wow

Being keyed up on caffeine and tense movies leaves one sleepless...so I picked up a book whose cover has been enticing me for more than a week. It is God is Good by Randy Alcorn. Fantastic work of non fiction and it was just what I needed. It reminded me of why I believe in a good God. So thank you Mr. Alcorn, and thank you God. You knew just what I needed.

verse for the day

...to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us....

Ephesians 3:20

This is what I think of when I worry about our house and if it will sell, This morning it helps me cope with the fact a portion of it sustained damage in the recent storm. when will our life eventually become "normal" and with everything falling into place? Possibly never. A great verse for today most definitely, it reminded me He has a plan that is better than mine..now I just have to work through the emotional part of it.

The MOVIE review...dun dun dunnnn

A movie this good was worth the $20.00 of concessions. Hawaiian punch lemonade, elastic nacho cheese, and a GIANT tub of non-buttered movie popcorn accompanied me to my chair after waiting in line for a mere 15 minutes to be seated. Please recognize here the majority of this audience was cougars (single women over 30 who are obsessed with the main Guy) and girlfriends who coerced their boyfriends to accompany them by way of force.

*please note City Girl was to my left*

Oh we were ready. Unlike most of the people there we intended to be disappointed and in the disappointment be eternally pleased with the outcome.

First the Good- CGI gets a 80% improvement rating from me. There was less lame running sequences. For those who have never broached the first movie let me expound.

Twilight the movie contained some of the worst tree climbing and running cuts imaginable. The characters looked like their body's were on runner tracks with their arms and legs moving at entirely different speeds than the surrounding woodland. Dan does a better impression of slow-speed walking. More action was defiantly another bonus. Seeing the great north west on the big screen was most enjoyable also.

Now to the Bad- scroll down if you cant take it, Warning! its l-o-n-g
First of all I cant get over the fact Bella's father is played by a man who quite frankly isn't that old. Every scene he has with his daughter lacks any paternal emotion, instead you are left with the impression he is dying to be more than just a friend ahem father. This was ignorable in Twilight but New Moon (shaking head) left me unable to overlook the obvious attraction he has for her.
Please save your cries of anger till the comment box.
Edwards acting although improved was far from good. Each time he opened his mouth his gloss laden lips unzipped like a freezer bag. Perhaps they picked out the 7 shades a week since it changed from scene to scene. His contact irritated blinking was the worst during the his recitation of Romeo and Juliet. His eyes shut at least 20 times for every sentence.
Edward lacked connection with his one true love and often times professed his undying commitment to her while looking into the sky, bushes, trees, and audience.
After Edward leaves Bella in the woods she runs after him in, what I suppose, is her version of agony. All I heard was the director giving her specific actions like it was a silent movie.

"Now Bella is feeling as though her soul is lost..Feel it Dahling! Give me ANGUISH! Run to the woods..Now Stumble! sit sit, don't forget to feel Bella's pain, MORE PAIN. Now lay down in the dirt. Stop thinking about the clothing and FEEL ANGUISH! For goodness sakes at least cover your face with your hand so the audience THINKS you are in pain!!"

Several cuts later they give up and just take the best shot. They console themselves with the idea no one will notice because it was a dusk/ night scene.

Wolves were introduced in New Moon as well as the general inability for them to find trousers to fit their waist. In one scene the wolf boy actually hitches them up because HE thinks they are riding too low.

Through the entire film you can hear Bella expelling air in the most irritating manner. From fluttering breaths to noisy nasal air and on to faked freaked out moaning. Give me 1950's high pitched girlie shrieks any day over what I acquit to a pig being strangled by a monkey. According to Hollywood the pacific northwest is full of warm rain that is coming strait down (evil Grin)

" Yes folks, come to The Washington and Oregon Coast! Enjoy our beautiful beaches in bathing suits make sure you bring an umbrella for occasional tropical rain that falls without wind." See disclaimer for further details.

Aside from the Wolves, who's pants didn't fit, they take every and any opportunity to be shirtless. One such occasion when Bella is injured and bleeding Jacob takes the cue and whips his shirt off to dab the blood. The Scene grew silent as Bella (not really 18) ogled a very young Jacob...

the boyfriend behind me sneezed out what everyone else was thinking..aaahhh...pedophile..chooo.

