Groovy Sputum

What Does A Geek Get His Wife For Their Anniversery?

A Google Map of all the places they have been together in their 13 years together, of course! Last year I made this list for her, and I wanted to keep the list theme going, but with a twist. The first pin I put on the map was the place we met: the LU cafeteria in 1996. From there, I just mentally walked through our life together and put a pin in any location that I had a memory of. I didn’t put on routine things like Meijer in Marion, but if it was a place that brought back fond memories, it made the map. Google lets you chose the pin colors for each point, so I kind of color coded things a bit to make it easier to read. Overnight tips together are teal, family trips are yellow, day trips are blue, and so on (I can’t tell you what all the colors are for, if you know what I mean! It is a private map, after all.) I also listed the pins by date as best as I could remember so that we could go year by year through our life together. Google lets you put notes into the pop up windows for each place marker, too, so I jotted down my memories of each location for Valerie to read and she is going to share her memories with me as we go through the map together. Over 300 pins made that map and so far, I have only missed one significant location: the Upper Room in Lynchburg. The conversation Valerie & I had there in 1996 kind of kick started this love thing we are sharing (it happened to be the same day as this, by the way!)

I took a few screen shots for you to look at:

Anyway, happy 11 year anniversary, Valerie. It’s been a wonderful journey, Love. Thank you for pushing pins with me for the last 13 years. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I can’t wait to see what our map looks like 50 years from now!

Duece

It’s official: Valerie is pregnant with twins. You should have seen the look on the sonogram tech’s face at midnight in the ER as she finished up scanning Valerie’s gall bladder (we thought she was having a gall bladder attack) and decided to take a quick peek down below just to see if we could see anything. Anything turned out to be two kids with strong heart beats. I never get over hearing that sound for the first time. And I havn’t been this giddy about a pregnancy for a long time, either. Wow…TWINS!

Thanksgiving In April

I am shamelessly stealing this idea from a pastor freind of mine in Columbus. He blogged this same basic thing only better which is why I am not telling you his name. I know you would go look his blog entry up and leave nasty comments about how much better his list was than mine. I’ll not have that.

• I am thankful for my 5 disc DVD player that my toddler broke this morning because it means I have enough money to spend some of it on entertainment.
• I am thankful that my mp3 library will not fit on my new iPod because it means I have more music than most people can listen to in a lifetime.
• I am thankful that I only got 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night because it means that I have a wife who is creative enough to write & illustrate her own children’s book and I have the privilege of being her typesetter.
• I am thankful that I forgot to get snacks for the Good News Club when I was at the store today because it means that I am a member of a church that takes evangelism seriously and values children.
• I am thankful that a letter takes a week to get to Florida because it means that I have a restored relationship with a good freind that I once thought I would never speak to again.
• I am thankful that my only vehicle option at this point in life is a HUGE van that only gets 15 miles to the gallon because it means that God has blessed me with more kids than can fit in anything else on the road.
• I am thankful that my toddler (the same one who broke my DVD player…yeah, he has issues) bangs his head on the floor when he is mad because it reminds me that we don’t live in a dirt floor hut like so many in this world.
• I am thankful that the only shorts my wife can afford to wear are the youth size medium gym shorts that were given to us from a schools lost-and-found because it means that my wife fits in a youth size medium shorts. (Grrrr! Oh, behave!)
• I am thankful that I have been an emotional wreck recently because it means that I know that I am one of God’s children because His Word promises that He prunes those who belong to Him.

The Power Of Music

My recent discovery (a few months ago) that Amazon has a large selection of free mp3 downloads has lead me to investigate some new artists lately. Many of the free songs offered are singles that are used to promote an upcoming album by lesser known or new artists. I have noticed that these songs are typically only free for a while. In a slick marketing ploy, the freeness of the download causes the song to climb the “most downloaded” list and thus gives the appearance of being very popular. Then, once the song has a high ranking, it suddenly isn’t free anymore. Makes sense, really.

