It must be memory lane day

Well, since Ellie May did it, I felt inclined to do the same. What, me be a copy cat? Well, I guess so.....

In the 60's. My father and my future father in law worked together on the F1-11. We all ended up in Fort Walton Beach when I was 3 and my brother and future husband were 8. I have to wonder what the heck my mom was thinking with the bubble monstrosity she put me in. Ugh. You can see my friend Joy wondering the same thing.



My favorite aspect of this picture is the fact that my brother and husband still sport the same hairstyles....

Misc Monday ramblings

You know, when the kids changed schools and friends, it didn't dawn on me right away that i would miss their mom's too. I liked the Mom's from school 1, and school 2. I remember K1's first birthday party at school 3 and not only was she feeling a bit out of sorts, i didn't know the moms at all! Lonely!!!

So, many of the Mom's from school 2 hang out poolside at the rec center - at least I've run into them twice so far. Its been so nice.



On the "try something new for the weekend" we tried the Beer margaritas.

Oh yes, they were tasty. Oh yes, they were STRONG, deceptively strong. I think i may have to 1/2 the tequila next time. Yowsa.

On an interesting note - no tequila headache the next morning. Not even a twinge. hmmm..

Gosh, I really like where I live.....

Over the last few years, we've been in flux. And it has probably affected K1 the most, as she has had 3 elementary school changes. (but all pretty close together) Each change i have agonized over - "will she like the new school - will she find friends?" and As K2 got to school age - the same questions. (only 2 changes for her)

But now, i really think all things are starting to "gel" in a super good way.

Yesterday was K1's first day in summer school ( a gifted program for the city, so it brings many elementary school kids together) In her first period, there were kids from school 3 and school 2. In second period, her best buddy from school 2, and in third period, a girl from school 1 who was in her girl scout troop. How cool is that?

Then we were to MCDonalds and ran into kids from school 3 ( our neighbor). After that to the rec center and ran into K1's good friend from school 1 and K2's good friend from school 2. Seems like its all worked out pretty well.


Oh, and I did try the "work out while the girls swim in the pool below the window" thing. There are 6 lifeguards and for the most part, i could see the kids from the stepper. It worked out well!

Funny thing is they were spotted by one of my most overprotective friends as "unsupervised". Thinking back to my childhood where I ran around unsupervised from the age of 4 and up - its amazing i survived. :)

Summer Fun

So summer has begun!




We've joined a wonderful rec center near by with awesome indoor and outdoor pools.


We've gone to a baseball game



Summer school is starting - just for the month of June



And of course - lots and lots of swimming.





looks to be a busy summer!





I'm tired already -- right doggies??

A Room with a View - What the....?

Ok, there was a sleepover, and I was trying to outlast the kiddos (foolish, I know) so I started watching a Masterpiece theater adaption of one of my favorite movies - A Room with a View. It was on PBS a few weeks back and was sitting on my DVR taking up space.




*Backstory* - the 1985 Merchant/Ivory film of "A Room with a View" - has got to be one of my favorite movies. I've watched it many times. I've got the VHS and the DVD, I've bought the book (but it still sits waiting to be read) - so I'm not to keen on a new version to start with but I figure "what the heck".

So it starts off with her in Italy alone. What? Where is Charlotte? I am confused. Then you kind of figure out that she is older, and she is alone. hmmmm. Then we flash back to the story i know. Ok. I let it go.

The new Lucy - she's good. I like her. The new George - he's got pretty big Julian Sands boots to fill - and he's a bit of a..., ok - he's a HUGE nerd. On a scale of 1-10 for romantic lead, I'm feeling a 2 - TOPS. He's the son of the guy who plays a believable rat in Harry Potter for goodness sakes. Ok, I let that go.

Then comes the big "kiss in the wheat field"- the most romantic part of the movie - and he misses her lips and hits her chin. (i watched it twice to be sure) ok - not even a good kisser and it bothers me. They must have done many takes and that was the best they could do? *sigh* Ok, I let THAT go.

So, then it goes on like it has before. Except at the end - they show them reuniting together when George is lying in the pond in a pool of blood. He sits right up, so I suppose it wasn't serious - but I am baffled. Was he trying to kill himself? Was this in the book? No explanation.

Next scene - they are in Italy again like the other movie - but her hair is long. hmm.

They switch from this scene to a dark scene of a dead George on a random battlefield. What? What? What? Was he a soldier? When the heck was this? What?!? Again, no explanation.

Then we see the Short haired Lucy (aha!) mourning him. And in her efforts to mourn him, she hooks up with the carriage driver from the earlier scene where she and George first kiss. RIGHT. She's moved on. Lovely. NOT. We spend the whole movie waiting for them to get together, and after a 10 second flash that he is dead we are ready for her to date. I don't think so!!

I thought perhaps this was in the book, and i was suddenly quite glad i had never read it. Turns out all this flash back crap was added by the guy who adapted the book based on some after the fact musings of the author - which from what i have read, seems debatable.

Seems someone asked him how they thought Lucy & George would turn out and he said they had a few kids and he died later on in the war. And you know - he might have just been having a bad day and was tired of the freaking question. I don't think he intended the end of this movie to be a complete downer with her flirting with the carriage driver. Just ruined the WHOLE.DARN.THING.

So, this version promptly got deleted from my dvr never to be replayed. Bleh.

The Boston Globe seems to agree with me:

This room looks on a different view

A Flickr Meme

Saw this on a few sites, you know i got to try it for myself:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.



The Questions:
1. What is your first name? - Lorie
2. What is your favorite food? - Shrimp - one of many favorite foods
3. What high school did you go to? - South Garland
4. What is your favorite color?- Purple
5. Who is your celebrity crush? - hmm, changes daily - today Eric Bana
6. Favorite drink? - Red wine
7. Dream vacation? - Fiji
8. Favorite dessert? - chocolate cheesecake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? - Happy? :)
10. What do you love most in life? - my kids, and their dad
11. One Word to describe you. - protective
12. Your flickr name - Lorie G

With every addition - there comes a subtraction

Last Wed the Girls got out of school, and we took a few days off to just have some fun. We saw Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones ( and ate lots of popcorn). We went swimming a few times at this awesome rec center near us. We ate out a few times, we had sleepovers, we shopped a bit - just a busy fun time.
We also lost one of our rodents. Her Name was Fluffy and she was K2's guinea pig. She got sick and went down fast. Very sad.




In other news, Sawyer is doing great. He was missing from his spot on the tile the other night and he was located in K2's bed upstairs. (she was sleeping on the couch, which she likes to do on weekends, so i have no idea what attracted him) I think he is feeling comfortable.......