Jack the Rat

I think Spud changes his name every so often, but I still call him Jack.

Pete's Dragon

We watched Pete's Dragon this week as a family. It's one of my FAVORITE movies and they had it at the library. I don't know exactly why I love it so much, I just always have. Part of it is the songs--they're fabulous! Noodle drew this excellent picture for me. I love her artwork.

The Gogans (pure detestable evil!)


I love you, too


There's Room for Everyone in this World (I think this is my favorite!)


Bill of Sale (Wouldn't this be perfect for a lip sync?)



Brazzle Dazzle Day (lots of fun,but they really don't make much progress on the lighthouse!)

ah, books

Next week we are discussing Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card for our homeschool study group. It took me all week to locate a copy--David found a pdf but I didn't want to read at my computer all weekend, and a friend gave me access to an mp3 file, but I didn't like the reader's voice, so I was still trying to find an actual BOOK to borrow. I even scoured the books at D.I. to no avail. Last night a neighbor's son brought by their copy, though, and tonight I finished it. We spent the day with David's family because his sister Jenn is in town, so I had lots of time to read. I haven't read much since I started my job three weeks ago and it was nice to get absorbed in a story again. A good book is like a drug for me. A few years back I went through a phase where I had no interest in reading novels. I preferred various genres of non-fiction. Since beginning our classics studies, though, for the Thomas Jefferson Education stuff I've rekindled my love of novels. There really is so much to be gained and learned from having vicarious experiences. Pretty amazing, actually.

hmph

I had a gift card to Borders, so I ordered a book I want for our homeschool off of the website to have delivered to the store (which I wouldn't do again, in retrospect, as it only saves me about $3). It was processed to ship on August 19th, and it's now only in stinkin' Colorado. I have apparently been VERY spoiled by amazon.com. I ordered the accompanying activity book from amazon.com a couple of days after I placed the Borders order, and the activity book arrived on Friday or Saturday.

Lame.

excellent!

So it occurred to me to look on YouTube for the clip that inspired the title of my blog. I absolutely love this movie. If it were even possible for me to make a short list of favorite films, this would be on it.



I just wish the clip started a bit sooner. I guess you'll have to watch the movie if you haven't already.


whoa. This is my 502nd post. I'm a little tripped out by that. I should have been more attentive and celebrated my 500th. Oh well. I'm not very ceremonial anyways.

okay, maybe four posts in one day

is a bit excessive, but this is AMAZING!! I take back any snide comment about synchronized swimming I have ever thought or (okay, I admit it) said.

I'm amazed at how these women can do all of this stuff, together, in time to the music, and without swallowing and sputtering out several gallons of water. So maybe I'm a lousy swimmer, but still, I can't even fathom it.

Gold Winning Russian Synchronized Swimming Duet.

because david is busy...

and I'm bored but not ready to go to bed and my brain is too tired to work, i'm blogging. Does that happen to you, too?

Tonight we went to the Pioneer Village as I'd heard from Mary that they were having a Family Dance. I confirmed it in the newspaper (I love the newspaper!) and we decided that it fit our criteria for Friday night fun being, (1) out of the house, and (2) FREE! So we went. We got there and we were the ONLY people who weren't a part of the production/music. Undeterred, we got the kids to dance with us (they had a nice little fiddle/guitar/banjo/etc band playing) and had fun. After a couple of songs, we went and explored the buildings, as we'd never been there before. They really have quite a lot of neat stuff in that tiny space. The owner of the place came and talked to us about a number of things, which was really fun. I've decided that it's hard for me to not like people who are passionate about something. It seems the more unusual or obscure the object of their passion, the more I like them. So, this fellow, with his immense passion for pioneer shtuff, was quite likable. I think there is a lot of value in learning in depth about pretty much anything. (Pop culture and TV shows and the like excluded. I have yet to be swayed on that..) Most things, when studied in depth, teach a lot of profound lessons and open a person's eyes to the vast knowledge that is out there that they could never hope to learn. It's humbling.

