NPR finds

A man I work with cringed the other day, dreading an upcoming segment airing on NPR. It was about the oddball coupling of Reggae and Country music. Michael, the guy I work with, is a big country fan. He likes the real old stuff, the classic stuff like...well the only guy I know is Johnny Cash. He even occasionally anchors a local program called "Not Necessarily Nashville", which features twangy hits from the south.
NPR was playing this upcoming segment with lots of ads. I would not have thought too much about it except Micheal's annoyance peeked my interest.


Opposites attracted years ago in Jamaica when RASTA's fell in love with COUNTRY!

I know what you are thinking: How could these dreaded, sandal wearing, islanders fall in love with the polar opposite; the diesel drivin', gun totin', baccy chewin' country music that up until now I have never really appreciated?

So I kind of love it. 

Check out the great story here.

Silly Fridays

William and I are both so excited that we have nothing we HAVE to do today. We have a lot we OUGHT to do but William doesn't have preschool and I don't have to work. YEAH!
We spent the morning playing in the spare bedroom on a empty mattress. It was actually the Millennium Falcon. William was Luke Skywalker, obviously and I was Princess Leia. We huddled in sleeping bags which protected us from the attacks of the death star.


William bought a lightsaber on Wednesday. He has been saving all his sleep quarters to get it. (He gets a quarter if he sleeps in his bed all night.) He has slept in OUR bed everynight since we bought the star wars weapon. Not real effective, I know.

So I was going through old videos and found this. It is pretty ridonk-ulous. There is just no way for this kid to be normal with a mother as crazy as I, which is fine. Normal is overrated. Normal people are boring.

Apparently i was feeling a wee bit of that fighting irish in me that day. My 4-year-old is playing with laundry baskets whilst listening to Black 47 sing about THE TROUBLES in northern ireland. I may have never been there but that irish blood runs deep.
I swear some days I wake up just looking for a fight even if its not mine.
(Can I blame that on my ancestry?)
Anyway- I thought the video was random and funny.

Locked Out!

(you can kindof see the patio in our new place)

William and I spent three hours this afternoon locked out of our new condo on the patio. We yelled for help but no one heard us.(I have a sneaking suspicion that my neighbor heard but at present can not confirm.) Finally we hollered down some nice neighbor who called Tyler to "save us", as William says. The neighbor left a message for tyler.

"Hello Sir-
I am your neighbor, You've never met me.
Your wife has locked herself on your patio with your son
You're welcome to call back
My name is Greg."

William and I waited.
We played our longest ever game of "I'm thinking of an animal"
William cheats. He gives me one or two clues and becomes impatiently annoyed at my inability to guess immediately then he cups his hand and whispers the answer in my ear. He resumes the game as though nothing has happened and when I tell him the answer he congratulates me like I'm...well...a four-year-old.
"Good job, mum, you are a great guesser!!!"

We watched a turtle surface and submerge and resurface in the lake. We observed a family of ducks paddle up and down the dock that runs parallel our building. We saw half a dozen hummingbirds. We watched what looked like a herring perch himself on a boat and then fly lazily away.
I tried to get William to take a nap. I tried to teach William some Spanish. We sang our favorite songs. I sang
"sitting on the dock of the bay watchin' the tide roll away" unfortunately for William those are the only words of the song I know.

Check out our favorite song HERE
William loves to sing "ALABAMA ARKANSAAAAAAAAAAW"

Of course Tyler did not have a second all day and did not get the message til it was quitting time anyway. He came and "saved us". I was amazed at a few things. Firstly how little William complained. He never really did that I can remember.
Secondly that I can't recall the last time I spent three uninterrupted hours with my son doing nothing but just being with him. After such a busy week paying so little attention to Will as I packed up the old house, it was actually really nice getting locked out with him. I cant think of anyone else I would rather be locked out with than William. He is a fun boy even if he is a cheater.

Mainahs, gotta love 'em!

Get it together Beth!

This morning at work I listened to Scott Simon talking with the Maine women who just swam the English Channel at age 60. (Scott Simon is host and journalist for Weekend Edition. He is brilliant.) This was the women's third attempt. She chatted with Scott about her experience. She had a great Maine accent and when she started to talk about why she swims I started to loose it, a little bit. (That's how Mainers say I was crying like a baby.)

She said that her son encouraged her to swim by saying "mom you can do anything you want to". I don't know why, but something about her sons confidence in her mingled with her Maine accent when she said "Pohtlind" sent me off.

