I found this on Scrivenings and it looked fun, so here goes…

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

1. You can’t stop an avalanche as it races down the hill. (You Can’t Stop the Beat - from Hairspray)

2. Where do I go when I need a shelter? (Where Do I Go - Amy Grant)

3. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m right, maybe I just don’t know.

4. Never know how much I love you, never know how much I care. (Fever - Michael Buble)

5. When the rain comes it seems that everyone has gone away. (When the Rain Comes - Third Day; although the recording that popped up in my iTunes was actually the one recorded by us at church…lol!)

6. And so it is, just like you said it would be. (The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice)

7. I’m gonna get my drink on, gonna hear me a sad song.

8. Please don’t do what I say, ’cause if you don’t love me, it’s worthless anyway.

9. Tonight the, tonight the hills are watching her as she runs toward the sea.

10. Old man Wrigley lived in that white house down the street where I grew up. (Believe - Brooks & Dunn)

11. I’m the friendly stranger in the black sedan oh won’t you hop inside my car? (Vehicle - Ides of March)

12. Friday night and the moon is high, wide awake just watching you sleep.

13. Well I tried, but I won’t give in. That’s alright, ’cause I’m going to win.

14. Well I’m sure it never used to be so hard, this hard.

15. Hail holy queen enthroned above, oh Maria. (Hail, Holy Queen - Sister Act)

16. Look at us baby up all night, tearing our love apart. (I Can’t Tell You Why - Eagles)

17. Oh it’s been getting so hard living with the things you do to me.

18. Every time I fall down on my face, I see the one who bore all my shame. (Understand - Jeremy Camp)

19. You can spend your whole life building something from nothing, one storm can come and blow it all away. (Anyway - Martina McBride)

20. County Road 233 under my feet.

21. You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. (Dancing Queen - ABBA)

22. There were all these people oh just waitin’ there.

23. Birds flying high, you know how I feel.

24. Could a body close the mind out? Stitch a seam across the eye?

25. Ooh, I want to find a better place. Ooh, I’m searching for a better place.

Everybody Needs Gadgets

For those of you who lack space in your kitchen, how about a microwave/toaster combo?

Letters and numbers ice trays - the possibilities really are endless.

I actually kind of like char marks on my hot dogs, but if you don’t, try the hot dog roller for evenly cooked hot dogs.

Food! Glorious Food!

Risotto love I!

Creative Pursuits

Yarn stash busters for the knitters and crocheters among you.

Techno Geekery

Top 10 Amazon power shopper tools

Flickr has a new little feature available - sharing photos and videos via email. However, if you’re picky about who is able to do this, be sure to go to your account privacy settings and check what you’re preference is set for. Default seems to be anyone can. (Which is a dumb move flickr - default should always fall on the side of privacy.)

If you make international calls, you might want to check out Skype’s new unlimited plan.

How to touch up your photos.

Wanna record a podcast? Here are 10 tips to get you started.

Print your own specialty paper. Not a bad idea actually.

11 tips for better tech support.

Print in invisible ink.

Life Is a Highway

Spring cleaning the outside of your house.

52 ideas to organize your home.

How to bat-proof your house.

Whiten your teeth the natural way.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

I think this is really pretty, and it looks cool in theory. But in reality? It would drive me bonkers.

Apparently shoes cause us to walk incorrectly.

Good Ideas

30 uncommon uses for aluminum foil.

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

Sunday comics

Too Much Time on My Hands

Take the fresh herb identification quiz. I got 50% and considering I’d never heard of some of them, is not too bad.

And then take the semi-obscure punctuation marks quiz. I’m not telling you how I did, because it was not pretty.

Trying to avoid doing something? These games are for you.

Weekly Features

Cupcake of the week

Pretty recipe of the week

When you become a mom, you learn how to celebrate the little triumphs. Like, take potty training for instance. We’ve not really been pushing it too much because she just doesn’t seem all that interested in it, and since there’s no particular reason to force the issue at this point in time, it didn’t seem like a battle that was worth fighting. However, she’s pushing 3 1/2, so the day is coming when the pull-ups go bye bye and I do laundry every day. Or something. We set the date for June 2 - after most of our major obligations are over until September. June 2, the day she turns 3 1/2, is the day we get rid of the pull-ups and use the Elmo and Curious George panties that are waiting patiently in her drawer.

