Dinner and a Movie Game

I am not a movie buff. I go to the movies about twice a year, if that often. I recognize faces, but I rarely can tell you which actors were in which movie. I do know lots of strange trivia just because I read voraciously. For instance, I can't tell you all of the movies Haley Joel Osmond was in, but I do know his sister is "Lily" on Hannah Montana. I don't get much more out of watching movies at home on DVD because I have a habit of reading while watching a movie. It works for me, but drives Jack crazy.

Matt, on the other hand, is a major movie buff. He can tell you who was in what movie, when movies are being released, who directed them, what their plot is about etc. In fact, we finally had to make a rule that he and Bob couldn't discuss movies or video games at the dinner table because they would take over the conversation with it. So for Christmas we got him a Scene It game. (Seriously... you have to check out all the Amazon deals at Christmas time.)

Josh and Mystery came over this evening with food, which I cooked. I also made Matt the pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting he has been wanting, and then we sat down to play Scene It while the younger kids were watching a movie.

My favorite parts were the pictograms. I almost have a chance of getting the answer right whether I have seen the movie or not. Matt was really good at the "fill in the quote" things. He and Josh usually had the answers before the blanks were even on the screen. Braggarts.

Faith and Mystery and I were paired up against Matt, Chet, Jack and Josh. The girls lost, but not toooo badly since Mystery has seen more movies than I have.

Then we discovered the Party Play feature and went with that. It was fun. Not once did I come up with the right answer at the right time. On some of the clues you see the character's clothing and props, without a body in the clothes. I knew it was Harrison Ford, but the question was to name the movie, in this case The Fugitive. Then if I needed to name an actor/character, I couldn't think of it but could come up with the movie title. I suck at this game.
It is a fun group game, though. And if it ever has Young Guns or Fried Green Tomatoes questions I will blow my competition away, even if my competition does have freakishly long toes.

Rock Band

Chet received Rock Band for his birthday, and our lives haven't quite been the same, or as quiet, since. Last Sunday Crystal and Nathan came over for family pictures and then after dinner the kids brought down the Rock Band gear. It was time to initiate us adults in this phenomenom.

The drums seem to take intense concentration.
So intense that Crystal had to stick her tongue out to get through it with Meghan's help.
We all took turns playing the drums, the guitar, and singing. Faith has never met a microphone she didn't want to sing into.
But Todd.... he is priceless. He was singing California by Hootie and the Blowfish (I think). He has the perfect gravelly voice to be the front man for a grunge band.
And his moves and expressions are just a visual treat.
I love how he croons through the words he isn't used to reading yet.
These two decided to be his back-up singers/dancers.
I am sure they both have illustrious careers ahead of them. I am equally sure those careers are not in the singing and dancing industry.
This was my score when I sang "Wanted, Dead or Alive." I know my Bon Jovi!
Nathan enjoyed singing the Metallica song.
Rock on, Dude.
Have I ever mentioned that Nathan takes pride in never having his picture taken??

Sunday and Monday with the Crystals

My friend Crystal (married to Nathan) loves Nicholas Sparks books. She mentioned being excited that he had a book coming out the same weekend his movie was released. So when the marquee in Berryville announced that Nights in Rodanthe would be the weekend feature I asked if she wanted to go and we would leave the menfolk and young-uns behind. She thought it was a great idea. So did the menfolk, who aren't really fond of chickflicks.

We stopped at a sandwich shop to eat dinner, where thanks to genetic affiliations and friendly associations we can eat for next to nothing. I pulled my camera out and Crystal started laughing and asking what I was doing. She hasn't spent enough time with me yet.

After a laugh-filled meal we headed on down the street to watch the movie. It is a good movie, but there came a point where I figured out the ending and it irritated me. (slightly) I am one who thinks that fictional love stories should have happy endings. That is why they are fictional, right??? lol... anyway, I don't want to indulge everything in case you plan on seeing this or reading the book, but I seriously have to wonder why Sparks writes stories that generally end this way? It is depressing, I tell ya!

We did find a couple of moments of hilarity in the movie, though. Hey, Crystal... who's your postmaster????
Then on Monday morning the other Crystal (not married to Nathan)called with "a slight emergency." Zach had started his car, got out while it was running, and locked the keys inside. She asked me if I could come get him and help him get a spare key before he ran out of gas. Unfortunately, nobody had the key in town so I drove him over to the police department and they made arrangements to come unlock it for him. (I might have had some experience with needing a locked car unlocked recently that caused me to learn that our PD will do this for people in their precinct.) (Do we even have a precinct in a town this small???)

I brought him back to his purring vehicle and once again pulled out the camera. Crystal didn't know the plan, and I was hoping the chief (it is the chief of police who handles these calls) would arrive before we did. He didn't, so I snapped a couple of shots and then had to get back to work. Here they are reflecting in the windshield towards the incarcerated keys.

Crystal asked the chief if this would appear in the police report in our paper and her assured her it will. She wants me to make sure it gets posted on the church bulletin board. My kids aren't the only ones who make it in the paper around here!

