Anything But Gray

Jaime and I went into Gotschalks yesterday. (It's a Macy's type department store) We were looking for a birthday present for Zak. They didn't have what I was looking for, they did however have new bags. Nice bags. FINALLY. They also happened to have that RSVP cologne. So there is a Guess bag I want to check out and then I want to check out that cologne. I adored the bag…like it will be mine adored. And the cologne I wasn't so impressed with. Jaime picks out something and I grab a couple shirts for Ben and we leave. We go over to Domino's to visit Ceci because I have a little while before my eye appointment and I never get to see Ceci. After we get inside, I smell my hand, where I had put that cologne because I was going to ask Ceci what she thought. I loved it! After it gets settled on your skin, it smells MUCH nicer. I was like oh, I am so going to get Zak to get this.
After we go to dinner for date night we head over to Gotschalks. Zak is cool with getting me the bag and he's also game for checking out that cologne. We go to the counter and I point out the cologne and ask the lady for the tester. Zak sees the bottle and says "Wait a minute…isn't that that cologne that Jon Bon Jovi did a commercial for?" I was like "Fuck…since when do you pay attention to shit like that!?!?!" I realize I am so busted. So we all start laughing and the girl behind the counter is like, "Oh yeah..I like them. Bon Jovi is cool." And she starts BLUSHING! And we're teasing her and I'm like "See! If you wear this cologne ALL of the girls will act like that" and I point at her. That, of course, makes her blush even more. It was HYSTERICAL!!

Zak wound up liking the cologne and he got it. He's just started wearing cologne in the last year or so and he usually wears Hugo Boss, but he's all for trying new things. What a guy, I got. He rocks. 🙂

I cannot believe it's been FIVE days since I've updated this…holy crap.

My life feels completely out of control this week. I can't remember a time where I was truly this busy…
Last night we were supposed to take the kids swimming but Kim invited me to a "toy" party. I asked Zak and he was cool with me going. So Kim picked me up and we went to that. Very fun. Turns out the girl that was doing the show is a childhood friend of Zak's. I didn't realize it until after being there for awhile. There was a another woman there that knew Zak as a kid and so that was a little..hmm…I don't know….weird. Nah, it wasn't weird at all..but sometimes it's like MAN, this town is SMALL. lol. We had fun and I'm glad I went.
Today I have my eye appointment at 12:30 and then it's date night.
Tomorrow I have lunch with Kim and Danielle and then Jaime has a playdate with Lindsay. I also work tomorrow night.
Saturday I think I'm going to meet Kim out at a campsite and spend the day out there with the kids. Saturday night I work. Sunday we have a BBQ at Lindsay's house at 3pm. Then Monday night I have my hair appointment.
All through this I have Jaime because she has no activities for this week.Except for RALLY yesterday afternoon.
All of this is cool stuff that I want to do but it's cracking me up how condensed it all is. Like everything is happening NOW. lol. I'm excited to work, I haven't worked over at Domino's in a long time and it's a blast….it's like I get paid to hang out with Ceci. LOVE it….I just help answer phones and help carry out customers…little stuff like that. The owners are going out of town, that's why they need some help in the store.

Funny story about them. We saw them on 4th. They took Jaime with them for a little walk, while they walked their dog. Which I thought was super sweet. Well, they came back and we were all hanging around at JR's truck. Well, the next day the word at Domino's is I'm pregnant. You want to know how this got spread around? Because neither of the owners saw me drink on the 4th. So they were both like.."oh, she is so pregnant…" ha! Cracked me up…
I was like yeah….if I'm pregnant, I've got some serious explaining to do at home. Seeing as how Zachary has had the big "V"…it's unlikely HE'S going to be getting me pregnant. Very funny….

So this whole week has just been crazy busy…and it's not going to slow down anytime soon. It's great things. I'm excited for my eye appointment because I have been wearing my glasses for months and I HATE THEM. I hate wearing my glasses out of the house. So I'm so happy to get my contacts again…
My hair done…I so need that. It's getting too long.
So all in all, tons of good stuff….hopefully I'll be better about updating and find a few minutes here and there to post!
I hate when I don't update…lol.

