New Year's Eve

The end of a year always feels like the shutting of a door to me. I feel like we are standing at the edge of an open door, looking out in front of us. When midnight comes, it's as though we've stepped outside of the door and pulled it shut behind us.

It's kind of odd since all we're really doing is ending one month and starting another. But it does feel monumental and symbolic to me each year.

Sigh.

This year, we had some friends over to play games and enjoy lots of snacks and munchies. We played several games, including Hedbanz for Kids and Quelf. But one of the favorites (for me) was the one suggested by Dawn, which included taking a somber photo at the beginning of the evening and a celebrating one at the end.

Everyone played along, and I think they turned out well. What do you think?

Friday Funnies

The other night, Edward looked pensive and asked, "What's a hypocrite?"

To which I answered, "Someone who says one thing and does another." Then when I noticed that he still looked confused, I asked him why he was wondering.

"Because Lara Croft (from a video game) is in the 'Hall of Hypocrites' in Tomb Raider," he told me.

Overhearing all this, Stuart starting laughing. "Um...that's the Great Hypostyle Hall," he corrected.

Fighting hypocrites would make for some interesting weaponry for Lara.

*wink-grin*

Monday Musings Marching In

Happy Happy Happy Monday to you! The very first one in March!!

And, wow, did it start out like a lion. At least six inches of fluffy, white snow plunked down on our area this morning.

Dumb groundhog. [Insert Yosemite Sam mumbling here.]

Of course, all the schools were closed for the day. But not ours. Mwa-ha-ha-ha. In fact, I had my kids double up their lessons today since we have a lot of busyness coming up later in the week. Mwa-ha-ha-ha! Still, we'll be finished our lessons in May while the rest of the schoolkids are sweating through into June. *wink-grin*

Anyways...

There's a 2-hour 24 tonight! Woooo-hoooo! But, alas, all the wings have been eaten. Stuart and I decided to try baking the wing sauce on hard pretzels instead. We usually dip pretzels in it afterwards...and this might be a cheaper alternative to wings...and save our fingernails from the stress of the show. The "Jack-slap" scene was awesome last week. Renee really let him have it emotionally. It was well-written and well-acted. And lest people think I'm into abuse or something I was excited for the scene merely as a means of seeing some of Jack's past brought back into the storyline....that's it. Really. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing. Well, seeing him get smacked (even by a woman) was refreshing since none of the "baddies" can shoot straight, and he's becoming a bit of a "super hero"...or a 1950s cowboy (the only one who can shoot and hit anything).

We were chatting with the kids about video games last night, and my hubby mentioned something about a princess which brought to mind (who knows why exactly) the very same type of person in the game "Donkey Kong." I was telling the kids how this blonde-haired chickie sat at the top of a tower (end of the level) shouting "Help!" through a word bubble. Stuart and I were chuckling at the memory when Emily looked at us in surprise and said, "You know about 'Donkey Kong?'" Um...yes. We played the original game, complete with ladders and a big gorilla....back in the...'80s. Yikes. Does that make us old?

Dumb question.

Well, I finally updated my blog to include all the posts from two weeks ago to today. Have a gander backwards if you so desire. Lots of good photos of our now-8-year-old and our nearly-6-month-old with their beautiful older sister.

I will endeavor to keep this current. Life has a way of overtaking me sometimes...which adds to the clutter in my brain.

Enjoy your Monday!

Say What?

We love to play games in our house. Computer games, PS2 games, board games, word games. Any kind of game will do. We just find them fun.

For Christmas, we "gave" ourselves the electronic version of the game, "Catch Phrase." Despite the annoying (and aggitating) beeping that goes along with each round, we have found it to be really, really enjoyable.

Last week, we decided to play adults against the kids...and the kids were really good! They nearly beat us! *wink-grin*

But what we found funny was the clues they gave to each other, trying to get the other to guess the word(s) on the screen. That's when age/experience came into play.

Emily had the words "rainy day" so she used the expression "save it for a rainy day" as a clue.

"Save it for?" she said, signaling for him to fill in the blank.

Edward looked at her blankly and said, "The bank? College?"