Oh to be the person who thought of it. City Girl and I DIED of laughter. The film continued on with small things like the recognition of Jacob having gotten a nose job between the first and second film as well as the spray on shadows underneath his muscles to make them more pronounced. If you have not watched the film and are going to, look for the scene when Jacob is shirtless...let me narrow that down. Its a scene where it is not raining and he turns to face Bella. The spray on shadow shows up fantastically.

Victoria runs through the forest with the camera doing an overhead shot and nearly has a wardrobe malfunction and Edward threatens to expose his shiny-like-diamond skin to the public but should me more concerned about the fact his low cut pants bring him mighty close to getting arrested for exposing himself in a public place.

Many more Twilight idiosyncrasies dabble through the film but the last two are beyond priceless.

During the second to last scene we see Edwards "sister" giving evidence of Bella becoming one of them. The camera does a flash forward and we see Bella and Edward frolicking through the forest, as only vampires can, wearing old fashioned garb and skipping off merrily to find their picnic lunch ala carte. Seemingly, when you become a blood sucker its common to begin dressing from another century while you lollop through the woods.

Lastly (you must be so glad I'm nearly done?) we have the final two words. No joke..they were, "Mary me."

Take note here guys if your lady starts laughing hysterically when you deliver this, its definitely NOT a good sign. Its the emotion and voice you put behind the words that make them count. These movie words made a very different impression than the one intended. It wasn't a question or a statement it was like he was reading it from a menu.

"mmm, I think I will have a burger with a side of marry me."

Quite possibly this is the reason for the audience bursting into laughter immediately following Edwards ultimate question.

as far as the ugly- well I don't think you have the stomach to hear me pick apart any more of this soon to be cult classic.Most everyone in the movie was Hollywood beautiful. You can decide on the Ugly yourself.

If you wish to read my sister's take on it click here
With this all said, I had a great time at the movie! Well worth the ridiculous amounts of cash laid out.

And that's Entertainment.

teacher

Today we met my girls teacher in the flesh. It was library day. I had a great time talking with all the other moms, it made me wish for a home school group closer. It was fun to chat about what they were doing and how they were pacing themselves through the curriculum as well as coping with doldrum days where no one wanted to do anything. The best part was standing back and watching my girl interact with everyone else. The boys stayed with daddy and I got to observe. It was so fun!

girls night out

City girl and I are heading up to spend the night away dressing fancy and meeting up with my sister and a great friend Marie. We are all going to see a movie. What movie you ask??? It is in fact, and happens to be New Moon. I know what your thinking, " How could four mature adults attend a movie full of silly Jr. high action and romance?" (this is the part where my evil laughter starts) bwa hwa hwa hwa!! Because it is by far the best movie to go and make fun of. Last season City Girl and I attended the "Time Travelers Wife" a terribly written and acted movie. Want to know a secret? Even a bomb of a movie can be fun depending on who you go with. We both sat in the theatre guffawing and snickering as we picked it apart bit by bit and in the end it was worth the 8 bucks because we did have fun. I admit to attending the prequel to New Moon. I couldn't help myself and I really did try to choke back the laughter when the romantic guitar music swelled and the main characters looked up at the sky together..( not to mention his diamond skin happened to look just like glitter from a flash disco) The favorite picture in my memory was where a semi tense scene started and I looked over at my movie partner and she was absently grabbing her neck. Nothing by far to another friend who gets so deeply into movies she jumps and covers her mouth with her hand. She will probably never be able to look at the movie cover again without shaking her head and rolling her eyes at my interpretation. Me thinks two brothers and several years of mystery science theatre 3000 tainted my dramatic movie watching ability's. Marie might be going to actually watch the movie. Don't worry I plan on letting her know this; that if she truly wishes to enjoy it and excuse its major faults, she should sit by the screaming teenagers in the front otherwise she will be subjected to not one, not two, but three married women poking fun of what the world thinks love should look like.

project finished!

