Viva says...

she's half vegetarian.

Why I hate the holidays

http://kdka.com/national/walmart.worker.trampled.2.875727.html
I hope everyone of these people are identified and thrown under an angry crowd.
This is exactly what Christmas has come to mean for America, discounts and consumerism. All anyone thinks about is what they are going to get and what they can buy. Greed. Consumerism. You would think that Christmas was invented by the retailers because I can see no other motive in the people who celebrate it. People actually walked PAST this man lying on the ground dead so they could get their fucking tv's. Yes this is an extreme example but I see more examples of this kind than any other. This is exactly the spirit that I HATE about the holidays. I've considered for a few years not celebrating the holidays but have held off 'because I have kids' but I think that I might decide to go ahead and stop. I don't need the stores to tell me when to buy something for my kids.

Btw... there was a feakin cell phone video taken of this guy dead and being worked on. Who the hell is out doing that?? This person was a temp and now is dead. He wasn't even supposed to be at work today.

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with the purchase of material possessions and consumption.
In economics, consumerism refers to economic policies placing emphasis on consumption. In an abstract sense, it is the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society

Hope those people are happy with their tv.

Gems

http://writtenonthecity.com/

Godzilla

Ophelia said to me yesterday:
"I wonder if it freaked people out when they saw a huge man crawling up the Empire State Building?"

A few days ago I was in a really bad mood and was straightening up the pantry closet and Gavin saw the Lucky Charms and sang a little song praising them. I almost snapped at him because I was in such a bad mood but I turned around and looked at him and had to change my annoyed face to a happy one as quick as possible. He looked exactly how I wish he was all the time. Not only was he singing, he had his arms spread out and his face lifted up and looked so confident, exactly how I wish he could feel and look all the time. I really do hope that he comes out of his shyness some. I was so happy to be able to enjoy that little moment though.

Whirl winds

I guess I'm not going to be so good at keeping up. Let's call it a lack of time. Time is worth more than gold around this house. At the moment i'm also trying to follow the pres debate on the news beside this window.
I've always been against over scheduling but each fall I always fall for the "ohh!" factor. Also with 3 kids, sometimes it is easier to just put all of them into whatever the one wants to do. Last year I made a rule that it could only fall on 3 days of the week and the other 4 had to stay open. This year we have accidentally spread to 4 days activity. Mon is soccer for Ophelia (sat game) and tues Gavin and Ophelia have chess after school. Wed we found an awesome home school science lab that provides lab classes each week. Thur is violin. Gavin, poor boy, couldn't play soccer this year because of the casts on both arms or we would of had him in soccer and he was slated to start guitar this year also.
Anywho, we did take our first vacation together (me and the kids) in years. We went to Williamsburg to see the colonial side of things. Since we were so close we went up to Washington DC, visited the monuments, the Natural History Museum (Hope Diamond) and the Space Museum. We also visited Mount Vernon, Washington's home. We left Washington to go to Charletteville to visit Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) and Ash-Lawn Highlands (James Monroe's home). Both very interesting and I feel that this was a vacation well spent. We learned alot and had a lot of fun together.
Ophelia turned 10 last week and we spent the prior weekend with her, grandma and I in New York City! We played total tourists visiting the Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island, hanging in Times Square. We also caught a production of Hairspray! which we all loved. The whole purpose was to stalk Jerry Lee Lewis. I paid over $300 for our tickets and guess what!!??? He only played like 20 minutes!!!!! I was PEEVED! But alas, it was great and I did see a legend. I need to be happy for that I suppose. Okay, can't do both anymore. That's about it. Hopefully I will make a picture blog that I keep trying to do in my head (where all good ideas die).

Why I'm voting Republican

Gavin is full of them

A couple of days ago the topic turned to Viva having godparents. Ophelia asked if they had any and why not. During the explanation and other questions I mentioned Viva's christing and Gavin asked what that was. Then asked what a baptism was.
Me: Baptism is the whole water and the church thing.
Gavin: Oh!Oh! I've done that! With the apples?

