They say it's your birthday . . .

I am not one who is prone to birthday wishes on my blog . . . mainly because I know that I will very publicly forget someone's and then hurt their feelings because they didn't get a blog shout-out.

But I am making an exception today for my friend Kelly because I notoriously forget her birthday EVERY YEAR and she is ruthless about remembering mine. If she would just forget mine then I wouldn't feel so bad about my non-rememberance of hers.

So . . . in light of that - Happy Birthday to you, Kelly, and in honor of the occasion, here is an embarrassing old picture from your wedding where I am wearing a pantsuit and Callen is a blond. Happy, happy!

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

It rained here on Thursday. And I had forgotten how to work my windshield wipers, I discovered.

But it also rained in my heart, as we all said our final good-byes to Seth, Ryan, Summer, Taylor, Sandy & Kirsten, Julie and the rest of the OC gang.


After four years of loving them all, the OC has finally been cancelled. It has brought many laughs, many tears, and many burritos as we used to celebrate every Thursday with "Moe C" - getting dinner at Moe's then going to Missy's for the weekly show. Here's some personal highlights of the past four years:

Favorite OC Episode: Mexico - Season 1 - soooooo over-dramatic and fabulous

Favorite Moe's menu item: Moo Moo Mr. Cow with sour cream

OC Seasons owned on DVD: Season 1, but Lauren has season 2 and Ryanne has 1-3 so I'm golden.

Favorite Moe's Location: 280 - it was the Bham original and always stands in my heart, although the 31/Homewood location is a close #2

Favorite OC character: ooo . . . I don't like grandiose statements like this but I guess if I had to pick I'd say Summer. But Julie and Ryan run a close second and third.

Favorite type of Moe's cookie: chocolate chunk

Favorite OC romantic relationship: Seth and Summer, obviously, although their wedding looked lame

Favorite OC platonic relationship: Ryan and Kirsten - it just rips my heart out every time to see how Kirsten grew to love the son she was so skeptical about at first

Did you cry at the series finale? Yes. Of course. But I cry at the drop of a hat so that's not saying much about the power of the finale as much as it is about my emotional instability.


So, here's to Missy, Lo, Kali, Reba, sometimes Kate, sometimes Hannah, and even Rachel once or twice, I think. Our Moe C days have ended but will live on forever in my heart.

May they always forget to charge extra for sour cream on your Moo Moo and may Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody reunite for a real-life OC wedding.

February Album of the Month: A V-Day Special

Oh, so much to blog about, as usual. The phenomenal Grammys, Valentine's Day, Step Sing season, where to begin? The best that I could come up with was a V-Day/Grammy's inspired album of the month.

There were so many great moments and characters on the Grammys - JT and Robyn Troupe (did everyone see her get kicked off Idol last night? I'd say that performing at the Grammy's is a pretty good pick-me-up from that!), Carrie Underwood who was just amazing and has come into her own more beautifully than I ever imagined, and Imogen Heap with grass coming out of her hair!! Amazing!! Kudos to Imogen!!



It was a toss up between her and Corinne Bailey Rae for this month's album, but I just couldn't pass up Corinne sitting so sweetly on that barstool just OWNING it with John Mayer and John Legend. What a great performance!

Adam gave me Corinne's self-titled album at the beginning of last summer and it didn't leave my car stereo for about 2 months straight.



She's a little bit of India Arie mixed with a little bit of Norah Jones, and it comes out quite nicely. And it's also currently available on Amazon right now for $7.99 - what a steal!

I think that Corinne has a little something for everyone on this Valentine's Day, so here's the song of hers for you to download, depending on your V-Day relationship status:

In a heated relationship - can't live with or without them but ultimately want to be with them: # 1 - Like a Star

Entranced by someone, often causing you to act beyond your control; you possibly display stalking tendencies: #2 Enchantment

Single, not sure where your life is headed, and totally great with all of the above: #3 Put Your Records On

Just coming out of a relationship gone bad: #4 Till It Happens To You

Still in the denial stages that you are falling for someone: #5 Trouble Sleeping

In love: #6 Call Me When you Get This

Suffering a broken heart: #7 Choux Pastry Heart (**Aside: I just found out that this song was co-written by Teitur, another personal favorite artist - small world!!; I also learned 2 new words from this song - choux and gamine - look them up and use them in a sentence today or in Scrabble to beat your husband for the 3rd night in a row ...)

Wishing that a friendship was more: #8 Breathless

Wanting some new music in your life that is excellent: All of the above!

Happy Valentine's Day from me and Corinne!

