Top of Mind

Late last year, I read a lot about the folksy musical duo, The Civil Wars, breaking up because of “irreconcilable differences.” I was despondent because I thought this meant that there would be no follow-up to their debut album, Barton Hollow. That album has been listened to at least 70 times, from start to finish, and has become a favorite in my collection. I was really counting on a second album from them.

Well, it looks like I might just get that chance. Joy Williams, 1/2 of The Civil Wars duo, tweeted earlier,

“A brand new self-titled album will be released soon…”

This made me want to research a bit more. I hopped over to the wikipedia page about them (not exactly a reliable source on many serious subjects, but I have found that they are quite accurate on things that don’t matter…ha), and read through any of the notes available. Apparently, they have still been touring and are still together. 

I’m not sure if I just didn’t fully vet the rumors about them breaking up last year, or what the issue was, but I sure am glad to hear they have a new album dropping soon. I hope they do not disappoint me like some other bands have with future releases, after stunning debut albums. 

If you are anticipating the release of new music from this band, as I am, sign up for updates and information on their website. 

What do you think…are you excited about the release of this album?

Ah, the joys of parenthood. I’m sure you know that when I lead a blog post with that, worded in that way, I am not actually talking about something that brings me joy, right?

In the evenings, we often dance to music either before or after bath. Since both kids mauled a Peep tonight after dinner, we had to go straight to the bath with those sticky little buggars. Most of the time, the music consists of some trance music. Alan has gotten to where he really loves it. Anne Marie won’t be left behind either though. She just crawls around and shakes her little booty. Oh, and they’re naked. There is just something about kids that they want to be naked, and come to think of it, so do I. It is so cute. We will dance, and chase and just have a great time. (I am not naked, BTW)

That is, until something is discovered. I was turning the volume up to get a really good jam going, when both Rebecca and I looked over and were shocked. There lie a HUGE turd right behind Anne Marie, where she was dancing while holding on to the hearth! We both realized it at the same time and freaked out. We went into survival mode. I grabbed the culprit and put her in the bath tub so that I could wash her off…again, since she just got through with a bath. Rebecca grabbed paper towels and disinfectant spray. 

This little girl poops more on the floor and in the bath than our first, Alan, ever did. I’m not really cool with that and hope it is a short-lived phase. 

Needless to say, there is just never a dull moment when you are a parent, especially a parent of multiples. 

As an avid fan of the TV comedy from the 90’s, Seinfeld, I’m always reminded of the show when I fly. Somewhere at cruising height, the captain comes on and tells at what altitude we’re flying. As Seinfeld would say, “What difference does it make? Oh, thank you for telling me that.”

That being said, I am now at 34,000 feet. A little bit higher than I am normally at this time…about 900 feet above sea level. Kind of makes me feel powerful and important.

Ah, flying. The intimidating people in blue shirts…having to strip down to your skivvies…the ears popping constantly. Isn’t it just grand.

I still don’t know a better way to traverse over 1800 miles in a matter of hours…rather than days.

I had a thought just now, as I looked out the window of this incredibly small plane; it is bright up here. That is a very over-simplified way to say what I mean. Let me explain further. When we were on the ground in Mississippi, it was foggy and dreary and dark. Pretty typical for winter in Mississippi, and even typical for some days in the early spring. (It is what gives our spring flowers such a boost…all of that rain.) Not but 20 seconds after we lifted off, we were in a cloud and that’s when it hit me…this cloud is blindingly bright. Obviously, I know that the sun is always still up there, but we get so focused on our little lives that we forget about the world outside of our bubble. Now, up here above the clouds, it’s like the dreariness never happened.

How can you look outside of your bubble?

If you have not already, you will be seeing many tweets coming from me that include the tag #MBD13. What is that exactly? Well, it stands for CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council Conference. This year, it is at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA.

Every year, many credit union marketers go to this conference. They may be seeking out a new vendor or 10, looking for some new ideas or just simply needing to recharge around like-minded and motivated peers. This year, there are nearly 500 people registered, which is the largest conference to date. It is also the 20th anniversary, so I can wait to see what all is planned.

We all attend a lot of sessions during the day, interspersed with networking breaks. At night, we usually all go to dinner, or get drinks and do some more networking. It is a very busy, but good time.

If you would like to join in on our conversation, feel free to do so. If you don’t want to see all of those tweets from me, many apps will let you mute a hashtag, so feel free to do that.

Chats in the car this morning:

Me: Hey Alan, I’m very sleepy. 

Alan: I’m so sleepy too, Daddy. I need to take a nap.

Me: That sounds nice. I would like to take a nap with you right now. Would you take a nap with me?