Tues: During Spanish class with Senora Delilah
S. Delilah: Okay, we are going over family names. Madre, anyone want to guess what this might be?
*Me leaning over to Gavin: Look at he word and figure out what it sounds/looks like.
Gavin: Maid!
Me: Almost.

!!!!!

On just a chance glance at my computer and I'm off to NIN show. I haven't seen them since I was a kid and actually can't really remember any of it so I was super excited to go. I should of bought tickets before but i'm a very last minute sort of girl. One of my acquaintances here on Myspace wife bowed out and I jumped on the ticket. The show was definatly on my top 3 shows of all time. I had forgotten what true showmanship was until last nite. It's like waking up. Every number they did and every light they flipped was awesome. I was very surprised at how much small detail and just packed with acts that leave you awestuck when usually bands just sprinkle it on you. Anyways, it was an experiene and I regret every show i've missed by them thru the years. The band was awesome (especially the drummer) and I could of stayed there all nite, I was sad it had to end. I didn't take a camera because i thought i would be stopped so this is all i have. :(

(probably my favorite part of the show)



(hurt)

Last read

I just finished Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. The book was amazing with a statement on trying to find oneself while trying to lift up others. He really got me in the book, which I decided to read after hearing some statements others accused him of writing (that were not in there). I would recommend this book to anyone, there is no politics in it, just his struggle to find himself and a great journey he had on the way. Also through the book I found two interesting things, one is the most amazing tree ever. It is called the baobab tree and it is found in Africa. It can hold over 32,000 gallons of water to survive a drought. Some are believed to be over a thousand years old!


and the other interesting thing i looked up was on the Masai tribe. Here is a picture and also a video of their jumping dance

Brainquest game

is what we are playing right now. Ophelia's questions was
What type of reflex cleans your nose?
Gavin yells out "Finger!"

whooooo!!!

The opening ceremonies for the Olympics last nite in Beijing were so worth waiting for! I have been so excited for the stadiums that they built for the event. They are amazing and so creative.


And the Nestle showed so well during the ceremony

The show was so good, I could rewatch it over and over. Anyways, minus the idiot commentators who didn't shut up for 2 consecutive moments, it was unforgettable and I hope it made an impression on my kids also.

this one was the most "how the hell' part of the show. all of these blocks you were sure had to be controlled by a machine but it WASN'T!

And also.

Here are some shots from our first day at school. You can't tell by my pictures but they were actually happy and excited. This just shows how much they like me taking their pictures :(

Viva walks like an Egyptian into the first day.

They didn't want Viva's Egyptian pose and she got upset.

I got his mom!

Ugh! (She really didn't want her pic done!)

Hey!

And this is Viva's first day outfit.

Prescription of PS and milkshakes

Gavin was prescribed playstation and milkshakes yesterday when he was casted on no, not one, but BOTH arms. He fell off the playground zip line and school and buckle fractured both wrists and a big bump to the noggin. This is our first run in with broken anything other than egos so it's been a trial that I hope we don't have to repeat. While he is happy with the prescription, he is very unhappy at missing soccer this season and having to put off his guitar lessons (having just gotten his guitar and amp the night before). The other stinky part is that he chose one red cast and one black cast so I continually feel I must offer up the fact that we don't watch football to everyone that comments on his casts.

*I had to do the picture when he was asleep cause he wouldn't let me get one today.
On a different note.... less than 24 hours to the opening of the Olympics!

Whew!

2 days of the new school year and it's wonderful. the kids are loving school and Viva comes home everyday from K with a huge smile and a "Wonderful!" answer to how was her day. When i get on George's computer I will get some pics up from the first day of school.

Only 8 hours and 30 minutes..

till I am taking the kids to school. Summer is over and school doors are opening once more. I envy the moms that have the patience to home school but I am not one of those. Viva is starting K this year. My last one........ They are all excited and couldn't sleep, I just saw the boy a moment ago. We did school supplies today and backpack are awaiting! I guess I should go to bed since this means I get up every morning from now on also. :(

How do I love thee....

