Brother Holland

A very dear man at church passed away Monday evening. Ralph Holland was his name and I can truly say he will be missed.  Brother Holland always had some kind of candy in his pocket for my girls.  Whether it was peppermint or Tootsie Rolls or those little Peanut Butter crunchy things.  They would watch for him to come in and run to hug him and get their treat.  I had to caution them not to knock him down when they ran at him like a herd of buffalo.  He was a very sweet and gentle man and when he spoke out in class and made a comment you knew you better shut up and listen.  He was wise and knowledgable in the Bible and I am glad to have known him for the short time we did.  I am sad for his wife Ruth.  I cannot imagine how hard it must be for her to know she has lost her best friend and the person she has been with day and night for so many years.  We are praying for the whole family; Lynn and Laurie and all their kids as well.  To lose a parent is very difficult.  You always wonder if you remembered to say the things that mattered.

4:30 A.M. Phone Calls

I know I said in my last post that I was heading to the bed but I just had to post one more thing.  

Last night was stormy.  It was sort of a surprise.  I watched a bit of the news and they said it probably would not be stormy in our area and that the thunderstorms would be well south of us.  But as I was turning off the tv and trying to drift away I thought I heard a rumble of thunder.  Off and on I heard thunder as I fell asleep and since I love a good thunderstorm I was all settled and ready for a good night's sleep.  However, around midnight, there was a massive crash of thunder that woke most of us up in the house, including Roxie the psycho Shar-Pei.  She HATES bad weather.  She then attempted to burrow under my pillow.  I was able to finally get her in a sleeper hold (sort of) and she settled down and went back to sleep.  Nothing like sleeping with a stinky, sweaty, drooling 40 pound dog who is shaking and twitching and periodically stopping all that to chew on her own leg.  Finally we settled back in for 6 more hours of sleep while it poured outside and the wind howled.  But the weather had other plans.  At about 3:00 a.m. it happened again.  I don't know if it was a branch falling out of the pecan tree outside and bouncing off the house or just another huge rumble of thunder but out of bed I came.  So after a trip to the bathroom and a relocation of the dog to the foot of the bed on top of one of my feet and under the other foot, we went to bed again for 3 final hours of blissful rest and much needed sleep.  HOWEVER.....

Why do people feel the need to call me at 4:30 a.m. to tell me they are having stomach issues?  I don't care.  At that hour, you better be related to me and something better be bleeding profusely and dangerously if you are going to wake me up.  Of course that does not seem to matter to my co-workers.  They feel some deep obligation to call me and wake me and the rest of my house up to TEXT me with the good news that they are calling in sick to work----AGAIN!  And then, as if that is not enough, they want to carry on a long texting conversation to tell me that they don't have lessons plans and that they have been sick all night and that they would like a certain person to sub for them and when I tell them that she is no longer subbing, they want to text and ask me why and what happened.  I just turned my phone off.  But that left me with a problem.  I use my phone as an alarm clock as well.  So with it turned off, I did not have an alarm.  I was so tired and knew I would not be able to wake up on my own so I just stayed awake.  An hour and a half earlier than I shoudl have been.  I watched some news and kind of dozed a couple of times.  Finally at 6:00 I very grumpily got up and headed to the shower.  When I got to work I found out when I stopped talking to this co-worker she moved on and texted another co-worker and woke her up which upset her quite a bit because she was up and down all night with her little pod person kicking her insides and she had just gotten soundly asleep as well.  Finally she moved on and called and woke up our boss and his whole family to tell them that she did not feel good.  Would not be such a problem but she has missed 25 days since school started and has no days to take so she is just a drain on the whole system.  Luckily we were able to get a sub for her kids. No one wants to sub for them because they are SO bad.  But in fairness to the kids, they have not had any consistency in the classroom all year and think it is okay to run around like a pack of wild dogs.

So needless to say, I dragged out the old alarm clock and am hoping it works.  I am turning my phone off and have told everyone at work that if they try to call me before 7:00 anymore, I am no longer available unless they have my home number which is for emergencies ONLY!!!  We will see how things go tomorrow.  I am going to try not to scream at a certain teacher TOOOOOO loudly. 

