nothing more than fragmented thoughts

Things are never dull here.  Honestly, I can't ever say that I'm bored. 

What a week we had.  What a week we have coming up.  What a month ahead of me. 

Thanks to good meds I am feeling 100% again after last weeks nasty sickness.  Well, I was feeling 100%, but today while lifting boxes, I pulled a muscle in my back. Note to self - get Hubby or Son to do the heavy lifting.  They have arm muscles, I don't. :)

We had family visit over the weekend.  My parents, my husband's parent's and a nephew were here for a special occasion.  What fun we all had visiting, laughing, sharing stories, watching the kids play.  It was only a few short days, but it was great fun while they were here.  I'm sad to see it end, but at the same time, I need everyone to go so I can focus on getting this house ready to move.

The kids have school tomorrow, but then they are off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  It will be fun to have them home.  I hope they will work to behave themselves and get along with each other.  Is it really just three days until Thanksgiving?  I haven't even thought about fixing Thanksgiving dinner.  I love doing it, but it's really snuck up on me this year or I've been too busy to notice its approach.  Today I was at the store getting a few essentials and not really shopping.  However, my mother-in-law, who was with me, reminded me that I hadn't bought my turkey yet.  Oh yeah!  I hope it thaws by Thursday.

My son loves the Elf Yourself website.  He plays on it every morning before school.  His favorite thing to do is put himself and some of his favorite famous people in the pictures (i.e. David Tennent (from Dr. Who), Bill Murray, Fabio, and Weird Al) and then watch them dance.  It's pretty entertaining.

Really, I have no point to my blog entry this time.  It's just some of my thoughts spilling from my mind onto the keyboard.  (Kind of weird imagery there, isn't it?)  I have a fun blog entry in mind to do, I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write it.  I've GOT to get school work done, but maybe, if I need a break from library concerns, I'll blog about a fun evening I had last week.

Later!

Birthday cake disasters

I've got many friends who, on their blogs or Facebook page, post pictures of these amazing cakes that they made for their children's birthdays or a friend's birthday.  It is simply incredible and some of them are a work of art.

Then, there are my poor cake decorated deprived children.  They have a mom who is seriously handicapped at cake decorating.  Seriously!!!  It wasn't always this bad, but it seems each cake I make just gets worse and worse.  Here is the most recent cake disaster:

Yeah, I know.  That's bad.  I don't even want to tell you what it makes me think of.  So, I made the cake, like normal.  After it was completely cooled, I took it out of the pan.  Well, it broke into about three pieces when I took it out of the pan.  Then I tried to ice it.  It just crumbled.  I've never had a cake do that.  NEVER!

Thankfully my son was very amused and forgiving of his mom's incredible lack of decorating talent.

This was my daughter's cake last year.  The two round cakes didn't sit well on top of each other and the top of the cake kind of slid off the bottom of the cake.  It was a mess.  She was forgiving as well.

Hey, my cakes may be ugly, but they are tasty.  There is nothing wrong with the way the cake tastes and that's the most important part.  Right? 

My husband an two older sons don't even bother asking for a cake, they want cheesecake and I can make some killer cheesecakes.  They are yummy!  This year, after seeing her brother's cake disaster, my daughter asked for ice cream instead of a cake.  Smart girl.





better

Today was a much better day, thank goodness!  I don't get sick often. I get a cold every year that keeps me coughing for about six weeks, but I can deal with that.

What happened to me the other day is a much more rare occurrence.  I wake up in the morning, just fine and ready to tackle the day.  By the end of the day, BAM!  I'm flat on my back unable to move because I feel so awful and achy and dizzy.  I was up at 1am and 5am last night (this morning) eating popsicles to help my poor throat. 

Thank you medicine!  Today I feel quite normal except for a very tender throat.

So, I cleaned today.  Not a lot of fun and there is still a lot to do, but I feel better about what I accomplished today.  Ooooo, I can feel my throat getting sore again.  Time for some meds and maybe another popsicle.

sick

It's amazing how you can wake up one day, feeling quite normal and with big plans for the day and by that night, you are shivering on the couch hardly able to move.

That was me yesterday.  Today hasn't been much better.  I've laid around, slept, and spent 2 1/2 hours at the doctor trying to gets some meds to help.

I have company arriving in two days.  It will be the Hubby's parents AND my parents.  Yeah, this house will not be ready for company.

OK, I'm dizzy, so I'm going to lay back down. 

Birthdays, discos, and not freaking out (yet)

In the last six days, we've had two birthdays in our house.  The oldest daughter is 8 now and the youngest son is 6.  It's hard to believe.  I love that they are getting older.

Last night we had a disco dance.  Now years and years ago, disco night in our house was a regular event.  We probably had a disco two or three times a month.  Our disco ball hung from the ceiling in the living room. We would turn on the spotlight, crank up the disco music and dance.  It was great fun.  Last night we turned off all the lights in the house and turned on the strobe light.  Then we danced.  It was so funny.  I wish I could explain everything that the kids did.  My youngest daughter, who is 3, had this strut she would do and she probably had the best moves of anyone else in the family.  They all had fantastic moves.  It was very funny and I'm a little jealous of their dance skills.

(Actually, my youngest just came up to me and told me she wants to do a disco dance again.)

As we will be moving soon, you can imagine it is on our minds a lot.  I hope each day when Hubby comes home from work, he will know where we are going and when we are going.  It makes moving easier to plan when you have those two vital bits of information.  While I'm sad to say good-bye to good friends, I view each move as an exciting adventure.  I'm not stressing over anything yet because there is nothing I can do about anything just yet.  Hubby told me I had a good attitude about this move.  (We've moved at least 9 times over the course of our marriage.)  I told him if my attitude was annoying him, I could totally freak out over it.  He declined my offer.

