Melody's Site Updated

Just thought I'd put a quick note up here on the blog that Melody's website has been updated this morning with about a year and a half of stuff (I think it's six new pages). She loved watching me build out the new pages so we thought we'd share our little princess with the rest of you.

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Daddy Hedgpeth

I have always loved and respected my father. But now, after a year and a half of his passing, I have more and more respect for him everyday.

I respect him as a husband who loved my mother.

I respect him as a Father, not only for loving me but for disciplining me even when many are creating laws against spanking.

I respect him as a businessman who worked hard all of his life.

I respect him as a Creationist who loved science and astronomy, not just with his intellect but with Biblical knowledge.

I respect him as a grandfather who gave Melody a love to read the Bible and to know that "Ga-Ga showed me the moon!"

I respect him for providing for my Mother, even in death, so she doesn't have to work and is debt free.

I respect him as a Veteran who served in the Navy for four years.

But the thing I respect most about my Father is that he was a Christian man.

I know Pastors with mega churches who take drugs and cheat on their wives. I know Pastors who are in all kinds of perversions and who are pedophiles. These human beings are church people. Church men and church women. They play church, participate in the programs, etc.

My Daddy was a Christian. He read God's word. He worshiped God in spirit and in truth. Not for the woos or applause or for a paycheck. He did it because he loved God.

I have had people in my life who had a father… someone to take care of them. But they didn't have a "daddy" and that is so sad because those people miss out on the strong bond and relationship that is possible. Many people have fathers and are way to critical of them. No father is perfect. He did the best he could. Be thankful you have one. I know many of my first grade students who would have died to have a Father. If you have one, stop being critical. Be thankful. And if you don't have one, then know that God is a father to the fatherless. God can never take you to a baseball game but he can carry you through difficult times.

Having a daddy makes you a strong person. I remember one time in my life when a man suggested I needed counseling. This man had no relationship with his father and was extremely jealous of mine. He used the words "lick it!" during a sound check in church. Obviously he had many stronger issues than I have ever had to deal with. Many times people who are way more screwed up than you like to say you need help when, in actuality, they wouldn't be strong enough to walk a day in your shoes. I had another man and woman make fun of my daddy and me and that was because they both had a horrible father relationships and were jealous of the one I had.

Most women I have known in my life who would fit into the "witch" category have major father issues. Women who have to gossip or stab other women in the back either don't have a father or they have one but not a daddy.

It is my firm belief after dealing with church women that they wouldn't need to gossip if they had a good relationship with their father. When your father tells you you’re smart, pretty, funny, etc., you have confidence. Then, when you marry, you marry a man who appreciates the qualities you have. You don't have a need to put other women down when you have a daddy.

There are four vicious women I have known. They are church ladies. They go to church every Sunday but tear down the reputations of others to promote themselves. All four of these women do not have good relationships with their fathers.

When a women has a daddy, she has the confidence to know that she is pretty, smart, funny, talented, etc. because her Daddy instilled that in her. Thank you, Daddy.

Just like as Christians, when we read the word and worship God, we can have confidence in who we are in Christ. A Christian man or woman has confidence based on God's word, not by gossiping and putting others down. That is something church men and church women have to rely on because they haven't got past church.

Daddy, I know you are up in heaven worshiping God. Someday we will all be up there with you. What a day that will be. Thank you, Daddy for being a Christian not a church man.

When I was attending a local church, a man who was on his second marriage told me to be "Married to Jesus." A women who was married with children and had a gray beard and hair told me "It's not God's will for you to be married". This women with a gray beard came on to me sexually during a church service. The pastor’s wife told me, "You need to come to a point where you can serve God even if you never get married." She was, of course, married with children. She cracked her knuckles, and wore her hair like a man. Then there was the woman who told me, "Well, I didn't get married until I was 30!" And she was rather a plain Jane. Another woman told me, "Well Lori, you are like Jesus. You won't get married until your 33." Of course, that sounded weird. I guess she didn't read the Bible enough to know that Jesus never got married. The final straw was when the biggest church gossip told me a story about her granddaugther's 1st grade teacher who was "Tall and was never going to get married." She was slamming me because I was a first grade teacher, was tall and at that point was still single. By the way being the height of a super model is sexy!! (Or so my husband tells me!)

I went to my dad and told him all this and do you know what he said?

"You can't hold hands with Jesus. You can't have sex and babies with Jesus. Jesus can be a spiritual husband but he can never be a physical one."

A daddy is sooo practical and not weird.

Three months later Daddy Hedgpeth hooked me up with one of the best men I have ever met, my husband Paul Carhart.

Is Paul Carhart perfect?

No. No human being is. But I tell you this: He is faithful to Melody and me. And I know if 300 people in a church were becoming pedophiles to please the pastor my husband would have the balls to not participate.

And so would my daddy.

Thanks Daddy. I love you!

Why Isn't It Chocolate?

Have you ever peered into a box of donuts and found the only thing left is a maple bar?

Why isn't that a chocolate bar?

It wouldn't have cost any more to get chocolate instead of maple.

This is what I call the Why Isn't It Chocolate Syndrome.

There are a lot of things that suffer from WIICS.

Jelly beans. Why aren't they Goobers? Skittles. Why aren't they M&Ms? Licorice. Why aren't they really long tootsie rolls? You get the picture.

