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?

wedding cake

do you ever assume that because your mother can do something well, somehow you can too?
I do,
I did,
I don't know that I ever will again.

everyone knows mom makes beautiful cakes. heck all the food mom makes is beautiful. i was asked to make a wedding cake for a girl i am supposed to visit teach but do not. we are friends with her family. it actually did not go as bad as i anticipated, luckily i had mom on strict orders to answer her phone immediately all weekend if i was calling and she did, thank you mum. you were wonderful cake life support!
although I think I made her nervous when I asked “what temperature do you cook the cake at?”
mum said, “Beth are you kidding me?”
I replied “MOM, don’t you teach special ed?”
“yes but I didn’t know this was sped cooking.”
I told her to pretend it was.

at first the requests from the bride were as simple as the little town we live in,
"i don really care as long as it doesn taste bad and looks ok"
(re-read that with a southern accent),
yeah now you got it.
then…a week before the blessed day she says that she has tasted a cake that she loves and wants for her wedding cake and could she come over and have me taste it and figure out what it is. I suggested she call the baker of the cake and just ask her what it was and then tell me.
so in the end we had a three-tiered coconut cake with coconut “icing” that I thought tasted very good. even tyler liked it and that is a very good sign because his usual opinion of food is “fine”! I know, how could I have married a man who doesn’t say things like “its to die for” in reference to food?
in the end, I was glad to do it to see if I truly could, (I figured if it had been a huge disaster I would only have had to live with the embarrassment for a few more weeks because we are moving soon)
but I realized something in the process; no one is born with cake decorating genes. too bad. I wish I had been born with that one and maybe a sewing gene too. the old adage is true: practice makes perfect. I just don’t think I need to be perfect at this one. we’ll see

Our nice neighbors went on a church bus tour to our Nation's Capitol a few weeks ago. I have become friendly with most of our neighbors and as such Ms. Carolyn from across the street asked if William and I would come over while she and her husband were away and give her three dogs, Ring, Honeybun and Sissy, treats. Another neighbor had the responsibility of feeding Ring, Honeybun and Sissy but Ms. Carolyn wanted us just to play with them, supply them with ample treats and change the water in the birdbath.

I of course said it would be not trouble at all, even though I don’t really care that much for dogs, especially hers, and we went over to her house to see where the treats were kept. While there Ring, who is so fat from too many treats he can barely walk, would not stop barking. He really wanted to play with William and William just wanted me to hold him, being very intimidated by Ring on account of his enormous girth. Ms. Carolyn has been bestowed with the gift of gab and was talking away to me shooing and shushing Ring as we walked around her yard and patio. Finally at the end of her southern wits she turned around and very loudly yelled,
“Ah, SHUT UP Ring!!” And then turned around to us as though she had forgotten we were there and giggled a little embarrassed at loosing her patience. William, who is holding on to my neck for dear life, afraid no doubt that at any moment he will fall from my arms and Ring will devour him whole, then proceeds to whisper in my ear,
“Can I sha she she at?” he asks
“What William?” I ask.
He whispers again inaudibly.
“Honey I can’t hear you. You don’t have to whisper. What do you want to do?”
Now his lips are in my ear, “Can I say Shut Up to that dog?”
“No”
“Why?”
Good question, Ms. Carolyn just said it. “Because, well Ms. Carolyn we must be going.” I excused us from the yard and back to our own where we could still hear Ring’s longing bark wanting so badly just to play with William who really just wanted to say “Shut up Dog”. I guess William is a little bit like his mother after all, not much of a dog lover.

Flying PJ's

Today I was in the bathroom

Me: William will you please get out and give mum some privacy

William: I want to watch you poop

Me: (sigh), William I am taking a shower. Get out please and give me some privacy

William: OKAAAAAAY! (he says as he walks out the door) but I don't know where the privacy is.

These pajamas used to be Kellers'. The first time I put William in these red long johns with complimentary butt flap, he wanted his blue pj's with the superman logo on front, which is what he wants to wear every night to bed. So I told him that these were Superman's pajamas, this is what superman wears to bed. Now months later he hasn't forgotten. He thinks he can fly when he wears these.
(He put my shoes on to "stretch" which means exercise in William language)

Oh Keller!

Erinn and Dave took the kiddies to Disney World. Every kids dream, right? They went trick-o- treating last night in MGM. Keller was a storm trooper, Dave, Darth Vader and Maddie was...a teenager?...from the 80's?...her mother?, oh yeah, Maddie was her mom!
While there, Keller asked Erinn, "Mom if I give you a hundred bucks can we leave?" The next day Keller stayed at the hotel with Dave while Erinn and Maddie went to Epcot. While the girls where out Keller asked Dave to make a promise, "Dad, please promise me we don't ever have to go back to MGM."

Man I love that kid!

William and I have been having Keller withdrawals. William is coping with it by asking to watch the youtube video of Keller getting in trouble. He asks to watch it everyday. "I watch Keller gettin in trouble outside, pease!"

This is a picture of when we lived in Maine and it was for the most part, how we started everyday, with a shower, some breakfast and a good helping of Keller. Usually in reverse order. We loved it.

William has learned so many valuable lessons from Keller, like who Indiana Jones is, and how to shoot, the importance of "star bars" and droids. (William doesn't really know what droids are but he is constantly talking about them)
Keller, William will never be the same without you, none of us will be for that matter. We love you and we miss you. Can't wait to have you making us laugh at Christmas. You truly are a funny kid!

