This is a question I wished I had asked myself before I let my 4 and 8 year old watch this movie. I remember it as being sort of funny in a Mel Brooks kind of way - a fairly light rip off of Star Wars.
The truth is that it isn't actually appropriate for little kids. Many swear words - tons of "shit" and "asshole" and a few "bitch".
They thought it was SUPER funny though and laughed like maniacs.
I had better not hear them repeating those words. Or else!
On the way home from the ski hill on Christmas eve a song came on the radio in the truck. Bob and Doug McKenzie singing the 12 days of Christmas. (if you were raised in a cave see the link below)
http://youtu.be/l2oPio60mK4
Now I have heard this song every year for many years and it always makes me smile but I was totally caught off guard by the kids reaction to it.
The lyrics look like this (they only get as far as 8 items)
8 comic books,
7 packs of smokes,
6 packs of two-four ,
5 golden tuques,
4 pounds of
back bacon ,
3 French toasts,
2
turtlenecks,
and a beer in a tree
The boys were cracking up at the 5 golden tuques. They said it over and over and over again. My oldest said "That part is so funny I am actually crying with laughter" and he was! He was doubled over laughing and tears were streaming down his face. All the way home they sang it - over and over and like the excellent mom I am I tuned it right out.
That is until the half an hour mark - I tuned back in and heard what they were really singing.
"Five golden toots"
Oh boys and their potty humor ......... But if you listen closely it does sound sort of like toots
My friend Charissa sent me this - totally how I felt all December!
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - I will take a little break for a couple of days to enjoy the holiday with my husband and kids
Our neighbors across the street are moving - or at least we hope they are....... The house is up for sale but so far no one has bought it.
Now as neighbors go they are not actually that bad. They are a blended family with 7 kids between them from elementary school right up to college. They say hi when outside and mow the lawn. Like I said - hardly nightmare neighbors.
However there have been a few "incidents".
Strike 1 was in May. They had a super loud party where the teens were outside screaming at each other and they woke up the neighborhood. We are an early to bed either because we have little kids or we are really old. Late night parties are rare and pretty unwelcome.
Strike 2 is their little cat. I love him - he's hilarious and likes to pretend to attack us when we walk by. He helped me get the gardens ready for fall by attacking my hair and if it was up to me I would kidnap him. But my husband feels much differently. The cat was using our front garden as a litter box and that drives my husband crazy. So not only can I not steal the little funny cat, he isn't allowed to hang out with us in the yard anymore.
Strike 3 was just this week. We had a big snow fall (big for us which is 5 - 10cm). the rest of us shoveled our snow onto our lawns like you are supposed to. THEY shoveled it all into the middle of the road.
We almost got stuck when we were driving home. Super annoying AND against bylaw.
Move Move Move people
A friend of mine had a FB conversation about tight wearing in public Are they pants? Are you going to Yoga? Are they see through? Do you have something over top of them?
You will never see me in Yoga pants in public unless I am going to or coming back from a run OR am very very very ill. This is my promise to you . Now at home is a different story - I am pretty much a PJ and bathrobe kind of girl as soon as I get back into the house. But that is a topic for another day
One of her friends posted this link and it made me laugh
Is so good - and I found funny t shirts that share the love
Super funny
I like Sci Fi (broad term I actually like the Fantasy part of sci fi so not the space but the dragons etc) which is not a typical "girl" genre.
A few years ago my husbands co worker recommended a series of books in that Genre and even lent me the first in the series to get me started. The book was called Eragon and I loved it! I read it in 2 days and I was hooked! It was exciting, magical and a real adventure
Written by Christopher Paolini (when he was 15) The book tells the story of a young farm boy named Eragon, who finds a mysterious stone in the mountains. A dragon he later names Saphria hatches from the stone, which was really an egg. When the evil King
finds out about Eragon and his dragon, he sends his servants, the
Ra'zac, after them in an effort to capture them. Eragon and Saphira are
forced to flee from their hometown, and decide to search for the Varden,
a group of rebels who want to see the downfall of Galbatorix.
yeah yeah - Sci Fi Fantasy is always complicated and has lots of weird hard to pronounce names.
