Favorite Movies

Here are my top 10 favorite movies for now. (Not necessarily in this order) -

1. Groundhog Day
1. Groundhog Day
2. The Princess Bride
3. Avalon (1990)
4. Anne of Green Gables (all the movies)
5. I Remember Mama
6. Goodbye Mr. Chips
7. Star Wars (all the movies)
8. Fried Green Tomatoes
9. Back to the Future (love time travel movies!)
10. Far and Away

I'm alright

Today I've been singing Kenny Loggins' song I'm alright

Why? Because when one night I was listening to all night radio - I guess all radio is all night these days....Whatever. So I'm listening to this station and they're having this talk show on about Christian dating and marriage and how to find the "right one" I was single and very interested. This guy gets on and talks about how years ago some girl dumped him and how devastated he was and so he just played Kenny Loggins' phrase "I'm alright Nobody worry 'bout me" over and over while singing with it through his tears until he felt better. That just cracked me up. I could picture this poor dude slobbering and hitting the rewind button over and over until he's convinced he's "alright."

I kid you not I have done this often and it totally works. I don't even need a cd. I just keep"rewinding" the image playing in my head of that poor soul going from sobbing uncontrollably to smiling and doing some gay jig because I...
Might As Well Smile

Conroy ~ Homeschool Parody of Convoy

Here's a little homeschool ditty I wrote. Hope it makes you smile. Because you Might As Well Smile!

{IM]
Hello?,
*BUZZ*, came the message from Momof4.
You online, Titus2?
PBS is having a drive, no cartoons for John!
Handwriting without tears is making Katie cry,
and I forgot to thaw the meat for dinner.
Mercy sakes alive, sounds like I hear Conroy!

Was the middle of the day on the sixth of May
Mom searching the catalogs
Katie and John with their pj's on
And Jimmy dissecting frogs
He is 1/2 way done at One "o" 1
In the middle of his science book
Mom types, "Titus, you ready for next year?
"Well, I'm about to put my order in."

CHORUS
''Cause we got our little Conroy
Sleepin' through the night.
Yeah, we got toddler John boy,
And some that ain't quite right?
Come on and join us homeschoolers
We're in coop classes each Friday
Where will teach even our preschoolers
About the U-S-A.
CONROY!!!!

[IM]
Hello,
*Smiley Face*,
Titus2, You online?
Where'd you say you found those history sites?
I'm dressed to my shoes and shined my sink, and heading out the door for park day.
I'll have my cell. Then I'll be at the library till closing time.
My folding carts are loaded down with overdue library books.

By the time we arrived at Wallace Park,
We'd sung eighty-five songs in all.
We first made a stop at a nearby McDonald's,
We read the menu on the wall.
Uh, Ma'am is there a holiday today;
Shouldn't these kids be at school right now?
"We homeschool", I say, "and we're done for the day."
"Please make it to go, we're late anyhow."

[Chorus] ''Cause we got our little Conroy
Sleepin' through the night.
Yeah, we got toddler John boy,
And some that ain't quite right?
Come on and join us homeschoolers
We're in coop classes each Friday
Where will teach even our preschoolers
About the U-S-A.
CONROY!!!!

[IM]
I'm back, Titus2.
Can you send me a URL for that last web page.
Titus2? BRB,
Titus2. You online yet?
FYI, the thrift store's having a huge booksale today!
Mercy sakes, we better get down there before the good deals are gone!
Meet you there in an hour!

Well, we pushed our buggies over to aisle 4
Like broadband highspeed connection
We culled through all the romances novels
Filling our carts with our selections
By the time we hit that check out,
The shelves were looking real thin:
I found a book on Washington
Thought it would sell on ebay for 10.
We found flashcards, shoes, and blocks,
And clothes of ev'ry size.
Yeah, the dish aisle was full'a cheap wares,
And stuff to please your eyes.
Well, we shopped till close and we went for broke
With 1,000 screamin' nuts
and ten non-English speaking immigrants
waiting in line behind us.

[IM]
The IM read - Momof4 to AlliesMom, you there?
Hey,
*BUZZ*
Alliesmom?
Say, you mind picking me up for Mother's Night Out?
Yeah, dh's watching the kids, and I need a night out!

Well, we walked through the door at half past six.
Prepared for a great time
A couple dozen moms met us there
We laughed and ate and forgot the grind
"This is Titus2 and I'm Momof4.
"I said it's great to meet you face to face."
Yes, let's do this again sometime soon
"Until then, Cya in cyberspace."

''Cause we got our little Conroy
Sleepin' through the night.
Yeah, we got toddler John boy,
And some that ain't quite right?
Come on and join us homeschoolers
We're in coop classes each Friday
Where will teach even our preschoolers
About the U-S-A.
CONROY!!!!

[IM]
LOL, K, Titus2. Why you still up?
Yes, I'm almost done here.
Well, mercy sakes girl, I better get to bed.
TTYL.
Night.
I'll IM you tomorrow!
Bye!
-Momof4 signed off

~Mitezvel Smile

The Glow of the Flickering Light

Just after dark the other night I went for a walk in my quiet established neighborhood. As I passed each house a flickering glow radiated from behind closed doors. It was a nice night and the sun had just gone down. There was no front porch sittin', no one walking their dog, just the steady flicker of light coming from each home. Some of the houses had their drapes pulled, some didn't have drapes at all. Some houses had nice manicured lawn, some not so much. There were toys in the drives here and old boats there. But no matter what the differences were, the one constant was - the glow.

