Your Favorite Harry Potter Book

Here you go, folks. With 33 people voting, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was the winner in this small poll. This is my favorite as well.

I do need to revisit HP & The Deathly Hallows. It's the only one I have only read twice. *snort* Only. I know. All the others I have read at least 3 times each and am currently on the audio book for the "Half-Blood Prince." I will soon "hear" "Deathly Hallows" read to me by Jim Dale.

I cannot wait for those two final movies of the one final book!

Thanks for Voting!

Being a Stronger Parent

Or better titled "I don't want to be a lazy parent anymore."

My daughter does not eat many things.

Oh, if I list them, they seem like a lot, but when you realize that there are three meals a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, the choices are minimal.

Up until 18 months of age, this little girl ate everything. Rice, chicken, chops, hamburger meat, peas, carrots, you name it.

Then at 24 months, she started saying no to things, and we would let her slide. "It's just this time," we would say. Things she loved, she refused to eat. Then her likes went in cycles. Currently, she won't eat yogurt, even though if we let her, she would eat a container for every snack about 6 months ago.

We let her slide. And slide. I'd prepare a separate meal for her, usually something not very healthy or good for her. "She'll grow out of it," we said to each other. Honestly, we're lazy. We don't want an argument or to "let her go hungry" so we'd fix her her own meal.


We would try to force her to eat things once in a while, and she would cry. Being invited to people's homes for meals caused me stress. What would we do when they served something Isabel would not eat? Like the party where all she ate was chips? *sigh*

She's 5 now. I stress about her eating habits. I give her vitamins, milk, juices with hidden veggies in it. I feel like I am the only one who stresses. She was 2 and now she is 5 and she still has not grown out of it.

This Tuesday night, I took a stand. I was not making her a separate meal.

We had carrots, chicken and rolls. I sat her down and explained to her that she was a big girl and like all the other big kids in her class, she had to eat what everyone else eats. She started to whine and cover her face with her hands. I told her that was not allowed. Before my son or I ate, I cut her some very small pieces of everything and fed her myself. A few whines for drink later, and she was done with her meal. The same meal we all ate.

I cook every other day, to give us time to eat the leftovers. The next meal was Thursday. Peppercorn-rubbed steak in marinade, cooked with carrots (I overbought, ok? lol), red potatoes, and crescent rolls. Again, I sat her down with the plate in front of her. Again she whined. Again I told her no, I would not have whining at the table. I fed her the first few bites. This time she asked if she could eat all the carrots first herself. I said yes and handed her the fork. She likes them. Then she ate the meat, coughing a couple of times as if she were gagging, but she ate all she was served. The potatoes were last (and I can't blame her; they were undercooked.)

I want my kids eating healthier. She loves fruits; apples, bananas, strawberries and grapes are always in the house. It's the veggies she would not do. So far, carrots are a hit. We're going to keep trying. Every time she's said she does not like anything this week, I tell her that's impossible, because she's never tried it. I've said that in the past, but I don't think she understood what I was saying. She's older and understands me more.

I don't want to be a lazy parent. I am feeling better and better every day about this.

Life is Too Short...

....to deal with toxic people. It really is.

Nowhere does it say that just because a person requests you as a friend on Facebook or Myspace, you have to accept it. Nowhere. Afraid to hurt their feeling? Don't be. I have had random people who are distant relatives of my husband ask me. I am sorry. My husband does not know you and you're related. Why would I accept the request?

My friend's ex-husband?? Uh, no. NOT helping you spy on my friend. Declined.

Want to know the worst case? When you accept the request out of some familial responsibility or what-not, and they turn out to be toxic. Really, WHY ON THIS GREEN EARTH do I want to be a friend with someone who always has a snide comment about the things I post of importance to me? I don't find it funny. I'd poke fun, but really I find it all rather sad and pathetic of someone that age.

Or why do you believe anyone wants to see the chauvinistic pictures of women taken and posted?

Is it all because we're distantly related? I don't know you from Adam. (except Adam T. I know Adam T. *Waves at Adam T*)

DELETE.

Ahhhhh.

Whether it's "Remove Connection," "Delete" or "Ignore Member," life is way too short to deal with toxic people.

Maybe it's time for a detox session of your own?

