Before the Meet

We leave in a few short hours for the coast. Say a prayer when you think of us!

What's Wrong With These Pictures????

Here's a clue:

Love and Haircuts

We've been getting our hair cut by the same gal since I was pregnant with Gloria. Mechelle Duke is quite gifted and is even in the process of opening a fancy new salon and day spa!! She calls us "The Hair Family" because we all have so much hair and, except for me, it grows thick and fast. We all trust her to give us just the cut and style we need. Because she's so good, it's sometimes difficult to get an appointment unless you're willing to wait about 3 weeks so I often settle for a cheaper, walk-in salon when the kids need a quick hair cut. When Gloria decided it was time to chop off her long locks, though, I knew we needed to get in to Mechelle no matter how long we had to wait. We weren't disappointed. Here's the "before" picture:

And the "after" picture":

Gloria was thrilled and not the least bit upset about the piles of hair all over the floor.

Zach's been in desperate need of a haircut for a couple of months, so when I made Gloria's appointment, I set Zach up with one, too. Here's his "before" picture:

And "after":

After thanking Mechelle profusely, I drove away with two new kids!! I also made my own appointment in mid-January and told Mechelle she could do whatever she wants with my hair!! This could be interesting!!

Later in the evening, we all went to JB's to celebrate. For some reason, we are always silly in JB's. There must be something in the air. The kid's decided to play the game, "Honey, if you love me, won't you please, please smile". The youth group kids play this a lot and Zach is apparently pretty good at it. The point of the game is to make your opponent smile before they can reply, "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile".

Rob was surprisingly bad at this game:

I was doing pretty good against Gloria until she did this:

This was about the only way Gloria could make Zach smile:

I enjoyed my family AND my new camera (and the new haircuts!!)

Monday's Lessons

Gloria's Plymouth Colony "Keeping Room" Diorama:

Zach's Science Experiment:

The Perfect Day

A few weeks ago, Rob asked me out on a date. He was planning something specific for us to do but he wouldn't tell me what it was. Rob loves surprises. Me, not so much. I like to know stuff so I can look forward to it. The strangest part of this "surprise date" was that it would take place from 9 to 1 on a Saturday morning. For the life of me I couldn't figure out, first of all, why Rob would plan anything on a Saturday morning and second of all why we would need to be at a certain place at a specific time for this date to take place. Rob was very mysterious about the whole thing as he thoroughly enjoyed my curiosity. I started to worry that he was going to put me on a float in the holiday parade that just happened to fall on the same date and time as this thing he was planning. When the morning of the big day finally arrived, we got up early, took the kids to the McConaughey's and went to Shari's for breakfast. He gradually gave me bits of information to keep me guessing. I found out we were going downtown (where the parade was being held) and he told me someone wanted to meet me. That really caused me anxiety. I figured he was putting me on a float with someone I didn't know and we would be singing Jingle Bells all along the parade route. As we were looking for a downtown parking spot, Zane called from the theater and said he needed Rob's help for just a minute. I began to get a little suspicious (and hopeful) that the parade had nothing to do with my surprise. When we walked in, Rob asked me to go upstairs and take a picture of the stage from the balcony. I knew something was up, but had no idea what as I walked upstairs facing the stage while noticing the familiar leaping fishes on the screen that usually indicate that our DVD player is on.

I heard a noise behind me and turned around to find about 25 of my closest friends smiling and laughing as they said, "Surprise!"

I truly was surprised. I honestly had no idea that Rob would pull off the best party I've ever had. Last year for my 40th birthday, I told Rob that I wanted a LOTR trilogy marathon party, but life got in the way and it didn't happen. I've given him a very hard time about missing my 40th all year, so I knew right away that all of these people were here, at the theater, to watch all three Lord of the Rings movies!!!!! Yay!!!!

Since we were planning to watch the extended editions of all three movies, there wasn't much time for visiting. We started the first movie at 10:00 and everyone settled in to watch. We had the theater all to ourselves, so we helped ourselves to drinks and popcorn, chose our seats, and settled in.

Rob also gave me a brand-spankin'-new camera for my birthday, so I took plenty of pictures (somewhere around 260, actually!) It's a Kodak Easyshare ZD710 and it's beautiful.

When The Fellowship of the Ring came out in 2001, I probably wouldn't have had any interest in it except that Gregg Koskela invited us, along with several other people from church, to see it together. (We actually went to the same theater that my party was held in and Sherm and Merrily were among the group of people that went.) I remember being absolutely clueless about what was going on and had to ask Elaine a million questions. I was disappointed with the way it ended and really had no intention of seeing the next one. When The Two Towers came out, I never even made it to the theater. We ended up renting The Two Towers DVD when we had a screen and projector set up for Zach's birthday in August of 2003, but I still didn't get it and I really didn't care for Gollum. When The Return of the King came out, Rob drug me to the theater to see it. Suddenly, everything fell into place and I totally got it. I went home and read the Tolkien trilogy for the first time and went back to see it again. I bought the first two movies, watched them back to back and saw Return of the King in the theater again. We went at least 4 times before it even went to the dollar theater!! I fell in love with the books and the plot and the characters and was pretty much consumed by it for awhile, making up for the time I had lost when I didn't know it existed. Over the last several years, I've read the books again (and again), collected action figures, and listened to the audio CD's on several occasions. I've decided that, while I'm probably a hobbit at heart, I love the character of Boromir the most. Sean Bean has become one of my all-time favorite actors.

"It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing. Such a little thing."

"None of us should wander alone, you least of all. Frodo? I know you suffer, I see it day by day. Are you sure you do not suffer needlessly? There are other ways Frodo, other paths we might take."

"I know what you would say, and it would seem like wisdom, but for the warning in my heart."

"What have I done? Please, Frodo? Frodo, I'm sorry! Frodo! Come back!"

My favorite scene out of all three movies is Boromir's death scene.

The picture didn't turn out, but these are my favorite lines in the trilogy:

Aragorn: I do not know what strength is in my blood, but I swear to you I will not let the White City fall, nor our people fail.

Boromir: Our people, our people. I would have followed you, my brother... my captain... my king.

Aragorn: Be at peace, Son of Gondor.

Great movies, wonderful friends, amazing husband. . .

Not everyone lasted through the entire trilogy, but those of us who did spent a total of 13 hours watching these incredible movies!! It was a perfect day! (The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have the Koskelas and the Longs there to enjoy it with me!!)

Marathon Quiz Practice

Before each quiz meet I try to squeeze in one really long, productive practice. We have affectionately named it "The Marathon". It's always long, not always productive. We have a good time, though, and I'm sure some of it will stick back in the recesses of their minds and come racing to the surface at just the right time during the meet!!

We decided to invite MFC for a mock quiz meet during the marathon and they came with about 8 of their quizzers.

It was fun to mix up the teams a bit for extra practice as well as getting to know everyone just a little bit better.

After several rounds of quizzing among the kids, we took the top 4 quizzers from their rounds and pitted them against 4 adults- 2 from MFC and 2 from BFC. Of course, we knew we didn't stand a chance. The final score was 320-40!!
We spent a little bit of time hanging out together in the youth room before the MFC folks left.

Then we got back to the serious task of quizzing. I took a video to show just how serious we peaceful Quakers take our Bible Quizzing. (No persons were harmed in the making of this video):

You just have to laugh at that one!!! :)