Anyway, this post isn’t about the music industry, but rather the fact that as I have been downloading new artists, I have discovered the amazing power music has over my emotions. The first time I really noticed this was a few years ago when I had Staci Orrico’s first album. There was one song that was on the radio that I really liked so I bought the album, but I noticed that every song on the album had a very sensual vibe to it. I don’t know if it was the beat, the rhythm, or the way she sang the lyrics, but I just didn’t like the way it made me feel. Other artists on Christian labels that I have recently discovered that do the same thing to me are Addison Road and Superchick. It’s too bad, too. These artists may have a few good radio songs, but I don’t really want to waste my money on pop crap that makes me feel rotten, so I won’t buy their albums. I guess it is nice that I am able to buy individual tracks in the digital age.

Oh, be careful little ears what you hear

Oh, the simple truth of toddler tunes.

The List

Valerie and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on January 2, 2009, with very little fanfare. We did go out to eat, but that was about it. We tossed around the idea of going on a big trip together to a warm place for a week, but we decided not to in light of the fact that we would rather put the money toward finishing the house and getting moved in sooner. We did manage to get away, though, over Valentine’s Day weekend and had a combo celebration for our anniversary & my birthday.

We decided to try out the Mohican State Park Lodge and headed out on Sunday afternoon. On the way, we picked up a $5 bottle of wine & the movie Fireproof at a Wal-Mart. How could we not have a truly romantic getaway with those in tow?

One of the things I decided to do special for Valerie for this weekend was make a list of the first 99 things that popped in my head that I love about Valerie. Hey, it was an anniversary celebration. While I am not going to share all of the things on the list, I will tell you a few:

#25. That you can read a 1385 page novel in 3 ½ hours
#55. That you understand me when I talk about the non-linear relationship between pendulum arm length and oscillation period and could graph this relationship and find its derivatives
#57. That you can spell chrysanthemum and onomatopoeia
#74. That you can make a gourmet meal with Aldi ingredients
#94. Your smile

I called this list 99TILAY (Things I Love About You). I know, it was a cheesy, sappy, and desperate attempt to be romantic, but I discovered something as I compiled it: Valerie was made for me. Seriously, God said to Jesus back in 1976, “Hey, this guy, uh…Luke, he needs a wife. Here’s the specs on what he needs. I know…let’s make her be from Athens County, that would be a hoot!”

I think I have always known that Valerie was designed for me and only me, but I guess after 10 years of marriage, I had somehow relegated that fact to the back of my mind and taken it for granted. What shocked me even more as I made the list is that I didn’t even know many of the things on it when I married Valerie. The question is was she this way when we wed and I am just now seeing it, or did she become these things to me after 12 years of loving me? It’s probably a bit of both, but it really doesn’t matter. I’m just glad that God knew what I needed even before I did and brought her to Lynchburg in 1996. I wonder what my list will look like 10 years from now?

Sir Duke

I was watching some of “The Neighborhood Ball” the other night and was delighted to see Stevie Wonder performing his hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered for the new President. Man, I like Stevie. He is such a great writer, singer, and performer. There aren’t may artist now days who have all three of those areas mastered. The guy has written some of the grooviest tunes ever, can play the keys with the best of them, and has a great voice.

This is one of the reasons I dislike American Idol: the judges focus so much on how the person looks and sounds, but they may know nothing about music, or how to play an instrument, or how to write anything. To me, they are just pretty faces that can sing. Money generators, if you will, for the record companies. Stevie is the antithesis of American Idol.

Whenever I think of Stevie Wonder, I think of one of my fondest memories as a kid: listening to Sir Duke on 8 track while camping with my family in my grandpa’s Airstream. I remember my dad liking that song and since it was on 8 track, in order to listen to it a second time, you had to go around the horn, so to speak, and wait for the whole 8 track to play through before getting to the song again. It was worth the wait, though. What a great song!

Got ‘Em

The annual mouse migration into mom’s house began a few weeks ago and I promptly laid out the sticky paper traps that my dad had purchased some time ago. These traps are advertised as the “humane” way to get rid of mice. No poison, no painful spring trap, no gross blood. The problem is they don’t work.

So, I purchased an 8 pack of the traditional Victor mouse traps this afternoon and set them before dinner. I put a few in the kitchen, a few in the furnace room, and a few behind a cabinet where I discovered a mouse hole the other day.

I decided to check them before we watched our evening installment of Andy Griffith with the kids and low and behold, I had one. I thought about snapping a photo on Valerie’s new camera (she loves it, by the way), but I figured it was a bit too much for my women kin folk to handle.

I threw that one away, feeling proud that I was able to cheer my wife a bit with a simple act of pest control. She’s not scared of mice, but she does hate the droppings they leave and the thought of them walking on the countertops at night.

After disposing of the mouse, I posted a few Facebook photos from when I was in college, watched some tv with the kids, and decided to check the remaining seven traps before putting the kids to bed. Low and behold, we had another one! I showed the kids (they love that kind of thing…they are like me) and I was barely finished washing my hands when SNAP!…I heard a third trap go.

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty good about my mouse trapping skills right now. I’m kinda’ like a ninja when it comes to killing mice. Awesome. That’s a good word for it, really. Awesome.

Great Googly Moogly!

I have a little digital weather station at mom’s house (yes, I am a nerd) and when I woke up this morning, it read -22.5! Yikes! I snapped a quick photo as evidence. I haven’t tested my theory, but I think it is cold enough for spit to be frozen before it hits the ground.

What I Gave For Christmas

I can proudly say that I spent WAY more on gifts for my wife, mother, and in-laws this year than I did on my kids. That is saying something in light of the fact that I have 7 children. In previous years, Valerie and I have felt that the kids get too much and don’t appreciate things the way they should because they get too many presents. So, we tried to tone things down a bit this year.

First, I got Valerie a Kodak Z712 IS camera. It is a 2007 model that I got for a VERY good price. I, ahem…SHE, loves it! It is not too big, can act as a point and shoot, but also has the whistles and bells of a higher end camera (with out the price).

Then, we gave a Kodak P720 digital picture frame for both my mother and Valerie’s parents. This was the first year in a long time that we knew immediately that our gift was a hit with Peter: he immediately opened the box, read the manual, and went home and loaded the thing with like 300 pictures.

Like I said, we toned things down a lot for the kids. S has been longing for an American Girl Doll, so it was decided that we would go together with our parents to get her one. That would be her only present this year since it is such a large ticket item.

We got A a sketch book called “The Girl’s Doodle Book” along with a deluxe set of 50 Crayola colored pencils. I wasn’t sure if she would like it, but man, she tells me every day how much she likes it.

S wanted a Webkinz, but not just any Webkinz. He wanted a bat. The problem, however, was that the bat was a special Halloween Webkinz. It pretty much sold out in stores in October, so off to eBay I went. I actually got one for the same price I would have paid at Meijer.

We got N a G.I. Joe motorcycle/action figure set. He pretty much likes anything that S likes, and we figured that they could play with it together.

A is only two, so she has particular tastes. We say a pair of slippers that looked like princess shoes. She wore them for three days straight after she opened them, so I guess they were a hit.

C, our 16 month old, loves books. One in particular he loves is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”. Our former copy was a traditional paper copy which had been toddlered to death. So, we found a heavy duty board book edition for him. I also gave him a board book copy of “I Love You, Stinky Face”, which is also a hit.

What I Got For Chrismas

My wife saw how desperately I needed a new wallet, so she went to Khol’s (there was a sale!) and gave me a nice bi-fold. I particularly like the fact that it holds 6 cards in independent pockets and it has two separate bill compartments. Very nice.

Valerie also got me “Christmas Vacation” on DVD. I don’t know any guy in America that wouldn’t love that. Then, my mother gave me some money and I ordered “Lost: Season 4″ from Amazon (one click, baby!) and a few compact discs from Best Buy: Nickle Creek’s first album and Brad Paisley’s “Play”. Good stuff.

Someone once told me that contentment is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. I feel very content this Christmas. That’s a good thing.