Rock Band

Ok - so I have mixed feelings about this one. I knew my kids would love it. I knew my husband would love it. I knew I probably wouldn't. But I got it for my family for Christmas anyway. It's all they got (besides 3 packages of 20 energizer batteries and pajamas) and they loved it. No that's not true I got cool folding banana chairs for them too at walmart for 15 bucks the day after Thanksgiving. (which is an absolutely crazy time to go shopping and don't recommend it to anyone. Saving 10 bucks isn't worth it!!! BUT I had to go to Joanns that morning because the flannel was on sale for 1.99 a yard instead of the 6.99 it is regularly and when you are buying 40 yeards........that makes a difference. And since I was already up .. why not go to Walmart too. Which was scary!)

Anyway, the kids were trying to teach me the guitar. Which was frustrating and I kept bringing their score down so they gave me the michrophone. Um, well anyone who knows us knows that singing is just not a talent we have. That gene skipped all us kids. And Aaron .. well thats even scarier. But I was trying to learn so I didn't just get sick of listening. Because when they are just playing instruments its not so bad, but when they sing....they seem to think they need to sing (screech) at the top of their lungs. So not only are they singing (screeching) loudly, its also coming out of the speakers on the TV at top volume. Yay. Stereo. My poor poor neighboors.

The drums look kind of fun maybe. Can you justify playing a video game when you are the mom that tells the kids they can't just sit and play games all of the time? Not that I would. I have too many other things to go and I feel terribly guilty after half an hour or so. But why should they have all the fun? That, and it irritates them when I take it over. And thats fun.

James Bond

I think the first Bond film I ever watched was "A View To A Kill". Mostly because the evil black lady was in the Conan movie I just watched and I thought she was cool. Then I think I didn't see any more until "GoldenEye". I watched all the Pierce Brosnan ones and the first Daniel Craig. I didn't really like "Casino Royale" because I had been used to a more suave and polished Bond. This one just seemed a little harsh and cold.

Well come to find out, my husband had never seen any of them. So we decided to watch them all from the beginning. After all, you hear so often that Sean Connery is the only real Bond. I have to say -- I think he is much better looking as an older man. Now we are only up to movie #7. We just watched "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I liked George Lazenby better than Sean Connery. I'm not sure why. But so far I have learned a couple things.

#1 -- Mr. Bond has Arnold beat on the number of bad puns one can say in a movie. I'm pretty sure the Bond movies are where Arnold first got the idea they were ok and cool. I on the other hand think they are silly and roll my eyes.

#2 -- I never thought of myself as a feminist really. Mostly because of all the extremists. You know the men can never have a private club or school but women can (after all - who really cares or wants to be a member of the Elk Lodge anyway?)women are better, yada yada yada. However I do believe in equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work etc. Women should be able to have any job they are qualified for, should be able to get an education etc. See can be president, an astronaut, a teacher, a scientist whatever. As can our boys be anything they are qualified for. Anyway -- I have to admit that I cringed an awful lot watching these movies. Bond thinks nothing of sleeping with whoever he wants, slapping them around a little and moving on. The only one he seems to have any respect for is MoneyPenny. I realize all the ones I have seen were in the 60's but still. I shudder. Maybe I am more of a feminist than I thought. Especially when in the last one the girls dad tells him she is too independent and just needs someone to dominate and master her. Ich.

#3 -- I really dig new cool gadjets. Even in these old ones -- it's pretty cool. And the Aston Martin is a really really nice car. And I'm not even really into cars.


Well, we will see what happens as the movies progress. :)

Late Again

I realized that I really like reading other people's blogs more than I like writing my own. I think I just feel like I have to wait for something cool or big to write about. *sigh*

So, since I am easily distracted here are my very late Christmas project photo's. I made pajamas and blankets for everyone. Which was a little more work than I had originally thought. But it was fun. :)




I don't have pics of my parents or my brother Alex :( but anyway you get the picture. I just made blankets for my in-laws since I ran out of time. We draw names for cousins and stuff and I feel bad I didn't really do much for that. Just gift cards really. I got some shirt and apron kits for the kids names. Well I did make a baby blanket for a cousin on my mom's and I made a Jean quilt for my uncle. But I started that in May and they were his jeans he gave to my husband because he couldn't fit in them anymore - so it was almost a re-gift :)

My mom gave all us girls glass pans with our names on them. And made all the kids vests, and all the guys these super cool fishing vests with fun gummy worms and stuff in them that the kids promptly confiscated and ate.

Ohhhh shiny.......

I have realized I am a victim of a four letter word. Fads. Hmmm. Well, not your typical fads I guess. Just my own personal ones. I start something - I think it's awesome and in a few months I am sick of it and move on. Mostly because I over do it I think. I am that kid that played the cool new tape over and over just switching it's sides and listening to it again. I wore out the video of the Last Unicorn as a kid. Now I have it on DVD.

