A Fond Farewell...

Last night was the 3rd and final showing of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  Yes, me, my husband/ LOTR fanatic, (although I don't know how he can really call himself that since has has YET to read the book! Hello... even I've read it!!!!  Ok... maybe I skimmed it... mostly.) my son, and even my 10 year old niece  all attended.  Here is what I learned:

1) There is something physically WRONG with those LOTR addicts. Something in their brains makes it impossible for them to navigate stairs. 3 nights of movies, same set of stairs every time, same people tripping up the SAME stairs... every single time!!!!  I even mentioned it to my husband afterword. "Isn't it strange how so many people had such a hard time on those stairs? IT's bizarre!" To which he replied: "Oh, I totally know what you mean. I tripped up those stairs several times, too!"  ( hmmm... shoulda known he'd  have trouble... LOTR fanatic!)

2) All the dads who thought it would be cool to bring their little 7 or 8 year old son to the movie were sooo excited at the beginning. And soooo tired of all the questions by the end! There were like 3 dads around me all saying "Sssshhhh..... just watch. I'll explain it to you later!"  Pretty funny, actually!

3) Not all LOTR geeks are guys.  Hello.... 5 girls showed up all dressed like Elf wanna-be's. And they looked ridiculous... until their boyfriends walked in wearing capes as well...(sparkley ones, even) and they looked more ridiculous!  And they ALL looked absolutely obsured as they tried to go up the stairs in those long flowing dresses and capes... tripping themselves and eachother!!!! That was my favorite part!  Hello People.... LOTR fans +  stairs + long costumes= disaster!  There should have been a sign posted at the entrance to the theater: CAUTION: THERE ARE STAIRS IN THIS AUDITORIUM. PLEASE, REFRAIN FROM WEARING YOUR CAPES.

4) 3 nights at the movies with my sweet little family is priceless!  I enjoyed "geeking out" with you all... and enjoyed watching the geeks even more!  Goodbye all you freaks!  May you have luck emerging from your grandmother's basement to find a worthy mate who will love your elfish fantasies as much as you do! And good luck to the 4 geeks who sat behind us in every movie who are apparently going to win the next video game tournament in Vegas... whatever it is.  May you find your way to a shower sometime before then!!!

Chick Flicks and Sleep-Overs...

Yesterday I learned a few things:

1)  I CAN survive my son's first away-from-home friend sleepover

and

2) Men CAN enjoy a chick flick... if there's lots of fighting in it.

My son was invited to his first sleep-over last night. I said "yes" before I realized what I was saying. What?! My son can't sleep over at friends houses, he's still too little... or... maybe not. He is 10, I guess that's not too little... is it?  My husband had the same reaction. But we gritted our teeth together and let him do it. I kept telling myself, "He's a good kid, right? He makes good choices. He's not going to come home tatooed and with a nose ring.... right?"   Well... he's not home yet, so I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty confident he'll be ok.

Anyway, because of this surprise evening free from parental duties, my hubby and I got to go on a spontaneous date! He said I could choose the movie, and I actually chose a chick flick rather than the action movie I usually choose knowing my hubby will sigh and roll his eyes in a chick flick 9 times out of 10 and I'd rather enjoy the chick flick on my own.  But, I exercised my womanly rights and we went to see "Water for Elephants". It was excellent! And my hubby loved it as well. True, it did have lots of fighting, and that's venturing into the NON-chick-flick variety, but it had enough romance and drama to please me, too! It was a win-win movie!

So, Yay for manly chick-flicks and friend sleep-overs! (I think. Like I said, he's not home yet, so maybe not yay, but I'm crossing my fingers for Yay!)

Not a stand-up-in-the-kitchen-snarfing-it-down kind of dinner, but what you gonna do...

Tonight I made pasta for dinner. Hubby was going mountain biking in the canyons with a friend and I am paranoid my diabetic husband will pass out from low blood sugar, so I made pasta.  But not just any pasta. I made Penne pasta in a smoked gouda and white wine cream sauce with sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts, with garlic and butter shrimp on the top with a crusty parmesan topping.

And we snarfed it down while standing up leaning against the kitchen counter. I laughed at the oddity of it all. It was a meal fit for a candlelight dinner with sparkling bubbly and chocolate dipped strawberries, but here we were eating it as though it was Kraft Mac and Cheese and the house was on fire.

Ahhh... real life. Gotta love it sometimes.  At least I sent my husband off with a belly full of deliciousness rather than yellow death. I'm sure it will make his ride that much better!

Lord of the Rings: Part Deux

Last night we went to the second "Lord of the Rings" movie.  (Yes, it has its own name, and I'm sure all you LOTR fanatics are just mortified that I don't know it off the top of my head, like not knowing the words to the national anthem or something. But I don't know it, ok?)  (Ok, I just looked at the DVD, it's "Two Towers". There, are you happy?)