Let me count the ways...
1 Beautiful Beaches

2. Tasty food

3. Amazing Ruins

4. One of a kind restaurants

5. Out of the way lagoons

6.Cenotes

7. Underground caves

8. Coral

9. Interesting cemeteries


And so much more. We thought that we would be done with the Yucatan with this trip but there is so much more to see than we could cover in one short week. We know more now and can plan better for our future trips to this area. The first day was spent crawling out of the swamp of an airline into the heat and after leaving our stuff at the resort we went to Playa del Carmen for lunch and browsing. I was sick almost immediately but did have the best Pico ever. This has to be the easiest place to score. Everytime I left Gyorgy by himself he was offered something. It was several days before anyone approached me though. I can't figure that one out. Anywho, the next day we sat through tropical storm Dolly so we decided to go to Cancun.
Nothing there to talk about except all the rain I guess. We went to bed that night in dismay thinking that the rest of our vacation would be spent drowning in the downfall. Much to our surprise the next morning was beautiful. We decided that this day would be Chichen Itza since that was the reason we came back. We drove away from the sunny beach 200 km inland....back to Dolly. Yep. It's me you know. Chichen Itza was pretty dissapointing. We waited a hour to get in and it wasn't really anything like what we expected. It was very landscaped and VERY crowded. Everyone was standing around clapping trying to get the Kulkukan temple to respond with this squeaky sound. Well, after the fury of the clouds opened upon us we decided we had seen enough. It just wasn't what we had expected. We left and took a wrong road and ended up on the road to Coba. Fortunatly Gyorgy wasn't cranky enough to turn down this opportunity. On the way though, we noticed a cemetary and stopped to look at it. They do not do them like we do here in the states. Their's are much more interesting. BUT as we walk in the first one I happen to look in has 2 skulls! One a couple of 'houses' later had a body in a bag! Apparently they feel more like they still have their dead with them if they can visit them. No one I asked had heard of the bodies being exposed like that so this is something I want to look into more. I found them on my top 5 most interesting parts of my trip. Well, Coba is everything you might expect from visiting a ruin. It is still very wooded with just a path cut through from ruin to ruin. It had alot of buildings also and we were able to climb a 42 m high temple!!!!! Talk about trembling legs. The next day was spent as Xcaret which is sort of a cross between a zoo and an amusment park. The have all sorts of fun things to do in here. The best was the ball game (pretty much like hockey with a flaming ball) and their Mayan village, the church and the cemetary.
Anyhow, that is probably enough for right now.

Almost gone...

the summer. That was very fast, especially when school now starts back in August. Not even half the things that I wanted for them to do have been accomplished. Ophelia and Gavin are with Glen and attended Camp Toccoa this past week. Their first camp. I haven't spoken with them yet, been out of town (next post) and Viva has spent one more week with Grandma and Grandpa, but i've missed them terribly and can't wait to see them. Hopefully we can squeeze some more fun into this short summer. I'm also counting on some pictures from everyone's week. O and G went armed with three cameras and instructions that they must be in at least 15 pictures of each roll of film. I don't want pictures of other kids or of walls. I'm excited to see what they come back with!

All butchered

I’ve never really been a nurturing kind of person. My kids are pretty lucky they’ve made it this far. Lately I’ve had the urge for living things around my house. I’ve gotten my first houseplants (other than that poison sumac plant when I was 8) and two fish. This is pretty major for me since I hate tending things and get pissed off all these years when they all die. So far I’m doing pretty well until I visited my front yard today. Because of my hatred on spending money on stuff I feel I can get for free I have several transplants in my yard. From one source this year I was so happy to score bamboo, some gorgeous ferns that I can not even identify (stands tall and grows out in huge arcs), toad lilies and some lizards tail. Well, today my husband who is apparently completely blind decides he was to ‘help’ with the yard. I see the weeds that pass for grass cut and I am happy. I go on my daily walk to check out my plants that I have tended for the past 4 months and find that he has cut down my toad lilies so close I can’t even pick out their bases. Then after bitching about those I run in the house to save the dinner I had been working on since last nite. I go back out to dump trash and decide that going to look at everything else will cheer me up and I walk up the hill to find the dead bodies of my ferns scattered everywhere and only two lizards tail still standing and torn up pieces thrown nearby. . . I know they are only just plants but I’m pissed. He shrugs and says they will come back but I am still pissed. The ferns will not be back this year, I just had the first baby come up two weeks ago. Even if they come back they will not get as big before its over. And the toad lilies will not bloom. 4 of my blackberries died. Ugh! He also went machete happy and cut down several limbs and small trees, just leaving their carcasses where they land. This is not the help I was wanting!

