The Nellie Spot

I have a couple of big posts in the works, including the American Idol / LOST Finale Party last Wednesday and then some pics of the Memorial Day Weekend. Until then, I'm going to fill up space by asking a question:

What the heck happened to the Painted Horse in front of the NWA Florist shop?? That horse is as monumental and landmarky as Old Main and Dickson Street! And it's gone! Maybe I'm over-reacting and it's been shipped off to a giant paint thinner place to get rid of the 2 tons of paint it has on it. Or maybe it's gone for good. Who knows? All I know is that it is greatly missed.

Maybe that building that houses the Florist and Golf USA has been bought out by the Nelson's Crossing development? It would be nice to get rid of that ugly building. They're putting in a Starbucks next to Red Lobster, so everything else can crumble to the ground, as long as I can get to my White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks. Since it's Fayetteville, maybe they'll put in a giant mosaic of the horse in the ground near the building. I wouldn't put it past Fayetteville to do something like that...they're tacky in their historical preservation sometimes.

In other news, Johnson city council & road crews remain idiots. As previously mentioned, they put in a new light. When on Carley road, turning onto Main Street, you can't see the light since it hangs directly above you. How did Johnson fix this? Move the stopping line back 20 feet! Of course! Ingenious, Johnson....ingenious.

I realized last night as I was attempting to get my dress shirt off that I have wide hands. The next logical thought was that I would never be able to escape being handcuffed due to this.

Allison and I have lived in the great metropolis of Johsnon about 5 years now, and there are some great things about the community. And there are some bad things. Here's my list:

Cons of Johnson-opolis

• It's 1 sprawling speed trap with merciless patrolmen
• Traffic. This deserves it's own post, but I will sub-bullet...
  
• It's between 540 and the mall, so lots of traffic
• Tyson's HQ employees travel through Johnson to 540...there are lots of them
• The most ignorant traffic-light folks EVER. Have you seen the new light at Carley / Main? From Carley, you can't see the light if you pull up to the line since it's directly above you. Going toward the mall from 540, there is no protected left turn onto Carley, so traffic backs up to the highway waiting for the Tyson folks to come through the light.
• Post Office isn't big enough to service all the residents, so most folks in Johnson have a Springdale or Fayetteville address.
• Strip Mall Paradise. Seriously, can the city planners actually turn down a proposal for a new strip mall in the city?
• The Train. This thing crosses the 2 major roads in Johnson (Main Street & Johnson Road)...at the same time, blocking all routes through the town. And there's a junction between the 2 streets, so it stops on the streets for 10 minutes while it changes tracks.

Pros of Johnson-opolis

• It's not Springdale
• It's not Fayetteville
• Affordable housing (kind of)
• The sno cone place at Johsnon Road & Main Street
• Curt's Place
• The Johnson City Park...this place is really great for a town its size
• It's convenient location: close to the mall, Wal*Mart, Best Buy & soon Starbucks.
• Quick access to I-540 (unless you're stuck behind the train)
• Lots of friends live nearby
  
• My sister and her family live around the corner
• My neighbor's are increible Holiday celebrators.
• 4th of July: neighbors shoot bigger / more fireworks than the Mall.
• Halloween: elaborate housing decorations, including sound effects.
• Christmas: lights abound. On on some houses, they still abound even now.
• The exit sign for Johnson says "Johnson Exit 69"...that's phallically funny. I know you're laughing.

That's right! Allison and I are having another girl! We went in for the ultrasound this morning and got a "dead on" shot of the baby's nether-regions! And there was no third leg...so it's a girl! Allison and I were both pretty sure it was a boy, and Emma kept saying it was a girl. Guess she was right!

The expected due date is October 15th. I will need a LOT of masculine activities lined up, since there is no hope of additional testosterone in my family.

Man, I sure haven't posted in a while! It's been somewhat busy lately, but not so busy that I couldn't blog. My priorities have been realigned, and I'm back to blogging! I know you're thankful and joyful...you can thank me later.