This move should be so easy compared to the last one.  Last time we were trying to sell a house and I had six month old to deal with (along with the other 4 kids) and Hubby left for his new job about a month before I could leave to join him, so I was all alone.  This time, it's a rental house, the kids are older and can help more.  I'll stress out when we get close to the actual move.  So, Molly-freaking-out will appear in about a month.  Keep an eye out for the entertaining show that is to come.

Molly and Peter

Several amazing things have happened this week.  On Wednesday,  Hubby found out his job here was ending.  That means we move wherever the next job takes us.  So, we're moving!  Most likely next month.

It's crazy how fast the news comes and you work with it.  I'd tell you where we are moving to, but I don't know myself yet.  It's looking like Virginia, but don't quote me on that yet.

So, this weekend, we started cleaning out stuff.  I've got a very large yard sale pile going.  I've been going through boxes, cleaning out stuff we don't need and other joyous tasks of this nature.

Tonight, miracle of miracles, I found a set of photos that I thought I had lost.  Honestly, I haven't seen these photos in six years and was sure they were missing forever.  Hubby will tell you how upset I've been over the years at the loss of these photos.  Tonight, I was searching through a box.  It was probably never unpacked when we moved here three years ago.  (Yeah, I know that's pretty sad to still have unpacked boxes from the last move....)

So, tonight for the first time in six years, I share with you a picture from my visit to Kensington Gardens in London back in 2005 to see the Peter Pan statue.  I was 7 months pregnant with kid #4.

Molly and Peter

Peter Pan, my first love

I don't guess I've really talked about Peter Pan before, but I can't not talk about him any longer.

Peter Pan was my first crush.

Many years ago, when I was just a young tot of two, (maybe younger, but I don't remember that far back) I had a record player.  I listened to music and stories on my record player.  I remember having several versions of the story of Peter Pan that I loved listening to.

Peter Pan frequently sent Tinker Bell to my home to visit me.  I remember more than once, sitting in my living room while a light darted about the ceiling.  I spoke to it.  My parents might tell you that it was my dad holding a hidden flashlight, but that wouldn't be the truth - it was Tinker Bell.

I'm sure I visited Never Never Land after falling asleep many nights.

When I was three, just before Halloween, I fell and broke my left arm, just above the elbow.  I already had my costume and no broken arm was going to stop me from dressing as, you guessed it, Peter Pan.

My brother and I. 1978

At the preschool Halloween class party.  Most of the time, I wore my sling inside my shirt.

Peter was on my 4th birthday cake and I had either a mobile or a lamp from my very early childhood that featured Peter.

One of my favorite records as a child was a theatrical performance of Peter Pan on LP.  It was a very groovy recording with original music.  I LOVED that record.  I can still sing the opening song from it.  "There's a magic place I know, where it's summer all year through.  A land at rainbows end of games and let's pretend, Never Land is waiting for you!"

Terrytown Players, I love you.
The record was made in 1977

I was given a beautiful story book from my parents in 1980 for Christmas.  It had the most amazing pictures in it.  I looked at those beautiful works of art over and over.

Stunning art work.
It really set my small child's imagination running.

I went to see Peter Pan when it came to Dallas and starred Sandy Duncan! (late 70's early 80's, I don't know the year)  I remember going to see that.  It was such a thrill.  Years later I was introduced to the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan.  I taped it off the TV and had it on VCR tape so I was able to watch it over and over and over.  "I have a place where dreams are born and time is never planned.  It's not on any chart, you must find it with your heart, Never Never Land."  Then, as a teenager, the Cathy Rigby version came to Dallas and I saw that performed.

The Playbill for Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan

I have several versions of the books to read.

The book on the left is a nice hardback, the center book I got for super cheap at a used bookstore.  It's great for just reading without worrying about destroying the book.  The blue book on the right it the one with the beautiful artwork that I got for Christmas when I was very small.

The first unabridged book of Peter pan that I read.

I learned very quickly when reading Peter Pan, that it was much more than just a children's book.  The language was difficult first of all.  It's much darker story than the plays and movies I had seen.  Peter is still lovable, but less so.  He is an mischievous imp.  You get so annoyed with him in his complete lack of understanding of Wendy's feelings, and yet, when he is hurt and about to die, alone on a rock from a wound inflicted by Hook, you want to cry for Peter. 

There were movies, like Hook, in 1991 that were lots of fun.  There were other movie versions that were well done, but not my favorite telling of the story....  I was in the play Peter Pan when I was 10 or so years old.  I played the snake.  I got to hang out with the crocodile.  I was in every scene the crocodile was in.  I don't have any photos of my in my snake costume, but I know my mom has at least one, somewhere. 

I tried to convince my husband to name one of our children Peter, but I never could get him to go with me on that.

I had the most awesome record ever of the Disney's Peter Pan:

Yes, amazing pictures from the movie printed right onto the record.

As a teenager, probably 16 years old, I did a cross stitch of Peter and the gang:

It hangs on the wall in my home now.

Then, six years ago, I had the opportunity to go to London for about 36 hours.  I didn't care what I saw or did in London, as long as I visited the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.  It took several subway trains from my hotel and a very, very long walk through a huge park before I found Peter, but found him I did. A kind stranger took a picture of me with Peter Pan.  I was 8 months pregnant at the time with baby #4.  Sadly, I haven't seen those pictures since coming back from London.  I have no idea what happened to them.  I hope one day to find them, but until then, just know that I've been there.  I've seen Peter.  I sat on a bench across the walk from him, looked at him and thanked him for the many, many wonderful years we've know each other.

Fall Tradition

Where would we be in life without traditions?  Lost, that's for sure.

