Archives for May 2008

Sunday afternoon I decided that Alex’s closet was cluttered enough to be deemed Officially Hazardous, so yesterday I spent most of the morning sorting through old books, old clothes, old toys and old shoes.

And in case you’re wondering if I took a picture of the final product, well, OF COURSE I DID.

Now granted, you can only see one side of closet in the picture, but the other side of the closet is cleaned out, too. And besides, do you notice THAT WHOLE BIG SPACE WITH NOTHING ON IT?

I’m telling you: that whole big space with nothing on it is one of the crowning achievements of my life.

Or at least of my life in, you know, May.

And ever since I finished working in that closet, I have been on what my mama would call a RIP IT. I’ve stripped beds, mopped floors, cleaned bathrooms, washed and put away about eight loads of laundry, and I’m about to tackle my baseboards as soon as I post this because I believe it’s been well-established that I am an all-or-nothing girl, so as far as I’m concerned I can either clean my house until it shines or sit on the couch, eat Cheetos and watch HGTV.

And today I choose to clean.

But tomorrow there’s an excellent chance that the Cheetos will win.

(Now please hold for one second while I mop.)

(I’m not even kidding.)

(I’m making you sort of tired, aren’t I?)

(IMAGINE WHAT A DELIGHT IT IS TO LIVE WITH ME!)

(Okay. I’m back now.)

Anyway!

At some point in my massive housecleaning extravaganza, I decided to tackle the bar in our living room, and I kept finding CDs tucked away in drawers. And after I happened upon about the ninth CD, I was all, Why do I have all these CDs taking up valuable storage space? Couldn’t I be using this space much more effectively? Like to store Windex? Or Pledge? Or Clorox? Or some other cleaning product that would help me to maintain the completely unattainable level of clean that I am striving for over the next two days before I get back on the couch and eat Cheetos again?

Oh, make no mistake, people: I am a CARNIVAL of insanity.

So!

I now have this stack-o-CDs that I don’t really need anymore because they’re either a preview copies someone sent me or they’re left over from a giveaway or they’re already on my iTunes or someone is sneaking into my house at night and leaving stray copies of contemporary Christian music in random drawers behind the bar in my living room.

Regardless!

I’d love to send one of you the whole stack-o-CDs. There are probably eleven or twelve CDs in the stack right now (Third Day, Leeland, Casting Crowns, Matt Redman, etc. and so on and so forth), but that number could increase as I clean out additional drawers in additional areas of the house where I’m doing some additional cleaning.

CAN ANYONE TELL THAT I’M HOME ALONE TODAY?

So if you’d like to win, just leave me a comment and tell me so. I’ll close the comments sometime tomorrow morning and then select a winner using random.org.

Please know that my crazy and I thank you in advance for your participation.

And have a great day, y’all.

This giveaway is now closed.

1. Volunteer at some sort of clown convention.

2. Attend some sort of clown school.

3. Dress up as some sort of clown.

4. Yell for the Rebels when they’re playing the Bulldogs.

5. Stick my head out of a dressing room and say, “Hey! This two is way too big. Could someone grab me a zero?”

6. Ask my husband if we can wear matching shirts.

7. Quit loving Popeye’s fried chicken.

8. Call a radio station to request “Red, Red Wine.”

9. Eliminate yoga pants from my wardrobe.

10. Refuse a hug from that sweet five year-old down the hall.

11. Wish that Andy wasn’t on “The Office.” Because, you know, he’s gold.

12. Choose fruit over chocolate.

13. Write a skit.

14. Perform in a skit.

15. Recruit others to participate in a skit.

16. Lose touch with my forever friends.

17. Wish I wasn’t Southern.

18. Turn down a chance to take a trip with my hubby.

19. Stop feeling deeply, profoundly grateful whenever I read I Timothy 5:15-17.

20. Look at a plate of mashed potatoes and say, “You know, I don’t really care for starches.”

What about you?

I haven’t been able to access my blog all day long because of some server-type issues, and I probably would have been more eager to troubleshoot the whys and wherefores of that particular situation if I hadn’t been so busy playing Cruise Director for a couple of high-energy five year-olds.

