House of Estrogen

The Lizards of Alls

When J.C. asked Addie what movie she wanted to watch on our flight, she responded very adamantly, "The Lizards of Alls."  "What movie?", he asked... just to be sure he heard her correctly. "The Lizards of Alls."  Got it.  You can be sure that we will never call that movie by its original name again... "The Lizards of Alls" is just too great.

Hoping Good Friday is Better than Not-So-Good Thursday

Today was a tough day. I woke up to learn of the death of Tim Hetherington. Hetherington and Sebastian Junger were the journalists who reported from the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan while my cousin was stationed there.  I think it is important for people to understand what our young people in the armed forces are up against when they are sent to war. My cousin wasn't even old enough to legally drink alcohol when he was deployed to the place considered the most dangerous and deadly for the U.S. military. I don't think people really grasp what our troops sacrifice for us. Hetherington and Junger risked their own lives to bring us the stories of these soldiers. Their in-depth article for Vanity Fair is well worth the time it takes to read it. J.C. and I also recently watched their Oscar-nominated movie, Restrepo, a documentary filmed at the Restrepo Outpost in the Korengal Valley. It is raw. It is war. It is hard to watch, but it is excellent. It is exactly how my cousin had described his experiences there. It is on Netflix streaming right now. Watch it. Tim Hetherington was killed yesterday while he and several photographers came under fire in Misurata, Libya.  His death is a loss for all of us.

In the afternoon, my cousin Lisa's son posted to her blog. Things aren't good. Matthew quoted his mom as saying that she doesn't want to be alive if she can't live.  Based on that, for her sake, I hope her life doesn't go on much longer. We will all miss her, but none of us want her having to endure life the way it is now. Lisa has worked with friends to plan her own memorial service. As unnatural as that must feel, I have to say that the two most wonderful, moving memorial services I have attended have been for friends who died of cancer and participated in planning their own services. One was for a friend with melanoma. He wanted the ten songs that he had declared, "the top ten rock and roll songs of all time" played at his service. That's what they did, and it was the perfect tribute to him. Another was for a friend with breast cancer whose service included a Harley Davidson ride on the way to the church. Seeing all her friends in the church in their leather jackets and pants was just what she wanted. I'm glad to hear that Lisa has found some peace in planning her own service. I just hate that her life has come to this. I will miss her.

By late afternoon, my allergies that seem to be morphing into a sinus infection left me feeling miserable. About the time I decided to leave work early to go home for a nap, J.C. called to say that the elementary school had called. Nina was throwing up, so he was on his way to pick her up.

What a day... too much sadness, too much illness. I hope Good Friday is "more good" than today.

Disney World Trip Report, Days -1, 1, and 2

Yes, you read that right... day -1. Our Disney World "adventure" started the night before we left. Nina came home from ice skating camp complaining about her foot hurting. They had gone on a field trip to a bounce house place, and she said she hurt it there. Complaints and drama about injuries are par for the course around here, so I told her to shake it off and didn't think much more about it. After sitting down for a couple hours watching a Christmas movie; however, she was completely unable to walk. We looked at her foot, and it looked BAD... like broken foot bad. It was purple and swollen and certainly didn't look like anything that could walk around Disney World for a week. I rushed her over to urgent care. The doctor said it looked like she may have broken or "bent" a bone, so she had an x-ray. Fortunately, nothing was broken, it was just a bad sprain... not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but potentially huge the night before a Disney World trip. The doctor told us to keep her loaded up on Motrin and have her wear supportive sneakers. We spent the evening frantically trying to figure out whether to buy a new stroller that night, rent one there, or just cross our fingers that she could walk. We ended up just hoping for the best and figured she could use Addie's stroller as needed. Fortunately, by the next morning, it didn't look quite so bad. She was SLOW, but she could walk. Whew!

Day one was just a travel day... car, plane, tram, and bus. We checked into the Polynesian Resort, got our leis, and took the monorail over to the Contemporary for a quick dinner at the Contempo Cafe. The food was decent, and the kids enjoyed watching the monorail cruise through the building.

You generally think of Disney World being a G-rated, kid-friendly place, right? I certainly do, so words escaped me when I saw a woman boarding the monorail at the Contemporary wearing a super-skimpy Santa dress and red fishnet hose. You know those Playboy-esque Halloween costumes you always see advertised for women? Imagine one of those, Santa-style. That's what she was wearing with boobs popping out and thigh high red fishnets and red stilettos. There were just so many things wrong about it. She was on her way to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" in that get-up. Who wears that to see MICKEY MOUSE??? Bizarre. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, we headed back to the Poly.

