Get A Load Of My Dream House!

HGTVwill announce the lucky winner (ME) of the 2008 HGTV Dream Home Giveaway during a live television special! I have entered every day since the first day of this contest. You can enter too, until February 19th. Watch March 16 at 9pm ET/6pm PT to see the look of surprise on my face when they knock on my door! I can dream, can't I? Actually, my dream house would be a country tudor home, but I won't turn this beach house down.

BIG NEWS in the Schneider household: Jackson has transitioned to his toddler bed without incident. He hasn't had a problem with it at all. I just knew he'd be up all night running around, but he hasn't been. Just in case, we had put a childproof doorknob protector on the inside of his door, but he hasn't even tried to get out. Tom heard him this morning around 7:00 playing, so he went down to check on him and he could see that his light was on, and he opened the door and Jackson was just playing with some little dinosaurs he got last week. I am very proud of him. I think we'll try and get him some "real" furniture around his birthday in September.

Here's a video of Jackson showing you his toddler bed:

Here is a layout I did of me and Jackson, a picture Tom took of us on Valentine's Day before we went out to eat. It's always such a chore just to get Jackson to look towards the camera, so this picture is the best we got!



This is a really cute video of Tom playing with Jackson and having him do everything Elmo does. At least I know he can take direction. He'll be starting a Mother's Day Out program for the fall. It's one that I really like, too. Now we have to pay more attention to getting him potty trained so that he doesn't get kicked out of it. It's only two days a week, but I really feel like it will be beneficial for him. Anyway, on to the video:

Now I must get back to practicing my look of shock and surprise for the HGTV people when they visit me in March! Reserve your spot now for vacation.

Until then...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Sorry I didn't get any cards in the mail to the grandparents out there. I had good intentions, truly, but it's been so nasty outside that Jackson and I haven't been out much this week. So consider this your Valentine's Day cards. Okay?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL THE GRANDPARENTS AND FRIENDS OUT THERE!

WE LOVE YOU!

HUG YOUR LOVED ONES TIGHT TODAY! I KNOW I WILL.

I helped Jackson color this Valentine's Day card on cardboard for you all. Hope you like it. I feel so lucky to have such a sweet little boy to love every day of the year. He truly has my heart. I also feel very lucky and grateful to have Tom, and I love him very much. I have two Valentines this year! (Happy Valentine's Day, Tom!)

Sorry I don't have more to write, but it's been a pretty boring week here. Tom's been out of town and Jackson and I have stayed indoors avoiding the cold, brrrr.

Until next time...

My Valentine

Wesley came over this morning to play, and Jackson was a little hell raiser. I'm not sure why he was so revved up, but he was in time-out more than he wasn't. He is becoming a little aggressive, which I guess is just going to happen with a two-year-old boy, but I don't like him pulling on other kids or pushing them, or doing that stuff to me, frankly! I'm all for letting him be a little boy, but he will not be mean and rude to others and get away with it.

For those of you who are from Kennett (which I'm sure is just my family reading this), check out this link and see one of our own on the cover of a Nashville magazine. I was walking by the magazine aisle at Kroger and I spotted it. Knew him right away. He sure has grown since the days of playing drums at our band concerts when he was like four.

I think we're going to change Jackson's bed to a toddler bed this weekend. He has no problems going to sleep now, so I think it's time for him to be able to crawl up in his own space. We'll see how that goes.

We're going to storytime in the morning, and if it's like all the other storytimes, this is what will happen. Notice how bored Jack appears to be.

Until next time...

Weekend Recap

We had a pretty busy weekend. Pa-paw and Ma-maw came into town on Saturday morning and left early this morning. Jackson had been saying "Pa-paw" all week and was so excited to see him on Saturday. They played really hard all day. Jackson was just wide open! He said he was Ma-maw's boy, though. Maybe he was just trying to make Pa-paw jealous. Last night he was having trouble getting to sleep, so I let him lay in my bed with me for a little bit and he kept just whispering "Pa-paw, Ma-maw" over and over. I think he thought they had left him last night. He was not happy when they left this morning. He was acting mad at them for leaving.

Here are some really cute pictures I took of Jackson and Pa-paw resting on the couch together:

Two peas in a pod!

And here's Ma-maw and Jackson:

Then this afternoon, we went to the park for a little bit and played. It was still a little too cool, so we didn't stay long. Here are a couple of pics from that:

Also, there was some exciting news, in a bad way, around the Providence area last week. Amy called to tell me they had found human remains across from the Del Webb development, which isn't far from us AT ALL! The person they think it could be had bipolar disorder and was known to hitchhike, so they thought at first she could have fallen prey to a the truck driver/serial killer that was caught a year or so ago, but now they say they've ruled that out. They're still not sure of the identity of the body. It's truly not safe anywhere!

I'm tired, so I'm turning in.

Until next time...

I Guess It's Artist Appreciation Week

Okay, I've been on YouTube again tonight. The house is quiet. Jackson went to bed around 8:30, and Tom just went to bed. It's 10:30 and peaceful. I have my headphones on and have been listening to some great music again. I'll leave songwriting and any talent musically, whatsoever, to Dad and Darin, but I was thinking tonight how cool it would be to be able to play the guitar. Cool? Does anyone say that anymore? I guess I need to get out the Fender that Tom bought me what, three years ago, and order Roy Clark's guitar book. Ha! I'm just so intimidated.

