Good Day



Garrett digging with his 'excamater'






















Yesterday my mother-in-law and I took the kids to the beach. It was a perfect day, warm, sunny, slight breeze and there weren't very many people on the beach. Plus, sand dollars were everywhere. I think we brought home at least 50, probably more. You can't have to many sand dollars right?

Grandma Sandi helped the kids build a sandcastle which they were very disappointed to learn would not survive the coming high tide. Some forces of nature cannot be stopped, a sad but important lesson to learn.

It was a great afternoon, which could only be made better by the fact that we went out on Grandpa's boat that evening! Pizza, tiki punch, swimming, water skiing, the works.

It was a good day.

The girls digging for sand dollars

The beloved sandcastle built with Grandma Sandi, ok mostly by Grandma

The kids frantically tried to build a wall so the tide wouldn't wash the castle away.

My little sunbather

Don't let the smile fool you. He did NOT like the life jacket.

30 Posts - Post 23 a video

This is a video of Madilyn's school talent show when she was in 1st grade. Its already up on my blog but its one of my favorites so I'll post it again. So cute.

30 Posts - Post 22 a favorite joke

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting co...
Moooooo!

My girls have been telling this joke for years. It still cracks me up when they do it. Mostly because they forget to interrupt and then have to start over.

30 Posts - Post 21 a favorite recipe

Its been a long, long, looong time since I've done this. I need to finish. I only have 9 posts to go. I've taken a while on this one for lots of reasons. You know, baby, kids,...I hate cooking.

I like smoothies though. I have  recipe for orange julius but I don't actually follow it.

Put in blender -
One ice cube tray of ice
3/4 can of orange juice concentrate (the big cans from Costco)
4 heaping teaspoons of sugar
some vanilla
milk to cover the ice
a little water so the ice doesn't stop the blender

Blend it.

That's not what the actual recipe says but that's how I do it. Its good.

List - Galaxy Quest

One of my favorite movies. It gets quoted often here in Nashville. Here's some of my favs - 

1. Never give up. Never surrender.
2. On Teb. On.
3. I have one job on this lousy ship. Its stupid but I'm going to do it. Ok!
4. Whoever wrote this script should die!
5. Its true. I knew it. (That's for you mom.)
6. Can you find a rudimentary lathe?
7. Quick before one of those things kills guy.
8. Does the rolling help? Where's your gun?
9. I'll tear through your ship like tissue paper.
10. Have you ever watched the show?

Ok so some, I know, are misquotes but I haven't been able to watch the show for a few years because I had it on VHS and our VCR broke a couple of years ago. So tragic. I really need to get it on DVD. Its one of the few movies both Jeremy and I like.

Classic.

30 Posts - Post 3 20 favorite things

Disclaimer - Like my inspirer (is that a word?) Heather, really my favorite things are family, friends, and my Savior Jesus Christ but I'm going completely superficial on this one.

1 - chocolate (oh how I wish it wasn't so!)
2 - singing
3 - playing volleyball
4 - playing basketball
5 - watercolor painting
6 - sewing
7 - upcycling vintage clothes
8 - running shoes
9 - shoes in general
10 - books
11 - writing
12 - fixing my girls' hair (they hate it)
13 - sleeping in until 7:30 (for the record it happens about once every 6 months)
14 - Stargate SG-1
15 - Star Trek
16 - Betty Neels
17 - lifting weights
18 - Beverly Sills (Could I please sing just like her?)
19 - blank books (think of all the things you could fill them with!)
20 - library

List - Guilty Pleasures

• fruit snacks - I can't buy them for my children because I eat them all...in a day.
• any show with 'star' in the title - Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, etc.
• Betty Neels romance novels - a little known harlequin author who happened to write 130 books that are almost all the same and yet I can't stop reading them
• pencil sharpeners - I don' know why either.
• blank books - Can you have too many? I think not.
• video games - Its like the fruit snacks, I don't have many games because I can't have many games.
• thrift stores
• fabric - There I admitted it. Even before I started sewing I always wanted to buy it for something.
• library - How can you not love the library? Everythings free!

There you go. I can't help myself.

Be Still My Geeking Heart

Stargeeks unite! I checked this book out from the library and I'm giddily geeking out. By reading it means 'reading' the show. Reading like how my communication (not communications, I could spend an entire post on the difference between those two) professors taught us to 'read' a speech, essay, tv show, or film.

Yes, its scholarly articles written about one of my favorite shows. Character analysis, post feminist comparisons, and the discussion of role playing video games on society (no I have not participated in a Stargate role playing game. Come to think of it I've never played any role playing game ever.) I feel like I'm sitting in Prof. Owens class all over again, examining camera angles, lighting techniques, and character development.

And I like it. I feel like a young (ok not so young) budding scholar all over again. My critical senses have been reawakened. Plus it talks about Stargates place amongst the sci-fi greats like Star Trek and The X-Files. Now that's something I can get behind.

Tale of the Attacking Spider

I was walking up the sidewalk to my back door when I saw a somewhat sizable black spider crossing ahead of me. I thought I'd wait for him to cross then go on my way. Then the little heathen sees me and starts charging! I am not kidding. Running right towards me as fast as it could. I'm thinking that's kind of scary. I wonder what kind of a spider attacks a human like that. Then I stepped on him and decided I really didn't care. (Note that I was going to let him pass on his merry way. He picked the fight but I ended it.)

In his brave yet futile honor more pics of our foggy, dewy mornings.

Cobweb Morning

A fine title of one of my favorite author's books. We had one, a cobweb morning. Love'em. (Although it did reveal all the cobwebs outside and that freaked me out a little.)

