February It List

Owen: Clone Wars, any type of weaponry, telling jokes, playing with my Ric Flair action figure, not peeing in or on his pants, Alvin and the Chipmunks (the cartoon), looking for buckets to take to the beach, speaking french (as seen on Tom and Jerry) and sweat pants.

Lucy: 'Working' at Grandma's shop, riding the tractor on the great-grandparents' tree farm, school and everything about it (including the boys that chase her on the playground), wanting to carry one of our cell phones so people will think she has a cell phone and is 'just, like, calling people or something', discovering that other people sing songs other than Taylor Swift and learning the books of the Bible.

Jenny: Patty Griffin, Dave Ramsey-cut up all credit cards and paid off quite a bit of debt this year already-woohoo (I guess the third time's the charm), spending time with my family and friends here, being able to video-chat with Kevin, singing Indigo Girls' songs with Lucy, getting to experience how hilarious Owen is most of the time, green smoothies and pouting about missing my Abilene friends.

Kevin: Wearing 'awesome outfits' (Owen's description), visiting with his parents and brother, being able to video chat with us now, doing the Marine's physical training and IHOP all-you-can-eat pancakes.

My songs.

One thing that has helped us through all this transition we've had the past two months is music. I think our playlist is interesting and so I thought I would share the essentials on here or at least document it for us to look back on.

1. Little Fire - Patty Griffin: Amazing song and a great one for getting through a tough time. A good friend song.

2. What Can I Say - Carrie Underwood and Sons of Sylvia: It's a pretty song and Lucy and I can (sort of) bust it out in the car.

3. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum: I really like this group and hadn't really heard of them until we drove down Music Row in Nashville.

4. Run This Town - Jay-Z/Drop it Like it's Hot - Snoop Dogg: Fact. All rap sounds better in a minivan.

5. Hometown Glory - Adele: Lovin' my hometown right now.

6. The Story - Brandi Carlile: It reminds me that all the junkie stuff we go through is what makes us who we are (hopefully better).

7. Fleet of Hope - Indigo Girls: Probably my favorite song by them ever. That's saying a lot.

8. Case of You - Joni Mitchell: I never get sick of this song.

9. Paparazzi - Lady Gaga: This reminds me that no matter how tough my day is, a celebrity's is probably worse. :)

10. Party in the U.S.A. - Miley Cyrus: This song actually helps Lucy right now with feeling out of place and having a 'tummy ache' all the time. I never saw that coming.

11. You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift: The amount of joy it brings Lucy to sing this song makes it worth hearing over and over.

12. Is This Love - Thomas Anderson: It's the theme song to season one of Army Wives. So now it's our military love song.

13. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend: You can't help but dance to it.

14. Into the Mystic - Van Morrison: This is one of our favorites. Reminds us of the beach in Bandon. I guess it's 'our' song.

15. You are the Best Thing - Ray LaMontagne: Love him.

16. California - Rufus Wainwright: Mostly because it has a shout out to Bea Arthur. And it reminds me of my Golden Girls.

17. Heavenly Day - Patty Griffin: I can listen to it over and over again. It reminds me of Mandy and the hope we all have for Tatum being healed. I also like it for the reminder to put my hope in that Heavenly Day instead of our days here on earth.