Full Evening of New Moon

I read Twilight. In my opinion, it was 500 pages of teen angst as the self-deprecating Bella adjusted to her new life in the gloomy town of Forks, Washington. I have plenty of "angst" under my own roof, so I didn't care to subject myself to any more of it, even if there were sparkly vampires involved. I've not been able to bring myself to read the other 3 books in the saga. Thankfully, Elizabeth has read them all, so she and HanK have spirited discussions that I listen to just enough to sort of keep up with the continuing plot. I know, the "Twi-moms" out there are gasping and shaking their heads. Please don't judge me.

Last year, Elizabeth, Paige, HannahKate, her friend Tiff, and I loaded up and drove to a theater 40 minutes away to see the midnight premiere of Twilight (because Hometown Cinema didn't have the foresight to host an early release). We had so much fun that we vowed to do the same for the release of New Moon. And so, for a solid year, we've had "November 20 @ 12:01 a.m." highlighted, circled and starred on our calendars.

We began our adventure by eating at a favorite Italian restaurant (because part of New Moon takes place in Italy, duh). Elizabeth made us New Moon cupcakes for dessert~blood-red velvet with sparkly (because vampires sparkle in the sun) cream cheese frosting, decorated with forks (Forks, WA) and quotes from various Twilight characters.

Adorable...and they tasted even better than they looked!

She also got us all "vampire fangs"!

The girls had worked very hard all week decorating the shirts they'd wear to the premiere. (And since it was midnight, they wore pajama pants.)

Tiff's shirt said, "Imprinted by Jacob" on the front and "Black 16" on the back.

Hallie's said, "I sparkle in the sunlight" on front and "My flesh is ice cold" on back.

HannahKate's said, "I am Switzerland." on the front and "I refuse to choose" on the back.

We arrived at the theater by 9:30. Even though we'd purchased our tickets almost two months ago, we still had to wait in line. Forever. The theater showed the movie on 18 screens and every single one was SOLD OUT! That, my friend, is a LOT of teenage girls and Twi-moms in one building. There were a few token males present, but not many. After all, most teenage boys pale in comparison to Edward and Jacob. Its hard to compete with a rich, suave, sparkly vampire and a rugged, buff, hot-blooded werewolf.

The girls loved the movie. Somehow, I don't think I would have enjoyed it quite as much in a regular theater at a regular time. But that's just me. Again, please don't judge. Not my favorite movie ever, but I admit that I already have "Eclipse~June 30, 2010 @ 12:01 a.m." inked on my calendar.

Having a Ball in Austin

This past weekend, Elizabeth, Hallie, HannahKate and I, along with our new friend Shae took a little roadtrip down to Austin for a MercyMe show. We had a "ball." The concert was awesome, we stayed in an über-cool new hotel, ate some amazing food and of course, we laughed. A lot.

Here are three memorable chuckles from the weekend:

During dinner we were discussing HannahKate wearing jeans to church and I said, "Well, we're on vacation, so I'd make an exception." (Nothing wrong with jeans, I just have an opinion of which my girls are well aware.) Our food arrived at the table and as we were just about to dig in, Hallie piped up and said, "Well, are we gonna pray for our meal or are we on vacation from that, too?" Thanks for keeping us accountable, Hal.

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HannahKate was wearing a plaid flannel shirt and made the remark that she was going to wear another plaid flannel shirt the next day. Hallie quipped, "Gee Hannah, you're turning into Al Bourland from Home Improvement!" Thanks for the fashion advice, Hal.

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Finally, on the way home the girls were giggling in the back seat and Hallie was leaned over struggling to pick up something from the floorboard of the car. She cried, "Help, my tallness doesn't stretch that far!" Thanks Hal, for breaking the monotony of a long drive.

The slogan for the quirky sub-culture of our state's capital city is "Keep Austin Weird." I would have to say that Hallie fits right in. (She gets that from her daddy I'm sure.) I wouldn't have her any other way!