Harry Potter Audio Collection

I've been listening to the Harry Potter series on cd in my car for a few months. To & from work, I've been enjoying the heck out of Jim Dale's great voices.



I am currently on book 5; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.



My LEAST. FAVORITE. BOOK.



I'm not talking about a book being weakly written (*cough*HP & the Chamber of Secrets*cough*,) or small in length. I'm talking about disliking the book because of some of the threads/plots in it.



I really really really did not like this book in this series. The whole "Umbridge taking over the school thing," the whole "Harry lets her get away with the carving of the hand punishment?" thing, the whole "Harry's being a whiny git thing?" UGH. I was not a fan of this book.



This led me to think about which one is my HANDS-DOWN favorite. For me, it's book 4:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.



This book was fantastic fun. The Quidditch World Cup, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Beauxbaton, Durmstrang, Mad Eye, Karkarov, Nagini, Lord Voldemort's return, Cedric Diggory (*sniff!!!*) This book made me laugh, squeal and cry.

Which one is your favorite?

Take the poll above and comment here as to why it's your favorite.

Squishy Squish! Get Checked!

A couple of months back, I had my first mammogram! I know, right? EEEEEEEEEEKKK!

It actually was not bad.

No, I'm not kidding, but let me say that I have a high pain threshold. (Two C-sections with two epidurals done wrong and having to be re-done on both pregnancies and I had better have a high threshold!)

I went to a really terrific place with a beautiful facility. Everything was completely clean, neat, and orderly. I was in and out in less than 45 minutes.

They take...let me remember.... was it 2 or 3 shots per breast? Dang, I cannot remember. I remember the up & down pancake squish (see above picture). That one was not bad at all on either side. I am pretty sure they took a vertical squish as well; those were fine too. The only one that gave me discomfort was an angular one. They kind-of come at you with the machine at an angle. The left shot was fine, the right? Hurt like a %$%$*% but it was only 5 seconds at most. If you can breathe deeply and tolerate discomfort for 5 seconds at a pop, you will do just fine.

I got the all-clear a few weeks ago!

Ladies, check the tatas! Save the tatas!

In Concert

Thursday night was Jacob's first Choral concert. It was actually a concert showcasing all the arts at his school. There was the female choir, the male choir, the mixed choir, their version of the Glee club, dancers, singers, Jazz band, drum corps, the marching band, several dancing groups (ballet style, interpretive dancers, hip-hop dancers, Yoga dancers) and several soloists (flautists, guitar solos, tuba solos, etc.)

The audience stunk. There is no couth and manners anymore. The choir director specifically stated rules for the performance. 1) Turn your phones to mute. 2) Don't be messing with your phones (texting, updating Facebook etc.) during the performance. The light annoys your neighbors and the performers. 3) Do not leave the auditorium or come back in to the auditorium while a performance is going on. it distracts the performers. 4) Please be quiet during the performances.

Uh. Yea.

I understand this is a high school performance and a lot of the rabble-rousers were high school students, but not all of the noise was their doing. Along with the students in the crowd, several parents would yell out "LISAAAAA!! JOHNNYYYYYY!! WOOOOOOOO" when people would be on stage. People were constantly talking and moving. Young kids yelling and crying. Thank goodness Isabel was fantastic. I did have to shush her a few times when she tried talking to me during the performace, but she didn't want to run up and down the aisles or yell and scream

I felt so bad for the director. He's trying so hard to make this about the kids, their performance and professionalism. Too bad we are all a bunch of hillbillies and hoodlums to care, huh?

Below are 2 videos of the two performances Jacob took part in. His choir/piano teacher reminds me of the lead teacher on Fox's "Glee." Look at him, he's like 12. OK, not really. Jacob has him in 2 classes and he's one of his favorite teachers. He's in his mid 20's and Jake says he's super serious about music. You'll notice that not one boy is moving their hands or anything (well, I just noticed one did in the first video. Oooooh!) They are strictly told that if they move to scratch or touch their hair, etc., they're out.







There really were some great performances. Good job, students and teachers!

Happy Halloween! Pumpkin Carving

Hello and Happy Halloween!


Somehow, I got the job of Pumpkin Carver this year. David and Isabel went off to pick some out and I changed into yucky clothes and got the back yard picnic table prepped for the work.








Jacob carving "Oogie Boogie."




