we finally made it!

Not exactly......BUT! Kevin's and my band The Crash That Took Me's albums are available for purchase on iTunes!! Go check it out here!

The singles are $.99 each, but the album as a whole is $7.99 through January 14th, so you'll save some money! Act now! :) Check it out and let me know what you think!

contrastiness is close to Godliness

Yes, I made up a word. But I only did it to support the message of my blog. What I am about to post is a little embarrassing, and I've gone back and forth about whether or not to post it. Will you judge me? Will you not want to come to my house again? Will you think twice about letting me hug you? All these questions I mulled over and over in my mind and decided that the outcome was worth the potential judgment I might receive.

Let me first provide you with a little background info. We are blessed enough to have an apartment with two (count 'em, TWO) bathrooms. We LOVE this. That way when one of us has to get up way earlier than the other, we can use the guest bathroom as a courtesy. We usually end up using the guest bathroom to take showers anyway (who knows why). But, since it is just that - a GUEST bathroom....for GUESTS. So when a quick cleaning of the house happens, you can assume that the guest bathroom has to take priority when we're racing against the clock like we so often do.

The past few months have easily been the busiest of our lives to date - my work's grand opening, the approaching holidays and trying to play catch up with my personal life since grand opening has come and gone. I'm ashamed to say that the deep cleaning segments of our life got more than neglected. Most concentratedly (there I go again) in our bathroom......the NON guest bathroom. I'm getting nervous even as I type this.

Now, in order to desperately cling to my reputability as a person who gives a hoot about cleanliness, I will say that I had not used the non-guest room shower in I don't know how long. AND, because of its position in the apartment, our bathroom has the least amount of air circulation in our entire home.....so it doesn't dry as quickly, leaving opportunity for........gross things to exist.

Last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I got up early when Kevin went to work and decided that I was going to clean that bathroom (more specifically the tub) once and for all. (I have cleaned it more than one time, fyi). I could not stand it anymore. It was to the point where I didn't want to even go into our bathroom, and that's no way to live!!! NO WAY TO LIVE!!

GAH! I can't believe I'm actually about to post this on the internet. Please note, that the before picture is NOT a representation of our usual state of cleanliness!! PLEASE NOTE!

Please ALSO note that we were not using the bathroom in its state as seen in the first picture. We were just ignoring it and hoping it would clean itself.

Before: *hanging head in ultimate shame*


And now........REDEMPTION!!


Look! I even did a little "life style" photo styling by adding the body wash back into the picture. Like in the before and after pictures of those women who used some revitalizing skin cream and in the before picture they are dimly lit in yellow light and have no make up on, etc.

I cannot tell you how many times I just walked back into my bathroom after I was finished cleaning, simply to gaze upon its newly discovered glory. And then I would sigh. Over and over I would repeat these steps. I'm still doing it. I've all but forbidden Kevin to take a shower in there. You see....if you don't ever use things, you never have to clean them! It's genius!!

And on that note, I'll thank any of you reading this in advance for not judging me too harshly in the comments.

THANK YOU. And God bless cleaning supplies.

KXT Launch!

While I will mourn the loss of local gospel station 91.7 (which really just moved to an AM frequency, so it's not gone, fear not!), I have been SUPER pumped to hear about NPR's new music station that's taking over it's FM slot.


Today was the official launch day so with great anticipation last night I wrote myself a note to put in my car to serve as a reminder to listen on the way to work this morning. Let me just say....

I LOVE THIS STATION!!! It's playing everything you can usually only hear on satellite radio plus local musicians from the Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton area!

Just this morning on the drive in I heard a local band from Denton, the Pixies, Bob Dylan, Fleet Foxes and Chomsky!! I've also been streaming the station on my computer since I got here and have heard Paul McCartney, Matisyahu, Foo Fighters and The Stranglers. I can't believe Dallas finally has a radio station like this!