Weekly Pic--On the Side of the Road In the Middle of Nowhere

So my friend Troy (troybradfordphotos and troybradfordiphonephotos) got the opportunity to visit Salvation Mountain on a recent trip to California. Its a really neat place and pretty powerful story, but its just this huge structure/piece of art on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. That made me think of my recent trip to Amarillo where we saw two interesting, albeit not quite as impressive, sites on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

The Cadillac Ranch

Huge Pair of Legs/Ozymandias

MNSC Meets Halloween

Last week, Elizabeth hosted the 1st Ever Monday Night Supper Club Halloween Party. Since I rarely have my camera and Elizabeth rarely posts blogs anymore, I decided to "steal" her pictures from the evening and put them on my blog. I like think of it as a "joint collaboration." (Feel free to re-post this on your own blog Elizabeth~since you did most of the work anyway.)

Costumes were optional. Hallie came as "The Crazy Cat Lady".

Everyone enjoyed new eyelashes.

We all decorated pumpkins.

"Life imitates art"?

And of course the food was amazing! Mrs. Cheryl and Elizabeth outdid themselves with Shrimp & Corn Chowder, Chicken Stew and my favorite Broccoli/Peanut/Raisin Salad. For dessert~Spooky Chocolate Cake with Orange Frosting and Gigantic Candy Spider.

Oh my word, what a good time we had!

P.S. I don't know why the pictures are so small. I guess that's what happens when you "steal" things.

Weekly Pic--Empire State

This time last year we were in New York. The Empire State Building had on its Halloween attire. I love NYC in the fall.

Creative Discipline--According to Hallie

Two weeks ago, after Hallie had been upstairs all afternoon "cleaning" her room, I went to check on her. I don't go upstairs very often and this is the reason why. When I walked into her room, let me rephrase, when I stepped to the door of her room I immediately felt my blood pressure soar to new heights and the only thing that kept me from completely losing it was the thought of being on the 10 o'clock news. She'd supposedly been working on her room for three hours and I still couldn't see the carpet!

I was livid. I was able to refrain from doing anything that would merit a visit from CPS, but I did unplug the the TV and confiscate the phone and her computer. All of these things are distractions and I thought by removing them she'd be able to focus on accomplishing her task.

Like I said, that was two weeks ago. Two. Weeks. The child has now been without television, without the computer, without talking to her friends on the phone or setting foot outside this house for anything other than regularly scheduled family activities such as school and church for two weeks. And has she made a dent in the wasteland upstairs? No. It turns out, she does not need TV, computer or phone to distract her. Those things are just easy. Now she has turned to much more creative outlets.

One afternoon, she was particularly quiet and I just knew she was really making progress. When she came downstairs beaming with pride I felt sure it was to announce that her room was spotless. Instead, it was to show me the Native American inspired dress she'd fashioned for her American Girl doll out of fabric scraps she found in the craft closet. They were doing a group project at school on the Jumano Indians and since she couldn't do research on the compter, she decided to contribute by demonstrating traditional clothing. However, I don't think the Jumanos really wore green satin dresses and shawls woven with silver thread, unless of course Scarlett O'Hara was of Jumano descent. In fact, she'd done such a good job on the dress that I bought her some muslin and let her recreate it in a more reasonable material so she could take it to school for the group presentation.

What else has she done to occupy her time? Play the piano. A lot. She's played through old books. She's learned new songs. She's taught herself songs by ear. She's made up her own tunes. In fact, instead of struggling to get her to practice, I've actually had to say, "That's enough for now. No, you can not play any more songs!"

And perhaps the best thing that's come from her "incarceration", is that she's finally discovered reading can be fun. I've worried about her because, although she's an excellent reader, she doesn't like to do it. She never finishes a book and it is like pulling teeth to get her to do her required reading homework. (On second thought, she actually LIKES pulling teeth so that analogy is inaccurate.) However, without the Wizards of Waverly Place mesmerizing her into a catatonic Disney daze, she has been reading a lot. Last night I finally had to say, "Hallie, it is so late. You must stop reading and go to bed." So this morning, she jumped up bright and early in order to finish her book before school. She finished a book! A chapter book. With 186 pages. And she's decided to start a book club with some of her friends at school. Will wonders never cease?