Four minutes before I am to go on air and do a newscast and I am in the radio booth blowing my nose like a fool and desperetly trying to pull it together.

"I just love Maine," I slobbered.

I managed to clean up before the newscast but I sounded a little fragile for sure.

I am really overtired.

We just spent our second night in our new home and moving is brutal.

Ok...and I might miss Maine which equals my family because Maine is Family.

Check out the 60 year-old Mainah here.

Missing My Voice...

Are you missing me, are in need of a little Beth? Chances are you are not however, If you are, you can listen to me online at kuar.org. I am a part-time reporter for KUAR FM 89.1 in Little Rock. I have been working for the public radio station since February. On Saturday mornings I work as a board operator and you can hear me at 7:04 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. deliver a state newscast. You can listen to me live Saturday mornings from the website. But lets face it the only people who will get up that early to listen to me are my parents. (Thanks mum and dad)
I just finished my second feature piece. It aired this morning at 6:05 and 8:05. Listen to it here. Its only 4 minutes and 32 seconds but it took a surprising amount of time to research, interview, write and produce.

In other news, we are moving this week into a new condo. Who would have thought that we would be condo people? It is a really nice place and we are happy to leave our current "cocoon" neighborhood.
(My pool rights got revoked today because I let William sit in the hot tub and they caught me on video. I am too much of a rebel for this place apparently.)

(This picture is unrelated to my post. William in April 2011 sitting in Dad's new kayak, watching TV and eating yogurt in our almost old condo. This picture just makes me happy. What a funny kid.)

I started teaching Spanish at the preschool where William goes today. It was extremely comically trying to convince three-year-olds to call me Senora Beth. I know I looked like a fool singing about saying "hola every time we meet" but the kids were mesmerized. Not so much by the Spanish songs but the wild eyed crazy lady dancing to them like she was on Broadway. At least I kept their attention for the 30 minute class.

William came home from the Baptist Preschool last week and wanted to say "grace" before dinner, then when we said amen he said grace. I also overheard him singing to himself "God is good, God is great!"
My son is turning southern.

Positively Pitiful

Ok so I just looked at my blog for the first time in ages and realized how pitiful it looks. No updates since February and even before that they were very sparse. So I will attempt a little recovery, not that anyone is reading this anymore.

Today was William's first day of preschool...sort of. William has been going to "First Baptist Preschool" (say this with an accent) since February when I got a part time job at KUAR, a public radio station in Little Rock. Every preschool down here is in a church. Actually you can't find a preschool that isn't affiliated with a church, i think its against the law or something. William has continued going one day a week all through the summer but today was the official start of fall semester.

(Rachel, Walker and William on Aug. 16, 2011)

William is lucky for lots of reasons, but one is that he has a great new teacher named Mrs. Dawn. Another is that his very dear friends Walker and Rachel are in his class too. Walker and Rachel were in the little co-op that some friends and I did all last year. Now every tuesday and thursday he gets to make new friends but has some old pals at preschool too. Lastly William is lucky because there is a little boy in his class who is allergic to peanuts and that means no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, but pepperoni with cream cheese instead which is his favorite.
(Honestly I am lost for what to make a kid for lunch excluding peanut butter,
if you have any good ideas let me know.)

Missing My Voice...

Are you missing me, are in need of a little Beth? Chances are you are not however, If you are, you can listen to me online at kuar.org. I am a part-time reporter for KUAR FM 89.1 in Little Rock. I have been working for the public radio station since February. On Saturday mornings I work as a board operator and you can hear me at 7:04 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. deliver a state newscast. You can listen to me live Saturday mornings from the website. But lets face it the only people who will get up that early to listen to me are my parents. (Thanks mum and dad)
I just finished my second feature piece. It aired this morning at 6:05 and 8:05. Listen to it here. Its only 4 minutes and 32 seconds but it took a surprising amount of time to research, interview, write and produce.

In other news, we are moving this week into a new condo. Who would have thought that we would be condo people? It is a really nice place and we are happy to leave our current "cocoon" neighborhood.
(My pool rights got revoked today because I let William sit in the hot tub and they caught me on video. I am too much of a rebel for this place apparently.)

(This picture is unrelated to my post. William in April 2011 sitting in Dad's new kayak, watching TV and eating yogurt in our almost old condo. This picture just makes me happy. What a funny kid.)

I started teaching Spanish at the preschool where William goes today. It was extremely comically trying to convince three-year-olds to call me Senora Beth. I know I looked like a fool singing about saying "hola every time we meet" but the kids were mesmerized. Not so much by the Spanish songs but the wild eyed crazy lady dancing to them like she was on Broadway. At least I kept their attention for the 30 minute class.