Nothing like foster classes to help push through knitting projects that need to be finished! Thomas has been patiently waiting for this one to be finished...although it will probably sit in the closed since he hates coats. He picked the design and yarn color so perhaps this time he will choose to wear it too. Right now he is shirtless and very happy.

reading

Today our story for literature is fitting. We are finishing off the first Winnie-the-Pooh book and its second to last chapter happens to be Piglet Is Entirely Surrounded by Water. A few other books that are on our list today are Tales of Amanda Pig and The First Thanksgiving. My girl and I swung a deal involving Charlotte's Web a couple of days ago. I read a few pages after she reads to me in order to speed the story up. Years of watching the 70's cartoon version tainted my opinion of the subject matter. I have found the book to be a refresher on why I liked it in the first place. A silly girl, subject to very deep feelings, falls in love with a pig and we watch as his life unfolds on account of her compassion on his little runty life. Its fun to see my girl relate to Fern. After all Fern is 8,...something she pointed out to me at the very beginning. Well so long, hope your day isn't flooded (literally)

this quote is just for you

This is a quote page just for you Kristen, I wrote it down right away so I wouldn't forget it.

Nana-You were a baby once too
Youngest boy-no I wasn't, I came big...the monsters dropped me off....they were little monsters.

this is something I had been wondering about, thanks for clarifying it Mr. steel

all this weather

can you believe this weather! okay so its normal. What is not normal is my usually independent old lady dog is a nervous wreck. the picture shows her waiting behind my heels while I cook dinner.

schooling update

My teacher conference was yesterday. I have to admit having a teacher makes me feel really good about this whole schooling thing. We have phone conferences once a month to go over goals and progress. My goals were the same as last month. For reading practice we have chosen Charlot's web because the character 'fern' is only two years older than my girl and just as prone to emotional upheaval :) We are taking it slowly but the fact that she is interested in what happens makes such a difference in her attitude about the book and the lack of pictures presses her to continue reading to find out just what happens. In Math we are working on skip counting as well as playing games which involve math....sneaky school. Science goes better if I supplement it with Bill Nye videos on U-tube. Half the fun with that is remembering watching it when I was in school. Now that school is in full swing we are back to utilizing the library as well as local museums like last year. We have been hoping to progress in math fast enough to start second grade in the spring. Apparently we are finishing all our classes to be done in the spring (whoops)
When my teacher told me that yesterday... mentally I was kicking myself. I meant to keep up with her subjects not fly through them like some air race. So we are slowing things down. I am still hoping to get into 2nd grade math but as far as her other subjects, that can wait. I don't want to be the parent of a 13 year old college student! She has done really well and is excelling. My attitude about school could do for an overhaul. Its still hard for me to give up so much of my day and I find that I am the culprit of a slow school morning because of my crankines! sigh. I still really like ORVA even though I have edited some interesting history lessons..perhaps a little TOO much information about other cultures religion. I suppose that's all for now, have a great day with your schooling..let me know how its going for you and what your really liking so far about it!

Listen up YOU!

I have an idea, a proposition, a thought.
What if the local church here offered a woman's bible study on a weekday where there was babysitting and snacks for the kids along with fun games and the moms could meet for an hour and actually talk about God? give me some feed back local moms!

here is the tentative schedule sketch

6:30-7:30
weekday night

I would do the kid watching and would have games and snacks and book reading so your kids weren't just blobbing in front of a movie. Think about it and give me some feedback so we can tweak it just so! thanks.

tonight at the opera

Orphee. It was french. It was....ummm. okay it wasn't my favorite. I enjoy watching the opera even when it involves silly love triangles but this opera the husband was emotionally unfaithful to his wife. The rest of the plot was interesting but this one hump I couldn't get over. He didn't cheat on her physically, but expressed his adoration for his new flame...who happened to be the angel of death. Weird? a little. Anyhow, I had a fun night and a great get away with my flame regardless of the sub standard plot line. *smiles* got to hit Starbucks on the way back tho and bathing my heart in a steamy cup of Joe makes any day a good day.

oh the joy of sunday

Church days. If all my readers had children I wouldn't have to expound because the moment you hear those words a pang of fear runs through your veins. So its more like this...

