Aunty Kate the Great turns 50

The best birthday present I ever gave anyone, I didn’t really give. For Aunty Kate’s 50th birthday, her fabulously sensitive husband, Jeffrey Lewis, flew me up to the frozen northland that is Minneapolis to surprise her. Here is a rundown of how it went:

1. Thursday, Feb. 21, the big day, Jeffrey picked me up at the airport. We were going to get to the house during James’ parent teacher conference, get my stuff in my room, and be waiting in the family room when K returned home to get McKay. So we went to the store to buy Diet Coke, because K only drinks caffeine free Pepsi (yuck :{ ) and Jeffrey drinks Diet Dew (:{) and balloons. Well, James is doing so well in school that the conference was only about 5 minutes long and she was home. So plan B – I got the balloons and walked in on her in the kitchen. She screamed like she had won the Showcase Showdown on the Price is Right. It was so fun. We stayed home in the evening and watched her open presents (a wonderful laptop and printer so she can do genealogy – she is so righteous – and other great things as well), had a delicious steak dinner cooked by Jeffrey, wonderful bread and Texas sheet cake, also cooked by Jeffrey. We stayed up late and looked at genealogy (we’re old, we can’t help it) and just laughed and had a great time. The boys are great, smart, funny and talented, and perhaps a little unwilling to do homework if something more fun, like Aunt Rebby, is around.

2. Friday, Feb. 22, was the day of the ward Progressive dinner. It was to be held at the Lewis house so there was lots to be done. House work, and Aunty Kate had to go to school to help decorate for a big fundraiser. We did take a break and had lunch with Kathleen’s book group. They read Austenland, so I think I will put it on my list of things to read. Don’t forget the cooking for the party. We had a wonderful beef curry with whole spices and spinach, and my famous shrimp curry, rice and salad. After dinner, we went to someone’s home for dessert ( I was very good with my WW Points :) ). I met cousin Jordan Jenkins trainer (missionary), and some of K’s friends though I was the younger sister!! Again, we stayed up late and it was wonderful.

3. Saturday we slept in and then went to the gym (yes!). In the afternoon, we went to Minnehaha Falls. If you remember, by the shores of Gitchee Gumee, by the shining big sea waters, stood the wigwam of Nokomis, daughter of the moon Nokomis, and all her friends – Hiawatha and Minnehaha, from the Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow. For a really cold place, Minneapolis is a fabulous place to be outside. The sun was shining and people, including us, were out walking. The falls were frozen solid and there were chunks of ice floating down the Mississippi.

That evening we went to see Vantage Point with some friends. Please someone I know go see that movie so I can talk about it. SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read past here if you don’t want to know how it ends!! The trailer says that the movie is 8 people, 8 points of view. They tell the story once, then rewind and tell it again from someone else’s point of view. Thankfully, they actually only told the story 5 times. If they had done it once more, I might have screamed, thus ruing the movie experience for many. Basically, the President of the US is speaking at something in Spain. He is shot. But not really, that is a double. However, the real president is then kidnaped by terrorists, and a couple of hotels and the government headquarters is blown up by the same terrorists and lots of people die. It is an inside job. One of the secret service agents is behind the plot. At the end, the terrorists race through the town in an ambulance with the president. A little girl is in the road; they swerve to avoid hitting her. These are the same people that blew up hundreds, shot several secret service agents and police officers to death in cold blood and they swerve to avoid hitting a little girl? In real life, they would have mowed her down. Anyway, at the end, the terrorists die in the accident, the evil secret service agent dies, but utters that we will never win, and the good agent saves the day, gets into the ambulance and says "I’ve got you, sir". In the final scene we see the president being lifted up in a helicopter and a news reporter stating that the president was not injured in the shooting. It was like Groundhog Day on Meth and then they didn’t know how to wrap it up. Good tension for a while, too many points of view and a laughable ending.

4. Sunday, I had to go home to my own family. It was a sad parting. I know this was supposed to be a present for Aunty Kate, but it was a wonderful present for me, also. Many thanks to the Lewis’s for the good time. I hope they come to see us next.

Before I go, look at how big James and McKay are, and how cute Stripes is.

I was just practicing with my new camera for this picture. Stripes was a very patient subject.

Have iceberg, need Titanic

I’m sure everyone is aware of the frozenness we have experienced this year. It is has been a winter like none I remember. Maybe when I was a little kid and was lots shorter so the snow seemed deeper. Anyway, this year the drought appears to be officially over.

This picture is from all the snow that fell off the roof at the Huntsville house. Because we have a tin roof (like the sundae), the snow will build up to about 4 feet and then slide off in a massive avalanche. Never walk to close to the house. It could all come crashing down on you.

