Today is David’s birthday. Yes, I realize I just wrote about my Dad’s birthday and tomorrow I’ll write about my best friend’s birthday and next week I’ll be writing about my mother-in-law’s birthday. October is a very busy month in the Morley household. Although I would love to write some beautifully romantic things about my husband I’m not going to. I have to save that for next week when it is also our wedding anniversary. (Oy, the money Hallmark makes off of us this month is ridiculous!) I would like to share the top ten things you need to know about David Morley:

10.) “Star Wars” informs every aspect of his life. He saw this movie when he was seven years old and it was a defining moment. Every life decision he has made since then can be traced back to the very founding principles outlined in this film trilogy.

9.) He was an excellent student while in school. This has mainly to do with his crazy ability to remember everything for at least 20 minutes.

8.) In spite of this phenomenal memory he seems to forget on a rather frequent basis where the laundry hamper is, where to hang up his wet towel, and that shoes shouldn’t be kept by the front door.

7.) He is a natural resource for gas. He is an untapped resource that if properly funneled could possibly power all the motor vehicles in Dallas for at least ten years.

6.) He is hot ALL THE TIME. This is good for me since I am crazy cold ALL THE TIME. I truly believe this is a key to our marital bliss.

5.) He loves to shop. No, that is wrong. He loves to buy stuff. He loves buying all kinds of things. As a matter of fact nothing makes him happier than knowing that we have a large purchase that requires him to research and shop.

4.) He’s really good at making sure we’re getting a good deal. When David and I first met I was getting completely overcharged by the phone company. He called the phone company and explained that his girlfriend had just moved to the US from Europe and didn’t understand the phone system. He got two months worth of charges refunded to me and a new lower on-going monthly rate for the rest of my contract. I’ve never been more attracted to him than in that moment.

3.) He hates to spend time thinking about what to wear so he wears a black t-shirt and jeans every day. On weekends he swaps the jeans out for khaki shorts.

2.) He is truly the funniest person I know. Nobody can make me laugh like David can. Sometimes I’m laughing at myself and the ridiculous things I do. Sometimes I’m laughing at the ridiculous things he does. But most of the time we just laugh.

1.) I saw an interview with Randy Pausch – the professor who gave the “last lecture” and had terminal cancer. Well, his wife was asked what she would miss most about Randy when he died, and she said “he makes everything magical”, I knew instantly what she meant. That’s David. David makes my world magical. There is something about him that infuses everything we do with laughter and love.

Happy Birthday Sweets! You are the magic in my life.

I’m trying to lose weight. Seriously. But this recipe looks so sinfully good that I think I just gained weight looking at the pictures. This is food porn at its best. Oh my gosh.

Caramel Popcorn Topped Brownie Cake

Let’s break that down. 1.) Caramel. A sticky, yummy, sugary goodness. 2.) Popcorn. A light, salty, crunchy tidbit. 3.) Topped. in addition to the previous two good things we are adding 4.) Brownie. Let’s face it, Brownies are like Bacon – they make everything better, and lastly 5.) Cake. The very soul of good things. Please somebody make this and tell me how good it tastes. I seriously feel like I have broken one of the ten commandments just by looking at these photos. Is there a “hail Mary” for food porn?

Lucy loves to sing. She just doesn’t always understand the words. But then again, why should that stop her? I can only imagine what is going to happen when she gets to be an adult and she mixes Tequila with her singing skills

“Row, row, row your boat,
gently down the steam
mary, mary, mary
like a spotted dream”

I love to cook. As most of you know I’m a secret foodie. I’m not a gourmet chef or anything but aspire to achieve greatness. I love to visit great food blogs, so I wanted to introduce you to some of my favorite foodie sites.

Scrumptious Photography
This woman is a wicked combination of a great chef and lovely photographer. I’ve never made a single recipe from this site but I LOVE looking at what she makes and imagine myself making it. This was one of my favorites; Napoleon Cupcakes

Pinch My Salt
I love this blog. She cooks, she writes, she tells sweet stories. She recently posted this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese that I know I’m going to make this fall.

A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen
I think I like this blog because I too am a Yankee in a Southern Kitchen. I’ve had to re-teach myself how to cook once I moved to Texas and started cooking for my husband. I haven’t made these crab cakes yet, but they look mouth watering.

Bake or Break
I dare you to resist these cupcakes. Seriously, I can just taste these chocolate chips. This site is for the more practical side of me, but they are still wonderful recipes.

Today is my Dad’s birthday. I’m not going to wax poetic about what a lovely guy he is since I already did that at Father’s Day. I will say though that I wish I could be in Michigan with him to share Mexican food and birthday cake. If nothing else I wish I was there to talk politics with my Dad, or to talk about books or movies or to share a box of doughnuts. When you’re not yelling for absolutely no reason Dad — you’re pretty great. Happy Birthday Pop!!

