9/9/09....a minute late

Okay, 24 hours late.

I caught all the hubbub yesterday about the 9/9/09 date and was just as struck by it as I was on 7/7/07, then in a pre-wedding frenzy, and 8/8/08 - that is to say that I barely noticed at all.

UNTIL someone asked on Twitter if we remembered 9/9/99. Ten years ago exactly. I have a terrible memory, but I was overcome with very specific memories of that day. Why, you ask? A very shallow reason -the MTV VMAs.



I remember where I watched them, with whom, the commercials (new Ford Focus was introduced and no one liked it!), the less-than-sexy Kid Rock and Eminem, Li'l Kim's lavender (ahem, half naked) outfit, Britney's first VMA performance (oh, young and innocent Brit), N Sync's dancing...the list goes on. It was the heyday of TRL, Carson Daly, Ricky Martin, teen pop and a totally different time in my life.

So I'm officially old. I remember, really remember, things from a DECADE AGO!! Eep!

If this is how quickly ten years can go by, I'm going to be 50 before I know it. Someone please remind me to enjoy my twenties while I can, because I keep forgetting I'm not 94 already...

His eye is on Nicole Richie's son....

I've had a hymn stuck in my head ever since I heard yesterday that Joel Madden and Nicole Richie named their newborn son Sparrow. SPARROW. As in Captain Jack. As in this little guy:


Sparrow James Midnight Madden and big sister Harlow will probably fit in perfectly on the LA playground scene, but anywhere else and a name like Sparrow (I keep forgetting to capitalize it, silly nouns-as-names!) would be greeted with utter confusion.

I suppose they could have named him Hawk, which would have lent a bit more masculinity to the tiny tot - but would have placed great pressure on him to grow up big and beefy. Can you really picture a gangly teenage chess player named Hawk?

All that matters, I know, is the kind of man Sparrow grows up to be - and I hope his parents raise him to be a wonderful one.

But was James such a terrible option??

Planting hope and waiting for good

Angie Smith tweeted a link to this blog entry earlier today and it took me a few reads before it finally sunk in. I had to share the most meaningful passage for me...

I'm struck by how many people in my life seem to be in a moment (or a season) of waiting right now. Waiting for an answer, a baby, a pregnancy, a job offer, a clean bill of health, a home to sell, some time away or just plain good news.

I hope the words below encourage you as they did me! My friend Maria just blogged about a similar subject, the value of waiting on God's timing instead of settling because you're focused on your own timeline.

I know that each of these messages are reaching me at the same time for a very clear purpose...

"We bury our swollen prayers in Him who's raised from the tomb. We lay our hope, full and tender, into the depths of Him and wait in hope for God to resurrect something good. Good always necessitates long waiting.

Every tulip only blossoms after cold months of winter wait. Every human ever unfurled into existence through nine long months of the womb waiting. And the only kingdom that will last for eternity still waits, this millennia-long, unwavering-hope for return of its King.

Instead of chafing, we accept that waiting is a strand in the DNA of the Body of Christ. That this waiting on God is the very real work of the people of God."

It's September?!

I woke up yesterday and apparently everyone got the memo that it's fall - cooler temperatures, scarves and ballet flats, the works. Football season is here and I'm excited to experience my favorite season!

But you know what this means....as of yesterday I'm having a baby next month. Holy cow, y'all!

Oh, Baby

Have you ever had a day that was so fantastic, so filled to the brim with fabulousness that you could barely process it all?

I remember at our wedding rehearsal I had my dad walk me down the aisle when things were all wrapped up; nothing was feeling real and I needed a moment to make it all sink in. The entire weekend felt surreal and wonderful and way too amazing to be absorbed as I wanted.

This weekend has been that way a little bit. Bradley and I have known about our pregnancy for nearly seven months, so I've finally gotten the hang of that part. The whole 'baby' element, though, I'm still processing.

So to have a group of my very favorite women on Earth gather to celebrate the impending arrival of baby Mac - well, that left me pretty close to speechless. And absolutely drove home the excitement of having a little boy on the way.

I've spent this weekend, filled with friends trickling in and out of town, in a sort of fog. If I'd really been able to process everything and absorb all of the love and excitement our friends and family were sharing with us, I'd have been in tears from start to finish, no doubt.

I've never seen a baby shower with more thoughtful, lovely details and more excited hostesses. I can't wait to share pictures tomorrow - in the meantime, just know that true friends are irrefutable evidence of God's love. Because surely I could never have done anything to deserve such genuinely giving, supportive, big-hearted women in my life!

"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."
~Walt Whitman

This probably says a lot about us...

Until just a moment ago, I was lounging comfortably inside, watching the Rachel Zoe Project and salivating over an amazing hot pink Chanel dress.

I realize that B is awfully quiet, undoubtedly doing something way more fascinating than I am. Blue and I get up to explore and we find him in the garage, building a piece of furniture for baby Mac and humming along to 'Prop Me Up Besides the Jukebox If I Die.'

I adore this man.

At his request, I am hanging out for the moment in his sawdust- and country music-filled shop. Gotta get my B time where I can, I suppose!

Wait 'til y'all see what he's building...

Words of Discouragement?

I just read the Facebook status update of someone who's in the homestretch of her pregnancy - just a few weeks to go. She wrote that she's trying to juggle everything beautifully and keep the big balancing act together.

I'd guess she means her life in general; don't most of us feel that way at some point or another? I honestly didn't presume her status update had anything to do with gestating...

In response, someone left a comment reading, "You think this is one [a balancing act] - just wait!" Gee thanks, friend!

It's always my inclination to leave words of encouragement to people who are admittedly not having the most fabulous day/week/life. Why do anything but try and make things better?

With that in mind, let me heartily thank y'all for not responding similarly to my insomnia whinings...I might have cried out of sheer exhaustion. I got a good night's sleep, though, and am so grateful to have friends who don't say, "Think it's bad now? It's going to get way worse!"

(Ok, ok, she didn't quite say that. But it would have felt that way to me!)