A movie review

When Andy works at night, sometimes, I think we are going to watch movies.
My kids like to watch movies, and it is winter--so it is dark way early.

Last night I rented "A Dolphin Tail/Tale?"

This movie was SOOOOO GOOD.
It had all the elements that touch my heart strings...
*kids
**animals
*special needs kids
**special needs animals
*people helping eachother
** wise,old hippie man grandad who lives on boat
*frustrated kids who find an interest

etc. etc. the list goes on...oh!

*tropical water and weather
**animal rescue...

The whole movie was well told etc.
I loved it, and so did my children.
When it was over I had cried a lot...
You know, when the little tears seep out--and you try to hide them?
My children did not cry any???
(what does this mean, I ask myself??)
I guess it might mean that I am way hormonal all the time or something..
Ay que emotion!!
http://www.seewinter.com/
If you click the link up there, it takes you to Winter's website.
Now if you surf around in the web site (do people still say that?/ surf?)
You can see that you could also stay in this place

http://www.tommysonthebeach.com/north-unit/

You could stay there (look up) :)
Look at that white sand...
That beautiful water...

Wouldn't this be a fun family vacation??
If you look on the map, this place is in a cool spot of Florida.
On the Western coast, and sort of on its own little bay...

Man!
Spring break?
I got so excited last night looking at all of this.
Then I realized
Oh!
But this all costs MONEY. !!

Maybe another year...

looking back...

I have just been entertaining myself by going back and reading my own blog...

ugh...
I USED TO BE WAY WAY FUNNIER!!

So, for the new year...I am saying that this blog needs...more interaction with
other bloggers...you out there Jen in your {world}?

and also...
More SOAPBOXES!!

I'm gonna bring it...
yep!

Sorry for the slackness in the personality dept.
Some find it funny,
others might find it annoying, but I will say
that in older posts, my personality came out a lot more...

eekk!!

Marble run

This is one of the new toys we got for Christmas.
When I was little there was one of these at my Grandma's house.
The one there was colorful and plastic.
Ours is made of wooden blocks--and you have to really think about what to
do to make cool marble runs.
It is VERY FUN!
Andy and I have just as much fun with it as the kids do. :)
I think the look on Victor's face is a good indication of how fun
they think it is.
When the marbles go through, they make the coolest sound, like a
rain stick.
plink, plink, plink...

Let's get Married {11 years}

This was the song that was very popular when Andy and I got married--11 years ago. ;).

FUN!

I never thought a wedding would be fun at all when I watched all of my cousins get married.
I planned a quick little ditty...not too much--b/c I had dreaded that moment for most of my life..
being a spectacle in a big, puffy white dress...eek!!
In front of all of my family...eekk!!

But it was a very fun day...love all around--from family and friends, and to top it all off...
a bit of snow!

Now if this daggone link thing would just work!!
<object width="853" height="480"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/yKIV9HXZIHY?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/yKIV9HXZIHY?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="853" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Now I will try a link

link--click here

A vision{ary}

ha!
That is what I call myself whenever Andy reminds me that I always have some plan or
other up my sleeve....
some {improvement} or {innovation}...
My mind does work on this pretty constantly.

Here is my latest {plan}:
See the big brown thing in the middle of the kitchen floor?
All the kids are on it?  see?  Were they remembering their babyhood??
Who knows! BUT--this used to be the changing table--it had a little mattress
on the top that say in the recessed part--where the kids are.
My Daddy made it for me when I was pregnant with Elena.
It is the exact right height for me--hits right at my hip--for working and not bending over.
So...
Now it is going to be a kitchen island! :)
It is going to have a counter top on it, and baskets on the shelves for pans etc.
The color will stay stained dark.
I have thought of painting it, but that would take away the beautiful stain!
AND I like it when things are not just perfect, but they are {perfect}.
The room could look {perfect} with all white counters etc., but I would certainly mourn the loss of the
stain, and that would make it--eek!! not perfect for me.
i.e.--this is the color this piece of furniture has always been, and it wants to stay that way. ;).
Ay que emotion!!

So my mother in law was the smart lady who suggested that I just go ahead and set it in the kitchen.
This will get the ball rolling for a counter top... ;).
Maybe so, I say!
So there it is...
I have the tile picked out that I want on the counter top.
It is gorgeous!
The question is, is it functional enough for a countertop??
I say, "yes!"
others...say...no way!!
We will see--
Whose vision is this anyway??

It's a small, small...