In other news, some of the things keeping us busy have been wonderful things! First, my favorite summer family activity has been set in motion! The Sno Cone place in Johnson has re-opened for the season! So, the family has re-established our "Sno Cones & Park" activities. This is where we go get Sno Cones, then eat them and play at Johnson Park as the evening cools off. It's so dang fun! I recommend the Tiger's Blood cone...it's tastey! One of the "traditions" Emma and I have when eating Sno Cones is to stick out our tongues and go "AAAHHHH" to show off the color of our tongue after eating a Sno Cone. The picture is a self-portrait...sorry about my horrible teeth...just try to focus on my cute daughter.

Our good friend Elizabeth Morris (Hale) got married today (Saturday). I will finally get some sleep now that she's hitched since Allison frequently asked me (usually while I'm trying to sleep) who we could set her up with. Congrats to Micah & Elizabeth...it's such a God-graced union...they're perfect for each other! The picture is from their reception after the wedding.

Tonight, Josh Ayres celebrated his 28th birthday at his house and with a ton of friends there. It's always so fun to see friends and hang out and eat together. Here, Todd is staring me down as I snap a picture of about half the attendees. The kiddos played in the Elmo sprinkler, the girls chatted indoors, and the guys hung out in the backyard playing Cornhole (which I got thoroughly whipped at).

Also, TV has been keeping me pretty tied up at the house. Alias is ending for good. American Idol's Finale is on Wednesday. LOST's finale is Wednesday. 24 finale is Monday. Those are all 2 hour finales...so I've got like 8 hours of incredible TV to watch this week! So exciting! As always, you can catch up on American Idol on the TV Addicts blog!

I thought Macs were touted as bullet-proof and flawless? Perhaps not so true?

Just as a reminder to those who care: I have posted several videos of Emma on YouTube. Most are done with my camera's video capture, so the quality isn't super-great.

My favorites thus far are:

- Pole Dancer

- Safari Accident

- Band Leader

Not many of you who read my blog are familiar with the Casa Verde. The CV is the house I lived in for a couple of years while in (and out of) college. For the most part, it housed the main student leaders on Student Mobilization on the Fayetteville campus. I have too many incredible memories from that time in my life to even capture it in a blog, but I'll list some of my favorites:

• During my stay there, it was the first time I've ever read through the entire Bible, front to back, straight through.
• I met the men that had the most influence on me spiritually. I am only where I am today because of them.
• I was beaten regularly with a giant zucchini by a 6'5" bearded lumberjack genius.
• Once, a few of us turned off the lights and danced to some stupid techno song. When the lights came on (mid-way through the song), I was caught with my pants down. Literally. I was slapping my bare cheeks to the rhythm of the song. Quite em-bare-assing (haha).
• I asked Allison out on our first date from my room at the Casa
• After my first kiss with Allison (several months after we began dating), I came home to Elton at the Casa, who immediately knew I had kissed her. His comment: "You kissed her, didn't you? You're beaming, and it's disgusting."
• Finding an 8" mushroom growing through the bathroom floor behind the toilet.
• Chess by candlelight with Ben Elkins and Harold Simmons
• Playing guitar with all my roommates and friends
• My first room at the Casa: the Pain Cave.
• My first night at the Casa: 4 very naked men jumping on me while in bed just after I turned off the lights.
• Scalding hot baths in a clawfoot tub
• Sleeping with a meat cleaver beside my bed so I could defend myself from Craig Sharp when he would come lay on top of me (I was under the covers) after taking a shower in the mornings...usually naked or wearing just his towel. Very disturbing.
  
• Alabanza's & Annual 5Ks with Yoohoo.
  
• Snack Time: Elton's sister would make us incredible & elaborate snacks on Tuesday's (I believe). We would gather around the living room and thank God for her.