Gotta go get the boy dressed….Zak is going to bring him to daycare for me.
Just cause he rocks like that…

Every once in awhile I see a sight here that is so amazing that it literally takes my breath away. Even after all the years here, I still get reminded every once in awhile just how beautiful it really is…..
Zak was finishing getting Jaime ready for bed and I walked by the window and caught a glimpse of this…

Sunset july 2007 (4)

I literally suck in my breath and think I've got to show Jaime, she'll love it.

I go back in the bathroom and tell Zak I want to show Jaime something. He finishes brushing her teeth real quick and I take her by the hand and we walk toward the back door. As we're walking by the dining room windows, she sees the sunset. She says "oooh, Mommy…look! It's so beautiful." I tell her that that's what I wanted to show her. So I pick her up and carry her outside so she can get a better look.  Zak snapped a pic of us. The pic is a little blurry, but you can see her smile, you can just see the pure joy in her face.

Sunset july 2007 (6)

My daughter then leans forward in my arms and says outloud. "Thank you God!"
I teared up a little and I kissed her and told her that was very cool of her to thank God. He'll like that.
We hung out for a few more minutes just looking at the sunset and finding shapes in the clouds and Zak took a few more pics.

Sunset july 2007 (9)

 
In that moment after she thanked God, my heart was so happy and so
proud. I realized in that glow of warm fuzzy feelings after, that of
all I do wrong with these kids, of all the things that I could do
better, there are some things that we are doing so very right.

Wow. Some compliments are so cool that you know they will be forever embedded in your mind.

I was leaving my house to go get Ben from daycare and I stopped at the intersection to turn left. As I was waiting to go, a truck turned onto my street and it stopped beside me. I look and see that it's a guy we know. I think, oh hey..that's Lyn, and I roll down my window." He rolls his down and says to me…"I didn't get a chance to tell you because you left the office so fast but you looked smashing the other day."  I was just blown away….it was so cool. I had bought a new dress for work because I love dresses and I personally find them super comfortable. It's a really pretty dress and I love it. He has to be talking about the day that I had that dress on. I was just like "Thank you, Lyn..what a cool thing to say." And we drive off. I call Zak and tell him about it and he thought it was cool too. As soon as I hang up with Zak, Ceci calls me and so of course I promptly tell her about it and she says "Talk about stopping traffic."
Well hell, I think…that's a fun way to put it.
and I think I'll go with that…lol.

How nice of him to tell me that and he probably has no clue how awesome that was.
Compliments are not a dime a dozen and sometimes you get them right when you need them the most.
Like when you're constantly starving, not eating, trying to diet and GAINING 3 pounds in a week.
Yeah…times like that compliments are cool.
Really cool.

Happy 4th!!
FYI….July 4th is my half birthday.
ha!!
I crack me up…..

Today my daughter scared the crap out of me.
Jaime, Ben and I all went up to Danielle and Chris's to hang out and check out them all moved into their new house.
It was so awesome just hanging out and letting the kids play. I'm so, so  happy they are back in Juneau. It was an awesome day and I freakin' LOVE their house. I love their plans for the house, I love the lot the house sits on, it's just all around awesome. Well Ben, Jaime and Joey were all playing and at one point we find Jaime….in the dryer…with the door closed. I freaked out on her and explained how she should never, ever hide in an appliance or the trunk of a car. That really freaked me out, as I would've thought my daughter would know better. Why do I think this? Why should my 6 year old daughter know better? Especially since I have never told her not to do that. So I say a little prayer, thank you god nothing bad happened to her and I got the chance to teach her not to do that. Not everyone is that lucky and I honestly don't take those near misses or could've-been-so-bad's lightly. I really don't. I live worst case scenario and I am always on the look out for the potential dangers. Especially when we are in a house we have never been in before. I usually am very alert and right on top of things. So I was honestly grateful that nothing happened to her and that really scared me.