Alan: Of course, Daddy. Of course.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Me: *growls at Anne Marie*

Anne Marie: Grrrrrrr

Me: Raaawwwrrrr

Anne Marie: Rooooaaarrr

Alan: Anne Beep (that’s what he calls his sister), don’t do that to Daddy while he is driving. 

(This was in reference to me saying that he needed to stop playing with my shoulder from the back seat at an earlier date)

Love these little conversations!

Rebecca’s grandparents, here today to watch the kids during the day while she gets some teeth pulled, have offered to take the kids home to the country with them (over 2 hours away) until Saturday. 

Let me back up for a moment though. Alan, the 2-year-old full of vitality, has been excited to see “Grandma” and “Papaw” for about a day now. This morning, the excitement was palpable. When they arrived, he said, “Hi Grandma and Papaw.” Grandmother (what we call her) immediately addressed Alan directly and said, “Do you want to come home to my house with me when we leave this afternoon?” He answered with a quick, “Yes…I do. I come home with you.” Then, he looked at Rebecca and said again, “Mommy, I go home with Grandma and Papaw. I go with dem.”

In his little mind, it was already settled. The only problem for us is that we really don’t get a ton of time with either of them during the week, so the weekend is kind of our time to spend with the kids. Both of us work, and unfortunately, it just means a few hours a day with them. We do not take it lightly to have them go away for days at a time. 

We are, however considering it, because after having this procedure, we are not sure how Rebecca will feel, and how taxing it will be to have the kids with her all day. It might just be the aligning of the stars for this moment to work out perfectly. Plus, Rebecca’s mom was wanting to come down this Saturday to see them anyway. We could just let them take our car, with the kids’ seats already in them, home with them only to let her mother bring them back, in our car, Saturday. 

I’m thinking this could be good. 

Well, 3 days in a row…3 shots for Anne Marie. Unfortunately, Rebecca was the one that had to take her for the rocephin shot each time. Just now, when going to get her 3rd one, she started crying when she arrived at the doctor’s office. She had figured it out. Then, Rebecca said that each time she would look at anything in the office, she would cry. Then, she would point to her band-aid, where the needle prick was, look up at Rebecca, and cry. 

This breaks my heart. 

Our little girl has had a lot of trouble with ear infections recently, and I hope this is a turning point for her. 

Last night, it hit me again like a wave coming over me. Tears welled up in my eyes as I shut his door. As I heard him breathing slowly, sucking his thumb. You see, this has happened before.

The sweetness and sincerity of my son got to me again last night. After having a really good evening with him, reading books, and finally turning to walk to the door, leaving him to sleep peacefully, I told him, “I love you, Alan.” He echoed, “Love you too, Daddy.” I then said, “See you in the morning,” only to be answered by a shy, “Ok, see you in morning.” One final, “Goodnight,” I utter, before pulling his door shut, where only a sliver of light from the hall escapes into his room. “Night, Daddy,” he answers sweetly.

I closed the door fully, stood there, staring blankly at the wall, overcome with happiness. As I walked back into the kitchen, Rebecca looked at me, just walked over and hugged me.

We are lucky.

I sit here, with a pit in my stomach, wondering if I will be able to recover them. The sick feeling I have has not subsided all day, despite many other things happening around me.

Yesterday, I discovered that the external hard drive I use for my digital photos, mostly personal, was having issues. Well, I’m not quite sure the hard drive is having issues, but some particular files are having issues. When my internal drive is getting full, I move the files over to this particular external drive. I use this other drive as backup and storage mostly. Well, I was doing some of these transfers to make room yesterday when I got nostalgic and saw some of Alan’s (my little boy) photos and videos. They were from anywhere between his birth two and a half years ago, and about middle of last year. I was watching some videos of him last summer, and scrolled down further only to find that the files were empty. Empty. When I click on the photo to open with another program, it says “Cannot open the photo because the file is empty.” That is a scary message.

Knowing that I might not ever recover the bulk of my son’s early childhood photos is almost more than I can handle. I’m kind of freaking out right about now. I’m not sure what I’m going to do?

This is mostly, if not all, my fault. I cannot say anything to the contrary. I mean, I am the one that does all of the photo editing and file transfer in the household. Therefore, the responsibility falls upon me. I think that makes me even more sick. I thought I had been doing sufficient backups and redundancies on different drives. Apparently, I was not. The busyness of life got the best of me, and when I thought I was being prepared and backing up often enough, I was not. 

Let’s hope that I can get someone to recover these files. Otherwise, this chunk of Alan’s life is just gone. Lost forever. I am not ok with that.