Born To Resist

My husband made this with his mad photoshopping skills.

We glued it to a bottle of Downy softener and gave it to my Mom. I think I may have found a weird little fan niche to fill.

One of my favorite words? Macabre. Isn’t it just fantastic? Dark, eery. It looks just like it’s meaning. Shudder inducing isn’t it? I concur. I enjoy the macabre on occasion. Especially if the Captain of the Macabre ship is Mr. Stephen King (Can I just say that Macabre would be a super name for a yacht?). Some of you might find that odd. Little ole’ Leigh? Yes. I don’t take my vampires sparkling & full of angst. I take them deadly.

I haven’t read one of his books since last summer (Duma Key) & to kick off my summer reading list I’ll pick up Christine. I haven’t read this one all the way through, yet. Want to know the best part? The heroine is named LEIGH. Want to know who was reading the book in 1984 & decided to pick that name in case her unborn baby was a girl? My mom. I may have brought that up before in this blog, but I wanted to point it out again since I’m reading the book. My namesake is a Stephen King character. I think that’s fantastic on all levels.

Far off I can hear the nay-sayers. “How could you read King? He’s demonic!” Quite the contrary. I find Stephen King to be quite Christian-esque. Especially in The Stand. Forget Left Behind. Read The Stand. I also found a lot of “comfort” in ‘Salem’s Lot when Cameron’s family was going through a tragedy. In so many of his stories there is a choice to be made: right or wrong, good or evil, all about yourself or all about others. I even find the difference between religious and “spiritual” (for lack of a better term) a common literary thread in his books. Obviously Mr. King’s view of the world and mine conflict at points, but I glean where I can and I find his books to be a fruitful place.

I’m off to read Christine. It’s an original paper back copy from 1983. It smells fantastic, like an old book should. The book is even dedicated to George Romero. Summer reading. Macabre summer reading. Nothing better.

Did you notice? I finally took the time to find a blog layout that I like. Enjoy.

I hope all 3 of you enjoy the new design. Hopefully it makes getting around the blog a little easier and hopefully the design is easy on the eye.

Do you know Lloyd Dobler? I’m well acquainted with Lloyd. Lloyd is the mold of which all boyfriends should be made. Sadly, Lloyd is merely a character from a 1989 film, Say Anything. There are many a girl on the hunt for Lloyd. Lloyd was was the original Jim Halpert. Before John Krasinski was mugging into the camera and pining for Pam, Lloyd walked in the rain for Diane. Lloyd exchanged his heart for a mere pen. Lloyd held the boom-box. After I had seen Say Anything, the only thing I wanted was a boy in my front lawn blasting Peter Gabriel. Too much to ask for? I say no. This movie (not unlike most Cameron Crowe films) gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. It gave me hope and it gave me an enduring admiration for John Cusack even when he makes movies like 2012. Aside from all the witty dialogue and good music, this movie gave us an enduring truth:

The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don’t be a guy.

Our Bible Study group just started Song of Solomon. While discussing that marriage is for men and not for boys, Lisa brought up this quote from Say Anything. How appropriate. Besides having good taste in movies, clearly Lisa summed up a huge problem in our society. Too many dudes are willing to stay guys without ever heading into mature manhood. I’m not saying they have to wear ties and drive a Lexus (also a mistake in our society, money does not make a man. I know plenty of wealthy boys). I’m saying they have to be willing to provide for themselves and a family. I’m saying they have to move beyond the realm of Play Station 3 and frozen meals. When I look at my husband I realize how he became a man (well, I made him a man on our wedding night, but that’s a whole different blog entry… )so that he could marry me. Cameron got a job, moved out of his parent’s house and found us a place where he lived until we lived there together as man and wife. Not only does it impress me that he was such a man, but it flatters me. He did all of that for me. I can’t really fathom that. I don’t see myself as being worthy of that amount of action and life change.

When we were announced at our reception when we got married, you know what song was playing? In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. The song Lloyd iconic ally plays for Diane with his boom-box. Moral of the story: If you’re looking for Lloyd Dobler, look for a man, not a guy.

