10 Things that "Delight" Me

1. Lying in bed reading all. by. myself. (Well, okay, I have to come up for air and Diet Coke every so often . . .)

2. Every single day with my beautiful daughter

3. Laying my head on my Handsome Hubby's chest while he's sleeping just to hear his heart beat.

4. REALLY, REALLY clever advertising that makes me want to buy something that I ordinarily wouldn't want to. (I'm a Marketing Manager, ok? I'm jaded. This is hard to acheive!)

5. Going out to lunch with friends at Governor Stumpy's. http://www.pitch.com/search/restaurants.php?oid=79165

6. Sail-boating on Lake Lotawana on a beautiful, slightly breezy day in May

7. Lying on my parents' dock, watching the sun set on a summer evening.

8. Watching my Handsome Hubby, an actor, perform. Even better? Watching Darling Daughter's reaction to HH's performance when I take her.

9. Possum Holler (Rhineland, MO) on a Sat. afternoon in October when the leaves are changing.




10. Sitting still and listening to whatever God has been trying to tell me, but I've been too busy to hear.

Very disturbing use of chocolate

I like chocolate just as much as any other red-blooded American woman, but this ad for Axe borders on cannibalism. Very weird use of strawberries and ass biting.



Quite frankly, I don't think it's a good image building campaign for the female race. Furthermore, I think it gives false hope to 20-something males that they could get hot, desperate chicks to dig them by putting on Axe. Lastly, I'm disturbed by the morphing of a Ken Doll and a Chocolate bunny.



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That's all I'm sayin'......

Mama Moment

I'm bringing this one over from my MySpace blog. I like it.

*Warning: If you are grossed out by bodily functions of 3 year olds, or the various words for them, stop here.*

So, Darling Daughter (DD) was in the bath tub a couple of nights ago and Handsome Hubby (HH) and I went in for the clean 'n' rinse portion of the "Bathtime Funtime" show. (Believe me, it's a three ring circus of a good time at our house.)


All of a sudden, DD made bubbles in the tub, if you know what I mean.

Being the immature people that we are, HH and I quietly chuckle. DD grins and says, "I farted!" Trying to not laugh completely out loud, I told her, "No, you tooted. Little girls don't fart, they toot." She looked at me very sternly and said, "No, Mama, I farted." (This would be when HH and I both totally lost it and gave way to complete laughter.)

No amount of argument would get her to sway in her choice of words. So much for raising a perfect little lady. I've failed and she's only 3. sigh.

When we were growing up, my siblings and I couldn't say fart, we could only say toot. My parents found the f word too crass. (Which I agree, but even so, toot is pretty ridiculous, I admit.)

While I admire her determination, I'm pretty sure she's just stubborn. Even after relating this story to her Favorite Uncle, she declared her gas as a fart, not a toot.

It's not that I'm all that prim and proper when it comes to most manners, but having that come out of her mouth was a bit grating on my somewhat decent sense of decorum. Maybe I'm making it a bigger deal than it needs to be.

Maybe it's just because I hate the word "fart". It's a horrible word that should be banned from the English language along with moist, fecal, shampoo (I'm washing my hair with something that ends in poo?!?), and select other icky words I'm blocking from my mind at the current moment.

I guess there's worse things for her to say. But hopefully she'll be 13 by the time we have to deal with that. Why isn't this issue addressed in the Dr. Spock (or any other child guru) manual? We've already had the "good words and bad words" talk (thanks a whole lot, Naughty Uncle, for the vocabulary lesson!) but fart is one she just won't budge on. Why? I don't know. I give up on this one for now.

Now if I could just figure out why she's been dancing around the house for the last week or so singing, "Happy Kwaanza", I'd be happy. Not that I'm anti-Kwaanza or anything, because I actually think it's a pretty cool celebration, but I just don't know where she learned about it. It's not tv, the baby sitter or her aunts and uncles....I guess it's just one more mystery of parenthood.

The Romantic Pinecone

Any new visitor to our home always asks about it. It's a decor oddity, I know. It's graced 3 different homes in the last 7 years and it's one of my favorite symbolic gifts from my husband. . .

I've been with Handsome Hubby (HH) for over 11 years. We met when I was a sophomore in college (he was a junior). Like any other couple, we've had our ups and downs, relationship-wise, financially and otherwise.

In 2001, we were going thru a particularly difficult time financially. He was still in school, I was just out of school at my first "real" job and our budget was so tight it squeaked. When my birthday came that year, we were totally broke and I was totally bummed.

HH really wanted to make the day special for me anyway. We had no money, but we did have a full tank of gas. He decided we were going to take a driving tour of all our best dates over the years. Since we're pretty outdoorsy people, this include a few parks.

When we got to one of these parks, we decided to just go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful, late April day. As we were walking along, HH spotted a fallen pine cone. He presented it to me, and said, "Here's your birthday gift, 'cause even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with you, honey" He then held the pine cone over my head and kissed me mistletoe style.

It's probably one of the best birthday gifts I've ever received. I took it home with us, tied it to a string and hung it from one of the chandeliers in our house.

If one of us stands underneath it, it means we want a hug/kiss from the other person. It means we're overwhelmed and need to recenter. It's also a great reminder that no matter what stress is going on in our lives, the love that we share is the most important thing.

Now that we're older, married, parents and homeowners, our decor has definitely advanced from "Starving College Student Minimalism" to "3 Year Old Daughter Messiness." Nevertheless, the pine cone remains as a good reminder to keep what's more important first in our lives.

Oh, What the Hell....

I've been meaning to do this for a while. As a marketing manager, I do "creative" all day to the point that I look at an ad and think, "Yeah, that's good, it'll sell stuff" but honestly, I've kept my true creative writing muse locked up in my inner closet with duct tape over her mouth for quite some time. She's been whining like full bladdered little puppy. She's finally kicked down the door and 'attention must be paid'. Fine, bitch, whatever, here you go. A blog just for you. Just don't make me smack you on the nose with a rolled up newspaper if you write something stupid.

I'm not sure what I'll write about. Probably about Handsome Hubby and Darling Daughter. Maybe about advertising. Probably Kansas City current events/news stories. I'll probably end up with a post or two on the elections. I'm an avid fan of my home town, so there will probably be restaurant/museum/entertainment/theatre reviews. Maybe even some KC history "Did you Knows" (I'm as full as tick with useless, but quaint trivia).

I'm gonna be like a cat and follow whatever bright shiny catches my fancy. I'm just gonna go for it and see where it takes me without worrying about things like grammar, punctuation, spelling or what people who know me would think if they read what I wrote. I haven't even decided if I'll tell Handsome Hubby I went for it.

I'll use this as my anonymous exhibitionist site for what I'm really thinking.

I chose the name Moxie Mama because everyone takes a journey every day. We head out the door in the mornings having no idea what lies ahead of us. Every day is a forage into the unknown. To paraphrase possibly the most over-quoted quote since "Remember the Alamo"....Life is like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, you never know where you're gonna end up. You might as well have as much fun with it as you can.

I've also got a healthy dose of sass in my personality, and moxie is something every gal's gotta have. The highest compliment I could give someone is to say "The kid's got moxie!"