Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Early Idol Favorite

I know it's still early and there has been a lot of hype about this 28-year-old, Danny Gokey.   But the hype is justified.  This guy can sing and he got 5 votes from me tonight :).

A Test of Keenan's Attention Span

Yesterday we all went to see the Disney movie, Bolt.  It has been 8 months or more since we tried Keenan at another movie, Wall-E:  He made it through 45 minutes before Kevin had to take him out. Keenan will be 3 next week, so we thought we'd try it again.    This time I was the designated person to miss the remainder of the movie should Keenan lose interest, become restless then complain loudly when we try to contain him in his seat (or on our laps.)  Well. . . . 30 minutes go by and. . . we allow the binky to come out.  45 minutes go by and . . . the back-up bottle of milk comes out.  One hour and 15 minutes go by and . . . Keenan is trying to make his way up to a different row and seat.   He sits in front of us for a while then sees a rubber ball in a seat in the row in front of him.  He grabs the ball and the people say, "He can have it."  He then decides he's had enough of the movie and crawls underneath the legs of 4 people before making it to the aisle. Fortunately, he is quite quiet through all of this.  Nevertheless, I head him off and we head to the back of the theatre where I hold him and rock him like he's a crying infant.   "Pleeeease. . . I say to myself. . . let me be able to see the rest of the movie!"  And you know what???. . . . He/we made it!   My $2.50 ticket didn't go to waste, it was a good movie, and the stress was relatively low.   Should another good, fairly action-packed animated film come out again,  I think we'll give it another go.    

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to the ones I love:  Kevin, Molly, and Keenan.  (Don't worry, everyone else who reads this blog, I love you too :) )

To Kevin, my wonderful husband of almost 9 years.  I love you for your humor, your patience, your selflessness, your easy, good nature, your quick smile, your enthusiasm for life, and . . . .


in spite of your rejection of the Compton birthday tradition of the chocolate whip-cream cake (hee! hee!  trick candles!! :)


To Molly, my red-headed, 5-year-old beauty.  I love you for your silliness, your zest for life, your helpfulness, your contagious laugh, your innocence, your brightness, your fanciness, 
and. . . . 



in spite of dressing your brother like a girl and making him cry sometimes.


To Keenan, my bright-eyed, charming, almost 3-year-old.  I love you for your goofiness, happiness, tender yet roughness, jump all over us, good naturedness, and. . . .




in spite of your mischievous terrible twoness.

 Keenan decorating the bathroom.                      


 Keenan applying mommy's make-up.

Happy Valentine's Day! I love you family!  Love, Marin/Mom




Monday, February 9, 2009

The Grammys

Last night I sat through almost 3 hours of the Grammys.  I was a little lonely because Kevin wasn't interested in watching, but he did come down for the last 45 minutes after I told him about the GREAT performance by Radiohead and the USC marching band.   I had the newspaper in hand to read during the commercials and acceptance speeches, but was quite pleased when the speeches were short and boring.   Some performing highlights for me were, of course, the Jonas Brother (performance unavailable on Youtube :(); Jennifer Hudson (very moving--brought a few tears to my eyes as the song was very fitting for the  fairly recent tragic events in her life);  Alison Krauss and Robert Plant; and finally, Adele.   As loyal as I am to the Jonas Brothers--so entertaining--Adele beats them all in the vocals department.  

I missed my old favorite U2 perform as well as Coldplay (I have and love their Viva La Vida album).  I was, however, disappointed a bit when I heard that they may have copied Joe Satarani's "If I Could Fly."  It seems too similar to be coincidental.   What do you think? Rumor has it that Joe Satarani's people were going to serve Coldplay with papers during the Grammys since they have been "dodging" them thus far.  Wouldn't THAT have added some tension to the show :).  

As far as winners of actual awards go, I would have liked it if my boys had won an award and Allison Krauss and Robert Plant could have shared the wealth, but I didn't really care that much.  I was mostly just wanting to watch a "concert" since it has been soooo long.  And seeing so many artists, often combining, very successfully, with artists of different genre's--it was well worth the three hours of couch potatohood.  






Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Adventures Without Mom:(

Working every other Saturday and one Sunday has its pros and cons.  Besides the extra needed income, the main pro is that we don't have to reduce the amount I earn by paying for daycare. The cons (and these are big ones):  I miss some church and our family time really gets reduced. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to stop Kevin from doing things that he would like to do on his days off.  He'll happily pack the kids into the car and drive all over the place.  They'll go to Hood River, Mt. St. Helens and this last Saturday, Moulton Falls in Washington.  The house may not get picked up or the car, kid's clothes and shoes may be full of mud, but everyone usually has a great time and that makes me happy.  Here are a few photos from their adventure at Moulton Falls.  Wish I could have been there!