My Favorite New Quote

This quote is from the movie "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." I LOVE IT!

"Your life is an occassion. Rise to it."

We Might Be on TV

Yesterday, Dancing With the Stars was at Disneyland filming a segment for this Monday's show.

We happened to walk right up and got to be in the front row of it all. It was amazing to watch all of the hubbabaloo that goes on to film such things. The stage was dusted, and redusted, then dusted again, and then later redusted. And all of that was before any of the filming began. Then this woman comes and hands out about 20 posters that all say "Vote for Jennie", "Perfect Score", and "We Love You Jennie". Then we had to practice waving the signs and cheering. Because you know, it has to be perfect.

Then here comes Jennie Garth escorted by Mickey Mouse. They come out, the crowds cheer, she smiles and then "cut". She leaves and does the whole thing all over again because, apparently, we didn't cheer loud enough. Weird. This is one of the producers telling her to do it over again.

She is adorable. So sweet and nervous. Instantly likeable.
Then she informs the crowd that Derek is sick and their short dance can not happen. Everyone is supposed to demand "Dance with Mickey." So she does and every goes crazy. Then, we do the whole thing all over again. She announces the Derek is sick, etc...... "dance with Mickey."

It was fun to see her and be on the "inside" of the show, but a bit sad to see how many takes it takes to capture a candid moment.


Check out the show on Monday night. Jacob and Sarah are in the front row right behind the white ropes. Lenny and I are right behind a mentally challenged man holding a hot pink sign upside down informing you to vote for Jennie. Maybe you will see us, maybe not.

Sarah is 7

Sarah Michelle Gisbert is now 7 years old.

Sarah was woken up by a phone call from her daddy and his crew at the fire station singing Happy Birthday to her.

Yes, we had cake and ice cream for breakfast. You can do that when it's your birthday.

Sarah told Lenny a while back that she wanted new earrings for her birthday. She wanted him to pick them out without her there. He picked out the most adorable little gold hearts with a butterfly landing on them. She LOVED them.

Sarah and Minnie

Nemo Submarine ride. Very cool.

The day was so fun. It was one of those low attendance days when you could just walk on to any ride. Seriously, people we walked onto Pirates without waiting at all in line. No line....did you hear that?? NO LINE for anything except for Nemo (25 minutes). It was awesome.

At the end of day, after watching Fantasmic, we boarded the train to head back to Main St. We were all tired and slighty cranky. We get to the first stop at Toon Town and I hear Lenny say "there's Papa John." I look up and see John, Linda, Adam, Austin, Dakota and Sawyer Nering all standing in line waiting to board the train. They got on with us and it was INSTANTLY FESTIVE. What a treat to run into them there.

So baby girl, Happy Birthday to You.

The Dash Between the Dates

Our girl turned 7 yesterday. I will not bore you will the mantra of "I can not believe how old she is getting", or "they grow us so fast, don't they?". And, while I do sometimes ponder/anguish over the speed of life, I do not wonder how it all happened. It is simply time and it is on the fast track to eternity so I need to grab a hold and relish every minute of what I can catch.

Sarah is 7. It is funny how the night before her birthday, she pranced around the house telling everyone that "tonight is my last night of being 6" and that we should have be aware of the monumental event about to happen the next day. I looked at her and thought, "she's right!" She is never ever going to be 6 again. Not a too big of a deal I suppose in the grand scheme of life but to her, HUGE!!!!!

It always makes me chuckle when I think of the abandon that kids display when telling of their age. They will quickly add a "and a half" to any whole year of living they have while I, on the other hand, will groan when thinking of my illustrious 38 years. Why???

While there are many rhymes and reasons to that reaction, I believe for me, it always comes back to how well have I lived my life? Did I use my time here in a positive, upbeat and glorifying-to-God manner, or have I flushed my colorful years down the pooper? Honestly, and sadly too, I have not always made the most of my time.

A few years ago, a we had an amazing speaker come to our church. His name is Monty Hipp. His message was entitled "The Dash Between the Dates." He emphasized that our whole life matters more in that dash than the two dates listed on either side of it. Lenny and I still talk about what he said that night. Then this morning, Jacob had a grammar test. It is all about the encyclopedia and how to use one. One of the questions was regarding what the dates mean that are listed right after the title of entry (if it is a person). Years of birth and death, right? I circled the dash and told him that the dash represented the years of the persons life - everything a person does is in that dash. That dash matters. Make the dash a great dash.