When you’re pregnant, especially with your first, you dream of all those “first” introductions. Experiences you can’t wait to share with this new little person. For David, it was “Star Wars” and indeed I think it has more than lived up to his expectations. His 2 year old son wants to be Darth Maul for Halloween — I think the introduction was a success. For me, it was “Alice in Wonderland”.

Lucy and I started reading chapter books this week and as I was putting her to bed tonight she asked if we could start “Alice in Wonderland”. I hesitated. Was she ready? Would she be bored? Would she understand and relate to Alice’s wonderfully contradictory personality. Alice is both logical and fanciful, a pragmatist and a dreamer. I LOVE that about Alice. Lucy and I snuggled into bed and as the soft glow from her sunflower lamp spread over our shoulders I opened the red cover of the book and we jumped down the rabbit hole. As we slowly made our way to the end of chapter 1 Lucy turned to me and with a crooked smile said, “I can’t wait to find out what happens tomorrow.” Yes Lucy, me too. I can’t wait for you to travel to all those wonderful places I’ve been in my imagination, to meet all those wonderful characters I’ve met. I want to introduce you to “Anne of Green Gables” and “Mary Poppins” and “Harry Potter”. Won’t it be lovely? And when you return from your journeys you’ll know. You’ll know all the things that I could never explain – the feelings, emotions, people, experiences — the words. The beautiful words spread out on the page, one after another inviting you to continue. And hopefully, like me, your love affair with books will start with Alice.

As a service to family members who might be living with a bibliophile I thought it might be a good idea to describe what a typical day might look like. These people need your help for they surely do have an addiction.

7:30 AM: I wake up and my first thought is about my new book. How many pages can I read before the kids wake up?

8:00 AM: I was able to squeeze in ten more pages while I made breakfast. Thank goodness the toaster is slow

9:00 AM: Kids are watching cartoons. I’m going to sneak into my bedroom and see if I can get one more chapter read before they realize I’m not in the room.

9:45 AM: I decide to take the kids to the park. I figure they can play and I can read. Best of both worlds.

11:00 AM: I got one more chapter read but the kids didn’t want to play because some little boy was following Lucy. AARRGH! It’s almost nap time. I just need to get them through lunch. No food in the house, need to stop at store first.

2:00 PM: I fed the kids and they are down for nap. If I’m lucky I can get two hours of reading done.

6:00 PM: David just called to say he’s on his way home from work. REALLY? I haven’t put the groceries away, done the breakfast or lunch dishes, or cleaned up toys. Where are the kids?

7:00 PM: I was able to squeeze one more chapter in as I cooked dinner. I’m so close to the end now that surely I can finish this book tonight.

7:25 PM: I’m going to bathe the kids so I can read in the bathroom

8:45 PM: Kids are in bed. I’m almost done now.

9:45 PM: Finished “New Moon”. Wow. David horrified that I read 600 pages in 24 hours. I wonder if I’ll have time to stop at the bookstore tomorrow?

The kids are back at gymnastics and they are both LOVING it. Unlike our past experience – where Max cried almost the entire time – he is now engaged and giggling. And like everything else my kids do, their differences become very pronounced during these lessons.

Lucy
She is in a class for pre-schoolers with about 5 other little girls and 1 boy. She rarely smiles. She listens intensely and with purpose. She follows every instruction given to her down to the last period. She ALWAYS follows the single-file line and ALWAYS waits her turn. Today after class I had this conversation with her coach:

Coach: Lucy is doing very well and I think she’ll be ready to move up into the next class in about 4 more weeks.
Me: Great, she seems to really enjoy herself
Coach: She is a VERY good listener which makes it so much easier
Me: (whispering so I don’t embarrass Lucy) she is quite the rule follower
Coach: YES, I noticed that.

Yes, that is my daughter, the rule-follower.

Max
He loves gymnastics and approaches every activity with gusto. He throws himself onto the trampoline. He follows instructions only after being asked at least 6 times. He rarely notices that we have a coach. The coach says “straddle position” and Max does pike. Coach says “tuck position” and Max does straddle. His favorite part of the entire lesson is at the end when all the kids get to “race” which just means they get to run from one end of the gym to the other and then turn around and do it again. I sit at one end of the gym and the coach sits at the other. Max runs as fast as he can and then flings his arms around my neck and collapses into a hug – having NEVER slowed down. Most of the time he knocks me over. Within five minutes of even being at the gym his hair is wet with sweat and he’s rolling on the floor out of joy. To say Max is enthusiastic would be an understatment.

Now, if I could somehow get them to rub off on each other everything would be just fine.