Some Journey

Christmas Photos

We haven’t sent out photos of our kids in a while. It’s partly because of my lack of organization in getting the photos taken, printed, addressed, stamped and mailed. I’m easily distracted these days and I rarely make it through that whole process. It’s also partly because of the cost. Add up the cost of photo processing and postage, and it’s not exactly cheap. But the main reason is that it is nearly impossible to get a decent photo of five kids simultaneously, especially when they are all under the age of 10. Here’s an example of what I mean, from this past Sunday’s attempt:

Sam insisted, “Mom, I am smiling!!”

We did get a couple of decent shots, but it always seems that there will be that one perfect shot of everybody, except one kid.

I got Lost

I deliberately chose not to pursue watching the show Lost when the season began. I know how JJAbrams can work his magic on me and I knew I didn't have time for another tv addiction. But it just so happened that choir practice was cancelled and I was home with the kids in bed when they decided to re-air the first two episodes (I smell a consipiracy), and I gave into the temptation. I loved it. The wonderful thing is that Stephen really liked it, too. I think a lot of the problem Alias had with ratings last year was poor marketing. There were too many reruns and too many pre-emptions. Times where you might get a new ep, two or three reruns, then another new ep. It was too disruptive. No one really knew when to tune in for a new ep. This move on the part of ABC is nothing less than brilliant, to air two eps of Lost back to back for the next three weeks. It allows those of us who haven't been watching to catch up, and gets all those Lost viewers used to watching both time slots, so they will (of course) become Alias viewers when Alias takes the 9pm time slot. So we're hooked. The kids are just gonna have to be in bed early on Weds, and no more chit chat after choir practice for me!

Thanks

Just wanted to say thanks to Scott for sending me the script for the countdown clock, and big smoochy thanks to Stephen for getting it on the blog for me. So which of you is going to be Marshal for the Premiere party? I'm trying to talk Stephen into the Gothic!Vaughn look, but so far he's not going for it. What do you think?

Mr Potato Head as Baby Jesus

Okay, I know it's a terrible photo, cause I was holding it in one hand while trying to photograph it with the other, but I couldn't resist posting a pic of our "make do" Baby Jesus while playing around with posting pictures. We realized a few minutes before the children's Christmas play at church Wed. night that we had forgotten to have a doll on hand for Mary to hold. I went down to he nursery to find a doll, but there wasn't one. Scott had the idea of using a Mr. Potato Head as the baby's head, and I folded a pillow for the body. We then wrapped the "baby" in a blanket. Unfortunately, we found that whenever we moved it, the head/Mr Potato Head fell out of the blanket onto the floor. Afraid of Baby Jesus' head falling off in the middle of the play, Mako decided to try to tape it to the blanket. Here's a shot of her in the process:

And the really good news is that I figured out how to post more than one pic.

More pic play

This is a photo of Joseph from behind. His pants are hand-me-downs which are slightly big on him, so once they became soaked with mud, the extra weight was just too much.
I'm trying to figure out how to do an embedded image. I also can't seem to put more than one image in a single post. Hmmm. More experimentation necessary. I'm using the upload file. . .is that the best way to insert a photo?

Mud Puppies

Okay, I'm trying to learn the ropes of posting pics on my blog, since that was really one of the appeals of having a blog, but thus far I haven't had the courage or time to experiment. I actually can't connect my camera to my computer because I don't have the proper usb port, so I have to use Stephen's laptop, which narrows the windows of opportunity. Anyway, I'm trying to post some pics of the manner in which my three younger kids made use of the unseasonably warm weather we had on Tuesday. We had gotten a lot of rain the few days before, so a hole Sam had dug in the garden was full of water. Noah couldn't resist cannonballing into it, and before long, all three were mud puppies. I let them enjoy it. I figure that's partly what childhood is about: learning experientially without being concerned about being self-conscious. We did have to drain the tub and run fresh water three times before getting them clean, though. And I'm really glad my clothes washer has "rinse" and "soak" features. Anyway, I'm going to try to play around some with posting pics, so bear with me if the end result is a little jumbled.
View image

Albert'll kill me for this one

In light of the fact that I really do not have an overly interesting life but desire to make an effort to become a more consistent blogger, I've decided I may have to resort to "kid stories". So here's today's:
I overheard Joseph and Sydney playing in the other room. Joseph said, "Let's pretend this is the church and I'm Bubba." My children call Albert, our worship director, Bubba, thanks to David Marr. It's a long story. Anyway, back to the story at hand.
Syd said, "Okay, I'll be Karen."
They have a toy Simba from Lion King to whom they keep saying "Stop, Murphy." So a few minutes later I walk into the room to see Joseph standing in front of the box that some oranges came in. Curious as to what he was doing (and reminiscent of the days when Ethan used to spend hours directing choir pretending to be Todd Gaither), I asked, "How are you pretending to be Bubba now?"
Joseph put his hand on top of his head and said, "Well, pretend there's no hair here."

The anticipation is growing.

Okay, obviously I'm really looking forward to Christmas. It's one of my two favorite times of the year (the other being summer, or any other time which I happen to make it to the beach). But that's not the anticipation I'm referring to at the moment. What I'm talking about is the 30 days left until the Alias premiere. Yes, you who know me well had to know another Alias post was coming. And I'm sure you know it won't be the last. But at this 30 day marker it seemed like a good time to blabber about the show for a while. If nothing else it verifies that I'm still alive in blogdom. (Note: expect Alias blog entry every Thurs)
Last season was disappointing. I've been trying to pinpoint what it was about it that left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't Lauren, though many Alias fans would like to blame her. While I wasn't crazy about the Lauren-Vaughn relationship, I actually really liked Lauren's character once she hooked up with Sark. It was nice to have another dominant female character on the show. I think part of the problem was that the first two seasons were very character-centric. The plot was interesting and well written, but what gave the show it's kick was the characters. They were people that you wanted to spend time with. People that you wanted to be. I enjoyed stepping into their world every week. During season three, I no longer wanted Sydney's life. I enjoyed watching the show, but didn't want to be a part of it. Sydney's life was so depressing. I watch Alias to escape. Not that I hate my life. I love my life. But Alias has always been sort of like a one hour vacation for me. For one hour a week I step outside of the world focused on laundry and diapers and travel vicariously through Sydney Bristow into a life of adrenaline. That was missing from season three. Sydney's life wasn't refreshing, and the adrenaline was not there in the same way. But I'm excited about season 4. What I've read about it seems to indicate that the writers are back on track and plan to recapture the magic of seasons 1 and 2. And the commercial that ran during Mon night football last night got me really excited. It's the spunk that I missed about Syd in season 3. Here's a taste(skip this part, Mom):
Syd is being interrogated. Someone demands, "Tell me your name".
Syd looks at them coyly and says, "Ima."
"Ima who?"
Then, just as we see her foot whiz around at the interrogator, she smiles and says, "Ima gonna kick your a**"
Oh, yeah. Alias is back. It reminded me of the scene from season 1 where she is being beaten for a code. She finally pretends to give in and tells the interrogator to take down the following code: emetib Then she tells him to enter it in reverse, and proceeds to take out about six guys as she escapes. And looks good doing it.
Scott suggested putting a auto countdown on the blog, but since he's busy mourning his PDA, I'll just have to use the old calendar. 30 days. . .