Besides, if it's not going to be chocolate, the least it could be is peanut butter.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of things so help me out. What is in your life that should be chocolate but isn't?

I Know What I'm Watching This Summer

The summer series (virtually invented by USA) is back with the return of The Dead Zone and The 4400, both of which I enjoy. My other favorites are also on the cusp of returning. Add to that two new entries: The Starter Wife (a Debra Messing-starring miniseries that Lori and her mom both liked... and even I looked forward to) and the new Burn Notice and it looks like my mostly mindless summer viewing is set.

The Starter Wife
Lori dug this roughly six hour miniseries about a Hollywood wife, basically the brains behind the studio exec, who gets traded in for a younger pop tart. Snarky writing ensures that hilarity ensues. I think it's still airing on USA and, knowing them, they'll probably have a marathon of all of the episodes at some point. Pretty fun, mindless, shallow Hollywoodsy stuff.

The Dead Zone
Returning against all odds and amidst rumors of its demise, the Anthony Michael Hall starring series based on the Stephen King novel gets a slight make over as the first new episode kills off a series regular. The aforementioned decommissioned character is still omnipresent though as repurcussions of his/her death ripple through the other remaining characters (I say "other remaining" because two other series regulars seem to have simply disappeared from the series as well). The other strange change is the fact that now Vice President Greg Stillson (the always supurb Sean Patrick Flannery) seems to no longer be the bad guy... or at least he isn't as bad as he once was. It seems The Apocolypse is no longer on the horizon! What the heck? Anyway, the writing on this show has always been top notch, so I'm going to trust them to take me somewhere worth going. I'll be interested to see how all of these threads come together. If they fail to come together... well, in that case I'd be surprised if Johnny Smith gets another season. Which would be too bad. New summer episodes of The Dead Zone are currently airing Sundays on USA. Check local listings.

The 4400
Before there were Heroes (but not before there were X-Men), there were the 4400 people who were abducted over the years and returned to Earth four years ago, each with some sort of strange ability. Last season, Jordon Collier (the always-intense Billy Campbell) apparently returned from the dead and made "4400 abilities" more common. All you had to do was take a shot and you had a 50/50 chance to get an ability. Of course, if you didn't get an ability, you died. This raised the stakes in this once-freak-of-the-week series and I think, based on the first two episodes this summer, it's for the better. Again, sharp writing makes up for the substantially lower cable budget so I'm watching with eyes wide open to see where they take me. So far, I haven't been disappointed. New summer episodes of The 4400 are currently airing Sundays on USA. Check local listings.

Burn Notice
Here's a new idea. Take the guy from Touching Evil. Make him a secret agent who gets fired (a "burn notice" is put out on him) and thus cut off from all of the resources he normally has at his disposal, including his bank account. Strand him in an exotic locale. Oh, the budget doesn't allow for the exotic locale? Okay. Strand him in Miami. Then throw in Bruce Campbell as the out-of-work-spy best friend to get all of the real geeks to watch and mix it up with a hypochondriac mom (Cagney and Lacey's Sharon Gless) who wonders what's wrong with her as she chain smokes and some Magnum PI-like over-the-top narration. The result? A pretty funny, if somewhat identity-deprived, quasi-spy show that, despite its first episode taking place during Christmas, is perfect summer viewing for the likes of me. Only one episode has aired at the time of writing this (roughly 90 minutes). You can probably find it in rerun on USA. New episodes air Thursday nights on USA. Check local listings for times.

Eureka
It's been almost a year since this quirky sci-fi dramady about a hidden utopia made up of the country's most gifted scientists originally aired and I'm looking forward to where they're going to go this time. Airs Tuesday nights starting 7/10 on SciFi (the only one of these shows NOT on USA, although they're both owned by NBC-Universal).

Monk
The defective detective is back. Although the mysteries have never been too tough (think two steps up from a Scooby Doo mystery), the real joy of this show is watching three-time Emmy-winner Tony Shaloub do his Monk thang. It's hilarious. And rightly so since this show is much more a comedy than it is a crime drama. Shaloub does a wonderful job of walking the line between pathetic victim to selfish victim. Whatever the case, Adrian Monk is still the victim except when he's solving the crimes. New episodes air Fridays on USA starting 7/13. Check local listings.

Psych
If ever there was a series designed to play along side Monk, it would have to be Psych. And despite the fact that this series was likely such contrived, I still find myself looking forward to the next episode. The idea is this: N'er-do-well Shawn Spencer is a young man with a gift for observation a la Sherlock Holmes (or Monk, but without the disorders) that was nurtured by his police detective father from a young age. He's so good, in fact, that no one believes him when he tries to help the police solve a crime. So, in order to bring the bad guys to justice and thus help the coppers, he pretends he is a psychic (a la Johnny Smith on The Dead Zone). And to perpetuate his success (as well as future episodes of the series), he starts a psychic detective agency and drags his straight-man childhood chum along for the ride. To give you an idea of the tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek feel of this hybrid comedy, Spencer names his new psychic detective agency Psych (as in you've been psyched out). New episodes air Fridays alongside Monk on USA starting 7/13. Check local listings.

Of all my summer shows, Lori probably likes Monk and Psych the best. She also enjoys The Dead Zone. The others? Not so much. But she still watches them with me.

So now you know what I'm watching this summer. What are you watching? Grass grow?