Category Archives: 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment

WHO, the question seems to be, DAT?

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I recently announced my apparent connection to both 2010 Super Bowl teams. 

You can read about that here.  Not that I am taking credit for either team making it to the top, but I did live less than an hour away from both Indianapolis and from New Orleans at various times in my life.  I am just saying, I seem to be a common thread for football greatness.  Not the only one, but a common one.

So, the question is posed, “For whom will Jeanie root during the Super Bowl?”  I know this has caused much concern for many people, especially since everyone knows that not only do I not get football, I don’t ever even watch it except long enough to pass by and say “Those are some stinking tight pants,“…AND in light of the fact that I once had life-threatening food poisoning following a Super Bowl party.  Yes, there has been great speculation about my loyalties.  Which is really a moot point since I don’t do football, for crying out loud. 

Really, the question should be: who will win ~ And whether I have the ability to influence that outcome, and it is obvious I do and I shall.  So, my choice is?…

Well, people, come on.  I wrote that previous Super Bowl post, which was the first time in over 800 blog posts football has e-v-e-r been a topic, right after the Saints beat the Vikings in that fairly spectacular overtime win (the field goal ring a bell?).  And I added gold letters to the black font to leave a little trail, a clue as it were,  for the future.

THEN this week, an old family friend* from like ~  30-gazillion years ago (who once played Jesus for my dad’s Palm Sunday and Easter productions, first by riding up to the church wrapped in a white sheet on a donkey and later, hanging on the cross in possibly the same white sheet, before going on to utilize that divine-wig plus a red bandana at a church dinner-on-the-ground to emulate a Willie-Nelson-type character) sent me a Saints shirt {annonymously} in an effort to sway me.  Additionally, my brother Joe-the-pastor has been telling me the Saints are God’s team and very persuasively backing it up with scripture:

1 Sam 2:9  He will guard the feet of his SAINTS, but the wicked (Colts?) will be silenced in darkness!

Psalm 16:3  As for the SAINTS who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

Psalm 149:4,5  For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the SAINTS rejoice in this honor and sing for joy…

Daniel 7:18  But the SAINTS of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever- yes, forever and ever.

Rom 8:27  …the Spirit intercedes for the SAINTS in accordance with God’s will.

1 Cor 6:2  Do you not know that the SAINTS will judge the world…?

So who is it going to be?

Well…The Saints have that cutie-patootie, Drew Brees.  But the Colts have Peyton Manning.  I don’t know a darn thing about him myself, but several sportscasters seem to adore him.  I liked a lot of people from Indy when I lived there, though Louisiana boasts the most interesting of characters.    Hoosiers are good, middle American people.  The mosquito rules in the Bayou.  All these things must be weighed in the balance.

But the deciding factor for me?  The food!  Seafood Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, Roast Beef Po’ Boys, Jambalaya, Crawfish {pie…which I have never actually had}~Omygosh (or me-oh-my-oh, like the song says).  Hands down, the SAINTS are winning the Super Bowl and I give them my full support!  Yes.  Because of the scrumptious food.  I have spoken.  I may not watch the game.  But the common thread has decreed it so.

    

The crowd goes wild with approval (or whatever).

PLUS – no one from Indiana sent me a t-shirt.  That hurts.…Jeanie…WHO DAT?, indeed…

 

*”A Saints fan” from Robert, La-you know who you are…Thanks for the EXTRA-LARGE t-shirt. 

 

Pictured: Guini modeled the shirt in matching shoes.  There is a full roster on the back.  I have never heard of these people.

Yo-Yo

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

I wasn’t allowed to listen to this kind of music when I was a kid.  This was “hard rock” to me in the early 70’s and I was, you know, the preacher’s daughter.  So, I am not going to try to explain how I still know every word and the entire arrangement of this little Osmond treasure.  Huh-uh.  Never-you-mind about that.  Just watch.  Check out those great [Mormon] moves and listen for the whoop, now!

NOTE:  Yes, there was some Puppy Love over Donny and he had to sing Go Away Little Girl to me in a way that I would understand his agony in our relationship (and naturally They Tried to Tell Us We were Too Young), but my true love and total allegience remained with David {I Think I Love You} Cassidy at all times.  This is a true statement.

SHhhh…please don’t tell my parents.  ; )

Chia Dave

2 Mi Familia, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

I wrote about Dave going bald for his role in Annie as Daddy Warbucks here.