Balloons and Shoes

We had to go to the store tonight.  I hate going to the store on Mondays after work because I am usually sooooooo tired after working all day but it was okay.  At one of our stops the girls tried on shoes that were way to high and they were so funny.  They tottered around Payless and had fun but we finally left because the manager was having a phone conference on speakerphone while we tried to shop around her. She was ensconced in aisle 2 and just kind of hovered there instead of taking her call to the back.  She did not appreciate that we were trying to look at shoes during her conference and we did not appreciate that we had to shop for shoes while pretending we had taken an oath of silence.  So we went to Shoe Carnival.  Wow!  No sales there.  The lowest price shoes I could find that the girls liked were $40 a pair and that is just too much for shoes for a 9 and 10 year old.  AND--they were apparantly re-stocking the store and down every aisle were boxes of shoes and employees on chairs re-organizing the stacks.  Could not navigate there so we moved on.  Next to Target where we had to pick up a variety of items.  By that time I was over the shoe shopping but we trudged to the shoe department with our buggy of junk. A young lady was cutting through the shoe department at a jog and suddenly out of nowhere the Target Shoe Police appeared and began screaming at her to stop running.  Needeless to say I was afraid for my life as I began to look at the strange assortment of sandals, some of which looked like the Romans were invading with the aid of a zipper up the back of the heel. The Shoe Police-Lady kept popping around the corner giving me evil glares and straightening the shoes I had just put back on the shelves.  But I did not feel like toying with her so we packed it up and left the shopping behind us.  Along the way tonight the girls got a balloon each, both blue for Kentucky.  When we got home they decided to let them go.  So we got one of their dad's business cards and wrote a short note on the back and, after shortening the string so it would not tangle on trees and wires, they let them go.  Instead of shooting up the way we expected, both balloons took off South and stayed together until they were out of sight.  The girls were so excited and wondered where their balloons would go and who would see them.  They want whoever finds them (if they are found) to call or email and tell them where they ended up.  It was fun for them and I hope they will end up a long way away in someone's yard and that person will call them or email.

Well that is all for now.  I am going to head toward the sleeping place and try to sleep tonight.

The Neverending Story

On Tuesday of this week one of the girls was at a soccer game.  Their daddy was at a meeting of all the area preachers and one of the other girls was sick and went to bed at 6:00, which is very odd for her. So that left the youngest of my three and me with nothing to do and nowhere to be.  We scrolled through the OnDemand channels in search of a movie and she informed me that she had never seen The Neverending Story.  I could not believe it!  So we watched it.  She was amazed at the graphics, or lack thereof.  She kept saying that it looked so funny and not real.  It kind of made me chuckle.  So anyway, if you have never seen The Neverending Story I would reccommend it.  Story is about a little boy who has lost his mother, has a slightly overbearing yet caring dad who just wants him to man up, and loves to read.  He is bullied on the way to school and ends up stealing a book from an odd man.  Although it is never specifically stated, the old man in the book store sets it up for the boy to steal the book because he knows the boy and the book belong together.  The movie takes you on an adventure where the boy in the book searches for a way to save his world.  This is a movie about a sad little boy learning his own worth and realizing that his imagination is what keeps the world of Fantasia rolling along.   Cute movie with some odd little characters.  Nothing too deep but my daughter enjoyed it.

Alice in Wonderland- The Movie

Monday night we had some time to sit down and finally I got to see Alice in Wonderland.  This is the Tim Burton version with Johnny Depp and is quite a bit darker and more sinister than the old Disney cartoon that I grew up watching.  I LOVED it!!!  In classic Tim Burton style it is a combination of blacks and grays mixed with vibrant colors and odd characters. Alice is 21-ish and ready to move from daydreams and childhood into the world of marriage and growing up. But Alice can't do it.  She just cannot get past that silly white rabbit in the waistcoat that is hopping around her surprise engagement party.  So she gives chase and sure enough....down the rabbit hole we go.  But it is strangely familiar to her.  Everyone seems to be waiting on her but not sure she is the "right" Alice.  We quickly realize that she has been here before and knows these people/animals.  On and on we go with Alice being chased by the Red Queen's cards.  You see, Alice must slay the Jaberwocky. And once the slaying is done, the Red Queen's sister will regain her rightful spot as the White Queen and rule Wonderland.  That is as far as I will tell you.  You have to watch to see what happens next.  Johnny Depp is AWESOME as the Mad Hatter and is not all silly.  There are some dark moments in the movie and it makes you really analyze the choices you make in life and whether you will seize hold of what you want or if you will go along with what everyone else wants you to do.   GREAT MOVIE!

