Grace Fight!

This evening on the way home from the grocery store Abby was singing in the backseat. She was mostly practicing her songs for tomorrows Father's Day program at daycare.  Too cute.

But then she pulled out the grace that she sings when she is in Sunday School.  It's fast, it's easy and it fun:

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - Thank You God for feeding me!

I told her that when we move to Saint Louis next month to live with her cousins she will be learning a new grace that their family sings before dinner. They sing Johnny Appleseed, so I sang that for her.

I'm not typing out lyrics, but here is a video example of other people doing it:



We then proceeded to have a Grace Battle - she would sing hers and then demand that I sang mine!  "Sing The Things I Need Song, Daddy!" 

This went on for about five minutes - and was awesomely fun.  I can't wait to teach her some of the Summer Camp graces that are so engrained into my brain from years at Camp Glenkirk!

A Year in Pictures

Abby is turning three tomorrow!  Since I have a sappy post lined up to publish in the morning, I'm sneaking this video slideshow in this evening!  I hope you enjoy the pictures!


Abby Turns Three! from Anny and Rob on Vimeo.

20 Worst Songs Ever?

Article this is from is from Spinner Magazine, and can be found HERE with descriptions of the songs. It's a pain to click through each one, so I've listed them below.

#20 'The Final Countdown'--Europe (1986)*
'What's Up'--4 Non Blondes (1993)**
'Gettin' Jiggy Wit It'--Will Smith (1998)*
'Achy Breaky Heart'--Billy Ray Cyrus (1992)
'Thong Song'--Sisqo (2000)*
#15 'Hollaback Girl'--Gwen Stefani (2005)**
'Rico Suave'--Gerardo (1991)
'Convoy'--C.W. McCall (1975)
'With Arms Wide Open'--Creed (2000)
'Wannabe'--Spice Girls (1996)***
#10 'My Heart Will Go On'--Celine Dion (1997)*
'Macarena'--Los Del Rio (1995)***
'Ebony and Ivory'--Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder (1982)*
'I'm Too Sexy'--Right Said Fred (1991)**
'I Am Woman'--Helen Reddy (1972)
#5 'U Can't Touch This'--MC Hammer (1990)*
#4 'Barbie Girl'--Aqua (1997)*
#3 'She Bangs'--Ricky Martin (2000)
#2 'Ice, Ice Baby'--Vanilla Ice (1990)*
#1 'Who Let the Dogs Out?'--Baha Men (2000)

Okay, I can agree with numbers 1 and 3, and would probably have put them as 1 and 2. But if you notice the asterisks above, here is the key:
One * means that I own it and have it on my iPod
Two ** means that I own it, have it on the iPod, and it's on multiple playlists so I hear it often
Three *** means that I do not own it, but would like to have it!

Doing a quick count that means that I own half (10) of the Top 20 WORST songs ever. Am I wrong to like these songs? Do you own/listen to/like some of these? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

Music Needed!

Friends -
Abby's first birthday is coming quickly! Less than a month as of today. We're hvaing a family party for her, but I'm still going to make a playlist. I am most curious about kids birthday songs. I really want to avoid the R. Kelly birthday song, as it is far too dirty.

So far I have:

"It's Your Birthday" - Justin Roberts
"My Best Day "- Trout Fishing in America

Anything else in the genre?

Any other songs that a kids birthday would need to be complete? Any other children's music that needs to be on my radar?

Observations from the Last Few Days

Some Observations:

On the Abby Front:
A fat lip on an infant is both funny and cringeworthy at the same time. Sorry, no pictures. Can't have social services after me.
She is scooting toward her toy basket, but only when she can touch it already. She's gotten up on her hands and knees, but gets confused pretty quickly at that point. Hopefully a weekend with Ada will get her moving.

On the Sports Front:
I apreciated hearing Plaxico Burress after the SuperBowl. His comment was "This is the greatest feeling in professional sports." So often we hear that something in sports is the greatest thing in LIFE, and I just can't believe that.
Who really cares who the next Redskins coach will be? Aparently a lot of people. What I can tel you is that he, whichever he it is, will come in and change the system, personnel and feel of the team. Oh yeah, and it's not your decision, it's the decision of the guy that owns the team. He does not come to your office and tell you who to hire.

On the Political Front:
There are a lot of people in Virginia that don't know how to listen. Seems that they got almost 1,000 calls yesterday furious about closed polling stations. Yeah, Super Tuesday was not in your state. That's NEXT Tuesday, just like they keep telling you in the paper, radio and TV.
Because the folks in VA, MD and DC want to feel important they have dubbed next Tuesday, our TV Stations have dubbed it Chesapeake Tuesday. Get over it. It's just another Primary Tuesday. It started yesterday and I'm already annoyed with it.

On the Music Front:
When someone posts a new Celebrity Playlist on iTunes, check it out. Thanks to one list I have discovered Brett Dennen and what is now one of my top 10 songs to listen to. (Oh yeah, check him out based on my recommendation too!)

So Much to Blog About...