But that's not what scared the crap out of me. That mildly scared me. What scared the crap out of me was the sight of my daughter's face on the cement driveway, having fallen from Chris and Danielle's boat while trying to climb out of it. The kids were playing around in the boat and us adults were standing around talking to a neighbor that had come over to introduce himself. It happened so fast. Chris was the first to say something and I turned and saw Jaime face first on the cement. You heard a collective gasp of breath…and I think all of our heart's stopped at once. Danielle and Chris saw it happen, Zak missed what happened and I saw the very last instant of it. She got right up and started running and I got to her first and scooped her up in my arms. I put my hand to the back of her head and held her head against my chest, partly because I was terrified to look at her and partly to keep her head stable. I was so, so scared and everyone else had gotten to us at that point and Zak says "Give her to me." And he had a tone to his voice that scared me even more. I hand her over and I catch a glimpse of her face and all I see is blood and I panic. I felt like I couldn't breath, I was shaking from head to toe and crying. I go into the house and everyone was so wonderful and reassuring me she was okay. I take a look at her and she is crying and they have ice on her head and they are checking her pupils and asking her her age and telling me she's being very alert and responsive and that's a good sign.
"She's alert and responsive…" Those are words you never want to hear in your lifetime when someone is talking about your kid. It just unnerved me. The seriousness of the situation made me cry harder. I calmed myself down and really looked at her and I realize she's okay..she's really okay. She managed to get her hands out in front on her and that took the force of the fall. Her face and head were really no worse than if she had fallen from standing up onto the cement. It's just superficial wounds, basically just bad scrapes. After tending to her for about 20 minutes, she goes back outside. And promptly climbs back up into the boat.

She's so tough. I'm so proud of her.
I'm so thankful it turned out to be such a minor thing. It really could've been so much worse. It turned out she slipped when she was trying to get out.
Danielle and Chris were so apologetic and I kept apologizing. It's one of those things….a true, genuine accident and it's so no one's fault. I told them "For the record, if anything happens to one of my kids here, I will never sue you." Zak joked and said "She's speaking for herself…" lol. I'm sure they already knew that, but I just wanted to reassure them, it's a genuine accident and if anything it's our fault for letting her climb around the boat. Their kid has been on a boat a million times, ours haven't. Zak and I could've been watching her a little more closely, but really things happen..it's life. There is no reason why we shouldn't assume our 6 year old daughter, who's top bunk of her bed is higher than that boat, could get herself in and out of that boat just fine. It's just one of those things and we should all just be thankful it was so minor…it could've been so much worse. We took some pics of her battle scars….I think she's a little impressed at how bad they look..lol.

Face plant July 2007 012

Face plant July 2007 011

All in all, except for the near heart attack…it was a wonderful day and I am so, so happy Chris and Danielle are in their new house! We are so going to spend some serious time up there the rest of the summer. Congrats to them!!

Jason is moving.

Jason is a guy that used to work at Domino's and he comes out with us sometimes when we all go out. I really dig him. He's fun, funny and he makes no secret of the fact that he thinks I'm hot. (he needs to have his eyes checked..but whatever…what's not to love about a guy that thinks you're hot?? lol)  He's a blast to flirt with, dance with and joke around with and not have to worry about "leading him on…" . It's good times when Jason comes out with us, very carefree and fun. Anyway, he went through a divorce and it kind of got him really down and I've always enjoyed the fact that he has such a good time when he comes out with us. Kind of like we're helping him through his rough time….it makes me feel good. He's a met a girl (yay!) and she is moving to Seattle and he's going to move too and give it a go with her. I'm so happy for him…..but I have to say I'll miss him.  Jason is good people and although I'm thrilled for him, I'm sorry that he won't be coming out with us anymore….
And I'm a teeny bit jealous….I can't wait until our move…when we "start over".

Good luck to you, Jason!
keep in touch….

YEAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
FUCKIN' YEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Number 1!!!!!!

Jaime was playing in her room yesterday and Ben was being a little troublemaker. He kept going into Jaime's room and kicking over what she was playing with. She finally got frustrated enough and left her room. She gets a small piece of scrap paper and her crayons and goes off by herself. She's gone for a few minutes and then she comes and gets the tape. She then tells me she solved the Ben bothering her problem she was having. I asked her  "How'd you solve it?" Jaime says "Come look, Mommy." She leads me over to her bedroom door and I see what she has done.
She has made this sign and hung it on her door…

No Bens sign June 2007 (5) edited

No Bens sign June 2007 (6) edited

It's Kim's birthday today…(Kim of Tina and Kim)

I sent her a little gift and a card and I'm hoping it got to her on time.
For some reason, I can get birthday cards/gifts to everyone on time…everyone but her, it seems.
So it was my mission to make sure it got there ON TIME this year…

I'll call her later today.

