Several weeks ago, there were some tornados that touched down in the metroplex. I have never been very concerned about tornados. Growing up in California, earthquakes were the real deal. We had earthquake drills at school, I lived only hours away from LA when it had crumbled to the ground and I have been through many of them. To me, earthquakes were scary.  But this time was different. We watched through the windows of our home as the very still evening turned into a rip roaring storm with debri flying by at Indy car speed. I actually took my kids into the bathroom and we bounced on Hudson’s crib mattress, playing with a flashlight while the power flickered off and on. I prayed, of course, that the Lord would protect us and our home, all the while thinking what it would be like to have our roof ripped off, our house flooded or to find our car in a neighbors yard.

the dr. phil show contacted bluefish recently and asked to put a clip i did years ago on their new blog.

the clip is called famous failures.  check it out, on the right side of the screen: http://blog.drphil.com/

and yes, i will now be telling people that i’ve given dr. phil advice.

a while back i posted a sampling of carter’s favorite tunes.  here are the boys latest tastes (in addition to the usual kid’s stuff that they listen to…and i don’t necessarily vouch for any of the music videos, just a place where you can hear the song):

death and all his friends/fix you/life in technicolor - coldplay - the boys will listen to anything coldplay,  but they especially love these songs right now.  they probably listen to more of this than anything else.  and yes, i let my kids listen to a song with death in the title.  (here’s a funny video for life in technicolor ii)

love like a sunset - phoenix - just started listening to this band, partly cause this song caught my attention.  carter immediately started asking about it when he heard it, and now he wants to hear it over and over.  my wife likes it, but thinks it is several musical ideas cobbled together.  carter and i think it’s excellent.

one day like this - elbow - definitely hudsie’s current favorite, when we take turns picking songs in the car, carter picks love like a sunset everytime, and hudsie picks this.

spiralling - keane - carter loves this whole album and knows the order of the first 5 or 6 songs.

all i need - radiohead - yes, my kids like radiohead.  no, i didn’t force them to.  they actually like this song.

shiny happy people - rem - how can this song not put you in a better mood?

start the machine - angels and airwaves - carter calls this band “angels and airywaves.”  i think he especially likes all the electronic beeping at the beginning.

fake empire - the national - carter asks for this song by it’s first lyric: can we hear “picking apples, making pies?”

trahison - vitalic - i used this song in a video i made, and not only did carter like it, he actually remembers the name of it better than i do.

this road - jars of clay - this is one they mainly hear when i sing it to them at night, so they have no idea how good this song actually is.

you can call me al - paul simon/take me home, country roads - john denver - two more songs they mainly hear at bedtime.  they said no to every normal song we sing, so these popped into my head.  fortunately i remembered the words.

something like a pimp - chamillionaire - this song really speaks to the boys and where they’re at right now.  it’s like he’s reading their mail.

movie nerd time:

thanks to a combination of out-of-town travel and wonderful grandparents, i’ve been able to see 4 movies in the theater in the last couple weeks.  i think i’d only seen one movie in the theater all year prior to…

jana and i went to see star trek the weekend it came out, and it was a very solid movie.  my only complaints…the two best scenes are the first two scenes, and it never quite reaches that height again, and, eric bana is great, but his bad guy isn’t the most well-written or interesting bad guy of all time.  minor complaints for a very entertaining movie.

then, in LA I found time to see my most anticipated movie of the summer…terminator: salvation.  i thought this trailer was fantastic, and when i heard the director was handing out copies of the road (one of my favorite books) to the crew for inspiration, jonathan nolan (the dark knight) was working on the script, and with sam worthington (star of james cameron’s upcoming avatar and rumored to be the next big thing) in it, i was hoping this would blow me away.  well, not so much.  it’s not a bad movie, but it’s not nearly as good as i hoped.  felt a little flat, and for the first time i think christian bale is starting to wear on me.  maybe the script just didn’t give him enough to do.

the brothers bloom came next, which was a fun, clever little movie with good acting…especially rachel weisz, she’s always good.  not a must see in the theater, but at least rent in when it comes out on dvd.

i snuck away from work on monday and took the wife to see up.  wow.  pixar is ridiculous.  i never thought i’d like up better than terminator, but it’s probably the best movie i’ve seen this year.  i didn’t even think it looked that great in the trailers, i just went to see it cause it’s pixar, and sure enough, they delivered.  those guys are 10 for 10, haven’t made a bad movie yet.  i need to find out what they eat for breakfast or something.  see this movie.

Prompted by a post I read on another mom’s blog, I inspected Hudson’s mouth for abnormalities in his bite and teeth position. I can’t be sure, but fear that his front teeth don’t even touch when he bites down. (Maybe I should consult a professional before freaking out) Based on my preliminary conclusions, we decided that it was time to say goodbye to Pabi. As much as we all love him, we sense that farewell will only get more difficult. In an attempt to prepare Hudson for the separation from a most beloved companion I started talking up the “big boy” thing and “pabies are for babies” thing. That kid understood completely. After considering my proposal for all of 3 seconds, he told me in no uncertain terms, “I don’t want to be a big boy, I’m a baby.”  Clearly.  Several days later we took him to the toy store, encouraged him to fall in love with something that he thought he HAD to have and then required him to “trade” pabies for the new toy. He handed over the bag to the cashier and that was that. The first night we put him to bed with his new toy and after several minutes of playing we could hear him saying over and over, “I want pabi instead.” He gave up after awhile.  Since then, he has asked for it at bedtime several times, but seems satisfied with the answer that pabi is all gone.

Other than herbs, we have now officially eaten of our own garden. Our first crop was a little on the small side, but oh so delicious. What a rewarding experience to grow your own food, to provide nourishment for your family and beautiful plants for others to behold. That is if you can ingnore all the netting we have wound around the plants to keep out the critters.