Pixar ha colgado en su canal de YouTube este corto sobre la historia de ‘Up’. Este cuenta la experiencia de George y AJ al ver como la casa de Carl sale volando y las ideas similares de los demás vecinos.

El corto es bastante divertido y está dirigido por Josh Cooley.

Well, since we all got over our flu we passed around about a month ago, things had been going pretty smoothly around here.  Then it hit me how soon Thanksgiving was coming up.  I had to start thinking about how we were going to celebrate.  I knew it would be hard having Scott gone during the holidays, but knowing is different than feeling, and all of a sudden I really felt it and yep, it was hard.  My life has been filled with so many big Thanksgivings full of lots of food and people and chaos and fun.  Last year was quieter with just our family, but it was still fun to work with Scott in the kitchen all day and celebrate together.  Doing that all by myself just didn’t sound fun, not too mention knowing my kids wouldn’t eat much and I’d be left with most of it to myself.  I thought about inviting someone over, but the stress of worrying about the cooking and cleaning and not having Scott around to help me just made it seem too hard.  I unfortunately stress out too much about entertaining.  I had kind of settled on ordering a meal from a restaurant or something so we could have a reasonable portion that I would be able to eat.  At church, though, when some friends asked about my Thanksgiving plans and I mentioned my idea, I was promptly invited to dinner.  My friend Sarah invited me to celebrate with them on Friday because of her sister-in-law’s work schedule.  Then that night I got an e-mail from someone in the ward telling me about a bowling alley that was putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for military families, so all in one day I got my plans set and things started looking up.

Even with fun plans set, I still had my down moments over the week, but it seemed there was always someone reaching out to me and lifting me up.  There were the previously mentioned invitations, and even a sincere “How are you doing?” made me feel like someone cared and I wasn’t alone.  I also had my visiting teacher stop by with muffins, cookies, and a nice visit.  (Yep, yummy goodies are the way to my heart!)  A couple men in the ward had found out that my dishwasher wasn’t working and came by to fix it.  It was a fairly big job that came down to 6-7 pumpkin seeds stuck in the drain pipe.  It was so kind of them and really has lifted my work load as far as dishes are concerned.  It was so great during a hard week to be feel cared about and cared for.

So on Thursday we went to the bowling alley, where they had a big Thanksgiving buffet with pretty good food, not like home cooking, but still quite good.  They gave each of the kids a card with $5 credit on them for the arcade games and then we all got an hour of bowling.  It was very generous and turned out really fun!  On Friday we had a great time sharing Thanksgiving dinner with Sarah and Charles, his parents and sister, and their kids.  I’m kicking myself for not taking any pictures of the food or grown ups or Sarah’s cute baby, but I guess I was just enjoying the visiting with that great family.  The kids played so well together and everyone had a great time.

And now for the pictures!

We missed Daddy a lot and we know he missed us too, but we are glad we could spend our Thanksgiving in such a fun way.

Ok, so not much has happened in the last few days except for Thanksgiving, watching some amazing movies, namely The Proposal, and The Ugly Truth, picking out a song for an upcoming musical audition, and just general lounging.

So, the main reason behind this new blog is to show two amazing pictures that I found. The first one I got from the amazing Josh Groban. He posted a tweet a few weeks back from his hotel room. The caption that he put with it was “Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched?” I decided that I needed to take this picture and share it with everyone simply because of its sheer awesomeness.

So and then I found another one. When I was blogging about New Moon in a previous post, I was looking for different pictures on Google to help illustrate different things. Well if you read that blog, you will see that I have the title screen of New Moon. When I searched for the image, I got a lot of pictures of the moon, some stills from the movie, and then I got something totally unexpected. And it is something that needs to be shared with you as well.

So what does this picture have anything to do with New Moon? I have no idea whatsoever. I didn’t go to the website to see what the page was about that this picture was on, but I was just in shock from seeing this picture in the search.

Ok, so that is about it for this blog, but leave comments if you read this blog so I know that I am at least somewhat interesting with the things I am writing out here. Until next time!

zis is za song care m-a “trezit” in Kristal.

