You say it's your birthday ...

Sunday was my fortiesh birthday. Little man woke me up first thing in the morning very excited. He and his dad brought me purple flowers and he was very proud to hand them to me.


I scrambled to unpack last minute boxes before we had a few family/friends over and I was exhausted and cranky by noon! But, it was great to have a reason to motivate to finally get the place in order. We had a really great time showing loved ones our new home and having pizza and cupcakes as if it were my 4th :)

Have you ever felt all boxed in??

We have been in the new house, oh, about 10 days now and there are still quite a few unpacked boxes. I never realized how much c-r-a-p I have! I am not complaining though--thankful to have new digs close to everything. It's just that I unpack and unpack and there is still more to unpack! We are getting there though.
We did paint below our chair rail aubergine last week(to cover up the old dijon mustard color) so that was fun. Little Man has been in our bed since we have been here though. His room is upstairs (we are down) and the stairs are hardwood and we are afraid of him slipping in the middle of the night until we get a runner installed. (And Home Depot gave us the runner-runnaround, said they could install then found out that was misinformation, ugh!) Also in this charming but quirky older house the handrail only goes half way up the stairs. Sooo, until all of that is taken care of for safety, we have a kicking boy inbetween us! I am concerned that this habit will be hard to break, so we will probably make other arrangements SOON.
Besides for all that it is a beautiful spring day here and we had the day off so I took Little Man to the zoo where we had a big fun (read tiring!)day.
I know today's post isn't very exciting, but it's all I got! ;) Quantity, not quality, folks! (Something like that!)
Off now for Trader Joe's sushi! (The five-year-old's request and another perk of moving, being a half a mile from Trader Joe's. Woo-hoo!!)

Luck o' the irish to yooooooOUCH!

Little Man had his five year check-up today. He pinched the doc for not wearing green. The doc responded by ordering four shots! ;)

He now has his papers for kindergarten registration. Sob, sob. The Dr also gave him the go- ahead to get a booster seat (even though he is only 36 lbs.) which he was excited about.
My little boy is growing up!

Bye-bye Pegram house

Welp, it is final, we are out of the house we have been in for the past 8 1/2 years in the Mayberry-esque bedroom community to Nashville of Pegram. The house that was our solace post-9/11 after living through the event in Manhattan. The quiet and starry nights were just what the doctor ordered at the time, as was the jacuzzi tub that came with it (living just outside of town, we were able to get a new house for less with modern ammenities including a mother-in-law suite and gournet kitchen) It is the house that we brought our little guy home to and his home for the first five years of his life. I loved that house and it was a great place to live.
However, there we issues we did not anticipate when we got it. The two acres of hills and woods were gorgeous and felt like a Gatlinberg retreat, but now we desire a more kid friendly flat fenced lot. Plus we were jonesin' to be back in town and to cut out the 30 minute commute, so we took advantage of the market being down and found a home in a great section of town that was priced as low as it could go. It is larger than the Pegram house, but, being an older home (built in 1935) it has great charm but little closets and bathrooms. We are excited though to be near great shopping and restaurants, not that there was anything wrong with Dollar General and the catfish kitchen! ;)
Thanks for the memories little Pine Drive house, we'll miss ya!

(PS) My five year old boy read the truck when it pulled up "family moving and delivery", one of those proud mommy moments that ya feel the need to document somewhere!)

I love LA!

I am just now back from a whirlwind trip to LA, three days of nonstop activity. Friday I left my little angel home with Daddy for a "boy's weekend" (Thanks Jim for letting me go! Thanks to Grandbobby and Kathy for babysitting on Sunday so Little Man's daddy could get some stuff done!)
I flew out with one of my best buddies and music partner, the amazing Mr. Don Henry. My fabulous friend singer/actress Ava Dupree picked us up from the airport with her hunnie the adorable forver young Wally Holmes, who wrote the song "Rock The Boat" that was a hit in the 70's. Don and I could not stop singing it all the way out there

So I'd like to know where, you got the notion
said I'd like to know where, you got the notion

to rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby
rock the boat, don't tip the boat over
rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby
rock the boat-t-t-t-t

Ava and Wally were like a comedy team together and had us cracking up! They took us to a wonderful Italian restaurant aptly named "Guidos" where one might expect to find Tony Soprano!

On the way home Wally had the idea for all of us to sing (acapella) a song we had written which noone knows. So we all took turns singing at the top of our lungs and that is when I discovered I was losing my voice. NOT good when you have a house concert planned thirty some-odd hours later!!

Ava took us to where we were staying, my B.F.F. Maura Hanlon Smith and her family's awesome house. Maura and I met on our first day at a school of performing arts in New York City and did our monologues for each other that we had to perform that day. Twenty (or so) years later we are still doing monologues for each other, but these days those monologues are about our own lives, on a long distance phonecall, sometimes with a glass of wine in hand. :) I could weep talking about how endlessly proud I am of her. She and her cute hubby Adam have built an amazing business called Celebration Entertainment. It has been featured in People Magazine as they are party planners to the stars. They do kids parties and noone has a way with kids or events like they do. She is also an amazing singer--a great performer with a strong business sense too. And her family is so beautiful. Her kids are so precious. It was soooo wonderful to see them!

Saturday Maura had a big event she had to run off too so while Don chilled in the cutie-patootie guest house I borrowed their little Saturn hybrid and skidaddled over to meet my friend, screenwriter/music journalist/supervisor Scott Taylor. We had a great dinner at one of my favorite restaurant's there named Gladstones and got to brainstorm some ideas for my project, like possibly doing a stage version on a larger scale. Gladstones is amazing, right on the ocean! It was super neat even though it was pouring down rain! (And they say it doesn't rain in Southern California!)

Then, Sunday was showtime! I rested my voice as much as I could enjoying a morning with Maura's little boy jumping on their trampoline in the sun that had just come out while Maura was off setting up yet another party after getting up early to set up our party (I tell you she is amazing!)

For the house concert I would say we probably had about 40 people. We all cozied up in the livingroom and Don and I for the first time performed ALL of the songs that go along with my book, A Journey to the Son, all about my drama-filled road to motherhood. We have quite a few moments of added (and needed!) levity and we had a blast!
A lot of great folks came out along with some old friends I knew when I lived there. Also, two very special guests, fellow amniotic fluid embolism survivors Deb and Miranda. BUT I will write more about that when I get pictures to share. It was a special reunion!
The house concert morphed into an Oscar party.

Horray for Hollywood!

We woke up earrrly the next morning (Monday) and got to LA an hour and a half early for the only stressful part of our trip (security lines about a half a mile long) But, we got ourselves and our guitars on the plane in a nick of time.

I am exhausted but happy. Happy to see the guys, Little Man's smiling face and excited giggle when he saw me were priceless. But the moving trucks show up day after tomorrow so it is back to reality and bye bye la-la land!

Thanks to everyone though who made it a GREAT trip!