idea

a lady I talk to during Nick's speech therapy meetings on Tuesdays (while her kids are also in session) told me today that she found the best way to keep of mosquitos was to rub dry fabric softener sheets on exposed skin. I always get torn up by the buggers and as someone who loves being outdoors pretty much any time I can, it's a real pain during the summer. So, I'll try that next time we're grilling out or doing yard work instead of praying my legs with the oily stuff I use occasionally now.

Hello sunshine

I woke up at 5 am again- with no prompting from my husband's alarm clock since he's not working today and he crashed in our guest bed due to some late night fishing at the causeway. The constant rain and humidity lately has cause me to wake up feeling like my ears are full of water, my nose is stuffy and my head is swimming in a sludge of tide pools. No- it's not a hangover!! Anyhoo, after clearing my head with a cold glass of water followed by some sips on caffeinated coffee (my doctor said it was ok during preggars time so don't be hatin on me) I feel loads better. Nick is sitting here watching me so of course I feel guilty like I should be teaching him Spanish or something valuable instead of being selfish and blogging. Later son- mom needs to make the masses happy with her ever so important opinions, observations and random useful news.....
What a week. Micheal Jackson died. I was sad about it, got tired of the news doing 24 hour docs on him like they are this morning on the music channels but in a weird way, they owe him for their success. His videos and number #1 hits back in the day helped keep their networks alive when there was no internet to download singles, videos or concert footage from like there is today. I love the old disco style music he made, and have fun memories of the local skating rink in PC playing his music while backwards skating and nearly choking on my fat-rats (remember those??). The first thing i said outloud about his death this week was that I never really could have imagined him growing "old", which is truly sad for his children who surely had emotional attachments to their father however eccentric he may have been, and for his parents and siblings. Everyone eles in his outer circle seemed to suck the life and money off of him. I can't even talk about the molestion charges without getting slightly crazy because I have a child and if anyone ever put our son in their bed (a grown man) he would be thrown to the local tarpon here in a heartbeat. Most of his fans seemed to seperate that part of his life out from his music, but I always had a hard time with that...he settled out of court with those children's families for millions of dollars and it just made it seem like a guilty situation. I hope they are at peace if the allegations were true and have gotten more help than just the dollar amount. God rest his Peter Pan soul.

We are counting down weeks now until baby number #2 comes along.... his name will be MINI-ME...just kidding. Actually it will be Jude Emanuel Roosen (Jude after the Beatles song, Emanuel after Phillip's dads middle name, and Roosen because well that's Phillips last name, even though I never legally adopted that name- another story). So, now my Catholic mother in law is probably thrilled that there will be another "saint" in the family and since Dominick has McCarthy as his middle name, everyone is covered! He kicks around 3 am every night - a great indication of whats to come, and pretty much all day.
I went to the beach yesterday and felt like a whale among the kites so to speak in my "maternity" bathing suit, It's black but doesn't make you look slimmer when you're at the 6.5 month mark. I met an Eastern European couple who were smoking while watching their two kids play in the water, and talked to them about the nasty aggressive seagulls that will snatch your snacks right out of your hands. I wanted to ask them- how do you folks stay so slim- is it the smokes? the chilled vodka ?? the sticks of butter used in cooking over there?? But i didn't - it wouldn't seem appropriate I guess...ugghh...self-censorship always makes the soul dim.

Well, tata for now tater tots. Have a great day.

Blah blah blah

There's been alot going on but I have been so tired at night that my mind just floats around like a hormonal butterfly and after around 6 pm or so when Nick is down for bed I just don 't feel like getting on the computer lately. So many of my friends and family give daily updates on their own children and some even give a rundown on their every single family goings-on but I hate doing that to you! So all I am going to do tonight is say I hope you are all doing very well, thank you for the nice comments and inbox letters on FB, thank you for keeping in touch, and I hope that your long summer days (love them!!) are as full as you can make them. Despite the heat, I am enjoying this summer and love being back in the southern heat and beaches (despite all the northerners down here). I did go to Panama City recently and it was just too bittersweet to even stay longer than three days. Phillip and I had such good friends there and I have missed those bonds but hope to build new ones here. Luckily, we happen to have lots of good family around here to pass the time with, and have made some great summer memories with already.
Well, time to putter around out front and water my potted plants (by hand of course) because although we get threats of heavy rain every day, none lands here near the water. It just hovers in the air around me like a net of ozone aquafresh.....and comes with mosquitos.