I love you, Kim!
Happy, Happy Birthday!
Love
Jonana

J and I always go over new Bon Jovi albums like this and I've made her wait all week.
I love doing this with her…it's such a me and her thing, to pour over every note, every word…everyone else thinks I'm crazy, but she gets it. Well, I shouldn't say that….not everyone thinks I'm crazy. People like Zak, Ceci, Tina and Kim get it and they'll listen to me until my last breath…okay now I feel guilty for saying that because I keep adding names in my head…Shelly would listen, James would listen, Kirk even would humor me…so I actually have quite a few people that will listen to me babble about Bon Jovi…I love you guys!! (shit…not Kirk…he wasn't included in that I love you….LOL!!!!!)
Anyway, Bon Jovi is how J and I met, it's what brought us together and it is so us to do this…an album doesn't feel "out" yet until I do this with J…

And here it is…. 

First
of all I have to say Jon’s voice sounds better on this album than it has in
YEARS, I think. It makes me wonder if he finally quit smoking or something. Or maybe
the songs just highlight the best parts of his voice….whatever it is, I like
it! He sounds amazing.  There are some
parts that because of the lyric and because of the way he sings it, you feel
like you are eavesdropping in on an intimate conversation with his wife or
something. I almost feel like I should turn it off. It’s so weird, in an
absolutely goosebumpy, amazing way!

I
am so happy with this album, I LOVE it. Absolutely LOVE it. The writing is
amazing, as always. The music is fun, inspiring and just awesome. I really think
this album is going to get them some new fans….I’m impressed.
Now the song by song…

Lost Highway—

I love to drive. I always have, even
before I had a license, Shelly would let me drive her car and I loved it. I
live to drive…it’s such a freedom to me. Having the radio blasting and the wind
rushing through you, it just feels like you can go anywhere….at one turn of the
wheel you can pick which way your life goes. It seriously is such an escape for
me. Given this, I love any kind of car/driving metaphor. So right off the bat,
I loved this song.  From the first note,
it just sounds like a driving song…

“in my rearview
mirror/my life is getting clearer.”


Love this, like once you get through something, then you figure it all out….

The
whole chorus, I love. I do believe that will be the song I play when we’re
pulling out of here…."hey, hey/I finally found my way/say goodbye to yesterday/hit the gas there ain't no breaks/on this lost highway/yeah, I busting loose/I'm letting go/out on this open road/it's independence day/on this lost highway/hey, hey"

“don’t know where I’m going/but I know where
I’ve been/I’m afraid of going back again/” –Love this! I imagine this is
how I’ll feel once we finally move out of here. 
Not in a literal sense, but afraid of being in a position where we have
to come back again.

“oh patron saint of
lonely souls/tell this boy which way to go/guide the car/you’ve got the keys/farewell
to mediocrity/ kickin’ off the cruise control/turning up the radio/got just
enough religion/and a half a tank of gas/come on/let’s go”.

–Freakin’ LOVE this. Love the lyrics,
love the big drums….it gives me goosebumps. Love the complete trust and faith
in “guide the car/you’ve got the keys”

Summertime


—

Been here/heard this a million songs before.
But I love it. They do it just a little bit different that makes me not feel
like I’ve heard a million times before. I love the big drums (throw big drums
in anything and I’m sunk…lol) and I really dig the lyrics…although I wish beer
rhymed with summertime…cause I’ve never done the beach blanket and a bottle of
wine thing…ha!

“These days it goes like this/wake up,
check that off some list/got to be a
little something more than this/in the bottom of my coffee cup”

This
line is so friggin’ me. Me and my lists & me and my ever present cup of
coffee…cracked me up, it’s so me.