Almost a whole week without blogging. Sorry all 5 people reading my blog. I’ve had a crazy week that started with a visit from the Baird family and a trip to Disneyland. We had a blast (as always) and enjoyed the overly full park to our heart’s content. We also enjoyed saving money by not eating at any Disney-related restaurant. We packed lunch and then brought Del Taco in from the outside world. We ate in a little corner of Disneyland that is perfect for relaxing and letting kids run amok, Carnation Plaza. The kids have fun together and it’s really sweet to watch Josiah and Micah become kid friends that have witty little conversations and how well they play together. They just get each other. That’s not to say there’s little tiffs here and there or that they don’t annoy each other at times. But for 2 three-year old boys to play together as well as they do, I’m blown away. They see each other a few times a year and they just pick up where they left off. It’s very, very sweet. Seth and Mae are still betrothed to one another and I’m very much for pre-arranged marriage. Mae is much more touchy feely with Seth (including the shoving and smacking) where Seth would prefer her to leave him alone most of the time. Mae likes to hug him, stand next to him and even attempted hand holding. No go. Seth does enjoy yelling “MY MAE MAE!” at her. So that’s a good start. They are going to have an awesome wedding.

The downside to the Baird’s visit was that Cam was out of town. He was at a nerd conference about nerd things. Computers. He even got a nerd shirt with a Windows logo on it. I find this funny because Cameron would have been there with his Apple computer and iPhone. In your face, Microsoft!  Thank God for the Bairds and their willingness to love my children as much as they do. They both have very long legs which makes for easier and more efficient kid chasing. I didn’t feel so worn out by being the only Brewer parent.

I was glad to be reunited last night with my hubby. I’ll spare you details, but it was really, really nice.

I had to blog about this.

These are not the cool new clothes I got my husband for his birthday. These are in fact the US Olympic Snowboarding Team’s uniforms. Burton designed them and I love them! I’m a Shaun White fan and Josiah is pretty stoked on watching him in the Olympics. I just have to say that this is really well executed and perfectly representative of snowboarding culture in America.  You can read the article here.

P.S. If you want to read about a ridiculous and whiney snowboarder, go here. It will make you laugh. A lot.

I’m really excited everyone! I was driving back from Ontario, taking the side roads when I happened to see Corona Life Services Pregnancy Center. I just got off the phone with them and can’t wait to start helping out.

I use to volunteer at Yucaipa Pregnancy Center and loved it. It was some of the most gut-wrenching, heart breaking time I’ve ever spent, but it was so worth it just to see that one life that was saved. I know that my heart is in pro-life ministry and now that I’m a Mom I have even more compassion for these girls and women who are so confused.

If you want to help out with Corona Life Services, go to their website, you can make a donation, you can drop off your old baby clothes or buy them a pack of diapers.

I am so, so excited.

I found this incredible foundation earlier today on one of my coupon blogs:

The Princess Alexa Foundation

In honor of their daughter, who loved dressing up and playing, they donate dress up clothes to other children who are very, very ill. I couldn’t get through much of the blog, I was crying too much. Thankful for my own healthy children and realizing that I should not ever take any of it for granted.

As the Mom of a daughter who already loves wearing all things Princess and sings Ariel’s song, I think this foundation is fantastic.  Every little girl should get her dress to wear to the ball.

We have several friends that own their own businesses and I wanted to start highlighting them on my blog once a week.

This week:

Our friends James and Faith Thomas own RDM OFFROAD.

If you need anything for off-roading, this would be the place!

Today we were in the car and I was listening to a sermon from Mark Driscoll. Josiah now recognizes his voice and asks:

“Mom is this about Princesses?”

(He’s talking about The Peasant Princess sermon series that Cameron and I have been listening to.)

I say :

“No. Not this one. It’s about Jesus.”

I pause for a moment and ask him, just to see what he thinks the sermons are about:

“Who is he talking about when he talks about a Princess?”

Josiah replies:
“Oh, you are a Princess Mommy.”

My son is going to make someone an incredible husband one day.