Attack of the Saturday Morning Project

Kids - just because there is a how-to video...

Dakota's Bunny is Yellow. I think that her's came out the best.  

"What did you use for the black eyes?"

Black eyes peas.

For the real deal check out Aardman Animation Studio's Attack of the Were-Rabbit. 

BigChampagne is Watching You

Check out Eric Garland's cool picture in : Wired

My Little Hockey Player :)

No, not Jason, Dakota! She has been skating for over a year now, and about 2 months ago, the rink we go to sponsored a girls only learn about hockey event, featuring two members of the US womens' Olympic team, who of course brought their gold medals! Dakota got to use a stick to shoot some pucks, had her picture taken with the players and their medals (I need to scan it so you can see the look of awe on her face), and the rest was history.

Now every Sunday, for an hour, Dakota and I go to the rink for hockey. For half an hour, they practice skating with the sticks, getting up, sliding, falling down, curving turns, and other skating related skill work. Then, for the last half hour, they play little games. She has unbelieveable amounts of fun, and is always quite sweaty when she is finished, with a HUGE grin on her face.

Today, she wanted to stay to watch the "big boys" play (drop in for hockey players anywhere from middle school to adult it seemed). She enjoyed it for a few minutes, but I think she would have preferred to be out there herself.

She still figure skates two or more days a week. And she still waves at the Zamboni driver as he is cutting the ice. But she is now just a bit more fierce on the ice, a sight to behold.

That, and even with her on figure skates and me on hockey skates, I can never catch her at tag, and she is so fast that she can tease me about catching me, skating behind me for a long time, pretending to not be able to reach me, and then sneak around to the front and surprise me.

I just can't wait until both kids are old enough to be on the ice!

Dakota captures the essence of Scooby-Doo

Look Dad, It's Scooby-Doo! Hey, I've seen this episode. It's called, "Scooby-Doo and the Man wearing the Scary Ghost Mask."

E. Hewett in the House!

For dinner tonight. Dakota is thrilled, Jason is nervous. Understandably so, when there is yet another person in the house who is like 5 times as tall as him!

In other news, I have been seduced by myspace. Ok, not really, but it is pretty cool.

Living in Houston, I naturally wonder about the ribbons

Specifically, I wonder if there isn't some vendor with no particular ideological position other than the desire to sell a whole bunch of ribbon shaped magnets.

So the answer is: Yes. And apparently they want to encourage bloggers to give them free advertising.

"
Custom Ribbon Magnet: All Your Ribbons Are Belong To Us: "Make your custom magnet at SupportOurRibbons.com

Clever Response

DARN IT! I tried to make a clever magnet response, but to no avail! Rat Toenails and Fart MOnkeys!

Home Sweet Home

I am back from Oklahoma. I will blog more to tell about my week at "American Idols: Synod Youth Workshop" after I have caught up on sleep.

Long story short, Sunday night, 6 ir so hours on the floor of a creeeeeeeeeeeeepy church in a sketchy neighborhood (ok, not by my standards, but whatever), followed by 4 nights of 5-6 hours of sleep, and capped off by a whopping 4 hours of sleep, and 9 hours of driving today.

yay me!

N. Korea ruins dinner

"The recently created circumstance is making the situation in the region unstable and is also affecting the South-North relations,'" the South's chief envoy, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, said in a speech at a dinner with the North's delegation at the opening of four days of ministerial talks.

Jae-Soon Change, "Envoy: N. Korea destabilizing region
Discord among Asian nations follows missile tests", Houston Chronicle (July 11, 2006).

The North Korean Minister of Agriculture was berating a waiter at that particular instant and did not hear the remark. The South Korean Minister of Teenage Angst just rolled her eyes. And the maître d' told the delegations from Indonesia and East Timor that there were no tables available but if they wanted to eat in the bar, there was room enough for all of the ministers.

Meanwhile, outside the restaurant, Dave Matthews was quarrelling with his valet.

Matthews: "This is another fine mess, Lionel."
Valet: "I'm terribly sorry, I thought it sounded over the phone like they said that this was a restaurant for minstrels who squawk!"

Funny Girl & Sweet Boy

Dakota and I are driving down the road. She is prattling on, and I decide to distract her by initiating one of her favorite games (and thereby circumventing her desire to play "the copy game"), "Waiter and Customer."

Louren, "Ok Dakota, I'll be the customer, and you be the waiter."

Dakota, after a brief pause, and in her best fake french accent, "Hello madam. I am glad you are back today. But tell me, why are we driving around in your car, and where are we going?"

It was all I could do not to pull off the road from laughing so hard.

And when the story was related to Oma and William, she proudly proclaimed, "yep, I said that!"

***

I am packed for Oklahoma. I have showered. I am about to wake Will up so he can drive me to the church. I can do this. I can be away from my own kids for 1 week so that I can help chaperone teenagers at "church camp."

My mom will do a fabulous job here with them, I know this. But why do they have to get super snuggly and sweet right before I leave?

And why is this harder than leaving my kids to go to work in the morning? Jason is still so young, I hope that my absence is not too hard on him. He is rather easygoing, so he might not even miss my presence. Dakota is putting up a good front, pretending that she will cry every day, but I know that it is far more likely that she will bake cookies every day.

I know my kids will be fine. But I am suddenly filled with stomach butterflies of a sort not felt for many years.

Although I bet this is how I am going to feel in a few short weeks when Dakota begins Kindergarten.

*deep breaths. You can do this*

Another vignette: Trying to get Dakota to go to sleep

DJ: Daddy, the fan woke me up. It was going [mimics fan]

Wm: That is a fairly good impersonation, Dakota. Now I would like for you to impersonate a bear in the winter and hibernate.

DJ: Daddy! Not all species of bear hibernate. Polar bears don't live in caves, they like winter and live where its cold.

Wm: Well ... I mean a brown bear that lives in a cave.

DJ: Okay, but before a bear hibernates, it likes to eat the skin of fish, and berries, and it eats a lot of food.

Wm: Dakota! Assume that this bear has already been on a feeding frenzy. Now it is time to slow down and go to sleep.

DJ: Its not really sleeping so much as slow motion. It has a special posture. I can't do it. I'll just show you with my hands. Pretend this hand is a bear...

Dakota's version of "Waiter there is a fly in my soup"

"Waiter? There is a caterpillar in my oatmeal."

...

"Waiter! Now there is a butterfly in my oatmeal."

lmao