My kids can count on every year, the annual post-Halloween torching of the jack-o-lantern.  We started this tradition about 10 years ago.  We were living in Hawaii.  It's hot there year round.  Our poor pumpkin we bought and carved in  mid-October was a nothing but a moldy, melted orange blob by Halloween.  We decided to have a bit of fun with it and the Hubby sprayed it with lighter fluid and set it aflame.

This became a post-Halloween tradition.  This year, after an unusually warm October, we once again had a melted, gooey pumpkin.  Last night, we set it out among the rocks in our yard and the Hubby turned on the propane torch.  Flames shot out of it's eyes and mouth.

Long live traditions!

Canadian Style Mincemeat

The Hubby is a big fan of mincemeat.  Every Christmas season I make him a mincemeat pie.  I buy the brown goo in the big jar and pour it into a pie crust.  He is the only one who will east it.  I like it for maybe two bites and I'm done.  The flavor is just odd to me.  This year I thought it might be fun to do something different.  So, I was searching for mincemeat recipes and came across one that looked tasty.

It is called Canadian style mincemeat.  I don't know if it actually the way they eat mincemeat in Canada or if they get the brown goo in a jar like we have in the US.  Perhaps someone just called it that for fun and it has nothing to do with Canada.  I don't know.  If any friends from Canada can solve this mystery for me, I would be so grateful.

Well, whatever it is called and where ever it hales from, it looked good and I decided to try it.
It is apple cider, cranberries, craisins, apples, raisins, and spices.  It all gets dumped together into a pot, cooked, mashed and then stored in jars.

Simmering in the pot.  It smelled as wonderful as it looks.  Apples, cranberries and cinnamon. 
That's an amazing fall aroma.

Canned into jars.  It looks pretty.

Once I had this delicious concoction made, I had to try something with it.  I found a cookie recipe.  It's basically a sugar cookie with the mincemeat inside.  I used a heart shaped cookie cutter.  They turned out so very yummy.  These little cookies are perfect for an evening treat.  I heated up some apple cider to drink with my cookies.  If there are seasons in heaven, this is what you would eat in autumn in heaven.

Delicious little cookies

So there it is, Canadian style mincemeat.  I'll be making more of this stuff.  When the holidays are upon us, I'll make a pie with it.  Ooo, it will be so good.

The millions of ideas

There is a million things going on in my head.  I really need to focus on just a few things, but no, I try and tackle as much as I can.

I'm trying to get through school work.  I like it and much of it is interesting, but this week, I have 31 pages to read.  That's really not much, but every time I sit down to read, I fall asleep.  Or my mind starts to think about the other ten projects I'm working on and by the time I've finished a page, I can't remember a single thing that I read and I re-read it, but continue to have a wandering mind.  I still haven't made it through those 31 pages yet. 

My theater is holding auditions this coming Saturday.  I'm excited.  Recent theater experiences in the last few months have given me great ideas to do with the kids for auditions.  I'm going to have every kid go through the audition, but depending on the number of kids that show up, if they want to be in the play, I can put them in it.  It's a great little show because the cast size is very flexible.

Oldest son really wants to have a comedy troop.  We've had two meetings, but only one kid showed up and that's tough for him.  My kids and I have been playing these funny games for month, but he never has, so it's hard for him to jump into our family's insanity.  We discovered that one of our neighbors is a theater major graduate and he spent a year and a half in an improv comedy group while he was in school.  We've invited him to our next meeting to come and really help us do some fun stuff.

I've given up on writing right now.  The only thing I write these days is this blog and my school papers.  Sad, but it's a trade off in the middle of the semester.

I need to figure out how to record sound with my computer.  I can run the camera, but I don't want video, just sound and I can't figure it out.  I've asked Hubby for help, but he is so busy with everything he is involved in, he hasn't had time to help.  If I ever do figure it out, watch out!  I've got a funny idea brewing.

The kids are good.  My oldest daughter and youngest son have birthdays next week.  Ahhh!  I haven't even thought about those yet.  I had a parent/teacher conference with my daughter's teacher a couple of weeks ago.  She told me what they are learning in school and she told me, "don't teach her multiplication yet,  we need to get the addition facts down first."  OK.  Well, today, for fun, daughter was at the table, writing out her own math problems and figuring them out.  She realized that 12x6 is just 12 six times. She thinks of things that I never would have thought of at her age. She's smart, like her dad.

OK, Peanut, who I am holding, has fallen asleep.  Now it's time to put her down and see if I can tackle those reading pages again. (yawn, maybe not)

Upcoming blog entries will include:  Mincemeat adventures and my lifelong love for Peter Pan.
Oh yes, I know you're excited now.

Scary Thoughts

We love our holiday TV specials, Garfield, Charlie Brown and such.  With this being Halloween, I started to think of my favorite shows and their Halloween episodes.  Most TV shows, that I can think of, have at least one Halloween themed show during their run. 

Right now, as I am writing this, my daughter is watching Blues Clues.  It is the episode where they are trying to find out what Blue is afraid of.  At one point, they enter into an old haunted house that is occupied by a little ghost named Boo.  Every time some one says Boo's name, everyone screams.  It's funny.

My favorite TV show of all time, The Monkees, really didn't have a specific Halloween episode.  They did have four or five shows that took place in haunted mansions with monsters, vampires, werewolves, mummies and coffins.  Definitely a couple of great episodes to watch during Halloween.