Friday Night Lights

Scarf . . . check.
Camera . . . check.
Tickets . . . no, Mary. You get those at the gate. Oh.

Ding dong. The Witts are here! We all pile into the car for the quick trip. We pull into the parking lot and look across the rows of cars. All of these people are here for one thing. You can feel the excitement and nervousness in the air . . .

No, it's not the local high school football game . . . it's Disneyland! And we are all now officially Southern California annual pass holders.



We definitely spent 2 of the 4 Friday nights in January taking advantage of that. The first week that we went, we were both pumped for our first Disneyland trip. But I have to say not nearly as much as the Warr-aday cousins. Josh had already been talking about this moment for weeks, including a couple of outrageous statements such as "Going to Disney with someone who's never been before is better than . . ." I can't even finish that sentence on my blog. Ryan hadn't discovered our secret until we all rendezvous'ed in the middle of Main Street. His jaw dropped, a look of sheer joy enveloped his face, and he starts pointing to us and screaming to all of our fellow Disney-goers "First-timers! First-timers!"

Our whole group spent the rest of the night watching me and Adam's faces for our reactions. It's not like we've never been to a theme park before, although I'm not sure if anyone appreciated my comparisons to Opryland. "Oh, this ride's like Chaos! Oh, this ride's like the Flume Zoom!" Maybe the fact that it got turned into a shopping mall makes it seem a little less legit. We've both even been to Disneyworld, but maybe it's been a while (don't miss the matching socks):


Well, who could believe our good fortune that right as we first arrived, that special someone just happened to be walking by. Apparently thats a big deal to actually bump into him, which seems strange to me since he's kind of the superstar of the whole thing. Seems like he would be a little more accessible to his adoring fans, but I guess we just got lucky!


Lucky for us, our group members were seasoned Disney experts, so they led us through the maze with ease and efficiency. Also lucky for us, it was freezing so the crowds were minimal. Here we are on our first Disneyland ride:



The rest of the evening was filled with more rides, more shivering, and the astounding water show Fantasmic. Now remember, I'm expecting the Opryland hotel dancing water. So I was taken aback by the sprays of water projecting images into the air with a full-blown soundtrack, boats appearing from mid-air, and a few evil-doers tossed in that made the little girl in front of me scream with terror.



We passed on the fireworks show to take advantage of the shorter ride lines which is when I was introduced to one of the most spectacular rides ever: Buzz Lightyear. You ride in your car through a maze of laser targets; the more you shoot, the more you score. Here are the Warrens and us as we prepare to go into battle:




And, to top it off, they email you the pic that they take during the ride as a souvenir. Here's ours. Be sure to note the scores in the top corners . . . that's right.



As usual, this post is getting a little long so I will have to save Disney Part 2 for another day. Look forward to stories from the teacups, California Adventure, and a Buzz Lightyear re-match that Adam won't soon forget.

This week I have . . .

1) Totally slacked on my running routine.

2) Debated cutting my hair or continuing growing it for Locks of Love.



3) Bumped into LC's sister, Breanna Conrad, at Starbucks.



4) Gotten lost in Costco. Yes, it was semi-traumatic. We went on Sunday after church (as if going to Costco on Sunday isn't traumatic enough on its own!!) and I made a quick pit-stop after too much DC at lunch and Adam started shopping. I came out and searched and searched to no avail. Of course, I left my cell phone in the car that Adam had the keys to, so it took me 30 minutes to find him again. I really was getting pretty flustered in the end after having walked every aisle several times. I kept seeing this same guy with a Titans jersey who clearly felt like home to me; I thought about just following him around - surely his attire would grab Adam's attention. I was debating having him paged over the loud speaker when I finally found him in the check-out lane. Maybe I did tear up a little when we were finally re-united.

5) Enjoyed multiple Golden Delicious apples using my latest gadget that everyone should own:


6) Completed a Mickey Mouse Vintage Poster puzzle - much more difficult than it may appear.



7) Visited the dermatologist and saw a promo at the check-out counter for the Botox credit card. Not even kidding - gotta love the OC.

Up and Coming

So I recently heard the new single from a British singer named James Morrison. His albumis being released in the States in March. He kind of sounds like a Jamie Cullum, Marc Broussard type.

To tide us all over until then, his single "You Give Me Something" is the free single of the week on iTunes - don't miss that.

Here's his MySpace where you can read and hear more! I especially love Wonderful World.

What do you think? Going to be a keeper? Maybe James will show up again in the Album of the Month . . . stay tuned.