Wait for me

Movies: Facing the Giants and The Devil Wears Prada

First, I have to mention that I’ve watched all DVDs of the previous seasons of Battlestar Galactica and I’m now wondering how long I’ll have to wait for season 3 (the current season now showing on SciFi) to come out on DVD. *sigh*

OK, now to the movies watched this weekend…

Facing the Giants is a little indie film that got some press last year because of the PG rating it received from the MPAA for thematic elements. What were the thematic elements? The main character is a strong Christian and Jesus as Savior and Lord is mentioned quite a bit as a central theme. We wouldn’t want the hedos to see that without parental guidance.

It’s a predictable, inspirational jasminlive movie with amateurish acting to boot. However, it’s a sweet movie with a character that you care about, a few laughs, a few tears (yes, I teared up a bit - I am a sap), and a good message. We chuckled a bit at the appearance of a football celebrity that we figured had to be somewhat famous in Georgia (the location of the story) even though we had no clue who the dude was. I realize that my comments may make it seem like it wasn’t that good, but it was good enough that we liked it and recommend it.

4 field goals out of 5.

The Devil Wears Prada was not nearly as good as I was led to believe by the hype it got last year. Meryl Streep did not deserve her Oscar nomination, although she was excellent as usual. But Oscar-worthy? Not hardly. Stanley Tucci is great, too. I thought it was cute.

The Tent

We’re a week away from our California trip and I decided it was time to start sleep training Molly for the tent. I didn’t want to make the mistakes we did when we used it for Jesse 2 years ago. His first night in California was rough, with lots of crying and probably fear on his part. I wish I had handled it differently. Anyway, the lesson was learned.

Once Molly was in her jammies, I put her in the crib to play while I set up the tent in her room. It took about 15 minutes for me to get the air mattress inflated. But then I put in the sleeping bag that comes with the tent, with her Baa-Baa and her favorite toys. I had her blankie next to me on the floor.

I held her for a while outside of the tent. And then I lay her on Baa-Baa. Almost immediately the hysterical crying started. I laid a hand on her chest and shhed and sang to her until she calmed down. 40 minutes later she was calm - awake, but calm, so I covered her with her blanket, zipped up the side, and left her room. There was some wimpering, but then I could hear her breathing deepen in the monitor and I knew she was asleep.

Success!

And then I screwed things up by trying to unzip the side to recover her with the blanket when I went to check on her before I went to bed. I woke her up and there was crying. But it only took a couple of minutes to get her back to sleep. I zipped her back in and all was well.

Except that her crying woke up Jesse, so I spent the next hour dealing with him before I was able to get to sleep myself.

Beau found her awake and playing happily in the tent this morning. He might try to nap her in the tent today, but she will definitely spend the night in there every night until we leave. I want her fully acclimated to the tent so that when we get to the strange house after a long day of travel, she’ll be happy to be in her cozy tent. Because I know that Beau and I will be completely exhausted by the time we get to our rented house that first night and the last thing we will want to do is deal with a crying one.

I can’t believe we’re only a week away already. I’m getting more excited for our trip each day we get closer.

The Weekend in Preview

Another busy weekend in tap for the Speaks family.

Tonight the Cooties drive up to my parents’ new house in Winchester. They come bearing a kitchen table and 6 chairs for us. I’m very excited. Also tonight, we will be cooking Drip Beef in the crock pot overnight for the big Mother’s Day gathering to be held tomorrow at The New Homestead. Beau made the buns yesterday and they currently reside in the freezer until tomorrow. I think I’ll have to prep up a batch of Crash Hot Potatoes to go with the Drip Beef. In my mind they go together. But I’ll do that first step with them tomorrow and finish them at The New Homestead so that they’re perfect when we actually eat. And I have a couple other of little things to do, including laundry - because if I don’t do laundry I won’t have anything suitable to wear. It could be a long night.

Tomorrow I have to color my hair. It. Is. A. Must. I can’t get in for a haircut anytime soon, so the color has to happen to fix the lack of body issues going on right now. Note to self: get yer butt out of bed early in order to color your locks. And now I’ve just added the Crash Hot Potatoes to the list of Things To Do for Saturday, but it’s OK. I think. I still need to wrap Mother’s Day gifts. There’s that laundry thing to finish. And then the most important thing is the delivery of the kitchen table/chairs by my sister. She’ll be taking away our current kitchen table because Mom wants it for her basement as a game table for the chaturbate friends. And then, of course, the gathering of the clan at The New Homestead for our Mother’s Day celebration.

Sunday will be church in the AM. Beau has parking lot duty so I’ll then head home with the hedos for lunch and naps and then hopefully we’ll have a slow, lazy afternoon recovering from the busy-ness. And then I get to start stressing about our vacation to California, because the following weekend will be spent preparing and packing for that week away. I’m actually very excited about and looking forward to seeing Beau’s parents and extended family. It’s the preparing for it that’s daunting.

Anyway, your day is complete now that you know my schedule, right?

The Shrine

For the past 3 years I have pretty much driven the same route to work. Even in my new job I still drive the same route, except that I get to my new office about halfway from the courthouse. Along the way I pass by this tree that has become a shrine to a teenage girl who must have died in a car accident at that spot. The tree is in the front yard of a house on that road. The house is set back from the street with the tree only about 10 feet from the curb.

I can’t remember exactly I noticed the shrine, but I think it was at least 9 months ago. There was a picture of the girl, balloons, and flowers. I think initially there were candles in the mulch at the base of the tree as well. As the seasons changed the flowers changed as well. An American flag was posted around holidays, seasonal flowers were laid and the occasional ribbon was tied around the trunk or a branch. The tree itself was old, with a large trunk, but it was low hanging and had thick branches. In the winter is was bare, in the spring it had blossoms, and in summer it was lushly green.

In March I noticed that the tree was uprooted. I think the heavy snows followed by lots of rain and wind from a couple of early spring storms caused the roots to weaken and the tree toppled. It lay like that for about a week and then one day there was a new tree. This new tree is a sapling - so new that it is bolstered by sticks on two sides. But it’s still The Shrine - there’s a new framed picture that looks to be a collage and there are pretty spring flowers planted in the mulch at the base. And there are other things that I can’t see well enough in my drive past every morning - probably memorials of other kinds.

Every time I pass the tree I have the same questions: Is that the spot where the girl died or is that the girl’s house? If it’s the spot where the girl died, what do the homeowners think about having a shrine in their front yard? I think it’s clear that they’re OK with The Shrine since there is a new tree with a new memorial in place. I sort of wish I could have seen the planting - who was there? Was there a ceremony? Are the homeowners and parents of the girl now friends? So many questions.

And at the end of it all is the unknown (to me) lost girl, the heartbreak of her parents and family, and the constant reminder for the homeowners of a terrible event in their front yard.

Cleaning the ‘Rolls

I’ve cleaned up the jasminelive blogrolls a bit. I deleted the Reciproll list altogether - I reached a point of rarely to never checking that list at all. I deleted the Blogs for Bush list since that was put there during the last presidential election to show my support for his reelection. I’ve removed a few links from the Regular list - blogs that have died or not been updated recently. I have them saved inside my blogware control panel, waiting to be reinstated if the need arises.

I apologize if I removed your blog from the list somewhere. No offense is intended, just the reality of my increasingly busy world and my decreasing blog reading world.

Worky Work! Busy Bee!

Sit in traffic - check

Arrive late for meeting with contractor - check

Delay meeting for another hour because of last minute chaos generated by an overbearing judge - check

Spend the rest of the day working on something that wasn’t on the agenda and hoses the telework plan for Wednesday - check