Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Hobbit Movie

I love The Hobbit. It is such a fun adventure. Andrew and I read it when he was in Kindergarten. (The book was illustrated so that helped.) He really got into the story. Every night he begged me to read him more. It is my most favorite J. R. Tolkien books. Look what I found!!!!

Go to http://www.theonering.net/


And see what the characters look like. They've got all the dwarfs in costume now. Awesome. I am so excited to see the movie!!


Hello Again, Hello



No excuses. I've decided to give blogging another try. Summer has been flying by and unbelievably the end is too close. Yesterday, we bought all of Andrew's school supplies and school clothes. I can't believe how much a few inches on the bottom of a pant leg can add to the price of a pair of jeans. It's a scheme.

One of my callings in Church is as the ward Preparedness Specialist so excuse me if my mind is on "the end of the world." I was reading one of Jack London's (White Fang, Call of the Wild)books the other day entitled The Scarlet Plague. It is about a post-apocalyptic world after a terrible virus has wipped out most of the people on Earth and the land has reverted to wilderness and wildlife such as the Indians and perhaps Lewis and Clark or trappers would have seen it. The part that caught my attention and my dark sense of humor was that the devistating scarlet plague took place in the year 2012 and 2013. What a thing to stumble upon a book about the end of the world when the book was written in 1912 and have it pick your near moment on Earth to end it all. The book sets the world's poputation at about 8 billion which is about what it is today. What a good guess. However airplanes in the book travel at an astonishing 200 miles an hour--slow-pokes compared to today.

Anyway, the book is about an old man one of the few survivors who lived through the plague and whose time is growing short as he tries to teach his teenage grandsons wisdom and knowledge from when the earth was still civilized. So far it is very interesting. His son's are very primative in their humor. They tease their old grandfather in ways that are almost cruel. But it has some interesting thoughts and poses interesting questions one of which is--how far can man fall without knowledge, books and wisdom. What if there had been no Bronze Plates when Lehi and Nephi brought their families to the Promised Land? How much farther would they have fallen and how much more quickly?

Saturday, April 3, 2010

New Stephanie Meyer book!!!!!


The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer is coming out June 5th!! Yeah!!! Another Twilight type book. Only 200 pages but sure to be a great read.

Friday, April 2, 2010

In The Middle of Spring Break



Here it is Friday. I think I blinked--oops!! Most of Spring break has passed but we have already had a nice break from work and responsibilities. We spent Mon., Tue., and Wed. with my folks in Soda Springs. On Tuesday we went to the Logan Temple and did sealings for a whole list of people mom has been working on. The most exciting thing however was being there while my Grandpa Orndorff was sealed to his parents. It was beyond words --the best. We were excited to have Shane and Trixy come with us. Shane stood in for Grandpa which I am sure is just how grandpa would have liked.

Yesterday we came home for Oma's Easter egg hunt and a small luncheon. Grandma Dorthy and Oma spoiled all the kids. They were loaded with goodies. It was fun to see all the little cousins racing around. They are getting so big.

A week ago, Andrew had his Pinewood Derby. Let me just find a word to describe Andrew's car (which of course was Steven's creation). The word I am searching for is lead "pancake." It was maybe a half inch thick and armored in lead weights because it was so light. Andrew painted it gold with red stripes and flames. That was his contribution. Really I didn't have much hope for it winning any races. But--I was wrong. The pancake car kept winning races and my amazement kept increasing. On the very last race he was narrowly nudged out and lost by inches. It was so fun. I was really proud of Andrew keeping his emotions in check. He had been glowing all night with pride but after the last race--the curtain was down. I could see he was close to loosing it, so I congratulated him on winning second place. That did it. He hadn't thought of it that way. The smile was back.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Ides of March are coming

Here we are into March already. It is so exciting to see the snow melt. We have definitely lost ice poundage over the last three days. The temperature has been nearly 40 degrees--talk about a heat wave. Steven even said he saw a robin yesterday. I can hardly wait to hear the robins begin singing there love songs :) It is one of my most favorite tunes.

I am terrible at taking pictures and that is one of the reasons that I have put off posting. I have no illustrations to go with my thoughts. However, I thought it was high time that I said something--before too many more months pass.

Andrew is doing really great in school. He has over 100 math objectives passed off, over 135 reading objectives and still loves school. His piano playing is advancing steadily. On Friday he has to play before a judge for Festival and have his playing critiqued. Kind of scary if you ask me, but he just takes it as it comes. Over the last five or six months he has been playing basketball with the same team and coach and has gone from clueless to proficient. He is one of the best dribblers on his team and has played point guard a few times. His shooting is improving and he guards his guys like he wants to hug them. We have been very entertained. They won most of their games--so they are a little cocky, but it's good to see him feel good about something. He has one more session of basketball we signed him up for which will begin in about two weeks--I'm glad to see him busy.

Andrew also got his Bobcat badge for cub scouts and since I am the Wolf Den Mother (and I have to work on things) he is passing off a lot of requirements.

Steven is doing really good. He has his Masters Degree in Administration now. I'm so proud of him. It was a LOT of work. He is busy applying for principal jobs now, but so far things are looking kind of bleak--with the recession there are not a lot of jobs for principals either. Some Principles are over two schools now. I really hope it begins to look up soon.

I am still busy working in the resource room. I work with mostly first and second grade and one little kindergarten boy who is actually really smart and should be exited from the program. I also have started working with a little girl in a wheel chair. She can't talk and her limbs are not very supple but she is smart. She is just trapped in a broken body. She reads and does math as well as the other children I work with. She tries to communicate with sign language but struggles because her control over her hands is limited. She has a great Aid who helps her a lot and has the patience of a Saint. It has been a real learning experience for me and has taught me different methods of teaching I was unaware of before.

Hope everyone is well. March 15Th is the Ides of March--when Julius Caesar was assassinated--not a pleasant thought, but now that we too live in a real republic of ambitious men and women we can feel a little more understanding for old Julius. Smiles and friendships in politics carry the same promise. We don't know when the knives will fall either.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Andrew's Baptism September 26

Andrew decided to be baptised!!! :) ---and man was he excited.

This whole week it has been, only five more days--only four more days, etc. On the way to the church he was a giant glowing light bulb. His friend, Brittany, and he were the only ones in the stake getting baptised that morning so it turned out a lot more family intimate--which I was very glad. Sometimes stake baptisms are so huge you feel like it is an assembly line. His Grandpa Lind gave a talk on baptism and his dad baptised and confirmed him. That night he thanked his Heavenly Father that he could be baptised and I was so proud of him this morning when he told me he wanted to fast. Thanks to everyone who came and made this such a special day for us. And love to those who couldn't make it--we missed you.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Just clearing my throat

Yes, once again I reassure you that we are still here. School is out Yipeeeeee!! We are still very busy though--go figure. Andrew is playing pitching machine baseball three to four days a week and also continuing with piano. Steven is finishing up his intern hours for school and biting his nails about a job interview tomorrow. I am the chauffeur and the maid---wait--- I am the lazy genteel lady sitting on a silk cushion eating chocolate and being entertained by jugglers---nope not that one either. Whatever--I am busy trying to stay motivated with spring cleaning and yada yada.

Andrew got straight 5's on his report card but he still needs to work on using his time appropriately (ie stop talking to all his girlfriends). He made it to 209 accelerated reading points and 69 accelerated math points. He was very proud of his sweatshirt he got as a prize. The inflatable beach ball ($ .99) was a huge motivator from his teacher.

The big thing for me this summer is watching all the press releases and stuff they have been releasing on New Moon. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=58185785 One of millions!