A Wrinkle In Time

I had forgotten how much I loved this book.  I picked it up at school and started reading it.  It starts out with that classic "it was a dark and stormy night" and is soon full speed ahead with strange beings and inter-dimensional travel and time folding.  Only in this book it is called tessering.  The main characters are Meg Murray, a 14 year old who feels completely lost in the world.  She is hostile, uncooperative, and confrontational.  Especially when it comes to her father.  Mr. Murray has been away from his family for quite some time.  He is a scientist working on a top secret project.  Mrs. Murray is also a scientist and is Meg's touchstone along with her youngest brother Charles Wallace.  They have two twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys who are 10 but they don't figure too much in this story.  Charles Wallace is 5 and everyone outside the family thinks he is a mentally deficient child.  What they do not know is that Charles Wallace is amazingly gifted.  He can read minds or tell what someone is thinking and his intelligence is off the charts, as are his brothers and sister.  The final person in the story is Calvin, a boy from school who "happens" to meet up with Meg and Charles Wallace while they are on a walk.  He and Meg are attracted instantly and romance blooms.  Finally there are the three "others" who turn out to be angels sent to take Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace on a dangerous journey to rescue Mr. Murray.  They fold time and end up on some remarkable planets.  They are told that a great darkness is shadowing Earth and that other planets have been taken over by it.  While tessering, Meg is most greatly affected when the have to pass through dark patches.  Once they reach the world where Mr. Murray is being held, Charles Wallace is taken over by the hive mind in his attempt to free his father.  Meg ultimately frees Mr. Murray and through a succession of events, goes back to the planet to rescue Charles Wallace.  Their angels suck them back through dimensions and they end up back in the family garden.  The only way Meg was able to free Charles Wallace was to hold on to and remind him strongly that she truly loved him.  In the end, good prevailed and the family is reunited with the addition of Calvin.
Great book for 3rd grade up. Very religious overtones but not preachy.
[book:A Wrinkle in Time|18131]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Yawn.....okay so this is probably not a good book to read when you are tired and can hardly keep your eyes open.  It was good but it was very long feeling.  There are page after page descriptions of aquatic life and animals and this and that and more of this and more of that.  I was glad when it ended.  Captain Nemo was just what I expected and I cannot say that I loved him or hated him.  I was kind of apathetic toward him.  I mean, it is not very nice to imprison people on your little sub and haul them around but then again, everyone had a great adventure and saw wonderful sights.  I guess it was an okay read but one I won't be excited to read again.

Probably a good read for 3rd grade through adult depending on the level of the book.  They have some editions that are toned down for kids all the way up the "real thing". 

[book:Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea|33507]

Matilda

Dahl certainly has an affinity for poor mistreated children who overcome the situation they live in and become the hero at the end.  It is heartwarming and yet also disturbing.  In this book, Matilda Wormwood is an unloved, unwanted, ignored little girl who is exceedingly smart.  Matilda teaches herself to read by age 3 and later asks her father for a "real" book.  The only book in the house is a cookbook.  Mr. Wormwood tells her no so Matilda takes herself to the library on her own and reads everything she can get her hands on.  She plows through the children's books and moves on to the classics, devouring everything she can.  Mr. Wormwood is a used car salesman who is less than honest.  He works out a deal to sell a car to the headmistress of a local school and Matilda is finally allowed to attend school.  Matilda has already been doing pranks on her parents because she feels like they deserve to get into trouble.  Also, she has developed an "accidental" gift of telekenesis which she uses to knock a glass of water over.  Once at school she meets her teacher, Ms. Honey and loves her dearly.  Ms. Honey turns out to be the neice of the hateful headmistress and has an intense hatred for the children. Matilda uses her gift to drive Ms. Trunchbull out of the school by "haunting" her classroom.  Ms. Honey is then finally able to move back to her family home.  As the book ends, Matilda's parents are getting ready to flee the country before Mr. Wormwood is arrested for his shady dealings.  Ms. Honey asks the Wormwood's if she can keep Matilda with her and they agree without a second thought.  They leave and the only concern shown for Matilda is a wave that her brother gives her.
Good book for about age 8 and up.
[book:Matilda|39988]