There are 4 books in the series, each longer and more complicated than the last. In fact the last book was so intense it took me 2 weeks to read. I had to read a bit at time, absorbing it and thinking about it before I could keep reading. AND the wait between books was years and years, which was a titch annoying.
I lent the first and second books to my friend Ryan. I knew he was a fellow Sci Fi fan like myself and had enjoyed some of his recommendations (Enders Game was very good). He took a while to read it and when he did his conclusions RUINED THE BOOK FOR ME.
This is what he said
"The book Eragon seemed to follow the original star wars plot line. Boy lives with uncle and leaves on a journey to fight an evil empire. Bet you anything the King is actually his father"
Ah crap. He's right. Thanks a lot Ryan. It had never occurred to me. Now I am going to have to reread the whole series again . grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr There is a month of my life gone
I will start off by saying in the city we live in, the minor hockey program makes parents take an online respect in sport course to teach us to be kind and not to over react in sport (read into this DO not be that yelling parent on the bench). The result is that all games are actually fairly mellow. We all cheer and yell supportive things like "Good Job kiddo" etc and my husband and I are for sure not "those" parents - you know the yellers.
So with this background information in hand you can better understand this story.
After my son's last game we were driving home from the rink and having a bit of a post game discussion (as we often do). My son is a talker, not a fighter and this reflects in his hockey playing style. He is just happy to be on the ice, with other kids and he has very good team playing skills - supportive, caring and kind. Sometimes though, it would be nice if he got in there and dug around for the puck a little. Or even went for it at all........
I said to him "you have to go after it, dig for it and be a bit of a bull dog out there. A crazy little bull dog"
Our youngest son (also in the car) piped up with "Mom, that is not appropriate".
I am not sure how it is not appropriate but I guess I had better let him play whatever style hockey he wants. Don't want to turn into "that parent"...........
Around Halloween I was at Starbucks having a cup of tea with a friend and happened to notice the free app cards by the till. One of them was a Charlie Brown "great pumpkin" story. I am not an iphoner so I got my husband to down load it onto his phone and then read it to our youngest at bed time. It is actually a pretty cool app, the story is interactive - the kids can touch the screen and make the characters dance and that sort of thing.
We figured that the little one would enjoy it but we completely underestimated how much he would enjoy it. He LOVED it. He laughed at the funny parts and was concerned about the arrival of the great pumpkin at the right time. It is now December and we are just now able to read him other stories at bed time.
More recently we PVR'd (I can't say we taped it because no one tapes anything anymore) the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. With their popcorn buckets full and and PJ's on they watched a movie that debuted in 1965 and has been watched by millions every year at Christmas time. In fact I think both my husband and I watched it on TV at about the same age. They laughed and enjoyed it as much as we did when we were little.
Maybe it will still be cool when they have kids?
My oldest got his hair cut this week - it was starting to grow into his eyes and that just won't do. So off to see Rebecca we went. He came out with a teenager hair cut - all spiked up in the front and he thought he looked pretty good (and he did) and was full of his own vanity for an entire night.
This morning I hear a call from the bathroom - "MOM help!". I walked in to see that he had used his dad's styling cream in the front of his hair and he used A LOT. It was like glue in there. I asked "WHAT were you thinking?". He replied "I wanted to stud it up in the front but I didn't know how."
sigh.
double sigh
Stud it up?
cover my eyes and sigh
So I told him that I would show him how to do that tomorrow but for today we had to wash it out (or chip it out with a chisel)
Can he be a pre teen at age 8?
So not ready for this
On the way to preschool the other day, my youngest said the funniest thing:
He said "MOM! There is a guy over there lawn mowing his snow! What is he doing that for? He is going to wreck his lawn mower".
I looked over to see what he was talking about and saw a man snow blowing his driveway.
I guess he can't remember when we used the snow blower when we lived up north and can't remember what they look like. What a funny little goose that kid is.
My friend Ry-Ann started a new trend last year and I think it is a good one.
For a couple of years she had done bake exchanges. You bake however many dozen of whatever and then everyone leaves with a couple dozen different treats. This has been fun to do in the past before we entered what I call the "allergy zone". Now that we are in that zone I can't really participate in those type of events anymore.
