"It's a dinglehopper!"

Kelly & I watched Beauty and the Beast tonight after discovering it was our mutual favorite. We (apparently) still have it memorized. I was supposed to be cleaning.
Indeed, it's still quite as beautiful a movie as ever and still my childhood (and adult) favorite.

And then after she left I thought I would splurge and watch Little Mermaid (my only-slightly-less favorite) while cleaning.

Let me ask you this friends...how exactly do you clean when the Sea Witch is about to marry the Prince?

You don't. You stare at the screen and wait for Scuttle to save the day.

However, I did manage to get some accomplished throughout bits and pieces were I could tear myself away. And as I sit writing this it's all finished. Squeaky clean. Complete.

One day I will own all my Disney favorites on DVD.

"Les poissons, les poissons, hee hee hee, hahaha..."


Top 5 Favorite Childhood Movies:
1) Beauty & The Beast
2) The Little Mermaid
3) Aladdin
4) Ferngully: The Last Rainforest
5) Sandlot

"We are fam-i-ly...."

Just a quick note to remind you: my family is coming in this Saturday! YAY! They will be here for two weeks. YAY!

Therefore, I have no idea how much I'll update. I can at least rest assured I'll miss nothing on Will's since he's autoblogging (hahaha).
Actually, I'll still read everything. Just may not post.

Sweet dreams everyone! YAY!

VBS Photo Roundup

Five of my favorite ranchhands:











Also, I wanted to post Kim's comment she made on the last post, because you should see it. The story is super cute. (Thanks Kim!)

"My aunt taught preschool Sunday school for a long time. There was one little boy obsessed with Batman. One day, actually off topic of the lesson, he looked at her and said so serious "Does Batman know the Lord?" She just as serious, replied "Batman is not a real person, but the actor who plays him is a real person, and I don't know if he knows about Jesus, but you can pray that someone would tell him about Jesus." So before they ate their graham crackers and apple juice that day, they prayed for Batman to know about Jesus."

Awwwww....I love that story. Sweet dreams everyone! Dream of Batman & Jesus.

"On Saddle Ridge Raaaanch..."

Admit it. Singing that makes you want to swing your lasso. Yeeee-haw!

So it's VBS week at my church. As I'm sure you've gathered after that opening, this years theme (brought to you by Lifeway) is Saddle Ridge Ranch, the cowboy extravaganza. So far we've made cowboy hats, colored bandanas, picture frames and tomorrow night we'll make ostriches. (Ostriches? you say? Ostriches.)
I thought about explaining why, because there is a reason, but naaah. :)
The cowboy hats have been a really big hit. This year I'm teaching a combined class of missions & crafts. And so far, it's been a lot of fun.

There are two major reasons this year is so special.

Part Uno:
This year five of my kid cousins decided to come and I was super excited by that. Getting to spend two hours with them each night is awesome and I love being in their company. Watching Amy & Ashia enjoy the dances so much and seeing Carson, Ashlyn & Anna's excitement over their cowboy hats...that makes me muy happy. I love it.

Part Deux:
Honestly, my heart's in it this year. I'll confess: the past two years I've really dragged my feet, reacted lackluster, blah blah blah... I mean, I've tried really hard to be into it. But I could never quite get myself there.

This is what changed:
I had one particular boy almost every year I've taught. He's the subject of one of my favorite stories. The first year I volunteered I taught preschool and asked the kids if they would draw a picture of someone they could tell about Jesus. And he replied: "I'm not going to draw someone about Jesus. I'm going to draw Doc Oc!"
I told him I was sure Doc Oc needed Jesus too so that was okay with me.

I don't remember him my second year. I taught preschool again.

The third year I taught music and this boy haaaated it. This has never been his thing.

Fourth year I was supposed to help with missions, but mostly ended up helping herd kids. Boy did not want to be there.