Guess what I noticed? A lot more "families" there- men who'd dragged their wife and kids to see it.  I heard the guy in front of us whisper to his wife and 8 year old son: "Thanks for geeking out with me this time!"   Frankly, I think he came last week, saw the pathetic state of most of the men's situations around him and said, forget this, I've got a smokin hot wife at home and I need her here to reassure me I'm no loser like these punks! You know I'm right!

Oh, and I counted exactly how many people tripped going up and down the stairs last night: 18! And many were repeaters... they tripped going up, then back down, then back up again, like they had forgotten there were stairs there.  I couldn't believe it! Aaaaaannddd... the stairs have reflective tape on them so they are quite visible. (I went up and down them several times just to test it for myself- without a problem.) I know videogames are supposed to be good for hand/ eye coordination, but has there ever been a test measuring the effects of video gaming on foot/ stair coordination?  Maybe they're more used to going up "virtual" stairs rather than real stairs. Many looked as though they hadn't gone up a flight of stairs- successfully- in quite some time. 

So, next week is the last movie. Yes, we're going. And I think I'll bring a flashlight next time to help those poor souls manage the stairs better. Or perhaps I'll put a little Gollum doll at the top and say "Look to Gollum.... look to Gollum" and they'll make it just fine. :) 

And yes, we had a great time!

Lord of the Obsession

My hubby and I thought it would be fun to go see "Lord of the Rings" in the theater last night for their special return engagement. (Ok, my hubby thought it more than I did. And then my son caught wind of it and HE was ecstatic, so we had to go.)

I was designated to go reserve our seats beforehand because hubby and son were on a scout hike. So, like a dutiful wife I bought my ticket, got some popcorn and cold drink for the hikers when they returned because I knew they'd be hungry and thirsty, trudged up the steps to the theater and found 3 seats in a good spot before all the rest were quickly snatched up.

As I sat patiently waiting in the air-conditioned auditorium, I began to notice something. I did NOT fit in. I began to catch snippets of conversations around me and they all carried the same peculiar theme. They all managed to slip in terms like Middle Earth, Frodo, Hobbits, etc  into sentences seemingly unrelated to the movie in any way. I soon realized these people were not only obsessed with this movie, but couldn't carry on a conversation on ANY topic without referring in some way to the movie!

I chanced a look around the place. Sure enough, my suspicions were correct. I had deduced a few things about these people in listening to them and to see them it was clear:

1) most of the audience was single. (and very easy to see why)
2) most didn't own a razor, or didn't know how to find a decent hair dresser
3) ALL were LOTR experts. And every one had a very strong opinion about things in the movie that, had THEY been consulted, would have been much better. (as though it was perfectly natural for Joe Schmoe to be phoned up and asked what he thought should be done with the Gollum character.)
4) They all had something else in common (as though the previous 3 weren't enough), they all talked about gaming, and seemed to be equally obsessed with gaming as with LOTR. When a preview came on about a video game being made into a movie the audience collectively gasped and became actually giddy!
5) Not a one of them could manage stairs in the dark carrying a drink and popcorn without stumbling and spilling said items! I counted at least 8 people having difficulty with this! (probably because they were too afraid to look away from the screen perchance something might have changed  in the movie that hadn't been there the other 465 times they'd watched it before).

Oh, and the guy next too me seemed to think there was something totally wrong about a normal looking housewife with flipped hair, sparkly lip gloss and a freshly laundered blouse attending this particular event. Honestly, I began to think that myself!

However, when my hubby and son finally showed up about 20 minutes into the movie, and my son curled up next to me and began excitedly asking questions about certain things in the movie, and my hubby held my hand and whispered "this is so fun", I began to think that maybe I belonged there after all. Sandwiched between my two favorite men in the whole world- who just might fit in too easily with the rest of the crowd if it wasn't for my gentle, guiding hand. (And my clothes washing and hair cutting abilities!)

So, we are going to see the second movie next week. I think I'll bake cookies for all the schmoes around me as I save our seats. (it's scout night again). Maybe I can even offer some motherly guidance to those poor souls and help them maybe be able to bring an actual date to the next one in another week.  We'll set some goals.  But I know I'll love snuggling up to my guys again and enjoying what they enjoy.

And maybe I just might catch the fever. Maybe. 

Nothing like fun with the cousins!

Last weekend I was able to take my little buddy up to my mom's house. All the cousins were there. (Yes, all 6 kids together... I was popping Advil like crazy!)  I went up to help my mom watch my sister's kids while she recovers from bringing her newest little one into the world. My mom is living in South Carolina until November, so she doesn't have internet or cable hooked up right now. We were wondering how the kids would entertain themselves if they couldn't play computer games or watch tv.

