Carol of the Bells

Paul and I saw this as an animated short before a movie we saw, way back when we were still just Paul and I. I have been thinking about this fondly for a long time but had not seen it since then. I LOVE being able to find stuff like this on the Internet.

Now, I remember this being a lot funnier but it still cracks me up when he's looking around for another mallet.

Trauma Revisited

One day when I was in first grade (can you find me?) a lady called each of us out of the classroom to test us on our letters. I was very confident because, of course, I knew all my letters. We were moving through the alphabet quickly when she pointed to a lowercase P and I said, “P”. She circled it!! “Why did you circle it?”“Because that isn’t a P it’s a Q.”“No, it’s a P.”“No, see a P faces that way and a Q faces this way.”“But it doesn’t have a tail at the bottom.”“Sorry, it’s still a P.” I tried to reason with her. She was unmoved by my argument and wouldn't change it!!

I can’t believe how mad this still makes me. I am afraid I will never be able to forgive that lady and I still say it was an unfair test!!

I was testing kindergarteners, on their letters in Gloria’s class last week; I wouldn’t have marked the Q wrong . . . especially if they had good explanation.

Movie Mom

I really like Movie Mom. She is a movie reviewer and I have found her reviews to be a great tool. She has saved me a lot of money and I am almost always sorry when I trust the ads and don't consult her site before seeing a movie.

In each review she spends 1 or 2 paragraphs and tells a little about the movie. It was funny, stupid, stale, surprising . . . etc. She makes it very clear when she is going to spoil a plot and only does that when she thinks parents need to beware. She mentions the age appropriateness as well. When we saw The Incredibles, I wasn't surprised that my 2 and 4 year olds were bored because she had motioned that even though it was by Pixar, this movie wasn't Finding Nemo.

Then she has a "Parents Should Know" paragraph. She tells about any swearing, drug references, sex, violence or even potty humor. She doesn't make judgements she just tells it like it is. Although she makes it clear she does not appreciate movies like Superman, that advertise to kids but are clearly too violent.

After that, is a "Families should talk about" paragraph. "Families should talk about why the little boy was so sad when his friend died." I think this is a little much but might be good for someone out there.

I also like that she reviews more than just children's movies. Click here to check out her site

Why oh why didn't we check her review before we saw The Family Stone?!?

Sunbeams

I teach the 3 year olds at church every week and I'd like to introduce you to my Sunbeam class. This is Lydia and Jeremy and Taylor. Teaching the 3 year olds is a fun job. The lessons are simple and there are lots of games and stories. I am sad that they will be moving on at the start of the new year. I only have 5 more Sundays with them.

MST3K

The minute Thanksgiving is over I am ready for Christmas. I have been a little slow this year because Thanksgiving seemed early to me but we have the tree up and we have broken out the movies and the music. We don't watch any Christmas movies or listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving; that way those things are special for Christmas time. (I feel the same way about eating Peeps anytime other than Easter.)

The kids, especially the little ones were anxious to get those DVD's going. To prevent us burning though them too quickly, I told the kids we could watch one a day. We own quite a few Christmas movies and I went through Netflix and queued as many of their Christmas movies as I could find and have those coming from now until Christmas. Yesterday the mailman brought Mystery Science Theater 3000 "Santa Claus conquers the Martians". We watched it last night. My kids were not familiar with the show so it was fun to watch with them. Sara and Gloria fell asleep but the older kids all loved it.

(If you are unfamiliar with Mystery Science Theater 3000, it is a silly T.V. show that plays the worst B movies ever made, while guys sit on the front row of a theater making fun of them.)

I love when the kids say, "I can't believe you haven't shown this to us before!"

Service Project

If you work with the youth at church then you know it is tough so come up with a good service project. It seems like a project is either so easy, there is no satisfaction for a job well done or it is so hard that it makes everyone never want to do it again.

My favorite youth service project is gathering food for a local food bank. It is easy organize and very satisfying.

I take the kids to a grocery store and we ask them to donate a bunch of paper grocery bags. (100-200 depending on the size of my group). We staple a cute note to it, explaining what we are doing. The kids assemble the bags and deliver them to houses in a neighborhood close by. One week later we get someone with a pickup to follow us as we knock on each door and gather the bags. Then we deliver the food to the food bank.

~People are so happy to donate a few cans of food.
~The kids love running up the block, knocking on doors.
~I don't have to make a million phone calls or coordinate a bunch of schedules.
~The best part is that the kids get the satisfaction of actually unloading the food at the food back and seeing the good they have done.

I've done this with different groups of kids in the last 3 wards we've been in, I just did again with the Activity Days Girls. What a good project!

Paul the Dad's most awesome and exclusive of all thankfulishus lists (did you make the cut?)

My most beautiful wife...thanks for seeing the potential in all of us
My awesome and wonderful mother...thanks for my life (it's so great!)
My kids...you're still grounded :-)
Life, and the time to live it
In laws - thanks for sharing
The ocean
Friends who are willing to travel route latina, jackson, tampa ... or whatever with you (God speed)

Gloria is thankful for . . .

Sara is thankful for . . .

Sara was in a hurry to go and play Dance Dance Revolution.