World!!
So, I have just gotten home from delivering a meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, and lots of salad to a friend who has had a HEART TRANSPLANT!!
She is not much older than I am.  Her other heart was just wearing out.
She is tall, and very beautiful, and she and her husband go to our church, along with their twin boys,
Anashe and Tidiwa.
They are from Zimbabwe, the mom and dad.
The boys are from here. ;).
So, I just love my friend, and I have been praying for her recovery for months.
When I arrived at their home her mother in law opened the door, and greeted me, Ms. Ruth.
Her mother would also be there, I knew---she came from Zimbabwe when her daughter went
to Duke to have the transplant.
What I did not plan was that there would be a house full of people!!
They were Juliana's friends--FROM ZIMBABWE as well.
They now live in California, and Richmond Va.
Can you imagine?
This girl is in her house in Little Washington, NC
hanging out with her friends and relatives from other parts of the U.S, but
also from Zimbabwe.
All of this is amazing to me.
Needless to say, I did not make enough food for 20 people.
With all of the children, the grandmothers, and the children--maybe six of them??--
there is definitely NOT enough food.
But I was excited for Juliana--to have a reunion of old school friends in her home.
I would love to sit for a while and listen to them speak THEIR language...

It's a world of laughter, a world of tears, it's a world of hopes and a world of fears, with so
much that we share it is time we're aware....

;).

Merry Christmas

 I will start from the very beginning (every time I say that, I think of Julie Andrews singing!).  Victor was Joseph in his pre-K pageant!! Be still my heart! :)

 On Wed. when we got out of school early, I brought Yineth, Collin, and Suzie home and we played and cooked for a couple of hours.

 Friday night my Sister and her family were at our house and we ate yummy steaks that Andy grilled.
This is Lara's husband picking on her.

 This is a bunch of wild kiddies and their tongues after eating candy canes!--They cracked up about this picture.

 This is Christmas Eve night before we went to church.

And this picture shows this AM with my parents and our WONDERFUL Christmas day breakfast of country ham on biscuits, scrambled eggs, grits, and for my mama and me {mimosas}. ;)

Merry Christmas bloggy friends.

I am off to read one of my new books! {yippie}

i {know} now

Last Friday I went to a class all about how to use your I-Pad in speech therapy.
How to make this tool useful in my job--that was the class's premise.
Mind you, I do not have an I-Pad.
There are a couple people at my work who do, and one of them let me take hers for the day.
It was not her personal one, rather it was one that our county bought.
So off I traipsed to G-boro.
I was really hoping, somewhere in my subconscious, that this class would finally tip the scales...convince me that this was a gadget I could not live without.
That is how I felt when I was first presented with a nook.  I knew--I just knew that this was something I would love--have all kinds of books..but not have to physically have the book!  get any book i could think of via the air any ole time!! SIGN ME UP I thought to myself...and I have been loving my Nook ever since...
So I thought...when I am convinced about the I-Pad...
Then, I could begin my lobbying to get one--at work.  I was dreaming of typing out IEPs on it, writing reports in front of the TV--instead of on the {back den} where I now sit, typing away.

After six hours of a little class.
I remain unconvinced.
I-Pads--well, they are expensive--and this is all relative, I know, but our county has ZERO MONEY.
WE can barely afford to keep people employed...so should we be buying I-pads?
My answer would be an emphatic "NO!"
Technology over people--not in "These hard economic times"--Is anyone else so sick of that phrase?  Who coined that one?--Talk about over-using something to death!!

Okay back to my point.
All the stuff that the I-Pad was doing in that class..was VERY COOL.  I was ooohing and ahhing...
But then, when I put on my critical thinking cap, I realized...ummm--you can do all that for free
with some paper and a pencil and all of the books that the county has bought alreday...
for free!!
Now, one part of the class was valuable.
The person teaching was from G-boro (or thereabouts) and she was telling us that many children with Autism or more involved communication needs have begun bringing their own I-Pad to school.
Their mama and daddy watched 60  mins...and they were convinced!! I-Pad technology--IT IS!!
So now the people at the school are using them, to facilitate the parents in attempts to draw out communication.
I won't agree or disagree with that, it is what it is.  I would oblige as well...

Sometimes I wonder is anyone stopping to think about the POINT of most of this mobile technology.
I do.
Lots.
Andy and I still only have the one little, wee little trac phone.
No plan, no data plan, no fancy {droid} or I--do hickey...and to be honest...
all of it seems pointless to me.
When I stop and think, critically about it, --nah...don't want it...
Do I love a gadget..um YES!!
I love them..but do I want to be CONSTANTLY ACCESSIBLE...
no.
Having a cell phone that could summon me whenever anyone felt like it, seems like
how some part of hell might end up being...

So, unless the rich folks at Apple want to send me a free one, or one falls out of the sky, or
I win one from the Pioneer Lady (who am I kidding--those odds are terrible! :)}--then I will not be getting and I-pad...

If you are still reading this, then God Bless you! hah!  this has been very rambly, and I am still half asleep!
:)

If you've got the money, honey....

there is a GREAT DEAL to go to Spain on AAirlines right now.
I just saw it--
leave day after Christmas--2 adults three children
come back whenever after--and the tickets--all together for everyone?
around 850.00.