Josh Galahan a mixat piesa lui Nic Chagall  si atunci am primit un burst de adrenalina si am realizat ca am ajuns la destinatie, e party time! Era momentul sa uit de oboseala unui drum de 10 ore de la Cluj pana la Bucuresti pentru mult asteptatul ATB.

So, guys… N-Joy!!!

I made these for a brunch in celebration of my brothers visit to South Africa (he now lives in Spain). Douglas was my right-hand man and did the pancake flipping. Thank you danger. I got the recipe from a lovely vegetarian blog I found recently called Picky Cook. They were a hit.

Our pancakes were gobbled up too quickly to photograph them but I’ve included a good picture from Picky Cook which is probably much better than I could ever do. So go get those pancakes flipping friends!

It’s been a fun and busy week, starting off with some birthday celebration for my 15-year-old Gabe.  I can hardly believe he’s 15!  A couple of years ago we tried making a periodic table for his birthday cake, but actually used cookies.  It turned out pretty good, but was a lot of work and we actually didn’t finish all the elements.  You can see it HERE. Wow, hard to believe that’s the same kid only 2 years ago.  He has grown so much!  When I asked him what he wanted to do for his cake, he wanted to give the periodic table another try.  He thought it was more appropriate this year because he is actually taking chemistry now.  This time I did brownies on a big cookie sheet, frosted it, and then drew the lines and letters.  It was faster and easier than the other way, although I do think I like how those little sugar cookies turned out the first time around.  My lines are kind of sloppy here and yeah, my cake decorating skills are nothing to be very proud of, but at least this one is a little better than most of my disasters.  And he was happy with it, which is really what matters.

Of course first we had his special dinner.  He requested chicken and pasta, which is one of those few meals that all the kids are happy to eat.  One of these days I may post it as a recipe, but I make it differently almost every time, which makes it kind of hard to pin down.

Then there was the excitement of opening his present.  One present was actually the 7 x 7 Rubik’s cube, which has been ordered but hasn’t come yet.  That’s a serious Rubik’s cube, folks, with 49 pieces on each face!  His also got a chess computer software game that Noah helped him open.

The day after his birthday was especially exciting, because he got his present from Grandma and Grandpa D in the mail, a laptop computer!  Yep, the boy is seriously spoiled.

We also like to do a fun family activity for the boys on their birthday and Gabe chose to go to OMSI, which we did on Saturday.  Everyone had a great time.  I had to follow Noah around and the older boys were able to be pretty independent as far as going around and doing what they wanted to do.  That may explain why I took a million pictures of Noah and not many of anyone else.  Since I have a lot from OMSI I’m going to try out my gallery feature, which I haven’t used before.  Basically you can click on any picture you want to see better.  You can also comment on individual pictures and click the smaller pictures below to get to the previous and next pictures in the gallery.  But click back to the main post (by clicking on the title “Celebrating Gabe’s Birthday” at the top left) to leave a comment on the whole post rather than just a specific picture.  Anyway, try it out.  Is it confusing?  Cool?  What do you think?  (One little snafu I haven’t wrinkled out is how to get the pictures out of the gallery that I’ve already used in this post, so you just get to see those again.)

We also went to the IMAX version of The Polar Express, which was fun, but I forgot how scary it was in some places.  Luckily Noah didn’t seem too fazed by it.  OMSI is in a really pretty location right on the riverfront, so that last picture is from when we went out to the car.  I really like how the city lights and buildings looked over the water.

On the way home I talked to the kids about saying “thank you” to me for doing things like this and how they really forget to say it for most things.  They kind of caught on to the idea, and for the whole ride home they thanked me for everything in their lives they could think of, well mostly Sammy and Josh were the ones doing this.  It was kind of funny and sometimes really sweet.  They thought of things like buying them clothes, giving them a warm house, not giving them up for adoption, letting them do sports, buying them baby food when they were babies, changing their diapers, taking them on vacations, etc.  The one that warmed my heart the most, though, was when Sammy said, “Thank you for giving birth to our fun and joyful brother Noah.”  They were being a little silly and said a lot of weird things, but they also said a lot of sweet things and it made me happy.  Here’s hoping they remember to keep giving thanks!

Great Hall: Josh and dozens of musicians rock The Great Hall.