Kind of like when I picked up cross stitching. I thought - hey this would be a great Christmas idea. I had only done one wizard at that point. So I searched online and bought a bunch of patterns for male Disney characters for my nephews quilt. Great fun. Well the first ones were, but trying to get them all done during my lunch breaks and between housecleaning, kids, laundry etc., was stressful. So of course I had to do a pillowcase with a big Cinderella crosstitched on it for my niece. Well, at 3:30 Christmas morning I finished. Phew! For 6 months I stitched and then I was done. I bought an awesome dragon one a year and a half ago. It's 1/4 done I think.

After cross stitching I turned to puzzles. I love/hate puzzles. I like the ones that are made of tons of tiny pictures. I have decided that I very much dislike the ones that are all angles without the little hookies. They are too hard because any piece could fit. After doing a holographic/3D one of clown fish I am not sure I would do that again. It took almost a month. I glued it together. You have to understand - it was just clown fish, not a reef, no background, just clown fish, 3D clown fish. This ended my 5 month obsession with puzzles.

I think after that I just stuck to reading for a while. I love to read. Always have, always will. I think Hell for me would be no books. Then I picked up scrap booking but that just didn't last long. Basically because I suck. Then I went through a cooking thing. New things, strange things. Why not? My family was grateful when that toned down.

The thing is though, I cycle through them so I don't have to feel bad about having bought stuff for them. Because after cooking I went back to my dragon, did a Captain Jack puzzle, read a book. So I guess I don't drop them completely, they just have seasons. :)

I think I have found a new one. This one might stick. I bought a sewing machine in May. It's homemade Christmas year and I was not borrowing one like we did last time for the fish pillows. It was a good deal, and it looked cool. I didn't really know much about sewing machines so I just picked it by price and how cool it sounded. Which surprisingly turned out really well for me. I like it. It has cool feet that do neat things. I especially like the drop in bobbin and the button hole foot. Just push the buttonhole setting when you put the foot on and it does it all by itself. Sweet. So while doing Christmas projects I discovered 2 totally awesome stores. The Fabric Center on 90th and Redwood behind the Albertson's and by the movie theater and The Quilt Shop on 8790ish and State street. They both had the fabric I had been searching searching for that Joann's and Walmart never did. And they had this totally cute super awesome dragon quilt kit. It's my next project after Christmas. I'm excited. I bought it, wrapped it, and am going to put it under the tree from Aaron. :)

I am no seamstress, I have my share of uneven buttons, crooked seams etc, and I still don't know what half the words on the pattern mean, but I can figure most of it out. Here's hoping I don't mess it up too bad. :)

Vegas, Football, & Halloween

So, I am really bad at this blogging thing I have decided. I have lots of fun reading them all but just don't write them. I don't know why. My life is just not all that interesting I guess.

I sent Curtis away this morning to Las Vegas to play football. I know he is with his team and coaches so technically he is not alone. But I feel like I sent him alone. It totally sucks I couldn't go with him. Not because I wanted some kind of vacation or anything but so I could cheer him, so I could hug him, so I could take his picture and be on the sidelines you know? *sigh* I hope he behaves.

I don't have any pics of him in full uniform yet. Here is one of Josh.He looked so cute. His team was pretty fun to watch. They didn't have much talent and didn't get a lot of the plays but man they had heart. Full of passion. It was fun. Curtis' team was more intense, they had more on the lin since they were older. They were fun and I cheered and yelled. But Josh's team was pretty fun.

For a fundraiser to help go to Vegas Curtis's team worked one night as server's at the Golden Corral. So of course I harassed him. When it got to the point I asked him to go get me 9 green m&m's he just looked at me and said no. Ha Ha Ha. But he still had to clean up the mess I made with crackers. Hey -- if he wants a tip he needs to earn it I say.


So I hope he has tons of fun. And behaves. If you can do both in Vegas. If not..well then I root for behaves. *sigh*

So Halloween was fun. I didn't have to do anything. How awesome is that? Curtis went to a friends house for a party and Aaron took Josh to his parents. I put a bowl of taffy (leftover from last year but really..they are kids, they wont care) on the porch and put on my headphones to listen to my book and sewed some Christmas projects that maybe possibly if I'm lucky I can finish by then. The kids waited until the night before Halloween to get costumes. I took Josh but Curtis still had homework so I told him I would get him something and he would be stuck with it. Josh picked out his stormtrooper one and I found a banana for Curtis. I laughed and knew it was mean. He would hate it. I big yellow banana. Ha ha ha.I was looking forward to the nast look. (I know I'm a sadistic mom. I get it from my dad.) I got home and showed it to him. He took one look at it and SWEET! He loved it. Go figure.


Also, I took them to go see the symphony just before Halloween. Curtis has to see a concert a quarter for his music and guitar classes and I thought this would be fun. It said Halloween Hijinks. I figured we could go, listen to some classic Haloween music and stuff. They could live through that. Little did I know that we were actually going to see Hansel & Gretel the OPERA. Ha Ha Ha. Oh the nasty looks from both Curtis AND Aaron. You know that look - the one that says

What have you done??

Or more importantly

What have you made ME do?

Ha Ha Ha.