lovely coiffed gramma

jalen in a tree

change of plans

i am heading to concord tomorrow morning. gramma is doing - worse - differently? don't know how to explain it. she's with hospice due to congenital heart failure (chronic? ugh, can't think of the word right now - just spinning a bit). mom is down there on a planned visit. she got there this afternoon. so i'll miss the girl scout training, but i have parents that will be at the jump to juniors event with our girls - phew!! hoping to be back on sunday.
can everyone else please stay healthy for a long while? that would be great.

monday through wednesday - EEEK!

my subbing license is finally all back in order - finished the last part yesterday. got a call today from the fabulous secretary at jesse hall. she needs someone for monday, tuesday, and wednesday. tuesdays are usually bad for me b/c of girl scouts...so, i called irina to see if she could watch rhys. she can. so yep, i'm going to sub. and i found out that it is going to be a SIXTH grade class - argle. 6th grade is not my favorite. oh well. it will be fine. why worry, right? i mean, the kids are tracking back on, most of the other 6th grade teachers are going to be at a conference, so wheeeee!

Rhys blows bubbles

blowing bubbles at the park

Irene's Fairy Entry

i am so proud of Irene. the contest notice came in my borders rewards e-mail that children from 6 - 11 years old could participate in making a fairy and describing his/her attributes. i don't know if i can show irene's fairy or not...it says that the picture can't have been published before - does this count as publishing? gah. i don't know. anyway, i'm extremely proud of irene b/c she had to do it over several times - once she had the perfect picture, but the attribute part had some misspellings. so she had to do it over. the next time, the writing was beautiful, but she didn't like her fairy picture. i think she drew/wrote it at least 6 times, probably more.

her fairy is an Earth Talent fairy and her name is Gaia (she wanted an earth name - i gave her several choices and she was free to make up her own name as well).

Irene is very hopeful that she will win...i'm trying to let her be excited about that but also trying to explain to her that hundreds and thousands of kids will probably be entering the contest so she might not win...i think i'm more nervous about it all than she is...we sent her entry in the mail this morning with lots of kisses for good luck. 5/22 will be when we can see the name of the winner at the bordersrewards site.

this is george

i got nothin' to say.



(okay - so this is the total cheater cheater pumpkin eater post...sorry...it's late and i'm tired.)

Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

ahhhhhh - i've finished it. my fabulously signed copy of Joshilyn's book. The one that she signed - with my name in it and everything! and the one that on page 309 mentions me (well, you know, the quilt mavs -- i'm one of them...yes, i HAVE mentioned this before). i believe i also mentioned the lovely Dees from whom i won this wonderful book. Dee is so pretty! and so is Dee, they are over at Dee's Book Dish. Go and check them out!
now - to the book. i TRIED to parcel it out...to read slowly...to fully appreciate that i wouldn't be able to read a new book by joshilyn in probably over a year...oh the humanity of it all! and still, i finished it - quickly. dadgum. i really deeply enjoyed this book. and i got lost in it - the good kind of getting lost, you know, when you find you are inserting yourself into the story. hmm, that doesn't explain it quite right. but it happens to me in good books, i'm jo in little women, or meg in the wrinkle in time series. the GOOD kind of getting lost in a book. i was transported. i could hear Shelby, and i could hear Bet's heavy accent. i could feel the tension between Mother, Thalia, and Laurel. the twists and turns in the book were wonderful. i knew how laurel was making the quilt - i loved the box of specials she had. now, i need to get the audiobook onto itunes so i can listen to joshilyn read it and see if i had the accents right in my head. it's outstandingly cool to hear an author read his/her own book because you can really get the way that the author intended it to be. again with the not making sense...but it makes sense to me.
so - go to your local book store or order it online or go and borrow it from the library. and after you finish that one and are jonesing for more of her books, you can get _gods in Alabama_ and _Between, Georgia_.
When you go to the bookstore, perhaps you can even make it so that her books are facing front so everyone can see the jackets.
and then, when you finish the book and you love love love it, go to amazon or barnes & noble online and write a review. i need to do that too!!
**BREAKING NEWS** it has just come to my attention, that equilter.com is also selling The Girl Who Stopped Swimming!!! way too fabulous! you can put all sorts of things into your basket when you get tgwss from luana and 2% of your purchase will go to one of several charities of your choice!

success!!!

Friday Fill Ins on Saturday

i often forget that Janet has these on her blog every friday...and today is saturday...ah well.