No Talk. Just Pictures

Do you want my opinion or not?

Well, I just finished reading a couple of books and watching a movie or two. Thankfully, I am on the treadmill when I watch so it makes the time go by faster. But at 30-35 minutes a workout, it takes me 4 days to watch a movie.

Anyway, I just sent back "Becoming Jane". It was a pleasant diversion and the actors were good, but I'm not sure the people who write these modern Jane Austen books/scripts have ever actually read Jane Austen. They may have read Pride & Prejudice or just seen one of the modern movie adaptations, but have never read her entire body of work or been familiar with her life or with the society of the time. Becoming Jane is highly fictionalized because Jane never left anything behind that would really indicate how well she knew the young man in the story. He is mentioned in a couple of her remaining letters. Her sister burned most of her correspondence after Jane's death. We can only speculate as to what actually happened. Unfortunately, modern novelists have their characters act as 21st century people would, leaving me just a little uncomfortable with the story line. My favorite part in the movie though was Jane talking to her deaf brother in sign language. I am not even sure that signing was widely available in the 18th century. However, this was a pleasant diversion while treading away.

My favorite movie this week has been Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audry Hepburn. Why don't they make movies like this anymore. It was so delightful. It made me laugh and cry just a little bit.

On to Books -- 7th Heaven wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It is better than some of the more recent James Patterson books. I think he just thinks up an outline and then hands it over to Maxine Somebody-or-other to write it up. He collects the big bucks and gets to put his picture on the back cover. Anyway, I was not dissapointed by this latest book. I have hopes for the future.

No Graves as Yet is Anne Perry's first WWI novel. It is part crime novel, part history lesson. It wasn't bad, but I didn't really love it. And then it wrapped up to quickly with an obvious set up for a sequel -- which I have but only because I bought 3 for the price of 2 at Barnes and Nobel. I am looking forward to her next Thomas & Charlotte Pitt or William and Hester Monk series. those are better.

Los Libros

Excuse me, Motherless Jones Girls, for stealing your title, but I love it. I am going to review the book I just finished. It was great. It is "Home to Holly Springs". It is the first of a series of the Father Tim books. I became a fan of Father Tim when I discovered "At Home in Mitford". I picked the book up because I thought it was a mystery. I was wrong. The Mitford books have become a great change from the gruesome crime novels I read.

Father Tim is a bachelor Espiscopal priest in Mitford, NC. The town is full of the quirky characters that you find in southern literature -- most of them archetypes. Father Tim over the years is adopted by a big dog, takes in a surly abandoned teenager, counsels his flock and finds the love of his life at the age of 62. All this time, he recognizes God's grace in all the good and bad that happens in his life. He is prone to quoting scripture -- especially I & II Timothy, which he feels was written directly to him by Paul.

Over the years he marries, finds the family of the surly abandoned teenager and then adopts him, retires, goes out to substitute for a pastor in another parish, does missionary work and continues on with his good life.

Well, I always knew Father Tim had a back story. His past is often eluded to in the Mitford, but not enough to let us know too much. In "Holly Springs" he returns to his old home town in Mississippi is response to a cryptic, anonymous note asking him to return home. Here he faces the painful and loving past that he had and solves several mysteries that he didn't have the answers to as a child or adult. It is a wonderful story of grace and forgiveness and love and I must, must, must recommend it. It gets a little sappy at times, but a little sap is good for the soul.

Home to Holly Springs -- 2 thumbs up!!

Forgive me, for I have sinned.

Confession: I think I forgot about WW yesterday and today. I ate 3 pieces of pizza, garlic bread, 1/2 cup lettuce with lots of bleu cheese dressing for dinner last night. Today, I went to McDonald's for breakfast -- sausage mcmuffin, Hashbrown, and diet coke (thank goodness something had no calories). For lunch I redeemed myself and had a WW meal (even though Iwasn't hungry) and then had 2 Schmidt's mint sandwich cookies. So, after I decided to write it all down on my little WW tracker, I have no points left today and no extra points left for the rest of the week.

They say confession is good for the soul. I have come clean and hope to get right back on the wagon now. I did walk for 31 minutes this morning. I think I may need another 60!!

I gotta learn that the answers to my problems are not in the fridge.

Movie Review

Pirates of the Carribean 3 was about the most painful movie I have watched all year. I know it is just barely 2008, but I'm declaring it the most painful. 1 was great, 2 had too much Keira Knightly and not enough Johnny Depp. 3 had too much of everybody. too long. too dark. too confusing a story line. I fast forwarded through lots of it.