First Day of School '06

Kaiya's first day of school in the second grade (last year....I'm a little behind) In her cute little Naartjie outfit.

My babies!

Look how small they were!

Fire in the Sky

Taken last year about this time.

Listeners Wanted...

My lovely Aunt Lisa and her friend have started a group called Lifesong and just finished these two demos to submit to their local label for new music ideas for Deseret Book. They need a total of 500 opinions from different ages and genders and they are only at 350 right now. It would be ever so kind of you, my readers, to click on the mp3 links and listen and give your honest opinion in the comments section. I sent back like a 5 page critique on what I did and didn't like and which instruments would have worked better, which words would have worked better, blah, blah, blah. Then she told me that they are only singing to minus tracks and these are songs that other groups have done before.

Heh, heh....so I went a little over the top and don't normally listen to this kind of music. She still got a down right honest opinion and that's what counts!

Real Me

God Bless the Broken Road

Thanks!

-Britten

Stardust

I knew I would love it. Fallen stars, unicorns, a shining Claire Danes, a dashing hero disguised as a dork, evil, conniving, witty witches, a gaggle of dryly comedic dead princes, and a cross dressing, can-can dancing Robert DeNiro. Who could ask for more?

Well, I can.

I did love it - absolutely loved it! It's a "Princess Bride" for the 21st century, a kooky faery tale - which really are the best kind. One of my favorite lines says something like, "When you start to fit in there's something wrong", or "Be very afraid of normal"....just go see it. But I have just one quibble...where was the red-leaved talking tree modeled after Tori Amos, I ask you?

A bit of trivia: The movie is based on the novella Stardust by Neil Gaiman, a personal friend of Tori. The same "Neil" she refers to in some of her songs, i.e. "Tear In Your Hand": "If you need me, me and Neil'll be hangin' out with the dream king" (Neil also wrote a graphic novel series about dreams called The Sandman) and "Neil said 'Hi' by the way".

Neil loves Tori so much he wrote her as a talking tree in Stardust. She references this in the song "Horses" on her album Boys For Pele. She sings "And if there is a way to find you I will find you/but will you find me if Neil makes me a tree?" Now this I would have LOVED to see especially since I haven't read the book yet. I imagine this tree would have spoke (or sang?) in symbolic riddles steeped in mythology and history causing our heroes to relish the richness and depth of her message which would have warned of betrayal, basked in the complexities of love, preached of woman-power or demonstrated how to kill a waitress. Either way it would have been a revelation!!!

Perhaps they had Tori as a tree all planned for the movie, but she was too busy writing the brilliant Digital Ghost.

Here's to an almost complete movie.

*cheers*

And here's to my red-leaved talking Tori. Gah! I love her!

-Britten

This Little, Black Cloud

So Andy had to get another surgery. (What number are we at now?) I'm not refering to the one he had 3 weeks ago to get his morphine pump inserted. Nope. Out of all the pumps that Medtronics has made in the last 10-15 years, Andy's is the only one to break and go haywire. This would be his luck. I knew there was something screwy with it when he wouldn't feel any morphine go into his spine for an 8-hour span at night when it supposedly pumps the morphine in on a periodic basis, but the doctor just thought he should keep upping the doseage.

Andy started beeping (and by this I mean the pump) last Sunday and then we knew something *was* really up. The doctor just thought the pump was almost out of medicine. I said they were probably going to have to reprogram him at least. No. Another surgery to replace the broken pump (which is inserted behind the skin on his stomach). Someone hand me my medical liscense and get this over with already.

My poor, poor husband. We just can't get out from under this little, black cloud that's been over his head for about the last half of his life now. The stream of medical bad luck this guy has could make a good book at least. He said, "It's sad when you no longer freak out before a surgery. It's just like getting blood drawn - after about the 6th time it's no big deal." He's a real-live pin cushion and his body is starting to resemble Frankenstein's monster. We've started calling him "Bionic Man" since he has his mechanical stimulator, the two screws in his spine and now the pump. Maybe this half explains why I'm subconsciously captivated by Darth Vader? Maybe not...

However, he seems to be doing well right now. They will activate the pump with morphine on Monday and hopefully we'll see good times roll. (knock on wood, spin three times and do a little jig for good luck.) And pray too - don't forget that. He needs all the good vibes he can get.

-Britten

Viva Las Vegas

So I met up with some of my colorguard friends from high school at Kristal's parents house in Las Vegas a few weeks ago (minus our lovely Rachel who got stuck in San Fran with her sick cat - we love you Rachel!). Just like old times when we would hang out at Kristal's, laugh, watch movies, eat good food and chill and her parents would be there to chit chat with (if you could keep up with Jim's mile-a-minute little comments every now and then - heh!) Jim and Sheila are still cool as ever, and hey, so are we! It was amazing how tons of time can pass by, but when we get together again it's like nothing has changed. May it always be that way...

Sorry, there's a few inside jokes on here, but it's smokin'!

Vegas Remix

And no, we didn't see my favorite part of Vegas - the Bellagio fountains. Errr... That's about the third time I've been there and missed them for some dumb reason or another. One can not miss the spiritual experience of it all! It's blasphemous! Next time I'm there I'm going to stand and watch them all dag-nab day!


-Britten

Observations...

Two things I gather from this picture:

1.) Ari's a total ham.

2.) It's a shame my boobs are only this big when I'm overweight.

Size 10-18? A Recommendation...

So I have this friend whom I finally met in person at Celebration 4 this year. Her name is Mary Jo but she goes by many an alias, i.e. lazypadawan, MissPadme, and greenfaerie. We have been posting on some of the same Star Wars related threads on theforce.net . I also follow her Star Wars fan fiction (she is the best when it comes to filling in the blanks between scenes and episodes, IMO!) and her live journal (scroll down to "Silly Fic: Maury Povich's "The Empire Strikes Back" - you'll laugh your socks off, even if you aren't a Star Wars fan!).

She started a new blog on blogger not too far back that I know many of my friends and family who frequent my blog (and may not frequent enough *cough*) would love! It's for all of us size 10-18ers that have a hard time finding afordable, up-to-date clothing that doesn't end up making us all look like walking boxes. She scopes out the stores and fashion sites and reports on anything that may be a hidden treasure to anyone who needs more info and ideas on where to look. So far, I have found it extremely helpful in that she and I seem to share similar taste in clothing (see us in our Star Wars duds below). I started to get into a serious rut only shopping at NY&Co and it's starting to make my wardrobe go blah, so this is great for me! (and so far, I'm the only one commenting, so share the love!) You can view it here .

Happy shopping!