Anyway, if I was talented in that area and I had become famous (can you tell I've thought about this), then when asked, I could say my influences were NANCY GRIFFITH (it doesn't get any sweeter sounding than that song), JOHN PRINE (the best storyteller ever), and there's nothing better than the two of them TOGETHER. Yes, Nancy looks rather homely in her video and the sound of Prine and Griffith together is rather twangy, but it does it for me. And for that I won't apologize.

Somebody else who is a favorite of mine, and of my friend Denise in Atlanta, is MALCOLM HOLCOMBE. He's from North Carolina, and he is a strange character. Years and years ago, pre-Tom and therefore pre-Jackson, I'd go down to Douglas Corner to see Malcolm. He always looked like he just rolled out of the backseat of his car, his jacket all crumpled up, his hair greasy, smoking like a freight train, eyes glassy. And he would chew gum and give it a workout while he was singing and sometimes spit would fly. My friend Matt used to say we should wear some sort of visor with a protective spit guard on it, because I always wanted to sit close. I saw a video of Malcolm on YouTube that was recent, and it appears now that he has no teeth or something. He was telling a story and it sounded like he had no teeth in his head. Sad.

I'm figuring out that I seem to be a closet hippie of sorts, according to my taste in music, and that if I had been in my 20s in the '70s, I would have been harvesting my own vegetables on some commune out west probably. Okay, I'm obviously getting tired and loopy, so I'm going to turn in now.

Sorry for the no-picture post. Pa-paw and Ma-maw are coming on Saturday, so I should have some pictures by Monday!

Until next time...

Indulge Me For A Moment...

I need to whine. I am having serious live music withdrawal. I have been listening to Edwin McCain (one of my absolute favorite live performers) for the past few hours over the Internet and several things on YouTube. Edwin is nowhere near Nashville this whole year, which really makes me sad. He's in Atlanta February 14th. Hmmm. Tempting.

I'm really loving Brandi Carlile right now. CLICK HERE and see her smash hit The Story performed live somewhere in Minneapolis I think. Love her voice. That song has gotten huge airplay because Grey's Anatomy used it in one of their episodes, I think. And my friend Amy turned me on to a singer-songwriter Lori McKenna. She has a really folky sound for sure. CLICK HERE to hear a snipit of her song called Stealing Kisses. This was filmed at one of my favorite places for live music, Third & Lindsley, it appears on someone's cell phone. The last time I went there I saw Jimmy Hall and that was YEARS ago, definitely pre-Jackson. But then again, wasn't everything pre-Jackson? I guess I'm getting a little bit of cabin fever after two years! Ha!

Okay. Enough whining. I am just going to HAVE to go out soon. I'm hoping to go somewhere for my 40th birthday that is swiftly approaching! Anyone game?

We went to storytime this morning at the library where Jackson was bored out of his mind. Then we went to Sadie's to play where Jackson got his jollies pestering their dog Maggie with a helicopter toy of Beck's that drove Maggie crazy! It had been too long since he and Sadie have played. Here are a couple of pictures of them on the front porch. So cute, huh?

Look at her hand on Jackson's leg. That is so sweet!

Okay, if you haven't seen this video, you must. My dad sent me the link. It's hilarious. I sent it to most of you, and I guess I shouldn't be making fun of a crackhead, but oh, well, here goes. Check THIS out!

Until next time...

(I'm going back to YouTube to listen to more music!)

Well, we had a really good weekend. Mom came in for a visit. I didn't take any pictures, for some reason, but it seemed like the weekend just zoomed by. We went and shopped on Saturday all day, so we were away from the house most of the day.

But on Sunday morning, Jackson burned his middle finger on his right hand on the fireplace. The glass on the front has a broken seal and it allowed the glass to get ridiculously hot, and Jackson touched it and said, appropriately, "hot" and then started screaming. For the rest of the day, he pretty much laid on the couch with a cold pack on his hand and allowed people to wait on him. Mary Lynn fed him lunch. I think secretly he realized he had tapped into something pretty powerful: the pitiful factor. He's so much better today and he acts like it doesn't hurt him at all, thankfully. We won't be lighting that fireplace again until we get it repaired, plus I need to buy a fireplace screen.

Today I bought bedding for the guest bedroom upstairs, and I was pleasantly surprised to get a GREAT deal on this stuff. I spent a third of what I thought I was going to have to spend. No tax, free shipping, plus if I ordered today, it was another 10% off. I kind of want a beachy feel up there, something comfortable, so I liked these stripes with the red accents:

Now maybe I'll be motivated to get some pictures hung on the wall, et cetera! I can't wait to get this stuff in! Everything you see here is what I ordered.

This next video is funny, because we were trying to get Jackson on video saying "Hootchie Mama," but he just wouldn't do it. This commercial is a favorite of mine, so I thought it would be funny if Jackson said it. And it is. But in this video of him, it sounds more like "Chi Mama" instead of "Hootchie Mama."

Until next time...