We're out the door for our homeschool group's Halloween party, so I don't have much time to chat. But, I will leave you with this video. It has nothing to do with Halloween, but it had me laughing out loud so I thought you all might enjoy it, too...

Gravitas

Labels: holiday, video

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  Could it get any better?

"A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead"

Labels: beatles, video, zombies

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  One more day 'til Halloween,
Halloween, Halloween!
One more day 'til Halloween,
Silver Shamrock!

Am I the only person who remembers Halloween III? If so, that's probably for the best, it was a fairly awful movie. But, that horrible commercial from the Silver Shamrock Mask Company has been stuck in my head since I caught the movie on cable in the early '80s. Sure, I can't remember my bank account number or where I put my keys, but put a song in a bad horror film and I'll be singing it to myself over 20 years later!

Labels: holiday

.*.*.

  The kids and I were goofing around a bit today while I took photos off of my camera. We were pulling up different pictures from the last week or so, and using all of the fun little photo effects on them. Most of them were just ugly or weird, but one turned out so freaky we just had to save it.

Here's the original picture:


And this is what it looked like when we used the "kaleidoscope" effect:


Doesn't that look like a Halloween snowflake? I need to play with my pictures more often...

Labels: kids

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  I have a sore throat today, and it actually makes me NOT WANT TO TALK! Me! I know, that's pretty scary, but please don't call 911 just yet. I'm going to drink some echinacea herbal tea and hope it starts feeling a little better.

How are you all today?

Labels: life

.*.*.

  We got snow overnight!

Here are the kids out in the back yard ready for about 4 minutes of play! Hopefully I'll get this post done before they want to come in and have hot chocolate...

Left to right: Sage, Tiernan, Maya, Anya

This is our maple tree, which the previous owners named "Mr. Maples." Mr. Maples apparently can't read the calendar, because it's almost Halloween and he still has all his leaves. Oops!

Labels: snow

.*.*.

  Crack nukes? I don't know. Whatever it is, it's really scary.

Drug raid yields Los Alamos documents

A drug bust at a trailer park in New Mexico turned up what appeared to be classified documents taken from the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory, authorities said Tuesday.

I'm one of the most relaxed people you'll meet as far as security goes, I forget to lock my doors, I leave my purse all over town, etc. But I've never had any important documents taken from me. Are they even TRYING to keep this stuff away from people?

I'd feel better about it if we learned the files were removed by some crackerjack team of international superspies, at least that makes it sound like they were hard to get. But, apparently they were stolen by a meth-head TEMP, of all people. When I worked temp they rarely gave us the keys to the restroom, let alone allowing us access to top secret paperwork.

And if someone's going to steal something, why abscond with nuclear weapons plans? I mean, unless you've got a good source of plutonium, what are you really going to do with them anyway? I think I'd have taken the documents pertaining to the UFO crash in Roswell or something. At least then I could make a living as a guest speaker at Sci Fi conventions...

Labels: newsworthy

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  Do you know who Bill Kurtis is? He hosts about a million of those crime documentaries I can't seem to stop watching, among other things...

I'm not sure how I surfed in to this article, but apparently in addition to his jobs hosting and producing TV shows I watch slavishly, he runs a working cattle ranch in Kansas.

I always wonder how can he sleep at night? The shows are always somewhat disturbing, and he must put a fair amount of time into each one, not to mention he's been doing this for years. I think after a while I'd have some sort of cumulative freak out, just from the sheer weight of all of the murders.

Labels: crime, newsworthy

.*.*.

  And, in honor of her big day, I'm posting some videos she wants you all to see! So, here goes....

Badgers A catchy tune, seems to consist of "Badgers," "Mushroom," and "Snake."

All the Bacon in the World Like James Bond with bacon!

Llama Song If you don't have a song stuck in your head today, you will now!

Banana and Shrimp Showtime Anya says, "We WILL defeat Kikkoman!" (To see a version with English subtitles, check here, there is a little bad language in it if you're worried about that.)

Anya wants to know which one is YOUR favorite?

Labels: kids, video

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Police and forensic experts dug through rubble at the World Trade Center site Friday in search of more human remains after bones were discovered as utility crews excavated a manhole there this week.

My thoughts and prayers are with these families. They have had to bear so much pain, and it doesn't seem to be letting up.

Sigh.

Labels: 9/11, newsworthy

.*.*.

  Thanks for your patience, I had an overwhelming week and just couldn't deal with the blog on top of it!

The most important things we did last week were:

1) Davin and I were baptized and confirmed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We'd been taking lessons with the missionaries for a few months, including talking to the LDS folks in our homeschool group, and really felt led to do this. We're very happy with our new church family and the changes in our lives.

2) We celebrated Tiernan's 5th Birthday. I've never had a baby turn 5 before! I've always had another kid before that could happen. It's pretty cool to be totally without the diaper bag and everything, though, so I think I can hang with this situation.