It had been a long day, so Addie hit the sack while I took the big girls to swim. We knew cold weather was on the way and figured it might be our only chance to swim. The girls absolutely loved the water slide at the pool at our resort, but I have no clue how they kept getting out of the water to go up the stairs to it. It was ridiculously cold when you got out of the water. I think kids' temperature sensors don't really work quite right. You couldn't have paid me enough to get out of that water more than the one required time to get back to the room. They had a blast though, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to swim. Then it was off to bed for an early start at the Magic Kingdom the next day.

We got there early to beat the crowds. This is an awful picture with the girls in the dark shade, but I loved how there is nobody around! According to Addie, "Doofy helped Cinderella build her house." So if you ever wondered who built the castle, now you know.

  

We headed straight for Fantasyland where we had our first character spotting, White Rabbit.

 

Addie was hesitant, and Nina was downright petrified, so Elise was the only one brave enough for a picture.

 

Then we tackled Fantasyland.... Dumbo,

 

 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,

 

Peter Pan's Flight which completely terrified Addie (she'll be in therapy for that some day, I'm sure), but fortunately, she got over it fairly quickly with a ride on the carrousel.

 

We got to meet Mary Poppins. Doesn't she look practically perfect in every way?

 

Then the girls convinced J.C. to go on the Mad Tea Party with them. This was one time I was grateful when Addie proclaimed, "I need to go potty!!!", so I could race off with her and avoid the tea cups!

 

Next it was off to Goofy's Barnstormer. This picture is horribly blurry (who knew it was so hard to take pictures on a moving roller coaster?), but do you think Nina was having fun?

 

The Barnstormer was part two of "Project Traumatize Addison." She was not a fan.

 

After the Barnstormer, we decided to take the train around to Frontierland. The train was already in the station as we were walking toward it, so we took off in a run. J.C. was a bit behind us pushing the empty stroller that he had picked up from stroller parking, so he really had to run to catch up with us. I was given explicit permission to quote what he said when he got on the train: "I have to tell you, you were totally right about this stroller. It is amazing. I was able to fold it while running without ever even breaking my stride. I could hear people behind me saying, 'Did you see that? What was it? A city micro? We'll have to look that up!'  You can even write on your blog that I said that." Ahhh, it feels good to be right. We purchased the Baby Jogger City Micro just before our trip, and it was worth every penny!

In Frontierland, we got fastpasses for Splash Mountain, and the girls and J.C. rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It began to rain, so we dashed into Columbia Harbour House for lunch and to escape the rain. I had heard good reviews of Columbia Harbour House, but it didn't seem like anything special to me. The food was fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there again.

The rain and the arrival of cooler temperatures put a damper on our plans for Splash Mountain, so we headed back to the hotel for naps.

For dinner, we monorailed and boated to the Wilderness Lodge Resort for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. The Wilderness Lodge was beautifully decorated for Christmas. I loved the tree and all the decorations. I think if I were to go to Disney again at Christmas time, I would like to stay at either the Wilderness Lodge or the Grand Floridian. They definitely win top honors for decorations.

 

We loved Whispering Canyon. The servers are hilarious, and the food was delicious. J.C. was completely enamoured with the bottomless milkshakes and the all you can eat meat, meat, meat, and more meat. I recommend Whispering Canyon, and we would certainly go there again. It was a lot of fun. It was a great end to our first full day.

 

Day 2 Favorites

J.C. - a tie between dinner at Whispering Canyon and sitting between Elise and Nina on Big Thunder Railroad, listening to them squeal

Ann - the Christmas decorations at the Wilderness Lodge and dinner at Whispering Canyon

Elise - Big Thunder Railroad

Nina - Big Thunder Railroad

Addie - carrousel

 

 

First Day of School Jitters

No, not them.

Me.

I've got the jitters.

Jitters, anxiety, insomnia, whatever you want to call a crazy-ass, wide-awake, nail-bitin', rambling bloggin' mom who can't sleep because her oldest is starting third grade for the second time tomorrow.

The kids who are actually attending the first day of school tomorrow are peacefully sleeping... new back-to-school clothes and shoes lined up by their beds, backpacks bursting at the seams with new school supplies ready at the back door. They don't have the jitters. Just me. Maybe I should follow their lead? It is a mom's perogative to worry though, right?

