No Easy Quote

You've all seen the quotes to the left that I periodically change.  I love quotes and trying to find just the right one to add that reflects a mood or to coincide with a blog post is no easy task, trust me.  I'm trying to find a quote for Thanksgiving (which is tomorrow here in the States, for my Canadian readers) and I have found a few that set the tone for how I feel and a few that have made me guffaw out loud. (Thankfully I haven't woken anyone up since it's 6:20 am and I've already been awake for almost three hours.) So, instead of picking just one, here are a few that I really liked. Which is your favourite?

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.  

~Robert Caspar Lintner

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.             

~J. Robert Moskin

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.  

~Thornton Wilder

Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.  

~Michael Dresser

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. 

~Cicero

The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands.  

~Author Unknown

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off your thighs!

~Author Unknown

I love Thanksgiving turkey.  It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts.           

~Arnold Schwarzenegger

Poll Results

Thanks to all of you who participated in my poll. Here is how you voted for your favourite Harrison Ford character.

5 votes Han Solo

3 votes Indiana Jones

1 vote Det. Capt John Book (Witness)

1 vote Harrison Ford? Yuck!

So I cheated and made two choices - one for Indiana Jones and one for Han Solo. Although I've enjoyed all of his roles, the swashbuckling ladies' man characters are my favourite.  Not to mention that when those movies came out I was very young and hero worship was so much easier before the rose-coloured glasses come off with adulthood. And, let's face it, he has aged VERY well. He is as good to look at today as he was when he was going in hyper-drive in the Millennium Falcon or finding Marian in her bar in Nepal. 

Check out my new poll! 

Thanks for Playing

Thanks to Lise and Terhi for answering my question "Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?" Since there was only two of you and Amanda is getting something for being "Commenter of the Year" I decided to send something to all three of you. Of course, I can't just give anything. It has to be made by me. So here it is, your gifts from me:

Now that the leaves have all fallen off the trees, here is a leaf garland to add some colour to your homes. I put them in the mail this morning so they should arrive shortly.

Liam's First Haircut

I finally broke down and cut Liam's hair. Actually, I just trimmed his bangs. They were so long and they reached down passed his nose. I just cut them enough to keep them out of his eyes. I didn't touch his little curls in the back. They are just too cute to cut. 

BEFORE

(looking at cousin Morgan's new books during a sleepover)

AFTER

(with his new obsession - the phone)

There isn't a huge difference. It's just that now he can see all the time. And we get a better view of his sweet little face. 

Highland Dancing

Moira started Highland dancing a couple of years ago. I was so excited when she said she wanted to try because I always wanted to try it when I was a kid. After Liam was born I decided that I would start dancing, mostly because it's really good exercise and I was there anyway. I've already learned how to do the fling and now I'm working on the sword dance. I've included a couple of videos so that you can see what the dances look like. 

This first video is the Highland Fling. There are lots of variations of this dance. Pay attention to the guy as he is doing the dance that I learned how to do.  It's the longest 59 seconds you'll ever dance to!

I'm now learning the Sword Dance. 

Highland dancing is difficult and requires a lot of stamina. It's mostly jumping and height is important. I'm not interested in competing, but maybe one day I will get to dance at Burns or at a parade. That would be fun. 

I Know You're Out There!

Let's face it, no matter what your motivations for keeping a blog are, it all comes down to the comments. We want to know that you read our posts and appreciate our efforts. So, in that spirit, I'm going to pull an Amanda and I'm going to have a drawing for all the people who make a comment to this post. (Except for you, Amanda. You are already going to get something from me for being Commenter of the Year.) Here is the catch: you have to answer the following question 

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher?

and the deadline is this Friday (the 21st).

To get it started, I will go first. (You'll appreciate this, Erica)

When I was about 10 I took swimming lessons and during one of the 2 week sessions, I had an instructor named Brian. He was tall and thin and wore a Speedo. But more important to a 10 year old, he was just a nice guy. After the session was over I continued on to the next level with a new instructor, but I still saw Brian around the pool. One day before class, he walked by me and when he did I saw a couple of pubic hairs hanging out of his Speedo. I was so disgusted that I never looked at him the same way again. Hair in strange places? That was just gross! That was my one and only crush on a teacher. Funny. I wonder if subconsciously I associated teachers with pubic hair. 