"church days" (shudder)

Things change when you have kids. If you are fortunate enough to have kids who love the nursery or love to put them in screaming and smile sadistically at the worker, things at church are different but the only difference is when you get home is when everyone starts breaking down. Remember the days sitting in the pew smiling at friends, greeting them, catching up on news nothingness. Somehow that morphed into sitting in the pew listening to the sermon with half your brain and listening to your alter egos with the other. Occasionally phrases like "Jesus came down to ear...stop hitting him!!" pop out as a direct result of said event. Many other possibility's of chaos ensue when you least expect it. Today I wanted to crawl under the bench and pretend that my mother was raising my children when the associate pastor gave my youngest son the microphone during children's corner. I have to describe it first before I expound on WHAT exactly he said.

Children's corner

The idea is all the kids come up to the front of the church and listen to a cutesy story and get a candy. Cute huh? Curb your thinking! Admit it you were picturing a little group of three or four well behaved children who raise their hands before asking a question. Not so my friend. I like to describe it as a wave...no no that's too small...a tsunami of 6 and under. Well behaved and 30 kids under 7... a physical oxymoron. Not quite the first image huh. Picture that with an adult teaching. Five minutes or less to thrill the whole crowd. Every so often they ask questions..(evil laugh) now you see the children begin to answer all at once. Whats a person to do but give the mike out so the whole crowd can hear? -enter story

My son, the youngest one was born with a problem. He loves to tell inappropriate jokes. This is defiantly NOT encouraged at home but short of threatening soap (which I have never done) he will not stop. Today when I heard his sweet little voice over the loudspeaker all I could do was wait in angst at what exactly he was going to say. I know your not supposed to be embarrassed of what your kids do and just focus on what to do afterword but today was like seeing Hiroshima dropped.

ME-"oh here comes the bomb" mentally I was already hiding.

Son - and then the chicken in my UNDER WARE was....

Me- Please Jesus make him stop

son_incoherent babbling

Me- take the mike away aaaahhhh..

So I was glad the naughty word for the day was under ware but seriously folks these are the days I pretend I am in Tahiti on the beach instead of sitting in the back of the church hoping my boys speech impediment lasts through high school.

one for the books

A well known fact among elephants is that they can't jump. Apparently this isn't common knowledge among humans since movies and books portray them jumping, galloping and well even flying. Once I was at a zoo show in sandiego and saw an elephant skip. It was like watching shamu the whale pick up a telephone.
Why all this needless mocking of large mammals? Because watching an elephant skip is the best comparison I could give for my dancing ability. All those years of rocking out to the bee gees and cleaning house gave me quite the bloated ego. Mentally I was as good as John Travolta (minus the suit) that is until I met..dun dun dun....My husband. Instead of spending all his dancing on cleaning he went and learned on the go. Me not so much. When we met I pictured myself busting a move and impressing him. *cough* awkward pause* instead it went something like this...

me-Yeah we should go dancing together!!! I have always wanted to swing dance!!
him-Oh yeah its great. We should practice.
me-why would we need to practice? oh well I guess we could.
him explaining-so this is when I am going to throw you
me-WHAT!
him-well you will go on each hip and then..
me thinking-this is gonna be something

first attempt...fail
second attempt..fail worse
third attempt ends with me suggesting that we take a break

fast forward to wedding of a friend
me-ooohhh we should DANCE!!!
him-ummmm
me-no just slow dance *please face included*
him-ooohhkkaayy
This is when all the air was finally let out of my jive balloon. Not only did I NOT box step I proceeded to smash his toes repeatedly. The truth was silently spoken and I have lived with the knowledge that practice may make things better but it doesn't always make something perfect.

brothers wedding haloween style

I'm so glad I married a guy who would dress up and get into character

the tables were covered in candy...yeah I ate it.

Why yes those ARE zombie high heels!

Zombie cake

oh dad you make me proud




Greg and I were the only vampires there, believe it or not

For years and years my brother told me he would never marry,...and then he met Megan and that slowly started to change. Yesterday He tied the knot..his way. It was a blast! hope you enjoyed the pictures :)