Category Archives: 6 Looking Back // Memories!

I’m at that age where you have lots and lots of memories. When I am waxing melancholy…

LOVE HURTS: Love songs that make me cry. Everytime.

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

THE RULES:  In no particular order, limiting this list to 20 {because I can be quite a crybaby} and allowing only one per artist, (although I must admit certain artists and bands could have their own lists full of songs) here are some songs that can make me cry.  They are not necessarily the top 20, just the first 20 that came to mind when I decided to make this list.  WHY?  Because, like Elton sings, “Sad songs say sooooo much.”

 

“Still” by Lionel Richie

“But then most of all, I do love you,  {spoken softly}  s t i l l…” 

“At this Moment” by Billy Vera and the Beaters

I cannot explain why this song did me in, but when it came out in the 80s, I cried my eyes out every single time I heard it.  I was amazed at the idea of loving some one so much you’d be willing to give up “20 years” of your life to have them stay, have them not leave you.  I know that is impossible to achieve, but he sang it so well, I really believed he was willing.  Still kills me.

“The Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me” by Gladys Knight and the Pips

I sang this to Dave walking down a street in Dallas, Texas in 1982, just after our first anniversary.  After almost 29 years of marriage, he has no choice but to be “there, between each line of pain or glory,” whether he wants to or not. 

“Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro

She dies.  There is a tree that grows (you know how I love gardening).  He misses her.  I hope to be sorely and grieviously missed when I die.  After I am at least 87.

“Superstar” by the Carpenters

It’s about song bringing love…”Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby..” {those lyrics!}

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones

I don’t want to spoil this for you if you haven’t heard it…boo hoooooo….

“I Will Remember You” by Amy Grant

“Our love is frozen in time…”  They didn’t allow an inbed on this song, but it is a good one you can catch it on Youtube.com   HERE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospToG1Y0kw

“I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt

The raw pain in her amazing voice, “I will lay down my heart, and I’ll feel the power, but you won’t…”  Whyyyyyyyyyy?  Why can’t he feel the power of it?  Is he absolutely just an unfeeling, cold-hearted jerk?

“Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Alison Kraus

“She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarette, she broke his heart…”   Brad has the words.  He writes the songs….

“Vincent” by Don McLean

I guess I love this because I suffer for my sanity, too (just kidding…sort of).

“How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” by The BeeGees

“I can think of younger days…”  You just run out of resiliency when you get to the middle…and past it.

“If” by  Bread

“And when my love for life is running dry, you come and pour yourself on me…”  That?  Is being loved.  That is loving.  (BTW~I super hate the slides on this video…this is posted purely for the song)

“Weekend in New England” by Barry Manilow

Eyes meeting, touching, strong yearning.  Don’t be critical of Barry, now.  The man can tear your heart out with his songs.  I had trouble between this one and “Even Now” or “Somewhere Down the Road.”

 

“I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton from the early 70s

I was 14.  She was leaving Porter Wagoner (I have to admit I loved that Saturday afternoon show sponsored by some powedered laundry detergent).  I didn’t know what they were going through, but that woman’s pure voice expressed words so powerful that I knew, even then, I was hearing a song I’d never forget and would love my whole life through.  And oh, I get it so much more, now.  It is one of the greatest songs of all time.  One of THE greatest.  Ever.

“I Wanna Run to You” by Whitney Houston

From “The Bodyguard.”  The lyrics reveal our feminine vulnerability.  We’ve learned to take care of things ourselves, be tough.  The truth is we need to be covered, protected.  We need heroes.

“My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli

I was 14 when this came out, too.  Being 14 was a big deal, apparently, in my romantic notions.  I just daydreamed about somebody adoring me, I guess.  Such a pretty melody, sweet words, innocent and lovely.  Remember when?…

“You’re a Part of Me” by Kim Carnes and Gene Cotton

Longing. Don’t leave me, and if you do: come back.   “You’re a part of me I can’t live without…”

“Rest Your Love on Me” by Olivia Newton John and Andy Gibb

Deep down, I am a caring person.  I am an INFJ – a “protector.”  That is what I like to do.

“Sunshine on My Shoulders” by John Denver

The soundtrack to the ABC Movie-of-the-Week, “Sunshine,” the fall of 1973 (I had just turned…can you believe it?  14!).  I think it was based on a true story of a young woman married to a struggling musician who has cancer and as she is dying, she talks into a tape recorder to be able to leave her thoughts and story behind for their baby girl.  John Denver sang the title track.  Beautifully.  His voice was very important to me during this era – all of his words and melodies touched something deep inside me.