Problem?
We have no money...
other problem...
We also don't have the time--ha!
Andy has to work that whole week.

Un Rato {time}

In Spanish to say, "a little while" you say, "un rato"  (oon rrrrahtoe)
Bueno, and this word can be changed all kinds of ways.
Un ratito (just a minute)
Well, maybe that's just one...but last night I was on the
phone with Elena (who might be coming to clean my house from time to time, also an acquaintance)
and she told me "un rato" and then I said it back to her--see you en un ratito...then I thought of a
comedy sketch with this word...it is a funny word to me.
What would "un ratote" be?
A big little while?
I bet some people do say that in Spanish...
{ote} on the end of the word makes it bigger..and a rato is inherently small...
es un rato.

Then it dawned on me last night, I was going in to brush my teeth yesterday, after
a very long day, I realized what a ratote could be...
It could be a week--each day takes a long time, I wake up at 5:30 and
fix everybody's everything (lunch etc.), then I go to work and work my {bleep}
off, then I come home, we eat, bathe, and then every day for the past two weeks
we have all gone out to do some other thing--practice singing,
help with some meal at church--something--a party (even a party can seem like a chore
sometimes)--So, for example, yesterday at night, (on Tuesday) I felt like I had
lived a whole week in two days.  I felt like I had done a week's worth of stuff.
Then, here's the kicker...
The week actually zooms by, and another Monday rolls around--in the blink of an eye!
So, the days go by in big slow chunks, and then all together in my mind...
the entire week, it's such a little while--nah mas es un rato...

Big weekend

Do you ever just get bitten by the organize and straighten bug?

This weekend I did!

 I finally got the emotional guts up to take the crib down.  Before its final exit, we had to take a picture of all it has hosted over the past seven years!  :)  :(  :)--Wow! such a mixture of emotions.
This evening I cleaned out the baby closet--a cool little armoire that has teeny drawers that are perfect for baby clothes.
Not sure where we will store it yet.  The high chair and booster are in the attic.

 Mama and Daddy went out to a party!  When Eva saw me fixed up (I even polished my shoes) her eyes lit up and she immediately took off her night gown and declared her intentions to put on her sparkle dress and come out with us!

This is V-man with the tiny grape he found....Is the love of all things tiny genetic?  I think it is...and I have passed it on to my son.  Left handednes...no one else got it!! love of tiny stuff...check!

Okay I am off to read a good book and finish watching the Amazing Race

Let me declare {officially}

my complete and utter dislike for:

ACRYLIC SWEATERS!!

Who in the world had this idea that, gradually, all of my favorite shops would resort to making
all of their clothes out of itchy, and yucky feeling plastic stuff?????

Please stop!!

Has anyone else realized, yet that the sweaters still cost the same amount of money??

Give me back my cotton, please!
I go on my favorite websites, click the sweater I like, and then it hits me!!
It is made of acrylic.
I go to the little bazaar in the civic center--not so little really, and the chica has decided to
make all of her scarfltetts out of what??? Acrylic!!

oh stop it...this trend needs to go--just like the pre-pubescent boy ass crack pants...they both need to go
AWAY!!

And after all that...

Our house was attacked by the throw up virus!!
uck!
It started with Victor in the middle of the night on Saturday night, and then I had it all day yesterday, and today, then in the middle of the night last night, Eva started to throw up.
Can you imagine the cleaning up that has to go on?
All of the kids are under seven.
So that means the first time, all the vomit is in the bed.
Everything has to be washed.
Two of them can aim for a trash can after the first time.
I was up all last night with Eva last night, giving her the trash can.
This is all very graphic, no?

This is probably my worst blog post ever!!
Who wants to read about throw ups?
I will say this, if there is ever a vomit cleaning olympics--we could win
hands down.
Andy and I have the routine down pat.

This does not make it any easier, though.

Then, as soon as I felt better today, I had to clean the whole house up!--could not stand
the thought of yucky vomit germs hanging out everywhere...you know?

Done, and DONE! and Done...

Today has been marvelous!
Checklist, Checklist, Checklist--sprinkled with fun.
Andy has been off. :)
We went to the Christmas parade, and it was great!
Then, we came home to eat lunch, and I
CLEANED OUT MY CAR!! yippie!  (I love for my car to be clean)
Then I
MADE A CHRISTMAS CARD AND SENT IT OUT!!
Done!
What a sense of accomplishment!
You know some days you can be excited about all of that, and think
it is all going to get done, but then...
well, it just does not happen.

I used the Hallmark website btw, and they will address and send all of the cards for you...
I did have to put in all the addresses of course, THIS TIME.
Next year...it is gonna be so easy!
They save your address book for you...how cool is that?