Learning Joy

Max wouldn’t look at Jef when he was taking the pictures so here are Jonathan and Max looking at me! :o) 1/2/06 

On Jan. 2, Matt & Sarah and baby Max came to visit. We were all taken with how adorable Max is! 1/2/06 

Here is a joke Jonathan made up himself –

Q: Why couldn’t the astronaut separate his words on his computer?

A: Because he ate the space bar!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

in a school bus parking lot –

Bus “drivers” wanted.

Why did they put the word drivers in quotations? Do they want fake drivers? Are school bus drivers only drivers in name?? What is up with that??

While I don’t necessarily like calling God “Dad”, I like this letter. 🙂

Directive From the “Know-it-all” Department in Washington

• This year, only inoffensive nativity pageants will be allowed.
• There shall be no mention of Mary riding a donkey. Unfair to animals.
• No reference to innkeeper allowed so as not to cast aspersions on hospitality industries.
• No swaddling clothes which is a clear sign of child abuse.
• There will be an equal number of boy shepherds and girl shepherds.
• No reference shall be made to seeing a star so as not to offend people living in smog.
• Any and all gifts shall be wrapped in recycled paper and recycled ribbons.
• King Herod shall be accompanied by Queen Herod and speak half the dialogue.
• There shall be at least three Wise Persons of appropriate ethnic and gender mix.
• When the family leaves for Egypt, Joseph shall carry the baby and Mary the luggage.
• Since religious observances should unite rather than divide, there shall be no “Gloria in excelsis Deo” nor any “Merry Christmases.” A simple “Season’s Greetings” is preferable.

Spiders

I love spiders.
They kill snow sliders.
They crawl on your head,
chew on your sled.
They chase Grandma lots
They taste metal pots.
I feed them to Lucy,
She thinks they are juicy!

(Lucy is our tree frog who loves spiders!)

“Broadband is a fundamental civil right and human right” – NYC city council member Bill de Blasio

This is the title of the movie that came in the mail the other day. In case you don’t know, I have a “thing” for David James Elliott. He played Harmon Rabb on “JAG”, a show I used to watch (it’s over now). Anyways, since I liked him in that, I wanted to see the movie he’d made. I’ll warn ya – there are gonna be spoilers. 😉

“Dodson’s Journey” started out ok. Here’s the synopsis of the movie ~

Gregg Champion‘s heartwarming drama Dodson’s Journey stars David James Elliott as
James Dodson, a man attempting to salvage his relationship with his young
daughter (Alicia Morton). James has been thrown off kilter when in quick
succession his father dies and his marriage ends. He goes on a fishing trip with his
daughter, attempting to bridge the substantial gap that has grown between them.
The supporting cast includes Ellen Burstyn and Penelope Ann Miller.

They don’t really give you a whole lot of reason as to why the marriage is ending in the beginning. You do find out during the movie that she is a Boston socialite & he is from West Virginia.
During the movie, there is talk of God, although not in a very real way. We were disappointed by the ending. At the end, James & Meredith still get a divorce. It is ok for the kid, though, because she will be ok as long as she knows she is loved. Maggie (the kid) didn’t seem ok throughout the movie. She was very upset by the pending divorce & asked her dad to make things better. He did, only as one can when they don’t have God. It was an anti-climactic ending. Everything stayed the same. Jimmy found out more about himself & why the marriage hadn’t worked, and he got closer to his daughter, and learned to let go of his father. But those were not tangible enough results.
How much better it would have been to have seen James & Meredith take a walk and talk. She’d accused him of living with too many ghosts (he still kept a picture of a former fiancee who’d been shot). He could have admitted she was right & apologized. There could have been a scene of reconciliation – both parties seeing their flaws, admitting them to each other & deciding to at least give it another go with this new understanding & open communication. Sadly, there wasn’t any of this. The movie ended slightly existentially – James told Maggie to “take the leap”, to live life to its fullest.
So I liked the movie until the end. Then I was sad. Jef has forbidden (ha ha ha) me from picking any more movies. 🙂 I’ve been on a losing streak. we saw “Gone With the Wind”, which was incredibly sad, and about the last five movies I’ve picked have been horrid. Either really sad or unwatchable. We had to send back “The Story of Seabiscuit” with Shirley Temple because we couldn’t get past the beginning racism. It was terrible!
Anyways, that’s my two cents on “Dodson’s Journey”. It does have a really good line, though – “Dry fly-fishing is to fly-fishing was free will is to a discussion on religion.” (or something like that – I forgot to grab it before I sealed the movie!)
Have a Happy Wednesday!!

I love that when the boys heard the monkeys tell each other to throw “poo” in Madagascar, Daniel said, “oh, he’s gonna throw Pooh bear at them!” 🙂

Nicholas loved this movie. He said later on that he wanted to watch “The Alex Movie”. 🙂

Madagascar was a fun movie, save a few references we could’ve done without (the “mints” Melman finds, and the “poo” the monkeys throw). It has fun music in it, which Nicholas loves because he loves music!! Yesterday he sat at the table with his Aunt Marie & I and sang with Akeem (not sure if that is spelled right; he’s a boy who’s living with Doug & Marie & the boys) instead of playing in the playplace at the mall. Nicholas loves to sing, dance, and listen to music.