The Big Move Begins!

Hello faithful readers! I've decided to make as many changes as my brain can take in the next week or so and move this blog to its very own site - just as soon as I figure out exactly how to do that. Heh.

And no, I don't plan on sleeping much in the next week, but thanks for asking. If you're local, take pity on me and throw me a chocolate bar or an IV drip of caffeine.

So, hopefully this will be my last Blogger-hosted post. Come Aug. 1, check out the all-new, totally snazzified, bedazzled and gloriously bedecked blog at myheartsindixie.com.

And in the meantime, check out a couple of fun Happy List ideas to close out my Blogger era. God bless you all and thank you for reading, commenting and spreading the word about My Heart's In Dixie. Y'all try to stay out of trouble for a few days, m'kay?

• This is my favorite new musical group, and I guarantee you'll love them, too. Even if you're not a country fan, check them out. Their harmonies are fantastic, and heads up ladies, the gentlemen half of the quartet are rather easy on the eyes.
• I'll probably mention this again soon, but mark your calendars now - "Mad Men" is back on AMC Aug. 16. I usually only manage to watch one TV show a week - "Intervention" - but I'll even forego that for a while to watch STL native Jon Hamm and everyone else on this fantastic show.
• Shameless plug - Happy Birthday to Me on July 28th! This is my last official birthday - beginning next year, I'll begin revisiting old birthdays by working my way back down the age scale. I'm Southern - that's what we do when we reach a certain age. And I am so there.
  

A Midsummer's Happy List

We've hit the halfway point to the summer, and I don't know about you, but we're having some serious fun in our little kingdom. Here's what's making us happy in the 'Lou this week - what's making your summer rock?

• The Saint Louis Zoo - OK, so I know my friend Nancy is not particularly happy with the zoo because of its decimated gorilla situation (Nancy is a gorilla fanatic - the Midwestern version of Dian Fossey. I fully expect to get a message from her one day saying she's off to Rwanda and may never return. When that happens, Nancy, may I have your big screen TV? Mwah - love you!). But, other than the gorillas, the STL Zoo is a great, educational, mostly free activity for families to enjoy (I say mostly free because while it's free admission, the parking fees, train and carousel rides and special attraction fees can add up). My personal favorite is Penguin & Puffin Coast - you can pretty much get nose-to-nose with the cute little buggers, and I swear they pose for photos. Seriously. Pull out your camera and see what happens.


• Our friends Dan & Sue Jenkins, who along with their too-cute kids Emma, Isaiah and Caleb, are preparing to move to Costa Rica to serve as missionaries for ReachGlobal. We had a wonderful sloppy burger cookout with the Jenkins family recently and heard the story of their journey-before-their-journey that led them to becoming missionaries and leading ReachGlobal's microenterprise efforts in Costa Rica. They still need help raising all of their salary and living expenses before they go - they're about 40 percent away from their goal, so please check out their blog to learn more, and please pray about giving to help their efforts.


• So You Think You Can Dance - need I say more?


• This book. Get it. Read it. Then pass it on. Everyone needs to read this book, then decide what they can personally do to get us back on track. We're all in this together, people. Let's make it happen!

It's Summer - Let's Get Happy!

Yes, dear readers, I am - I pinky-swear promise this time - back. Dance recitals are done, major projects are put to bed, and now it's time for summer. (Cue the Jimmy Buffet music and the cabana boy bringing me a boat drink.)

To celebrate, here's my first official Happy List of the Summer of 2009. Y'all chime in with your favorites - what makes summer just rock for you?

