The bottom of the barrel

I haven't uploaded any cute kid photos yet this week, yet I want to keep my blog, uh, going.

So here' something fun to chew on.

I recently rediscovered these in a convenience store.



My wonderful friend Becca has a *Bex Dislixe* section on her Renfroescoop blog that I adore. (Let me clarify - I adore the list AND the blog.) I guess I would have to put these in my Lixe list!

I haven't seen/tasted/heard of/thought of Munchos for ... decades. Yet the melt-y taste of these Potato Crisps, "A Light Tasting Crispy Snack!", took me right back to the other time I ate them, probably at a gas station somewhere in Minnesota. Those were the days of light-tasting snacks. (I love the qualifier - it's as though Frito Lay can't legally call them light snacks, in light of the excessive fat/sodium/preservatives found on the ingredient list.)

My birthday (last week)

This is a week late ... but I wanted to say THANKS one hundred times over for the thrilling tributes done by my dearest sisters on their blogs ... theyodelingyoungquists and marnithan. I was deeply touched and plan to frame the wonderful words (some true, some sweetly imagined).

That's what sisters are for!

I was actually at our stake Girl's Camp that week (shuttling back and forth between camp and my Blinn classes with windblown hair), and felt celebrated there too. I share my birthday with one of the (new) Laurels in our ward, so everyone knew June 19 was a special day. One girl even shared some cheese crackers from her private camp snack stash. Wow. Thanks. The YW decorated my bunk with fun signs they had made and signed. A kind woman named Joyce picked up a cake for us (me & Mary) and my camp secret sister gave me a darling stuffed frog that Annie promptly claimed as her own when I returned from camp.

Some of you know that Kyle's birthday is June 20. The back-to-back birthday arrangement has always made it easy to remember to par-tay. And we did (in the loose sense of the word) on June 21 with a delicious (and pricey! Hello $27.01 for a cake) mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery.

Kyle & the kids gave me the new Coldplay album for my birthday. I admit it - I got hooked on the iTunes ad for the title song, "Viva La Vida". The rest of the album is great. The kids keep requesting track #1 (the instrumental "Life in Technicolor") because, in their words, "It's pretty!" (Annie) but "It's still rock and roll, like I like" (Graham).

Shoes on

Usually it takes many, many reminders before Annie & Graham put on their shoes in the morning. Many, many reminders. Sometimes, on school mornings, Graham would still be putting on his shoes as we drove up in front of the school.

This morning, I asked Graham and Annie to get their shoes on. I told them where the shoes were but did not hand the shoes to them. I left the room to take care of something else. When I returned, I cranked up the same old lecture: "Kiddos, you need to get your shoes on now!"

"But Mom," they said, "Our shoes are on." They both kicked up their feet so that I could see the proof.

Lo & Behold - The Shoes. Were. On.

One reminder. Wow! I did a little happy dance.

Makeup

Annie loves make-up. She loves to put on make-up by herself. Sometimes she digs in my drawer and uses up my cosmetic products. Other times, she uses what she has: markers, crayons and paint. Sometimes she even pretends to want to kiss me out of love but then smooches just for the lip gloss rub-off.

We found a book at Half-Price Books with a set of tiny make-up pencils and tissue-paper pages ready to be made up. This was a fun book ... until Annie used up the tiny pencils on herself.

Today she said, "Mom, when do I get to wear make-up for real?"


I tried to think of when I got to wear make-up (some blue eyeshadow from the Avon catalog, I remember): "Twelve, I think."

No, wait! What have I said? Twelve is too young!

"When you're fourteen you can wear make-up out of the house."
"And I can do it by myself without asking you first?" she asked, hopefully.
"Yes, that sounds right," I replied.

She skipped away saying, "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen."

The upside of this is that she is motivated to do things if the reward relates to make-up, i.e. if you pick up the toys on the floor, I'll let you put on some eyeshadow.

Please don't judge me!

Dead Poet's Society

This is another classic favorite o'mine. This movie, like "Stargate" for Courtney, combines several of my interests/affections/aspirations: teaching, poetry, boarding schools, the 1950s, and when I was a teenager, cute boys (Knox Overstreet!) in suitcoats.

Oh Captain, my Captain!

On rewatching, I find the suicide a tad bit improbable (more of an impetuous teen gesture than a realistic event for that character), but the movie still touches my heart!

Carpe Diem, indeed.

Tootsie

My sister Courtney's fun blog had a great post about all of her favorite (shame) movies, including "School Ties", "Newsies" and ... "Stargate". She's a big one for the personal VHS collection! (Check it out at theyodelingyoungquists.blogspot.com).

It got me thinking about one of my all time favorites: "Tootsie".



Sydney Pollack, that film's director, recently passed away, and I was touched by several of the life-summary articles about him in major newspapers. He was skilled, said the NY Times, at creating commercial pictures that did not offend art. Or something like that.

I think it's a funny, funny show - very silly, goofy and enjoyable. I like that it stars regular looking people for the most part: Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Teri Garr, even Sydney Pollack as Michael Dorsey's agent.

What are some of your favorites?

Service auction

Relief, relief! Our YW Service Auction is over ... and it was a success!



This past semester has been a busy one, and I was looking forward to May as a *relaxing* month. That never really happened, for a variety of reasons: home, family, swimming lessons, life, yard, Blinn, church, etc. What spare time I might have had at the end of the month was eaten by our service auction fundraiser. But we were enormously blessed. The YW in our ward worked hard and worked creatively.

On a personal note, I was thrilled to win the bid for 2 hours of having my clothes ironed (this will be fun!) and an inside-n-out car cleaning. In fact, I've been letting the van crumbs pile up, knowing that I would bid on someone cleaning my van.

Of course, now that the service auction is over, summer school begins.

My pursuit of caught-up-ed-ness continues!