So little Blogging time!? If only Abby would feed herself, then I could use both hands on the laptop in the morning. :o) Kidding, of course. I like to feed her, it's the only time I feel like I can tell people to butt out, it's our time. (Anny feels the same way, so we often bicker over who gets to feed her instead of who has to feed her.)

Some observations:


**I love that the radio now has 24 hour holiday music. I'm sorry to those that disagree, but almost every time I turn on the radio I'm thinking "Do They Know it's Christmas time at alllllllllll?"

**My kid is adorable. Freaking adorable. I won't deny it. Last night I was singing System of a Down to her, and she was giggly and smiley. Love it!


**No matter what project I take on at home, it will take longer than it should. I pulled out our kitchen faucet to replace it with a new one on Saturday night. Pretty easy project. Unless I'm the one that bought the faucet. There is an O ring that arrived smashed inside the faucet. i.e. I never could have had any control over it, but it makes the faucet leak. Badly. Oh yeah, the O ring is not available at Home Depot.



**THIS is just gross.

**I love my wife, and we're a good team. She's been sick and I've been sore, both during the last two weeks. We take care of each other. I must acknowledge, though, the she does a lot more taking care of me than I do of her. She's not even that mad that the faucet is taking longer than it should.

**I really like our church. We have been to two pot-luck-types of dinners in the last couple of weeks and have been reminded of how much of a family we have there. Our pastor is incredible and the other parents with young kids (and there are a LOT) are awesome.

**THIS is just adorable.

Hopefully I will get around to a real post this week. Don't hold me to it, though!

Baby Got Book

This is hillarious and you internets will apreciate it for it's humor more than my co-workers!



Thoughts?

Any Good Books Out There?

I need a book to read while we travel next week when we go to Saint Louis and Iowa. I am digging into The New Father by Armin Brott. His book on The Expectant Father was really helpful during the pregnancy.

The New Father is for fathers in the first year of fatherdom. I am reading the chapter on the second month, which we enter on Friday, but I don't want to get too much farther along in the book! When reading TEF I got too far ahead of myself, and got things mixed up when it came time to talk with Anny about things going on with her.

I was also reading a book, When Not to Build, about reasons not to build a new church building - and more importantly reasons TO build. I got halfway through it before Abby was born, but I think that most of my questions were answered and I am going to return that one tomorrow.

I need a book that is practical but moves along swiftly. I have never been good at reading fiction, I get distracted by the twists and characters. I tell people it's because I am too creative to grasp someone else's creativity. I get lost in movies, but that's because they don't last long. (Watching Stranger than Fiction right now.)

I don't want to read crap magazines that I normally do on trips. I'm bored with SI and ESPN since hockey season is over. I also don't want to just plug in the iPod buds and ignore the world. (Abby would probably prevent that)

Any book suggestions? (needless to say, it needs to be an in-store book so that I can get it in the next seven days!)

That Song Makes Me Sick

I am an eclectic person, particularly when it comes to music. If I use the "shuffle" feature on my iPod, I have to be careful who can hear it, because I can easiliy slip from Tim McGraw to Snoop, back to Billy Joel and then something from System of a Down. (SOAD is definately not work apropriate!)

But on Sunday afternoon as we were driving home in the snow I had a surreal experience. I heard a song that made me sick to my stomach. I literally felt like I was going to throw up. Not a good feeling on a snowy Sunday afternoon.

The song was "Carlene" by Phil Vassar. The song was released in early 2000, and really is a song that I have enjoyed for many years. One of my closest friends is named Charlene, so we have always changed the words just a little.

So why would such a nice song make me sick? Mold. Lots of mold.

When I first bought the CD that has the song "Carlene" I just just been placed into a new building for the business storage company that I worked for. This were so disorganized that we literally shipped 2,000 boxes to a rented warehouse to be sorted and labeled. My job was to do the sorting and labeling. Alone. I worked in that building for four days a week, and worked one day a week at the main office/warehouse.

The company (which I assume is still around) is an Archiving facility. Your business would send non-urgent, but still necessary-to-keep files to our facility. We store it, for a monthly fee, and will deliver your box(es) to you in 24 hours, for a second fee. There was availability of 1 hour and 2 hour delivery, but it was much more expensive, and really only utilized by law firms.

There were some pretty cool companies that used the company to store their stuff. Two big law firms downtown stored thousands of boxes, but they were boring. No need to catalog their stuff, they had staff to do that for them. I did get to catalog x-rays and some other random files, though.

One of the storing companies was the Recording Industry Association (RIAA). They didn't store much, but one day my brother found an original of the Gold Record presented to Bob Marley for one of his records! Pretty cool.

Anyway - the building they stuck me in was disgusting. I assume that the smell was just mold, but it would not come off of my clothes no matter how many times they were washed, and I had to shower as soon as I got home every day, or I could not stand to be around myself. I only wore certain clothes there, and threw them out as soon as I left the company.

I don't know if it was a contributing factor, but just before I got the building that was my own was when I had my Kidney Disease diagnosis. It sure made the decision to leave six months later easier!

