Daring Young Mom

We’ve been having a dance party all day because I’m making a mix CD called, “Youmaynotwannalikethembutyoudoanyway Dance Songs.”

This post goes along with Tip Tuesday because you need good dancin’ music to clean anything.

Laylee has been very helpful in the song selection. BeeJees good – Dr. Dre bad. Kelly Clarkson good – Sugar Ray bad, Backstreet and NSYNC both got the thumbs up as well as Carole King and Coolio. She liked Ben Folds but not for dancing. There was a big fat pass on New Order and the Pet Shop Boys. Who can account for 2-year-old taste?

I squeezed in some U2, Dido, and Bob Marley but so far no Beatles tunes have made the cut. She’s ruthless and a very skilled dancer.

We’ve made it through early MJ and on to Lauryn Hill and the Fugees. We were dancing to Killing me Softly when Laylee stopped me for a correction. “NO, he’s saying WOOD!” I say, “I think it says, ”˜with his words’.” “No, he says, ”˜Killing me softly with his WOOD!’” I don’t think that one’s going on the mix CD.

I would kill for some ABBA, Cake or Vanilla Ice right now. How about some Beastie Boys or Sublime without any nasty lyrics?

She keeps asking for Raffi and I keep telling her, “It’s not that kind of CD.”

In reality, when I actually listen to all the lyrics, Raffi’s probably the only thing that will make it on the CD.

I’m not quite sure what to do with them.

I attended BYU film school in the late 90s and early 2000s and then worked for a couple of years supervising the Media Department of the local public library where all us film geeks came to get our fix. (It is an amazing library with a HUGE film collection, the perfect job for a film/English graduate who loves libraries.)

Consequently, I have several friends and acquaintances who were involved in the making of a certain teenage cult classic that came out in the summer of 2004.

Long story short, I ended up with several cookies, bearing the faces of the film’s main characters. According to a very reliable source, the cookies were part of a gift basket given to the film’s director by a major motion picture studio when the distribution deal was signed.

I’m not sure what to do with these. They’ve been sitting in my closet in a bubble envelope for over a year. The ink on the frosting is darkening and turning a greenish color. A few characters are crumbling (luckily Kip, LaFawnduh and Pedro are still intact. Phew!) and they’re way past the edible phase.

When I got them, I laughed for about an hour but couldn’t bring myself to eat them.

So they went in the closet.

Now I’m de-junking my house and I keep coming back to the envelope, unsure what to do.

In reality, they are just a crumbling pile of flour and sugar.

Symbolically, they’re the piece I got of all the adventures my friends are having out in the industry “making a go of it” while I make my living as the mother of two awesome kids.

I spoke to one of these friends a couple of days ago, who’s been encouraging me to get involved in my craft out here in Seattle.

So today I made first contact with a man I’ve been planning to film a documentary about for over a year. We’ll see how that turns out. I’ll keep you posted.

But back to the cookies. What should I do with them? I know there is some fanatical fan out there somewhere who’d be willing to pay mega bucks for them. After-all, people are bidding like crazy to buy things like Brittany Spears’s chewing gum.

But I can’t bring myself to sell them either. Then I’m just a sellout, capitalizing on my friends’ success and pretty much an all round dork. I also don’t like the idea of being sued by Fox.

I guess they’ll stay in my closet until I can think of something to do with them or until I finish my film. Maybe then I’ll be able to let go.

Hello, Daring Young Mom!

I got my stuff today and I’m lovin’ it. The shirt is thin (as the shop said it would be) so I think I will be layering.

The logo is a bit stiff. I chose this printing option because it is supposed to last longer and they say it will soften with washing.

It’s so flippin’ cute, Dan will have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers to get it into the washing machine.

But then there should be plenty of water available to wash it in because now that I have this hat, I’ll never need to shower or brush my hair again. Small piggies sticking out the back should work nicely.

Our church starts at 9:00am and in our congregation if you get there only 5 minutes early, you’re already late. You’re doomed to sit in the folding chairs at the back of the chapel with all the other parents of small children. The children then, unrestrained by a wooden pew with parents at both ends, escape and create a subculture of mass chaos that’s really hard to control.

We try REALLY hard to get there early so we can maintain some semblance of worship on Sunday mornings. This sometimes means that instead of fixing Laylee’s hair at home, I bring a brush and do it out in the foyer. Sometimes, instead of feeding Laylee at home, we bring her some cheerios in a bag and a sippy-cup of milk and call it breakfast.

This morning, I woke her up and told her it was Sunday morning and asked her what she wanted for breakfast. She said, “I would like some Cheerios in a bag …to go.”

To go? I promise we do not eat at fast food restaurants that often. So we packed up the breakfast and headed out. We were only 2 minutes early but I spotted the very front pew available.

We laid Magoo on a blanket in front of us with some toys where he proceeded to roll around and then get up on his hands and knees and growl (yes growl — like a leettle tiny tiger) at each deacon as they passed by with the sacrament bread and water. I think he was guarding our territory.

When we picked Laylee up from Nursery at the end of our meetings, her teachers told me how cute it is that she says “like” all the time. Example, “What animal is this Laylee?” “It’s, like, a parrot.” Yes, so cute. I, like, swear I don’t talk like that.

Out at the car I asked her what we should make for lunch when we got home, as if I didn’t already know. “Um, like, a peanut butter sandwich.”

“Like, totally! Do you, like, want that to go?”

Laylee just went into my room and came out with 3 books, one for each of us to read. For Dad, she brought “The American Chess Player’s Hand Book.” Good choice. For herself, she brought, “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Superstitions.” Okay, she wants to know that eating chicken gizzard makes you more beautiful, that it’s unlucky to cut a loaf of bread from both ends and what the left over glumps of cocoa at the bottom of her cup mean.

For me, she brought this (a relic from our pre-married past that I can’t bring myself to get rid of):

“This is for you to read NOW mommy!”

What the heck? I’ve had two kids. I have a happy and fulfilling love life. Is she hinting at something or did she just like the picture of fluffy blue pillows on the front?

Maybe she just wants a sister. It will take more than a book to make that happen in the near future, sweet pea.

What I would really like to do is apply for a job at working for the New York Times Style Section. Now that I’ve made my photo retouching debut, working on the Tina Turner image, (WHAT? That wasn’t real? I know, my skills are quite excellent and my work exquisite.) I think I’m ready for more challenging work.

Okay, I have an option for those of you who have expressed interest in the DYM shirts. I can get a discount on any item if I order 15 or more at one time.

So, if you want the jr. pink ringer t-shirts and don’t care how long it takes to get them, email me your order with size preference (Kathryn at daringyoungmom dot com) and when I get enough to place a bulk order, I will take your payments through paypal and send the shirts to you directly. The price would be $15 total (instead of $17.99 plus shipping and tax).

For the license plate frames, I can do the same thing for $11 total (instead of $12 plus tax and shipping).

Let me know.