1. Some relationships are meant to cause you pain and anguish, but in later years you realize that because of the relationship that was truly Meant To Be, you'd go through the pain and anguish of the crappy relationships a million times over!
2. (Other than the 2nd grader's musical performance) Neil Finn is the last concert I saw; it was FANTASTIC and beyond!!
3. Spring should be cool and full of new growth.
4. Oh no! I forgot the eggs!
5. I've recently started thinking about getting ready to finish the blessing quilt that should have been done more than a year ago...
6. Getting Good Mail never fails to make me smile.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to the patio being finished, tomorrow my plans include making some sort of breakfast, perhaps some cinnamon rolls and , I want to enjoy the day!

here are the friday fill ins from the previous week (janet had the link on her fridayfillins blog):

1. Being in love is so exciting!
2. Strawberry fields make for yummy fresh strawberries kissed by the sun (as long as they are pesticide/chemical free).
3. Morven's Scroggin Cookies sound like it would taste delicious!
4. Why does eating a pound of mike and ike's make me feel so good?!
5. (Aside from the entire world...) The Eiffel Tower is something I've always wanted to see.
6. It's sad when you think you've got things under control and then realize you were wrong.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner at Black Rock Pizza, tomorrow my plans include perhaps some gardening and , I want to play a game!

so pretty!

anybody who knows and loves me, knows that we have some - um - clutter issues...i may have mentioned a little something about wanting oprah to send someone to help us recently...
today, while Bob (FIL) was working hard on our patio (did you see it in the previous post? - it is looking SO SO good!!), i was working hard folding a mountain of laundry (and putting away said laundry) and moving boxes with pictures in them, folding things i want to e-bay, moving clothes that need to go to Karly and Molly as well as things that need to go to Erica, books back to rhys and irene's room, fabric carefully folded and put away, vacuuming and dusting everything up high and down low and everyplace in between. there is no more dust on our fan, no more dust on our beautiful wedding quilt (see it above our bed? SIL Debbie made it for us - she has amazing small even stitches. it has signatures and little phrases from our family on it), no more dust anywhere in our room. it's just so pretty. now, how to keep it from becoming the repository for everything all over again? any ideas? words of wisdom? maids that are super duper cheap? *smile*

major progress!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEBBIE AND JEREMY!!!

how very cool is it that my little brother and rob's big sister have the same birthday?? VERY VERY cool, i say! both of them, unfortunately, live Very Far Away from us, so we can't be there to attend either of their birthdays, but we are thinking of them very much on their special day!!

found a younger debbie. :) here is debbie (the tallest), melissa (in white), and connie (the littlest) in 1964 or 65.

(Debbie in 1969 when the De Haans were living in Peru)

and here she is in February with her very favorite brother


this is Jeremy with me in 1976. he's pretty new, i'm either almost 6 or just 6.

ACK!!! i need to find where the pictures are from Gramma's 90th birthda b/c i think that's the most recent picture i have of Jer. of course, come this summer, we'll have NEW PICTURES!!! WITH ALL Nana and Sensei's kids and grandkids!!! can't wait for that!!!!!!! when i find the picture, i'll add it in - in the meantime, i'll put a few other pix of Jer that i have through the years (that i have on the computer already)

here is jer in between jolie and me on a tram at disneyland in 1983.

and this must be in 1987 - cousin Erica (10), Jeremy looking thrilled (11), and a crazily permed 17 year old me.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE BROTHER & FABULOUS SISTER-IN-LAW!!!
i hope you both are having a fantastic day!

Charlie and the chocolate factory

chapter 8 as read by Gramps

COLD!

argle! it's been in the 60s here. 30s at night, but 50s - 70 during the day. so, explain to me why i'm so freakin' cold???

and my sweetpeas - they have STILL not bloomed. there are many buds, but no blooming yet! crumbles.

bob is coming tomorrow - we're going to make our patio. yea! and when i say we, i suppose i'll be doing a little of it, but i'm not sure what part...i helped dig the dirt way back in autumn. does that count? anyway, we're excited. the kids are excited. gramps (bob) will be here through monday!

and

how i met your mother is back on! YEA YEA YEA!!!! now, if only chuck would be back on. have to wait for next season.

reward! cold stone creamery

geo-casche fun

before 7:30 am

much dying fun was had

ugh cleaning

i hate it. actually, when i'm in the zone, it's all good. and when we're doing it together, it goes pretty well - but it's all the carpolio that i don't know exactly what to do with (bad kristen, ending with a preposition).

what i really really need is an oprah intervention. you know the kinds - where they go "dude! where's your organizational system?" b/c that's what i need. i need to not put things on flat surfaces. i need all of us to put the dishes into the dishwasher when we are done with them. and we need to empty the dishwasher as soon as it's done.

i don't mind some clutter, but it just gets insane.

blah.

okay - going to post the answers to the movies now.