Herein lies the dilemma. I feel like a bad parent because I know that two weeks of being grounded is unreasonable. I didn't set the time, I just told her that she's grounded until her room is clean. Which it still is not. But the things she is doing are far more profitable, in my opinion, than a tidy room. I'm tempted to go and clean the room myself, while she is at school, which in and of itself will be quite a punishment. She trembles at the thought of my cleaning techniques. When I'm finished, she can't help but keep a clean room because there is nothing left with which to make a mess. But then, will she fall back into her old ways of excessive TV/computer/chattering on the phone? I'd almost overlook a dirty room in order to avoid that. Almost.

There has to be a place between "mush for brains" and a "toxic dump". What a happy place that would be.

A Tall Tale

This week's "Ticked Off Topic" is dedicated to all the vertically challenged folks out there. I do not necessarily think of myself as being short. I am about 5'3-ish. When buying pants, this means that "Petite" sizes are too short after one wash, but regular sizes still have to be hemmed about 5". When attending concerts, it means tall people gravitate to the space directly in front of me. Always.

A few weeks ago, we went to Denver for Elizabeth's Big Birthday Roadtrip. While there, we went to see Rain: A Beatle's Tribute at the performing arts center. The production was amazing. The venue was amazing. Except for one thing~the Freakishly Tall Man sitting right in front of me. Even though he was one row/level/step below me, he was still taller than me and so I spent the entire evening leaning on Paige so I could see around the Jolly Green Giant.

This past weekend, BigJoel scored us some tickets to see Family Force 5 at the House of Blues. (In case you didn't know, the House of Blues is, for all intents and purposes, a bar. And I took my 14 and 9 year old daughters. I might just be Mom of the Year. But I digress...) Anyway, it was "general admission standing room only", which really means "short people need not bother". At first we had a pretty good view, but then the Daughter of the Freakishly Tall Man from Denver arrived and pushed her way in front of us. Here is a picture from Elizabeth's camera of the back of tall girl's head. Did I mention that she parked herself di-rect-ly in front of me? Notice how she stands "head and shoulders" above the rest of the crowd. The good news is, she was only there for the opening bands and left before FF5 took the stage.

Having an obstructed view at a general admission show where you got the tickets for free is one thing. But now let me tell you about the long-awaited U2 concert at the new Cowboys Stadium. We did not get these tickets for free, but our seats were reasonably good. The opening band, Muse, was much better than I had expected and I got lots of great pictures. When U2 took the stage, naturally everyone was on their feet cheering and waving and singing along. The couple in front of us were especially excited. They kept jumping up and down hugging each other. It reminded me of contestants on The Price is Right. After the first few songs, people started to relax a bit and sit down. (Thank goodness) But not the happy couple in front of me...nooooooo...now they had linked arms and were swaying back and forth like they were singing drinking songs in an Irish pub. Eventually, every person in our entire section sat down to enjoy the show. Every person except~you guessed it~the pair right, directly, exactly in front of me. Here's my view:

Only it was worse, because they weren't just standing there. They were either jumping up and down or swaying back and forth...the whole time...the entire time. And do you know that U2 does an amazing show that lasts almost two hours? That's right. Two hours. Behind these people. Come to think of it, the problem wasn't that they were tall. The problem is that they were rude. I understand they paid good money for their seats. But SEATS is the operative word here...which implies that one SITS. They could have paid a lot less money for standing room on the floor, but instead my "rights" to a comfortable chair took a back seat to their rights to "act a fool". They never once stopped jumping or swaying to look around and see that everyone else was seated, and yet still enjoying the concert just as much. Except for me...because all I could see was them...NOT the ground-breaking, multi-million dollar production by one of the greatest bands of all time.

So I started out blasting tall people, which really isn't fair. Tall people can't help being tall any more than I can help being 5'3-ish. The real culprits here are inconsiderate people. Yet, in my experience, most inconsiderate people seem to be pretty tall as well. I'm just sayin'...