So last year Ry-Ann said "why don't we do a mug exchange? Pick a mug and fill it with a theme and then we'll exchange it so everyone goes home with a mug". It was an experiment and it turned out AWESOME. I picked Connie's bag and I got a pretty owl mug, a pickle ornament (funniest thing ever http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pickle ) and some scratch and wins. It was great!
This year she had to firm up the rules a bit - make a limit (last year someone put a bunch of hockey tickets in .....way to make us all look cheap) and include a $5 GC to our favourite coffee/tea place. She also had an ugly Christmas sweater component but I didn't have time to look for one so missed that bit. This year I got a tile mosaic mug filled with girly pamper type things. Very pleased.
And I don't have to share with the boys and it was all GF! Whoot! I am already thinking about my theme for next year
(only downside what that Ry-Ann has not 1 but 2 stupid stupid creepy butt head elves and they spent most of the evening staring at me with their vacant butt head expressions)
Please, please please - what did I do to deserve this? Do I have to stay of FB for the entire Christmas season? Or block everyone I know? What is the answer???? Elf on the shelf is EVERYWHERE - FB, Pinterest, TV the news. EVERYWHERE
Every morning, every evening pretty much all the time people are posting "cute" things their elf has done. Those zany little butt heads get into everything.
Here is my question - If you want your kids to be good for Santa then why do you allow the creepy little ring leader to be so bad? Should he not be setting a good example? Doing chores? Cleaning the toilet and taking out the garbage? If I was a kid I would think "hmmmmmmmmm creepy butt head elf is bad, maybe I should be too - Santa clearly thinks it is funny".
Almost over, almost over
This is what I see many many times a day (Go F your self stupid stupid elf)
I mail out about 60 Christmas cards (and hand out another 15 or so) every year. Some years it felt like I didn't get a response from the people that I sent them too, which is frustrating. I put all this time and effort into the cards and I hear nothing back (and some of these people are MY family).
So last year I came up with a plan. I keep my addresses on an excel spreadsheet for ease of mail merge creation and by extension label printing. Last year I added a column - this column recorded whether or not I had received a card, note or call back. And because I am a dork I colour coded it. Blue means they communicated, yellow means they didn't. After two years of no communication you are on the chopping block. Like the soup Nazi on Seinfeld "NO CARD FOR YOU"
Exceptions are if you are blood relation (like my sister and parents) or over 60 (some of my husbands great aunts are pretty old and enjoy the newsletters but can't respond for whatever reason).
Surprisingly last year there were quite a few more blue squares than I had thought. But we'll see this year............
ba humbug!
My youngest found a microphone in the odd sock bin (isn't that where you keep your microphones?) and started busting out the national anthem. Sort of anyway.........
"Oh Canada
our home is made in land
true pitch in la
our home is safe in la"
That is where it went south and he started yelling into the microphone.
The oldest one sang the whole thing rather well though.
Then they went into the living room and played hockey
Game on!
I can no longer see the dog's eyeballs when she is looking at me. Her hair (do dogs have bangs?) has grown so much since we got her in September and she has gone from a bright white dog to a sort of beige/cream coloured dog. Time for a grooming I'd say.
The problem with getting her groomed is 2 fold. 1. It just got cold here and it is probably not fair to shave her off in the dead of winter. and 2. It is super expensive. She's a big dog (my mom said she was medium sized but that was a lie) and I think her grooming runs upwards of $80 a shot. That is almost as much as it costs to get my hair cut and coloured!!!!
But in about 2 inches I am not even going to able to tell she has eyes so I had better suck it up and call for an appointment. If she gives me a dirty look I can't really tell so what is the harm?
I wonder if I could just cut her dog bangs? Wonder if I would do a good job?
You know, there are lots of good things about living on the top of a hill. We have a nice view and if there is ever a flood I am pretty sure we'll be OK. But there are some downsides - one is it is windy, very very windy.
Old man winter has decided to come and visit changing the temperature from +3 to -9 in 12 hours and bringing snow and high winds. These high winds have created snow drifts in the driveway high as an elephants eye (oh yes a musical reference).
