Big Day

My little man.
C-dog.
Munchkin head.
Con-man.
Little buddy.
Connor Bear.

Happy 4th Birthday, Connor Sage. I adore you, my love.

Best Sports Movies

This week we have watched two great sports movies (one of them twice), so I thought I'd make my top ten list of the best sports movies of all time.

* Remeber the Titans - a new classic

* Rudy - our favorite little hobbit's kick-off (get it? kick off!)

* Miracle - my new favorite; if you haven't seen this great portrayal of the 1980 U.S. hockey team, put it in your queue

* Hoosiers - makes me cry every time; goosebumps galore

* Jerry McGuire - pre-whacked-out-Tom; deep story around a great sporting tale

* Field of Dreams - maybe the best one on the list

* The Rookie - feel-good sports story; gives us oldies hope that we still have a shot! Not really.

* Bend It Like Beckham - lighter fare, but fun

* The Natural - depressing, but a classic

* Chariots of Fire - amazing movie for its time; a great story about a great man

Would you have on your list? Cool Runnings (goofy fun), Rocky (almost made the top ten), Any Given Sunday (made me feel yucky), Bull Durham (a favorite amongst a lot of guy friends when I was younger), Breaking Away (watched in honor of cycling husband - horribly dated now), Friday Night Lights (good, but not top ten), Dreamer (great kid-friendly movie - debated top ten)? What do you think?

Only In Oregon

For Eskimos up North there are about eight gazillion words for what we plain-spoken-types refer to as "snow". In the Great Northwest, we have many word pictures to describe our more frequent weather patterns, known to outsiders simply as "rain". Tonight on the news, after a crazy, stormy day, a PGE lineman being interviewed states, "It's warm out here. It's a dry rain." A dry rain?? Even this life-long Oregonian hadn't heard that one before.

The Best Day Ever

As I entered the living room this morning, I was pleasantly greeted with the exclamation, "This is the Best Day Ever!" I was warmed with the sentiment that my children were excited about the "family day" before us. With Trinity out of school today, Allan also took a day off so that we could spend a day together as a family - eat a leisurely breakfast, maybe go to OMSI, just enjoy spending time doing whatever it is that struck our fancy. Who knew what excitment lay before us on this great Friday? Truly it could be the Best Day Ever! That millisecond of fantasy quickly vanished as I glanced at the t.v., which was emblazened with the message, BEST DAY EVER! And you know why? Twenty-four hours of Spongebob Squarepants. Nice.

My Favorite Season

Stomping through leaves. Fire in the fireplace. Reading a book under a blanket. Chopping wood. Raking the yard.

Hot chocolate. Cinnamon. Homemade soup. Pies. Apples. Stew & cornbread. Hot tea. Homemade bread.

Cool, crisp mornings. Showing the kids the first frost. Gray clouds. Soaking rain. Sunshine. Dark evenings. Bright moon.

School days. Trinity’s birthday. “Trick or Treat!”. Thanksgiving. Connor’s birthday.

Pumpkin patch. Hayrides. Corn maze. Picking hay out of my kids hair. Muddy shoes.

Scarves & hats. Sweaters. Thick coats. Boots. Searching for mittens. Slippers in the morning. Sweats at night.

Football. More football.

Yellow. Brown. Red. Orange.

I love fall.

Halloween Fun

Being a parent has a lot of joys, to be sure, but none so fun as getting to relive the good parts of one's childhood through the next generation. Halloween is one such day. I loved the fun of putting together a costume as a kid and now I get to watch them do the same. There was the year that I was an old man, escorting my best friend, Lezlie, who was a hunch-over grandma. I was a little bummed to have to be the man - but I was so much taller, it only made sense. There was the year of the witch when I spent the evening breathing condensation into the back of one of those plastic masks with the little string and the tiny little eyeholes that encourage tripping over every curb. My last year of trick-or-treating was with my friends Lisa & Kristin as the Three Muskateers. I mostly remember how very cold and rainy it was that year in those thin tights and the question every kid hates to hear, "Aren't you a little old to be out here?" So now I get to bundle up and escort my racing bundles of laughter through the neighborhood, encouraging "Thank yous" at each door and bantering with the other parents about how thankful we are for a clear, albeit very cold, night.