Good Music

I am in my living room, listening to "Letti's Ultimate Favorites 2011." 

Easily Chad's and my favorite Christmas present each year--

The one we anticipate like schoolchildren waiting for Santa Claus!

It's a CD of good music.... From people who know good music. 

On any given year's CD, we will know, oh, maybe two or three of the bands. 

The rest are completely unknown, completely obscure. 

That's when we grin and think, "This is gonna be a good one!" 

And a week--and sixteen rounds through the album--later, we are in love!

Good music. 

I love it.

Who doesn't?

Good music makes the Chad & Charity Brooks world go round. 

Good music makes me remember moments. 

Makes me chuckle, or even loudly guffaw! 

Brings me to tears. 

Makes me ache with nostalgia, lose myself in thinking, want to run home and jump in my husband's arms, etc. Good music reaches me in ways nothing else does (books do that too, but that's another entry, right?).

So here's to good music! 

May artists keep creating it, and may I keep discovering it!

So what is some of the good music in my life these days?....

Lisa Hannigan--Sea Sew (my favorite songs on this album: "Ocean and a Rock" and "I Don't Know." Tender.)

The Black Keys--"Tighten Up" (I actually only know this song, but it rocks!)

Elbow--"Grounds for Divorce" (As my friend once said, if you don't like this song, there's something broken in you.)

Josh Groban/Ladysmith Black Mambazo--"Lullabye" (sentimental because this is my boy's and my song; Coren will ask me to sing it again and again. Love it. Even if you don't prefer Josh Groban, this song is beautiful.)

Cat Stevens--anything of his, really. Just good stuff. But a few favorites are: "The Wind," "Morning Has Broken," "Oh Very Young," "Peace Train."

Indigo Girls--"Galileo" (One of my all-time favorite songs. Great lyrics. Great harmonies. Great everything.)

Juanes--Mi Sangre (I love all of his music, but this, I think, is his greatest album.)

fun.--Aim and Ignite (Awesome! All I can say, really!)

Chris Merritt--Hello, Little Captain (This is a local guy, so not easy to find, but sooo worth it!)

Fleetwood Mac--Rumors (An older choice, yes, but every song on the album is fantastic. How often does that happen??)

Guster--Lost and Gone Forever (My favorite Guster album thus far...)

Passion Pit--"Little Secrets" (the nerdiest band you'll ever see, but this song is so darn danceable!)

Metric--Oh, so many.... "Combat Baby," "Black Sheep," "Help I'm Alive," "Dead Disco," and on and on...

Muse--Black Holes and Revelations (Right now, the big album to listen to is their latest, Resistance, which is good, yes; but it's got nothing on Black Holes.)

Jesse y Joy--Esta es mi vida (Another fabulous Latin album)

Blitzen Trapper--"Furr" (Ah! I just love this song! Kinda folksy, great lyrics, really just a perfect song.)

Regina Spektor--"Us," "Better," "On the Radio," "Samson," etc.

Tegan and Sara--"Call It Off" (lovely song... they are odd, but so great.)

....and, yes, mainstream time....Paramore! (I sort-of have a married, straight, crush on Hayley Williams and her music. What can you do? It's good... and she's decent; not a teen girl pop-trash sellout, so I like that too.)

Good music.

It's Just Good.

Weekly Highlights

The little weekly things that brought me joy, bliss, and in one occasion, terror:

1) I walked into the bathroom the other morning, and Chad was working away on my conditioner bottle, personalizing it from this:

to this:

Now I get to see these magical friends every time I'm in the bath. Love it!

2) My son, learning from past experience, decided that, no, perhaps going headfirst down the stairs is a bad idea...but if you're riding a vehicle--say, a toy train--well, that changes everything!

One giant bloody nose later, he learned that, no, it really doesn't.

3) We had a sleepover with Brandon and Ciara and the kids last night--a night full of loud children, loads of junk food, and great entertainment! And we will definitely be doing it again! What a hit!

4) My scouts, in preparation for the Blue & Gold Banquet in a few weeks, furiously painted and colored on Thursday night, pumping out dozens of bright stars in all their stages of life. And we got to hear "Fee, fi, fo, fum! You are a baby who sucks your thumb!" about 16 dozen times during the hour. Love my scouts!

5) My cousin posted this silly little activity on her facebook page...and oh man! I spent the next hour playing with it! Creating my own little album covers--ridiculous, I know, but highly entertaining...and I do live with a man who is constantly thinking of new band names, so I guess I have a tiny excuse...??