Rhys on Laume's swing

in Laume's tree (and the movie game)

laume is fabulous and already has pictures up on her blog of our day together. it was lovely. i don't have the pictures downloaded from the camera yet. my phone was lacking in the charged department and because we live about 2 hours apart, i thought it would behoove me to charge it at her house while we had lunch and went for a very nice walk. that of course meant that i needed to use my regular digital camera instead of my instant gratification phone camera.

once we got back to laume's house we said hello to rosie the wonder chihuahua, i got my phone and the kids played outside on the swing, the mini trampoline, and climbed the tree. we left soon after so we could get home around the same time as rob. the drive home was uneventful - the kids were getting a bit restless by the end of the journey, but all in all, it was a good day.

oh! almost forgot - i put hints down below on the rest of the movie quotes.

THANK YOU, DEE & DEE!!!

remember this post? the one about the girl who stopped swimming? and THIS post about how i WON a signed copy (and the weather conspired against me so i didn't get to meet joshilyn and get a second copy signed to pay it forward)?? it ARRIVED!!!!! HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the Dees at Dee's Book Dish !!! not only was it signed by Joshilyn Jackson, but it was signed TO ME!!!!! and on page 309, where the amazing Joshilyn Jackson is acknowledging many many people (including DebR and Pamela Allen), she also acknowledged the Quilt Mavericks -- i'm one of them - it's true i joined after Joshilyn, but i've been there for 8 years now, so i am going to count myself into that! *beam*

and today, while i was at borders, i went and made sure that TGWSS was showing the cover of the book - not the spine!!

that's right! we're going to the movies!

so so sorry about saying i was going to do this SO much earlier and then did NOT do it...but now i am doing it. even though it's late.

c'mon! All the cool girlies are doing it - i finally caved! i wanna be cool too!! :D

and to be honest, there are a few of the quotes i picked that i had forgotten...there are many many more movies i wanted to do...and many different quotes - but i figured they would have given it all away...

and now - to the fine print of The Movie Quote Game

Rules:

* Pick fifteen of your favorite movies.
* Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie. (i went to the wikiquote page - double checked the quotes i thought i knew perfectly on google)
* Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
* Fill in the film title once it’s guessed.

This part is for the reader:

* No Googling or using IMDB search functions.
* Leave your answer(s) in the comments.

Okay, ready? Set? Play!

1) I tell him about destiny; he's shaking his head. About dreamgirls; he doesn't care. I mention the underwear thing? He has a fucking conniption. And you? How 'bout it, filmgoer? Have you solved the case of the - the dead people in L.A.? Times Square audiences, please don't shout at the screen, and stop picking at that, it'll just get worse.

JC who jumped over from DebR's blog guessed this one - Kiss! Kiss! Bang! Bang!

2) “What would you do if you had a million dollars?”

“I'll tell you what I'd do, man, two chicks at the same time, man.”


“That's it? If you had a million dollars, you'd do two chicks at the same time?”

rob got this one too Office Space (and if you click on rob's name, he's done this too)

3) Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top.

hint - here's the entire quote: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

JC also got this one - Jaws. this whole section of the movie - first where they compare their various scars and then Quint tells about being on the USS Indianapolis.

4) Awww, come on guys, it's so simple maybe you need a refresher course. Heyya! It's all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads, and I'm gonna need 'bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.

here are two quotes to give a hint: Mr. Stanwyk's parents Marvin and Velma of Provo, were unable to attend the wedding. Those are three names I enjoy; Marvin, Velma, and Provo.

Hey! I think all of our problems may have just been solved. Ed McMahon. Think I just won a million bucks. Yeahhahhah, Irwin M. Fletcher you choose. Woo wee! Oh boy, I lost. Again. Sorry.

JC is right again - Fletch - this is Chevy Chase pretending to be a plane mechanic while investigating Alan Stanwyck

5) “You take what you've learned from this life and use it in the next. That's karma.”

“I thought karma was I do something bad in this life and I'm a termite in the next.”

“Hey, if you ask me, pal, you're already a termite in this life in a shitty suit, OK?”

this is the first movie that rob and i saw together in 1991. this even has some names on it:
Gray Baker: Aren't you afraid of dying?
Roman Strauss: To die is different than what anyone supposes and luckier.
Gray Baker: Is that a line from your opera?
Roman Strauss: It's Walt Whitman. I can't take credit for everything, Mr. Baker.

Dead Again where Cozy Carlisle (played by Robin Williams) is talking to Mike Church (who is played by Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Brannagh also plays Roman Strauss and Gray Baker is played by Andy Garcia).

6) “Do you know what you did to me - to my life?”

“I can only say I'm sorry so many times.”