But maybe, just maybe, it’ll happen sooner. I kept hoping that she might just train herself and I wouldn’t have to battle with her. And tonight? Out of the blue, as she was watching her favorite television show before bedtime, she said she needed to go potty. And since you’ve got to take every little opportunity to encourage these things, I said okay and took her off to the bathroom, even though I figured it would be another false alarm and she’d probably already gone in her pull-up. But what do you know? She hadn’t and she went in her potty chair. So, that means, she felt the urge to go and told me BEFORE she went. For the very first time ever. I’d say that’s a pretty big little thing. It sure made the ending of my day better than the beginning of it. (Which was waking up to my monthly visitor (which is not so monthly anymore) and the fact that my daughter had leaked out her pull-up all over my bed while I was trying to get a little extra sleep while she watched the Disney channel.)

This post brought to you by Too Much Information.

My good friend Marlene just tipped me off to the “Excellent Photographer Contest” going on over at arewethereyetmom.com, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I actually took this photo a couple of months ago as part of my Project 365 for 2008, but it’s one of my favorites this year, so I thought I’d post it here.

By the way, the contest is going on through April 28, so if you want to enter, you still have a couple of days!

Sundays are quiet
Sleeping in and hanging out
Ending with music

Mondays are boring
The week stretches out ahead
What is for dinner?

Tuesdays are busy
We seem to always rehearse
Then it’s Idol time

Wednesdays for shopping
I hate putting stuff away
Why is it hump day?

Thursdays are silly
I don’t know why I said that
Nothing else made sense

Fridays are hurried
Lonely nights with my laptop
Mike’s always gigging

Saturdays happy
The day we spend together
Being a family*

*Dialectically, family can have either 2 or 3 syllables - for my purposes, I chose 2, but if it bugs you, read it as Being family.

We had a busy weekend due to the church festival. Since Mike’s in charge of entertainment, that meant he had to pretty much live at church for the weekend and he also gigged out of town Friday and Saturday night, so we didn’t see him too much. His band was the entertainment Sunday night, so he didn’t even do mass - the music director sat in with us instead.

Mike had bought LG a wristband (which means unlimited rides for one day instead of paying $6 per ride), so on Saturday while the Suns playoff game was the entertainment, he took her on rides. There were only three that she was big enough to ride on, but she rode on them all by herself (several times each), and she was mighty proud of that fact as you can see by the look on her face…

The other ride she went on was the roller coaster. Her face when it started up was priceless and both Mike and I thought she might freak out and start crying - it could have gone either way at that particular moment. Instead, she started laughing. Whew.

Yesterday night we had a skeleton crew at mass - me, the music director, Rochelle, her mom, the drummer, and two other teenaged singers, but it went all right. It’s always a little rough when Mike isn’t there because he is the glue that holds us together and we’re very used to the way he does things, but there were no train wrecks, so I call that a good night. We also sang a song that I had written with some help from the music director and Mike and it went well and even got applause which is cool. It’s always scary to release one of my songs into the world. Scary, yet exhilarating. But, music director said that the morning masses had received it well so I’m happy!

And this morning? We were awakened (awoken?) by the sound of a mooing cow next door. No idea why there’s a cow next door. Usually they just have horses, but this cow is loud and not very happy apparently. I’ll get a picture later if I’m able. At least it wasn’t a donkey at 3 am. I remember those days…

Anyway, we had a great weekend - hope you did, too!

Everybody Needs Gadgets

This is so cool.

Check out the SideSwipe spatula mixer blade.

First of all, the fact that this is a dual-use product is awesome. Secondly, what a neat way to measure spaghetti!

Another dual-use product that is cute, too! This one is a memory card reader and can also tell you if your currency is counterfeit or not.

Garden patch cakelet pan. Cakelets. How cute are they?

Food! Glorious Food!

A million dollar cookie recipe.

How to store fresh herbs.

Frittata Mondatta

Creative Pursuits

10 party favors you can make yourself.

Repurpose your empty cereal boxes into organizers.

Eliminate lens flare from your photos.

Techno Geekery

A search engine that pulls up results that you might not get to in Google.

Share PowerPoint presentations online.

Life Is a Highway

How to fake clean a house.

11 odd but simple ways to improve your health.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

What your eating habits say about your political preference.

Good Reads

Matt Damon’s mom wrote a book about the effect of media violence on our children.

For the Kids

Go ahead and let them drink the flavored milk says Newsweek.

The Root Viewer lets you see the roots while you grow veggies.

99 sensory activities for any child.

Buying a digital camera for your kid.

I would have loved this bed - wouldn’t you?

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

New parent pillowcases. Yes, this made me laugh.

5 very funny dog videos

Weekly Features

Pretty recipe of the week

Tip of the week

Cupcake of the week

Video of the week

There are two stupid things that I want to point out about this incident of an Orthodox Jew that was removed from an airplane before it took off because he went to the back of the plane to say his prayers and wouldn’t stop when he was asked to even though his traveling companions told the attendants that it would only be 2 more minutes.