THE Great Hall is buzzing today thanks to the largest band it has ever hosted!

Josh’s Band (from the infectious T-Mobile ads) was here to film the latest instalment of his national tour around the UK.

Already, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Edinburgh have heard the catchy tune that accompanies the ads – and today was Manchester’s turn.

Loads of shoppers were roped into the ad – and even a couple of our red coated Security staff picked up tambourines.

The advert will air from next week – and we know you won’t be able to miss the stunning Great Hall chandelier right in the centre of shot!

All I’ve been doing today is eating Thanksgiving day leftovers and watching Desperate Housewives. Life is so good. It’s a good show, and I don’t know why I only ever watched random episodes when they were on TV. I’ve been watching it in order from the Pilot episode since 3 pm today. Literally, all I’ve been doing. I’m on episode 12 right now.

Anyway, Thanksgiving wasn’t as bad last night as it usually is. I really loved Josh being there. I seem to forget for most of the night that people were there that I didn’t really want to be with. I would’ve rather been with my aunts uncles and cousins last night, but Josh being there made it so much better. I did however like seeing my grandma. I really had missed her, and I’m worried about her, with good reason. I can see that..she’s not all here anymore. I need to spend as much of  these last few…weeks, months? with her as possible.

I have a bunch of shit to do lately. Mostly because I’ve been putting everything off until the last minute.. but hey, who hasn’t done it? Now I have a presentation to put together for Monday, and a paper to do for Tuesday. I spent yesterday and today doing nothing, but I’m thinking I’m going to have to start those two things tomorrow for sure, or they’ll never get done.

That’s all I really have to talk about at the moment, plus Desperate Housewives is waiting. I should really get back.

I haven’t been up to Chatham since I taught a class there in the spring, but when we were considering places to do an engagement session last Sunday, it was one of the first places I thought of. Trisha wanted to get their photos done before we lost all of our pretty fall leaves, and I think we just made it! As usual, I had a hard time picking favorites…

Mellon sun room

Josh was missing a football game for this, so he gets bonus points.

They’re seriously adorable.

Become a fan on Facebook

Ok, so really? Yesterday wasn’t ALL that bad. It was just a combination off too many people too close, in too little time. People who took advantage of a 12 year old inviting them over, to see what was really going on over here (I swear we don’t grow drugs, really). At the end of the day, it was just a lot to try and deal with. But all in all, it was a decent day.

The one thing I don’t think I elaborated on enough, was the fact that we havent done a real holiday, in who knows how long. Usually the kids go somewhere, and I work. I don’t like, holidays. I really don’t. So this year, stepping out and doing the whole nine yards, was by far, the stupidest thing farthest we have gone in a long time.

When it was just the kids, it was really kind of nice. Meaning, where there weren’t 101 people trying to fit into the already small house.

It wasn’t until the kids were in bed, I had finished my rant about how I hate holidays, and I was laying in the dark, did I really start to think about things in a whole new light (or dark).

Last year, Josh was…

A mess.

Can I say that?

Last year, he spent a majority of his time in the corner, freaking out with the slightest movement in the wrong direction. He didn’t want anything to do with anyone, and would scream and yell if the kids got too close. No one would say what happened, why he was like this, or what was going on. There was talk of institutionalizing him, giving him over to the state, and who knows what else. We had three months to make some sort of progress, to convince the courts that he was worth keeping. It sucks to say it like that, but its how it was. He was just another number, another case, another disturbed individual, and who wanted to “Waste” time on him?

Last year we were knee deep in issues involving him. Court dates, paper work, therapist, social workers were all part of our lives. The in and outs of every move that was made with him, or for him, was somehow kept track of, and no one, NO ONE would say what was wrong with him. There was “No hope.”

I don’t even remember what we did last year for Thanksgiving, but Im pretty sure it was similar to the years past: Nothing.

Last year, every single post, somehow, in one way or another, mentioned Josh, or a new problem or issue. Because last year, that’s where our focus was…with less than two months left to get him into a position where he appeared to be worth helping.

