Bass Lake Smokey Bear Run

So about a month ago Trooper ran in the Smokey Bear Run at Bass Lake. The boy is OBSESSED with running, people. Ever since he started toddling all he's ever wanted to do is run! We take him to the park and McDonald playlands and all he does is run around, but he's also deathly afraid of heights so that might have something to do with it too. I guess running around gave the illusion that he was playing with the other kids 2 stories above him in the giant Big Mac. He's actually only just conquered this fear in the last year or so.

So we decided to enter him in a race. He loves to race his friends, aside from playing with cars this is his favorite thing to do. So we told him to keep his pace at first so that he didn't tire out and then to make a mad dash for it at the end. We weren't aware that the race only turned out to be like less than a 100 feet long and we also completely forgot from Brad and Breena's days of racing about the little shoot that you file into at the finish line to determine your finishing order so Trooper ended up "racing" at a very slow-paced jog and stopped right before the little shoot thinking that he was done and let about 10 kids in front of him then too. A well, you live you learn.

The "Olympic-Sized Look of Determination".

Trooper's "jog".

The best part = meeting Smokey Bear!

-Britten

Kaiya's Got the Spirit!

So Kaiya is a little cheerleader now - a total traitor to the colorguard realm, I know I am, but we needed something for her to try and like that was in a social setting and so far I think it's working. I'm not going to be one of those mom's who makes their child do things that I think she should, but she has to at least try something before she can diss it. She can be a football player for all I care, just as long as she likes it and it helps her gain confidence, self-esteem and life experience she needs. She is mighty cute in her pink, yellow and black though!

Her team "United" consists of Kindergarten through 3rd graders. They cheer at little flag football games. My mom coaches the older girls for United. These games are really fun to go watch - a nice relaxing break from homework at night. That's her good friend McKenzie Shepherd (Wendy Rozier's niece) with her on the upper right.

-Britten

New Blogger Alert!

My cool sis-in-law Amanda is blogging now! Yay! Go click on her name here or under my links and see what's going on with the twins, my bro, and my new sis. Welcome, Amanda! So glad to have you with us now!

-Britten

Ari's Meadow at the Cabin

Aww...my little elf baby. We can't tell who she looks more like - Yoda or Spencer W. Kimball...but same thing really.

Aren't you photographers out there so impressed by my creativity? I put the camera in the grass to capture the two on the right. I'm a genius, I know.

-Britten

It's Atreyu!

Actually, it's Noah Hathaway who plays the boy-hero Atreyu on the much-loved, and to us Jones and Harmon girls "classic", The NeverEnding Story. I totally thought he was a hottie when I was 11, and he hasn't turned out bad either! Breena mentioned that she thought the picture below was Andy when he was younger. I never saw that in Andy when I first met him, but after we first started dating I was looking through some pictures of him when he was younger like around the age of 10, 11 or so and the resemblance is uncanny! So I must have seen little hints of "Atreyu" in his face for me to ever even consider dating him, right?

Freaky.

And here's a cool thing - We had the missionaries over for dinner the other night and one of them commented on the number of faeries frolicking in my abode. He then said, "Yeah, my mom always says that her heaven better have faeries in it." To which I replied, "I like her already. Can I have her number?" THEN after commenting on what a cute baby Ari is and how he liked all the interesting names I have bestowed upon my children he went on to say that his older sister just had a baby and named him "Atreyu". I squealed like a little girl and gasped, "Oh! You mean like in The NeverEnding Story?!!!" He chuckled and said, "Wow! You are the only person who has ever got that! The rest of the world just thinks she's wierd!"

What can I say....actually I know darn well what to say: To quote Danielle Russel-Kline, one of the world's greatest colorguard choreographers (remember flashy Clovis West, people), "The masses are asses".

I'll just keep living in my quaint, uncrowded faeryworld with my few friends and family who "get it", thank you very much.

-Britten

Let's Play: "Name That Hero"

Okie Dokie...I want you all to guess who this is, or in a sense, was.

Have a great time racking your brains out!

-Britten

Imogen Heap

For the past few weeks I've been listening to a new album entitled "Speak For Yourself" by Imogen Heap. Cool name, huh? I love her voice - at first I couldn't make out whether the songs on this album were sung by a male or female until I did further research, the only thing I knew is that I loved the music this artist made and I knew I had heard it before...

...It's the voice that pulls on the edges of the mind to just "Let Go" during the unforgetable theatrical trailer to Garden State, or the voice that brings back memories of the eighties in the remake of the classic "Holding Out For A Hero" during the end credits to Shrek 2, and it's the ethereal nightengalic strains in the song "Can't Take It In" which is heard as the door to the wardrobe is reopened at the end of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe calling for us to engage in another adventure. "It can not be any more beautiful". You can hear samples of her stuff at iTunes. She's also the music and voice behind the album Details by Frou Frou. Imogen likes to harmonize with her own voice much like my beloved Tori. Her music is considered electro pop and she's proud to say that she's a "nerd who sits for hours trying out new things on her synthesizer". I totally did this when I was like 13 or something and I would still be doing it if I could find my ol' synth...must be in a box somewhere.