6) And I learned that, really, I can't feed Risa anywhere public...everyone within a 40 foot radius would hear moaning, turn, and see a child plastered to my chest, singing/moaning away. Ah, my Risa! 

28 is Great!

And it was my birthday.... Man, what a busy few weeks!

Yes, I'm 28. And I feel good about it.

I'm still in my twenties, and 30 isn't even the next year on the horizon yet.

I'm halfway to my pre-wedding weight goal.

I have two sassy, fantabulous children.

I'm married to The Man that Broke the Mould, a hero among men.

I have a little house, a running van, and a growing library.

I have it all.

28 is great.

They do!!

My sister is MARRIED!!!

And I am pretty ecstatic about it! We all are! Especially Erin and David, of course!

We got to get out of the cold Utah snow and go down to California the week between Christmas and New Years, and basically throw together a wedding. And really, that's the way to do it! A week of crazy planning/shopping/cooking, and then you're done! Done!

It was lovely! A beach wedding--so beautiful! She looked like a queen! The weather couldn't have been more perfect....especially in the middle of winter when the previous three days were non-stop rain. They both smiled away through the ceremony, just too happy!

I am excited for them. I am excited for their moving forward together. I am excited for their discovery of what marriage is: A chain, nothing heavier...and nothing more liberating! And I mean heavy in the best sense. But it is. When you marry someone, you agree to pass through not only your own trials, but theirs as well, and the ones that are created by getting married—job losses, deaths, sorrows that inevitably come with children. You agree to carry half of a burden your entire life, to walk a rocky road alongside that person.

Because marriage can be rocky. The world has forgotten this about marriage. Now people marry because a relationship is fun, and when they hit the first rocks together, they’re amazed. They wonder what in the world they’ve gotten themselves into….and so they get out. A shame too…

Because marriage is also the most liberating relationship there is. Because you “yolk” together (as my husband once described it), you agree to carry half a burden… and someone else stands beside you and carries the other half—for life! You never walk a rocky road alone. There is someone that always knows you intimately because you pass through the same trials together. Someone who understands you. Someone who remembers the greatness of you when you have forgotten. Someone who pushes you back to that greatness. A liberating feeling, never being alone or misunderstood or forgotten.

So I am excited for Erin and David to walk the heavy, liberating, rocky, breathtaking road that is marriage. It is still the best decision I ever made…with the best man that was ever made! And in the words of Walt Whitman:

I do not offer the old smooth prizes,
But offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is called riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet the laid-up stores,
However convenient the dwellings,
You shall not remain there.
However sheltered the port,
And however calm the waters,
You shall not anchor there…

Say only to one another:
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love, more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law:
Will you give me yourself?
Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?

Here Come the Terrible(??) Twos!

My "baby" boy is two years old. Not a baby at all, really. He is independent, expressive, communicative (and somewhat understandable), a problem-solver....etc....He's moved on past all baby stages (except maybe potty-training--that's the last hurdle).

He had a fun and mellow little birthday...there was A LOT going on that day, namely, a wedding (see my next entry). So we were down in California, the whole giant family, and we were all pretty exhausted by the time the festivities were over that evening. So Chad and I threw a cake together at about 9:00 pm (ten minutes making a very hastily-arranged circus on the top). He opened his presents, ate cake, and went to bed. Not the biggest fanfare of a birthday ever, but 1) we don't do big birthdays anyway, and 2) he couldn't care less. He got his cake... and his Leaptop.

I think it was my sister, Tera, that told me one time, "It's funny how having more kids makes you appreciate each one more. Because you have a second, you love the first even more." Something along those lines. I don't think I fully understood what she meant, especially because we were still basking in the newness of our first little dude. Now we have Risa, and now I totally get it! There is something about seeing your second go through all the stages that your first has passed through that strikes a nostalgic chord: "Ah, remember when Coren rolled over...Remember when Coren first laughed....Remember...." And my love for Coren gets deeper. Kind-of a weird phenomenon. But true. I love my little awesome boy!

Some of his two year-old milestones/highlights:

-How, all through December, he said "Awesome!" every time we passed a house with Christmas lights on.

-His two new favorite phrases: "Hey, what you doing?" and "No, ya not."

-He says "okay" instead of "yes" every time.