What to do, what to do. My husband is at work and I may eventually have to leave the house and I am not sure I can get the car down the driveway without getting stuck. I guess I will have to suck it up and go out there. The weather network says the wind makes it feel like -19..........
Update
I feel frozen, may never feel my legs again but it is shoveled. My husband better appreciate this - and the wind better keep it clear and not pile up more snow.........
Stupid winter bet this doesn't happen in Mexico
This is my children's favorite house in our neighborhood. It has a tremendous timed light show and a radio station that plays lovely Christmas music. The picture doesn't do it justice I promise!!!
The Santa on the top balcony has a Christmas count down with bright red numbers. Every time we drive by it the boys say "only 27, 26, 25 days until Christmas".
I like the lights, I like the music, but the Santa has to go. He serves as a reminder that the time I have to get things done is slipping away. That guy is stressing me out big time.
How on earth did it get to be December already?
So much to do, and thanks to this guy reminding me, so little time
on FB who is a health and fitness person. They post constantly about healthy eating or xconditioning or the great work out they had. But the second someone (obviously not me) says something like "great for you but getting tired of these posts, don't you do ANYTHING else with your life????" they get super offended and post things like the picture below.
Don't get me wrong I am so glad that you are making yourself better and are making the change towards health and happiness. But check yourself once and a while. Sometimes it comes out as a bit naggy and occasionally preachy and no one really enjoys reading that day after day. Right?
In this house we are gluten free - not because it is a trendy choice but because my husband and son react badly to it and get really sick. Do I hassle everyone about it? Nope - I started a private FB group for people like me who want to exchange ideas etc. That way I am not bugging people.......
I also run 6-7km 3 days a week - do I rub that in people's faces? Nope - I do it because it makes me feel sane and relaxed. I also sit on the couch and eat chocolate chips and watch TV (on the off days) and that makes me happy too. See - happy balance.
Take a step back and evaluate if you are one of those people. If you are, lighten up....... please.......
This picture says to me "I am defensive about my life choices" Touchy Touchy people.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Cabbage Patch Doll. The launch of this doll created a fever in the North American Continent that remains the stuff of legends.The company underestimated demand for the dolls and there were not enough made initially. People punching each other out, trampling each other to get a doll. Long line ups, bribing store employees, wait lists and more. (fistacuffs anyone?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sOlIvx7Pvs#t=18
My sister and I got ours the same year on my birthday (her birthday is a month later and she had an amazing temper, she is spicy and very entertaining to this day, and was younger (like maybe 3) and the concept of waiting was not one she was into at that time). How I remember the story of them getting the dolls goes like this.
back in the 80's
My mom and dad went to the USA (north dakota) on a shopping trip leaving us with Grandpa and Grandma. They waited in line for hours and hours and hours to get the dolls for us. I find this sort of hard to reconcile with my one parent anyway. My dad, if there is even 1 person ahead of him in line at a store, will put the stuff down and leave the store. He is also the person in the 12 items or less line that will count your items and say "13 items? My.......you are gutsy". Did he really wait in line for more than 10 min? Doubtful. But I bet my mom did.
Anyway, I had a blonde yarn hair doll named Emma Jane and my sister had a brown yarn haired doll named Holly Anne - very wholesome all American mid west names. Each doll came with an "adoption" certificate and a tattoo on the dolls bum cheek. I still have the certificate in my baby book. This year I found out my friend had a doll named Ludemilla Emanuella - wow that would be hard to say when you were 5.
I only ever got one - which is perfectly fine - but I was always sort of envious of an elementary school chum who had 6 or 7. She was the only girl in the family and sort of spoiled. She had one with corn silk hair and she had a baby one. She might have even had a cabbage patch kid of colour, which for Manitoba was the most exotic thing ever!! She also had every my little pony in the collection but let's not go there right now. I can remember holding the corn silk hair doll and thinking how lucky she was to have it and how much I wanted one.
I have boys now so I don't get to go down toy memory lane very often. But maybe they will have girls one day and then they can play with Emma Jane who currently lives in a tote in the basement.
The basic model and the corn silk hair model