James and the Giant Peach

I picked this book up at school today for something quick to read.  My first impression a few pages in was not overwhelminly good.  I doubted seriously that this would be a good book for my children to read. It was very dark, sad and just plain awful.  The whole story of James' parents getting eaten by a wild rhinoceros one day and leaving him alone with the two mean aunts was bad enough.  But then the way they talked to him and treated him was terrible.  But I held on and kept reading.  Then it got fun and way on out there.  A weird little troll appears and gives James a bag of magical crocodile tongues which James promptly drops.  The tongues disappear into the dirt and suddenly a peach appears on the old dead peach tree.  The aunts are amazed as the peach starts to grow.  And grow, and grow and grow.  The peach grows until it is as big as a house and the aunts see their chance to cash in.  Later they lock James out of the house to count their loot and he finds a hole/tunnel and crawls inside the belly of the peach.  Inside the pit he finds a wonderful group of new friends.  A grasshopper, a ladybug, a spider, a glow worm, a centipede, an earthworm and a silkworm.  Once James joins them the centipede chomps through the stem and sets the peach off rolling down the hillside.  The peach rolls into the sea and the group is off on a fun, sometimes dangerous adventure where they learn about being friends and where James learns that he IS a valuable and loved little boy after all.
Great book in the end. Would say it would be good for probably 3rd grade and up.  I never did see then movie so I can't say if it was as good, better or worse than the book but I did enjoy the book. Dahl has a dark, hard sense of humor sometimes and is kind of twisted in lots of ways.  Look for references to the chocolate factory, vermicious knids, snozwangers and a few other things that might be familiar if you are a Charlie fan.

[book:James and the Giant Peach|6689]

Charlotte's Web

I have been re-reading several of the "children's" books with my kids and they love it.  They are old enough now to read really well and I let them take turns reading one chapter each.  It makes for a slower read but it is a lot of fun for them and for me.  I have always loved Charlotte's Web anyway. Fern was so in love with her little pig.  She could not imagine the inhumanity of killing the runt.  I can sympathize.  My own children would do the same thing and I would make a bed for the pig in the house like Fern's mom did.    But baby pigs don't stay babies for long and before long, Wilbur had to go to the farm.  There he meets the other animals and starts off as a whiny, unlikeable brat.  But then he meets Charlotte, who teaches Wilbur what being a friend is all about.  Together (well, mostly Charlotte) they are able to keep Wilbur away from the slaughter and off to the fair they go. At the end, Wilbur must learn a very hard lesson.  Even spiders and best friends sometimes can't stay with us forever.  But Wilbur is at least able to pass on what Charlotte taught him to three of her babies.
Great story.  Still sad no matter how many times I read it but also full of love and hope and humor.  The animals are ALL so real and funny and full of personality. 

[book:Charlotte's Web|24178]

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Ah, what a story!  I have dreams like this from time to time where everything seems so real and confusing.  Poor Alice follows a rabbit down a hole and ends up in a world of talking animals, potions that make you grow smaller or larger, and decks of cards that play croquet and paint roses.  One thing I enjoyed about this book is the differences from the movie that I watched as a child.  Both are great and this is in my top 5 of favorite stories, no matter whether it is animated or the "live" versions.  Alice sees so many things and all she wants is for something to make sense.  Now I have heard that this book is supposed to have those hidden meanings, where Alice is supposed to be so and so and the white rabbit is someone and the Queen of Hearts is another person.  That I don't know, nor do I care about the hidden stuff that lurks in all these children's books.  I do know that it is an entirely enjoyable story that will entertain children from about age 8 to grown ups.  The version I had also had beautiful illustrations done in bright colors that were almost surreal.  Well done and a little odd which I felt suited the story perfectly.

[book:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass|24213]

Boliche

Again, another blog not about books but about food.  That seems to be a theme with me lately.  I made Boliche for lunch yesterday.  It was wonderful.  Had not made it in years so it was like a brand new recipe for me.  It turned out really well.  I will probably not cook it as long next time but other than that it was really good.  Made black beans and yellow rice to go with it.  Next time I am going to make Milanesa Steak for Michael. 

Well, since I am on day four of no computer connections at work I guess I will read for a little while.  I am the only one who has internet and email....ssshhhhh!....don't tell the teachers or they will bring their work in here for me to do.  Can't do report cards or financial stuff or attendance so I am sort of stuck again.  It has been nice though because I have gotten my files straightened out, cleaned my desk out and just kind of relaxed.  Maybe it will last a couple more days.

Okay, back to my semi-work state.