sap sap sappiness

On the way home from my yoga class, driving along the Dunedin waterfront which always reminds me of Panama City, one of my recently placed cd's started up in the stereo. The first song stirred something in me- it was sentimental, bittersweet and hopeful, and it was completely the opposite of the darker, more moody music I usually love. The second song I found on the same cd was a love song, written better than any love song I have ever heard, and I got all weepy and fought back melodramatic tears.
Suck it up you sucker! I said to myelf. It's the yoga, all that relaxation, it's the hormones, it's because you're hours from your hometown. Then I had to laugh and enjoy it- that feeling that music gives, the vibe, the sinking into a moment, a memory, or a surrounded sound of nostalgia. Out of all the music I have collected over the years...what were those two songs that pulled on my teeny tiny but still delicate heartstrings??

First song- "Someday Lady You'll Accompany Me"
Second song- "We've Got Tonight"
both by Bob Seger.
He's no Jeff Buckley or Otis Redding, but damn, he's good. His gravelly voice is tender and tough (sounds like a steak) and his lyrics are wonderfully simple, touching and timeless.

PS- I never listened to "Like a Rock" before it was used so often in those famous truck ads but it's a great song about the spirit of being young.

Review of "Margot at the Wedding"

I know this movie is "old" to some- 2007 release. I had always wanted to rent it because I am fascinated by Nicole Kidman (how could she have married Tom Cruise, what kind of control did he have over her -that short little man, and was she never better than in "Moulin Rouge?") as an actress and I also like Jennifer Jason Leigh. So it was on Cinemax or something last night and we sat to watch the entire movie.
Do you ever start something and know it's going to be bad but you still sit there waiting for it to get better? That's this movie. Kidman had a wig on that was totally distracting (musn't mess with the trademark red curls!), Jack Black in his man-child role acted so badly that I thought one scene was supposed to be funny and it was not supposed to be, Leigh mumbled through her lines like a stoned hippy with bad tooth pains, and there was alot of really awkward, incestual relationships drawn out between mother and son, cousins and pretty much everyone in the film. I don't have anything against incest people, but at least make it interesting! hee hee.
If you enjoy wasting about 2 hours of your life watching people act out a drama that could have been good, see this one. If you like pseudo-intellectual fictional characters spend all their lives analyzing themselves, popping pills, smoking the weed, and ignoring their children- watch this film. I don't have to, I could hang out with certain people I know and see that stuff happen in real life. If you get amused by plot lines that lead to dead ends, curly-ques, or quicksand, and you laugh at jet planes that fall from the sky- you will enjoy this film.
that was harsh...but so was this viewing experience.
Just sayin.

There and Back Again...A Hobbit's Tale

ok- sorry for the cheesy LOTR ripoff title but going into Panama City and Bay County for such a short visit this weekend was like falling down a rabbit hole and comming out the other side in senior citizen land (Clearwater). I went to our old church that Phillip and I got married in with mom and Nick, saw some old good friends, laughed until tears during lunch at the Place on Grace with Allison Deeds (her sister and her always keep me laughing and in good spirits), saw some old sites and some new buildings (the Shrimp Boat in St. Andrews near wher the photo on this site has been newly resurrected)...
I drove around the Beach Drive area and took some pics, went to Destin to retrieve our son from his wonderful grandparents and got to spend some time at my folks swimming in their pool, and swatting mosquitos while going for evening walks. It was not enough time, and I cried all the way to Bristol Fl leaving the area.. not boo-hooin but kept getting tears from all the hormones, memories and overwhelming desire to have two lives- one here at our house and another one back there where Phillip and I have so many great memories, friends, and special places in our hearts. Anyway, there's not enough room to put down onto virtual paper all the things that went on while I was there, but I am happy to be back with Phillip and he was glad to have nick back in our home to relearn all his old habits :)