Last night I lay there thinking, about just how far we have come. Thinking about how far not only Josh has come, but how far Madison & Dylan have come as well. While the spot light was on Josh, they got shoved to the side, and the only times they really complained were when after a few attempts at doing something, I gave up because it was too much work with Josh. They were in the middle of the mess, right there, every day, seeing what went on, what happened, knowing the same amount of things I did. Knowing who he used to be, and who he was now, and not knowing why. There wasn’t much I could keep from them, even if I had wanted to. They gave things up, walked out of stores hundreds of times, endured the stares, and everything else.

But they understood, and understand, and I havent even had to tell them.

The know when something is important, and they understand how big it is when Josh accomplishes something small, and minor. They don’t care that he isn’t caught up with his peers, they love him how he is, and who he is. Infact, most times its them reminding me of these things. Not the other way around.

While I sometimes get hung up on the smaller issues…they see right past it, and love him. All the time.

It hasn’t been easy for them. For any of them. They have days when nothing goes right, they fight just like every other kid, yell and carry on, but at the end of the day…they tell each other good-night, and the days problems are put to rest. They don’t dwell on the small things, they don’t get hung up on the fact that someone gave them a different look, because they were with Josh, who is five years old, and apparently unable to control himself when he flips out on the ground.

Its not the life I would have chosen for them. To live this way, to go through what they have gone through. Its not the way I would have hoped their childhood would be spent. I would have preferred they didn’t have to loose their parents, and go through foster care, and into the “System.” I wish I could give them more, and give them better. But sometimes, that’s not what really matters…

And while yesterday was up and down, I was thankful, at the end of the day, to have them here. To have custody of them. For it to be OVER.

Im thankful that this year, while we still have problems and issues to work through, that Josh is here, with cousins who are more like siblings, who really truly, love him for who he is. Im thankful to have them. Here. Right now.  Together, for each other. 

Ask me again, when they wake up, destroy whats left of the house, and invite the REST of the neighbors over for leftovers, and I might have a different opinion. But right now, I am thankful: For them.

Just as a side note: Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to get three kids to look at the same camera?  I mean, seriously. 

Its like…”Hey kids OVER HERE!!!” 

“No, look this way”

“Dylan knock it off, leave your sister alone, no bunny ears”

“Madison dont cry, red eyes wont look good”

“Wheres Josh?” 

*Five minute break to find Josh*

“This way kids!!”

“Last time I checked, I was the only one in the room with a camera, but NONE of you are looking this way”

“Ok, we will just go with the one that looks like Josh is all strung out on the weed that we do NOT grow, Dylan is tired of smiling, and Madison, well, shes lucky shes even IN the picture…”

The week of the magical mystery tour, read on to find out more ….

The egyptian walk

Monday began with poster making madness whilst the others attended a top secret ‘confidential’ meeting locked behind closed doors, ooh the mystery!

My wonderful poster, an absolute masterpiece!

Tuesday – Brownsea Island – we arrived at Brownsea after a very rocky crossing, although we almost lost a few on the way! Fire + Rhody = Serious smoke inhalation, no fatalities but massive success! Sam demonstrated his excellent tour guide skills as we explored the island in search of well hidden Sika deer………..deer count zero…watch this space!

Nikkii risks life and limb for the perfect photo!

Wednesday – The ultimate magical mystery tour – We headed to Lorton Meadows for a hard days slog however our plans were scupered when on arrival we greeted by a heavy downpour. We barely made it out of the bus  when the idea hit us as hard as the rain beating down on the window panes!!! And thus the magical mystery tour began…onto Portland we go heyho heyho…..into the land of Lord of the rings…goblins, fires, swords……no seriously…prisons, rocks and fossilised trees! Eventually we got round to doing some work, more than we were expecting! So to sum up a successful and enjoyable day!

Rogues gallery

Thursday – Hillies gaff – More gorse and burning and gorse and burning then…….jacket potatoes…bet you weren’t expecting that! Beautiful sunshine with a brief rainy interlude conveniently timed during lunch. The end. 

Nikkii pulls!!!

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Again.

How does that happen exactly? I mean it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago we were all sitting here in my living room playing the Wii or enjoying Arizona weather after a satisfying turkey dinner! Do you remember?