Trickles of memories

When I was pretty young one of my friend's sister sat us down and got us to memorize the lyrics of a song that I had never heard. For some reason (I was probably six) that song has always stuck in my head. I only heard it once that I can recollect...we were at a boat show and it came on over the speakers and I sat on a shelf trying to listen to the song over the noise of shoppers. Today for some reason that song popped back into my head and I realized that all i have to do is google the lyrics and I found this....

Now my mission is complete. I had to put it somewhere.

today

:(

and also today.....

:)

(after over 60 years together!)

SUMMER!!!

What do you do when you do when your friend comes to visit??? Make stuffed animals.

This is Till,

he is my lyricpet and that is Rammstein's song Seeman (Sea man you pervert) on his tummy. I just wish I could insert a little music thingy so when you poke him in the eye he sings. :( Someday, someday. I'm actually up here in Ellijay this week working and have been hooked up with a "Villa" (hottub!) of my own while we are here. I'm up here by myself and am supposed to be studying for my adjuster exam (the book is bigger than a dictionary!) but instead I am taking my newly taught semi sewing skills (Thank you Dusti) and making pillowcases, handbags and lyricpets. Am I ready for the exam? No. BUT...I have seen a brand new baby deer out of the 50 i've seen in this valley and I saw a mom falcon teaching her babies to fly! The downside of this place is that the entire ga population of flies seem to reside here.
The first few days my parents and kids were here and then they picked up my niece whom I was glad to see.
She got to go to the pool for the first time and my kids always love having her around.
Wow, in just two short weeks Viva finally learned to swim. I don't have any pictures of her doing so unfortunately, I will take some though and post at another time. She is not completely proficient at swimming on the water but now that she FINALLY started swimming under the water she is a little dart and will now even come up for a breath and go back under. Ophelia is getting to be a stronger swimmer every season. She can fetch rings from the bottom for over an hour, I couldn't tire her out and believe me, I was trying. Gavin is getting much better also and will do flips and such. He still looks like a gasping fish when he comes up from swimming under the water but he is MUCH stronger now. Other than that we have been to Tanglewood Farms and we also went to see the Sound of Music at the Towne Lake Arts Center which was awesome. They were sooo good and I was not expecting it to be that professional. Even the littlest kids could sing. Lizel was especially good. We've swam our heads off and lots of visiting. They are in Fla and Toccoa right now and for the next couple of weeks in Fla which is good because I am working! Business has grown enormously and I can concentrate on that for a second. I can't wait to have them back though so we can have some more summer fun. Tons of stuff planned.

Winding up

As the school year is winding up and things have been busy. We had the last soccer game and awards ceremony. The kids had a lot of fun in Upwards this season and they both received a soccer ball from the league. Wow, next year I'll have 3 players...how will i cope??
Ophelia had her spring violin recital and did a good job. One whole year! Viva just started piano lessons because I am bartering with a great teacher. Maybe I can find someone else to barter with for Gavin's guitar lessons. School is almost over, 3 more days.
Our pool finally opened so we will be there almost every day! We went to a play at the Towne Lake Arts Center, The Sound Of Music. I didn't really expect it to be so great. The singers were first rate and they did an absolutely superb job putting this play on. We cannot wait for the next production, Beauty and the Beast.
One quick funny, we were passing some converted lofts and they kids were talking about how big they were and Gavin says "Yeah, they are like 3 books big!" I half puzzled over this until about 5 minutes later when he said "See, 1, 2 3 windows, 3 books." Then I realized. I could not stop laughing. Ophelia taught Viva a catwalk and she loves making us all laugh showing off her clothes.
That's about it for now I guess. I need to be studying.

