White

This week I am doing something new, a photo challenge sponsored by The Paper Mama. I am by no means any type of photographer, but I do like to take pictures, often having no idea what I'm doing. Heidi is the photographer, and I love how creative and talented she is. This week's challenge is White.

I took this one of Heidi holding her cousin. I really LOVE how this turned out. 

Heidi Movie Clip of the Day - Week Ending 11.12.11

Ok, it looks like I'm not posting a clip every day, for which I get severely scolded by the boss, Miss Heidi herself. I'll try to remember from now on.


There is no one cooler than Jackie Chan. Heidi and I are going to have a Jackie Chan marathon while I am there over Thanksgiving. I can't think of a better way to spend time with my daughter. 



I'm not sure when Heidi got into musicals, this was one I watched with Vernon, then Heidi watched it and she LOVES it. She especially thought this guy, Donald O'Connor, was adorable, they don't make 'em like him anymore.



Uh, need I say more? If Adam Sandler showed up on our doorstep, I think Heidi and I would try to kick each others' asses to get to him first. We both like guys who can make us laugh.



Since the Conan the Barbarian days I have been Arnold Schwarzenegger's biggest fan (until recently-what a dumbass). Anyway, this is a classic that Heidi needed to see and I often use the "tumor" line. It annoys the crap out of her. ;)



This is an extra clip. Posted by Heidi herself. Who doesn't want to hear the Pet Sematary kid talk about vaginas?



We got dumped on by about 6 inches of heavy wet snow. I thought this would be appropriate as the daily clip.



I honestly do not know how many times we have watched this one; but I'll warn you, you do not want to watch it with us because we can recite the entire movie.



Cookies and Corky! We can't watch this one enough.

Heidi Movie Clip of the Day - Week Ending 11.05.11

Heidi has me doing something really fun. I would post a random movie clip that I knew Heidi would enjoy on our facebook walls. She then asked me to do that every day. I said no way would I have enough clips for posting every day! Well that was 2 months ago. I look for movie clips that we both enjoy. Some me more than her, some her more than me. But, we both enjoy them and mean something to us. I am excited about going down to see her for Thanksgiving. I'll be on a bus for 12 hours because my truck isn't in the kind of shape to make the drive, plus I'll be saving about $200 on gas. Woo Hoo! I'd sit on a bus for 12 hours if it meant seeing Heidi. I miss that girl. I've decided to post a weeks worth of movie clips so you can see how truly warped we are. If I can't embed, it's just a link with a photo. Enjoy!

We used to watch this movie all the time when she was little.

Fame Halloween Dance

I wanted a Halloween theme for today, and Heidi and I love dancing movies.









This movie is a classic, we love Nicole and Sandra and when we watched this I knew Heidi would love it as much as me. She did.

Inception; Rotating Hallway Scene
This is Heidi's favorite scene in this movie. And she LOVED this movie. I thought it was OK, but I knew how much she loved this scene.





Ok, I have to admit that I really did like this movie, but Heidi forced me to watch it. How can you not LOVE Tracy Turnblad?!?!?! I like fun upbeat clips for Saturday mornings, and it doesn't get more upbeat than this! 

She Misses Me

I know for a fact she misses me. How do I know this? Well, she doesn't really tell me she misses me, or even that she loves me. We just know each other and I guess with her I have to depend on actions and other things that she says. Last week we had a phone conversation. It went something like this:
Heidi telling me about her and K in the cafeteria and a song came on:
 Heidi: "What movie!"
 K:      "What?"
 Heidi: "Oh, I don't do that with you. That's something me and my mom do."
 K:      "That song is in a lot of movies."
 Heidi: "Mom would have known which movie I was thinking of."
 K:      "But that song was in a lot of movies."
 Heidi: "She would have known which movie I was thinking of."

The conversation really didn't get much further than that. And Heidi was right, I would have known which movie she was thinking of. We have this weird thing with movies and tv, and we speak in our own strange language where others look at us like we both are speaking gibberish.

Below are some songs that trigger us to think of specific movies.

                                 

            

Boy, I think we've watched this movie about a hundred times!

                             

I miss you too Sweetie.

and Pie!

Heidi and I just love Gilmore Girls. I remember when we discovered it. It was entertaining and funny and moved quite fast with their super quick dialogue and then we noticed something; Lorelai and Rory were freakishly a lot like Kimberly and Heidi! Cool! I honestly don't know how many times we have worked our way through this show beginning with disc 1 of the first season and ending with the last disc of the latest season that we have to date. Then, we start all over again. One of the things that we like is how they eat. Very similar to our eating habits and Lorelai and I share the same lack of domestic culinary abilities. Here is a list of regularly consumed items by both the Gilmore Girls and us.

She's Off To See the Wizard!