 “you shining like a new dime/keeping me from
giving up”

Love this…if
Zak heard it, it would remind him of me. So it makes me think of him. Funny,
huh? That because I know something would remind him of me, it makes me think of
him…I love being married…anyway.

Love the
whole chorus and it’s such a visual, it really makes you feel what he’s singing
about and it feels fun, it feels good…it feels like “that’s it! That’s what
being in love feels like!! Summertime!! “ I love the distinction in the “first
long kiss” You hear first kiss a lot in songs but I can’t remember hearing
first long kiss..and as we all know there is a significant difference
between the two. I love the end too,
when the chorus changes to “radio’s on
for me and my valentine” Love that….so
very romantic to me. Like being called someone’s bride instead of their wife…

I’ve already
blogged about Make a Memory…

Whole lot of Leaving Going On

—

I. LOVE. THIS. SONG.

I cannot, absolutely cannot explain
how much I adore this song….this will be one of my all time favorites.  It sounds very Bon Jovi to me, the music. It's edge of your seat, musically. The
way it’s written isn’t typical for them. There’s no big huge chorus, it’s
almost like the whole thing is one good chorus and I love it.  I love the way he sings this. To me, it sounds
like he’s really feeling this song.  When
I first read through the lyrics, I really expected it to be a song that Jon and
Richie wrote together and I assumed it would be very influenced by Richie
and David’s divorces. I get to the credits for the song and Richie had no part
of writing it. Jon wrote it with someone else. My heart literally skipped a
beat as I realized Jon wrote this for them. He felt what they were going
through and he wrote this for them….it felt like how I feel when Ceci writes a
poem for me, inspired by something I’m going through…what an awesome feeling. I
don’t care if I’m wrong, either. That’s what I’m going with. He wrote this for
them…his brothers.

The lyrics
are phenomenal. From the very first line, I loved it.
“It’s pretty cold for late September/the
autumn wind is creeping in/the summer sun packed up/it’s long gone/there’s a
whole lot of leaving goin’ on”.

Me and my
September thing, of course I love this line. And I just love the lumping the
weather into everything. Like even the sun is leaving…this really sets the mood
for the song.

“Close the window/draw the
curtains/you ain’t the only one here hurting”

I freakin’ love the visual with this, you can just see
this situation…this really makes me feel him. Plus, curtains and hurting? God…he’s
amazing! lol.

The chorus, I
love, absolutely love. "Seems like lately/there's a whole lot of leavin' goin' on/I close my eyes/I picture your hand in mine/I still hear your voice/it takes me back to that time/where I could find a reason to be strong/seems like lately there's a  whole lot of leavin' goin' on"

I already
loved the song….I was already feeling it, loving it and then I get to this…

 “I close my eyes/and picture your hand in mine/yeah,
I walk the line/you’ll never hear me say goodbye/so pretty baby let the years feel
strong/lately there’s a whole lot of leaving going’ on”

I don’t know
if it’s intentional or not or if he’s just using the expression, but I love the
nod to the Johnny Cash song, I walk the line. So cool!!

And of
course, I love the “pretty baby” I am so madly and completely in love with this
song. I could listen to it over and over and over. I can’t wait to hear this
live someday…

We Got It Goin’ On.

I like it. It doesn’t make me jump up
and down, but I like it. It’s fun and I love that Richie’s got the talk box out…that’s
probably the coolest  part of the song
for me…lol.  Jon sounds good and that’s
cool too. Usually on Bon Jovi albums there’s always one song I always skip over. This
will probably be that song on this album.

Any Other Day

—I really like this. I love the “any other day/I’d be blue eyes crying”
Very cool. J said the same thing and I’m with her, I love when he references
himself, even if it’s a little thing like this.

This is such
a me and Zak song. There are a ton of things that fit us, very personally. I
love it.

“must’ve hit every damn red light on
the street.”

I have
horrible light karma. I always get the red lights. I have kick ass parking
karma, but light karma…not so good. If Zak heard this, he would laugh and so think
of me.

The whole
chorus is so us. It totally makes me think of us. The clouds breaking line…it’s
just all so perfect.

