January 5, 2010
Good memories.
I was going to post a book review and giveaway for 5 lucky readers to get 1 copy of the book each, but not tonight.
My Aunt Lorraine has passed away after a very long battle with cancer, so I just don't feel like I should post a fun giveaway tonight.
Aunt Lorraine is my Mom's sister, and my Mom is very upset this evening, which is perfectly ok for her to be sad and upset, grieving for the loss of her sister.
I remember Aunt Lorraine as being a really wonderful woman, a fun aunt who used to let us stay up late and watch scary movies while we laid in sleeping bags on the living room floor.
She was just a happy and fun person from what I recall of my memories and trips to Pennsylvania for family vacations.
She always found the most unusual but beautiful dolls to give to us girls when we were little.
I remember that she gave my sister Jo and I these dolls that said the night time prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep."
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I'm pretty sure that it was my Aunt Lorraine who also got me the Mattel Sunshine Family dolls and their Surrey Cycle too.
I remember at some point later on, someone got me the craft/pottery wheel for the Sunshine Family, which is discussed here as other girls remember these dolls too.
The Sunshine Family lived sort of the "hippie" lifestyle.
They wore sandals, rode a bike, made their own clothes and threw their own pottery, farmed organic produce.
You could say these dolls were living in the times, they were made in the early 1970's when people were living in communes and growing their own food, making their own clothes, and making crafts and pottery too.
I loved those dolls, I remember sitting there using the tiny little pottery wheel and making little bowls and pots and pans for them to use to cook with.
Aunt Lorraine just had this gift for finding me the most beautiful, unique, and fun to play with dolls.
I'm sad that she's gone, I'm sad to know that my Mom is sad and hurting, but at the same time, I'm relieved that Aunt Lorraine is no longer in any pain from the cancer that she had.
I'm happy to know that she had gone to Texas to be with her daughter, Toni, in the end, that she was with her grandsons and family.
I have very good memories of her and that is what is making it a little bit easier to deal with the news of her passing.
December 23, 2009
Go go Power Rangers!
I remember when the teens were little boys and all of the cartoons and shows they just loved to watch.
I swear we would watch the same movie a dozen or more times in a 24 hour period.
The Little Mermaid, The Fox and the Hound, and the Power Rangers.
Oh, sorry, my bad.
Sebastian told me to get it right, (he's reading over my shoulder) it's The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Duh Mom. *eyeroll*
They knew every line and every single song in The Little Mermaid and The Fox and the Hound, they knew every single line of the Power Rangers too.
How could they not know every line, song, and dance?
They watched them a million times over the course of their childhoods.
We didn't have DVD players when the teens were little, all of our movies were on VHS, so once the movie stopped, the screams to rewind would begin.
They would do this little butt-squiggle-fidget-dance on the living room carpet until the movie got done rewinding and I pressed play again, then there would be a few claps of applause and then silence while staring at the opening scenes of the movie.
They absolutely loved all of their movies, they had so many of them, still have most of them too.
I have so many kids movies on VHS still, all kinds of Disney movies, tv show episodes, cartoons, all kinds of kid movies.
I remember when the local grocery store in Maine had The Land Before Time movie on sale really cheap, for like $3.99 if you bought some other stuff with it.
I think you had to buy 2 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk, and then you could get the movie for just $3.99, and I remember the promotion was only for 1 month, and every single time we went grocery shopping with my mom, Mark would beg for the movie.
He knew exactly what end cap the movie was on too, and he would get so excited when we got closer to that end cap aisle.
He would start doing the butt-squiggle-fidget-dance in the cart seat as we went up and down every single aisle and he'd get a glimpse of it, then down an aisle, glimpse, up an aisle, until we were at it and then he'd get this huge grin on his face, he just had to see the box for the movie, hold it in his hands.
He had absolutely no idea what the movie was about, but he saw those dinosaurs and just knew he had to see it, had to or his little 4 year old life would be over.