 

Got these cute pictures of Poppa, aka Daddy Warbucks, with our very own little Annie (more commonly known as Gemma) and Sandy-the-Family-Dog.  And of Poppa-now-bald with grandbebes Hunter, Gemma May and Guinivere (who may or may not be tormenting the dog).

Meanwhile, Bryan-the-Blogger couldn’t resist messing with a photo of Dave because of what I wrote here.  This is Chia Dave.

Tsk.

The Farmer Inside

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Way down, deep inside me, there resides a farmer.

Remember the TV show Green Acres?  While I found Eva Gabor fascinatingly glamorous and interesting, I had to agree with her husband:

Green Acres is the place to be!
Farm living is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside! 

Were it not for having to be up by 4:30 to milk the cows and feed the horses at 5 and then getting back to the house to fix a big hearty breakfast for all the field hands, if there weren’t so many eggs to collect and pigs to chase, if I didn’t have to plow and spread, and sow and till and irrigate and seed and pray for rain and then pray for the rain to stop, if the weather couldn’t wipe out my entire crop in one fell swoop, if I could be guaranteed the livestock would never get disease or freeze to death or escape the fence I needed to have repaired, I’d be a farmer.  I really would.

Below is one of those email forwards going around.    Made me wish I had my own tractor.

OLD FARMERS ADVICE:

 Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Bald by Choice…no, really!

2 Mi Familia, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Dave did it.

He chose baldness for his role in the upcoming Prairie Playhouse production of Annie as Lt. General Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.  I have long dreaded the day.

He got a shorter haircut a couple of weeks ago and shaved all the facial hair to try to “warm me up” to the idea.

 

Then we gathered the family for the dastardly deed so the grandbebes wouldn’t be freaked out by him, but they kind of are.

Dave is bald.

A buzz and a Bic and voila.  A huge pile of his thick, healthy, black with ever-so-few white hairs was vacuumed up and disposed of as if there is no concern for its future return.  And perhaps there is not.  For when I had the courage to touch it the following day, it was so thickly populated with little hair buds that it was like Velcro – not at all smooth the way a truly bald man’s head might be.

“It will grow back,” Dave promises me each time he sees me eyeing him warily.

So he is bald to be Daddy Warbucks.

But I keep wondering if I could get some seed and turn him into a gardening experiment like this?

Dave and his Bic are going to have to be very close friends for the next TWO MONTHS!  Yikes!….Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Tomorrow, tomorrow Dave’s hair will grow back…

I don’t even like football

9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , ,

I used to live in Kokomo, Indiana ~ 51.9 miles from Indianapolis.  AND, I used to live in Robert, Louisiana ~ 56.8 miles from New Orleans.  You do the math.

I am not saying that I am DIRECTLY responsible for both of these teams going to the Super Bowl this year or that my influence has in any way made them better teams.  But, you know, I am a common denominator…maybe THE common denominator.

So, enjoy, everyone.  No thanks needed.  My gift.  To you.

Just kidding…sort of.

In all my travels…

6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

“In all my travels past and all my travels yet to come, I’ll never find a better friend.”

~Mr. Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1995).

I have a strong emotional response each time I hear that line in the this classic Christmas movie remake by John Hughes.  I mean ~ Kris Kringle had to have had a lot of friends and we know he travelled extensively, right?  I thought the quote must have come from classic literature, but I am unable to find any reference to it anywhere else (meaning Google).

It just makes me wonder…

How many people in a lifetime do you think you really, actually get to say this to and mean it?  And how many people could even say it to you?

all my travels

{By the way, I MET Santa the other night myself at the Parks and Rec Board Meeting where he received an award for his generous service to the community.  And guess what!??!  He said he’ll be at Heaven Fest!}

SONG FOR A SUNDAY: How Deep is Your Love ~

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

The BeeGees!  Unplugged.

This is a an audio-only recording of the BeeGees in the studio as they are actually putting one of the most incredibly beautiful and timeless songs together for posterity.  You hear them toy with lyrics and experiment with different chord progressions.  For almost 10 minutes, you are caught up in the creative process hearing those amazing voices, the magic 3 becoming one polyganol, complex arianic harmony reverberating through your very soul and blending effortlessly as they explore various  possibilities for the final rendition. 