What is your story?

Poll Results

Thanks for voting. Here are the results for what was your favourite class at school:

     3 votes English

     1 vote Biology

     2 votes History

     2 votes Other

I voted for Other because my favourite class was Art. In grade 12, I took three art classes. They were all drawing and painting classes and I loved every second of it. I even had aspirations of attending the Emily Carr School of Art and Design, which has recently become a university. (See photo above). I had an awesome art teacher for grade 10 and 11. Her name was Mrs Paul and I wanted her life. I thought she was an interesting person.  I wanted to teach art too so I could be just like her. After I graduated from high school I decided to wait a year before going back to school and just worked instead. When it came down to it, I chickened out of applying to the school. I already knew that it was a hard school to get into and I didn't have the confidence to try. I didn't want the rejection so I thought it would be easier if I didn't even put in the effort. How very sad. 

Check out my new poll.  

For Kyla

In honour of her 3rd birthday, here is a tribute to a beautiful and funny girl who I am proud to say is my daughter. 

Kyla Joanne Rogers aka Bubbles - nicknamed for her bubbly personality.

Kyla loves to help out around the house sweeping, mopping, changing Liam's diaper. Here she is helping Daddy wash the windows. 

Liam's favorite game is throwing something on the floor and having Kyla pick it up for him so he can do it again. She never gets tired of this game or complains. The other day the two of them were doing this and I said, "You're so good, Kyla" to which she replied "I just doing my job." 

We love to make fun of her little "s'ghetti arms". They are so skinny. Here she is showing them off. 

The Word According to Kyla

ketchup - kepup

funny - wunny

"You make me laugh" - "You make me so wunny"

Caillou - Dadoo

Liam - Leemy

Moira - Honey

right - wight

pretty dress - plitty let

"What did you say to me?" - "What say a me?"

Okay - Opay

sandwich - samoo

hot chocolate - hockey

Winnie-the-Pooh - Wikki Pooh

thank you - hey hue (or sometimes just hue)

hungry - hungy

cold - clode

• Favourite saying - "Oh, my gosh!" (as in "Oh, my gosh, I just peed!)
  
• Favourite colour - pink (all colours are pink)
  
• Favourite number - 4 (all numbers are 4)
  
• Favourite characters - Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Hello Kitty
  
• Favourite movies - Lady and the Tramp II,  the Pink Panther cartoon collection
  

Happy Birthday, Kyla!

Today is Kyla's 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe that three years have already gone by, but at the same time, I have a hard time remembering life before her.

We had a birthday party for her yesterday. Grandma and Grandpa came over, along with cousins Olivia and Jamie, and our friends, the Strattons. We kept everything low key so the kids could just have time to play together. It's hard to plan games when there are big age differences between them all. 

Singing Happy Birthday to my little girl.

Instead of making a birthday cake, I baked cupcakes inside ice cream cones and then covered them in chocolate icing and coloured sprinkles. I also made some "animal crackers" using little animal cookie cutters and sugar cookie dough. 

Liam scarfed his cupcake down faster than some of the big kids. 

Everyone wanted to help Kyla open her presents. 

This morning, Kyla opened her presents from us. 

Kyla said she wanted some pictures to hang on her bedroom wall so I made this for her. I already had the wooden cut outs from when she was a baby (I had them on her wall above her crib) so I got a piece of canvas and painted on the squares. One thing I love about Kyla being so young is that I got to paint this in front of her and it didn't even dawn on her that this was a present for her birthday. 

Listening to Kitty Grandma sing Happy Birthday to her on the phone. 

Reading, Reading, Reading

I've been reading a lot this year, sometimes even having more than one book on the go. It feels so good to read again. I really missed it. If you check on the side of my blog you can see the last five books that I have read. Some of them are from the book club and some are what I read on my own.

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you plan on reading any of these books, you may want to stop now. Although I haven't given away any of the plot, you may not want my musings to ruin your motivations for reading them. 

The last book we read for book club was "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. It was a really good book, but kind of sad. I had tears in my eyes a few times. For book club we went to see the movie. I hadn't been to the theatre in years. The movie adaptation of the book was good. It stayed true to the story except for one or two really minor details. The book was much better, though. It had a lot more details that just don't translate very well or makes the movie far too long. I did find it hard to keep a straight face because all around me I heard women sniffling and one lady behind me kept blowing her nose. I wanted to bust out laughing every time I heard her. 