Thursday

Well here we are at another Thursday.  This post has nothing really to do with books at all.  I am just bored and wanted to post something on this Thursday night.  Made Picadillo for supper tonight and it was yummy.  The kids even ate it.  I am very glad tomorrow is Friday because this has been a wild week.  Can't remember another week in a long time that has been this stressful and irksome.  Will be glad when work is over tomorrow and I can come back home.  We will be going to Jonathan's going away party Saturday night.  Sad to see him go but I know he will do well and the army will make him grow up and take on some responsibility in his life.  That is about it.  I think I will go make a Sweet Potato Pie now.  I have been craving one and have some sweet potatoes cooked and cooled for a pie.  Better get to it as it is already 7:00 and I am so tired. 

Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

We took the kids to the dollar movie after school yesterday and saw Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was enchanted from the very beginning with everything- the scenery, characters, the storyline, everything.  I really liked the first movie when the kids first went to Narnia.  But I missed the second movie about Prince Caspian.  So I was a little confused but not to the point where it bothered me or made the movie unenjoyable.  It just made me want to go back and watch the 2nd movie so I would be caught up.  I did not really have a favorite part because it was  all good.  There were not any draggy parts and each port where the Dawn Treader stopped was a new adventure and new problem for them to overcome.  Edmond and Lucy's cousin Eustace was an addition that was funny.  He was quite a pain in the rear and got a punishment that ended up making him a decent kid by the end.   GREAT MOVIE!

The Family Bones

I don't know how to review this book.  It started out with a lot of promise.  Creepy house, old well, maybe or maybe not haunted or possessed.  But then, the story took a weird twist and just seemed to dwindle down and get tired.  This would have made a good short story.  It almost seemed to me that so much of the conversation was an afterthought.  The characters were only partly developed and could have held so much more promise.  I kept waiting to hear more about the missing families.  Did Steven kill them?  How? Where did he hide the bodies?  What was in the canoe?  Instead of sticking with the horror/suspense story, the writer jumped completely off the platform and went with alien artificial insemination and supernatural gifts from another world.  I think it would have made a great demon/ghost/psychotic killer story.  But oh well.  It was odd and a quick read.  It took me an hour and a half from start to finish.
[book:The Family Bones|5585024]

Little House in the Big Woods

I always loved this book when I was growing up.  It starts the saga of Mary and Laura Ingalls.  They live with Baby Carrie, Ma and Pa in a little cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.  Mary and Laura have never seen a town.  They work hard to help their Ma even though Laura is only 6.  They are expected to be good, quiet, well behaved children who do as they are told.  They know how to sew by hand, make butter, bake bread and are thrilled when they are given a small stick of candy.  At Christmas, Ma takes pans of clean snow and lets the girls pour hot molasses over it in swirls and patterns.  The cold snow hardens the molasses to make candy. The whole family works hard every day to gather, hunt, preserve and save so they always have enough food to see them through the long, cold, snowy winters.  There are bears and panthers and wild animals in the woods and all alone for miles, the small family surviving.
My girls' favorite part of this book is when they Ingalls go to visit their aunt and uncle.  Pa goes to help in the fields.  The girls have a cousin named Charley who is eleven.  Charley is rather spoiled and does not want to help his Pa in the fields.  He goes with the men but keeps disrupting the work by tricking the men by hollering across the field like he was hurt.  Three times the men stop work to run check on Charley and there is nothing wrong with him.  The fourth time they let him holler for a while and finally decide maybe he is really hurt.  All the time Charley had been fooling them and jumping up and down hollering, he had been doing it on a yellow jacket's nest.  Charley went back to his house and his own Ma and Laura's Ma had to cover him in mud and wrap him in sheets for all the stings.
I really enjoyed re-reading this book.  It made me wish for simpler times when people did things a simpler way and just lived their lives and took care of their families.
[book:Little House in the Big Woods|8337]

The Book of General Ignorance

Okay so I needed something light and easy to read in between tasks at work.  This seemed to fit the bill.  It is an easy book to read from for a little while and then stop if you have to.  Each topic is its own mini chapter of sorts.  I really enjoyed it and when finished I had to ask myself "is the stuff in it really true? Or is it made up?" Hmmmmmm....some of it sounds pretty far fetched and not easily verifiable.  But other items are pretty interesting and really made me think.  Like where did the saying "let them eat cake!" really come from.  Not from where I always thought, according to this book.  And which living thing will survive a nuclear disaster?  Not a cockroach after all....who knew?   All in all a really enjoyable read.  Great if you like little bits of knowledge and tend to want to know all the whys? and how comes? and but what abouts?  Great for adults and young adults.  Maybe for a kid that is really inquisitive and has the patience to deal with facts and some numbers.
[book:The Book of General Ignorance|410632]