   

“I’d Do It All Again” by Corrine Bailey Rae

Love does hurt sometimes.  But this girl is not going to let it stop her faith in love.  Me, neither!

REMEMBER:  Valentine’s Day is Sunday!

WHO, the question seems to be, DAT?

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I recently announced my apparent connection to both 2010 Super Bowl teams. 

You can read about that here.  Not that I am taking credit for either team making it to the top, but I did live less than an hour away from both Indianapolis and from New Orleans at various times in my life.  I am just saying, I seem to be a common thread for football greatness.  Not the only one, but a common one.

So, the question is posed, “For whom will Jeanie root during the Super Bowl?”  I know this has caused much concern for many people, especially since everyone knows that not only do I not get football, I don’t ever even watch it except long enough to pass by and say “Those are some stinking tight pants,“…AND in light of the fact that I once had life-threatening food poisoning following a Super Bowl party.  Yes, there has been great speculation about my loyalties.  Which is really a moot point since I don’t do football, for crying out loud. 

Really, the question should be: who will win ~ And whether I have the ability to influence that outcome, and it is obvious I do and I shall.  So, my choice is?…

Well, people, come on.  I wrote that previous Super Bowl post, which was the first time in over 800 blog posts football has e-v-e-r been a topic, right after the Saints beat the Vikings in that fairly spectacular overtime win (the field goal ring a bell?).  And I added gold letters to the black font to leave a little trail, a clue as it were,  for the future.

THEN this week, an old family friend* from like ~  30-gazillion years ago (who once played Jesus for my dad’s Palm Sunday and Easter productions, first by riding up to the church wrapped in a white sheet on a donkey and later, hanging on the cross in possibly the same white sheet, before going on to utilize that divine-wig plus a red bandana at a church dinner-on-the-ground to emulate a Willie-Nelson-type character) sent me a Saints shirt {annonymously} in an effort to sway me.  Additionally, my brother Joe-the-pastor has been telling me the Saints are God’s team and very persuasively backing it up with scripture:

1 Sam 2:9  He will guard the feet of his SAINTS, but the wicked (Colts?) will be silenced in darkness!

Psalm 16:3  As for the SAINTS who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

Psalm 149:4,5  For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the SAINTS rejoice in this honor and sing for joy…

Daniel 7:18  But the SAINTS of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever- yes, forever and ever.

Rom 8:27  …the Spirit intercedes for the SAINTS in accordance with God’s will.

1 Cor 6:2  Do you not know that the SAINTS will judge the world…?

So who is it going to be?

Well…The Saints have that cutie-patootie, Drew Brees.  But the Colts have Peyton Manning.  I don’t know a darn thing about him myself, but several sportscasters seem to adore him.  I liked a lot of people from Indy when I lived there, though Louisiana boasts the most interesting of characters.    Hoosiers are good, middle American people.  The mosquito rules in the Bayou.  All these things must be weighed in the balance.

But the deciding factor for me?  The food!  Seafood Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, Roast Beef Po’ Boys, Jambalaya, Crawfish {pie…which I have never actually had}~Omygosh (or me-oh-my-oh, like the song says).  Hands down, the SAINTS are winning the Super Bowl and I give them my full support!  Yes.  Because of the scrumptious food.  I have spoken.  I may not watch the game.  But the common thread has decreed it so.

    

The crowd goes wild with approval (or whatever).

PLUS – no one from Indiana sent me a t-shirt.  That hurts.…Jeanie…WHO DAT?, indeed…

 

*”A Saints fan” from Robert, La-you know who you are…Thanks for the EXTRA-LARGE t-shirt. 

 

Pictured: Guini modeled the shirt in matching shoes.  There is a full roster on the back.  I have never heard of these people.

Yo-Yo

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I wasn’t allowed to listen to this kind of music when I was a kid.  This was “hard rock” to me in the early 70’s and I was, you know, the preacher’s daughter.  So, I am not going to try to explain how I still know every word and the entire arrangement of this little Osmond treasure.  Huh-uh.  Never-you-mind about that.  Just watch.  Check out those great [Mormon] moves and listen for the whoop, now!