*Runs off to dig in the garage*

But really...there's something very catchy about her melodies and beats and sometimes the lyrics seem out of place with the music, but that's part of why I like her. Listen to a couple of her songs on Pandora and see what I mean. You'll be boppin' down the street before you know it!

-Britten

I Heart Heroes

So Andy and I went to see Superman Returns a couple weeks ago and I just have to say that it was SUPERB, for lack of a better word. It’s just too bad it was overshadowed by the release of Pirates.

I’m a sucker for those hero movies…they get me every time, but this one radiated a special light the others lacked, like the recent renditions of Spiderman and Batman (even though I totally love those too). The whole movie had that special “Superman feel” to it that I felt twenty-some-odd years ago watching Christopher Reeve’s Superman carry Louis Lane through the night air over Metropolis. At that time, being a little girl still, I was endeared to Christopher Reeve as superman, maybe because he looked a little like my dad (and we all know how little girls think their Daddies are Superman) or maybe it was just because Reeve made for a very likeable Man of Steel. Whenever he would get hurt by the bad guy it hurt me in a very personal way in which I really can’t put my finger on, but it just made me want to step through the screen and give him a great, big hug. Kind of like when you’re watching The Lamb of God and Jesus is being hurt repeatedly and you want to give him a great, big hug. Am I a total weirdo?

Oh, come on! There are great similarities between Superman and Christ….humor me, if you will: Superman is a God from another world sent to live as a man among mortals to save them. Hello! He has special powers, is a universal symbol of humankind’s ideal, his virtue, his integrity, yadda, yadda…. And there are paintings of Christ wearing a red coat….coat/cape…okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. Mary Magdalene, Louis Lane, secret love, a royal birthline, superman’s son….yes, you can keep on stretching, but that may be taking it a little too far (but that’s *my brain* for you). There's even this book I found, The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero . I might just have to read that along with finish "Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters".

And lets just back up for a moment: Superman’s Son!!!!! Holy tug-my-heartstrings, Batman! I was completely and pleasantly surprised with that turning point. I just LOVE how the passage from Kal-El’s Father, Jor-El, in the Fortress of Solitude took on a whole new meaning when he quotes it to his sleeping little boy. That was so precious and poignant.

“They can be a great people Kal-El. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all - their capacity for good – I have sent them you…my only son.”

Or when Superman is dead in the hospital and little Jacen gives him a quick kiss on the forehead as he leaves with his mother who we assume has just told Superman that Jacen is his son….yes, again, so sweet.

All in all, the actor, Brandon Routh, reminded me sooooo much of Christopher Reeve (sometimes his voice was very eerily Christopher), yet at the same time, he also brought his own “flavor” to the character. This being his big-screen debut, from here on out he will always be known as Superman no matter what other roles he takes on….I don’t think he minds though.

And here’s a little bit of trivia – he, Brandon, grew up in a Midwestern town much like Clark Kent that wasn’t too far from where the original T.V. superman, George Reeves, was from. Yes, that’s “Reeves” much like “Christopher Reeve” – who would also make his big screen debut as Superman. Destiny has a way of linking things together like that. Just like how Hayden Christensen’s shadowy profile on the side of the Tatooine Homestead garage in AOTC looks like Darth Vader, which was neither doctored nor recognized until the director and producers were sitting around making the commentary for the DVD. These directors who scour the world over for the perfect person to be picked out from thousands to fit the part…until he finally walks into the room to be interviewed and they just know in an instant, “It’s *HIM*”.

Men truly born to play these iconic figures.


Peace Out,

-Britten

Look Who's Blogging!

If you look at my links to the left, you may notice there has been an addition. My beautiful sister Breena is Blogging! Give it a whirl, Shirl @ Dancing Toad

Now, not only do I get to communicate via blog with Kim, Lori, Chris and the Jones sistas, etc….I get to blog with my actual sister!! Yipeee!

Oh, and btw…Breena’s pregnant!

-Britten

Old-school, Cartoony Shenanigans

The title for this blog is my new favorite phrase. The images it conjurs make me want to bust a gut. I heard it on one of my kid's modern-day cartoons, on Nick or something. It was coined by a character who was an older sister trying to coach a football team consisting of her younger brother and his band of misfit friends who were loosing against the unbeatable team. It was down to the last quater and she said, "Well, I guess in order to beat them we'll just have to resort to old-school, cartoony shenanigans!" Oh, my word! I was rolling with images of Wile E. Coyote dancing through my head!

I love that canine...thank heavens for Boom and Cartoon Network.
R.I.P. Chuck Jones

Ya'll gotta check this out. My sis Breena showed me these little cartoonies a few years ago and I've been following them ever since. They are from the site "Home Star Runner" and it would be well worth a few giggles to familiarize yourself with this site. So far, there's a series of 11 issues of this totally wacky and random parody of teen girls. Teen Girl Squad . Enjoy!

-Britten