Sarah Jaffe, one of the goils (read: girls) I play violin with, is doing a live solo acoustic set at 3pm today on the station, which is amazing!! I'm so thrilled about the increased attention to the arts in the area, and we've really been lacking consistent radio support of local artists. Sure, there's the Adventure Club on The Edge on Sunday nights, as well as NPR's music night with our very own Paul Slavens, also on Sundays, but those are limited to one night a week, and they are competing with each other at the same time no less! (Side Bar: Paul Slavens' music show is moving over to KXT Sunday nights, so keep tuning in, or if you never have, START!!)

Here is a blurb on the website citing what the website is all about:

"KXT is a new radio station found at 91.7 FM in North Texas, and at kxt.org worldwide. It’s an incredible selection of acoustic, alt-country, indie rock, alternative and world music, hand-picked just for you – the real music fan.

KXT features between 9 and 11 hours of local programming each weekday, bringing you an eclectic variety of artists and genres, including a number of performers from North Texas and elsewhere in the Lone Star State.

Gini Mascorro will host the KXT Morning Show, Monday through Friday from 7 to 11 a.m. Joe Kozera will take listeners home weekdays with the KXT Afternoon Show from 3-6pm and the KXT Evening Show from 6-8pm.

90.1 at Night with host Paul Slavens, which appeared on KERA-FM for a number of years, has moved to KXT and is now known as The Paul Slavens Show.

National shows appearing regularly on KXT include Acoustic Café, American Routes, Mountain Stage, Putumayo Music Hour, Sound Opinions, The Thistle & Shamrock, UnderCurrents and World Café."

For the weekly programming schedule click here. For today's "Acoustic Cafe" (11a-1p Mondays & Saturdays) they've been playing the following so far:

Monsters of Folk (featuring Centro-Matic's Will Johnson on drums!)
John Fogerty
Regina Spektor - in studio guest this week!!
Alison Krauss
Lyle Lovett
Buddy & Julie Miller w/Robert Plant
Joss Stone
Paul Westerberg

Ridiculous!! I went online and pledged this morning when I got to work to be part of the launch team. SO COOL! And though there will be a bit more world music than I'd prefer, and maybe the word "cafe" could be used a little more sparingly in their program titles, I think this is going to be a really really great addition to the air waves!!


KXT, Dallas welcomes you with open arms!

unidentified object

I stumbled upon this mysteriously unidentifiable object in my parking garage on my way back from lunch today.



If not for the label, I think I may have lost some sleep over this. Thank you to ye who has Microsoft Word and a laser printer! Thank you!

mommy style

I ran across this cute blog a while ago - a "mommy style" blog because she's a mom who refuses to stop being cute just because she's got kiddos. She makes a lot of her own clothing and I love it!

Which brings me to the crux of this post. I saw this post she wrote and decided to link to it. She calls this her "ladies who lunch dress" sans champagne glass.

She's doing a giveaway of the dress, and I figure I might as well give it a shot! The dress is adorable and I love the color!!



I first discovered her on a wardrobe refashion website that focuses on using only second hand items to refashion or make your own clothes and I've been a fan of hers ever since. It makes me think about maybe trying to sew something one day. Maybe. Someday. Possibly.

Check her out!

toobs toobs toobs

I went on my annual toobing (sic) trip with "the girls" to Austin again this year over Labor Day weekend. It was a glorious and much needed vacation and I got to spend some real quality time with my friends. The typical Austin toobing cast is as follows:

Jessica Roberts, a.k.a. J-Ro, a.k.a. booker of the hotel every year and founding member.



Julie Whitaker, a.k.a. Julesdwit and/or Jules, who flies down to Texas from her not-so-new-anymore home in Brooklyn, also a founding member from back during her A&M days. (We don't talk about those days, and we certainly don't "Woop" about those days)



Jessica Allen, a.k.a. new mommy who unfortunately had to be with us only in spirit this year so she could tend to her sick babby (sic yet again - I like purposefully misspelled words). We missed you!!!