NOTE:  Yes, there was some Puppy Love over Donny and he had to sing Go Away Little Girl to me in a way that I would understand his agony in our relationship (and naturally They Tried to Tell Us We were Too Young), but my true love and total allegience remained with David {I Think I Love You} Cassidy at all times.  This is a true statement.

SHhhh…please don’t tell my parents.  ; )

My 800th Blog Post! That’s EIGHT-HUNDRED!!!

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Why I write~

Do-overs, of course!  That is why I write and why I blog.  And to inspire, to rant, to rage and to whine unabashedly.  I blog to encourage and confess, to get comments (yes, I want comments) and be snippy-if-I-wanna.

I blog to be up close and personal and tell you how adorable my grandbebes are.  I like to write about the people I love and write to the people I love.  Sometimes I’m mushy.  Sometimes I am lamenting and sometimes I have to apologize – publicly!  I get to vent, I get to express my incredible opinions, and I get to gripe if I feel like it.

I hope I have made your mouth water with my food posts and infused you with passion or zeal on some amazing topic or another along the way.  I mean, after reading Thought Collage, are you anxious to be a grandparent?  Do you want to go in deeper in worship?  Are you in love with the Word?  Do you feel better about your life because I publicly self-deprecate and tell on myself?  I hope.  I hope.  I hope!

I am so grateful for those who wade through the meaningless drivel because they know I have the occasional day of inspired, grapho-epiphanic clarity {you KNOW I made that phrase up, don’t you?} which, I am just certain, causes the angelic choirs to break out into song and lives are changed forever for it.  Yeah.  Those are few and far between.  But they happen.  Wait for it!

And, finally,  I write because I love the words.  Not just any words.  The exact words that will capture what it is I really want to say.  When, oh, when will I actually find those?….

I love blogging~

{Source} 

Stormie asked me what witty banter I would have for my 800th blog post?  Could she have been mocking me?  Naaaaw…surely not.

I recently saw that people on Youtube do “vlogs!”  And I was like {lightbulb moment} Vlogs?  You can do that?  Hmmmmm….

Gratefulness

Thank-you to Tristan, the s-i-l, who got me up and running here at www.jeanierhoades.com on Novemeber 29, 2006.  Where would all these words have gone otherwise?  Thank-you for letting me say them and giving me a safe place to keep them!

In all my travels…

6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

“In all my travels past and all my travels yet to come, I’ll never find a better friend.”

~Mr. Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1995).

I have a strong emotional response each time I hear that line in the this classic Christmas movie remake by John Hughes.  I mean ~ Kris Kringle had to have had a lot of friends and we know he travelled extensively, right?  I thought the quote must have come from classic literature, but I am unable to find any reference to it anywhere else (meaning Google).

It just makes me wonder…

How many people in a lifetime do you think you really, actually get to say this to and mean it?  And how many people could even say it to you?

all my travels

{By the way, I MET Santa the other night myself at the Parks and Rec Board Meeting where he received an award for his generous service to the community.  And guess what!??!  He said he’ll be at Heaven Fest!}

A Portion of Thyself

2 Mi Familia, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

“The only gift is a portion of thyself.”

True. I believe this.

Although I am very fond of my vintage orange kitchen accessories from Steph and fam (plus an all-new blog design!).  And my new work-out pants have revved up my power-walking.  I adore the o-so-flattering jeans Stormie bought me: they fit!…did my legs just get longer?  Did I just get a needed lift? And DP and Tara and the I-POD Touch…omygoodness.  Just waiting for my life’s best song list to get to 7000 or so (well on my way).

Rocky and Jovanie know I need my medium-rare steak and plenty of it.  Off to The Outback I shall go, several times (plus the “Jeanie green” coffee cup?  Lovin’ it!)!  Tre Tre is going to do a photo shoot for me – of anything or anyone I want!  It will be a shoot of my kids and grandkids, of course ~ what else??

Little brother, Joe sent me a book on how to talk southern (they do have their own way) that was a family fav in the 70’s and a 2-set LP by The Rambos, THE Moslander-family music-of-my-life.  My husband loaded me up with clothes and all the things he knows I love and like to have on hand…

I got showered with lots of great, thoughtful, sweet, beautiful gifts for Christmas.  There was way more than I deserved, but I sure love it all.

But really?  It is when I have been blessed with something of the giver, a portion of their heart ~ in thoughtfulness, sweet words, a shared secret, a common memory,  treasured moments and especially their time – that I know I have been gifted beyond my ability to ever repay or comprehend.   To receive something that reveals a part of another person’s heart to me is the greatest gift I could ever hope for. 

