Belated Birthday
Topic: This and That
Happy belated (by one day) birthday Mike! Hope it was wonderful!

"Tain"
Topic: Ryan
For a while now, Ryan and I have had a little pre-bedtime ritual of watching Thomas and Friends (the older one shown on Nick Jr. Classics). I sit cross legged and bounce Ryan up and down on my lap during the theme music. Lately, when Ryan plays with his trains, he'll say, "tain!" Tonight he was extra tired and wanted to watch Thomas. It was still about 45 minutes away. Ryan picked up the remote and said, "Tain!" :)
The weather was absolutely gorgeous today. Ryan and I made sure to walk around in the morning.
The next three days are going to be busy and hopefully interesting. Tomorrow I'm going to babysit in the morning, then Ryan and I are going on post to run some errands. Saturday in the morning. there's a baby sitting co-op meeting. It's taking place at a farm with lots of things for kids to do and see. In the afternoon is a friend's baby shower. Sunday there's a flower show at the Great Yorkshire Showgrounds. I missed the fall one, so I'm excited to see the spring one. Larry is going to watch Ryan. I hope to have lots to write about and lots of pictures.

Music and Change of Scenery and Moo!
Topic: This and That
Just a thought to add to my music list: I realized that the reason the soundtracks I like are all from the 60's is that in this day and age, there is usually one main song from a movie, MAYBE two, and that's it. Usually that song is played over the credits anyway, and doesn't have much to do with the movie except marketing through a video. The movies I mentioned have one great song after another, and they all add something to the movie.
The last few days I've been doing my usual thing of running in the morning with Ryan, then going out again to the shopping center in the afternoon. What's been different, is that I've taken different routes and gone down different streets. It's amazing what a little change of scenery will do, something as simple as one street over. It's actually quite nice and refreshing. Also, Ryan seems to really enjoy the change.
Since we live in an agricultural area, we are blessed with the aroma of cattle now and then. Today was such a day. I said to Ryan as we were walking, "It smells like cow," and Ryan enthusiastically emitted a, "Mooooo!!!!" That made my day!

Chocolate
Topic: This and That
Larry took this the other night while Ryan enjoyed his chocolate. :)
Inspired by my friend Ginger's favorite song list, I was thinking about my favorite music. I was thinking I'd have to divide it into a ton of different categories. For whatever reason, today while jogging with Ryan, I thought of movie soundtracks and scores. In no special order, here are a few of my favorite movie scores: Braveheart, Somewhere In Time, Gladiator, Titanic, Hunt For Red October, Meet Joe Black, The Saint, Out of Africa, Dances With Wolves, The Piano, Band of Brothers, and of course the spaghetti westerns (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, etc.). As far as soundtracks go (the songs in the movies), American Graffiti, The Bill Chill ("You Can't Always Get What You Want!"), Forest Gump (gets an honorable mention on sheer number of songs), Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now, (see a trend? *grin*). This is by no means a comprehensive or finished list. Just a few things I thought of and thought I'd share for fun.

Birthday
Topic: This and That
Happy birthday Pebe!!!
Love,
~Holly, Ryan, and Larry

Gobsmacked
Topic: This and That
I've come across the term, "gobsmacked," recently. God bless the internet and Google. Here's the definition of "gobsmacked," courtesy of World Wide Words: "It’s a fairly recent British slang term: the first recorded use is only in the eighties, though verbal use must surely go back further. The usual form is gobsmacked, though gobstruck is also found. It’s a combination of gob, mouth, and smacked. It means “utterly astonished, astounded”. It’s much stronger than just being surprised; it’s used for something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks. It suggests that something is as surprising as being suddenly hit in the face. It comes from northern dialect, most probably popularised through television programmes set in Liverpool, where it was common. It’s an obvious derivation of an existing term, since gob, originally from Scotland and the north of England, has been a dialect and slang term for the mouth for four hundred years (often in insulting phrases like “shut your gob!” to tell somebody to be quiet). It possibly goes back to the Scottish Gaelic word meaning a beak or a mouth, which has also bequeathed us the verb to gob, meaning to spit. Another form of the word is gab, from which we get gift of the gab." (www.worldwidewords.org)

St. George's Day
Topic: Holidays
Today is St. George's Day. Here is a link about it: St. George's Day St. George is the patron saint of England. Today is also a sort of English national pride day.
If you visit the above site, scroll down and read what it says about "the dragon slaying patron saint of England." I got a giggle out of it.

Great Weather, Great Run
Topic: This and That
Today a good friend of mine told me the photos in my blog were loading over the text. Has anyone else run into this problem? Please let me know. Thanks!
Today the weather was GORGEOUS! Larry watched Ryan and I went for a run around the Fewston reservoir. It was really scenic and very relaxing. On one side there were rolling green fields with sheep and lambs and cows. On the other side was the lake. It was sunny and warm out, with a nice cooling breeze now and then. It felt great to run on a trail. I don't even remember the last time I got to run off road.

Now Playing: Classic fM TV
Topic: This and That
"Which one of these things isn't like the other one?" (Hint: one of them is a vacuum cleaner. *grin*) Larry took this a week or so ago.
Yesterday followed my more usual routine of running with Ryan in the morning, then going to the shopping area in the afternoon. We've been going for walks in the evening, which is really nice. Larry and I also play with Ryan on his slide, which is fun for all three of us.
This morning I made a big breakfast, then took Ryan with me to the commissary. I went for a solo run in the afternoon. It wasn't as relaxing as last time. Guacamole is not a good pre-run snack! :)
This evening Larry and Ryan and I went to Borders in Leeds. It's kind of an easy, relaxing thing to do at night. It's not too far away, it gets us out of the house. It's always fun to get Starbucks, and it's fun to shop. Ryan was getting that special kind of hyper little ones get when they're tired, so we didn't stay as long as we might have.
I would like to hex Bloomsbury publishers. I have found another set of Harry Potter books in the adult section with yet different covers from the first adult editions I saw. Ack! It's all a plot to make people buy the same books over and over. *sigh* I didn't give in.
To respond to a comment my Mom made about my last post, Ryan does walk around in my shoes on a regular basis!

"Does This Purse Clash With My Outfit???"
Topic: Ryan
Ryan has MADE my blog entry for today! *grin* This afternoon he got my purse out of the bottom of his stroller and started carrying it around. (It's the first time he's done that.) I thought it was cute. What made it hilarious was Larry's reaction: none too thrilled. *BIG grin* (I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but Ryan at one point actually had the purse up over his shoulder.)