When I heard that song on the radio Sunday, it didn't just bring back the mental images of that time in my life, it also brought back to me that nausiating smell/taste in my mouth, and I really did want to throw up.

That's such a waste of a really good song.

Are there songs that you know that bring back other senses for you?

Okay, I want comments!

An earlier post asked what your favorite Christmas Song is and I got nothing from nobody. I'll ask a different question:

What is your LEAST favorite Christmas song? We've got one of those two-weeks-before-Thanksgiving-playing-24-hours-a-day-Christmas-Music. Anny is addicted, and I will listen to it in place of commercials on other stations.

My least favorite Christmas song has to be Christmastime in Washington. I detest it at this point. I am a huge fan of cheesy music, but this one crosses the line. Just gross.

Do they even play Christmastime in Washington in other regions? I'll be in Saint Louis this weekend, so I'll keep an ear out for it while I'm there.

But really: what is your least favorite Christmas song?

Another Music Post

We bought the new James Taylor Christmas CD and have not been disappointed! Leave it to JT (not Justin Timberlake, you crazy reader!) to take even the traditional and make it fun!

Anyway - On his CD there is a song called "Some Children See Him" which I had never heard in any sense before. I googled it this morning and found out that it's a "Traditional Poem" that apparently missed my tradition. It's a great poem and so I will share:


Some Children See Him
By Alfred Burt

Some children see Him lily white
the infant Jesus born this night
Some children see Him lily white
with tresses soft and fair

Some children see Him bronzed and brown
the Lord of heav'n to earth come down
Some children see Him bronzed and brown
with dark and heavy hair (with dark and heavy hair!)

Some children see Him almond-eyed
This Saviour whom we kneel beside
Some children see Him almond-eyed
With skin of yellow hue!

Some children see Him dark as they
Sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray
Some children see Him dark as they
And, ah! they love Him so!

The children in each different place
Will see the Baby Jesus' face
Like theirs but bright with heav'nly grace
And filled with holy light!

O lay aside each earthly thing
and with thy heart as offering
Come worship now the infant King
'tis love that's born tonight!

'tis love that's born tonight!

Again, just thought I would share!

I'll post again soon. I'm not avoiding posting, there's just a lot happening right now!

Tis The Season - for Music?!

I'm an eclectic music listener. On my Ipod I have something from almost every genre available, and always look to add others as I discover something new and fun.

Country? Yep.
Christian? Yep.
Rap? Yep.
Classical? Rock? Oldie? German? Yep all around!

Now is the time of year that I get to pull out the Holiday playlist, and it makes me smile. I have my Ipod on in the office everyday from about 10 until I leave at 4. This week I have been playing the holiday playlist almost non-stop. It all comes back to being eclectic in what I have.

Country Christmas? Yep. (Reba McIntire)
Christian Christman? Yep. (Reliant K)
Christmas Rap? Yep. (Run-DMC!)
Classical? Rock? Oldie? German? Yep, Christmas all around!

One of my favorites is Bing Crosby singing White Christmas. Simple and classic. Anny's is by far "Hippopotomous for Christmas" which is a bit rare and random, but cute.

What is your favorite Christmas song? Do you listen to you local all-christmas-all-the-time radio station this time of year?

There's Hope - India.Arie

Friends,
I heard this song, which is available on iTunes, on the radio the other day. It's amazingly sung by India.Arie, and the message is one that we cannot hear too often. It's the first song on several of my Ipod playlists already, and I just bought it this week.

Here are the lyrics:

Back when I had a little
I thought that I needed a lot
A little was over rated,
but a lot was a little too complicated
You see, Zero didn't satisfy me
A million didn't make me happy
That's when I learned a lesson
That it's all about your perception
Hey - are you a papa or a superstar
So you act, so you feel, so you are
It ain't about the size of your car
It's about the size of the faith in your heart

(Chorus)
There's hope
It doesn't cost a thing to smile
You don't have to pay to laugh
You better thank God for that

There's hope

(Verse 2):
Off in the back country of Brazil
A met a young brotha that made me feel
That I could accomplish anything.
You see just like me he wanted to sing
He had no windows and no doors
He lived a simple life and was extremely poor
On top of all of that he had no eye sight,
but that didn't keep him from seein' the light
He said, what's it like in the USA,
and all I did was complain
He said-living here is Paradise
He taught me paradise in in your mind
You know that

(Chorus)

(Bridge):
Every time I turn on the T.V. (There's Hope)
Somebody's acting crazy (There's Hope)
If you let it, it will drive you crazy (There's Hope)
but I'm takin' back my power today (There's Hope)
Gas prices they just keep on rising (There's Hope)
The government they keep on lying
but we gotta keep on surviving
Keep living our truth and do the best we can do

(Chorus)

Stand up for your rights
Keep shining your light
And show the world your smile

It's I wanted to share this song with as many people as I can, and this is my best outlet. I hope it has made you smile. :o) I would highly recommend the purchase.