Did you guys see this?

U.S. casino magnate gives Picasso's dream the elbow

Wynn had just finalized a $139 million sale to another collector of his painting, called "Le Reve" (The Dream), when he poked a finger-sized hole in the artwork while showing it to friends at his Las Vegas office a couple of weeks ago.

Ugh. That just gave me a horrible sinking feeling, I think because it's very much something that would happen to me. I'm a complete klutz, and it only gets worse the more valuable something is! Luckily the children all fall under the "priceless" loophole and I've never dropped anyone, but anything of monetary value isn't safe around me...

Well, I'm off to check up on all my blog friends, and get ready for Anya's birthday this weekend (she's turning 11, where is the time going?)

Labels: church, kids, life, newsworthy

.*.*.

  I won't be able to blog until the 17th or so, will you miss me?

Labels: can't blog, life

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Thirteen Random Thoughts From JEN



1. I think I hate Spiderman. OK, I don't really hate him, but while my son wants to have a Superman birthday party this month, all I can find out there for cakes, etc, is Spiderman stuff. I think it's probably because the latest Superman movie wasn't really geared towards kids, but STILL. Have you ever been in a situation where there wasn't enough licensed material out there to buy? I mean, really.

2. I did find a Superman pinata, though. It's really odd looking. He looks pretty constipated. Apparently he needs more "Truth, Justice and the Laxative Way."

3. Our field trip to the cemetery went really well. The only weird thing was that I had changed my ring tone for October to Tubular Bells (ie the theme from The Exorcist. You can listen to a snippet of it here if you scroll down and click to listen to "Part One.") In and of itself, that's not too weird, but while I was avidly discussing all of the old graveyards around with the volunteer, my phone kept ringing as some of the moms were lost, etc. So, I'm looking like I have some creepy cemetery fetish and my phone keeps playing The Exorcist. I'm sure the guy thinks I'm a ghoul.

4. We bought one of those air fresheners that shoots out every 9, 18 or 36 minutes. It's going well, except the first time it actually released fragrance into our house, Davin was digging around on the bookshelf where it's sitting and got an eyeful of "freshness." It must suck to be tall...

5. We toured our local Country Buffet as a field trip this week. It was a good tour, and we got discounted meals, too. The tour guide kept telling us how great the kids were, and how well-behaved they were, and how she normally doesn't get kids' groups that are this quiet.

6. That was really nice, but it always scares me. Usually after someone comments positively on my kids' behavior, they either turn extremely evil right after, or start throwing up. I think this is evidence of God's sense of irony.

7. It went pretty well, though, and other than Tiernan deciding that he didn't like their hot dogs and mac and cheese (this is all he eats, anywhere.) I resorted to giving him vanilla ice cream for lunch, reasoning that the other kids all turned out OK and "This, too, shall pass."

8. At least he was quiet about it. There was another little boy at our table who can belch loudly enough that I'm thinking there must be fraternities scouting him as we speak. ;-) He was very good and saying, "Excuse me," thought so I'm thinking he'll end up being fairly polite.

9. Sage, on the other had, has cultivated the skill of saying, "excuse me" WHILE she's burping. I keep trying to explain to her that that doesn't cover it, but she doesn't understand why. It's very disturbing to be seated at a table in a restaurant and hear a disembodied, gutteral voice ask to be excused. Maybe we can get her a part in a movie or something?

10. Ooh, maybe she can be in a remake of The Exorcist. That Reagan girl had a messed up voice, which reminds me a lot of Sage's belch-talking. The actress who provided that scary voice, Mercedes McCambridge, had to put a lot of work into that sound. "...McCambridge's already deep voice was made raspy and frightening-sounding and it 'really became the Devil's' via sleep deprivation, cigarettes, and drinking raw egg yolks and liquor." Yeah, that sounds about right.

11. I forgot to mention that, while the Country Buffet tour guide was asking what each kids' favorite vegetable was, Tiernan replied, "Corn dogs." Such a proud moment!

12. Also, this week we made a discovery about Anya's orthodontic headgear. Magnets will stick to it!



13. Have a happy weekend!




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Labels: burp, cemetery, life, Thursday Thirteen

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  Today we're going to visit Riverside Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Colorado. A tour has been set up for us through our homeschooling co-op, and we're all excited (we like cemetery tours around here!)

For your reading pleasure and edification, you can read this list of headstone symbols I found for our trip today. For instance, it's pretty common to see a lamb on a child's grave, and that's a symbol of innocence (which makes sense.)

Have a great Monday!

Labels: cemetery

.*.*.

  To clarify yesterday's post: I do not currently blog from the john, but you'd best believe I will when we get the requisite technology! There'll be no stopping me!!!!!!!

:-)

Labels: life

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