the Mindy project

I'm at home with the stomach flu today which is kinda the worst! Last night I was feeling terrible and didn't want to do anything so I turned on The Mindy Project and just zoned out for a few hours. I fell in love with Mindy Kaling from The Office years ago so have been wanting to watch this series for a while. The Mindy Project is what I call "brain candy" - zero depth, pretty darn inappropriate, but super funny. You don't have to think AT ALL while watching....which is exactly what I needed while throwing my guts up. Hooray for mindless media sometimes..... I'm feeling much better this morning so should be able to see you all in class on Wednesday!

Baymax or Smurfs?

Okay, so a little catch up! Sorry this semester is running away with me.

First of all, my husband Paul, has another hand surgery on Thursday (so office hours will be cancelled). This is from his table saw accident from January. His pointer finger just isn't moving at all, even after 10 months of Physical therapy, so they are going to try to clean up the scar tissue and hopefully get it moving a little bit better. Here is a picture of him after his last surgery - not looking very happy. Your media moment: do you think he looks more like a smurf or baymax in this picture?

Poor guy. We'd love some prayers our way on Thursday if you happen to think about the Coyne family that day!

Also, I wanted to post this cute picture from our class Halloween lecture. Thank you to everyone who dressed up! I don't even like Halloween all that much, but teaching my fear lecture while dressed up as one of my very favorite media characters of all time made for a really memorable class for me!

#metoo and airplanes

For someone who had my own #metoo toxic moment on a plane ride this year, this was pretty triggering and upsetting for me. 

This follows on with exactly what we were talking about in class yesterday. When the most powerful individual in the United States sends the message that it is okay to grope women....well, we have a problem. Yes, this man is responsible for his own behavior, and he likely was just using Trump as a scapegoat, but STILL. The fact that this is even a possibility makes my heart ache - both for the men and women of America. 

A beautiful motherhood moment, brought to you by Matilda

I just had a beautiful moment with my daughter, Hannah, tonight that I wanted to record. Paul and I were out fairly late hanging out with some friends. The older kids were babysitting. When we got home, the kids were still awake and they wanted to talk. We all sat on Nathan's bed (my eldest son) and just chatted for a while. Then I put the boys to sleep and went in to put Hannah to bed.

We were talking for a bit and then she randomly started singing "My Shot" from Hamilton. Dang - she has most of those words memorized and there are A LOT of words in that song! She is going to be "Matilda" (the Broadway version) for Halloween this year, so I asked her to sing a Matilda song. She sang the song, "Quiet". It is such a beautiful song, and she has such a clear, pure voice. She looked up over the computer at me, and I was struck by one of those moments of motherhood where I just wanted to stop time. Hannah is 11 next month and is really growing into an incredible young woman. She is strong, and confident, and bossy, and just SO full of life, and I drank up every moment of that song. At the end I gave her a huge hug and whispered, "Never grow up. Ever".  So then she had to sing me the song, "When I grow up"....also from Matilda and really made me cry. Ha!

Hannah and I really bond over Broadway songs. We sing them all the time to each other (sometimes belting them out WAAAAY too loud). Hannah loves to act in plays and early this year asked me to try out for a play with her. That is NOT my thing, so I told her no at first, but then ended up agreeing to try out...because when your daughter asks you to spend time with her doing something you love, you say "yes" even though it might be really hard and scary for you! We both ended up making it and performed in Payson Community Theater's "A Night on Broadway" (and I even got to sing Edelweiss as a duet! So much scarier than talking in front of hundreds of people like I often do for my job. AHHH!!) Singing and dancing with Hannah is one of my VERY favorite things to do with her and I am so grateful for the many, many ways that music touches my life and allows me to deepen relationships with others.

Singing "You will be found" - my sister and niece are also in the picture

Hannah singing "Carrying the Banner" from Newsies

Edelweiss duet

New family pictures!

Soooo Liam is now FIVE years old, making my previous family picture almost six years out of date! I hope you enjoy the newest one up on the blog! These were taken by my very cool cousin, Stephanie Ward. Here are a few extras that I love! In case you were wondering, my kids are Nate (age 13), Hannah (age 10), Aidan (age 8), Liam (age 5), and Finn (age 1). 

P.S. My husband Paul was thrilled that spouses can finally get a BYU ID without having to shave. Took them long enough!

Thank you, sir.

Well after last class, you all know what a West Wing groupie I am. As of this fall, I was assigned to be associate director of the School of Family Life and Alan Hawkins is now the director. We work closely together and often have to talk about rather serious  and weighty things concerning the SFL faculty and students. I asked Alan for a favor yesterday right after class. He said, "yes", and so knowing Alan's EQUAL love for the West Wing AND my cognitive scripts surrounding the West Wing being activated after yesterday's class, I decided to express my appreciation with this meme:

Yes - Gus from Psych is in West Wing (I told you it's a good show) - in the show he is the president's assistant (kind of like I am to Alan). It was a very, very simple thing, but our offices are next door and I have NEVER heard him laugh so loudly as when he opened my email. It made my day and I was struck by an appreciation of how media can bring us together in the small moments of our day.

Back to school

I am loving all the back to school pictures that are coming up on my Instagram feed this week! I am THRILLED to be teaching my media class again, so I decided to post my own picture. So happy to be at BYU!