C'est Fini

After about 30 hours of labor..




And over 5,000 pieces...




The Millennium Falcon has arrived!



It is amazing. I don't know how he does it :)

These guys are pretty excited too, (can't ya tell?)

Rockin' and Buildin'

So, yeah, we've been playing Rock Band. In fact, I actually completed 2 songs on 'hard' today! Yay! Fun songs, Wanted: Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi and Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet.


Also happening in the basement.. Lego building.

Kyra got a few sets of one of her favorite guys:



And Alec got his dream, The Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon so we're going to share the progression of this amazing building extravaganza!


Excited Alec!


The manual-- or huge book..




Spreading it all out



These guys are patiently awaiting their ship



About 12 hours into it...



More to come later

Happy Holidays to All!

Wishing you all stockings full of joy and happiness!

To Mrs G, Canada Craig and Sweet Scotty

you are my Rockin' Inspirations :)

Happy Holidays!



and thanks to Kyra for taking the picture.

For my brothers who were unable to make it to my family's Christmas celebration.

Miss you guys! And hope you sickies are feeling better really soon!

My sister, her husband and 2 of her kids, (almost grown kids, wow!) joined us, along with my parents.

Of course there were treats


Doesn't Tim look goood in the kitchen?




And there was gift opening!




One can never have enough Spud attire. Yes, my high school's mascot is a potato.



We were actually joined by a Level ?? Humanoid !!




Kyra made cards for everyone.



And she serenaded us with Christmas carols.


Sitting together, enjoying each other's company is nice.



But, yes, don't worry, we're still plenty weird. :)




We played a serious game of Apples to Apples.



Did I say serious? Check out Kyra's face... hee hee!


And we heard comments like, "you BETTER pick my card or I'm gonna SCHMUCK ya!"


It was a fun day.

OK, Rock Band ROCKS!




So much fun :) really fun stuff. Things that we love about it:

1. Detailed design of your character. Yes, you can put a tattoo on and have dreads of purple, and see your character as you play! And if you want a different tattoo later, no problem! *g*

2. Drums!

3. both electric and bass guitar options, although you have to buy or have an extra guitar to play both.

4. the guitar play in this works so much better for me, than Guitar Hero, I'm not quite sure why. It might be that it plays more like a real guitar. This is the Rock Band guitar that comes with the set. You just strum and it works! Unfortunately, Alec did not like the guitar on this but we can get a Guitar Hero guitar for X-box 360 and it'll be what he's used to :)

Gotta go now, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' is so much fun. Imagine that you actually can play that guitar part. :D Jon Bon Jovi would so want me in his band *G*

A Tribute to Sisters

My sister and I sing this every time we get the chance.



But wait, I think I like this one more!



Yeah, cheesiness at its best.


And here are the next gen sisters :)

Yeah, baby!

This was one headline I was happy to read!

Peter Jackson to produce 'The Hobbit'

And who else should do it??? But I do wish he was going to direct it too. Well, at least he and his wife will have input with it.

We will have to wait until 2010 though, for the first one. Yes, first one :) There will be 2. One happy Tolkien lover here.

Here are a couple of articles. http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/18/film.thehobbit.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071219/film_nm/hobbit_dc_5

Wet Paint by Kelly Lovejoy

What a wonderful essay Kelly Lovejoy has recently written. It's about obedience -vs- thinking, building a trusting relationship with our children and lots of other juicy tidbits to think about.

You can find it over at sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy/wetpaint

or subscribe to Connections which is an ezine of unschooling and mindful parenting. I think Connections is a wonderful resource and is in existence due to the hard work of Danielle Conger.

Hope everyone is having a wonderfully warm and joyous holiday season!

Cuz Sometimes You Just Need To Hug

Remember to stop and smile during this holiday season. And maybe even share a few of these...









And we're off to the Minneapple for the weekend.

Hugs to all!

~for misty ~

Tagety Tagety Tag

I've been tagged by MJ and thought I had better do a little ole list about my self :)

Here are the rules courtesy her mother.

Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog of ten weird or random facts about you, your habits, or your goals. At the end, choose ten people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don't forget to leave each a comment (such as, "You're IT!") with instructions to read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you, but you should let her know when you've posted to your blog so she can see your answers.


My random things:

1. I tend to do things differently from what I'm told so I'll probably not come up with 10 things about myself. And I'll probably not tag anyone since I'm really running out of people and if people want to play I'll let them choose that themselves. :)

2. I have a obsessive relationship with coffee. Love the smell, love the warm feeling it gives me as I hold my cup and I love the energy it gives me. Yes, caffeine is usually my drug of choice.

3. I love writing but I so often hit the delete button. Maybe some day I'll hit the publish button more often, or not.

4. I love saying ... "or not".

5. I love playing instruments, I play the piano, violin, bells, dabble with the recorder, cello and really want to learn guitar, and harp.

6. I'm very sensitive and cry really easy. REALLY easily from music, movies and books... OK over a lot. I'm learning to be OK with that. It's just me :D

7. I don't bite my nails but I pick them, and usually when I watch a movie. And I love movies so my nails are usually short, very short.

8. I enjoy playing video games. Yes, I'm 40 years old and I like gaming. In fact I was just on my druid from WoW, doing some leveling.

9. When I read a book I live that book, it's right with me as I live my life, even when I've stopped reading. The characters hang right there in my head for a long time, the setting stays too.

That's all I can think of right now... oh, this can be 10...

10. I think MJ is cool.

Thanks MJ :)

Excitement!

Dang exciting day yesterday. After working hard for hours, (and days/months prior) Kyra reached level 40 on Peke, her World of Warcraft character. Congrats Kyra! Quite an accomplishment, it takes a lot of time and effort to get to that level.

And what's the pay off? Well...

you get a mount of course!

A mount gives you a 60% increase in speed. No more walking and with the huge land of Azeroth, one needs a mount! ;)





I also leveled my druid up. Kyra is on the right and I'm on the left.

My mount is a spotted frost saber and she got a war horse.

Now we're waiting for the holiday patch, where we'll be able to ride reindeer! So fun!

I think she'll be doing her own post about it too, if you want to check it out at her blog.

What have we been doing?

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

No Way!

OK, so, did Mrs. Gates kick her son off the computer? Was he told, "that's enough computer play now" ?? I didn't think she did, but maybe?... hmmmm

OMG.. they really can reach into our lives in different ways can't they?

Wow.

Here's part of the article that's here: Microsoft lets parents stop the game

*******************************************

Microsoft lets parents stop the game clock

New Xbox 360 family functions will give parents more control.

Concerned about your child's gaming habits? Your life is about to be made easier -- at least, if your family owns an Xbox 360. Microsoft, the console's manufacturer, plans to include a "Family Timer" in the 360's Fall System Update, due to roll out to all Internet-connected consoles on December 4.

The Family Timer, a feature that's unique to the Xbox 360, allows parents to set a maximum amount of daily or weekly time that their kids can use the console. The unfortunate youth will receive a series of warnings as their time expires before being kicked out when the countdown reaches zero. Parents can override the timer if they feel their offspring deserves extra gaming privileges, or disable it altogether if they fancy a little play once the kids are in bed.

Downloading the update will be automatic if your Xbox is connected to a broadband network, and the update process should take less than a minute, Microsoft's Group Project Manager Adam Greenberg told Yahoo!. Once downloaded, parents can find the Family Timer settings by going to the "System" blade of their console's main menu. The timer can be set in 15-minute increments, and you can always ask the kids for help -- although you may not want to let them know what you're planning to do.

***********************************

Yeah, you can ask the kids for help. You can, but if you're always limiting them they'll never know how to do anything anyway, better do it quick! Ask before they're stiffled!

Geesh.

Tree time

We decorated our tree yesterday. Not quite the tree that we had last year. But still a nice one.



Abbi and Kyra have always loved the honors of tree decorating.

The smell from the tree is wonderful. Sweet pine scent. mmmmmmmm

C'est fini!

Snow, snow, snow

We got about 8 inches yesterday and it's falling again now.










If I could live up in the pine trees, I would.