Happy Birthday Doo-Love!

What happened to my baby?

About this time of night, 9 years ago, this little beauty entered the world...

And life for us took on a whole new level of love!

The sweetest girl that ever was...

...gets a little sassy from time to time...

...but she always comes around...

...And sure knows how to have fun.

Kennedy LOVES music (the fruit doesn't fall far...). Her faves are Sarah McLachlan, the "I don't mind" song by Maroon 5, Evanescence, Coldplay and of course, Jonas Brothers. She has an "interesting" sense of fashion and prefers to wear purple converse or vans instead of skechers. I personally think that's pretty cool. And yes, she's only 9. It starts early these days...

Kennedy is also very conscientious about most things that go on around her. She knows what's good for her and what's bad for her and chooses pretty well most of the time. She acknowledges that her mom drinks diet coke, even though it's bad for her (hm. bad mom?) She likes broccoli and most vegetables - although she hates fruit. She also knows how to eat sweets in moderation (not something she learned from either parent, but rather through a terrible puking incident following an overindulgent Halloween night). She therefore knows where indulgence gets you and has sense enough to stop while it still tastes good. She also hates McDonalds and most fast food or eating out. She begs me for homemade meals. Who is this kid?

Much to everyone's disbelief, Kennedy was not named after a famous president. Actually, her name was randomly stumbled upon and then influenced by one of my early year MTV heroes, Lisa "Kennedy" Montgomery. I just always thought she was so cool. Lame, I know. But still an awesome name!

What the ??

Kennedy is also an amazing big sister. She helps Isabel so much. Kennedy understands Izzy better than anyone else, can and does wrestle her until she laughs so hard she can't breathe, comforts her when she cries, is always telling me how cute Izzy is, and always feels bad when she's been impatient. It's pretty amazing actually.

There's so so much more...anyone that knows her at all knows what I mean. This little girl turned my world around from day one and continues to bring me more joy and love and fulfillment than I ever would have imagined was possible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

"Don't sweat the nickel and dime s***, you know?" -Ronnie Ray

Apologies for the cussing. Just wanted to give a shout out to the heavens for my dad, wherever he is right now. Probably not in blogland...but oh well. Sure miss 'im, potty mouth and all.

Ronnie Ray Rogers
Dec. 27, 1946 - September 24, 2006

Frez-YES! Never underestimate the power of thrift...

Every once in a while, we load up the sedan and head to the great city of Fresno to visit our even greater relatives. This last weekend was no exception. So on Friday night, we packed our overnight bags, grabbed some In-and-Out (I'm addicted to strawberry shakes lately), and headed down the 99 for some fun.

Our Fres weekends are always fun, but this time, it was uber delightful. We started Saturday off by heading down to what's known as the Tower District, a blazonry of good eats and quality vintage shops. We did some exploring and eating and walked away with full bellies, a super cute Paul Frank tee for Kennedy, and a Gwen Stefani costume for me (we're going to a rock star party next weekend).

Next, Greg and Stace took us thrifting. Apparently, Fres is flush with some quality thrifting opportunities. We found this to be entirely true! Our first stop was a place called Yoshis...keep reading to hear how great it really was.

While perusing the piles of stuff, stuff and more stuff, I found a rack of sweet coats. I was still in the mode of finding a great jacket to go with my Gwen kimono, but much to my surprise I saw another beauty - a beautiful black coat. I tried it on - fit like it was made for me. I reached into the pockets and found a nicely used tissue. Ew. Authentic, but Ew. Anyway, it was $20, but luckily for us everything was half off that day. SOLD! A few other treasures made our way into the basket and we eventually checked out. Once outside the store, we sat and chatted for a few..revelling in our great purchases. I pulled out the coat to model it once again. Now that the tissue was gone, I remembered there were also some papers in one of the pockets. As I looked down, I saw a "Hello, My Name is Toshi" nametag and a folded dollar bill. Only, as I unfolded the dollar bill, it turned out to be a $100 bill. What the?

Really? yes, really. Things like that just don't happen to me...only now they do! Ha!

I also found this recipe box, which matched the old recipe cards my mom used to use. It was also full of recipes dating back from 1940 all the way up to 2003. It was some woman's treasured recipes. Yum!

Realizing that things probably couldn't get much better, we headed back to the pad to eat some homemade chocolate chip cookies and play guitar hero. It was probably the best Saturday we've had in a very long time. Even without the fashion and financial score, it was a darn good time.

Saying goodbye was the hardest.

Thanks to the ScoCatts for showing us an AMAZING time!

Thank heaven for good tunes

I love music. Always have. Always will. The concert was great, no surprise. It was, however, a bit somber. A few weeks ago, one of the bandmembers - the saxophonist, Leroi Moore - died unexpectedly. I certainly didn't know the guy personally but it certainly added an effect to the evening that you don't typically get at a fun, wild and crazy concert. Since the sax sound is such a key ingredient to the whole dave matthews sound, there was definitely something missing.

Anyway, here's a little something I found in tribute to the guy. It's a little long but real good at 1:12 - 2:00 and 5:16- 6:30 ish if you have a couple minutes to spare on some pretty amazing tunes.

This time tomorrow....

If you call, I will not answer. If you come to my window, you will see no lights and hear no sound. If there is an emergency, you'll have to figure it out without my help...

Instead, I will be in my happy place. My very very happy place and all in the world will be good for a few hours of pure bliss.

On parents who glean pleasure from humiliating their children:

I wonder....will she hate me one day for this? Click on picture for full effect.