Last night I finished reading Breaking Dawn, the last of the Twilight series. This is definitely the worst of the books. It was like, since this was the last book, the author tried to go out with a bang and she ended up grasping to make it seem interesting. The worst part was when she tried to build all that tension towards the end of the book (Will they or won't they all be annihilated?) when it says right in the table of contents that the name of the last chapter is "The Happily Ever After". How can you take any of it seriously when you already know the outcome? And I didn't understand why she had part of the story told by Jacob. I liked hearing his voice, but I didn't understand the purpose of it. I don't think it brought anything to the over all story. I really loved the beginning of the book. It started off so good, but quickly went downhill. With the other three books I found myself sneaking off to my room in the middle of the day to read a few pages and I would sometimes go to bed early just so I could read, but not with Breaking Dawn. I actually went a couple of days WITHOUT reading it. 

I didn't start reading the books until the last one had just come out so I was able to read them as fast or as slow as I wanted. By the time I finished Eclipse, the third book, I was ready to have the story over. Now that it is over, I feel a bit sad. I feel like I had gotten so immersed in those books that now I almost feel naked. I've been thrust out of that fantasy world into the cold and dark. 

But Twilight, the movie, is about to come out into theatres, you say, so you will get that last dose. I don't plan on seeing the movie, though. I already know that it will never be as good as the book so I don't want to spend 10$ to sit there and pick it apart. Also, the guy playing Edward just does not fit my image of what he should look like. I came across this pic a while back and I think this guy looks ideal:

Instead we get this:

and this...

I think he looks a bit scary. (Does anyone know if this is the same guy from the first pic above? If it is, my compliments to the first photographer.) And he doesn't look at all like he's 17.

It's the first pic I have stuck in my head and I think that's what Edward should look like. Maybe it's just the fancy imagery that I find appealing. 

Now our book club is reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (Thanks Amanda for your review and thanks Elli for giving us this choice.)

Disney on Ice

Will bought the girls and I tickets to see Disney on Ice. It was fun to do something special with them. Will is usually the one who takes the to the movies and stuff. The kids had a good time. I was impressed at how well it was done. The two hours went surprisingly fast. 

Waiting for the show to start. 

There were lots of little skits where they would re-enact the movie in just a few minutes. This was Bruce and Dori from Finding Nemo.

Mickey and Minnie were the hosts of the show. 

During, "It's a Small World" a man in a kilt came out and skated. Unfortunately he wasn't a true Scot. Oh, well. This was a kids' show after all. 

The grand finale with all the characters and lots of fireworks. 

Poll Results

Thanks for all of your votes, Everyone! Here are the results to what your favourite part of fall is:

     4 votes coloured leaves

     2 votes cooler weather

     1 vote Hallowe'en

I voted for the cooler weather. After the scorching summers we get here in Idaho, the cooler weather always feels good to me. I get more energy and want to move more. And I love the way things smell. But, I admit, that my vote was mostly based on my fetish for sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves and any other cool weather accessory. I get so excited when the time comes for me to dig out all of my things that I've had to store for the summer. I love to layer clothes and match them with my hats and scarves. I also have a pair of high-heeled, knee-length boots that I love to wear. It makes me sad when I see them shoved to the back of the closet because I would melt in the heat if I wore them. Now I can bring out into the light of day and proudly wear them once again. 

Check out this week's poll. (Thanks for your help, Erica!)

November 7th

Happy Birthday, Skye

Click here for last year's post.

Hallowe'en

I hope you all had a fun Hallowe'en this year. This is what we did to celebrate.

When Moira got home from school on Thursday, we decorated some sugar cookies. 

After dinner, we all carved our pumpkins that we got from the train ride. 

On Hallowe'en the schools had a professional day so the kids all got the day off. We invited our friends Terhi, Emma, Walter and Richard to come over and have a little party. 

After dinner, Kordon and Morgan came over so we could all go trick-or-treating. Notice that Moira changed her costume. She went from being a butterfly fairy to a bunny fairy.

Liam was a little brown puppy. He hated having the hood on and kept squirming around. This was the best shot I could get of him in his costume.