TV show vent

We don't have cable and generally don't miss it, although it does mean that we are horribly behind media-wise. I mostly have no idea what people are talking about when they discuss the latest shows. It's occasionally embarrassing.

Then we signed up for Netflix and have been having fun renting movies that everyone on the planet has seen except for us (because they came out at least 5 years ago) and watching fun things on instant play like Scooby Doo movies and old Dr. Who episodes. Then we had the brilliant idea that maybe we will watch one of those TV series that everyone seemed to love and we would no longer be the freaks that don't even know what is playing on TV. So we started watching Heroes. And to tell the honest, embarrassing truth, I didn't even know the show existed until a week ago. Four episodes later and I'm torn. The story line is very interesting....BUT here is a list of the character vices I've noticed so far:

1. Violence
2. Murder
3. Rape
4. Underage drinking
5. Purposeful drug abuse
6. Fornication
7. Adultery
8. Internet "soft" porn

Could they have packed any more sensationalistic depravity and debauchery into FOUR EPISODES??? It's bordering on ridiculous. I mean, has our culture slipped so far that an engaging plot of ordinary people discovering they have super powers is no longer sufficiently interesting? We need all of the above listed items to hold our attention? Apparently so. Good grief. I guess this is why I gave up TV in the first place and I'll have to go back to my old TV show inexperienced ways. Sigh.

FHE poetry

This was FHE tonight. We were attempting to pass off one of the talent portions in the Faith in God booklet. Here it is, unadulterated, all punctuation and spelling exactly as written.

Rune:

David slew a lion, with a little knife,
he was surprised with such a sight
with very little strife,
he went to war, to fight till sore,
but 'ol goliath stopped them,
so the army needed more,
David went right up and let that slingshot fly,
and then when the rock fell off, it was a red bullseye.

Eliseo: (spelling and punctuation are not his strong point)

The gold plats are so vary golde.
my eys wer rolen. I'v neve-
r sene plats of gold. I neve-
r sold the gold plat's. the ange-
l Maroni bared the gold pla-
ts. in the hill of camora.

Lily: (This poem was a collaboration. Lily gave me a line and then the rhyming word of the next line and I would provide the bulk of the second line. All Lily's contribution will be in red.)

They ate the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
They were no longer as dumb as weevils.
They were naked in the Garden of Eden,
It was a place that didn't need weedin'.
Satan told a lie.
We all know why.
He wanted them to die.
They went out of the Garden of Eden,
To a place that did need weedin'.

Winter etc.

I'm sure the whole of Internetdom knows by now how much I hate/loathe/abhor/detest/despise etc. etc. (my mental thesaurus ran out) winter, but it does make for some cute pictures of the kids. Don't get me wrong, I would trade cute winter pictures of the kids in a second for cute beach pictures, a tree ripened mango and some coconut water.

I don't know, I don't think I would trade even 80 degrees and a mango for this picture. Except, could someone please photoshop out the dried boogers?

Grant caught a 20 inch trout. We smoked it. He also likes to chew tuh-backer. Not really, it's sunflower seeds. He's addicted.

This is Violet nowadays. She defines adorable.

I'm just posting this picture because it will mortify Grant. I don't know why.

Better Late Than Never

is almost never my motto--except when it comes to finally posting Christmas morning pictures in January. Oh, and sending out Christmas cards--I still might do this under the guise of Happy New Year cards.

The Tree

The Stockings
(the reason they are so cute is because my mom made them)

The Morning...

Kung Fu Panda

Plastic Cowboys and Indians stocking stuffer

The DS

The Educational Computer Game
(or ECG for short)

The Omnitrix
(I don't know what it is either..something to do with aliens.)

The Rolling Monkey

The Carnage

Christmas Chronicles Continue

Because it was so much fun I took pictures of more ornaments, some Christmas cards and my tree skirt.


I beaded 18 of these gold snowflake things around my tree skirt. I don't know why I get myself into these things.

Here's another clip on bird

Taiwan has the coolest Christmas cards. The two following are detail of a card full of Santas eating hot pot and singing karaoke.

These Christmas cards are from our friend Shan who sends us really cool cards every year.

This one has a mini 12 month calendar.

A pretty pink Christmas tree.

A fun church with a bell. Notice it can actually be hung on the tree.

This one is just classy.

Here's a star I made when I was like four years old or something. It's made of cardboard, aluminum foil, glitter and yarn. And it still persists after 30+ years.

More toothpick ornaments.

This one is looking at Bethlehem's skyline through a window. I know, the realism is astounding.

This ornament belongs to a full set of cartoonish Christmas pictures drawn by our friends' (then) 10 year old boy when we were in Taiwan and didn't have any ornaments for our poor little bare tree (these and the origami birds constituted our tree that year). He's pretty dang talented, huh?

My visiting teacher gave me this one last year. It's made of olive wood.

Okay, okay, I won't post anymore pictures of my ornaments. Anyway, they are all put away. Oh, and by the way, Happy New Year. Here's hoping this is the year I get to move back to Taiwan. Yeah, I know, fat chance.

This picture has nothing to do with ornaments. It's just goofy.

Um...I wasn't done

Tip: Pressing control P does not paste your pictures, it automatically publishes your post, whether you are done with it or not.

Here's what I have to say about the rest of the pictures.


These cute snowflakes were tatted by a woman in Grant's home ward and given to us one of the first Christmases we were married. There are various colors. I had no idea that tatting even existed until I received these. I now know that tatting exists, I still have no idea how it's done and what implements are used????

The following two ornaments were crafted when we lived in Taiwan and didn't have my large box of childhood ornaments to decorate our tree with. The origami birds were made the Christmas I was pregnant with Rune and they always remind me of how insanely happy I was that Christmas. The toothpick Star of David reminds me of several Christmases later when I was trying to have a fun crafty Christmas activity with the boys to decorate our tree and a one year old Lily was in the way of everything and destroyed half of what we did.

Lately, Lily and I have been into making these stuffed ornaments. I don't really know why, they aren't really that cool. At any rate we have around 7 of them on the tree.

For the kids' 2008 ornaments I bought these cool birds at JC Penny. They clip onto the tree and appear to be perched. They are my new favorite.

Ornaments through the ages

Here's a small sampling of what's on our tree. The pictures are pretty fuzzy. I still think they look better fuzzy than flashed.

First, a few faves from childhood.

I think I made this Santa in primary? Mom, can you remember? I think he's simple yet surprisingly Santa looking.

This seemingly naked, snowflake carrying fairy with a ponytail was my absolute favorite for many years. She's iridescent.

I have no idea why Santa would be riding in a hot air balloon instead of his sleigh, but I loved this ornament.