He got what I was saying but couldn't understand why I was getting so emotional about it.

Ok, rambling over! I promise. I would love to say that Sarah taught me a wonderful lesson yesterday. But the truth is, I will have to work hard at being diligent and upbeat. Neither attribute are natural for me.

It's Not Pixie Dust

We are off to Disneyland to today. Apparently I need to pay my last respects.

Last night, sitting on the couch planning for our adventure, we hear a most fascinating news clip.


I always wonder about the goings on in people's minds. You know, people do some strange things.


Now, this is all speculation.... BUT, apparently some freaky woman decided last Friday to sprinkle some powder in the canal of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, causing the beloved ride to be shut down for some of day. Hmmmmm. Security cameras caught the whole thing on tape. Witnesses describe the substance as "baby powder."

Read this:

Dearly departed – on Disneyland rides!

The 999 ghosts at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion have apparently found room for a few more residents, according to master mouse sleuth Al Lutz at MiceAge.

Disneyland visitors have routinely scattered cremated human remains throughout the haunted house ride since the late 1990s with the most recent incident occurring in the past month, MiceAge reported.

Haunted Mansion ride operators, trained to handle the delicate situation, have caught visitors via surveillance camera dumping ashes from the doom buggy vehicles but have virtually no authority to stop the bizarre ritual, Lutz said. Disneyland security and Anaheim police can do little beyond identify the powder trails as human remains. The offending mourners often slip out the ride exit and disappear into the park.

The macabre last rites force the closure of the ride for hours while custodians clean up the gritty ash and bone fragments with specially filtered vacuums. Oftentimes the last vestiges aren’t found until after the park closes and the lights are turned on inside the dark ride.
And the Haunted Mansion isn’t the only affected attraction.

An impromptu funeral ceremony shut down Pirates of the Caribbean just last week while crews cleaned ashes from the Captain’s Quarters scene in the caverns section of the water ride, Lutz said.

Disneyland has yet to comment.— Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Clearly this woman did not hear the announcement to "Keep your hands, arms, feet and legs in the boat at all times."

On DVD

It has been a good movie week for us. Two of our favorite movies came out on DVD this week and one is opening in theaters Friday. It is a cinematic extravaganza! Bring on the popcorn.

New Blog

Hey guess what???? I got a great new blogger for you to visit. Most of you know her and would LOVE to read her thougths. This great new blog belongs to none other than........

Melanie Bustrum Freshour

Taaaa Dahhhhhh!

Check her and her family out at mfreshour.blogspot.com

Road Trip

(Ok, this has NOTHING to do with my post here, but are any of you completely frustrated with Blogger??? I swear that I have edited this post at least 4 times just to fix the line spacing, readjust the photos and just tighten it up. Then I publish it, check it out, and find that all of my paragraphs are smooshed together. I don't get it. But it is free so I will just have to deal.....)


Let's start with a few stats:


2,250 - number of miles we put on our van in 7 days

4 - number of nights in a hotel

3 - number of nights in our friend's house

20? - number of potty stops

$49 - motel cost in Redding

$500+ - hotel bill in SF

12 - number of visits to Starbucks for Grande Lattes

countless - number of gorgeous fall colored trees we saw

50 - number of sea lions we saw at the wharf

35 - number of hours spent driving in the Black Pearl

1 Gazillion - number of ponds, streams and rivers we saw
7 - number of DVD's watched while in the car

8 - number of dead bucks/doe on the 5 in OR

100+ - number of red barns we saw in No. Cal and OR

500+ - number of jumps on the hotel beds

(Jacob loved this Motel 6 more than the hoity toity wharf hotel in SF. The boy is sooooo his father's son!)

9 - number of trips to the ice machine just because it is fun

3 - number of days straight that we did not see or use our van (in SF)

About 2 - number of hours spent on schoolwork while away

About 8 - number of hours I had PLANNED on spending on schoolwork while away

We just returned from a fabulous road trip. We left last week for Portland, OR. Well, just south of Portland but considering that we are coming from So Cal, Portland was just a hop-skip and a jump away from where we going.

We went up to visit some good friends of ours, the Stoddard's. Steve used to attend our church here but moved to OR when he got hired on with a fire department up there. He and his wife, Melany, bought a house and settled in right away and now are expecting their first baby. I know what it is but I think he wants to tell everyone down here. So one day, we rent a canoe and take Steve's kayak out for a little river trip. It was fun and I loved it. But the funniest thing was that in the middle of the river, Steve's phone rings. He answers it and it is his mother. This is Melany talking to her mother-in-law on the Tualitin river while kayaking, telling her that their baby is a .........