Because as you probably know, five year-olds aren’t really content to watch some shuffleboard matches over on the Lido Deck and then call it a day.

So we spent most of this fine Friday having a big, fun time with Alex’s buddy C., and then our little family-o-three went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for supper, and then we went to Blockbuster to pick out a movie.

You can’t even imagine how pumped I am to tell you that we rented the new Backyardigans DVD. It’s gonna be SO STINKIN’ AWESOME, Y’ALL.

That Pablo. I’ll tell you what. He is a STITCH.

But before I move into the next phase of my Friday night plans (do I join Alex in the playroom for the Backyardigans feature presentation? do I sit here and watch David play a Top Spin 2 Wimbledon match against Lleyton Hewitt on the Xbox? do I sneak into the guest room and turn on HGTV and cross my fingers that there’s a House Hunters Memorial Day weekend marathon? do you wonder how I can even stand all the non-stop excitement around here?), I do have a question for you, internets.

Well, really I have a scenario. And I’m hoping you can offer some suggestions.

Next Wednesday night D’s men’s group buddies are coming over for the last session of the Bible study they’ve been doing this spring, and I have offered to provide all manner of hearty foodstuffs for the evening.

The catch, however, is that I won’t actually be here because my little man and I are leaving Wednesday morning to go see the grandparents in Mississippi.

So do any of you have any good, make-ahead appetizer recipes that would be pleasing to a bunch of menfolk? Something that I could leave in the refrigerator and that wouldn’t require that David to do much more than 1) remove some aluminum foil or 2) heat the appetizer in the oven for a short amount of time?

I’m at a loss – especially because it’s getting hot and everything I think of just sounds too heavy or too Superbowl-ish for this time of year.

Can’t wait to read your suggestions – y’all are always so kind to come to the rescue during my culinary times of need.

And just FYI? I’m in the guest room now. About to turn on the television. And hoping against all hope that Suzanne Whang will be there to greet me.

My life. It is very fancy indeed.

Hope y’all have a great weekend.

Today was the little man’s last day of four year-old kindergarten.

I will now pause to sigh deeply. Because of the flying of the time and whathaveyou.

And in light of yesterday’s tragedy, I’m sure many of us have been holding our babies – no matter how old they are – a little closer today. Let’s continue to keep the Chapman family in our prayers.

We’re just now making our way through the American Idol finale, and as far as I’m concerned the only way to watch the AI finale is on the DVR with remote in hand.

Because I don’t know if y’all noticed, but there is a good bit of filler in the last show.

No, really. There is.

But contrary to past final results shows, there were actually a few parts of this one that I loved.

I would now like to tell you about those parts, oh thank you.

– Seal – I adore Seal. So it was big fun for me to hear him sing “Waiting For You,” which I used to play all the time in the car when Alex was a baby because, well, I’d been waiting for him. And the song seemed appropriate.

– Carly and Michael’s duet – SWEET MERCY, if those two had been singing together during the entire competition, they’d have won hands-down. I kinda wish they’d become an official duo – the sum is greater than its parts, you know? I thought they were phenomenal.

– The Pips – Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr. doing some sort of choreographed background dancing? COUNT ME IN, I WILL SEE YOUR MOTION PICTURE.

– Chikeze – IHAVEMISSEDHIMSOMUCHICAN’TEVENTELLYOU. Loved hearing him sing on the George Michael medley, which, by the way, was actually a really engaging medley because the songs are still so good.

– Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. George Michael – I think “Praying For Time” is a brilliant song, and I don’t think anyone sings it better than he does. I had chillbumps right down to my toes during his whole performance. And I will be watching it again in just a few minutes.

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU LIVE ON THE WEST COAST, YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT I’M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE WINNER. I FEEL THAT I SHOULD WARN YOU.









– David Cook – HE WON! We were totally surprised and tickled to death. Both Davids are going to have incredible careers, I think, but from my 30-something perspective, it was refreshing to see the guy with a little more experience take the prize, especially in this Disney-saturated musical age (see: Hannah Montana, Jonas Bros., etc. and so forth and so on).

Well done, David the Elder.

Mighty well done indeed.

So. What did y’all think?

If you want to chime in, you know the bloggy drill.