

Then Classic Brett appeared and all was lost. The warm excitement of just minutes before turned to cold, damp underwear. It was a dreary ride home. Dupree wouldn't even get in the car. He walked home, alone and shivering.

We tried to lift our spirits with a rousing session of Rock Band, to no avail. But here's the thing about Rock Band that I take issue with: all the good songs are the easy ones. In order to earn any fans or money you have to do the harder songs on harder levels and those songs just suck. I don't even want to listen to those songs, let alone sing them.

Another thing I don't like about it is that to stay in tune when singing you have to stay pretty lifeless on those songs. After each phrase they give you a rating, "Messy", "Weak", "OK", "Strong", or "Awesome". If I sing "Enter Sandman" or "War Pigs" or any of the other yucky songs the way I would sing along with them on the radio I am deemed "Messy" or "Weak". I just have to sit there, staring at the screen trying to keep the tone indicator level an steady. BO-ring!

So one night I was singing, SSB was on guitar, Bug was on bass and Pootie, our master drummer in life and on Rock Band, was drumming. I was sitting next to her and as her arms were flailing wildly about to keep up with the "Expert" level she had chosen for herself I noticed she kept sneaking quick peeks at me. My eyes were stuck to my tone indicator and I wasn't paying attention to her but I felt her glares. Finally she yells, "Put some STYLE into it!!" Sheesh. Everyone's a critic. Poor Brett. How he must feel.

Packers stuff

Get pumped up for the game!!

Legends video


Third-Graders song - so cute!



Wisconsin Gramma will like this one

Bunny Bed

Bunny is almost 17 months old and yet she still does not sleep though the night. SSB has to get up 2 or 3 times a night to put the binky in her mouth because she won't do it herself (if I get up with her she wants to REALLY get up and play or cuddle - she won't just go right back to sleep like with him). She will sleep soundly through us playing Rock Band at top volume and she will sleep like a rock in our bed. I'm thinking of getting bed rails for our bed and moving her in. I don't know if I want to open that can of worms but getting her out later can't be worse than waking up all night now.

Sing this to the tune of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"

They tried to make me sleep in my crib, I said no, no, no

Yes, I’ve been bad and when I wake up mad you’ll know, know, know.

I might cry and whine but my Daddy thinks I’m fine

They tried to make me sleep in my crib, I won’t go, go, go

I’d rather curl up and lay

In your bed every day

Cuz there’s nothing, there’s nothing you can teach me

No Ferberizing. Cry It Out? No way!

Didn’t get a lot of sleep?

Well I know it will come if I don’t peep.

They tried to make me sleep in my crib, I said no, no, no

Yes, I’ve been bad and when I wake up mad you’ll know, know, know.

I might cry and whine but my Daddy thinks I’m fine

They tried to make me sleep in my crib, I won’t go, go, go

The man said, “Why are you in here?”

I said, “So my Mommy is near”

I’m just a, I’m just a little baby

So I always keep a bottle near

He said “You’re making me all stressed

Lay down here baby and just rest”

They tried to make me go to my crib I said no, no, no

Yes I’ve been bad and when I wake up mad you’ll know, know, know

I don’t ever want to sleep again

I’ll just close my eyes and pretend

I’m not gonna spend ten weeks

Letting you try the latest parent trend

You think I’m done cryin’?

It’s just till these tears are dry

They tried to make me sleep in my crib, I said no, no, no

Yes, I’ve been bad and when I wake up mad you’ll know, know, know.

I might cry and whine but my Daddy thinks I’m fine

Just try to make me sleep in my crib, I won’t go, go, go

Poetry in Motion

Pix of swimmer boys. Nice.

Also here is a link to video of the meet. http://www.flocasts.org/floswimming/coverage.php?c=153&id=7410

You can see us standing in line in the "Autographs" video.

Garrett Weber-Gale

Swimmer boys
Oh, swimmer boys
How lovely are your . . . . branches.

And trunks.

And your everything else.

Our friend V invited Bugaboo to an SMU swim meet Friday night, as she is a swimmer. She had an AWESOME time that night with V and her 15 year old niece. She got home late and then had to get up on Saturday morning to go to her own swim meet. (She did very well by the way).

Fast forward to Saturday night to Part Deux of the SMU Classic and I get roped into going too, as does PootiePie. (Ha! "Roped." Twist my arm to go see 20-something swimmer boys do their thing.) Oh, my.

The Texas All Stars (some of them Olympians, no less) were there along with several universities. Billy Sweeney from Arizona State is an excellent diver and incredible to watch. He was my favorite as far as COLLEGE BOYS go. As far as All Stars go, I'd take any of them, but David Cromwell, Brendan Hansen and Garrett Weber -Gale hold a special place in my cold, cold H - E - A -R - T.

David is a very nice guy and is great to watch. He's someone you'd like to know better.

Brendan just because. He's very popular and has a website (http://www.brendanhansenonline.com/) and he was the cutest kid ever. In the autograph line I told him I saw his website and he asked if I liked those pictures from when he was little. I said they were adorable. He said, "What happened, huh?" Um. Nothing.

Garrett Weber - Gale because is from Wisconsin. Fox Point to be exact. The announcer asked for Packers fans to stand up and yell, which I did, obnoxiously so. I was even sitting in the front row wearing my Favre jersey. But he was on the OTHER side of the pool throwing out t-shirts. Boo.

Later, we noticed him putting on his Favre jersey before walking down to our end of the pool to start the last relay. Earlier another guy totally dissed me when he walked by so when I saw Weber-Gale coming our way I said I was going to body slam him if I had to.

I didn't have to.