List - Clothesline

I'm in love with my clothesline.

1. Grandma
2. Clothes smell great
3. Cost less than the dryer
4. Get through the initial washing faster
5. Pants stay stiff for hours after you put them on (I think this is a pro)
6. Sheets
7. Comforters dry quickly
8. Its an excuse to go outside for a few minutes
9. Lots of exercise
10. I can threaten to hang Madilyn up by her toes from it when she annoys me. (She knows I'm kidding.)

There's something about hanging laundry on the line that makes me feel connected to my grandma, like I'm participating in some time honored or tradition or other such nonsense. Maybe it gives me an insight into her life that I never had before or maybe it just makes my clothes smell like hers did, either way I love my clothesline.

List - MST3K

Every family has a movie that they all laugh about but no one else really gets it. Today I dedicate my post to Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) The Movie. I have never laughed as hard as I did the first time I watched it. For those of you who haven't seen it, a guy and two puppets watch B movies (usually sci-fi) and make fun of them. Its awesome. So my list is my favorite quotes from MST3K the Movie.

1. "Could I love him more?"
2. "Hey some guys legs are hanging out."
3. "Eat at Joe's. Eat at Joe's. Eat at Joe's."
4. Neeeeeroooooooom (that's the sound of car passing by)
5. "Noooooo!"
6. "Why he has a giant hamburger on the wall."
7. "Quick let's escape under the cover of afternoon in the largest car in the county."
8. wshkwshkwshk (that's the sound of whispering)
9. "Should we be watching this?"
10. "Who put the can in the middle of the room?"

Here's to you MST3K.

Gilmore Girls and other TV Attachments

I checked out the second season of Girlmore Girls from the library. I watch them whenever I can during the day because Jeremy hates GG. I can't blame him; they really are two self-absorbed arrogant women. Anyway, watching it I realized I don't like it as much as I did when I was first introduced back in my college days. It did made me think about my attachment to certain television shows. Not a lot of them but when I find one I like, it stays with me forever. For example,
X-Files - Creeps me out now but I still feel a loyalty because I loved it when it first came out. Plus it was a major social event in college.
Girlmore Girls - Still cracks me up, but my perspective has changed since I was really into it. Probably because I'm a mom of multiple children now and my own self-absorption level has been reduced...slightly. Plus it reminds me of my roommates and I miss them.
Stargate SG-1 - A fine substitute for Star Trek.
Buh Buh Buh the mother of all attachments STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (and all Star Trek shows except Enterprise and not a huge fan of Deep Space Nine) - Every time I watch it, it seems like my mom isn't a 12 hour 800 mile trip away. When Leonard Nimoy walked out in the latest Trek movie I literally had to throw my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming in the theater and tears instantly popped into my eyes and I wished more than ever that I'd seen it with mom because she would have understood.


The funny thing is with most of these shows, if I started to watch them for the first time today I probably wouldn't get that into them. I enjoy them because when they were on they were and fun and made me think and laugh and cry. And now, even if they can't do that, they're still fun to watch for the times when they did.

If I had...

If you haven't checked out etsy.com, you should because everything is unique and mostly handmade. I peruse it often. I haven't bought anything but if I had $90 to spend on a bag I would pick this one from the Wooly Bison, which is one of the shops on etsy.

http://www.woolybison.com/ or http://www.etsy.com/shop/WoolyBison?ga_search_query=wool+bag&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=9&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title&page=2

I SPY

I Spy with my little eye

a race track,

a whale,

a sandwich,

a cookie,

an undersea Nemo (complete with anemone),

Mountain Rainier

(Mount Rainier for those of you who aren't Madilyn and Emma),
and a self-portrait of Emma too.

Ah nuts. I got all done with my collage and poem that doesn't rhyme or even have meter and realized I forgot one (Oh and the poem is for anyone who reads the I SPY books with their kids). Its Jer in a boat with a fish.

Emma did the self portrait and Mountain Rainier.

Can I tell you this is the greatest stuff ever? I'm not sure what its called but its similar to Play-Doh except it doesn't break off into tiny pieces everywhere and make a huge mess. Then you let it dry for 24 hours and you've got cute sculptures. Its still doesn't flake off and remains slightly spongy. Its great.

A Good Book

I enjoy a good book but yesterday I found "A Good Book", a small locally owned bookstore. I had heard about and wanted to stop for quite a while. Yesterday I finally went in. I brought a trade-in along hoping to score a deal. If I were to own a bookstore (which, if I were to own a store it would be a bookstore) I would want to own this one.

Not only did I get $15 credit for my trade in, I also get 50% off used books and 25% off new! Yes, it is truly wonderful. As I walked through the store with the book lined walls, old comfy chairs to sit and browse, and even a couple of areas for kids to play, I found my eyes tearing up. You may think its an exaggeration, but its not. I love the smell of the books, the sound of the pages turning, the patron and sales people discussing recent reads, and the look of old worn covers. I even found an English translation of the Tales of Genji, which I know was significant in my Asian Studies classes at UPS but for the life of me I can't remember why now. But they have it in a nicely worn green hard back. Beautiful.

More importantly, it reminded me that in the day of Borders and Barnes and Noble there are still wonderfully cute and intimate bookstores where owners hope to learn the names of their patrons, and regulars find themselves greeted each time they enter.

Did I find anything? Of course I did. And when I left what did I find outside the door, a table of books, 4 for a $1. Yup, I had to go back in and get more.

I am so glad I found A Good Book.