Anyways, after touring the buildings & seeing the artifacts, we danced some more. The head guy also gave Spud a whirligig, which was fun. We are studying pioneers for Liberty Girls this fall, so I'm hoping we can arrange an evening field trip with the families to the Village. It was really neat to see the items and realize how much stinkin' WORK everything they did back then was. Our lives are so different than theirs were. Our work is so different. You have to wonder how it has affected our psyches, being so disconnected from working the land and being so often dependent upon the mercies of nature.

Oh, eventually some more people did come, but they all sat on their duffs and just enjoyed the music, or toured the buildings. Not a single other person danced. We stayed until the end, though. I hope we were able to convey our joy & appreciation to those who put it on. It's hard to do something that doesn't get fully appreciated.

so yeah,

maybe I post things here so I won't lose them later when I try to remember them.

I heard this song playing on my friend michelle's blog. Sadly, this is the best youtube video I could find. I don't much care for live performance recordings generally, but it will have to do.



Michelle is a friend from my hometown in Idaho. I still remember when we met. A friend and I were hanging at the elementary school playground (I can't remember if we were in middle school or high school) and she and we met her and her sister there. They had just moved from Michigan (?is that right Michelle?). And we hung out with them for a bit around the swings and somehow we ended up talking about accents, and they said my friend didn't have one, but I did. Which I thought was funny. I might have even been flattered, even though I'm not sure if that's a compliment. (What exactly is an Idaho accent?) Maybe it was just a neutral statement of fact.

something I used to love...

basketball & Michael Jordan. Yup, in my middle school years I actually watched sports on TV and liked it. And I had Michael Jordan pics up in my room. (Not huge ones, just small ones.)

Michael Jordan
Uploaded by grand-titi

He was amazing.

(And the reason I'm posting videos is I keep coming across them in my work assignments.)

did you know I love ukelele music?

I do.

noodle's art

kids

how i love LOLCATS

killing spree

Yup. That's right. I've killed ten houseflies today, and there are about three more I've got my eyes on. Where are they all coming from? And why do they like to congregate in threes on the television? (No longer, though, I think I killed the ones who liked it the most. Or at least two of them.) I'm not even ashamed of their blood on my swatter.

In other news...I've been trying to spend every spare (and many not so spare) moment working in an effort to bring in as much money as possible. Which means that when I'm not working, I don't really want to sit at my computer and read or write stuff, since that's pretty much what I do when I am working. For the first three weeks I have to comment on every stinkin' think I do, so that's a mite bit tedious. I worked twenty hours last week, which means there was twenty hours of other stuff that I normally do that didn't get done. I was also babysitting every day. So it was a good week for moneymaking, but not a good week for blogging, reading, exercising, relaxing, or any of those other pleasant things that I normally try to incorporate into my life. Alas...

David and I did go on a fun date last Friday night, however. We went canoeing with a few other couples on the Provo River and then went to a yummy Mexican place to eat. We'd originally only planned to go canoeing due to cost, but my sister & her husband gifted us $50 with explicit instructions to have fun, so we did. Then we had our friends Kent & Mary over to play Scrabble and (brace yourselves for this)...I lost! I know, kind of unimaginable. But I did only lose by seven points, so it could have been worse. The only real insult is that Mary's a novice. I think that was her second ever game of Scrabble, and the first game was at our house a few weeks ago. Beginner's luck?

One of these days I'll catch up on reading all my favorite people's blogs. But for now, know that I miss reading your interesting (and not so) exploits.

thank heavens for honest people

David must have dropped his cell phone at Albertson's this morning. Just now we were trying to locate it and so I called it. A woman's voice answered. I said, "Do you have someone else's phone?" And she said, yes, she did, and that someone had dropped it off at the Albertson's customer service desk. There are a lot of people out there who would just steal the phone (it happened to David's sister) and so I'm very grateful to the unknown person who did the right thing this morning. Thank you whoever you are!!

first day of work

I officially started my online job today. So far, so good. I'm going to have a crazy busy next few weeks as I get my hours in for this and do my "School" picture event. It should be good, though. Some things will have to fall a bit by the wayside for the time being, but sometimes you have to do what you can to bring in some money.

a really cool thing

The past couple of days I've been listening to Anne of Green Gables on librivox.org. It's a public domain catalog of many MANY audio books. Sometimes you might get a less than stellar recording, but for many books there are multiple versions, so it is worth checking out. If you want to listen to Anne of Green Gables, I can highly recommend version 2. The reader has an excellent voice, very well suited to the text.

fun with black & white

David found me a sweet new application for working with black & white photos.