So back to us as houseguests. Imagine two working adults, in a beautiful new home, nice things and all of the free time that pre-parent couples have. Now picture the Gisbert's comin' on in and staking a claim to two bedrooms and a bathroom plus some kitchen counter space, and the equivalent of a fridge shelf. Kind of like Pearl Harbor that quiet Sunday morning before the Japanese came over.

We got to see their home, their life, visit their church, take a great walk around the community, drive all over and see the country. It was very nice. I see why people move there. I see why I want to move there. Peaceful. That is the best word I can come up with. So a few days later we packed up and headed down to San Francisco. The weather was not cooperative at all for a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is there but you gotta hunt for it in the picture. That was FUN!!! Quite a marked contrast in vitality and energy but invigorating at the least. It was as if the activity invaded me, got into me and made me want to be a part of it all. I was pooped at the end of each day but man, it was great. It was COLD every day and I was not prepared for it. We had to buy the kids jackets on our first night there. Didn't have kids sizes so we bought them both an adult XS.

By far, our most memorable experience was Alcatraz. I knew the kids would like the boat ride over, but I didn't suspect that they would be so interested in the prison. We did the audio tour where you use headphones and follow the guides on the tape. Jacob liked that but it freaked Sarah out. Towards the end of the tour she started crying saying she couldn't take hearing the prisoners (sound effects) yelling. We were in the dining hall when she lost it. She was hungry and asked me if I could go to the window of the kitchen and ask for an apple. "No Sarah, there are no apples in this kitchen."

We had some great meals like Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl, chili, lots of fish and on the last day, we had one amazing meal in North Beach. The best ever calzone I have ever had in my whole life. Yep, it was that good. Oh, and we spent one whole day just riding the cable cars, trains, and subways all over the city. Stopped at a Farmer's Market and had two baskets of fresh strawberries. Just sat there and watched the people go by. Totally cool.


On our way home, we stopped in Hanford and visited the Kanes. How very nice to see Bruce and Rhonda and the boys. It was our first time with Molly too. Got to meet her and hold her. It is striking how those kids all look alike. Bruce and Rhonda have a nice and comfortable new home. Just moved in two weeks ago so we feel honored to be one of the first visitors to see it. How nice it must be for them to be in their own home again. Already they have done lots to make it their own.


We are home and now and have already had 5 neighbor kids over to play. Reality sets in!

What is this guy thinking?

I am sooooo not a politcal voice, nor do I ever pretend to understand all of the ins and outs of politics, campaigns, or platforms. But some things just seem so clear and obvious. Take a look at this..... no matter what side of the party line you are on, you might think this is just plain wrong and disrespectful.

I received this in an email. It was one of those many "forwards" that we all get. I ALWAYS check out any one that even hints at being a rumor. See truthorfiction.com. Here is what the site said about this picture.

Picture of Senator Barack Obama Failing to Salute the Flag While Others on a Platform, Including Senator Hillary Clinton, are Saluting-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor: A picture of Senator Barack Obama (below), Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Senator Hillary Clinton, and one other person all on a platform and backed by an American flag. The eRumor says that the national anthem was being played at the time and that all but Senator Obama saluted.

The Truth: The picture is authentic. It was published in Time magazine and was taken 9/16/07 at an event in Indianola, Iowa where six Democratic presidential candidates appeared. It was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual "meat and greet." The fourth person in the picture is Senator Harkin's wife, Ruth. Not seen in the picture are three other candidates who were standing out of view on the right side of the platform, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator John Edwards, Senator Joe Biden.

At question is what was going on with Senator Obama? His critics are circulating the picture and saying that he is not respecting the flag or the national anthem, especially since the protocol, according to the United States Flag code, is that civilians should have their right hands over their hearts and that they should be facing the flag. His supporters are saying that this little lapse should not be held against him since there have been plenty of other events at which he has saluted the flag---so it did not mean that he would, in principle, avoid doing it.Some supporters have suggested that perhaps the picture does not tell the whole story and that he may have raised his hand shortly after it was taken.

An ABC News video, however, shows that Senator Obama did not salute at any time during the anthem and that everybody else on the platform did.

A spokesperson for the Senator told Fox News that it was ridiculous to suggest that Obama was making any kind of a statement and that sometimes "he does and sometimes he doesn't place his hand over his heart during the national anthem." Updated 10/29/07