Guess what? They found a way:


My brother and his wife came over with their two girls and he built all the kids a tree house in the vacant lot behind my mom's house! They made a flag out of an old pillow case and I drew the skull and swords.



We had a big parade to post the flag:




And the kids spent the entire next two days playing in that tree house! I thank my brother and his wife for being our salvation!

Now what to do the rest of the summer?!

Love of gardening gene... I was absent that day.

I don't like gardening. That is to say, I do love picking fresh tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs, zucchini, carrots... etc. And I love watching them grow and fill in the garden. I also love watching my flowers begin to bloom and fill the front of the house with color. However, I do NOT like to dig in the dirt. Nope. Not one bit.

I've heard many "green thumbs" say how much they love to get their hands in the soil and work it and feel it under their feet. I am not one of those people. I HATE getting dirt on my hands. I hate digging it out of my manicured fingernails. (Ok, manicured is a very loose term. I paint my nails about once a year, but I do keep them nicely smoothed and rounded. Ok, well I try to. Sometimes.)  And what I hate most is getting the garden ready to... well... garden.

Every spring when the weather is wet and rainy the grass grows and becomes thick and lush and green. It does that in my garden, too. And it's too wet to go out and dig it out while it's new, so by the time it's dry enough to go do some yard work the grass in my garden has grown a foot tall and is thick and firmly rooted.  The same goes for my flower garden. There is one patch that just won't stay free of grass. Grrrrr....

Today as I sat digging out the grass, digging deeply then pulling hard with both hands, dirt spraying all over my face, in my hair, down my shirt, into my shoes, on my legs. Well, I wasn't loving it. I thought about how little kids will sit in a dirt pile and pour dirt on their heads and laugh. Well you know what? I don't think it's funny! And I didn't do that as a child. I'm sure of it! (However, I did eat dirt, but that's an entirely different thing. I still sometimes smell it and remember how good it tasted. No, I haven't eaten it since I was at least 5!)

But, I just have to remind myself how good those home-grown tomatoes will taste, and how pretty those flowers will look, and how I won't have to duck my head in shame as I leave my house and see my grass over-grown garden and see my neighbor's perfectly hand-clipped and trimmed yard. At least I'll have some pretty veggies and flowers to show off. 

Incidentally, my son decided yesterday to go out while I was at the grocery store and weed some of the garden for me so I didn't have to do it all today. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? And I didn't even ask him to do it! He said it was because he wanted to do what Jesus would have him do. That just melted my whole dirt-encrusted heart!!!!

Ramblings about my little kiddo

Sometimes I wonder how I got put in charge of raising a boy such as mine. I look at him and see him grow each day. (Sometimes I think I should do something to stunt his growth so he can stay as little as possible for as long as possible!   I'm kidding, of course!)  I am impressed with the person he is.

When we have family scripture study, he doesn't say "Awe... Mom! I don't want to!" In fact, I don't think I have ever heard him say that during scripture study ... EVER! (I can't even count on two hands and feet the number of times I said that as a child to my own mom, though!)  And I love hearing him read from the scriptures. I am convinced that regular scripture reading by children increases their overall reading abilities immeasurably.  He sounds out the difficult words and nearly always gets them right.

I am impressed with the good choices he makes, too. If there is a show on television that doesn't look good, he will turn it off. Or if his friends want to watch something he knows isn't good he will tell them no, and that it isn't good for them! He is always mindful of those around him. He is so tender with his little cousins, too. Always making sure they are ok. If someone gets hurt he is there immediately trying to make them laugh. I just love that about him!

My son makes me want to be a better person. When I'm having a crabby "mom" day, he tenderly puts his arm around me and asks how he can make me happy. He always brings me flowers. I love that! He helps me make my bed. He does his chores without complaining (most of the time).

I want to be the best mom I can to him. I want to make sure I play with him as much as possible, and enjoy this time I have with him. Only 9 years until he goes on his mission. And those teenage years are fastly approaching where he will rather be with his friends than his mommy. But maybe if I stock the refridgerator with Sunny D and make homemade cookies, just maybe my house will be the cool house and I can at least listen to him play with his friends. 

He is coming to the end of his 4th grade year. We are making some big decisions about his future right now. I am nervous for change, but at the same time I see good things are possible.  He is a good kid. He will adapt quickly to whatever change comes his way. I just have one shot at this- helping one child turn out right. I hope I don't mess up!

I guess I'll just keep trying my best. He is a great motivation for that. And he loves my homemade cookies, so I'd better get baking!