1) He should have just said his prayers in his seat or in the terminal before he boarded the plane. For what reason did he have to go to the back of the plane to say his prayers? That was a stupid move on his part.

However,

2) I’m pretty positive that it took longer to get security and remove him than it would have taken to just let him finish his prayers and sit down. So that was a stupid move on the flight attendants’ part.

Honestly. Just all around stupid.

So, all went well at the doctor’s office. They didn’t do an echo. I have no idea why the telephone message (it was a recording) said they were going to, but whatever. Not a big deal I guess. My blood pressure was 110/80 and considering how stressed out and anxious I’ve been the last week or so, I consider that a small miracle (and also good genes - thanks Mom). My EKG was normal. Everything is good. He says to follow up with my regular cardiologist (the one I saw today is the one who does the ablations for flutters) at the next scheduled appointment, but if I have any major shortness of breath issues to call him sooner and get an echo scheduled so they can check blood flow.

We talked again about the Catscan they did of the heart several months ago and he said the radiologist said everything looked fine to him. So, things are good and try not to worry.

Try not to worry is a tough one, but maybe I can calm down now and not let the anxiety take control. Apparently, for all intents and purposes, I’m fairly healthy. I certainly don’t think I’m as healthy as I could be, but that’s mostly something I do have control over and need to take control over. So that’s what I need to focus on now. And maybe that will help the rest of it not be so stressful. Thanks for the good wishes!

I have an appointment with one of my cardiologists tomorrow - 6 month checkup kind of thing - which is probably good because then maybe if all is well I can stop stressing about every little twinge and not be having these anxiety attacks. They called yesterday to remind me of the appointment and to give me all the information (?!) I needed for it. Like, for instance, the fact that they are doing an echocardiogram (?!?). I suppose that’s not a bad thing, but when I made the appointment no one said anything about an echocardiogram. Shouldn’t they have maybe mentioned that when they were scheduling the appointment so that I’d be able to plan accordingly? Apparently they didn’t find it necessary to do so, but I would have liked to have had that little piece of information before yesterday is all I’m saying. I expected an EKG, but an echocardiogram is a little bit more involved. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have my appointment and all will be as well as can be expected.

Okay, after a week of stomach flu and a weekend of anxiety attackedness, I think I’m starting to feel like a human being again. It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for one’s psyche (thank you Benadryl!). LG and I might even make a trip to Target so I can see if they still have the little plant signs in the dollar store that I didn’t buy enough of when I saw them the first time.

Anyway, two things came to mind this past week/weekend in all my insanity…first was a story about my most almost embarrassing moment and second was my favorite comfort food when I’ve got an upset stomach. I’m going to share mine and then you can share yours in the comments (or on your blog if you really wanna).

First of all, my most almost embarrassing moment…meaning a moment that could have been embarrassing but luckily was not.

I was singing with Mike at a wedding - don’t remember whose wedding it was, but it was at our church, and it was just me and him, so probably not someone I knew very well. Anyway, I sang and all went well as far as I remember. Literally moments after everyone had walked out of the church after the ceremony was over (maybe the wedding coordinator was still there, but that was all), the elastic in my half slip gave up the ghost and it fell to the floor in a puddle of white satin. It may or may not have been noticeable had it happened during the ceremony because I was standing behind the mixing board, and it happened quickly. But still. Can you imagine that happening during the wedding ceremony? What if I’d been singing a song when it happened? Oh, the mortification. What a way to be remembered instead of for my voice…lol! So yeah, a big blessing from God that it happened when it happened. Kinda funny, though. ;)

And my favorite comfort food when I have an upset tummy? White rice. It’s one of the few things I can eat when my stomach is feeling yucky. Definitely a comfort food.

Okay, your turn. Share your most “almost embarrassing moment” and your favorite “comfort food” in the comments. Go!

And if you want to get in on the Monday Madness theme, post two questions in your blog (they can be these questions or preferably, totally different questions) and have everyone come answer them! Maybe we’ll make this a regular thing. Who knows?

Everybody Needs Gadgets

Reusable produce bags

Two ways to crack an egg.

Food! Glorious Food!

Gourmet tea guide

When good peanut butter goes bad.

An apple a day really does keep the doctor away!

I love hash browns almost more than I love chocolate. And I can still eat hash browns.

It is very nice to eat chicken soup with rice!

How to make the most of an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Creative Pursuits

Panoramic photography

Easy handmade soap

How to take better photos for eBay, etc.