“Catch a beer buzz in the morning/just
to get a little edge/then maybe just get up in time/to do it all again”

I freakin’
love this. So very me.

And this….”I like waking up with you on my mind/knowing
that you’re saving me one more time”. So cool.  

A Seat Next To You

.—I really like this song. It started
off a bit country for me and I got a little nervous, but I really fell in love with
it. The first line is really personal for me. (the thinking road…) Ahh..forget it. The whole thing is really
personal for me and I think I’m going to save one for myself. I’m not going to
explain this one too much.  But I love
it. It literally brought tears to my eyes…the way he sings it, I could listen
to it over and over. Love the woman in the chorus, it works.  

Everybody’s Broken.

 Love the title, love the idea of it. Great song,
lyrically. Inspiring song. It makes you want to write something like that. I
can see me playing this over and over while I’m writing. It’s that kind of
song.

Love this…”you’re trying to hold in/what you’re dying
to scream out”  Lines like this are
why this man inspires me so much.

Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore—

First of all, I love the song. I
really do. But boy…I’m having a hard time with the Leann Rimes thing. It’s a
very grown up song, a very grown up feeling and I really wish he would’ve done
this with someone older. I mean Leann Rimes was barely born when the band got
huge, so I’m having a hard time with that. I have to get passed that because it’s
a great song, an excellent song, as a matter of fact. And Leann Rimes is, in
fact, a grown up and she sounds great with Jon. Lol. I’ll get passed it…but it
just kind of threw me the first couple of times I listened to it…

Okay, that
being said. I really love this…”tell me
who you think you see/when you look into my eyes” That is just amazing.
Wish I wrote it.

The guitar
solo…is it just me or does that totally sound like a late 80’s guitar solo? I
love it, mind you, but it sounds familiar to me.

Over all a
great song.

The Last Night

—Another song that will so wind up
being a favorite of mine. The way he sings this is amazing..you can feel the
song in his voice, you can feel the words. You’re not just hearing them, the
way he’s singing them…you can feel them on your skin. This whole song gives me
goosebumps.

Zak and I
plan on renewing our wedding vows for our 22^nd anniversary and as
soon as I heard this, it screamed wedding processional to me, the song we’ll
walk away from the altar to. “so walk
with me, please/help me to be strong/I’ll
be the shoulder you can lean on/when everybody’s gone”

This line…”it makes no sense/it’s hard to understand/when
there’s something that should fill you up/keeps slipping through your hands/”
This made me think of J….she just suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage and this just
immediately made me think of that.

“we’re all looking for answers/we’re all down
and on our knees/all anybody really wants/is something to believe/enough is
enough/I can’t take anymore/well I’m standing on your front porch/I’m kicking
down your door/this is the last night…”

I love the
desperation in this, the determination….this part makes me catch my breath and
I know there will be days when I won’t be able to listen to this part or it
will bring me to tears.

And this….”I’ll be that shoulder you can lean on/the place
where you belong”

This is the kind
of song you wish someone would give you…it’s so amazing.

One Step Closer


…I like it. Nothing really stands out
for me, it’s just an all around really good song. Nice and mellow, really good writing song…

I Love This Town..

I LOVE THIS SONG!!! It’s honestly nothing spectacular, but
I love it just the same. Maybe you have to miss your hometown…maybe you have to
be in love with a town to get it. I don’t know. But I just envision us living
back east again, having a big welcome home bash, all my family and all my old
friends there and our arms draped around each other’s shoulders, singing this
at the top of our lungs….the way we used to sing “Friends in Low Places” (remember
guys??) Or cruising the beach on a summer night and blasting this. It’s just a
fun summer song and it makes me can’t wait to get home. It makes my heart jump
in anticipation…
When we move, I’ll be playing this when we roll back into town…

All in all an
awesome album and so worth the wait  It's a very visual album for me, it makes you daydream, it makes you see what he's singing. I love it. I can’t wait to see them live! They
are doing a full fledged world tour in January and I am so keeping my fingers
crossed that they will wind up on the east coast after we’ve moved there. I am
so following them. I have about 15 years to make up for…lol.

Sorry I made
you wait so long, J!! I’m so glad we do this.

I love you!!