Last year, my fifth year (this is my sixth year? really?), I taught crafts. He still didn't act crazy about being there, but he was older now and had calmed down. As long as he made whatever crafts we needed to make that day, I would let him make whatever he wanted after. Since I had one class of four older boys, they wanted to make death robotic space monkeys (and they did) and not sheep. This was fine with me.
But he really weighed on my heart. He was the epitome to me of all kids who hated VBS. It had become this monster in my mind. And while I did pray for the kids and love on them, a lot of my conversations with God went like this: "Do you see this? He's miserable. Miserable. This is ridiculous. Why do we do this? If it stopped at fourth grade, that would be fine. He's too old for this. He's bored. He's making sheep. Why do parents make them come?", etc. etc. etc.
Then grandpa got sick and I was away from church and the week I came back this boy went up to the front during benediction and announced to the church he had been saved. I was floored.
I have no proof VBS did anything. But if it did something, anything, to work in his heart a few weeks earlier, to open the door, I take back everything I said. I was ashamed of myself. I still feel VBS can become something we do out of habit and not prayer. But if it pricks the heart of even one boy then all the VBS' are worth it. Especially a boy I never ever thought in a million years it would touch.

So this year was special. And while I'm glad to have my evenings back, I've also had lot of fun this year. Thanks to all the kiddos, who made it awesome.

Project Update

Anyone else watch that cute otter pup over and over? Anyone? He squeaks! "HE'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIIIE!" (Thanks Agnes.)

In other news, I hate our mower. Holly & Sam came to our rescue this morning and fixed it, we thought for good, but it continued to make sad, popping, evil sounds. Sadly, that also means the lawn is not done (we've decided its an artistic statement.) Nonetheless, the spark plug actually was an issue as well, so I'm really grateful that that one is taken care of. My friends rock.
In the meantime, we're looking for a mowing company that will actually show up. Or maybe I'll finally break down and borrow a neighbor's mower.

In other news, my picture project? Officially finished. Moving onto final preparations for VBS aaaand cleaning. Almost there!

For your reading pleasure:
Spiderman Officially Begins Rehearsals 8/16

Meandering indeed.

My family is coming in in less than two weeks. Which means all my projects must be quickly knocked out. Especially considering this Sunday starts VBS and I'll be out most evenings through next Wednesday.
But things are moving along smoothly. My picture project is almost complete (at least stage 1, which is all I'm aiming for right now). All I have left to do is buy a few more storage boxes but they're already all organized and ready to slide in. These boxes are much safer than how they were stored before and are labeled. And all the junk pictures are trashed. (why, mom, why did you let five year old me have a camera with film? and more importantly, why did you keep all of them? parakeets. fish tank. clouds. more parakeets. dogs. fish tank. clouds. more parakeets.)
How many pictures exactly did I go through? So far I've put in over ten hours on this project. And if Grandma wasn't there to help figure out what happened what year and who is who I would've been totally lost. She rocks.

Tonight Grandpa, Phyllis and I spent the evening playing our mandolins. Or more accurately, Grandpa played around on all his instruments and Phyllis and I made vain attempts to keep up. I really enjoy it though - you learn a lot of the old songs and my Grandpa's knowledge of them is vast.
My personal favorite is an old standard entitled Redwing, but I also love Black Mountain Rag and Golden Slippers as well. Redwing's melody is just gorgeous.

I haven't read any further on Till We Have Faces which makes me sad. I just haven't had the time (or the mindpower) to sit down and devote to it again.

I can't express how glad I am that I'm off tomorrow. Really. Not that today was bad. I'm just glad I'm off. :)

Meanwhile, I will leave you with incredible, incredible cuteness:

But that was when I ruled the world.

Our church drama team had a performance this morning. This particular skit is done completely in blacklight, so we had darkened the windows with foil to completely black out the sanctuary. We were rehearsing before Sunday School. I flipped off the lights, hit play on the cd player via the light of my cell phone, flipped it off and BAM!

There was a door. An unfortunate door. That I had not heard close behind me in the sound booth.

Thankfully, it was not that loud of a clutzy move. Instead, I stood at the back with my hand over my mouth trying not to laugh and listened to my team try to figure out if I actually had ran into the door or if they misheard.

Next time I'll try to follow through and fall off the step down at the same time.

Project Break

Currently I'm working my way through Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It really is quite a wonderful book - I'm over halfway through so as soon as I wrap this up, I'm going back to it. :)

Holly, Regina, Kelly & I made our way to The Melting Pot in Bricktown last night for a very late surprise-ish party for Regina (she knew we were getting together, just not that it was at the Melting Pot.) I have to admit it was a lot of fun - obviously, the company is always enjoyable, but I was unsure what the Melting Pot itself would be like. However, it was an incredible treat. We basically spent two and a half hours eating over four courses and then back to Regina's for Audrey Hepburn happiness (Roman Holiday). Outside of My Fair Lady I had never had the joy of seeing an Audrey Hepburn movie, so it was quite a beautiful evening out overall.

