Saturday, January 14, 2012

We Bought A Zoo


Ever since before Christmas when they talked about this movie on "Extreme Home Makeover" I have wanted to see it. It took awhile to get there, but I thought it was worth the wait. I really, really liked "We Bought a Zoo". However, don't take your son with you when you go because he will accuse you of crying really, really loud. I would have cried quieter if he hadn't stolen my crying napkin.


"You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it."

Benjamin Mee


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Blogging Dilemma

Tonight it was brought to my attention
that my blog post production rate
has dropped drastically during the past 2 years.


Hmm. I hadn't realized that.

I better pick up the pace.

Actually, I decided recently
that I wanted to be a better blogger.

As soon as I decided that
something happened to the program
I use to upload pictures to my computer
and well,
what's the point of blogging
if there aren't any pictures
for my children who aren't into reading.

Due to my lack of photos -

Wait,
I am not lacking in photos.

In fact I have so many pictures on my computer
that I have no memory left
and my computer is slower than slow
and my husband tells me daily
that I need to move ALL my photos to the external hard drive.

But, I love my pictures
and I don't want them out of my sight
even for a minute.

Then while I am rambling on
about why it is so difficult for me
to produce a blog post
I push a wrong button and
the incomplete post publishes
and makes absolutely no sense.

Now do you understand
why my post numbers are down?

No?

Neither do I.

For those of you who
have hung on through
this entire nonsense -

I give you a story
for your enjoyment
which will include
a previously uploaded picture.

It is called
"The Blue Poinsettia"

When we had our ward Christmas party
each table had a blue poinsettia
as the centerpiece.

When the party was over,
the flowers were passed out to families
and one came home with me.

I put mine on top of the piano,
but the cats kept trying to eat it.
I have heard that poinsettias are poisonous
so I didn't think that was a good idea.
I tried really hard to keep them away from it
and they tried really hard to eat it.

When we left to go to California for Christmas
I put the plant out on the stool on my front porch
so the cats couldn't have a feast.

I told the oldest son
(who was watching our house and the cats)
that he could take it home with him
if he wanted it.

Apparently he didn't want it,
because it was still sitting on the stool
when we came home a week later.
It looked quite sad and forgotten-
very shriveled and unhealthy.

I felt the soil that it was in
and it was plenty wet
so I decided to just leave it there
and see what happened.

Fast forward another day -
both sons and I are walking into the house.
The oldest son says,
"I think your flower froze
one of the nights that you were gone.
It looked fine one day and
the next day it looked - pfft. "

The youngest son looked at the plant,
and then he looked again and said,
" Wait! You mean it wasn't always blue? "

























For those of you
who care about things like poinsettias.

The weather here has warmed up
A LOT
and the poor thing is doing much better.
However, it is still mostly blue.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Passage of Time


So,
here it is.
2012.

Am I the only one that feels like the year 2000 DID NOT begin 12 years ago.
It seems like last year.
Or maybe 2 or 3 years ago,
but not 12.

Things have changed a lot since then though.
Now all the kids that were wild young 'uns then
are starting to have young 'uns of their own.


They think they are old enough to put OUR puzzle together


and don't leave us any room at the table.

It was actually kind of fun though,
to have our daughters want to do puzzles with us.
It meant they were close by
and not hundreds of miles away.

My mom used to always say
that the person who put the last piece in the puzzle
was going to have the next baby.
That is another good reason to start
including the daughters in the puzzling.

The last piece in this puzzle was missing.
The oldest daughter spent some time
under the table seriously searching for it.
At this point she is trying anything that might get her a new baby.

She did find it
so we're still holding out hope
for a new member of their family in 2012.

We missed our friend that got to welcome the arrival of 2012
in a hospital bed facing a new challenge along with a new year.
Here's praying that her cancer disappears
as quickly as the past 12 years have.