• Wringing a promise out of my dear hubby that, upon retirement, we will move to some piece of ground where the mere mention of snow causes widespread panic and a run on the local grocery store...wait, that describes St. Louis. Let me clarify...and where there is no such thing as a one-syllable word because the Southern accents draw everything out to at least three syllables. And where it's a punishable by law offense to not serve sweet tea.
• The pool. Ah, our new local pool. Granted, I haven't actually had time to go there yet, but I will. Oh, I will. Get your sunglasses ready, Ellisville residents - me and my glow-in-the-dark-white cheesy thighs are unapologetically on their way. Consider this your one and only warning.
• Summer music. Of course, there's Jimmy. He is without a doubt the gold standard, and I will proudly be a Parrothead until the day I die. (BTW, I fully expect that at least one of his songs will be played at my wake. I will so come back and haunt you people if that doesn't happen.) Beyond Jimmy, I love good old Southern rock in the summer - anything from Lynrd Skynrd to Kid Rock will do. If you're with me on that, check out my friend Paul Highsmith's group The Vagabond Boys. They do what they call "Heartland Country Rock" and I'm enjoying it more every time I hear it. Not bad for a Yankee, Paul - we might make a Southerner out of you yet!
• The Princesses. I know. I'm sickening, but I can't help it, they're just so dang cute in summer with their little swimsuits, pigtails and flip-flops! Princess E is my long, lean one this summer. There's just no trace of baby left on her, which makes my heart break and swell with pride at the same time. I got her to age six without an unfortunate addiction to chocolate or an unhealthy preoccupation with the remote control - WHOOHOO!!

Princess G (thank you, God) still has her chubby little arms and legs, and the cutest cheese on her tush you have ever seen in your life. (I'm serious. It's precious...oh, shut up.) (BTW, why is cellulite so dang cute on little ones and makes people run screaming from the horrifying sight of it on us? Life is so unfair.) But I have a feeling that cute baby fat isn't long for this world - she's already got muscles under there that I'm envious of. Heck, the kid can already do more pull-ups than me. (OK, so probably your grandma could too, but still - I'm impressed.)

I've just decided to ignore the coming muscles and kiss all over her all summer long - and try to burn the memory of those little dimpled elbows and cheesy tush into my brain. Those memories will keep me going long after cellulite becomes a bad word to her, too - and keep a smile on my face even if my knight and I end up in Fargo.

(Dear Knight, just kidding about that last part. I'm sure Fargo is a lovely place...if you're a polar bear. I need warmth...and sweet tea...and big hair...and sandals year-round...and great college football. Do me right, darlin'!)

Looking A Little Harder

Yeah, okay, I admit that things are looking a bit, shall we say, dark at the present moment. I for one am really annoyed that this whole swine flu thing is casting aspersions on hogs. I love hogs. I've cheered for Hogs my whole life - and in an official capacity for four years a long, long, long freakin' time ago. So how about we rename this whole pandemic thingie? How does "bacon flu" strike you? Same general meaning, but farther away from the mental image of my beloved Razorbacks. Yes, the bacon industry might be a little peeved, but c'mon, it's bacon. People love bacon. It'll bounce back in a year or so. :-P

Now that I've been highly inappropriate and insensitive with a serious topic (oh, lighten up!), let's really chase away the doom-and-gloom with this week's Happy List:

• Highlights hidden pictures online - do y'all remember this? I adored Highlights magazine when I was a kid, and the hidden pictures were one of my favorite parts. Thanks to a heads-up Tweet from Michelle Malkin (love her!), I've just discovered them online, AND when you find a hidden object, it animates! I almost wanted to wake up the Princesses and play it with them (I say "almost" because I'm not that crazy. Yet.)
• MOPS is coming to Wildwood - more specifically, to West County Community Church. We're having an info meeting May 6 at 6 p.m. Y'all come!
• This iPhone app - I wanted to do something non-boring, yet fast, yet also something edible for picky Princesses, with fish tonight, so I did the "Dinner Spinner" and half an hour later the most delicious Parmesan-encrusted tilapia was being wolfed down by the family. I could not love my iPhone more. I'm sending it a valentine next year. Dear knight, you may be replaced in my affections. Sorry.
• "Atlas Shrugged" - if you haven't read it, get up from your computer, go buy a copy (if you can find one these days - they're going like hotcakes again) and read it. The first time I read it, I was happy that I knew what's described in the story would never happen here. Reading it again, I'm blown away at how much of it is now happening. (One caveat: I of course think Ayn Rand missed the boat entirely about God. I'm surmising that growing up during the Russian revolution really did a number on her and drove her, sadly, to atheism. There is a Christian Objectivist philosophy that you may want to delve more into after reading the book.) It's scary stuff, but it's on my Happy List because it's just a fantastic book. Go. Now. Read.

And have some bacon while you're at it.

