Grateful at 3: Bennett's Unprompted Gratitude List

Bennett is grateful for**:

*London

*Tyler

*Dylan

*Briggs

*Mama

*Volcanoes

*Lucy

*Cooper and Camden

*Shooters

*Fireworks, black ones

*My body

*My muscles (unwarranted vanity, already :)

*Some trees

*Markers

*Scissors

*Doing projects

*Lights

*Pens

*Rocks

*Rockets

*Giving Daddy a kiss

*Race cars

*My feet and socks

*Cutters

*Tents (not my son...)

*Robots

*My body that keeps me warm

*Legs

*My belly (and there's plenty of it to be grateful for ;)

*A cowboy (any ol' cowboy will do)

*Batman (whom he's never actually watched or seen, but hears is pretty cool...)

**This list was completley unedited and remains in its raw, straight-from-a 3-year-old's-mouth form. :)

Loveys: Gratitude Style

My 3 boys

My families

The Gospel and its Eternal nature

Heaters and Hot Showers

Trees

Being a woman

Reminders that life is fragile

My Young Women

Clouds and Rain

Airplanes and modern transportation

Animals

Our Home

Our neighborhood and ward

Creative outlets

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an ideas who time has come.

Victor Hugo

The earth

Beautiful places

Language and the beauty words create

Pattern and color—especially red

Veterans

Smells

Good health

Seasons

Talents

Prophets and Apostles

Knowledge of where I came from and a choice of my final destination

Childhood memories and friends

My Education

Books

The Library

by Rob Gonsalves

Daydreaming

"Daydreaming" by Daniel Ridgway Knight

Birdsong

Traveling

Shiny Things

Laughter and smiles

Music and its power to stir the soul

Electricity

Healthy food

Walks

Poet's Walk

by Henri Silberman

Hope

Daily life experiences

Blink on, Cursor...Keep it Blankety- Blank, Page, but Hey, Call Me Conqueror

50,083.

Could be...

* number of items in my closet made from Polyester

*l ast known number of times I daydreamed about going back to London

* number of animals I will someday save when I open my own animal shelter

* amount of money I need to open my bookstore

* number of times I've hummed that song playing over and over and over in my head....just today

OR...

It could be 83 words more than the seemingly elusive, magical number needed for NaNoWriMo success.

I'll give you a hint--it's the last one.

And that's a one-two punch to the blinking cursor,

the blank page

and the hours of being in my head.

Congratulations, Self....NaNoWriMo 2009 is finished.

:)

Quite Lovely, Really: Rave, Rave, Rant and Rave

Imogen Heap's concert last Thursday was BETTER than quite lovely. I just can't rave enough about it. So I'll spare you my attempts at acclamation and instead, let you live the experience.

If you’re unfamiliar with her music, I am disappointed and feel a small degree of pity for your poor soul. Therefore, I feel responsible for properly educating you in all things Imogen and will do so by providing a small sampling of some(but definitely not all) of my favorite songs.

Look to the right. Yes, over there on the playlist cleverly titled Imogen. Click on each song, sit back and let the music flood your ears and enlighten your brain as you scroll through the pictures and pretend you were really there.

Go ahead, soak it in. I’ll wait.

See? I knew you'd love her. And I knew she was my favorite for a reason....

(These pictures are the best I can offer. You see, it’s hard to achieve professional photos while standing behind Gigantor who, at 7--or maybe 8, feet tall still finds it necessary to enlist the use of his tiptoes, while also trying not to disturb the female couple at my side, showing their love and affection for one another…..)

While we didn’t actually meet Imogen, we met someone who met her. Does that count? Her driver was circulating the crowd before she came on stage and stopped to chat. The exclusive insider scoop is that Imogen requested dinner at The Red Iguana, but the lines were too long and they ended up at a local Thai joint. Where would I have been without that information? (Certainly not heading for The Red Iguana in a state of crazed-fan mania…................................................................................ Onlykidding. :)

He also reported that she is quite charming and very, very kind.

Just as I suspected.

(The two “verys” are not an exaggeration, but rather verbatim….)

Until April, Imogen….

(At which time you will all scramble for tickets due to your proper Imogen education and consequent, unavoidable love….)

The Office

Quote of the Week

"Seat save, infinity."

--Dwight

Huffy and Puffy

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t quite make it to Grandma’s house this Halloween. She had good intentions as all little cloak-donning fairy-tale heroines do. But this trip through the woods, she met up with the Big Bad Wolf, who, in previous encounters came off arrogant, conniving and frankly, too hairy for Little Red’s taste. But this time, she threw caution and her penchant for hairless men to the forest breeze and took a chance on him. They made a U-turn at the meadow and hit the Halloween party circuit together, arriving at The Perfect Pear party

and introduced themselves as the newest Famous Couple.

Their Couple Counterparts weren’t surprised, claiming they’d seen it coming for years, though Popeye kept squinting at them

and Sculder and Mully were vicious with their flashlights, pressing them to Little Red and BB Wolf’s pupils.

The iPod Couple didn’t even hear the announcement due to the constant presence of their earbuds.

Princess Buttercup seemed a little nervous around Little Red and her wooly man, whispering, “We'll never survive,” to Wesley who, in turn assured her,

“Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has.”

(Please consult your Princess Bride Movie Quotes)

Whenever BBW tried talking to Athena, she offered her best goddess-like smiles, but clung to Hercules, yelping, “Save me, my big, strong man, save me!”

Sandy and Danny battled their intimidation by the unlikely couple by dancing around them and crooning,

“We go together like
rama lama lama
ka dinga da dinga dong.”

BB Wolf’s nasal problems apparently wore Cruella’s patience thin, because at one point during the evening, she snapped, “Quiet, you imbecile” and fled the room in a flurry of smoke, dragging Jasper behind her.

BBW apologized profusely, but the SCREAMing couple next to them drowned out his sincere regrets.

Superman kept darting around them, eyeing Little Red’s cloak, obviously envious of its volume and craftsmanship,

and the Cake Toppers just stood and grinned, not much for conversation.

Tired of listening to Guinivere and Arthur argue about Lancelot,

Little Red and BB Wolf made their way over to Wendy and Peter Pan’s table. The couple commented on the masculinity of Pete’s tights and after shooting them a childish glare, Pete turned to Scandalous Wendy and said, “Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.”

Glancing at Pete’s tights anew in the mood lighting, Wendy replied, “Never is an awfully long time,” and waddled to the nearest chair. "And you shoulda thought about that before THIS happened," she said, pointing to her swollen belly.

(Please consult your Peter Pan Movie Quotes….)

And so it was that, no surprise to Little Red Riding Hood and her newfound True Love, they received the “Most Likely to NOT Live Happily Ever After” Perfect Pear award.

The End