Happy Birthday to Christina! 

Podcasts and Ruth

I love books on cd, and I just finished "Bleachers" by John Grisham. But sometimes I can't find anything good at the library and I don't want to commit to a 5-10 cd series, so I'm publicly coming clean about my latest addiction: Podcasts. I'm looking to pick up a Transpod for the car so I can immerse myself in only listening to what I want to when I want to. It's like Windows Media Player (another addiction) for the car radio. So, I'm on the lookout for great Podcast subscriptions. Feel free to make suggestions!

Dave and I agreed a long time ago we must be in a church with expository Bible teaching. It's just a preference for how we like to hear God's word taught and apply it to our lives. Our new series at church is Ruth, and it's a hard hitter. So far I have been nailed by being an Elimelech (taking things into my own hands) and Naomi (misreading the facts of God's plan). Lloyd asked us to "sit in Naomi's funk" this week and think about her faith. So I have, and I am still pondering what it means to take on the authority of God and rename oneself like Naomi did. I had never noticed the magnitude of her self-absorption before. If you have time, listen here or download the Podcast.

I saved $15

...by not buying "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. I have never seen Oprah as ticked off as she was on her show today- not even when she got sued by the cow farmers. And little liar James didn't look very happy either. I bet $15 she threatened to sue him into a million little pieces to force him to Chicago to come clean in front of a billion people today. I didn't officially count but I think she called him "liar" three times. Don't mess with Oprah!

Oh, and Richard Hatch got put in jail today after he was found guilty of tax evasion. Don't mess with the IRS either!

Tempers Flare

Daniel is starting to move into the "temper tantrum" phase of our relationship. Tantrums have been thrown this week over:
1- Leaving the playground
2- Daddy leaving for work
3- Wanting to eat breakfast at the "big" table instead of the high chair

I feel like I'm getting pretty good at handling, although I am getting tired of getting kicked all of the time. This kid is strong. The big challenge is still ahead- the "very public" tantrum, which I'm sure is in my near future....

Daniel and Jake at Chick Fil A 

Out-Wit, Out-Last, but will not be Out-Taxed!

Remember Richard Hatch, the first winner on the tv show Survivor, who is now being sued by the IRS for not reporting the $1 million income on his tax return? Apparently his defense is his accountant prepared two returns for him, one with the $1 million and one without. Richard chose to file the return without the $1 million income on it. How did he get his accountant to do this?

"It was just for analysis," said Wallis, a key witness for the prosecution in Hatch's federal tax evasion trial. She said she took her name off the sample return and had Hatch sign a letter from her stating, "This return is not intended to be filed and is simply for your information."

Tax CPA Kerry Kerstetter says, "This should be a warning to all of us practitioners not to ever do that, especially for someone who has been on national TV, where he won a prize for being the most devious and conniving."

Read more here.

Randoms

Last night Dave killed his brother and brother in law, numerous times. In Halo, that is. They play over the internet from different locations and can't figure out how to play together, so they just try and shoot each other. What fun! They can't wait to do it again tomorrow night.

Did you catch Oprah yesterday with the cruise ship mystery? That poor girl was way more emotional over Royal Caribbean not paying for her airfare home from Turkey than the fact her husband might have been murdered and no one knows who did it. Maybe we should ask Scott Peterson what he thinks.

Today Daniel and I went to the play park in our neighborhood since it was 65 degrees. He played for about 10 minutes, then ran down a steep hill and fell into a ditch with a big puddle, completely drenching himself. I could feel the other mommies just staring at me- "bad mommy!", but there was nothing I could do since it happened so fast. At least I had a blanket in the car and we were 30 seconds from our house and nice dry clothes. Tomorrow we're going to attempt to attend Toddler Time at the library and maybe it will go better.

Just Say No

Well, it has taken me a few days to confirm the reality, but Daniel really understands and is using "no" a lot in our everyday conversation. The good news is he is following instructions well when we ask him to do something- go get an object, pick up toys, etc. The bad news is "no" is coming out of his mouth for lots of other things that I really should not be asking in the form of a question anyway (do you want to take a nap? "NO"- well of course not!).
We are working on "Yes" and "Please" frantically!

Notes to Myself

Here are few things I need to remember:

1- Sprint does not have a play area for toddlers and it takes a very long time to get a new cell phone.
2- I do feel a little burnt out when I have stamping club night and scrapbooking night back to back. A little more broke too after I placed my stamp order. But I still had the creative energy to meet a friend at Joanns today to look at scrapbooking stuff, and I stuck to my $10 budget.
3- Tell others "Million Dollar Baby" is a downer and don't bother watching it.
4- Organizing our community group childcare swap through May eats up a lot of brain power and time.
5- Take lots of kleenex to Moms Together next month, I handed all of mine out this week (no, I did not cry).
6- To teach Daniel that cars do not go "too too" (Choo choo). Maybe I'll put Dave in charge of that one.
7- Jim Brickman is on Monday night on PBS playing the Disney Songbook and I need to figure out why our PBS station has not picked up the new "Real Simple" tv show.

Public Notice: Gillespie Lane/Liberty Road Closing Permanently

We knew when we bought our house they would evenutally be putting in an additional interstate exit near our neighborhood. In fact, it's one of the reasons we wanted to be in our neighborhood. We had seen the development plans which showed the completed access roads and we liked the way it would all play out over the next few years. But there have been some delays and nothing much has changed in the past two years, so we have gotten used to our three routes in and out of our neighborhood.

Then Nissan announced recently they are moving their North American Headquarters to a big empty lot about 1/4 mile from our neighborhood, right next to the proposed new exit. Overnight, they have cleared all of the land for the interstate exit and are working around the clock on surveying, getting the pipes in place, etc. It was not a big surprise this morning when I found out they are shutting down our "back road" into the neighborhood to work on the interstate exit.

We are looking forward to the new exit, the ease of access, and the changes Nissan will bring to the area. All of those Nissan people are relocating from California, so they are really going to like what their housing dollar can buy here. I don't expect to see any of them in our neighborhood unless they want to seriously downsize. But I will miss the old "back road", and I may just have to drive it a few more times before it closes next Monday.

Someone Shuffle over here and Help me!

I've now spent the entire day (or rather, my free time during it) trying to get my iPod shuffle to work. It has a mysterious "won't play" problem which is apparently pretty rampant, according to the apple support boards. Lots of other frustrated souls are out there. I don't have time for this today, as I think I am coming down with a sinus infection again! Help!

Update: I just found the "nine steps" people are praising as their "shuffle salvation" and they worked!!

It's finally cold here in TN! 

New Year, New Plan

January 1st was Daniel's first night ever away from mom and dad- he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Burden and spent a whole day with them! We had a nice break and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Panera, shopping (I'm the only woman in America whose husband WANTS to go to Hobby Lobby with her), and finally, "The Chronicles of Narnia". Sidenote to bargain shoppers: Get yourself to Ann Taylor Loft now!! I got nine items for $100. GO NOW!!

Today was Daniel's first day in the Toddler room at Mother's Day Out and he did great. I have a new work schedule that coincides with MDO times since Daniel's much loved but very pregnant babysitter quit in December. At the end of January there will be a whole new plan, but more on that later....

My New Year's Resolutions are to carryover my unfinished resolutions from 2005- new living room curtains and get my hairstyle updated, as well as a few new items. Maybe I'll keep those to myself since I'll probably be carrying them over into 2007!

Bambi's Back

I spoke too soon. This morning there are two dead deer lying uncovered, on a tarp in my neighbor's driveway directly outside our kitchen window. I will not be posting a picture of the carnage.

Happy New Year!