Now that I'm reliving some of these moments, I realize there was a lot of male nudity happening at that place. It's kind of disturbing. Regardless, my time at the Casa Verde was life changing. I would not be the man I am today without that group of men and brothers in Christ surrounding me with love and encouragement.

I bring all of this up for 1 reason: Elton has created a website for all former Casa Verde-ites! I'ts been great so far to chat with roommates and friends who are overseas / far away and haven't spoken to in quite some time! I present to you, The Casa Verde Lounge!

My friend Todd introduced me to the band Anberlin recently. After sampling a bit of their music, I bought their newest album, "Never Take Friendship Personal", on iTunes. I rarely get an album and listen to it repeatedly...but I'm hooked on this band! The driving guitar rhythm, very melodic vocals and harmonies, and catchy songs are just flat out great! I've been listening nonstop to this album for about 3 weeks now, and it's just getting better! You can sample some of their music on the band's MySpace site.

Todd and I saw that they are playing at the Hive in Tulsa soon, so he and I are heading over there to see them. If you're interested, let me know and you can join in the fun!

We had some significant adventures on day 2 & 3 of my single parenting. Friday morning, my Mom calls and says they need me to be a pallbearer for my great aunt's funeral on Saturday. She also mentioned that she would watch Emma and I could take her place with Dad at the golf tournament! I was in! So, in order to get to Mountain Home before Emma's naptime, I had to leave in about 30 minutes. I knew that wasn't going to happen. But I threw a ton of things together for myself and Emma to have for the weekend. The fun part was this: I had driven Allison to the airport and she left her car at my office in Bentonville. So! I called a couple of co-workers and asked if they could help a brother out...which they gratefully did. I took the keys up to Bville and the two guys (Scott & James) took the car to the airport. I went straight back toward Springdale and on to Mtn. Home while James drove Scott back to the office.

We got to MH around 2:45...almost 2 hours past Emma's regular naptime. So, we pushed on through the nap and went to Walmart. Mom and I got Em some food and cute summer clothes. Then we went home. Mom went to the visitataion while Emma and I walked over to the city park and played around for a while. On the way back to the house, I picked her up and waded into a big stream to some very safe rocks right in the middle of the stream. We sat there for a while throwing pebbles into the creek. This is the same creek I spent HOURS exploring when I was 10, so it was really fun to share that with her. After dinner, Emma went to bed and actually slept in my old twin bed in my old room. She was obviously tired, as she fell asleep in about 5 minutes. I went to bed around 10:45 in the outer room (my room has two parts: inner bedroom, outer playroom...it's the bomb, yo!). About 3:45 AM, Emma woke up. I got her into bed with me, where she and I slept on and off for about 30 minutes. I awoke to Emma poking me in the face saying "Daddy, WAKE UP!". I kept trying to get her to sleep, but to no avail...she was up for the day! We watched cartoons until 6:15 when Mom & Dad got up. Dad and I got ready to go play in the golf tournament while Mom watched Emma and got her some breakfast.

Golf was OK. It was chilly and kind of rainy toward the end. But hey...cold & wet golf is still golf! Plus it was fun hanging out with Dad...that's our quality time activity. I checked on Emma a couple of times by calling Mom. She went back to bed for her nap around 11:00 AM and slept for 2 hours...I was hoping for about 4. After we finished our round (of even par), we came home to change for the funeral. I didn't even end up being a pallbearer, which was fine. It's always good to see family, even under sad circumstances like this.

After the funeral, I decided to skip out of the rest of the weekend. I was really worried that Emma would repeat the previous night's schedule, and I couldn't handle that again. So, we packed up and headed home. You know a kid is tired when they repeatedly yell "NIGHT NIGHT DADDY! NIGHT NIGHT!" in the car. Of course, Emma refuses to sleep in the car, so I put her down about 30 minutes after getting home. I took like 5 minutes for her to fall asleep.

The great thing is this: in the morning, she'll get to wake up to Mommy's face! That'll make her super happy for the rest of the day (both her and Allison!).