I feel bad for Crystal (not married to Nathan). She is finding herself surrounded by people who appear to have escaped from looney bins lately. It makes me grateful to have a house surrounded by farms. The only escapees I usually encounter are four-legged critters of the bovine and equine variety like this guy who found an open fence to wander through today.

Thanks for the laughs, Crystals! Let's do it all again soon!

A whirlwind weekend

It was a busy, but rewarding weekend. On Friday afternoon Jack and I started detailing the inside of the truck to get it cleaned up. After he went to work, I took it down to a drive-through carwash to get the outside clean. (Our white truck was orange with all the clay-dirt on our road.) I really didn't realize how stubborn that orange dirt is. I don't usually wash the truck - that is why I have a husband and six kids. But I needed it cleaned for the weekend, and so I went through the carwash. Well, that didn't clean the truck, but since I paid for the fancy schmancy wash, the fancy-shmancy sealer included in the price finished gluing the clay to the truck.

With a deep sense of trepidation, I took the the modge-podged truck to the self-service carwash. There I had to pay again for the pleasure of spraying the truck down one inch at a time with a high-pressure hose. Then I had to scrub every inch I could reach with the foaming scrubbrush. Now this wouldn't have been such a fearsome feat if my arm muscles weren't still a quivering mess from the cruel warm-up and workout the day before. After I spent some more money vaccuuming the truck, I brought it home and let the professionals wash the windows and mirrors.

I needed the truck ready so I could attend a children's ministry seminar with Debbie, Lora, Crystal, and Annette. There was a whole hallway full of different books from Cokesbury that I would have loved to buy one of nearly everything of. I took pictures of lots of them so I could remember them later, but here is Debbie modeling the one I want to get for next year's Children's Church.
We went to several different classes, and got a lot of tips and ideas for incorporating in our children's program. My personal favorite was the class on creating a computer lab in your church. I don't know if I will get to implement this in our church in anyway, but I absolutely loved what this church has done.
In fact, I loved everything about their Children's program. I spent time in the hallway talking to the Sunday School director and was so impressed. The entire Sunday School corridor is all about and completely inviting to kids in everyway. My favorite was the movie room. The movie screen is painted on the wall, there are big movie posters around the room, there is a popcorn machine, and movie chair seating. I told the director I would really love to come spend a Sunday morning there and see first hand how they put all the different rooms to use each Sunday.

The last class I wanted to take had been cancelled, and Crystal needed to go grocery shopping before the storm that Ike was pushing our way hit our area. After a yummy lunch at PF Changs (sorry gals... the pics are all blurry) we walked around the outdoor mall the restaraunt is in. I don't know when the last time was that I was able to spend part of an afternoon just laughing and wandering with friends, but just getting to do it made me realize how much I needed it. I saw this gorgeous set of bowls when we were window shopping at Williams Sonoma. I am not a very materialistic person, but I do get bowl envy when I see things like this!

We finished up the grocery shopping, and headed home. The rain slowed us down, but we made it back in one piece. Then Jack took the boys to town to see Dark Knight.

The rain we drove through on the way home and through the early evening became a huge downpouring storm through the night. I woke up at 3 and saw the rain flying at different angles, and saw trees bending precariously. This morning we woke and found all kinds of chaos on our front porch. The chairs the animals usually sleep in at night were all knocked over and scattered.
One of our porch ceiling fans had a blade torn off and the rest were badly bent.
My birdfeeder was torn apart, and the wind even tossed around Jack's drill battery.

My hanging plants were torn down as well, and the baskets are now empty. We haven't checked the backyard yet to see if any of our trees came down, but lots were down all over the area. A good portion of our residents lost their power today too. These are all just minor inconveniences for us here. I really hope all the rest of my friends in the Houston and coastal areas where Ike really caused problems are okay.

We were 15 minutes late this morning, but we did make it to church. The only row left was the front row, which gave me a clear shot of the pastor with the kids. Unfortunately, my camera has been giving me problems and I wasn't able to get a clear shot. The majority of my photos lately have been blurry, and even the better ones aren't tack sharp. It is driving me crazy.
Right after church we went to Kevin and Debbie's house for a birthday lunch for Kevin, Chet, Beth, and Crystal's son Alex. Their's is one of the houses without power today, so we cooked hotdogs on the grill and served cold food with it. It was a quiet but really fun party. I love when we all spend Sunday afternoons together and get to hang around and visit.
The kids love hanging out outside together. In fact, we never saw Alex after he got on the 4-wheeler, and Matt was gone most of the time too.

I love taking pictures of the kids on their property. There are so many great natural backdrops and pretty scenery for photos.
We had to leave the party early to get Faith to her first volleyball game on time. We came upon this car accident as we left town. (There were no injuries or I would not have taken pictures, and in fact the lady driving the car was laughing.) We found it comical that she drove into a ditch trying to pull into the driveway for the insurance company. We could hear her say as we were waved through "I didn't know that ditch was there!"