A Long Drive

A Little Rock Band

Good Food

A Lot of Playing

All Equals A Lot of Love

Time has a way of moving on whether we like it or not. As I sit here I find myself reflecting and remembering so many holidays of the past. I have strong memories of a Thanksgiving in Preston, when all the Luthy’s came down and we set up a LONG table in the kitchen. I remember Jolene helping me get just the right amount of gravy on my potatoes in a perfect little puddle. I remember the laughter, the fun and the closeness of time with family. I also have vivid images in my head of the first Thanksgiving after little Cidnie found her way to us. I remember eating in the basement of mom and dad’s that year so we could all sit together at one long table. I remember the personalized notes mom wrote to each of us as our place holders, and I remember the one she wrote to baby Cidnie. My heart swells with these memories and I am thankful all over again.

So what do you remember? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

So, in all today was a good(ish) day. I woke up semi-early, as James decided to call. I couldn’t go back to sleep because my brother was playing his shitty music intensely loud throughout the house, and at 3pm I met up with Josh and Manny and Colleen and we hung out at Peter Pipers Pizza. good stuff.

Of course, in between the shitty music and my brother dropping me off at PPP, he and his friend Carlos decided it might be fun to go mudding in the lot next to ours. mudding. yes, they did it. I was held as the cameraman and they got some good video. I have shitty cell phone video, but alas, if i need to implicate them in something, I’ve got it.

So after PPP’s, Josh and Colleen had to take off to his uncle’s in Monte Alto to go to a fish fry. So, it being about 5p, we decided we’d hang out a little longer and went to the skating rink. I suck at roller blading. Of course, we stayed there for a long ass time and Manny and Noe still wanted to hang out. I didn’t so much anymore, but they made me. Which later developed into my parents being utterly angry with me. Not fun. But skating was fun. I fell a total of 4 times. Which is decidedly less than when I went ice skating, but then again, when I went ice skating I was holding on to the wall and I still sucked.

I’m just not good with finding my center of gravity.

Either way, after that, we headed to Manny’s house. Still didn’t get dropped off, and headed towards the outlets. Got some Whataburger, because, c’mon, that is GOOD. and eventually, after about 2 more calls from my mom, Noe and I headed back to drop me off. He decided to ignore his GPS’s directions the first time, and that’s where everything pretty much went south.

We got stuck about a mile from my house. 2 miles. whatever, it was pretty close. But fuck, that road has potholes like you would NOT believe. My mom kept texting me angrily, and when I called to see if they could come in the truck to pull us (finally, as we tried to get out by ourselves for a while) she yelled at me, threw the phone at my dad, he didn’t say anything… but he did hang up. SO, we were fucked. So, I called Abraham and he was at BK, but he said he’d come when he was done. Which was more than I could hope for anything, so yeah. We scraped around, sunk our feet into mud and Noe got really down and dirty. It was pretty bad. Finally, my mom called me that she was on her way and that there were at least 3 more pot holes from the one we got stuck in. Either way, we were going to be fucked.  She was yelling at me, told me to walk to the Jimmy and I did. But Noe didn’t want to leave, so I told him to call his dad. I called him after I reached the Jimmy, but he still insisted on staying and for me to leave (as the ‘rents were being atrocious) So I’m home.

Abraham just text me saying that he did go to our stuck site. Then kept texting me that he was helping Noe and that it was really stuck in there. Then he said that as he was leaving Noe’s sister was showing up. So as of 12:10a (we got stuck at 10p) Noe is still stuck over there on mile 1 1/2. FUCK THAT ROAD.

But, because I basically abandoned Noe there, in the mud… I gave him an avocado tree on FarmVille. It doesn’t help, but at least it adds to his tree collection. =]

and P.S. FUCK THAT ROAD.

and also P.P.S. I pretty much really really want to move out right now. I mean, wtf, my dad hung up on me when I actually needed his help with something. What the fuck!