Hmm... He'd never heard the real expression.

Then he was trying to get her to say "bullfrog." He's doing a report on toads so he used that to give a hint for the "frog" part and then said, "A boy cow."

For some reason, Emily wasn't on the same wave length -- maybe not even in the same spectrum -- and said, "Frog oxen?"

We got a good giggle out of that and thus ended the round.

What I Want (Apparently)...

I've been "tagged" by Elizabeth over at Who Died and Made You Queen? to play a little game.

Here are the rules: Go to the search engine of your choice and type in "[your first name] wants" and post the first ten results below. Hers made her (and me) giggle. Mine...well, you be the judge. *wink*

1. Susie wants an S&M Barbie!
2. Susie wants to buy a new car.
3. Susie wants new clothes.
4. Susie wants to go home.
5. Susie wants to play with Maja in the snow.
6. Susie wants to cook.
7. Susie wants him with her because he's such a strong competitor.
8. Susie wants to play.
9. Susie wants to learn something new.
10. Susie wants a fun bassist.

Since this could have changed the "ratings" of my blog *wink* (I'm amazed by the desires of ladies with my name), I decided to go past a few of the "top 10" to some more "family-friendly" ones.

I won't "tag" anyone formally. But have a go at this. It's funny! And it does make you laugh!

*grin*

The Photo Meme

This is something fun from Elizabeth:

Instructions
1. Go to Google Images.
2. Type in your answer to the question in the “search” box.
3. Use the first image that comes up.
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.

1. First name?


(I'm not sure who she is...but she shares my firstname.)

2. Favorite color?



3. Celebrity crush?



4. Band you're listening to right now?



5. Favorite movie?



6. Favorite Disney Princess?



7. Favorite alcoholic beverage?


8. Dream vacation?



9. Favorite dessert?



10. What I want to be when I grow up.

Merriest of Merry Monday Musings`

Happy Monday to you!

New day, new week, new excitements!

Yay! Yay! YAY!

My favorite-most actor finished his time in jail and is now back home. I've been intrigued by the various articles written about it, quoting the policemen from the jail. They all agree that he was a "model prisoner" who "paid his debt to society with complaining or asking for any special treatment." I'm glad for his sake that it's all over. And, as I said before, I'm proud to call myself a fan. He handled the whole situation with dignity and honor, not running away from what happened but facing it. How many of us would act likewise in such a challenge?

I'm going to New York tomorrow to meet up with two Kiefer fans/friends I met on another blog. It's such fun to think that you can actually make nice friends online...not everyone is a stalker or pervert, looking to hurt young children.

No news on the writers' strike. We're still waiting for 24 to resume filming so that there might actually be a season this year... Ugh! In the meantime, we're still enjoying The Closer and some episodes of the X-Files (previously my very favorite-most show...)

We played some games with the kids this past week and weekend. We realized that we hadn't done this in awhile and resumed this practice around the holidays. Gametime is always such a great connecting time with them. It's fun for all and teaches a lot about sportsmanship and cooperation.

One of the games we played was one we gave them this past Christmas called "Monopoly: Here and Now." It's fun and a great teaching tool for learning larger numbers (the smallest denomination you get is $10,000). It's also been fun to talk about the different landmarks you can buy, and instead of railroads, you can purchase the four major U.S. airports: LAX, JFK, Chicago, and Atlanta. The pieces are things like a cellphone, a hybrid car, a labradoodle, etc. This is not the "Monopoly" game that your grandma played, huh?

* * *

5 THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

• puddles of sunlight

• a bowl of buttered popcorn

• little girls in tutus

• black pearls

• hardworking colleagues

* * *

I think I was a cat in a previous life -- if I believed in such nonsense. I love sitting in "puddles of sunshine," watching the rays come in through the window, lighting up the bits of dust in the air.

I always imagined the dust I saw was actually atoms. I thought I must have the strongest and mightiest eyes around to be able to see actual atoms with my naked eye. Hmmm...

* * *

Growing up, my family enjoyed popcorn. I mean we LOVED it.