My mom and I had talked about getting it for him, that she wanted to do it, so I made Mark put it back on the shelf and I told him I would buy it next week, that mommy didn't need any more cereal and milk right now, we had 3 boxes and a gallon of milk at home already, and his little face just got all sad on me in an instant.
His lower lip pouted out, his big brown eyes looked down at the box one last time, and he sadly placed it back on the shelf.
My mom was right behind us and she put it in her cart, hiding it behind the boxes of cereal and gallon of milk in her cart.
The entire ride home to my apartment, Mark talked about the dinosaur movie at the store, he didn't know what it was about, he didn't know the names of the characters, but he just knew he was going to love that movie so so much, and next week mommy was going to buy it he told my mom.
I carried all of my groceries into my apartment while my mom stayed in the car with him, she told me to slip it into one of my bags and so I did.
I grabbed the last bag and unhooked him from his cart seat, he hugged "Ninny" good-bye, and we went into our house.
I put all of the groceries away with his help, he would take one item at a time out of the bags and hand them to me.
I made sure that the movie was going to be in the last bag to empty, and when we got to it, I waited for his surprised response.
He pulled out 2 boxes of spaghetti pasta, a package of sliced cheese, a box of rice, a can of soup, and then he reached in the bag and grabbed the box.
At first he thought it was another box of Rice-a-Roni until he got a really good look at it.
He almost handed it to me and then pulled his arm back staring at the box with wide-eyed awe, and then he screamed, "Mommy! The dinosaurs! The dinosaurs movie! It was in the bag! You said next time! Mommmmmmy! The dinosaurs!!!!"
I told him that Ninny bought him the dinosaurs movie because he was such a good boy helping with the shopping, and she loved him very much.
I swear he had tears of joy in those big brown 4 year old eyes.
He asked if he could watch it, I told him we had to put the rest of the food away, go potty, make some lunch, and then we could watch it together.
He did everything as quickly as he could, he helped put the rest of the food away, he helped make his sandwich for lunch and carried his plate to his little table in the living room, and I put the movie in and pressed play.
He and I sat there watching The Land Before time together and eating our lunch, not a sound came out of his mouth the entire 1 hour and 9 minutes that the movie played.
He didn't take his eyes off of the tv screen that whole time either.
When it was all over, he said that he loved Littlefoot and all of his friends, this time tears were in his eyes, and he asked to watch it again.
I re-wound the movie and while it was rewinding we cleaned up our lunch plates, and then when I pressed play, he came to the couch and curled up with me to watch it.
This time he did talk through the movie, getting all excited when it started, crying when Littlefoot and his mom got separated, happy when Littlefoot made new friends, yelling at the T-Rex when it was chasing Littlefoot and friends, he really did love that movie as much as he knew he would from just seeing the box in the grocery store.
When little brother Sebastian grew up a little bit more and they could watch movies and tv shows together, they both loved the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Mark wanted to be the green ranger, Sebastian the red, they had all of the action figures and played with them non-stop.
They had sweatshirts, t-shirts, books, playing cards, little kid-sized chairs, all with the Power Rangers theme, and they loved every single one of those things.
Sebastian would cry if he spilled some juice on one of his fave Power Ranger t-shirts, Mark wouldn't be able to go to bed until he made sure that each and every action figure was safe and sound safely laid out in order of loved the most across the top of his dresser.
They still have almost every single one of those action figures too.
About a month ago, an advertiser sent us one of the new Power Ranger RPM Racing Performance Cycles with an action figure, it's the racing performance wolf cycle, the black ranger, and man, Sebastian just loves that thing.
When the UPS man knocked on the door, Sebastian got excited, he didn't even know what was in the box, he just gets excited when any kind of box or package shows up.
I opened the box up and made him stand back a few feet not letting him even get a peek inside, I read the accompanying letter, and then smiled at him before handing him the package.
Even though he's 16 years old now, his face lit up and his eyes grew huge, just like when he was a little kid getting a new Power Ranger action figure for the first time.
He went and dug out all of their old Power Ranger action figures and began playing with them all just like when he was little.