William came home from the Baptist Preschool last week and wanted to say "grace" before dinner, then when we said amen he said grace. I also overheard him singing to himself "God is good, God is great!"
My son is turning southern.

Snow Day

11 days ago it was 70 degrees. Today everything was closed including the gas station nearest our house, all the schools, the YMCA, the grocery stores, Tyler's office, everything! I am not complaining. I did put winter coats away after our fishing trip because I thought spring was on our doorstep, however, I welcome the snow. I welcome the reminder of being a Mainer and for Ty, a Utahn. And I welcome finally putting to use the ridiculous amount of winter gear that we have in our Southern closets.
After a lazy morning, we ventured outside. We made a snowman and went sledding down the hill behind our house. We walked to the store where we were the last customers before it closed at 3 pm. (They had only sold $23 worth of food all day) We tried to shovel out ourselves and our neighbors with Ty's tiny backpacking shovel. This evening we cuddled up by the fire that Ty made and crafted our valentine cards and ate yummy soup, also made by Tyler. It was a fun snow day and I was happy that Arkansas only has 4 plows so that Ty could stay home and play with us.
(Tomorrow maybe another story)

(William's snowman. The rocks represent the snowman's stomach and all the food in it, according to Will)

Fish

William and Walker examining and poking a caught fish.

On the last Saturday in January, Tyler took us fishing, us being, myself, William and Will's best friend, Walker. We all got in the car, bought some lunch and went to a river about 1 hour away from Hot Springs. It was beautiful day in the low 70's. The sun glistened upon the water as it gently swayed down the river. The birds were singing sweet melodies of spring. The air was fresh and vibrant, full of budding cheerfulness and the impending growth of winters end.

As the boys fished in the river, loading one miniature marshmallow after another on their hooks trying to entice the trout, I had an epiphany. In this serene setting, as I now became the one hooking the marshmallows and casting the line for the 4 year old boys who wanted to fish, I realized with an absolute clarity, the kind that is so clear it is life altering, that I HATE FISHING!

I dislike everything about it! I dislike the sitting or standing while waiting for a poor little trout to bite, I dislike the casting and tangling of lines with little boys heads and fingers and clothing. I dislike the actual catching of the fish or the disappointment when you don't. I dislike retrieval of the hook from the fishes mouth or worse its stomach. I dislike the smell of the little fish and the way they look at you and squirm in the hands of their captor, pleading to be set free. I dislike the way my sweet little boy smells after fishing. I dislike listening to the other fishermen on the bank speculating about the fishes whereabouts or taste buds. In short I am not a fisher. Fishing is not for me and I am not for fishing.

The boys did catch a trout each, they brought them home in a cooler full of ice in the hopes of eating them. I truly wonder how much Tyler actually likes fishing himself, because upon arrival home, he decided that we should not eat the fish but just throw them away. After all it is Arkansas and fish die here with no explanation; probably nuclear waste poisoning or second hand smoke or something.

I asked Tyler to kindly never invite me fishing again. He quickly accepted the request a little too enthusiastically. I used to frown upon segregating outings, daddy trips and mummy trips. My mind has changed. Fishing will be for the men in my house and that is fine with me as long as they don't dirty my cooler again.

Four!

We can't believe that William is 4 now. It really stinks this growing up business. This is how we celebrated.

Birthday morning William blew out some candles on his pancakes to celebrate with Dad before he went to work.

Dad always picks out the best gifts! He got William a transformers race track!

William and I headed to Play by play which is an indoor gym for kids. William had all his best buds there including Walker who William calls his best friend...well depending on the day.

William with his friends Nathan and Darla in the hamster like play place. The kids even roped me into going in there, whew was it stinky, but the slides were fun.

Hanna, Rachel, William, Walker, Smith, Nathan and Teran all waiting for cake.

Finally we wrapped up the party with cupcakes, juice boxes and opening of presents. Everyone had a wonderful time, especially the birthday boy.

In the car ride home William sighed and said , "Mom, that was so cool!"

Mondays

On Monday the dentist found two cavities in Williams mouth! As we drove away from the dentist office I suggested to Will that we go get sundaes, you know, to soften the blow of the bad news. William became thoughtful.
William: Mom is today Sunday?
Me: No today is Monday. Ice cream sundaes are ice cream with hot fudge on them, remember?
William: pause... Mom?
Me:Yes
William: can we get mondays instead?