It was a Friday night ritual to pull out the pot and pour the thin layer of oil and cover it with popcorn kernels.

(All this was before the invention of microwave popcorn, of course.)

If we had friends over, we'd pop corn. It was inexpensive and tasty. We'd eat it while watching movies and/or playing games and/or using the computer.

And forget popcorn chains for the Christmas tree. We wanted to eat it, not string it.

Then came microwave popcorn, and we continued to enjoy this yummy snack even more.

Fast-forward to 1988 and Swindon, England...

We'd moved to a foreign place with lots of new, interesting foods to get used to. We could still buy ice cream (another family favorite) -- though in only a few varieties at that time -- and occasionally we'd find something familiar amongst the unfamiliar on the grocery shelves.

But no popcorn.

Then one day we saw some microwave popcorn. It was like the heavens opened and the angels sang for us. We were so excited.

My dad bought the entire flatpack (some 30 or so packages?).

We've often wondered what the cashier thought when we arrived at the register with only these "30 or so packages" of microwave popcorn to buy...

Hey, what could we say then (or now)?

We LOVE popcorn!! *wink*

Solitaire Refinement (Updated)

Call us "old-fashioned," but we gave the kids each a deck of real cards for Christmas.

Okay. Okay. They're shaped and have Disney Princesses and Spiderman on them, but they are actual plastic-coated paper cards.

Tangible.

No plugs, cords, or keyboards required.

I was a veritable "card shark" by the time I was 4...my next-oldest sister having taught me various card games in the hopes of "creaming" me. Too bad for her I turned out to be a pretty good opponent. *wink*

Then my mom taught me lots of versions of Solitaire in order to occupy my downtime in the long, hot summers.

So this morning I decided to teach the kids to play the same-said game....

Edward mentioned that he'd only ever seen Daddy playing Solitaire on the computer. I don't think he realized it could be played anywhere else.

So I'm teaching them this age-old tradition of playing with real cards...on a real table.

Hmmm....wish me luck.

There's no mouse to click...and they have to move the cards themselves.

Hey, if nothing else, it counts as math, right? *wink*

* * *

UPDATE:
The kids have moved on to "double Solitaire" -- in a competition of Spidey versus Princesses....they're ambitious.

UPDATE on the UPDATE:
Okay....they're definitely not ready for "doubles".... They need a whole lot of refinement in the individual sport before they move on to competition. *grin*

Flowery Fun

Thanks to Angel over at Aduladi' for this fun survey. Try it, and let me know what kind of flower you are!

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

(Sometimes I think I'm more of a "snappy"dragon...)

Which Car Are You?

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Fantastic Four

I was "tagged" with this little game recently and thought it might be fun to share. I find it extremely hard to limit some of the questions to only four answers... Feel free to leave your own answers in the comments.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. assistant preschool teacher
2. business/lifestyle writer for the Reading Eagle
3. editorial assistant at Highlights for Children
4. copyeditor at an adveritising agency

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Paradise Found
2. Flatliners
3. River Queen
4. Gladiator

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Annapolis, MD
2. Swindon, England
3. California, PA
4. Folsom, CA

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. 24
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. The Office
4. 'Til Death

E) Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Falmouth, England
2. Europe
3. Nags Head, N.C.
4. Los Angeles, CA

F) Websites I visit daily:
1. http://www.agora.org/
2. http://www.pennykeating.com/Kiefer.html
3. http://www.24fans.net/
4. http://writersblock-susie.blogspot.com/index.html

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. chocolate
2. buttered baby carrots
3. bacon
4. ice cream

H) Four places I would like to be right now:
1. Los Angeles, CA
2. Manteo, N.C.
3. New York City
4. In the Cotswolds, England

Bugging Him

5 THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT

• a boxful of pastries

• soft oxford shirts

• Wiener schnitzel

• big grains of kosher salt

• a close game of Scrabble

My hubby and I used to play an online Scrabble game on a website called Bug Cafe.

I'd forgotten about it....

He didn't.

And today he mentioned that it [the game] is 304 days old...but the score is 163/153.

Does that still qualify as "a close game of Scrabble?"