I like to imagine what goes on behind the walls of peoples' homes - past the bricks and the frames and the dust and the spiders in their webs and termites and drywall and wallpaper right into the heart of the home. I want to see what colors they chose for the walls and what the flooring looks like and all the nice touches that make a house a home. I like to see the organization or lack there of. I want to observe if there's clutter or bare starkness or somewhere in between. I love to see a welcoming atmosphere where each occupant's tastes and personality is reflected throughout. I love that plaque that reads,

This is a Home Where Children Live
You may not find things all in place,
Friend, when you enter here,
But, we're a home where children live,
We hold them very dear.
And you may find small fingerprints,
And smudges on the wall,
When the kids are gone, we'll clean them up,
Right now we're playing ball.
For there's one thing of which we're sure,
These children are on loan.
One day they're always underfoot,
Next thing you know, they're gone.
That's when we'll have a well-kept house,
When they're off on their own.
Right now, this is where children live,
A loved and lived-in home.
Author Unknown
* * *

As I gazed at each home on my path, I couldn't help but wonder if all these folk were just mindlessly watching the images flicker in front of them; each lost in the dialog coming from the screen. Was anyone engaged in real conversation? Were families playing board games? Was there laughter and love and human contact?

I read a book once where the family every night would gather around the old oil lamp and although each member was doing his own thing - Mom sewing, Dad paperwork, one boy tinkered, etc. but they were all in the same room and enjoying each other's company. Then they got electric lights and everyone spread out. They went back to the lamp because Mom didn't like how they were drifting apart. Literally and figuratively.

Have we all drifted apart? Is the art of conversation lost? When my 80 year old mother in law gets together with her family they all gather around the table and talk. My parent's in their 60's play card games. My generation watches movies. The younger generation plays Xbox or whatever the newest gaming system is.

With larger and larger homes and a TV in every room, we aren't even in the same room anymore. The kids are off in their Disneyland of a room with their computer, TV, Xbox, Gameboys, cell phones, and a dozen other gadgets only they can understand.

Maybe it's the overcrowding and lack of vacant lots or nearby woods, perhaps it's the report of another abduction on the 6'oclock news, maybe we're too busy running our kids to dance and soccer, but whatever the reason kids aren't out playing. After spending their days being constantly entertained has imagination died?

I was watching piece on 60 minutes early this year entitled Golden Boy Bode Miller. Here is part of the interview - skip to the highlighted parts if you want. I know it's rather lengthy but I really thought it was good and illustrates how his imagination allowed him to be different.

Miller is different. He doesn't train in the ski team's high tech gym, but works out in an old barn on his family's property in New Hampshire. What kind of shape is he in? Bode Miller is characteristically modest.

"There's a lot of guys who are in really good shape, but for ski racing there's no question I'm in better shape than most guys," he says.

Miller designed the main machine he uses to train and his uncle built it. It looks like a contraption that came out of the Spanish inquisition and it probably would make most people talk. Miller is not lifting weights; his friend jumping up and down is doing that. He is building his thigh and stomach muscles by squatting down with a load of 320 pounds. The machine looks like the product of a mad inventor. "Like, if you get a good workout, it feels more like a torture device of some sort," says Miller.

To relax, Miller plays a few sets of tennis with his father Woody, who is a pro, but still gets coached by his son. Miller's family runs a tennis camp in New Hampshire. His parents are divorced, but they both still live on the same 450 acres where Miller grew up. So does the whole family.

His upbringing was as unconventional as his skiing. His parents were thoroughbred hippies who dropped out of the world to create their own world. They built a house on a mountain where they raised four children. They chose to live without electricity, a telephone, or even indoor plumbing.

Bode Miller's mother, Jo Miller, still splits her own wood to heat her house. Jo Miller doesn't think it was tough living. "No, I think it was fun. I mean, it was a challenge. And I guess that's where Bode sort of picked up the, you know, the idea of needing a challenge always in his life."

Bode Miller showed 60 Minutes how challenging it was just getting up and down that mountain, or at least the getting up part, which was close to a mile hike through the woods.

There were no roads when he was a kid, but there were plenty of raspberries. He spent his days happily roaming these woods on his own. "It's nice to be able to spend time alone when you're young," he says. "Lets your imagination do all the stuff that imaginations are supposed to do."

And in the winter Miller would run to the outhouse, which is still there, but not to school because young Bode didn't go to school. He was home-schooled until third grade. His classroom was the great outdoors.

Miller's parents said that at one point they were making only $600 a year and that they were living on that. "That might be optimistic," Miller says. "That's including inflation. That would be $600 a year now."

He didn't have money, but says he didn't miss it. He also didn't miss school. In fact, not being in school when he was little gave him more time to ski. He could barely afford skis but he had talent, and it did not go unnoticed.

Right after high school, he got a spot on the U.S. Ski Team. His parents were behind his success, he says, because they pretty much ignored him. "So many kids who become athletes are the product of parents who are pushing them every minute of the way, who went to every race and didn't give them dinner if they came in second," Simon ( 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon) said.

Miller says, "And usually those are the kids who burn out and end up being totally laid back, super counterculture hippies like when they're in their 30s and 40s, the kids who are totally nuts and pushed. That's sort of the opposite from me."

Some days I am disgusted with myself for how much TV my family and I watch. I think of how many other things we could be doing and how our time would be better spent. I look into my children's eyes and wonder how much innocence is drained from them as their minds are corrupted by images and languages and topics which children have should have no knowledge. But then I realize - it's Wednesday night and I want to see if Taylor Hicks is the next American Idol! And like my neighbors all around me, and their neighbors all around them, and neighborhoods surrounding us, and cities around them, and in homes across the entire nation we are lost in the glow of the flickering light.

Well, try to choose a comedy because you Might As Well Smile!