It makes me smile when I hear them playing with the toys, they are grown up, growing up, pretty soon they will be totally grown up and leaving my home, so seeing and hearing them play with their action figures, makes me think I get to keep my little boys for just a little bit longer.
Sebastian was in the room playing with those action figures tonight, I could hear him from out here at my desk, and it just made me smile and remember all of the movies and shows, all of the cute little things they did when they were little kids.
November 25, 2009
Getting things ready.
My sis came and took me to Publix to get some last minute food needs for the holiday, it was absolutely crazy in there today! OMG!
But I knew it would be, day before Thanksgiving, everybody was in there getting their last minute food items and pies.
After we went shopping, she took the teens to her house for the night so they can babysit the girls while her and her husband go out to dinner and a movie for their anniversary.
The teens love babysitting, they totally enjoy playing with the girls and then watching movies or playing WoW after the girls go to sleep.
She'll be bringing them back in the morning so we can have our traditional T-day breakfast, and then sis has to go to work for a few hours.
She said that on the way home today, she and the boys will be hitting a few stores to try and find those Zhu Zhu Pets
The girls really want them, so she's trying to get them for the girls for Christmas.
Those are some pretty expensive little toys, holy crap!
I had no idea that they cost that much, and of course, they are THE hot ticket item this year, every kid wants to have one.
She's also looking at those FurReal Friends
I just called her and told her that Amazon
They want the kitty that I linked to, Susan and Skye both said 'he looks like Aunty Kat's kitty Carmine', and they're right, it does!
____________________________
My newly extended family, my bio-siblings, (squeee!) are all getting together for turkey day tomorrow, I wish I could be there, they wish I could be there, Joanne and I messaged each other back and forth on FB about it, exchanged holiday wishes and birth-dates of all of our family members, but I told her that going to Maine is just not gonna happen this year, maybe next year.
I'm hoping for a February visit if my income taxes are good enough.
When we do go, I'll have to get Mark a second form of ID for travel because he's now a legal adult, and anytime I have flown since homeland security set up all of the new flying rules with the TSA, I've had to have my ID, a credit or debit card, and my 'I have metal implants which may set off metal detectors' card.
When Sebastian and I flew to NYC to meet the siblings and do the Today show, Sebastian had his school ID, and that was it, and the check-in person told me that he should get a second form of ID when he turns 18 if he plans on flying anywhere, and Sebastian piped up that he wants to go see Australia, and the lady said that he might have to do an international background check if he plans on leaving the country, that homeland security has gotten much more strict and thorough when issuing passports.
I don't know how true that is, I've never heard that said before, so I'll go look it up at some point before we fly up to Maine to check and see if Mark is really going to need a second form of ID now that he's 18, and I'll look up that international background check rule too.
I've never left the country so I have absolutely no idea what all you would need to leave the country other than a passport.
____________________________
Ok, I haven't eaten anything at all yet today, so I'm going to go grab something to eat.
I bought some of Publix's most awesome chunky chicken salad, so I'm going to make a yummy sandwich and then get cracking on doing the dishes and getting all of my stuff organized to make the turkey and everything for tomorrow.
December 7, 2008
Think RC RC Helicopter review.
I received an rc helicopters to try out and review, and Sebastian and I had a blast with it.
I don't think we've laughed that hard at our own stupidity for quite some time.
We charged up my rechargeable batteries for the control pad, charged the little helicopter, which was very little by the way, and then went outside to fly our little whirly bird.
We turned on both the helicopter and the control pad, and placed the helicopter on the ground, then tried to launch.
It was a no go.
We successfully crashed it in less than 2 seconds.
Then we tried to fly it from up high, from in the palm of my hand, and successfully crashed it.
We were cracking up at how bad we were at flying a helicopter, that if we were in charge of Bayflighting someone to a hospital, we'd all surely die.
But we did finally get it to launch and fly for about 8 minutes, controlling it was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, so I wouldn't recommend it for a small child, but an older child with some rc vehicle experience will love these little helicopters.