Today was finishing up the work on gutting another storage closet and reorganizing and condensing and sorting all it contained. It was also the beginning of the picture project where I sort all my pictures into smaller storage boxes by decade. I promise, I haven't fallen into the clutches of organization (although, really, I should) but I have to regain some sort of control over this giant clutter monster. Plus, company is coming, and that is giving me incentive. While that instigation is available, I need to accomplish all I can.
And I would have mowed (because the situation is growing more and more desperate) but our mower decided not to start again today. Mrr.

Oh! For those keeping up with my cousins who are adopting, they have a court date! October 12th!

"Don't you think a dream would feel shy if it were seen walking about in the waking world?"
-Pysche, Till We Have Faces

Victory!

Paul for the win!

Listen to that roaring crowd, Paul. Soak this in. You made the World Cup interesting. They are calling your predications "The Paul Effect." Get some rest and come back in fighting shape.

Sigh. So I guess I have to get some rest myself, right? Back to work tomorrow...

While I'm here, I must say that Despicable Me was surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn't expecting much out of it. I had little interest in seeing it. But its certainly a fun movie, lots of heart, lots of little moments that help build the film. ("Three sleepy kittens...really? you like this stuff? this is literature?") So I'm glad I saw it.

Kelly & I also rewatched the 1925 silent version of Phantom of the Opera tonight. I've always enjoyed watching Lon Chaney as Erik because I love how he uses his whole frame. Obviously there's no option of relying on his voice to carry the role and no relying on facial features, so it all has to be done through the body. There's one particular nice moment when he first touches Christine with his hand and the fear, nervousness and still the desire all translate beautifully through that one small movement. Lovely.

Peptalk for Paul

Alright, Paul. You've missed a few in the past. That's alright. Everyone makes some mistakes.

But this time. This time your record has been perfect.

Some want you dead. Spain has offered you protection. And Peta wants you released.

And now you have made your selection for the final game in favor of Spain. I admit, Paul, I had no interest in this World Cup until you came along. But you sealed the deal.

Pay no attention to Mani, that silly little Malaysian parrot. All eyes are on you.

It's all part of the plan....

Third Batman Starts Filming in April

"I'd say America is beautiful tonight..."

"Yankee Soldier."

Holly, Sam and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon at the dollar theatre tonight. I can assure you, it's just as wonderful the second time around. Highly recommended. You must go if you haven't already. In fact, go again if you have.
Thank you...you useless reptile.

I know it may seem silly to some of you, but I created my first memorial ring for an urn today and I was pretty excited by it. I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out - had I a camera, I would've snapped a shot. Alas, it was gone for the day.
Speaking of cameras, I'll be forcing some pictures on you soon of some gorgeous flowers we had in our backyard this year. Bwahahaha. Ahahaha. Ahaha.

Also, I never knew octopi were soccer fans, but Paul the Octupus is a pretty snazzy cephalopod mollusk (okay, I had to look that up).

All things to everyone, run, runaway!

Great Big Sea is streaming their newest cd here for today! Go, go, go!


("Yankee Sailor" is still my current favorite.)

Happy Ledesma Day!

Zoo? Chick-Fil-A? Lots of friends including the Ledesma's? Could there be a better day?

Holly & I spent the early morning running around the zoo with the Will, Kim & Robbie admiring the new children's zoo, the lions, the sea lions, the meerkats (okay, maybe that last one was just me). Robbie was able to ride the kiddie train (which he loved) and can apparently pronounce rhinoceros (which is awesome).
Then someone missed her exit entirely (who would do that?) which led to a momentary detour back through the city which may or may not have led to a freakout session in the car (I'm so sorry Holly) and may or may not have led to a panicked phone call to Brad (I'm so sorry Brad).
I promise you. When I'm by myself, I never panic like that. Never.

Anyway. I love our zoo!

Then there was Chic-Fil-A. And Rock Band. And park-time with Robbie who bulldozed me over several times. And then dinner in the city at Mackie's with (get ready for the list): Will, Kim, Robbie, Julie, Holly, Philip, Kelly, Jenna, Blake, Tarvis, Eric...

It was crazy fun. And then after spending several hours at Kelly's house I somehow managed to stay awake enough to drive Will to Coyle and return to my house.

Can we do it again? :) Maybe minus the detour this time.