Another favorite TV show for me is SeaQuest DSV.  They had a Halloween one that if I remember right, aired on Halloween.  It took place on an old sunken ship where tormented souls of ghosts did their best to scare the crew of the SeaQuest.  I've seen the episode three or four times now, but one part of the show still freaks me out.  It's at the beginning.  The crew is watching some old footage of a Titanic-like ship.  They pause the old movie to discuss what to do and while the movie is paused, one of the faces in the movie turns to look at them.  Freaks me out every time.  (Shivers)

I prefer to laugh than be scared, so I'll share a favorite YouTube clip of a not-so-scary witch.  Just a warning - do NOT eat anything while watching this.  I did this morning and about choked on my cereal because I was laughing so hard.

What's your favorite Halloween TV episode?

Halloween movies and music

We love Halloween time here at our house.  Personally, I just love that the weather is cooler and I can bake with pumpkin til my heart's content.

We love watching our favorite holiday movies and shows:
Garfield's Halloween
It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Disney's Halloween Special
The Worst Witch

We listen to great music:
"Toccata and Fugue" by Bach (the great classic organ song)
"In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Dukas
"Night on Bald Mountain" by Rimsky-Korsakov
"This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas by Danny Elfman
Monster Mash

I found this fun list:
Dracula’s top ten favorite songs
10. You’re so vein
9. Fangs for the Memories
8. You’ve got a Fiend
7. You Don’t Bring me Plasma Anymore
6. Bat’s the Way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I like it
5. You Light up my Crypt
4. Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Old Oak Casket
3. Don’t Go Stakin’ My Heart
2. Stranglers in the Night
1. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Donor

Getting Ready for Halloween

Today is the first day that it has really felt cool out.  I mean, the kids can and still are running around without jackets or shoes so it's not that cold yet. But, it's the first day that I haven't turned on the A/C in the house.

Tomorrow is the first Halloween carnival we will attend.  Actually, there are three, but we will only attend one.  Just two days ago, my 11 year old son finally told me what he wants to be for Halloween.  So, what do my kids want to dress as for Halloween?

Oldest son wanted to dress as Dr. Who.  He's rather obsessed with that show right now.  Sadly, in this warm climate we live in, dark brown overcoats and matching suits with bow ties aren't to be found (for a cheap price, anyway.)  We found a costume online for Dr. Who, but who wants to spend $300 on a costume for a kid that will grow out of it in five months?  He was disappointed, but decided to be Charlie Brown in his Halloween costume.  So, that is a sheet with a bunch of holes cut out of it.  A $4 sheet from the local used clothing store is definitely doable.

Next son took until 2 days ago to tell me he wants to be a pirate.  Well, he can wear his dark pants and white shirt.  A trip to the used clothing store found a brown scrub-like shirt.  With a little help from the old sewing machine, we turned that brown shirt into a vest.  I've got some strips of cloth we can use as a belt.  OK, we're good.

Seven year old daughter.  If you've never seen the movie called "The Worst Witch," I highly recommend it.  It was filmed in the 80's and is about a young girl at a witches academy.  It's got a lot of Harry Potter elements in it, but this was more than a decade before Harry Potter even showed up on bookshelves.  The main witch student is Mildred Hubble.  This is who my daughter wanted to be for Halloween.  We found a women's sleeveless cocktail dress at the used clothing shop and an orange shirt.  They look like the uniforms the girls in the movie wear.  A green ribbon belt and striped stockings finish the costume off. It's cute!

The five year old son has also waited until the last minute to tell me his costume choice  - a ninja.  Not too tough.  Black pants, black shirt, black socks.  We've got that.  I will sew one more element to his costume this afternoon.

Then there is Peanut.  She wanted to be a ballerina.  We have a leotard already from when her big sister was this age.  Some tulle and an elastic made a tutu.  She spent two days already wearing her costume.  Her tutu is looking pretty sad now.  It's OK.  It makes her happy.

I'll wear my purple medieval dress with the huge sleeves.  I'll be Vaire the Weaver from Tolkien's The Silmarillian.

I'm so glad Halloween comes once a year.

The digital hybrid

I haven’t said much about school this semester.  We are only beginning our 5^th week, so there hasn’t been much to say.  Last week we had a group project to do.  That isn’t easy when the members of the group span 12 time zones.  Most of them are in the UK, but there are a few of us in North America and several in Asia and Africa.  By the time I get all the kids to school and I’m ready to sit down and do school work, it’s around 4pm in the UK.

It’s really amazing, when you think about it, how students from many countries on six of the continents are in one class together.

Also this past week, we discussed “digital natives.”  What are digital natives you ask?  People born since 1993.  They know no life without the Internet.  The rest of us born prior to 1993 are called “digital immigrants.”  An interesting idea, but as I see it, it is not entirely true.  The generation I am from (sounds like a bad sci-fi movie) have lived with computers all of our lives.  We didn’t get the Internet until we were young adults, but we were the first generation to have personal computers, game consoles, and VCRs.

We had an Atari.  I never did get very good at those games.  The joystick was awkward in my small hand, but that didn’t keep my brother and I from trying to get the moving square (the ball) to hit the moving bars (tennis rackets, I think.)

When I was around 8, we got our first computer – an Apple IIe.  Those old things had no memory at all.  They didn’t run unless they had a disk in them.  Yes, the 5 ¼ floppies.  If you turned it on without a disk inside, it made a lot of rude noises.  We had a word processing program.  It was where I wrote all my plays and my first novel.  We also had a couple of great games – Jumpman, Nibbler and Math Blaster. 

We got our first VCR around that same time.  Great fun.  It was such a novelty to go down to the shopping center near our home and pick out videos from the brand new home video rental store.  This is way before Blockbuster.  We recorded TV shows and could watch them whenever we wanted!

Our first cell phone must have weighed about 10 pounds. They weren’t even called cell phones.  They were mobile phones and despite their name, they weren’t very mobile.  It was too heavy to carry around in your bag and your arm would cramp while trying to talk on it.