Tonight is the big night. It is the night we have all been waiting for... well, not me, but the rest of America has. I say America because it has already happened in the UK. I am talking about the final Harry Potter movie. I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about it. I got so so SO sick of Harry Potter.... and then Edward came along... then I had to apologize to Harry Potter because I enjoy his company so much more; although Jacob is quite the hottie... WHEW! TEAM JACOB!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHH.... ahem... sorry... where was I?

 Oh yes... Harry Potter.  For years Heidi has been a big fan. She's been a fan of the books and the movies. She has drug me to all of the Harry Potter movies and I admit I have enjoyed them. She's also got all the dvd's and most of the soundtracks. I have lost track of the number of times I have seen each movie.. oh, and don't get me started on the Scene it? dvd game. UGH! I totally suck at it! I can't remember the names of most of the characters so I get special rules... I'll say, "The guy who wrote a book and is totally full of himself" instead of... brb... Googling the name.... Professor Lockhart... I could not have gotten that if my life depended on it, let alone a dvd game. I have fun though, playing these games with Heidi, and watching the movies is something we always do together. As I watched part 1 of the Deathly Hallows with Heidi and her roommate, the roommate was quite impressed that I knew what was going on and that I understood the history. The reason for this is that I have a constant narrator when I watch a Harry Potter movie. Heidi will make sure I know what is going on, why, and fill in the spaces left out from the book. I get after her for talking during the movie but I like how excited she gets. Heidi will probably take me to see part 2 next weekend. It should be fun. I know I'll hear all about it either super late when she gets home at 3am or tomorrow when I get home from work. My baby is 19 1/2, which mean's she's almost a 20yr old woman. It's like the end of Harry Potter and the end of her childhood... shit, now I feel like crying. I guess I never thought about it until now.  Well, she's been standing in line for the last 1 1/2 hours and is having fun with her 2 Harry Potter friends J and S. In the past they have made t-shirts and have gone to the last few movies together.  I'm glad all three of them are together tonight, in addition to meeting a few other friends there.  I was given strict instructions to fix her dinner so she can reheat it when she gets home, and that is already done. I can't wait to hear about how much fun she had, the people she saw, and if she approved of the ending. She's very concerned about how they will end it. I hope she's not disappointed, she's been waiting for this for a very long time. The best part is that I am really happy about not being SHUSHHHHED every time the trailer comes on the TV.

What are our kids reading?

I came across this amazing blog post written by Robin Weeks in response to an article that she felt very strongly about. This article is titled Darkness Too Visible against the darker themed young adult literature, of which my daughter enjoys so I have strong feelings about it too. Ms. Weeks then felt she was too harsh so she wrote a second post, YA Saves - Counterpoint. I found this entire topic to be very interesting and I even became a bit emotional as I was writing my comment to Ms. Weeks' first post. It got to be pretty long so I thought I would turn my comment into its own blog post. Before you go on,  you should read the 3 articles by clicking on the links. It's a bit of reading, but very interesting reading, especially if you are interested in YA fiction, censorship or just plain good writing.

I grew up in the 80's when parents were blaming music for our behavior. Even as a teenager I saw a flaw in this so called reasoning. I listened to Ozzy and Metallica and was a well adjusted smart kid who respected her elders. I felt that if a kid killed himself while listening to a certain kind of music there was something else going on. Was I the only one paying attention here?

Well, I would never be caught reading any books containing vampires, warewolves, or the like. Not my thing, but my daughter is a different story. I HONESTLY feel she would not be in college now if it weren't for RL Stine, JK Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer. 


My daughter would not read anything. School sucked. Friends sucked. She was losing her interest in dance. I didn't know what to do. One day I brought home a Goosebumps book... that's where it all started. SHE WAS READING! She was grades behind in her reading level and from reading these books she started to improve in school. 

She worked her way through these books through the years. Now at 19 she's got a bookshelf FULL of books from a variety of authors who write this dark type of YA literature. She now also enjoys the American classics and is a well rounded responsible young woman. She's dabbling at writing her own book, and she's an English major - in secondary education. I'm so proud of her. 

Not only did these books improve her reading skills and widen her interests in reading, but they were an emotional outlet. Being a teen gets harder and harder through the years and while kids were sitting in front of their computer games, or talking to weirdos on the internet mine had her head in a book. When things sucked at school she would read her books. 


I got emotional while writing this. I can't believe how far she has come and how much she has grown. Her interest in books thrills me. Right now we have Passion by Lauren Kate sitting on our table waiting for Heidi to come home from a short trip she is on. The second she walks through the door, she will sit down and start reading. I will forever be a defender in all things literary.


I think I owe my love for books and literature to my mom. She brought me up to treat books with the utmost respect. I could never damage one, destroy one, or throw one away. Books are valuable and we should cherish them. They have always been important to me and at times have sentimental value, especially if the book was a gift.


I haven't read anything outside of magazines or blogs in a while. I should follow in my daughter's footsteps and pick up a book, even if I only manage to read a few pages a day.