(He took the dragonfly picture--it's a pretty great picture so I have to give credit where it's due.)

i like this

i'm not a criminal

The background check they did for my new job came back clear. Whew! And I was so worried they'd find out about...that one thing.

book review

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I know I read this book in high school for an English class, but I remembered very little about it. I especially hadn't remembered how witty and funny Dickens is in many parts of the story. I kept hoping that Pip would redeem himself, since he seemed like such a pansy most of the novel, and I wasn't disappointed.



As far as lessons learned from this book, I think it was particularly poignant to read while we are lacking income. It is easy to feel like money is the solution to everything, especially when you haven't got any. It's good to be reminded that money honestly does not buy happiness, and often leads us further away from that goal. There is a line in the book where Pip is talking about his friends and how they are all fairly miserable, but keep themselves occupied and try to convince themselves and everyone else what a splendid life they have. That's a sad place to be, and it made me think mostly of Hollywood and all of the twentysomething celebrities.



And I absolutely love Herbert & Wemmick!


View all my reviews.

oh yeah! we're famous!

And $50 richer, too. Yippee!

Be dazzled by our fame and glory.

monster monday

Noodle had been wanting to make masks for a while, so we finally did it Monday night for FHE. Then we went around to "spook" our friends and wish them a happy Monster Monday.

rough day

To make a long crappy story shorter (but no less crappy), David didn't get the job offer. After much discussion and everything pointing to the fact that it was only a matter of taking care of a couple of perfunctory details before he was "officially" offered the position, they called this morning to say they'd determined that it needed to go in a different direction and they would need someone with an engineering background. To say the least, we both (and especially David) felt like it was a kick in the gut.

So, if any of you out there would resume sending us good thoughts, praying for us, sending income-securing vibes, we would be very grateful.

recent movies that i've seen

The Dark Knight If you like comic book movies, or Batman, or a really intense story, you will like this movie. The only negative was that it was a bit sad to remember that Heath Ledger is gone, especially because he really did do the most amazing job ever portraying the Joker. Some seriously good creepiness. Five stars.

The X-Files Movie: I want to believe If you are an X-Files fan, this won't disappoint. I think it dragged a tiny bit a couple of times, but the plot was very enjoyably bizarre, just what you hope for from the X-Files. Four and a half stars.

Now two rentals:
Shutter Another one of those Japanese scary movies, but this one was better than a lot of others I've seen. It didn't seem to have so many plot-holes, and it did have some really great scary moments. Three stars.

One Missed Call This was a great scary movie. Well acted and suspenseful. Not terrifying, but I was hiding behind the throw pillow for a few scenes. Afterwards David downloaded the "scary ringtone" that means death is calling onto my phone. Hmph. If you enjoy scary flicks, don't miss this one. Four stars.

spud

So little Spud is growing up so fast. He's 3 1/2 now, but looks nearly five. Every day he is saying things that show he comprehends things beyond what we would expect from a 3 year old. Of course, he still throws the occasional three year old tantrum and all those other less fun things, but I just watch him and am amazed at what he can do. I think three is a fun age because they start exhibiting a lot more of their own personalities, not just reflected behaviors/attitudes. Traits that you see glimpses of during toddlerhood are fully manifest now.

Spud loves cars, and Legos and Tinker Toys. Lately anytime he needs a name for himself (in a role playing game with Noodle or other friends) or for his toys, the name is "Transformer Max." He builds little Lego creations and calls them transformers. The other day, we turned on the music and he said, "Say you can't wait to see the most awesome dancer." We obliged, and he hid in the sofa and then slowly came out for his grand appearance. Then he proceeds to jump and jive like a junior breakdancer.

I did a trial run the other day of our "School Pictures for Homeschoolers," and when I saw the picture of Spud I couldn't believe how old he looks. What happened to his baby chub? I guess it's to be expected, but it feels so sudden in some ways.
(He's making a kind of funny face, but I thought it captured some of his current personality.)