Originally recorded in 1977, this song hung out in the top ten on the charts for 17 weeks.  LISTEN TO THIS (really!) and see how a classic love song is composed, discovered, birthed, created.  I am in love with the process, the era, the melody, the creativity and the breath and poetry of it! 

There is no question they were pulling song from the very heavenlies, where embrocated music flows thick for healing, crescendo and diminuendo, the rise and fall of sweet sound swelling like the ocean and leaving its imprint as it recedes.  What’s captured on this recording is so soft and gentle,  yet full-heavy with fervent emotion.  And though I have always mourned my inability to be poetic and lyrical and fear to even attempt it, there is also no question that listening to these voices pulls on

my strong desire

to be able to say in words

what I simply cannot,

yet feel.

so.

deeply. 

How deeply?  Mmmm, mm…  So very. 

you have to disagree with everything except the piano, black

and white keys marking the path you must climb step…

-Anthony Walton on Jazz

If the remaining two brothers Gibb could just be at a piano in my house doing this forever ~ then aaaahhhh…heaven, almost too much {veiled reference, wink wink}.  And if music, and all art, really, is meant to invoke emotion from those who experience it…this is art – the art on the walls of my heart.

The flawless recording as we have all come to know and love it, How Deep is Your Love

From Saturday Night Fever.

Beegees Home

BeeGees on YouTube A great live performance of this same song.

www.beegees.com

2 Days until Christmas ~Too Delightful, Too Sweet!

2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Keep Christmas.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year.” Charles Dickens

I have a whole blog category called “Keep Christmas” inspired by this very quote.  Keep: to continue, maintain, look after, maintain possession of.  Provide and nourish it.  Maintain, preserve and enjoy it.  And what are we keeping anyway?  The Christ Mass, the worship of Jesus Christ.  Of course I will Keep Christmas.  With all my heart!

kiddos-003 kiddos-025 

The PJ Party

Of all our social engagements during the festive holidays, there is none so important nor more desirous for which to be invited than the PJ Party with the Grandbebes.  The Little Prince himself called for this royal celebration this year, already having deemed it a most regal tradition.

kiddos-037 kiddos-055

This year’s soiree included “Ice” skating at The Orchard where Gemma promptly fell on her “buns” and did not like skating at all after that, telling every stranger who cared to engage her, “I can’t skate anymore, I am too little,” while Averi went at it as if she were born on ice and Guini fell if anyone skated past her within a 20-foot radius, presumably the wind itself knocking the little featherweight down.  But she would laugh hilariously and get right back up and the boys?  Well they were boys!.  Then there was Taco Bell and these 5 can put away the chips and Nacho Cheese like nobody’s business. 

kiddos-064 kiddos-073

kiddos-076 kiddos-089 kiddos-091 kiddos-093

kiddos-077 kiddos-085 kiddos-094 kiddos-095 

Dave had the 2 little girls while I drove Gavin, Hunter and Guini home.  We decided to sing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs, in between theologiocal discussions about how God could be everywhere at once and what God looks like and how God was right there in the car blessing Hunter and holding his hand that very second.  Somewhere between “Let it Snow” and “Jingle Bells,” just after the kids had happily spotted the giant star atop the Christmas tree at the Brighton City Hall as we passed, Guini, moved by the true meaning of Christmas, led out a strong, rousing rendition of “Oh no, You never let go.”  Yes.  The Matt Redman song.  And they worshipped their little heads off.

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me
Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Then…

kiddos-114

The annual Reindeer prints: footprint for the head, 2 hand prints for the antlers, the forefinger for eyes and a thumbprint for the nose.  These were created to take home for mommys and daddys – a reminder of how much they have grown since last year.  Colorful paint and water flew in every direction, but voila!  Art!

Then hot chocolate for all and we got in our jammies and pulled the couch close to the TV for watching Sprout and Elf while munching on popcorn. 

kiddos-120

The Party lasts all night and into the morning.

At exactly 6:13 this morning, I heard the rumble of small feet tear through the house and shrieks of naughty glee and giggles pierced the sweet sleep I so longingly clung to.  Capt’n Crunch Christmas Cereal, helping Poppa wrap presents and place them under the tree and early morning screenings of the classics:  Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman, our very own film festival!    They are making tents of blankets and Baby Jesus is missing.  We have sent out a search party, but Gemma announces from the top of the stairs, in that particularly little-lamb voice of hers, “I can’t find Baby Jesus, Poppa.  I don’t know where He is?…” 

Sandy-the-Dog endures being placed in swaddling clothes, but does enjoy the crumbs and treats the grandbebes leave around the house.