FYI

I haven't been writing alot lately -have you noticed? Anyway, I am traveling to PC today finally for some r&R and downtime with old friends. Also, I am getting our son back from his grandparents- we miss him! I will be writing more upon my return next Monday, as our last report was that my parents computer is biting the dust, so I may not be writing from there at all. It's time for us to get them a new one maybe...Hope you all have a great weekend and I will be thinking of good old times as always when I enter the panhandle zone and smell the pines, magnolias and the asphalt of HWY 231. Think of me today arond noon since that will be my break point in wonderful Perry FL (ya'll know what I mean) and then will continue on into Wakulla, Leon and Bay County soon after. Bless the Xterra and it's new fresh oil, newly vacuumed interior (no sand!) and myself as i am going alone until the trip back- 6 months pregnant and under the radar of our OBGYN. Miss you hubby and had a great week of no children in our house for the first time in 2.5 years! See you soon.
Love, Jlynn

Review: Eastern Promises

If you've ever seen "A History of Violence" directed by David Cronenberg, you will know exactly what kind of realistic, uncompromising, well -acted drama to expect in "Eastern Promises" which stars Viggo Mortenson, Naomi Watts, Armin-Mueller-Stahl, and Vincent Cassel. The general plot revolves around Russian mobsters, a British nurse, an orphaned baby, and takes place in London. The story comes full circle in a way that I like movies to end- not necessarily a "happy" ending, but one that makes sense. This movie made me cringe, made my stomach churn, and made me wish that Viggo Mortenson was in just about every good movie part out there. Without giving away the twist of the story (and there's a few very good ones), here's a list of major points-

1. Vincent Cassel is always interesting to watch- he looks like a narrow- faced mad Slav (not just in this role but in all his roles) and is such a bad seed you hate to feel sorry for him- but you will...
2. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays a deceptively nice old Russian man who is like a Vodka filled Venus fly-trap waiting for innocent Watt's character with mouth wide open- very good character.
3. Can I just repeat how much I like Viggo Mortensen- who in this movie with hair combed back revealing a widow's peak, could pass as Christopher Walken's evil twin brother on looks alone? His face could have been carved out of granite, so stony and chiseled, that you never get a clue as to his character's viewpoint until about half-way through the story.
4. Naomi Watts is, as usual, big eyed and scared looking. She is an actress good at doing the damsel in distress thing- (as in the Ring movies) and is good enough to fill her role as a British nurse who gets involved in the Russian mob.
5. If you cannot handle slit throats, hard won physical battles, dark moody indoor scenes with the cheerfulness of life sucked out of them, and Russian accents so thick you can barely understand the dialogue- don't even bother watching. I don't love violence, but was quick enough to realize when someone was gonna "get it" and didn't watch the gory scenes. This isn't "The Care Bear Movie," after all.
6. I think one of the points to this movie, based on the bestselling novel, is that violence will find the innocent...it's a part of life. Sort of like "Six Degrees of Seperation" (a great movie and play), violence does not discriminate between those who invite it by choosing a hard life or by foolishly getting involved with crime- rather it randomly shows up to our doors without invite- and that is scarier than any ghost, monster or unseen force out in the world today.

Oh well- back to the sunshine today. Went fishing this morning until 11 and now will be touring the labor and delivery part of the hospital today at 6:30 - so excited! Have a great day kiddos!

quote

"I'd rather ask forgiveness later than permission first."
Robert Downey Jr.

If only I had lived that way during most of my 20's like I do now- without hesitating for wondering what other people might think! how liberating to live that way now....with grace, thoughtfulness for others, compassion, yet a sense of stronger self that deflects the little insinuations, judgements and opinions of others like a filter that catches only the gold nuggets, and lets all the other garbage pass.