Purely Random

~For some reason I've been really into watching "American Idol" this season. I can't remember a previous season where I have watched as closely as I have this one. I really love David Cook's singing and his ability to make every song his own. He's super talented. If you're a child of the 80's/90's like I am and Mariah Carey's song "Always Be My Baby" was one you listened to frequently, you should definitely find the video of David Cook singing his version of this song on YouTube. It was awesome and better than the original! I actually downloaded it on iTunes because I loved it so much.

~Garrett has pooped in the potty atleast 3 times in the past 4 days! All on his own. He just strips off his clothes, climbs onto the toilet, does the deal, flushes and then comes to me and says "I potty on the potty!" I won't tell you how I know what he's actually done since he does flush, but trust me, there's definite proof. He's so proud of himself and frankly, so am I. That's 3 less poopy diapers for me to change. Apparently he's on course to potty train himself!

~Keith and I had another date night on Friday. We didn't really have anything planned, but I knew that I needed some alone time after the week of sickness that we endured. So we dropped Garrett off at the church nursery and went to eat. Our favorite restaurant is Texas Roadhouse. It's been awhile since we've eaten there so that's where we headed. It was packed! They have a pretty big parking lot and every single space was full, not to mention the people who just parked in random places all over. We didn't even attempt to go inside and see how long of a wait they had. We went to Saltgrass Steakhouse after that and found that they had a 30 minute wait so we left there and went to Red Lobster where we got a table right away. We were really wanting a steak, but crab cakes are a good second choice. By the time we finished eating it was already after 8:00 so we went back and picked up Garrett. It wasn't much of a date, but it's always nice to eat out without your kid(s)!

~Garrett has been calling his tricycle a "mycycle" and I couldn't figure out why. Until the other day. Keith mentioned that he has been teaching him to call it a motorcycle while I've been referring to it as a tricycle, so Garrett's name for it is a mycycle.

~One month from today we leave to drive up to Indiana for a visit with my family and to attend my brother Jesse's high school graduation. I haven't seen my parents since December so I am really looking forward to it. The 14 hour drive may not be wonderful, but we plan to break it up into 2 easy days and find a hotel with a pool where we can enjoy ourselves. We're also going to eat at Lambert's in Sikeston, Missouri. Lambert's is the home of throwed rolls for those of you who aren't familiar with it. (Yes, I said "throwed" because that's their slogan, it's even their website because I double checked myself. throwedrolls.com) The food is awesome and catching your rolls is an experience that everyone should enjoy at some point in their lives. Keith and Garrett have never eaten there, so I look forward to sharing this part of my childhood with them. If any of you are ever in that area you must stop there and eat!

~Does anyone have any tips for 2 year olds who talk back to their parents? Every single time that I get onto Garrett for something, he talks back to me. For example, I tell him to calm down, he tells me to calm down, I tell him no, he tells me no, I tell him to hush, he tells me to hush. It's not like he's just playing a parrot game where he repeats everything I say because he gets a little attitude with it, plus he's thrown in attempting to spank me or swat my hand when I do either of those things to him. It's so frustrating! Some say to ignore it and eventually he'll stop, others say to stay on top of it so it doesn't escalate to worse when he's older. My fear is to raise a hooligan for a child, so I would rather err on the side of extra discipline than no discipline at all, but I also don't want to go overboard. Parenting is tough and it's not getting any easier. (Yeah, that's a big understatement!)

~I rented the movie "And Then There Were None" last week through our Blockbuster queue. It's an old movie that's based on a book with the same name by Agatha Christie. I think the book's original title was "Ten Little Indians", but it was changed at some point. I read that book years ago and loved it but I had never seen the movie. With this Blockbuster online membership it's given us a lot of access to movies that you can't always find in stores. It's a black and white movie and it was very good, but it's so funny to see the difference between movies from the 1940's to present day. There's no gore, but instead the music is used to make you imagine what's going on. It was a good movie, but the book was definitely better. It's funny how you picture something in your mind and then you see it portrayed in a movie, it's completely different than your mental image. I do that all the time when I've read a book and then seen the movie. They never quite do it justice.

~I'm interested to see the outcome of this presidential race come November. While I am typically a Republican, I feel pretty strongly that this election will favor the Democrats. Keith and I debate over who is the lesser of the two evils, Hillary or Barack. (That's not to say that John McCain is wonderful, but I don't think he stands much of a chance at becoming our next president, so I'm not talking about him right now.) I used to feel that Barack would probably be the better of the two, but I'm now swinging the other way the more I see and hear about him. Atleast with Hillary we would know what we're getting, as much as I despise her and her husband, I doubt she will be much different than good ole' Willy was as a president. Whereas Barack is very much an unknown. He doesn't have a record in politics to look back on and get an idea of what to expect from him as Commander in Chief. I guess we'll see what happens once somebody finally is chosen for the Democrats. It should be an interesting race to the White House.