After one hour of practice last Wednesday, Faith played her first set of games today. I really like this coach and this team. Most of the girls are in class with Chet or Faith, so Faith is already friends with them. I think that made a huge difference in her feeling comfortable starting in a sport she has never experienced before. She gave it her all, though, even though she never did serve the ball over the net. Her coach made her team captain for today, and she took it very seriously. Through the whole game we could hear her calling encouragement to her teammates and cheering them on. She really was born to be a cheerleader.
THis is just a shot of Todd and Beth coming back up the stairs to the balcony that we watched the game from.
WE stopped at Sonic for happy-hour slushies on the way back to town after the games. Can you tell which flavors these guys picked?

We got back to town in time to take the kids to the Awana Club that began tonight at the Baptist church. It turns out they are changing it to Wednesday nights, so my kids won't be able to go every week like they wanted to, but they did enjoy themselves tonight.

Almost all of Faith's bestfriends attend this church, so these three spent the evening being their giggly goofy selves together.

At one point I looked over and realized that Mackenzie had given Faith a purseful of make-up to put on. Although she has been rallying to wear make-up, Faith knows she isn't supposed to wear it out in public. When they saw my lens pointed their way and realized they were busted, they started cracking up. Aren't the best friends the ones you can laugh with like this?

After running all weekend, it was finally time to head home. I saw these cloud formations as we were driving down our road home, and asked Jack to stop the truck for me to take a picture. I haven't been able to check the weather to see if these are a new storm forming, or just random clouds passing through, but I still thought they looked pretty interesting.
I took this a couple of days ago when Beth was napping, but I think it really sums up how I feel. Give me a comfy couch to kick my feet up on, and I could probably sleep very well for a long time if nobody woke me up. Things aren't going to slow down again for at least a couple of months, but I am glad for this weekend of activities. I had a lot of fun, and I needed a weekend like this. Good friends, good activities, family time, a favorite meal I didn't have to cook, and some interesting but non-threatening weather really made for a pleasant state of exhaustion.

Ready for a new week!

It was fun, and I will gladly do it again next year, but WOOOHOOOOO!!!! VBS is over! I think it was a success. We had 64 kids altogether, and several of the kids participated in our program today. Along with being fun, there were parts that were pretty touching too. This was a great, exhaustive experience! I don't have anymore pictures to share from that tonight, because frankly, I am tired of looking at them after editing them for the program today.

Chet has been feeling up and down this week, and missed a couple of nights, but last night when I asked if he was going he gave a resounding, "Yes!" It would have been nice if it was VBS itself that had him so excited, but alas, he is a boy driven by his stomach. We were having a block-party style BBQ as part of our VBS, and he felt the call of cheeseburgers and the desire for the nutritious benefits (surely some exist) of a plateful of nachos AND Doritos. Efforts to convince him that corn in the form of Doritos or nacho chips does NOT count as a vegetable haven't been particularly successful.

After everything was all cleaned up and put away, my friend Crystal invited me to go to Eureka Springs with her and some friends for her birthday. She picked me up, but we didn't make it to the main road in town. We knew the rain was coming down heavily, and knew the roads had lots of water, but when we hit town and had streetlights we could really see the rivers the roadways had become. We decided it wasn't safe to try to make it up the hills in her little car, so we floated back to my house instead. She called her hubby Nathan, he met us at the house, and theeeennnn

the four of us played the best game ever invented. If you haven't played Cranium Wow you are missing out. We only played one round since we all had to be at the church this morning to run the program.
Jack went out this afternoon and pulled a lot of the weeds that were trying to choke my garden. He also pulled out my cucumber plants (and left the pumpkin plants) but I am coping with that. A few cucumbers is an easy enough sacrifice to make when it means I didn't have to pull the weeds myself. The pumpkin plants have invaded every part of my garden now.

Here is one of my pumpkin pepper plants. The white flower will be a jalepeno when it grows up, the yellow flowers will be pumpkins.

Here are my pumpkin lettuce plants. No flowers yet, but vining tendrils are everywhere.
Here are by pumpkin Big Boy tomatoes.
And here is a jumbo pumkin plant ....
preparing to hybrid itself with my broccoli. Such is life as a pumpkin farmer.

There were creepies and crawlies out there too. This pretty little flutterfly was visiting my punpkin carrot plants.
And this thing... well, I don't know what it is. I leave them alone when I come across them because they are mean-looking. They also have bright red on them, and in jungles that generally means something is poisonous. The weeds are tall enough to be jungle, so the Law of the Jungle applies here.
Oh grasshappers....they are everywhere. I have no idea what to do to get rid of them. Someday I should read up on this whole gardening thing because I am willing to bet there are a few tips out there somewhere that tell me how to keep the 6-legged creepies away. (I bet there are some good ideas for managing unruly punpkins too.)

And if one at a time isn't bad enough, you should see the villages the grasshoppers are setting up on my corn. I think there should be immigration laws that apply to this kind of squatting. If the Law of the Jungle applies, shouldn't the law of the land be applicable as well??

Tonight I did the funnest thing I have done all week. I took my kids to somebody else's VBS and left them there. hahahahahah..... life is so rewarding sometimes!