-He's a Pixar/Dreamworks addict: his favorite movies are "Woody," "Dragon," "Frek" (which actually sounds pretty dirty coming out of his not-quite-enunciated mouth), "Memo," and "Dubbles" (Incredibles). I now have all of these memorized, down to the background soundtrack.

-When he comes out of his room in the morning, the first sentence he says always ends in "cookie!", although he has yet to get a cookie for breakfast.

-He loves puzzles, especially his shapes one that tells the name of each shape as you put the piece in.

-He loves plain noodles (hot or cold--yuck), fruit (still and forever, I think), olives, eggs (scrambled and hard-boiled), oatmeal, craisins, chicken nuggets, hamburgers and Taco Bell.

-He can be reasoned with--If he starts to panic/get upset, I can usually calm him right down by saying, "Coren, calm down. Take deep breaths." "Okay," he says, in a weepy voice, and then he pulls himself together (this doesn't work as well if he's on his third day of sleep-deprivation).

-He pretty much LOVES that Risa loves him/is always watching him. He loves to bring her toys, make her smile, scare her, etc. He often will pretend to ignore her as he watches her intently in his peripheral vision--this cracks me up!

-He loves dancing with "Mommys" to "Magic" by B.O.B. This is his favorite song.

-Discipline is still tricky because, when in trouble and asked whether he wants time out, he always says, "Okay," and puts himself in his room. Luckily, he doesn't need time out that often--he's a pretty good kid.

Yes, Coren is a champion in the Brooks household these days. And honestly, I'm not dreading the terrible twos yet... that may change. But for now, I've got the cutest little dude alive!! Happy birthday, Styx! Let's make 3 a good year (what was I saying about potty-training??).

Merry Christmas, Honey!

I don't have much to say today... actually thinking of my husband... all the cute little quirks about him that I didn't know about before we were married (miraculously, considering we dated for 5 years)....

Like his love of freebies! He sent an email to his family members this morning about a morning radio show prize giveaway that he wanted us all to participate in so maybe one of us would win. I think most of us hear those contests as we're driving around listening to the radio, and we think, "hey, lucky person. They just won an ipad (or whatever)." Chad always, always goes into action, ready to be that lucky person... Well, we didn't win the ipad this morning, but thanks to his freebie fire, we won free concert tickets to OK Go last week. We also got a Christmas tree marked down from $40 to $18 this year, because it was stuck in the wrong spot and Chad was willing to find a manager to see if they would honor the mistaken price. Ah... sometimes I find myself trying to hide a little while he's perusing booths and snatching his 6th free pen or water bottle or whatever (not all from the same booth). But it also cracks me up. I love this about Chad--I hope he never stops (mostly because I'm excited to see a 73 year old man grabbing for free toothbrushes. Priceless). And after a fabulous OK Go concert last Thursday night, is it worth it? Yes, I think so!

Like his inability to keep his hands off me, in public or even just in front of our kids! (Is this a TMI?) I'm sure at some point we'll have to stop making out in front of Coren, especially now that he can communicate what he sees... but it's going to take Chad some work to do it... And quite frankly, I LOVE this. And secretly, I hope it doesn't stop for a long time, like ever. Really, how many wives have the problem of too much public affection from their husbands? Awesome!!

Like his refusal to drive his work car an extra five or ten miles to catch up with me at his parents' house for the evening or something... I usually have go pick him up from a Park-and-Ride off the freeway and bring him back later... just because he doesn't want to use a single mile of gas on non-work activities. Because he has that much integrity. In everything, really. And it makes me so thankful that Coren will be growing and learning with a man like that as his father.

Like how he walks into his work party, and everyone has to come up and talk to him, just to be around him. How he has this dignified magnetic quality to him that draws people--all kinds! His coworker covered in tens of thousands of dollars of tattoos, his 40 year-old coworker with her teenaged kids, his previous coworker who reminds me so much of my little brothers, dancing with a tie around his head. Everyone wants to know Chad, to be around him. Everyone respects him. It sounds exaggerated, but ask those who know him--it's true. Honestly, I'm a little in awe sometimes.

Just a few of the quirks I was musing on this morning. A few little qualities (and oddities) that make my husband irresistibly fantastic! It's no wonder I needed to marry him from the first time I ever met him. Lucky me!

Merry Christmas Honey, how I love you!!

And because people wanted to see...

Here he is... My boy with chopped hair. My boy who no longer looks at all baby, who looks all boy, who makes me miss my little dude, but who is still as cute as ever (I can say that now, a month into the haircut, now that I've resigned myself to it).