I think my generation should be called “digital hybrids.”  I don’t think of myself as a technological immigrant.  I grew up with the stuff.  Someday when I’m old, have a purple bouf, and whacking teenagers with a cane, I’ll be able to say, “Back when I was young, you whippersnappers, we didn’t have these smart phones.  Our first cell phone was as long as your arm and weighed more than a newborn baby.”
Oh yes, that will be the day!

I think I need some sunshine

Having a blah day and I have no reason to do so.  I've got several great projects going on.  I love have a projects to work on.  I just can't get myself to work on any of them.  But on the flip side, I don't know what to do with myself either.  Maybe I just need to get outside and soak in some sunshine.

Last night, Hubby was on one computer which is in our bedroom.  The living room was filled with kids.  Several of them were watching cartoons on the TV and the oldest was watching Dr. Who on my computer.  I didn't want to hang out in the living room or the bedroom.  Where else can I go?  I had my oldest son assist me in moving my loom into the kitchen.  Yes, the kitchen.  I took my tablet, which has some of my favorite music.  I put on headphones, and work in the kitchen on my loom.  It was a great little work area.  No one bothered me and I got the loom re-tied so I can start weaving again.

Peanut has been funny, and slightly annoying this morning.  Several times, I've been in various rooms working on something and she comes in and says:
"Mom, can you come with me and get something down?"
"OK, I'll be right there."
"Mom, now."

and just a moment ago I got this:
"Mom, can you come to sister's room and sweep under the bed?"
"Why?  Are there toys under the bed you want me to get?"
"Yeah, can you come now?"

I guess I had better go sweep under the bed before I get the "Now, Mom!"

Living in the future

No, this isn't some strange sci-fi experiment.

All week long, I've thought this week is next week.  Understand?  My dear Hubby made arrangements to come home early today because I had an appointment.  I checked the calendar to verify my appointment time and realized that the appointment is next week, not today.  UG!  I couldn't get hold of Hubby for a while and when I finally did, it was too late.  He was one his way home.

Oops.  Sorry.

This week I've done some Mad Libs with my kids.  I love doing those.  My 7 year old, who has recently learned the parts of speech, is really into doing these.  She and I have had many a good laugh in the last week.

You can't help but laugh when you are talking about an orchestra playing Beethoven's "Fifth Flamingo" or Dois Day being elected Choo Choo Train of the Year and receiving a stinky dinosaur as her prize.
AND... did you know that the African Gravel Stone eats fifty pounds of fuzzy cheese a day?

Mad Libs are so funny. Oh yes, the next time you visit a zoo, watch out for the wild chocolate chips and recycle bins running around in large pens.

Auntie M's Children's Theater is back

Check out Auntie M's Children's Theater!  There are two audition announcements.

I'm also planning next year's season.  If we can work it out, there will be three productions next year, spring, summer and fall!  It should be a ton of fun. Check out the Upcoming Performances page.

The Whirlwind

My three year old is a whirlwind.  She’s as sweet as they come, but a complete whirlwind. 

Each day for the last few weeks, she has taken to sorting through all of our movies.  She pulls each one out and asks me what it is.  Aside from watching a lot of Blues Clues lately, she has also been into watching The NeverEnding Story, Mr. Bean, The Berenstain Bears and Baby Einstien.  The problem is she doesn’t put any of the movies back.  I find them all over the floor.

She does the same with all of the kid books.  This last week, we’ve read Fancy Nancy’s Halloween many times.  There have been a lot of other books we’ve read, too.  They are all over the floor.

She loves to wear shoes that are not her own.  So, all over the living room and dining room I’ll find everyone’s shoes.  Then, when we need to go somewhere, I can’t find her shoes because she took them off in some odd place so she could put on her brother’s shoes.

She can make a mess of toys in her room faster than a desert dust devil.  It’s a talent.

She loves to tell knock, knock jokes.  Some of them are quite funny.  Most of them don’t make sense, but you laugh anyway because her delivery of the joke is fantastic.

She cut some of her hair this week.  It’s never good when a three year old cuts their own hair, but she didn’t do a bad job, surprisingly.  They are almost like bangs.  I don’t mind bangs, but when the rest of her hair reaches the middle of her back, a small section of above the eyebrow bangs is very short.

She thinks that she is going to grow up into a baby.  Nothing you can say will change her mind on this.  She often tells me that when she grows up into a baby, she will have a bottle, wear baby clothes, and play with baby toys.  You just have to agree with her.  She can’t be swayed in her idea.

She climbed into some of the cupboards recently to get food coloring.  She applied it very well and didn’t make a mess of it.  I just wish she had not done that.

My little Peanut, what a gal.

The Halloween Fountain

Thirteen or so years ago, the Hubby and I bought a little Halloween decoration.  It’s a small fountain in the shape of a tombstone with a pool of stones at the bottom.  When you turn it on, it played spooky music and a small pump within the tombstone kept a stream of red blood-like liquid pouring from the top into the pool.

It was a fun decoration and we enjoyed it for several years.  Then, we moved and half of our belongings went into storage and remained there for 10 years before we were finally able to retrieve all of our things.  Last year, we opened one of our storage boxes to find our spooky fountain.  You can imagine my children’s thrill when we filled the pool with water and red food coloring.  It didn’t play the spooky music anymore, but it was still fun to watch the fountain flow it a most spooky way.

Towards the end of October we started to notice that we could, very faintly, hear Christmas music coming from the fountain.  Odd.