“Well say it again anyway!”

“I'm sorry.”

here's the next part of this dialogue:

Yeah, everybody's sorry. Abner was sorry for draggin' me all over this earth lookin' for his little bits of junk. I'm sorry to still be stuck in this dive. Everybody's sorry for something.

I thought that by putting Abner in there, someone would get it...This is from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Marian talking to Indy (abner was her dad and indy's mentor). we can't WAIT for the newest Indiana Jones movie to come out. It is coming out on Moni's birthday (my stepmom) as well as Pat's birthday (MIL). Bob (FIL) is going to come up and we're going to go see it if not on the 22nd of may, then hopefully on the 23rd. yes, i WILL be pulling irene out of school to do it if we are able to get tickets. one of my very best memories ever is going with my gramma to see Raiders of the Lost Ark when it was newly released. we'd missed the first part of it - you know, the part with the big rolling ball (of course, we didn't know that was what we'd missed). when it was over, my gramma, who was 66, turned to me (i was 10 1/2) and, in a very excited voice, said "shall we watch it again all the way through since we missed the first part?!"

7) te wanna wonga

the above was said by Bib Fortuna. here is another quote: No. Unfortunate that you rushed to face him... that incomplete was your training. Not ready for the burden were you.

JC well done! this is Yoda talking to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi

8) “He keeps trying to put his testicles all over me!”

“Testicles?”

“You know...octopus.”

“Ohhhh. Tentacles. N T Big Difference.”

this should TOTALLY give this away...especially if you are around my age...
"I want my two dollars!"

JC ! you are rockin' the game here! it is indeed Better Off Dead. I can quote quite a bit of this movie -- of course, i get the lines just slightly wrong - heh heh - but these were indeed the exact lines.

9) “ You lied to me!”

“I lie to everyone, what makes you so special?”

“I am your sister.”

“That just makes you more gullible.”

this is from my favorite movie in which rob has a credit...
I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure hunter, or a gunfighter, Mister [name]. But I'm proud of what I am.

And what is that?

I'm...a librarian!

The Mummy - Evy talking to her brother Jonathan

10) "You don't like poetry?"

"Oh no, no, of course. I do."

"Neither do I. It's not that kind of poetry"

Tammy is exactly right!! chocolat it is! Armande (judi dench) to her grandson, Luc.

11) You're not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe? It should be more natural, brother. It shouldflow out, like this - "Look, man, I ain't fallin' for no banana in my tailpipe!" See, that's more natural for us. You been hanging out with this dude too long.
Beverly Hills Cop - answered correctly first by DebR and a bit later by the always handsome and delightful Rob.

12) If I'm right about this, I could save a man's life. Do you know what that would do for my book sales?

this is the tagline from the movie: Don't Answer The Phone. Don't Open The Door. Don't Try To Escape.

Scream - i watched this moving all by myself - at night...before rob got home...very late...it was the first time in a long time that i was truly sitting upright and if i hadn't been on my couch, i'd've been on the edge of my seat. instead, i was clutching pillows.

13) “Yes, I'm shattered, but it's nothing that some sleep and a good fuck wouldn't cure, as my sister used to say. Ha ha ha.”

“You'll have to forgive [name].”

“Oh, it was just... it was just a figure of speech. I've been on a plane for twelve hours next to a crying baby.”

SanDeE*, your... your breasts feel weird.
SanDeE*: Oh, that's 'cause they're real.

LA Story - this is when Sara is introduced to everyone - Roland is the one in the middle asking everyone to forgive Sara. would this quote have been one that worked better?

Tom: I'll have a decaf coffee.
Trudi: I'll have a decaf espresso.
Morris Frost: I'll have a double decaf cappuccino.
Ted: Give me decaffeinated coffee ice cream.
Harris: I'll have a half double decaffeinated half-caf, with a twist of lemon.
Trudi: I'll have a twist of lemon.
Tom: I'll have a twist of lemon.
Morris Frost: I'll have a twist of lemon.
Cynthia: I'll have a twist of lemon.

14) “I put it all on Lucky Dan; half a million dollars to win.”

“To win? I said place! "Place it on Lucky D-" That horse is gonna run second!”

“There's been a mistake! I want my money back!”

The Sting - rob got this one too. such a great movie!

15) I really feel, ehh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with the Partridge family, eh, "I think I love you," and eh, I-I just wondered by any chance you wouldn't like to... Eh... Eh... No, no, no of course not... I'm an idiot, he's not... Excellent, excellent, fantastic, eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb... Better get on...”
Yes indeed, Four Weddings and a Funeral - again answered correctly first by the ever lovely and creative DebR and a bit later by the man who makes my heart race, Rob.