What I am Loving Right Now

1. My so scrumptious I can eat him up like a medium cookies and cream gelato amazing wonder kiddo, Emerson. Tonight at dinner the kid just out of the blue sang over half of the alphabet song with no previous attempt, hint or nuthin'. Gosh he is GREAT.

2. Speaking of gelato...the Cookies and Cream homemade gelato from the Gelato Spot. Heaven and better for me than ice cream unless I consume more of it...

3. The Last Kiss Soundtrack cd that Tristin gave me. I can't stop listening to it. Period.

4. Bobby pins. At 34, they are my new hair friend that I seriously wonder where Goody has been hiding my entire life.

5. The ice cold, low fat chocolate milk that I am savoring as I type this.

6. The New Adventures of Old Christine. She just won an Emmy - but I assure you, it's funny.

7. The summer monsoons - with more to come this week and the anticipated conversation with my little dreamboat: "Thunner mommy? Lightming, mommy? No lightming. No lightming mommy."

8. This is Not Chick Lit. Good thing I started reading it since it's on my must list. And it's a must my friends, a must.

Emerson at Two and a Half

Words ramble through your brain
over your tongue
and out into the world
a new one or two or few every day.

Bug bites, scrapes, rubs and cuts
stick to you all over you
blemishing your once-perfect skin
giving you scars and character and experience.

Your need to do it, "I do it Mommy!"
takes over now and competes with me
yielding varying results
the smile of success or the sadness of surrender.

The Wild Things, Curious George, and Thomas the Train
fill up our nights snuggled under covers
while the softness of your voice
follows along with me page after page after page.

You live with passion and excitement
knocking me down as I bend down
hugging your body charging toward me
toward your day
toward your life.

I Just Don't Get It

1. Why is it that when you are most up in arms about what to do with your hair, or you are sick of it, is it that everyone notices how great it looks? Cynthia and I were talking about this on Sunday. And you know what? The compliments dont' really help - they actually only confuse matters. But Cynthia had great hair on Sunday and I had great hair on Friday and I am still not sure what I should do about my bangs.

2. Why aren't movies like Little Miss Sunshine on a wide release schedule?

3. Why have I been feeling really weird and out of it the past few days (hangover symptoms without the booze) and a fever on Sunday? Weirdness, sans fever, persisted today.

4. All the fighting in the world.

5. Trigonometry.

6. Where in the good Lord's name did I put my special contact lens cleaning case?

7. Something keeps grazing the kitchen window and it's not windy out. CREEPY.

8. Why I am so freaking tired.

Photo Blogging

As a burgeoning amateur photographer, it seems only fitting that I share some of my latest artistic attempts. These were taken today and as a series are titled, Chalk Talk.

It Was Just Another Manic Monday

The Bangles had their version, here's mine.

1. 6:30 a.m. - Rise later than planned.
2. 6:30 a.m. - 7:15 a.m. - Emerson squeals and hollers through most of the morning.
3. 7:45 a.m. - Pack up the car and Emerson informs me, "Poopy diaper mommy!"
4. 7:52 a.m. - Drive to school and change his diaper in school parking lot as his class is already at breakfast which will mean more effort if I take him to his classroom to change him.
5. 10:30 a.m. - E-mail out to entire department the famous Priority List (it's basically the dpt's list of hot projects and deliverables for the week and it runs about six pages long) only to receive several e-mails from recipients saying things like, "Uhm, are you sure this is the right one? I don't see my project updates). Sure enough, the two hours I put into it on Friday afternoon were gone. Since I don't make it a habit if working hard and then saying, "No MS Word, I don't want to save the changes. Please trash all this work and don't save it in the recycle bin or anything either." I have to believe it was a brief moment of temporary insanity on my part or know that computers can really screw up. They CAN!
6. 12:11 p.m. - By the narrowest of margins miss any opportunity of going to lunch with anyone and thus run out to get something and eat at my desk.
7. 2:oo p.m. - Attend a meeting on a project that has had as much luck in getting off the ground as the Brady's had on their ill-fated Hawaiian vacation. This could be the week we pull the plug.
8. 5:52 p.m. - Cruising down the freeway en route to safely pick up Emerson with a few moments to spare, when out of nowhere brake lights storm the freeway, across all lanes of traffic. Standstill. Thank goodness for cell phones and Gama Kathy who is two minutes from daycare. Agree to meet her in the parking lot so that we don't risk a late pick up fee.
9. 6:05 p.m. - Arrive in school parking lot only to see that Emerson's BRAND NEW shorts are covered in paint. Nice.
10. 6:06 - 6:20 p.m. Emerson is only happy if we play 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' song on my cd over and over and over again. Thus, the reason the repeat button was invented.
11. 6:20 p.m. - 7:05 p.m. - Emerson is a DREAM BOAT while we are at Best Buy (picking up stuff for work) and Cost Plus (picking up stuff for us).
12. 7:15 - 8:15 p.m. - Dinner and story time (my favorite part of the day) proves fun and pretty uneventful.
13. 8:20 p.m. - Begin making copies of disc from department team building day. Start blogging.
14. 8:40 p.m. - Check laundry and assess damage of load washed and dried while secretly accompanied by a dark purple pen.
15. 8:50 p.m. - Make a tortilla with warm honey and call it a day.

My Favorite Song Right This Second

Chocolate by Snow Patrol. It's one of those songs that you can just play over and over and over again and never get sick of it. Never. Ever. I have even found a cool way (thanks to Cynthia) of sharing the lyrics with you!

snow patrol

music song lyrics

Lara's Must List for August

Read
1. Real Simple Magazine - I get ideas from there every single issue.
2. This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers, edited by Elizabeth Merrick. It's available in stores today and I will be picking up my copy this week.

Watch
1. House Season 1 on DVD
2. Jason Mewes in Clerks 2

Hear
1. Snow Patrol - Duh - they are all I ever blog about anymore.