Thank-you to all of you who share yourselves with me (your dreams, your fears, your hopes and love…and just ~ you).  My heart is enlarged in the receiving.  And I am…gifted.  Grateful.

7-Minute Showers

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I attended my denominational Bible College in the late 70’s in Minot, North Dakota, of all places.  Let me just say, anything you have ever heard about how cold it is in North Dakota did not really tell you how cold it is in North Dakota!

 google image

The education you get at Bible College isn’t always about the Bible.

While there, the school’s Buisiness Administrator, dear Brother “H”, we’ll call him, issued a call to limit showers to 7 minutes in the dormitories to save on resources by lowering water usage.  There was a lot of grumbling about this.

But I?  Law keeper that I am?  I followed the rule and had it down to a science.

In fact, I never quite got over it and and have actually nagged my own family and shaken my head when I have heard some one running more than a 7-minute shower, tsk, tsk.  Because despite everything a woman my age has to go through to be presentable, that’s right –  I can still do it.

I can shampoo and condition, suds-up, lather, loofah, pumice, slough, wash, scrub, shave my legs, and rinse all within the 7-minute time limit, doggone it!

But I don’t have to, right?

I am 50, for crying out loud.  I have been around the block a few times and if I want to take a longer shower, I am going to do it.  I have saved resources!  I have re-used, re-cycled, and re-purposed things carefully over the years. I am prone to frugality and finding a deal on the most mundane things.  I ebay and craigslist and utilize coupons (sometimes) and am rather gifted at seeing the beauty in things and people that others might not and am not afraid to invest myself and a lot of elbow grease in restoring and refurbishing and giving new life. I’m no waster!

Surely by now I deserve time exploring the fancy massage shower head Dave installed a couple of months ago.  With all due respect to Brother “H,” I plan to take it up to 10 or 12 minutes this winter. And by spring?  Who knows?

SONG FOR A SUNDAY: How Deep is Your Love ~

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

The BeeGees!  Unplugged.

This is a an audio-only recording of the BeeGees in the studio as they are actually putting one of the most incredibly beautiful and timeless songs together for posterity.  You hear them toy with lyrics and experiment with different chord progressions.  For almost 10 minutes, you are caught up in the creative process hearing those amazing voices, the magic 3 becoming one polyganol, complex arianic harmony reverberating through your very soul and blending effortlessly as they explore various  possibilities for the final rendition. 

Originally recorded in 1977, this song hung out in the top ten on the charts for 17 weeks.  LISTEN TO THIS (really!) and see how a classic love song is composed, discovered, birthed, created.  I am in love with the process, the era, the melody, the creativity and the breath and poetry of it! 

There is no question they were pulling song from the very heavenlies, where embrocated music flows thick for healing, crescendo and diminuendo, the rise and fall of sweet sound swelling like the ocean and leaving its imprint as it recedes.  What’s captured on this recording is so soft and gentle,  yet full-heavy with fervent emotion.  And though I have always mourned my inability to be poetic and lyrical and fear to even attempt it, there is also no question that listening to these voices pulls on

my strong desire

to be able to say in words

what I simply cannot,

yet feel.

so.

deeply. 

How deeply?  Mmmm, mm…  So very. 

you have to disagree with everything except the piano, black

and white keys marking the path you must climb step…

-Anthony Walton on Jazz

If the remaining two brothers Gibb could just be at a piano in my house doing this forever ~ then aaaahhhh…heaven, almost too much {veiled reference, wink wink}.  And if music, and all art, really, is meant to invoke emotion from those who experience it…this is art – the art on the walls of my heart.

The flawless recording as we have all come to know and love it, How Deep is Your Love

From Saturday Night Fever.

Beegees Home

BeeGees on YouTube A great live performance of this same song.

www.beegees.com

Blue Christmas in only 10 Days!

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Martina and Elvis.

Martina McBride got to sing with Elvis – just last year!  Lucky girl.  I want to sing with some one!  Isn’t technology cool?  Someday all of us will be able to super-impose ourselves into videos and movies from our Droids or something.

elvis-blue elvis-and-martina

Youtube didn’t let me imbed this video, but you can reach it by this link (watch-really!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KK6sMo8NBY

Love Martina’s dress!  And Elvis?  Glistens!  Dang, that guy was cute!  Reminds you why he is, you know, the king!  O.my.goodness…

Dolly and Kenny.

