happy anniversary

so what's a romantic night out when you've got a six month old? what does a seven year anniversary look like when you've got an infant?

real pizza. yatzee (we both won one game). starbucks. target run.

i'm discovering that life just doesn;t get much better than this. but what about a job? where are we going? how will we make it? still not sure...but i know that everything is going to be alright. because coffee is cheap, laughter is still free and my wife still lights up when she looks my way. what else is there?

thanks for seven great years, babe. here's to seventy more.

lady in the water

(don't worry i won't give any details of the movie)

so amy and i just experienced m. night shyamalan's new movie the lady in the water . it was fantabulicious. shyamalan continues to solidify his place as a great american story teller.

but the moment of the night came after the movie had ended. we were sitting in our seats at the end of the film, taking things in and getting our heads around everything, when a person in the group that had been sitting behind us goes, "that was the dumbest movie i've ever seen." aim and i just looked at each other and smiled. one person in the group (who was talking on her mobile phone) turned to a friend and said, "we should head back to my house and finish watching team america." (for real life) there you go. apparently a thought-provoking script, character development, suspense without gore, and the stuff of good story telling can't compete with dancing, swearing, violent puppets.

i know it's not polite to actually laugh at people... but that was just too funny to let pass. i have to confess, laugh we did... and it felt really good.

identity crisis

nothing helps a person who is not really sure about themself quite like being at home. especially after having been moved out for oh... 12 or so years. and having been married. and having a little baby. college? yup done that. graduated? you bet. real job? also a check in that column. but who am i? where am i going? what really matters in life? all great questions... all tough to focus on when you are thrown back into 1993. not that '93 was a bad year, senior year in high school. owner of a car and all that.

but how can so much time go by, so many life changing experiences and all that jazz only to find yourself out in the front yard, cutting the same lawn you vowed never to mow again. to make matters more blurry my ipod was stuck on 80's metal. (good and bad) i could almost feel my mullet flowing in the breeze. almost.

so what's the point of this, one more random thought? if you are having an identity crisis or at least a life reaxamination... spending significant time at your childhood home can be quite confusing. not bad, just hard to process. but then stepping back is very important...especially when you've been told forward is the real direction that matters.

thoughts on water

can you spot which one of the fiedler's is going in the pool for the first time? since amy is very much uncomfortable around water, i thought i better get this girl in the water as soon as possible. it's amazing how much water those little diapers can soak up (hers, not mine).

mission accomplished. one daughter who will not be nervous around large bodies of water.

today we are on to niagra falls. which reminds me of when my brothers and i were younger and we would go to the falls with my family. everytime we went we would spend a few days building indestructable boats using scrap wood from the garage. each of us would brag about how this year our boat would be the one to make it all the way to the ocean via the st lawrence seaway. we would paint on our names and address along with a message saying, "if you find this boat, please drop us a note and say how far they got." year after year, boat after boat would go over the falls. year after year, boat after boat, dream after dream would head over the edge... never to be seen or heard from again. ah, the memories. i wonder if this was legal? they sure wouldn't have had any trouble tracking down the young aquatic litterbugs.

one more day of travel. through canada and on to port huron, michigan.

my ipod's new friend

well, the long awaited new release from David Crowder*Band is out.

the timing couldn't be better. i am a firm believer in having a soundtrack for my life. funny as it may sound, i often find myself thinking, "if this were a movie, what would be playing in the background?" narcissism? maybe. but fun none the less.


anyway, enough about my problems. i say the timing couldn't be better because this current season of life is one that is chalked full of unknowns and not-quite-sures. which is just how i would describe this album. some familiar songs (wholly yours, beautiful collision) but from a whole new angle. more than a simple remix album, b collision goes in directions that don't sound like they should work but are fantastilicious. for example... a banjo and a violin? couldn't be more perfect together.


so anyway, if you are looking for that early summer soundtrack, filled with happy go for a drive music...you might want to keep looking. but you'll miss a "for real life" keeper.


ps... if you pick this up from itunes, you'll keep from missing the best track, which is "Do Not Move". turn up the music. close your eyes. listen for God.