Now this year is here and we’ve pulled out our Halloween decorations, including the fountain.  I addedsome water and turned it on.  Very distinctly we heard Christmas tunes coming from our fountain.  Santa Claus is Coming to Town and We Wish You a Merry Christmas played while the water poured from the top of the fountain to the skulls and stones below.  It took away all spookiness and made the fountain quite comical. 

I wasn’t ready to add the food coloring just at that moment, even though the kids were asking me to do it.  Really, it’s quite a mess and I didn’t want to deal with it quite yet.   Well, Peanut, my ever busy 3 year old, decided to take matters into her own hands.  She climbed up onto the counter, opened the cupboard with the food coloring and added it herself.  She added blue.  I haven’t changed it.  So, our spooky skull Halloween fountain plays Christmas music and has lovely blue water flowing over the tombstone.  Happy Halloween or Merry Christmas!

I don't know why Blogger keeps turning the picture sideways, but you get the idea of what the fountain looks like.
Are you spooked out yet?

Almost empty: a family tradition

There's a joke in my family among my parents and siblings that when it comes to food you can not finish anything.

Imagine a plate with pancakes on it.  The family eats the pancakes, but then as dinner is finishing, there is one pancake left on the plate.  Who gets it?  Well, it's not polite to take the last one, so everyone just leaves it and dinner is over.

What do you do with the one pancake?  Do you just eat it?  Do you throw it out, even though it is good food?  Do you save it?  Saving it would involve using a baggie or a Tupperware for just one item.  Is it worth it?

During that same meal, everyone has a drink of milk.  But, the tradition is, you must leave a tiny bit of milk in the jug.  You must leave too much milk in the jug just to throw out, so you have to save it.  An entirely empty jug, except for about 1/8 of a cup is stored back into the fridge.

Do you see how this is going?  The family tradition of leaving just the tiniest amount, but too much to throw out has managed to be passed onto my own children.

It's too much food left to throw the container away, but it seems so ridiculous to store an almost completely empty container.

Same with the syrup here.

Must leave a little in the jar.  Now the entire jar must be stored until the next time we eat pancakes.

I have learned over the years that the next time we eat these foods or drinks, I put the mostly empty container out first.  If I set that jug of syrup out AND a brand new jug of syrup, the family will open the new jug and use it, never touching the jug that is almost empty.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just my family?

Just some food for thought.  :)

PS: Check out my son, Stonehelm the Wise's, latest blog entry.

An update on the almost empty situation in our house:

Last night we had pickles as a part of our dinner.  There was one lonely pickle slice the size of a nickle left floating in the jar.

School chats

School has been going for two weeks for me.  Some of it is interesting, some, not so interesting, but I guess that's the way school goes.  Of course, it's only been two weeks.  Today we had two "chats" in a chatroom.  The first one was at 10am, Scotland time.  That was 3am for me.  I was awake and alert and participated and towards the end, I thought of a good question and decided to save the it for the next chat session later in the day.  I got to go back to sleep for about 2 hours after the chat finished and before it was time to wake kids up for school.  When the second chat started, it was 8pm Scotland time, one in the afternoon for me.  I sat down to participate in the chat and couldn't remember anymore the question I had so brilliantly devised at 3:50am.

The next chat is next month and will be at 7am for me.  That will be hard as that is the hour I'm getting kids out the door for school, but it's better than 3 in the morning.

The Scary Hotel

A favorite blog inspired me to write this little story:

A little over a year ago I got to go to Detroit.  I spent four days and three nights there.  I was several blocks away from the downtown area.  Now, I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about downtown Detroit, but I have to say, the actual downtown area was very nice.  The skyscrapers were impressive and the streets were nice.  Now, you leave the immediate downtown area and things get pretty scary pretty fast.

I was about three blocks away from the downtown in a cheap hotel. 

There is no way to really describe the hotel and do it justice. I didn’t feel entirely safe.  The room was quite large, painted pink and had one 60 watt light-bulb in it.  It was dark.  In one corner of the room was, from what the manager told me, a Jacuzzi.  Yes, a Jacuzzi right in my room!  However, as I checked in, he told me the Jacuzzi didn’t work.  It was in a corner of the room and it was so dark in that corner, I couldn’t even see the bottom of the dark green tub. For all I knew, there could have been a dead body in there.  Even though the Jacuzzi didn’t work, I was probably charged extra just for the pleasure of having the view of one in my room.

There were bugs in the shower and I saw several on the bed.  Thankfully for me, the room had a couch.  I prefer to sleep on couches anyway, but after seeing the bugs in the bed, I wasn’t sleeping there.  The couch probably wasn’t much better, but I never actually saw a bug on it.

The last night I was there, there was a lot of activity going on in the halls.  I didn’t sleep well.  I kept the door locked and bolted, but someone tried to get into my room about three in the morning.  I think the people were quite drunk because I finally heard one of them say, “oops, wrong door!”

The only thing that room had going for it was Wi Fi.  I was able to hook up to the Internet and write a bad review of the hotel.  Stay Away!

The super pink hotel room

The dark corner with the mysterious Jacuzzi.  The flash from the

camera makes it look lighter than it actually was in the room.

This summer, as a family, we ended up stopping quite late one night in Flagstaff on our way to see extended family.  Some huge motorcycle convention must have been going on.  Every hotel we stopped at was full and the parking lots were filled with motorcycles.  We finally found a motel that was probably built in the 50’s.  Judging from the décor in the room, it still had its original furnishings.  I think the bedding and pillows were original too.  Our entire family slept in one room on the beds, and all over the floor.  Now, this was in July and the window A/C didn’t work.  As Flagstaff is high elevation, the outside air did cool down, but not in our room.  I hardly slept.  It was too hot.  I should have slept outside in the open air, but I was afraid of some motorcycle gang from the hotel next door might see me sleeping on the patio.  Hubby wasn’t impressed with the room at all, but I have to say, I never saw a bug in the room during our 10 hours in the motel. (Except for the dead one smashed on the bathroom wall next to the toilet, but hey, at least it was dead.)