Hunter informs me before leaving that we did not do the PJ Party “correctly” because there were no balloons and cake.  He believes with all his heart that a PJ Party must have balloons and cake.  {you try, right?}

kiddos-138 kiddos-143 kiddos-145 kiddos-129

“Two more ‘sleeps’ until Christmas,”  the measurement Gavin and Hunter give to any upcoming event for which they can hardly wait.

Christmas is, after all,  coming.  In only 2 more sleeps!

kiddos-031 kiddos-032

Will Baby Jesus be found in time for Christmas?!?

Three Nights Before Christmas

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , ,

Three nights before Christmas and all over town, there is much to be done and so many sounds…

1.  Christmas with my family is pretty loud.

“Christmas at our house was like a Donny and Marie TV Special” (who said that?). 

That cracks me up because it is like that for us, too.  Rare is the quiet tree-lit silent night, or a room full of heavenly peace for pondering and reflecting.  Even now, as I write this (on Monday night to be posted on Tuesday), it is late.    And yet, the rooms are brightly shining and daughters have materials and supplies spread everywhere, working on Christmas projects and finishing last-minute gifts.  They tease and cajole.  They drink coffee and break out into song, filling the air with movie quotes and remembrances in a thoroughly unpredictable rhythm.  Just now they are singing selections from the musical “Oklahoma,” for what reason, I do not know.  I’d like to tell them to go to their rooms and get to sleep, but am reminded they are here now by choice, a gift to me, something I treasure.  Let the madness remain.

taras-dec-012 taras-dec-014

2.  I really do not like to shop.  But at this point, I have no choice.

I power-shopped for more than 10 hours Monday.  {sigh} I organized each person’s list according to every different retail establishment I would need to hit.  I mapped out a plan, gathered coupons and those “free money” cards I have collected from said establishments (like $10 off a $25 purchase at JCP, $10 off any purchase at Kohls!) into a folder.  I made sure to have my Starbucks giftcards for needed strength (did you know there is a company-wide shortage of caramel due to the popularity of the new Caramel Brulee Latte??!?) and most importantly, dedicated myself to having a good hair day because when you are going from morning to night, not having to worry about hair in imperative.  Then I told Dave: this isn’t a pleasure trip, you know.  The objective is to cross things off my list: quickly.

Several of my girls have asked for vintage/antique-type things so I added 3 thrift stores to my list, all within a short get-it-done radius.  When we arrived at the first one and I leapt from the car with notebook and pen in hand and started bounding toward the door at break-neck speed, Dave commented, “There.  See, honey?  This store was created just for you.”  For the big sign at the entrance read:  ARC Thrift Store ~ Shopping with a Purpose. 

Yes, I am a purpose-driven shopper. 

taras-dec-015 taras-dec-019

3.  I will continue to complain about the weather.

It was too stinking hot.  It didn’t feel  like Christmas with the weather in the 50’s, which is seriously impeding my glorious songs of old.  But today, the temp has dropped!  Here is what I want:  Maybe the low 40’s with some big pretty snowflakes falling, but not on the streets-just along the sides so everything looks pretty and children can build men…and women.  And just cool enough so you can wear the cute hat and adorable scarf set some one has given you (along with the coordinating fingerless gloves), but you don’t really need bulky coats.  You know-cool enough that you’d look all New-England-wintry and Christmas-card-ish if you made a quick stop and took a few spins around the ice-skating rink while you were bustling about shopping, but not so cold no one can recognize you due to the outerwear overkill when, if you should fall, you would not, in fact, be able to get back up.  Is this really too much to ask for???

taras-dec-018 taras-dec-021

Three movies that are not usually considered Christmas movies, but have great Christmas scenes in them:

[1] Funny Farm with Chevy Chase. [2]  About a Boy with Hugh Grant and [3] While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock (omygosh, I LOVE this movie!).

taras-dec-020 taras-dec-024

Three nights before Christmas, 3 French Hens, Three Wise Men, and three wishes from me to you:  peace, joy and love!

pictured: DP, Tara and Hunter’s tree farm adventure a couple of weeks ago.