Today:
5:50AM – Wake up, shower.
7:05AM – Go to Jazzband. Play music, get harmon mutes, walk around in circles, conversate with Rachelle, conversate with Tinzel, watch Cael make strange noises using his cornet and harmon. Ect.
8:40 AM- Go to Drama class. Conversate skit ideas. Get the group organized and back on track. Try and get together a plotline. Get the group organized and back on track. Start script plan. Sit around and chat. Watch Ben run around with scissors. Help Darien brainstorm line ideas. Color shoes. Laugh internally. Laugh externally at Kieth and Alec’s lame (but pro) jokes. Conversate. Observe. Bell rings.
9:51 AM: Go to Band class. Play music. Get a pimpin’ solo. Get daily ego inflation. Wonder where my wife is.
10:54AM:  Go to break. Sit around. Eat a granola bar. Conversate.
11:04AM: Go to English. Do grammar. Read sewing textbook. Be bored in general. Eat a cheese roll thinger. Play with cheese wax. Daydream.
12:10AM: Go to lunch. Eat gumbo. Tell courtney that YES, I AM going to get red fabric after school. (For her skirt, I have set a deadline for Christmas.) Go to locker. Come back. Get weirded out by Ben, who is trying to make me laugh. Go outside and listen to him play Scott’s brother’s guitar. He’s getting pretty good. Better than me now… damn. Josh talks about how he hates capos. Bell rings.
12:55AM: Go back to English. Write an essay outline. Read sewing textbook. Be bored in general. Daydream.
1:57 PM:   Go to Science. Cloutier is in a bad mood. Which automatically makes him Clucifer. Balance equasions. feel proud because I’m good at it. Learn we have a lab tomorrow. Damn.
3:05 Go to locker, get stuff, talk to Tim, talk to Darien, go to car. Go do some glass deliveries. Go to grocery store. sit in car for 20 minutes. Find Tim in town. Go and hang out in the dollar store for 15 minutes. Get back in the car with Dad. Go get parcel (Stained glass from Texas). Go to Fabricland. Look at mannequins. Buy red fabric.. Go hoome. Turn on heater. Waste time. Daydream. Write blog. Sleep.

And thus, a day in the life of Janine.  Fun Stuff.

In this undated 2008 photo, Bill Sparkman speaks to a 7th grade class during a lesson about sound waves.

AP—A Kentucky census worker found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with “fed” scrawled on his chest killed himself but staged his death to make it look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.

Bill Sparkman, 51, was found Sept. 12 with a rope around his neck near a cemetery in a heavily wooded area of the Daniel Boone National Forest in southeastern Kentucky. Authorities said his wrists were loosely bound, his glasses were taped to his head and he was gagged.

Kentucky State Police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said an analysis found that “fed” was written “from the bottom up.” He was touching the ground, and to survive “all Mr. Sparkman had to do at any time was stand up,” she said.

“Our investigation, based on evidence and witness testimony, has concluded that Mr. Sparkman died during an intentional, self-inflicted act that was staged to appear as a homicide,” Rudzinski said.

Authorities said Sparkman alone manipulated the suicide scene. Rudzinski said he “told a credible witness that he planned to commit suicide and provided details on how and when.”

Authorities wouldn’t say who Sparkman told of his plan, but said Sparkman talked about it a week before his suicide and the person did not take him seriously.

Friends and co-workers have said that even while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, Sparkman would show up for work smiling with a toboggan cap to cover his balding head. They said he was punctual and dependable.

$600,000 in life insurance
Sparkman had recently taken out two accidental life insurance policies totaling $600,000 that would not pay out for suicide, authorities said. If Sparkman had been killed on the job, his family also would have been be eligible for up to $10,000 in death gratuity payments from the government.

Sparkman’s son, Josh, previously told The Associated Press that his father had named him as his life insurance beneficiary. Josh Sparkman said earlier this month he found paperwork for the private life insurance policy among his father’s personal files but wasn’t sure of the amount.

The Census Bureau suspended door-to-door interviews in the rural area after Sparkman’s body was found, but a spokesman said normal operations would resume in Clay County next month.

Anti-government sentiment was initially one possibility in the death. Authorities said Sparkman had discussed perceived negative views of the federal government in the county.


More @

I still think that’s the pot calling the kettle racist.

does that need a [NSFW] tag?

Bill posted it. So I’d wager it does.

So your idea of a pick-up line is: “Pardon me, miss, but does this smell like chloroform to you?”
Josh