Turns out he had noticed MY jersey (I found that out later) and when he walked by all I had to do was stand up. When the relay was over, he walked by again and asked if I wanted his swim cap. Uh, YEAH! And none of the kids are allowed to TOUCH it!! :)

We got all the Texas All-Stars autographs after the meet. I had all of them sign the heat sheet, but I had Garrett sign his cap. He talked about the game, which was incredible and said he didn't even want to go to the meet because he wanted to watch the game. They all told me he MADE everyone watch it with him on a teeny tiny TV. I'm glad he decided to go to the meet though. He made my night!

Aren't those pictures funny? I look like he's grabbing my butt or something. Ha! He might have strained a muscle if he tried to get some of that enormity. That wouldn't have been good for the team.

Snickety - isms

SSB was looking for the tape and couldn’t find it anywhere. He asked the kids if they had it. Taz said, “No, I don’t.” PootiePie said, “No, I don’t.” Snickety said, “I do!” This surprised SSB. He turned around and said, “YOU have the tape?”

With a confused look on his face, Snickety said, “Where?”

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When he was 5 Snickety one day pointed out to me a seam in the crown moldings and said it was broken. I looked up and just said, “Yeah it is.” Then teasingly I asked him, “Did you break it?”

Again with the confused look he said, “Break what?”

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Snick is one of the piggiest of our kids. He has not once put anything away on his own. Ever. Once, also when he was 5, his big rug with roads printed on it for toy cars to drive on was in the middle of the kitchen floor. I asked him why it was there. He said he didn’t know. I asked him who put it there. He said, “I don’t know, but I hope it wasn’t me.”

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Everyday for about a month when he was 5 and occasionally since then, Snickety would give me a random piece of good news. “Good news, Mom! I’m not going to pick my nose anymore.”

“Good news, Mom! I’m not going to leave my shoes on the floor ever again.”

“Mom! I got some good news for ya. I’m not going to run amuck ever again in my whole life.”

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Recently SSB took Snickety to 7-11 and Snickety held the door open for him. SSB said, “Thanks, Snickety!”

With a smile on his face, Snickety said, “Girls first.”

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Everyone went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s new house for dinner one night. I had given the kids instructions in the car about their behavior. “Don’t just sit and watch TV. Be polite! Talk to Grandma and Grandpa!” They all agreed.

About halfway through the evening I heard SSB tell Snickety to stop picking his nose. What? I thought he was joking. No way had Snickety been lying on their new couch picking his nose! I looked at SSB and said, “Really?” and he nodded. I still couldn’t believe it.

A few minutes later when there were less people in the room I went over to Snickety and whispered, “Did you really picked your nose?” Yes. Ugh!!

“Really? You had your finger IN your nose?” Yes.

I said, “Do you really think Grandma and Grandpa want boogers on their new couch?”

Snickety said, “Well I wiped it on my pants like I usually do.”

That set me off. I went into Crazy Mom mode scolding him in a fast and furious whisper. “Like I usually do!! As if!" I told SSB what Snick said and he just laughed. Grr!

Later he went over to Snickety and asked him if he can call him Booger Pants now. With a slight pout on his face and a sigh of resignation Snickety replied, “I don’t see any reason why not.”

Juice Box Hero

Xbox has been the bane of my life. The kids cry about it, fight about it, are addicted to it and get their brains sucked out by it. They get up on weekends and start playing and don't eat breakfast or brush their teeth or get dressed or anything. It overtakes them. I hate Xbox and was glad when ours broke.

Alas they got a 360 for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. Great for them, not so great for me. I decided to not be Grinchy though and just go with it. I even bought a few games. They loved playing Guitar Hero at other people's houses so we got Rock Band.

Oh, Rock Band. The boon of my existence.

The first couple days after Christmas I didn't play. I don't do Xbox. I have tried several games, sucked at them and didn't have any fun. SSB came downstairs a couple times and said they needed me to sing up there because the kids didn't have a singer. No, thank you.

But then the kids went to Oklahoma and left us to our own devices. SSB, Dupree and I stayed up every single night and played Rock Band. We couldn't get enough. I was hooked. I RAWKED and was loving it. We had our own band and our own characters and it was FUN! So fun. Thank you, Microsoft.

Since the kids came home we haven't played much, but we did for a while last night. Snickety was on guitar, PootiePie played drums and I sang. Beeman likes to sing too, but he can't read much so I sit next to him and when he knows part of a song he'll grab the mic from me and belt it out. He's GOOD! He hits the right notes and gets an "Awesome" rating most of the time. He likes Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" and he likes Foreigner. Their song came up and even though I'm not great at it, we did it anyway. I didn't know Beeman even knew that one. I was surprised. I don't have the heart to tell him it's "JUKE Box Hero" though not "Juice Box Hero."

I wonder what he thinks that song is about. A much-anticipated Capri Sun delivery man? A chugging contest through a teeny tiny straw? He's so cute. I'm sure he's never even heard of a juke box. Ipod, yes. Zune, of course. But not a juke box.

First Let Me Just Say This...

I've dragged my heels with the whole blogging, My Space, Facebook thing because I don't think people are really all that interested in other people. That stuff is usually just for your own benefit. Like the emails that have the 20 questions that the person who sent it to you answered then you erase their answers, put in your own and send it to everyone you know. No one really cares what your answers are, but you liked answering them and THINKING someone wanted to know your favorite drink and season who you are most inspired by.
I may occasionally blog something that someone finds interesting but mostly I am doing it for me. Its something to do, something to write, somewhere to keep things about my day and my Stars. Sometimes it might be cute and Grandma will like reading it. Most of the time it will probably be boring to anyone but me. So there you have it. My mission statement.