15th Anniversary

It's the Hubby and mines 15th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow! 

Did you know: the traditional gift for a 15th wedding anniversary is crystal.  The modern gift is glass.  The alternate gift is a watch.  The flower is the rose (my favorite) and the stone is ruby.
Just a little fun fact.

I don't think we'll get to do anything special tomorrow.  There is too much going on.  Maybe we can have a date next week.  Fifteen years.  Wow.  How did so much time pass?  I remember about two or three weeks after we were married meeting a couple who had been married for nine whole months.  That was an eternity in my newlywed mind.  Now we have gone way beyond nine months.  Here's to 15 years and an eternity to go.

Keeping busy

I keep busy all day long with various projects.  Unfortunately, most of those projects do not involve cleaning the house.  Peanut's not helping either.  She loves to look at her books, but to find the perfect book to read, she feels she must pull out every single book and spread them on the floor.  She did that with a row of DVD's today, too.  Now they are in a circle on the floor.

This week began my official first week of school with Robert Gordon University.  So far, it's going well.  I'm caught up with all the reading for the week and have joined in various discussions.  I need to watch one video, but it's 59 minutes long, so, I'll schedule an hour tomorrow to sit and watch a dull interview.  My assignment for one class isn't due until December, but looking at it, it's going to take that long to do.  However, it is on a topic that I adore - names and onomastics - so it won't be a difficult project to do.

I want to do more for my theater, Auntie M's, but without a location, it's hard to do. I have a great play written that would be perfect for October, but I couldn't find a venue for it. Commercial spaces are so expensive and all other ideas I've had for the theater just haven't worked out.   My son has been asking for months for me to start an improv group for him to participate in.  I figured that we could try that.  We'll hold it in our home.  He has been gathering friends that he thinks might be interested.  We have our first meet tomorrow.  My son wants to play all sorts of improv games, but I've told him we'll have to work our way up to most of them.  He is the only one among his friends with any experience and that has been limited to family games.  We'll see how it goes.....

Over the past year and a half, I've sent query letters and the first three chapters of my book that I've written to about 20 publishers and agents.  If any reply has come back, it's been rejection notices.  I keep them all.  They are pasted in my journal.  I've been on the verge of giving up, but decided I'll just keep trying.  There are hundreds of publishers.  I've only just scratched the surface.  When I've been rejected 100 times, I'll think about giving up again.  So, today I sent off query letters to three more publishers. Now we wait.  It can take 2-6 months for a reply.

Well, back to work on more projects.  This afternoon's project WILL include cleaning the living room, rotating laundry and starting dinner.... maybe, if I don't get distracted by something else.

Flowers on the Move

Our garden among the rocks was quite successful this year.

We had about 50 onion plants.  My hubby loves onions, but even that was a lot for him.  He made a lot of French Onion soup and put onions on just about anything he could.  We ended up freezing a lot and we dehydrated and froze the rest. 

Our one little strawberry plant produced four strawberries.  They were little, but so good.  After we removed the rest of the plants that were sharing the bucket with the strawberries, they just started to spread.  They are still alive and well and we will care for them over the winter so they can begin again next spring.

We also had a few small planters with flowers in them.  They were the only color around our house.  We had them away from the rest of the garden and put them on our front porch.  They did fantastic and we had lovely blooms all summer.

In August, I noticed something unusual; we had flowers blooming in the rocks next to the porch.  Somehow, the flowers had spread.  They left the fertile plant box and have thrived in the rocks.   I’m so pleased with our little garden we had this year.

The flowers migrated from their box and into the rocks.

Dumb Criminals

The other day on the radio I heard this funny story.

A man goes to the blood bank to donate blood. (Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke.)  He notices at the front desk a 51” TV that the blood bank is giving away in a prize drawing.  That night he broke into the blood bank and stole the TV.  He used a taxi to make his get-a-way.  The TV was too big to fit into the taxi properly, so part of it was poking out.

Apparently, the blood bank realized very quickly what had happened.  The man was arrested while still in the taxi.  The blood bank recognized the man as having just been in there that day and for goodness sakes, they had all the DNA on the man that could ever be asked for.  After all, he had just donated blood.  Thanks to the stolen TV sticking out of the taxi, the police were able to find him pretty quickly and arrest him.

I guess the guy was too desperate to get the TV to think about who he was stealing it from.  Maybe he wanted to really watch the new fall line-up on primetime TV.

Happy Hobbit Day

I have the greatest sister in the world.  I love to laugh and that is good because I laugh my hardest when I’m with my brothers and sister.  There was one week about seven years ago when my sister came to visit.  My hubby was out of her town.  She left her hubby at home because he was working.  It was just her and me (and several children).  We laughed.  I can’t think back to that visit without laughing.  The week involved stories about piñatas,  electric screwdriver home improvement projects, a noise at the side door late one night, and a day at a children’s museum where she and I had more fun than all the children at the museum.

My sister can do a dead-on Katherine Hepburn impression.  She calls me on the phone and suddenly I’m speaking to Katherine Hepburn.  Dahling, you will never know the amusing things we have to say to one another.

Yesterday, Katherine Hepburn, I mean, my sister called me and we discussed making seed cake for the day’s Hobbit festivities.  She told me a story about her husband and a party with his family that had me rolling on the floor with laughter. 

She is an awesome mom too.  She sings crazy camp songs and speaks in fake English accents to annoy the heck out of her children.  I wish I were as awesome as her.