Wedding photography

Make a photo transparency without spending a fortune.

How to make pressed flower note cards

The ultimate writing productivity resource list

Make a craft - save the world. Or at least don’t fill up the landfills as quickly.

Techno Geekery

How to recover lost images from your photo memory card.

Hey! Did you hear? Flickr added video sharing!

Find the best cell phone plan for you.

Life Is a Highway

5 things you can learn from a toddler.

Tips for going garage sale-ing.

Travel advice for families

Ch-ch-ch-chia seeds are a supergrain?

Spring cleaning checklists

36 tips to relieve stress.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Gold twinkies. ‘Nuff said.

The things you can do with popsicle sticks. Who knew?

Good Ideas

This is your life - blog style.

Good Reads

They don’t make politicians like they used to.

I just did a post on six word memoirs. How about six word birth stories? Here’s mine: “Blood and fear, then unbelievable joy.”

For the Kids

Talking to yourself is only weird when you’re a grownup. Wait, does that make me weird?

Push their pause buttons.

Temporary tattoos personalized with your cell phone number.

And if you think I’d let my kid eat this, you’re hearing some whos yourself!

Weekly Features

Pretty recipe of the week

Pretty recipe of the week 2

Cupcake of the week

Tip of the week

Life is such a fragile thing. My dad just called to tell me that she who shall not be named’s daughter died. She was only 51. I’ve never met her daughter, although I do know one of her sons and he’s a very nice man. And as much as I still do not care for she who shall not be named, I can’t imagine losing a child. And not being able to go the funeral because of your own health. It’s all so very sad. So, I guess finally I can sympathize with her on some level. And at the same time, I hope I never have to know what it feels like…

BrightStar tagged me with this meme several days ago, but then I got sick and life was put on hold. I am finally starting to feel better, so I’m doing it now!

Here are the instructions:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post (??) if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

Here is my memoir:

I’m a mom who writes songs.

I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to write, because six words is not a lot of space to get your point across, but being a mom and being a songwriter are the two things I’ve wanted to do most in my life, and it’s taken me a good chunk of my life to get to a place where I was able to do either one of them. I also think the order is important, because first and foremost in my life right now is motherhood. LG is always my number one priority because she needs me. But, the songwriting is something I’ve always wanted to do in my heart of hearts and it’s coming along. I think LG is a big part of my inspiration anyway. I often joke (or maybe it’s not a joke) that the mingling of Mike’s DNA with mine while I was pregnant was what gave me the ability to start writing songs. True or not, it’s kind of an interesting thought, isn’t it?

Anyway, there’s my memoir. I won’t tag, but I think Rochelle should definitely try it and anyone else who wants to give it a shot!

Yesterday I woke up feeling okay, well mostly okay. Not great, but okay. I figured I could make it to the store like I had planned. And I did. But I spent the entire time in the store wondering if I was going to make it or if I was going to have to call Mike to come get us.

I got home, got the groceries in, put away what had to be put away and then crawled in bed, where I stayed for the rest of the day and night, other than bathroom breaks. I felt nauseous all day and I had a bit of diarrhea, but at least it wasn’t the “run to the bathroom every 5 minutes” kind. Mike had a staff meeting all morning and then a staff lunch, then came home for awhile and got LG fed. Then he had to go do a bid for someone, but luckily when he got home (with 7up - yay!), he was home to stay.

I have to say that yesterday was not my most stellar parenting day, but thank goodness LG is old enough to entertain herself. She probably could have lived without me yelling at her every time she jiggled my bed, though. She actually was very sweet and very compassionate - giving hugs and saying “You don’t feel good Mama?” and patting my hand. She’s a good little kiddo and I’m lucky to have her.

It’s hard when you’re sick and you still have to be the parent, but it is what it is. And you have to deal with it. Unless, of course, you’re one of those parents, who just sends their kids to school/daycare even when they’re sick, with no regard and consideration for other people. But that’s another rant. My point is that parenting is not always easy. Sometimes you don’t feel like being the grown up and taking care of the little one, but you still have to do it because that’s what you signed up for when you brought them into the world (or adopted them, whatever the case may be). I certainly didn’t feel like taking care of LG yesterday, and luckily, Mike was around to feed her, but had he not been, I’d have managed somehow, because it’s what you do. Just like I take responsibility for her when she is sick, even if it means I have to miss out on things I’d like to do or need to do.

Anyway, I’m rambling. My point, if there is one, is that you have to take responsibility for your kids no matter what - when they’re sick, when you’re sick, whatever. It’s called parenting.