Speaking of school supplies, can someone explain the folder situation to me? Why are folders so hard to find? Target, Staples, Walmart, ARE YOU LISTENING???  WHY DON'T YOU STOCK MORE FOLDERS? (and not those cheap paper ones that you have stacks upon stacks of in the aisles. The teachers don't like those. Didn't you get the memo?) School supply lists require an obscene number of folders... and not just any folders. They get really specific. Elise's list called for only 2 folders this year, one green, one orange, both plastic with pockets and prongs. Orange? Really? You choose only two colors, and you can't choose something common like red or blue? I could find orange paper folders with pockets and prongs. I could find orange plastic folders with pockets but no prongs. I could find blue plastic folders with pockets and prongs. I finally made some poor Staples employee climb a mile up a ladder to the top shelf to locate the required orange folder for me. Nina's list called for 6 different folders (each color specified, of course) - all plastic with pockets only (NO PRONGS). Now really, is it that big a deal if a folder has prongs that go unused? Wouldn't a folder with pockets and prongs work just as well as a pockets-only folder if only pockets are needed? I suppose I could rebel against the whole folder conspiracy by actually sending in a folder with pockets AND PRONGS at some point, but I don't need to add to my first day of school anxiety worrying about a teacher saying, "Didn't your mom read the list? NO PRONGS." We eventually located the 6 folders Nina needed... 4 different brands, 4 different styles, but they are all plastic with pockets, NO PRONGS. Whew! Crisis averted.

I should go to bed and get some sleep. I have lunches to make, hair to braid, pictures to take, and more nail biting to do in the morning.

Creativity Boot Camp, Day 13 {The End}: Smile

I am sad to see Creativity Boot Camp come to an end. It has been a great exercise for the creative side of my brain. I have really enjoyed pushing myself to take photos I normally wouldn't take, trying new things in Photoshop, and finding inspiration from the prompts. Some days were certainly more challenging than others, I skipped a few days, and some of my photos were better than others. Overall though, it has been a great experience, and I want to say thank you to Maegan of Madeline Bea Photography for hosting it. She is starting a new feature called the Sunday Creative, so I hope to keep up the creative spirit through that.

Today's word was "Smile" - what a great way to conclude Boot Camp... with lots of smiles. I had a few ideas I was tossing around in my head all day, but as we were driving home from dinner, I looked in the rearview mirror and spotted Elise's shirt. At that point, any other ideas were tossed out the window. It was like the creativity gods were sending me a message that Elise needed to be my subject today. We got out of the car, and the light was perfect. I barked out orders, "J.C., put the baby to bed!", "Elise, go brush your hair!", "The light is perfect! GO, GO, GO!!!" I grabbed my camera and captured the shot just before the sun disappeared behind the trees. That made me smile.

SMILE!

 
  
85 mm, f/2.5, 1/640, ISO 100

The Long Awaited Day Finally Arrived

The big screen premiere of the High School Musical franchise, High School Musical 3, hit theaters yesterday. I told the girls they could invite two friends to go to the movie and out to dinner, so our neighbors M and B accompanied us this afternoon. I bought tickets earlier in the week, expecting a sold-out show. The theater was quite full of 5-8 year old girls and their mothers, but not sold out. The kids all loved it. I enjoyed it, but it was not my favorite of the three. Kenny Ortega did an amazing job with the choreography in this one. It definitely scored more points for choreography than the other two. The storyline and music were the same as always - cute, sappy, fun, toe-tapping, and predictable. Disney did a great job keeping with the clean, wholesome dialog and plot which I appreciate. The one negative to me was that with the big screen budget, they went all-out with big screen special effects, fantasy sequences, and over-the-top artsy scenes. I could have done without some of the extra fanfare. All the extra theatrics definitely sets it aside from the previous two made-for-TV movies though, and I'm sure that was probably one of their goals. Goal met.

Anyway, it was all good fun! In attempting to take the picture below, the kids managed to knock over not just one, but two of those cardboard displays. Oops. Notice my girls are both in long sleeves and flip flops? They take after their mother. If there isn't snow on the ground, it is still flip flops weather!

 

At dinner after the movie, this conversation made it clear to me that my girls are ALL girl. There is no doubt they live in a House of Estrogen.

Me: So, M and B, what are you going to be for Halloween?

M: a black cat

B:  Obi-Wan from Star Wars

Elise: Bumpy who?

B: Obi-Wan

Nina: Yeah Elise... Opie One!

Perhaps we need to rent a Star Wars movie at some point, just so they aren't completely ignorant when it comes to something as classic as Star Wars. We can't expect them to go through life without at least knowing the background of "May the Force be with you." or "Luke, I am your father." That's just fundamental American culture.

Elise and Nina Starring in High School Musical 3

The countdown is on - only 1 month and one day until the premiere of High School Musical 3 in theaters. The girls are psyched! Check out this new fun from the geniuses at JibJab!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

As a geeky side note, The Jib Jab site is all programmed using Flash/Flex technology which is the programming language I'm using now at work. I love finding cool sites like this that use Flex!