Lindsay Hampton, a.k.a. Hampton, a.k.a. Hamps, a.k.a. queen of the Jell-O delights who was until this trip a toobing virgin.



Miss Briana McKeague, a.k.a. Brawny, a.k.a Bri joined us this year and provided not only good times, but her access to Kenichi an amazing sushi place in Austin where she works.



And then of course, there is myself, Becki, a.k.a. Becks, a.k.a. the one that has to be "calmed down" the most on the trips (though I'm sure my friends find my easily riled up nature to be nothing short of hilarious.........right?!?!)

We drove down Saturday afternoon, and didn't get settled in until later evening because J-Ro's iPhone decided that it, too, wanted to take a vacation, so we had to go on an adventure to "The Domain"....a very new and high brow out door shopping center in a part of Austin we usually don't go to, which housed the closest Apple store to our hotel. Then when we got there, they didn't have any Genius appointments available until Monday anyway. So J-Ro decided that her phone could take a vacation if it wanted to and we made our way back to our usual hotel. (Feel free to skip the intro) We like it because it's green and we don't mind using the same towel for 2.5 days. :)

Saturday night we went to eat delicious Mexican food at Gueros, a local hot spot with ridiculously good food (and beverage). We partook of their amazing chips & salsa, fajitas and margaritas. To top off the food experience, Julie's wish came partially true while we were at the restaurant. She had wished for only one thing while we were in Austin - to see the cast of Friday Night Lights. All of them. Hopefully they'd all be at Guero's, she dreamed as we were making our way there. Well we walk up onto the patio, and who do we see?!!? None other than Connie Britton!! And she happened to be dining with a comedian friend of hers who Julie had happened to see perform in New York not too long ago.

SCORE! One cast member down.

Then Saturday, better known as the Day of the Toob, we did just that. We went toobing! We go down the Comal River, which is technically in New Braunfels about 45 minutes south of Austin. Each year we prepare more and more in advance. This year we each had our own little coolers that hold 6 cans each and a little top compartment to hold our jello delights. We got koozies for drinks and throw away sunglasses at the gas station in case we lose them on THE WATERFALL OF DEATH!! (which is actually just a very small dip after the initial toob chute that becomes slightly less small if the river is lower than usual, which it was on this particular trip) Last year was the first year I encountered "Trouble on the Falls" wherein I lost my toob, cooler, sunglasses and umbrella.....yes I use an umbrella. I'm quite pale, and I've learned over the years that I must be kinder now to my skin than I have been in the past. Needless to say, I walked around the fall this time.

The river was a blast, equipped with all sorts of River folk and we had so much fun! After the river we went and ceremoniously ordered friend pickels, fried okra, fried mushrooms, cheese sticks, chips and salsa and water to rehydrate - like ya do. Then we went home, changed and got ready and went out for a night on the town to the aforementioned Kenichi where we had sushi and sake AND had ANOTHER FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS sighting! Oh the fortune!! I don't know who it was, but it was a blond, younger guy, and Julie said he's the nerdier guy on the show, so maybe you avid FNL fans will know who I'm talking about? Mmm?

This post is getting ridiculously long, so I'll finish up by posting a few pictures of our final night in Austin. I took my camera but forgot to charge it, so alls I gots is a few pictures from my phone.






This toobing trip is something I look forward to every summer and I had the best time this year! Thanks to my friends that I love so much who care just as much about this weekend as I do and want to make sure it happens every year!!

Hip Hip! TOOBRAY!! (work with me)

thought of the day - fear

"Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In {spite of} this I shall be confident."

-Psalm 27:3


"I gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which I must stop and look fear in the face...I say to myself, I've lived through this and can take the next thing that comes along...We must do things we think we cannot do."

~Eleanor Roosevelt


And then in a different context:

"God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him."

-Psalm 67:7