November 29, 2008
Map packs and the new marketplace.
The new xbox live experience is pretty cool looking, but it's confusing.
The teens got the new Gears of War 2
They searched and searched all over the new marketplace blades for the area to redeem the code, but were unable to find it.
So I went online to the xbox.com site to try and find out where the heck to enter the codes.
I didn't find the answer to that, where the specific blade is, but they have the website setup so that you can enter redemption codes on the site and they will be downloaded to the game console the next time you sign in to xbox live on the game console.
Xbox LIVE Marketplace
Marketplace has gotten so big now that it just can't be contained in one place. Now you get new stuff all throughout the Xbox Dashboard. Game detail panels help you find all related content for a game. And you can always browse the Game Marketplace and Video Marketplace channels.
A new feature is the ability to shop Xbox LIVE Marketplace from the Web. Buy and queue up all your downloads. They'll get added to your console's active download list when you sign in.
I logged in to xbox.com and went to the my account tab.
From there, you can see everything about your account, account summary, add microsoft points, contact info, download queue, edit credit card info, membership level, purchase history, and redeem codes.
I clicked on redeem code but wasn't sure if that was just for xbox live membership cards or microsoft points cards, or all redemption codes, but I tried it anyway.
I typed in the code for the flashback multiplayer map pack, and crossed my fingers while hitting the redeem button.
It said the code was redeemed, so I clicked the download queue tab and there it was, it said the download was pending on our game console.
Yay me!
I like the new xbox experience stuff, it's got some really neat features like the Netflix movie watching and the ability to have avatars, but the layout is very confusing.
The old blade setup was really easy to navigate, but the new layout takes quite a bit of time to find the right blade and then the right section of the blade, to get to what you want.
We still haven't found the blade that allows you to enter the redemption codes, but at least we can add them online so game codes aren't being unused.
I think the redeem code blade is somewhere in the my xbox blade, but I'll be damned if I can find it, and Sebastian and I searched for it for about 35 minutes this morning just so we could enter the redemption code, but at least we now know that we can enter them on the web.
December 14, 2006
Top 10 most dangerous toys of all time.
This article had me rolling with laughter, tears streaming down my face.
Oh my god, so damn funny.
The Fisher-Price Power Wheels Motorcycle is one of those toys kids salivate over for years. Even adults can barely contain their jealousy when the little brat from down the block whizzes by on that shiny plastic hog. But the ride wasn't always so smooth. In fact, on some models, there was a rather serious glitch.Eager youngsters who gunned the throttle found that it often stayed gunned, stuck in a petrifying state of perma-acceleration. Presumably, the child on the motorcycle was then taken on a hellish, intestine-twisting scream ride. At one point, he or she would face choices unthinkable except in an Evel Knievel meets Knightrider crossover episode: Do I jump? Or do I ride it out and see if I can clear the gully? Is it sentient? Can it be reasoned with?
November 4, 2005
Just playing with the new toy.
I got some minutes for the new camera phone today and decided to play around with the camera.
Hee hee.
Kali does like Shahiro but Shahiro is a pain in the ass.
She's always attacking Kali and trying to kick her ass.
As you can see, Kali is not amused at all.
Click for bigger.
This will be fun tonight. I can take pics of the goofy people I hang out with now...lol
December 12, 2004
Been doing much of nothing today.
I did the errands, some general cleaning, a load of laundry and that's about it.
I have other wise been playing video games with the kids.
I really like The Urbz.
It's fun. Not at all like the Sims for PS2. There is no annoying "blue line". The loading times suck but it's fun and trying to get all the goals met so you can go here and there and get a good rep is addictive.
When I get that stupid usb cord, (mine is about 3 feet too short) I'm going to hook it up to the pc and see what all this Black Eyed Peas shit is about. I guess you can like download different music into the game and they are a featured artist or something.
Will figure it out eventually.
Later days.
December 10, 2004
The room is done man.
Just a few small things to put away like blankets. Basically fold them all and place them back on the top bunk for later use.
But I can see the floor, the books and games are straightened and 6 large bags of crap are gone.