Finding the Happy List

I'm overdue on a Happy List, and since I'm not feeling particularly happy at the moment, I'm thinking that this list is about the best thing I can do right now. God is always good, especially in our darkest hours - heck, that's usually when He's jumping up and down on your heart going, "Hello?! I'm here! Open up and let me do my job, lady!" Message received, Big Guy, so here goes with a little bit of serious and a whole lot of silly (hey, I just go with what works):

• Easter weekend - is there anything that can lift our hearts more than Easter? You've got the ultimate promise fulfilled, and the opportunity to celebrate it openly in a free country. Amen and hallelujah to that!
• Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs - I promise to start my diet next Monday, after I stuff myself silly with the greatest food product ever created. No, I am not exaggerating. Do not get between me and my Reese's Eggs.
• Easter dresses for the Princesses - this year we're going with a chic brown and pink palette, accessorized with the perfect bows, shoes and purses. Yes, they will be the cutest things ever. And again, I am not exaggerating. Wait until I post the photos.
• Zac Efron back on the big screen - and the small screen, for that matter. He's hosting SNL this weekend (this might actually entice me to watch SNL again). Yes, I have a ridiculous crush on a young man half my age. No, do not remind me that I'm old enough to be his mother (you are so rude). Pass the eggs and move over - you're blocking the TV...and those amazing blue eyes. (My dear knight, if you're reading this, feel free to have a similar crush on Zac's girlfriend. Why wouldn't you? She's gorgeous - and also half your age. Just a friendly reminder. Heh heh.)

Anyone wanna join my viewing party Saturday night?

Singing The La-La Song

That's what I find myself doing at some point every day when I just can't take any more of the sheer insanity going on in the world today - sticking my fingers in my ears, closing my eyes and singing "la la la la la" at the top of my lungs. Childish? Yes. Effective? Kind of. And, it's better for me than drinking heavily.

What I also like to do is compile another addition of the Happy List.

1) Funny or Die - yes, some of the videos are childish, and some are stupid, but some are just dang funny. My current favorite is Jon Hamm starring in "Lex Luthor Bailout." It's Jon Hamm - even if you don't find it funny, it's still a pleasure for the eyes, ladies. Heh.

2) Temperatures in the 60s for at least half the week. Spring is in the air!

3) The iPhone. Oh, how I love this invention. My knight accuses me of being addicted to it. Not true. I can put it down at any time. I just choose to occasionally walk into walls and sort of listen to him whisper sweet nothings (actually, just his ideas for the grocery list) in my ear.

4) Humor from The Patriot Post. 'Cause I am not going to sit around crying in my cornflakes over this mess. Fortunately, with this kind of thing regularly delivered to my email inbox, I don't have to.

Y'all join in and give us some more Happy List suggestions. I know there's some good stuff out there. If not, we're creative people. Or just people increasingly desperate for a good belly laugh. Or just more photos of Jon Hamm.

My Happy List

It's been a long, sad couple of weeks. At a macro level, I've just decided to boycott mainstream media, because I'm sick of hearing the sky is falling. Have these people ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? (Answer: of course they have, which is why they're doing it. C'mon y'all - start connecting the dots. They're getting closer together every day.)

On the home front, two of my dear friends have lost their dads to cancer, and their pain is evident on their weary faces. In times like these, I don't know what else to do except pray, do what I can to make their lives a little easier...and try to find the joy in little things. Simple minded, maybe, but it makes me feel better, so here goes.

Here's the first installment of a new series I call the "Happy List" - the goofy little things that are putting a smile on my face. Y'all let me know if you have any to add - we can all use every smile we can get these days.

• My new iPhone - nope, don't have a clue how to work the dang thing yet, but it seems really cool - and the princesses and I love the Whack'emAll app. (Again, it's the little things, people.)
• Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies - really, nothing more needs to be said here.
• Reruns of "Mad Men" on AMC - two words: Jon Hamm. Wow. Just - wow.
• This new Disney Dreams photo by Annie Leibovitz. Stunningly beautiful. Someone please tell me how can I get a print to put on Princess E's wall?
• This blog - and this one. Oh, and one more (Michelle Kwan, you will forever ROCK in my eyes, Olympic gold or not).
• Daylight Savings Time. Roll on in here, Spring. We all need a little warm sunshine to smack us upside the head and snap us out of the winter blahs.
• And all the other Girl Scout Cookies. Eat up, people. It's our patriotic duty. :-)