What do you want to do with your life???!!!!

I wanna rock!

These two lines changed the way I saw music when I was only about 6. I had never before seen a man with ratted hair and more makeup than a geisha and I was hooked! It was an accident that I saw it since my parents were very against ‘heavy metal’ which is what they had this labeled as. We were actually being babysat by my uncle and waiting on the video for When Doves Cry to premiere. Right before it came on was when the video for We’re Not Going to Take It aired. I can remember my uncle being grossed out and even though we were recording the station so we could get the Prince video he tried to fast forward it. I spent many of my childhood years only getting to watch about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of it before it started skipping and jumping around in fast forward. I didn’t care, I still had the first 3 bars and sang it all the time. I could recite the whole daddy spiel and did so constantly. I was in love with a song.

Still I wasn’t allowed to listen to metal or glam, none of it. In 5^th or 6^th grade I heard Pour Some Sugar on Me and was hooked again. I was always trying to get someone to buy me the Hysteria tape. Sometime in my early teens I started swaying that way in my musical tastes and when I was a teenager, a boyfriend introduced me to Death and Pantera. I plunged myself in to the deep dark depths of metal music and still wallow there today. I’m sure my mom looks at her kids wandering how they both could of ended up like we are. I would be disgusted if my kids grew up to listen to country music and wore overalls and crocks. Poor mom. Last week I showed my children the video to We’re Not Going to Take It and they too became hooked on men in hairspray and full makeup. We probably have the most views in the world on youtube for this video right now and my littlest one walks around singing it constantly. *wipes proud tear from eye.

La La La La

As of today this is my children's future dreams:
Gavin: Teacher then dentist then doctor and also a treasure hunter. (He scratched the doctor when I told him he'd have to dig around in nasty mouths as well as clean ones)
Ophelia: Gemologist, fashion designer, violin teacher and starting a band with her friend.
Viva: Tattoo artist and make lots of money.

I am so excited for the summer. I have all sort of plans for me and the kids. They are big-time trying to make wares to sell at LEAF Festival. We are going to have a blast. It actually just happened last weekend also but the tickets were sold out. We did go out though to the Shriners Circus and had a great time. The first thing we rode was the Spaceship 2000 a.k.a. the Gravitron in my day.

Ophelia hated it but Gavin and Viva had a good time. Viva is fearless, she even rode the rollercoaster by herself!

Oh!

Funny you get so busy and forget what you start...or maybe that's just me. Some notables over the past few months. Viva made me a corset out of manilla paper the other week. She had taped a couple of sheets together but after fitting it on me she decided she wanted to make it a jacket instead. She came back a few minutes later and had two holes cut into the paper. It actually made it look sort of pre future chic! Then she came back with it a little bit later and had drawn a scene on the back. She said "The good thing is that these are washable marker so when you want something new I can change it." :)
Ophelia made it into AIM which is honors classes when you are in elementary school. I'm so happy for her. She is doing very well in school and is a avid reader just like I was. She is especially into Harry Potter, reading all the books in like a month and then wanted to re-read them. I put my foot down on that one. She got a fish for doing well in school and named him Harry Potter and even walked around for a moment with a scar drawn on her head!
Gavin is back where he loves...soccer. He loves sports and is actually pretty good at whatever he tries. I want to get him back into gymnastics also so he can be good at something that is just him. He is also doing pretty well in school, getting almost all outstandings on his last RC. He's a goofy little guy! He's very physical comedy. If he did comedy, he would be the guy falling down and tumbling to get laughs.
I am wanted for a movie so I hope that I will be more diligent in writing about my life with my kids in the future. We will see.