Robin's and Paul's lists

Robin’s Thankful List of Amazing Thankfulness and Thankyish Thanks (thank you)

1) Family
2) Friends
3) The gospel
4) Jesus Christ
5) Rock and Roll
6) The opportunities that I have, thanks to the sacrifice of my ancestors
7) My awesome parents who have raised me and my siblings to be just as awesome
8) That my dad was able to resign from the military before I graduated from high school
9) That because he got out I got to learn how to SURF.
10) And I’m especially thankful for perfectly timed swells in Galveston


Paul’s List of Thankful Thanking of Thanktastic Proportions (better than robin’s)

1) My Family
2) Jesus Christ
3) Friends
4) Music
5) My parents and everything they have given me
6) Waves
7) My awesome Piano skills
8) Football
9) My (long) hair
10) Not lima beans

Robin’s *thanks* List *thankful* Part *i-am-more-thankful-than-paul* 2

1) Paul is unoriginal
2) I am awesome

Mom is thankful for . . .

~Thanksgiving Night 20 years ago

~Healthy, busy, learning children

~The Internet

~Parents who loved me

~Parents who loved my husband

~A big yard where we can play kickball

~Dear friends all over the world, many in harm's way

~Fresh eggs

~My testimony

~My choices

Dan is thankful for . . .

Awesome family!



Bonking boogie boards




Scrumptious fettuccine Alfredo

Super cool teachers

Very best friends

Sweet uncles and aunts

Gnarly house

Bonfire

Robin and Paul hosted a party last night.

Here are a few pics from the festivities. It was a fun night.

Foreign exchange students trying to figure out why anyone would eat s'mores.

Paul is DJ

YMCA

Winding Down

. . . A Fluid State of Mind

Today was historic as we witnessed the birth of the Lindale Surf Club.

Paul worked on the computer to design the logo and picture for our tee-shirts, while we all sat around him making suggestions. When everyone was happy, we printed it onto iron-on paper and we transferred everything onto tee-shirts.

The next shirts the kids want to make just have one word like carve, rip, pearl.

It is hard to find a project that includes us all, but I think this is going to be a good one.

We have big plans for the Lindale Surf Club, stay tuned.

Zella's mom has got it goin' on . . .

Sara just called. She told me that yesterday she'd had a great day. She had been driving the Miata all day. The weather was gorgeous and she had been zippin' around town with the top down. Not only was it fun to be in the little car but she got so much done. She ran tons of errands, in and out of stores, be-boppin here and there in her sweet car and feeling pretty hip and happenin'.

When she picked Zella up at 5:00pm, Zella said, “Mom, your shirt’s inside out.”

Awesome!

Omelette Du Fromage

Our chickens are laying eggs!! We found the first two yesterday.

Aren't they pretty?

Baby Jared

Salem and Megan welcomed a beautiful, healthy and big (9lbs 10oz) baby boy into their family last week.

They have chosen Jared as a first name but are stuck on a middle name. Maybe this will help.

Give Jared a kiss for me.

Robin

These are the tee shirts they sold as a fund raiser for the drama dept.

Robin has had quite a week. Friday, she was featured in an article in the school paper about new kids at Lindale High School. I will send the link when they get the latest issue up online. Saturday, was her second speech tournament this year and she placed 5th. Monday she found out that a play she wrote, was one of 3 selected to be preformed by the drama classes. She will direct it. And Monday night she was asked to be a shift manager at Doc's pizza.


The girl's on fire!

I'm so glad she has finally found a place here and is feeling more at home. I don't feel like I can get settled until everyone else is, so now I can relax. (Heavy Sigh)

Happy Veteran's Day

Gloria's school did a little Veteran's Day program on Friday. (None of the pictures turned out,) They asked any vets, belonging to the students to come and attend the program.

It was a very cute. The kids sang some songs, my favorite was "God Bless America" with the sign language. Then all the veterans in the room introduced themselves and told when and where they had served. When it was Paul's turn, instead of his name he said he was Gloria's dad. It was a nice day, very emotional.

I'm glad we have a day to honor those in our community who do a very hard job. Last night Pauly and I finished watching Band of Brothers. It was a good way to end Veteran's Day.

Thank you vets!

The Red Balloon

When I was in elementary school they showed us a movie called The Red Balloon. Back in the day, before VCRs and DVD players, movies at school were a huge deal. As far as movies go there weren't a lot of choices but I went to 3 different elementary schools and I saw this movie at each of them.

I think about this movie fairly often. It was a very sweet story about a little boy who needs a friend and a balloon that becomes his friend. Nobody speaks . . . or maybe someone yells at the little boy but it is in French and I couldn't understand it. I remember not liking that. I also remember that I did like how everything seemed black and white except the balloon. It is a wonderful movie.

Netflix sent this ad with the movies that arrived today. (How beautiful is this little boy?)It looks like The Red Balloon will be released in theatres at the end of the month. What a lovely surprise.


Also, someone remade The Red Balloon just this year. It is called the Flight of the Red Balloon and I hope I get to see it too. Here is a taste of each of them.

Say Cheese

Paul has decided that he doesn't like the way he looks in pictures so now, this is the face he pulls when someone sticks a camera in his face.

Eventful Weekend

Paul sprained his ankle at his football game Thursday night and spent the entire weekend on the couch. The Eagles are 6-3 right now. Paul started the last two games at free safety. He was still limping when he went to school this morning, I hope they don't let him practice today.

Robin won 2nd place in Poetry at the first speech tournament of the year. She was so happy and is finally, I hope, feeling like she has a place here in Lindale.

All Saint's Day

I hope your Halloween was fun.

We trick-or-treated with friends in a neighborhood where the houses are a little closer together than they are over here. Then we went home, put the little ones to bed and watched "Signs". We were going to let Danny stay up and watch the movie with us this year but he got so freaked out by the menu screen that he happily went to bed before the movie started . . . maybe next year.