Got some more of my bead supplies so I can get busy on those here after I take a little rest break.
Having a good day. Getting a lot done and just hanging out.
Mark's going to teach me how to play Battlefront later.
Cool.
November 28, 2004
I want these for my bathroom.
Ya know, little conversation starters? I used to have this gigantic poster of Frank Zappas nose directly above the toilet but it creeped so many people out and then at one party one night, someone tore it down and destroyed it. Asses. Tampons and these rolls of tp.
Way cute.
November 27, 2004
I'm basically in video game hell every time he sleeps over.
The boys have now been playing the PS2 since 7pm.
This is a long ass time for me.
Sure, there is nothing on our cable less tv but repeats of it's a wonderful life etc but man, am I bored to death.
And they are loud.
Not just the game being loud but the boys playing the games are loud.
I just don't really have the patience for it right now.
I'm in a bit of pain cuz it's slightly cold and rainy and my arthritis in my hips and knees is just flared up and no amount of anti-inflam or pain reliever seems to be helping.
Can you imagine me back in a state that is cold for 9 months if this little bit of cold is killing me?
Oh yeah, I'd be bed bound all winter.
Whatever.
I think I'm just gonna go have one last cig, read another chapter and hit the bed.
Later days.
September 26, 2004
I figured out what I want for xmas.
I'm just posting these cuz I like them and yes I want them but no, you don't have to buy them for me. It's simply a wishwant.
I was looking through the Disney catalog that my sis dropped off last week and found the most magnificent mirror I have ever seen and I wants it.
The Nightmare Before Christmas wall mirror. If the link goes bad, just type item number 95131 into the search box.
This item will be mine eventually. Yes it will.
I also want these cuz they are my favorite in that whole movie, Lock, Shock and Barrel mini bean bags.
I also really like this purse.
August 27, 2004
Controversial Toy Surprise Recalled
August 27, 2004 — A toy surprise found inside a bag of candy sold in Florida has stirred a lot of nerves, and controversy.
The toy is two towers with a jetliner in between that appears to be crashing into one of the buildings.
Anna Rodriguez bought a package of the candy for her grandson without realizing that the toy was inside.
To make matters worse, the toy also had a product number "9-0-1-1."
The company that distributes the candy bags, Lisy, was offended by the toy and has decided to recall 17-thousand of the bags.
Lisy says it bought the toys sight unseen from L & M Import/Export from Miami. Which, surprisingly, said it had no problem with the toy.
(Copyright 2004 by Action News. All Rights Reserved.)
Thoughts?
August 3, 2004
Video gaming.
Marks birthday is next week but I went ahead and gave him the present he asked for early.
He asked for Dynasty Warriors 4 XL and he loves it.
He first started playing Dynasty Warriors as a demo game we had and then he started playing them all and this is the one he wanted.
You can load saved game data from DW4 into the XL so you can change their hair, armour etc.
Some of the features are:
‡ Expansion and "remix" of popular fighting game
‡ New Xtreme gameplay mode pits you against random skirmishes for as long as it takes
‡ New Legends mode with 42 stages
‡ Arena Challenge permits one-on-one duels
‡ For 1 or 2 players
I don't do detailed reviews because I don't play these games.
I play horror games and puzzle type stuff. Wars and battles and stuff is for them.
It's a good game all in all though. They have been playing for days on end and still are no where near beating it.
Hours of fun they tell me.
February 20, 2004
I. Want. This.
Twisted Land of Oz.
More specifically, this one. Click it.
Yeah, I know. I am twisted myself for liking that and maybe I got dropped on my head as a baby but damn! Those toys are fucking cool.
The boys told me about them.
Me: What are you looking at?
Mark: McFarlane Toys at Toy Wiz.
Me: What kind of toys? Spawn?
Mark: No, Twisted Land of Oz.
Me: What?
Mark: You know, Dorothy but uh, she looks bad.
Me: ??
5 minutes later.
Me: Oh hell yeah!!!
Filed under toys.