"Cheeeeese!" We finish our carve. But wait. There's a whole empty side of this pumpkin. What to do, what to do.








The final Nightmare Before Christmas carves and...




Buffy!

Wooo Hooo!

They're/There/Their Driving Me Loopy!

Me Again! Miss Grammar! Ready? Oooooh Kaaaayy!

They're / There / Their


They're = a contraction of "They are."
For example: They're going to the mall. They're a happy couple. They're in the house.

Whenever you can say "They are," you can use "They're."

There = a location. In or at that place or position.
For example: We are going there tomorrow. There once was a man from Nantucket. I put the keys right there! There should be a law against pants so low, you can see your underwear!

Their - Belonging to them.
For example: Their house is beautiful. Their son made the All-County Choir (wh00t! Go Jake). I think their objections are ridiculous.


Let me wrap it up for you. Ready?

Their daughter thinks they're crazy to go to there after dark.

Thank you, thankyouverymuch.

Higher Learning - Touring Full Sail University

My son is interested in music. Making it, playing it, singing it. A lot of the "making it" deals with computer programs and things out of my range of expertise. He discusses MIDI and all I hear is "Wha wha, wha wha, wha wha."

Kaaren says "Press Play!" Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

On his own, he contacted and set up a time for an afternoon tour of Full Sail University here in Orlando. We took one of the Sunday tours around their urban campus. We were first in a really large studio where the nation-wide syndicated The Daily Buzz morning show is broadcast live Monday through Friday. After an introductory "hello" from school representatives, we were split off into smaller groups, based on the letter combinations found on our name tags and shown the areas we'd most be interested in, based on the students' preferences.




Above you see a studio lot being built, for those interested in getting a Film or Show Production degree.

Here we are entering another building, which has a scrolling marquee, giving students information on upcoming activities, presenters, etc. I did not take a picture of the ginormous screen above it, which plays news info, music videos and bulletins. Very cool.

Jake's interest is in recording arts. We toured classrooms, recording booths, voice-over rooms, etc.

Mixing booth dude.






Working with sound on movies.
















Jake here mixes all the various sound elements for the movie "Bolt."







We got a presentation in another large sound stage, where we met the president and saw a video of all the people who had gone through the school to get jobs in the entertainment field. We also got a free lunch and met with his advisor, who was very nice and zero-pressure, since Jake is only a sophomore in high school.

There are friends concerned for us regarding this school. I love you and appreciate your concern. This school is very expensive and compresses a 4 year degree into almost less than 2. They only recently (May 2009) became an accredited Florida University. They were previously more like a vo-tech school; a very expensive one. I have heard the concerns even before, years before, Jake showed an interest in this school.

Google Full Sail and you can see people discussing the pros and cons. I did. Jake has 3 more years of school and really, this is the first if many tours we'll take.

Here's the thing. College/University is what you make of it. There are no guarantees that you will get a job in your majored courses. None. Zip. Zilch. It is all up to you. Going to a better-known University does not give you one iota of a guarantee that you will be doing what you went to school for. Do you think the University of Florida promised me a job in my field when I graduated? I wish. I have a Bachelor's, as does David. Neither one of us is anywhere remotely near the fields we graduated in. My best friend with a Masters degree is not either. Several relatives with degrees are not doing what they went to college for.

The entertainment field is even CRAZIER. I do know this. Film majors, musicians, actors, set designers, game developers, they have it even tougher. I worry he's setting his goals too high. I'm his mom. I worry about his future and what he'll do. He'll cross that bridge, etc. and as long as he has not made any whackadoo choices, I will be there to help if needed.

So for now, I am excited about Full Sail. I am also excited about my U of F and other schools we'll visit in the coming years. Wish him luck!

Whedonverse Carves; Firefly

I was carving some stamps last night and thought I would post some oldies but Goodies. Here are some of my Whedonverse carves.



Here's my first attempt at Inara. I didn't really like it, so I tried again.




I like this one a little better.


Here's my first attempt at Kaylee. I liked it but didn't think it looked like her.


I liked my second attempt much better.


My River Tam carve. I really like how this turned out.


I am also happy with Zoe.

If you're wondering what I mean by carving stamps, here's what they look like. I took rubber carving medium, transferred the image on to the rubber and carved away using tools like these: