Hey there! The Muse and Murse are still alive and kicking, believe it or not. We’ve just been rather busy and trying to enjoy the lovely springtime weather!
Spring is a time for new beginnings. Perhaps that is why I now have the itch to shake this little blog of ours up a bit with some changes. Most likely it’ll just be stylistic, but you never know!
Dear March,
Welcome! May your weather be warm and your days bright, and may Spring grace us with her beautiful flight.
Dear Vintage Camera,
I hope your journey has been a good one across the ocean from Spain, and that it ends quite soon at my front porch so we can finally meet in person and become great friends.
Dear Green,
You are almost my favorite color. It certainly is a tight race between you and good ol’ Blue. Blue has been up there by himself for nearly two decades, so there is something to be said for your climb up the color favoritism charts. Perhaps you two can share the ever so coveted title of “Favorite”.
Dear Weekend,
We are going to have a good time together. Hopefully some extreme productivity, sunshine and fun will be involved.
Dear Sidestiches,
Put bluntly, I hope to never encounter you again. You might think your little un-invited pain parties you have in my side while I’m running are cute and funny, but they most definitely are not.
Dear Pancakes,
Why do you have to be so amazingly tasty? And why, oh, why, did they come out with a spray version of you that is also organic? Even Eric’s diet pancakes rock. So cool, so irresistible.
This past Monday we headed to St. Louis to watch Switchfoot in concert. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been extremely excited about this for a while. And in the end, it was even better than we expected!
The concert was at The Pageant, the same place we saw MuteMath.
During the beginning of the first song we wondered where Jon’s voice was coming from. Then we looked behind us and lo and behold there he was! He then came up to our long table and stood right (right) in front of us and sang (and held my hand).
And during the last song, Jon jumped up on our table to sing again!
They were magnificent! True San Diego Rock!
And we had a great time!
We then stayed the night at the Moonrise Hotel which was right by the Pageant.
This awesome staircase changed colors!
Another view of the lobby. They had a retro lunar theme.
So, we loved spending the day together, seeing Switchfoot do their amazing thing, and staying in a swanky hotel. Hopefully we’ll get to do this again sometime!
Note: These and a few more pictures can be found in a Flicker set found here.
Here are some random pictures from Valentine’s Day celebrations at our home. All of which somewhat pertain to food…
Here was our table setting for Valentine’s Day:
And here are some of the foods Mom fixed for us the day before V-Day:
I hope your Valentine’s Day was a great one! Love from the Muse and Murse!
We must confess…we love the Muppets! Eric recently found that the Muppets have their own YouTube channel: MuppetsStudio.
Here are our two favorites:
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
And “Ode to Joy”
Hope that brought a smile to your face this weekend!
Our corner of town evidently attracts strange types of animals. What kinds of animals, you ask? Well, plastic ones.
Case-in-point Number 1: The Ploxen
Meet George and Larry.
Larry (the one on the right) is a joker and a ham while George (on the left) is kind of the straight man. They are closely related to the common ox (plural “oxen”), but since they are made of plastic they are, in fact, Ploxen (pronounced just like “oxen”).
Ploxen are natural protectors and tend to be as faithful as Horton himself. Eric and I are lucky to have such great neighbors to the East. They are committed guardians of their covered wagon and all the traffic that passes by. (Though I have a sneaking suspicion that in the middle of the night they climb in there and watch a movie or two on television.)
I met the Ploxen by chance when road renovations changed my route to work for an entire year. Seeing George and Larry there in the morning and evening always managed to bring a smile to my face, no matter how bad the road conditions at the time were. Since then, our roads have been fixed and I practically never see good ol’ George and Larry. Though, I think of them time to time and even drive by to visit on rare occasions. And seeing them still makes me smile.
Case-in-point Number 2: The Plooster
Meet Sunny.
He is our friendly neighborhood Plooster. Like the Ploxen being closely related to oxen, Ploosters are close cousins to average roosters. But once again, being plastic is what sets Ploosters apart.
When we moved into this part of town we immediately noticed Sunny. He has a bright and cheery personality which makes him stand out among his drab surroundings. But within just a few months (perhaps due to the crazy road construction, once again) Sunny left us. He has told me that during that time he went for an extended vacation down to Acapulco, Mexico to visit a distant relative. I doubt that he needed the distant relative for an excuse to get away from the crazy road work to go lounge on the beach, but that’s beside the point. When we noticed that Sunny the Plooster was gone we were deeply saddened. Every time we drove past his old spot we would mention how we missed him.
[Cars are shown to illustrate Sunny’s large size.]
But…Eric was thrilled to notice that Sunny had returned last week! And he’s all rested up and as shiny and as cheery as ever! Admittedly, for the longest time we used to call Sunny a Plicken (like “chicken”) but my dad recently corrected that huge mistake. Good thing, too, we wouldn’t want to upset Sunny and give him another excuse to leave us.
Now all is right with the world, with the Ploxen to our East and the Plooster to our West. Perhaps our neck of the woods will attract some more plastic animals soon! We can only hope…
*Note: The creative rights and credit of the names Plicken, Ploxen, and Plooster belong to my dad.
Sometimes plans change. For me and Eric it seems more often than not that our plans need to remain flexible and fluid. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it can actually be good. It can teach us patience, reliance on God, resilience, and hope. That’s some great stuff.
One plan that changed recently was that Eric will continue taking courses for his bachelor’s degree for another year. It might sound like a bit of a bummer, but it was the best option laid before him and we believe it will work out for the best. We’re actually excited about this change.
The other change is that I’m shifting more of my focus to writing. I know I’ve mentioned this a bit before, but now I’m starting to actually live it out. In the evenings now when Eric’s working on his homework I’ll be working on my writing. I’m very excited that ideas and words are starting to flow in the story. This may mean that blog posts will be slightly more rare, but I’ll still keep updating hopefully weekly (or at the very least bi-weekly).
Various other things in life are shifting, moving, growing and we’re trying to follow accordingly. Keeping hope, walking in faith, chasing after peace.
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
~Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)
Today was a holiday and tomorrow is Eric’s first day of his last semester for his Bachelor’s degree. So, Eric and I made sure to enjoy our day of freedom. We slept in, enjoyed a couple of locally made smoothies and watched “Leap Year.” We both laughed a fair amount during the movie and thought it was really cute. Might share more about that later.
Today was a very good day. Hopefully tomorrow will be too, but that’s a whole different kind of “good”.
We hope your days are good as well.
Dear January,
I understand how you have a cold-hearted nature, but please, could you keep it at least in the upper 20’s? Winter in Missouri should not feel like winter in North Dakota, Canada, or Iowa for that matter.
Dear Desk,
I’m looking forward to you coming to stay with us once again. My apologies for thinking that I didn’t need you over the last few months, but hopefully you had a fine time during your holiday with my parents. May our friendship pick up right where it left off.
Dear Sherlock Holmes,
You alluded us last night, but we will catch you this week if it’s the last thing we do! Mwahaha!
Dear Eric’s Final Semester of Undergrad,
Don’t take this too personally, but you appear rather demanding and not much fun at all. We hope Eric’s partnership with you will be as quick and as painless as possible. Our friend Summer keeps begging us to visit, but we have to spend our alotted time with you first.
Dear Avatar,
I find it funny how people have compared you to the Ferngully. But, they are rather mistaken, you really are much better than that. You see, Ferngully’s musical numbers were so horrendous that Robin Williams couldn’t even save the film. And you have a decent plot to boot, no matter what the critics say.
Dear Plans and Dreams,
Eric and I really love spending time talking to you. Both of you are so very exciting! We better hang out in small doses though, or else we’re bound to get carried away…
Switchfoot has been one of my favorite bands for a long time now. They call themselves “San Diego Rock” and are often categorized as alternative or even Christian rock. Their sound is great, always. Their lyrics tend to carry good meaning. And if that wasn’t enough they are heavily involved in artistic and activist/charitable work. Put that all together and you have one extremely awesome band, to say the least. I’ve seen them twice in concert. The first time was a long time ago when the band was still starting out and the second was a few years ago. And let me just say, they put on a superb show.
Well, we got word a few days ago that Switchfoot is going to play in St. Louis in February. Eric and I have waited somewhat impatiently for Switchfoot to come to good ol’ Missouri, so the moment the tickets went on sale for this concert we seized the opportunity bought two.
We are beyond excited to go see Switchfoot! Pictures will definitely be taken and stories told. Though, I don’t plan on living behind the camera this time around, I have to make sure to enjoy the music and the moment as well.
So, all of this to say, we’re counting down the days…
*Pictures found on Switchfoot’s Official Site.
Muse and Murse 