Anyway, back to Hobbit Day.  I fixed porridge for breakfast that only my husband ate.  I wore the closest outfit I have to a Hobbit dress and an apron.  For dinner I fixed a dinner of bread, cheese, crispy bacon, and seed cake.  Wash it all down with white grape juice.  Mmm…. A great meal.  I wish I were an elf, who floated about in beautiful homes in beautiful forests, wearing beautiful clothes, but I realized that I am a Hobbit at heart.  And I’m OK with that.

PS, Happy first day of fall!  I love fall.

My Dear Bagginses and Boffins....

Happy Hobbit Day!  May the hair on your toes never fall out.

A bit of a blow

At the end of August, we welcomed into our home an exchange student from Brazil.  She was having a hard time adjusting.  I realized this and did everything I could think of to help her along.  I thought things were going along pretty well.  After dropping her off at school on Monday, I was thinking of some of the things I could do with her this week, and I was determined to look up a Brazilian recipe and try to cook something that she would like.

Monday evening, we were expecting the local representative for the program to come to our house and give us some orientation.  Instead, she came to our home, told us that our student was unhappy and wanted to leave our home. 

CRASH!

What? One moment we were talking about school and soccer like normal and the next moment we are told that she doesn't want to stay with us any longer? (It's because we had rules about her curfew and she didn't like that.)

I was hurt.  I was personally attacked.  They phrased it to us like, "You guys have been great, but you are very different from what she is use to at home and she has requested to be moved to another family."  Let me tell you, I felt like someone had just slugged me in the stomach.

She left yesterday evening.  I spent yesterday (Tuesday) very hurt.  By evening, I was over the hurt and I was angry.  Today, has been better.  I've been able to think about things more clearly and realize that my hurt and anger were well founded.  What the local rep. and our student did to us was completely out of line.  My husband and I had no idea this was going to happen.  The rep should have worked with us.  She should have said, your student is having these issues, lets decided what we can do to help her.  Her job was to help us work through problems and instead, she created a lot more.

I could go on and on and if you really want to hear the entire story, just ask, but be prepared, it's a long, crazy story.

So, we are back to our regular family again.  The Hubby has already suggested that we consider getting another student.  I said NO THANK YOU!  I'm not doing that again.

OK, I've gotten this off my chest.  Thanks for letting me rant a bit.  You can go back to your lives citizens.

Among my friends

I accept that I get older each year when my birthday rolls around.  It doesn’t bother me, but I occasionally say to myself, “I’m how old?  When did that happen?”

Several days ago, eight friends and I got together for dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  While we were there, we realized that four of the nine of us had all had birthdays in the past week, myself included.  An odd coincidence for nine friends, I think.  We sat there at the restaurant, chatting and eating delicious Mexican food (a perk about living in New Mexico).

I looked around at each of us and realized only one other mom had a teen, like me.  Her son and mine are both 13 years old.  From there, the age of all of the kids go down with the youngest two being only 3 months old.  So, I sat there, listening to the stories of kids, school, and activities and I noticed something that amused me and slightly depressed me.  I was the oldest friend among our party.  Oh man….

I guess I’m older and wiser. Right?  Well, maybe just oldest.  I’m not sure about my being wise.

Time to get out the cane young whippersnappers!

Can I live in Middle Earth, please?

After a mostly dry monsoon season, we've had some weather the last few days.  We were told to expect an epic storm last night.  Perhaps what we experienced last night was epic for the area, but it was nothing more than a thunderstorm that lasted for about 5 minutes.  I love a good thunderstorm and last night's was just too short.  I guess I'll take what I can get out here.

I love the woods.  Living in a small cabin, deep in a green forest with a stream running close to the cabin is, to me, a lovely idea.  If I could, I would have a summer cabin like this.  I want to sit under the eave of the cabin, with my loom and weave the hours away while listening to the wind blowing through the trees and the stream gurgling as it runs past the cabin.  At night, I would drink hot chocolate while reading and/or writing by the light of the fire in the hearth.  Doesn't that sound idyllic? Of course, I might get bored weaving every hour of every day, so I would also have a garden to tend, I would learn to spin and I would take long walks through the woods.

What a lovely idea.  Of course, I know that living this way has its hazards.  There are wild animals to fear, one must hunt for food, there are the elements to fight, and I suppose after a while, I would get lonely.  I don't really like the idea of wild animals or being at the mercy of the elements, but to live that way I would have to accept such realities.  Plus, I like clean clothes, but I don't fancy the idea of hand scrubbing everything.

After much thinking, I realized I want to be an elf who lives in Tolkien's Middle Earth.  They live in beauty and have much control of their environment.  The elements do not bother them and they are skilled in protecting themselves if something evil should cross their borders.  Yes, I want to be a Rivendell Elf.  Surrounded by beauty, art and music. 

September 22 is Hobbit Day.  I plan on celebrating Hobbit Day by not wearing shoes, making and eating seed cake and not having any adventures or doing anything unexpected.  Since I'm not into the brewing of ale or the smoking of pipeweed, I will brew root beer and light a scented candle in whose fragrance I can enjoy.

Of course there will be real life to attend to and I will be required to drive kids to school, home from school, and to the various activities that several of them have that evening.  No matter.  A Hobbit does not let such things dampen their spirits when it is a day of celebration.

My dream home:

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

photograph by Nuno Silva

http://nunovix.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1bpax

more scrat attack

Here are more of my daughter's amazing scrat creations!

Army Scrat

(don't you love his camo helmet?)

Ballerina Scrat

So lovely on her tippy toes.

Howday y'all, it's Cowboy Scrat.

"This acron is highly illogical," says the Vulcan Scrat.

Stay out of his way, young whippersnappers, it's Grandpa Scrat.