New Nephew

Luke Desmond has just arrived. Isn't he adorable? I am a little dissappointed because it wont be until Christmas that we get to see the wee lass. So stay cute little Dessie, (I already have a nickname for him, hope you don't mind Malinda). I can't wait to smother you.

Bowling Night Out

Has anybody ever heard of strip karaoke? We saw this place in Hot Springs when we went camping over Labor Day weekend.
Am I just naive or is this another southern thing? And how does it work anyway? Do you sing and strip at the same time or is it like strip poker, if you sing poorly you have to remove an article of clothing. Or is it just a marriage of two American pastimes; sing karaoke while watching strippers? I have probably spent too much time wondering about it.

In other news, Tyler and I had our bowling night last night. I almost didn't go but am so glad I did because I bowled a new personal record best, 147. Sweet. We played the "Wolf Prairie Farms" last night. They are a seasoned family bowling team of a mom and dad who are about 300 years old combined and two sons in there 40's, there grown daughter comes too but for support only. They are always the last team to finish no matter who plays them, they are serious bowlers and they are very legit with matching t shirts.
The mom and dad can hardly walk.
They wear arm braces and leg ones too. It takes Momma Wolf about 7 minutes to get herself and her ball up to the line where she simple drops her ball like she's unloading a bag a bricks . Upon which her ball travels at an equally slow rate right down the center of the lane to strike out. Its sad because she bowls better than me and Tyler most games and she looks like she is four minutes from death.
There sons strike out just about every time and one of them insists on you giving him a high five when he does always saying, "here let me share some a dat wit ya'll".
Then he was trying to make conversation with us talking about his brother and how he is a "butter bowler". He said it about three times so finally I asked, "what is a butter bowler?"
My teammate interpreted, "no a BETTER bowler"
oops.
After three games we lost. Our teammates who are two very colorful southern brothers who have the funniest stories in the world and a comment or nickname for everybody in the league usually don't care at all that Tyler and I are awful bowlers, except for last night. The Wolf Prairie Farms really annoy these two and they really wanted to beat them. Sorry guys.

Our fearless team captain

What a Tyler?
Nate our teammate
Can you guess what score is mine

The Truth

This post is in response to a friends comment about Williams cooking mess. She said "wow Bethie you seem so calm about his mess".
The truth: I was on the phone with At&t, whom I despise, arguing about a mistake on my $245 cell phone bill. I put a movie, "Dennis the Menace" (I know, it was a foreshadowing) on for William while I talked on the phone in the office with the door open. I never heard anything, probably because of my...heated voice. I realized that some time had passed and so went to check on William. I stepped into the living room only to behold
an entire bag of flour
one bag of white sugar
two cans of cocoa
one bag of brown rice
one box of spaghetti
one dozen eggs cracked and separated
and one entire bottle of balsamic vinger
poured on my brand new couch, coffee table and pottery barn rug.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, William what have you done? I cant talk to you anymore. Because of you my son has made a mess. This is not over I will call back and when I do I want to talk to someone more intelligent than YOU!" I yelled at the at&t guy.
Then I started to cry. I scared William with my crying and he began to cry. I thought about spanking him. Then I realized that would just make me feel much worse so I took William by the hand and put him in his room. Of course he came right out. I marched to the tool closet, found a screwdriver and reversed the door handle on his door and then locked my 2 1/2 year old in his room whereupon he began to wail.
I sat on my clean love seat and balled some more while I admired my sons handiwork. I couldn't think of anything to do so I called Tyler. I was crying pretty hard so all I got out was, "I'm having a mental breakdown, I locked our son in his room". Poor Tyler who deals with crazy people all day hung up the phone immediately and rushed home believing that I had really gone nuts! Poor guy.
I got William out of his room after less than 5 minutes when I had stopped sobbing. We cuddled together as I tried to calm him down. I tried to call Tyler back and tell him not to come home but he didn't answer.
I looked at William and told him that Daddy was going to come home and see what he had done. He looked at me with those sad teary baby blues and whispered, "Mumma, lets get the vacuum". I started to laugh. Tyler came home relieved that we were both alive. When he saw the mess he understood my call. When he asked William what he had done, he said, "I was makin dinnah".
My mom thinks I might be stifling Williams creative energy by not allowing him to cook anymore. "He could be the next Emeril or the next naked chef," she says. Oh well. he will just have to settle for being a janitor or something because there is no more cooking in Williams future, atleast not until I get my new couch cushions that are on order.

Where's Linda?

Dale and Linda came to visit us last month and it was so wonderful to have some familiar faces around, especially theirs. Just the other day, a good friend pointed out that both of our parents have always visited us wherever we have lived, no matter how far or weird (aka Arkansas). Tyler and I are truly grateful to have such good parents. Mom and Dad McEvoy are coming to Arkansas for Thanksgiving, along with Uncle Ryan and I am very excited to host my first holiday.

You can't even tell they're related, can you?

Grandma and Grandpa of course spoiled William and us. William got a new automatic baseball server. It even cheers for you. We love it. William wont go anywhere without either his baseball bat or glove. Bytheway, he's pretty good!

Grandpa let the ladies sleep in one morning to "shish" with William in our backyard. Nothing like 6 am pretend fishin in a diaper. Will and Grandpa were two peas in a pod. William is still referring to the spare bedroom as Grandma's.
Linda I am sorry I have no pictures of you. I think that you avoided all pics. Just for the record, she was in Arkansas.

My aspiring CHEF

October is a special month. We have a lot of wonderful people having birthdays in October. Aunt Erinn and Aunt Malinda, Uncle Ryan and Grandma Huffaker.
William thought he would make a cake for "ya'll"...

...and he didnt even get any on his shirt.