It got me to wondering how many other songs now mention Christmas being “blue”?  I remembered Kenny and Dolly on one of my favorite TV Christmas specials ever with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, 1984.  I still play this soundtrack every year and just did so during Baking Day!

Now ~ what other songs have something in them about Christmas being blue, or something blue related to Christmas???  I know there are more!

Lisa B.

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You can’t tell it here, but these tags all have a very fine sparkle to them – handpainted by my most wonderful-artistic-amazing-friend, Lisa Bierer, who has seen me through my worst of times and rejoiced with me through my best for 20 years, almost!  As if I would put these on gifts and give them away?!?  Never!

17 Days until Christmas and the Magic Kingdom is Dressed in White

1 Christ is All, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Winter has come to the Magic Kingdom.

Oh I miss the garden of spring, bright green and fairly juicy with surging life, growth visible almost hourly. 

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The garden of summer, strong, tall, spreading and proud established its rightful territory hosting parties for butterflies and bumblebees while birds swooped and circled overhead for entertainment. 

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Comes fall and the autumn colors dazzle and your head spins with the abundance and fruitfulness: ripe maturity and the reward of the work of your hands.  You  gather and enjoy as quickly as you can, more than you’d hoped or dreamed for, more than enough.  What will you do with the excess?  The garden, only months earlier bare soil, became a hypnotic haven overgrown with delicious joy and frolic, intoxicating verdancy, flourishing symbiosis and riotous vitality.

Winter.

Winter.  The winds have blown away the brown crispiness from branches no longer green in a purifying poof.  And just like that – bare, faded, stark and desolate woody shrubs etch their way across the landscape looking for all the world like death in this blustery cold.  I am forced inside where I stand at the window wondering why.  What has happened in the Magic Kingdom?

The snow covers it all.  The snow keeps falling and floating across the Magic garden Kingdom, and has settled decidedly upon each branch and every surface, carefully tucking itself around all shrubs and trees, blanketing the the 4′ x 4′ squares where vegetables once grew abundantly.  There is quiescent hush there now where once the sound of the spade dug deep into earth, the fountains bubbled exuberantly and night fires blazed; children laughed and ran around while little weeds were uprooted and branches were pruned and sugar snap peas were hungrily crunched upon right then and there in the verdant Kingdom.

Covering.

But the snow covers all now and despite my sadness at the loss of earlier, greener days,  the snow serves its true purpose hiding the ground, preventing the heat generated by the earth from escaping.  This blanket of crystal white inhibits the radiant life energy from abandoning the roots of the trees and bushes and plants and they are graced with warmth and protection (often 40-degrees warmer) in the dark, deep soil of winter, regardless of what happens in the visible.  Did you know roots have a life-pulse that continues through even the most frigid conditions?  When the branches above have been frozen in their tracks by sub-zero temperatures, the roots are active and ready to spring into action at any moment, growing and spreading further and deeper even during the resting phase of winter.  The snow covering is grace.  The snow is mercy.  The snow is a safeguard, a secure shelter for the deepest, most important, most delicate and valuable resources and treasures.

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The snow covers it all.  It unifies the the browns and grays and wheat-golds of the deciduous stand-bys.  For this season, this cold and sometimes hope-dwindling time of year, the snow creates a formal gown of beauty for ashes, of gladness for mourning and becomes a garment of praise instead of despair (Is. 61.3).  Sandy-the-Dog runs into the white, kicking up the flakes like dust and hundreds of birds fill the air in shock from where they’d been feasting on berries, but soon realize how harmless she  is and go back to stake their claim.  I laugh at the sight.  Life goes on.  In winter white.

He gives beauty for ashes
Strength for fear
Gladness for mourning
Peace for despair

When sorrow seems to surround you
When suffering hangs heavy over your head
Know that tomorrow brings
Wholeness and healing
God knows your need
Just believe what He said

He gives beauty for ashes
Strength for fear
Gladness for mourning
Peace for despair

Crystal Lewis, Beauty for Ashes

Hidden under a canopy of mercy on a melancholy winter’s day…Jeanie

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NOTE TO SELF:  Spring will come again.  My roots will be more established, stronger.  Have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy…

pictured: The Magic Kingdom (aka my backyard) in September; and now.