All in all, it was a pretty fun single parenting excursion. It's nice to spend that much time with Emma, though it's sometimes draining. And it's absolutely the BEST when you walk into a room and she yells "DADDY!!!' and comes up for a big hug!

Allison, her sister, and her mother took off to Chicago on Wedesday to hang out, shop, and see the Antichrist...I mean, Oprah. They got really lucky: Vince Vaughn and the entire cast of Will & Grace were the guests! She's coming back Saturday to sleep off the tireless shopping excursion her mom & sister have taken her on. So what this all means is this: I'm a single parent. That's right! Mr. Mom!

It's been pretty easy so far (28 hours into my full-time parenting role). Today, Emma had "Kids Day Out" at FBC Springdale from 9:00 AM to 2:00 (followed by a lovely 3 hour nap). I have no problem feeding and putting Emma's clothes on. Now picking out clothes and fixing her hair are not so easy for me. (thankfully Allison laid out outfits for me to choose from and gave me a lesson in fixing her hair before she left). I have to admit, her hair and outfit looked pretty cute today! While she was at "school", I was going to play golf with Miller, but apparently, that whole "April Showers Brings May Flowers" saying is total BS because it rained out the game. So I sat at home and read about the new LOST game (if you're a follower, check out the new Hanso Foundation website!) and played a lot of Xbox 360. After Emma got up from her nap, we hung out for a while then went to McDonald's for a date. She ate literally 2 bites of a cheeseburger and 5 fries and chased it down with some Sprite. Then she played in the indoor playground for about an hour before we packed up and came home. She usually goes to bed around 8:00 - 8:30...but tonight? Not until about 9:30. Yeah, I'm an awesome Dad.

My problem lies within the fact that I have no earthly idea what to do with her all day tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so there's not much hope of killing a couple of hours in the back yard. I can't do McD's again (another sign that I'm aging...I can't stomach that place like I used to). So, if you happen to have a great, clean indoor playground at your house, or have a bunch of child-loving pets, give me a call! We'd love to come over and hang out! I'm thinking we may do Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, then possibly a trip to Barnes & Noble (cool kids area to hang out in) followed by a trip to the "zoo" (aka PetSmart). If you're interested in coming, you're more than welcome!

We did have a "mommy" breakdown tonight after getting home from McD's. Emma likes to look at pictures on the computer. When the slideshow came to the first picture of Mommy, all hell broke loose! She ran around the house yelling and crying for her Mom. As a parent, there's no good way to remedy this...but to assure them that she's coming back and that you are here right now and they should enjoy hanging out with Dad for a while (she needs reminding of this quite often). Thankfully, Allison called from Chicago and talked to Emma on the phone, which calmed her down pretty quickly (thank the Lord).

I'll give an update tomorrow night, if I'm not passed out on the floor from exhaustion. Seriously, I love my daughter beyond words...but I am very accostomed to sitting in front of a computer all day talking to adults (who sometimes act like children, but at least you can understand most of the words they utter). This Mr. Mom thing is TOUGH! Nothin' but respect for you full-time Mommies out there! Word up, yo! Rather, Word to your mutha!

Sorry I haven't posted all that much lately. There's a lot I want to blog about, but keep losing time to sit down and do it. So here's something that I've been wanting to share lately...

On my way to work, I usually tune into 104.9 the X for some "get up and go" music before heading into a hectic day of work. Not usually the kind of music you'd expect to be blaring from a freakin' minivan.

But something happens during the day between my morning commute and the trip home: I work with people and computers. It's even draining typing that out and thinking about it! So for my ride home, I've been tuning into 107.9 for a little relaxation. Nothing like a little Sting or Elton John to calm the nerves down after a long day of work. It seems like all minivans' radios should only be able to listen to golden oldies, as that's the image most closely associated.

Man...that really isn't nearly as funny written out and it is in my head.