We introduced the kids to Indiana Jones this weekend. You remember how incredibly exciting Raiders of the Lost Ark was, right? I mean the booby traps, the giant rolling ball, the snake pit; all meant to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Here's how it went...
Guy gets speared trying to escape with the idol..."Why did that guy get killed?" "He should have waited for Indy." "Why?" "Because Indy could have protected him." "Why?" Sigh.
Giant ball chases Indy..."Why is that ball chasing him?" "It's just another booby trap." "Why?" "Because people wanted to keep the idol from getting stolen." "Why?" "Because it's important to them. Just watch!"
Indiana runs for his life from the natives with the poison darts..."why is he running?" "Because the natives are trying to kill him!" "Why?" "Because they work for the bad guy." "Why?" "Um, I don't know; maybe he pays well. Just be quiet and watch!"
Indiana splashes in the water swimming to the plane waiting for him..."Are there alligators in there?" "Maybe." "Why?" "Well, it's the jungle." "Why?" "Why what?" "What?" "Please just watch the movie!"
I mean, talk about killing the moment!! And that was the first five minutes of the movie!! It got worse as the movie progressed. One asking more inane questions, another running from the room or covering his head at every scary part (or every 45 seconds) then asking what happened.
We agreed to send the movie back to Netflix and watch it again when they're in college.
~Eileen Cassidy Bishop
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
I have to tell you; I am very proud to be a stay-at-home mom. That actually surprises me a little bit. But it's true. I don't like the term "housewife" or "homemaker" and when those are the selections on an application or survey, I tick "other" and write in either "stay-at-home-mom" or if I'm feeling really indignant, "molder of little lives" or "wiper of runny noses" or simply, "SuperMom". Why not? If a garbage collector can call him/herself a "waste management engineer", why can't I give myself my own title as well?
It wasn't always like this. I used to be kind of ashamed that I stayed home. I was laid off from my IT consulting sales job back in January of 2003. By March or April, I was feeling guilty for not even thinking of looking for a job. When I mentioned this to my mom that "it's not like I have kids to take care of or anything", her reply was, "what's wrong with staying home and keeping the home-fires burning?" Wasn't that a great way to look at it? Seriously! It bought me a few more months of guilt free sluggishness until I found out I was pregnant with my son that Summer. Funny thing is, after trying for 10 years to have a baby, we gave up. Don't tell me stress is unrelated to infertility!!
This was the first "vacation" I'd taken in 12 years. Even when away at Martha's Vineyard or Daytona or Vail or wherever my "vacation" was at the time, I was ALWAYS checking in; email, voice mail. Hey, when you're in sales working on commission, there's no such thing as a real vacation. Add desperately trying to have a baby on top of all the professional stress, it's no wonder there was nothing to show for all our "hard work"!
Anyway, I digress. Point is, I can stand up on my kitchen stool and shout, "I'm a full-time mom with healthy, emotionally-stable, intelligent, and secure children and God-damnit, I PROUD of that!"
Howzat, Mom? :)
It wasn't always like this. I used to be kind of ashamed that I stayed home. I was laid off from my IT consulting sales job back in January of 2003. By March or April, I was feeling guilty for not even thinking of looking for a job. When I mentioned this to my mom that "it's not like I have kids to take care of or anything", her reply was, "what's wrong with staying home and keeping the home-fires burning?" Wasn't that a great way to look at it? Seriously! It bought me a few more months of guilt free sluggishness until I found out I was pregnant with my son that Summer. Funny thing is, after trying for 10 years to have a baby, we gave up. Don't tell me stress is unrelated to infertility!!
This was the first "vacation" I'd taken in 12 years. Even when away at Martha's Vineyard or Daytona or Vail or wherever my "vacation" was at the time, I was ALWAYS checking in; email, voice mail. Hey, when you're in sales working on commission, there's no such thing as a real vacation. Add desperately trying to have a baby on top of all the professional stress, it's no wonder there was nothing to show for all our "hard work"!
Anyway, I digress. Point is, I can stand up on my kitchen stool and shout, "I'm a full-time mom with healthy, emotionally-stable, intelligent, and secure children and God-damnit, I PROUD of that!"
Howzat, Mom? :)
Monday, March 8, 2010
It was a beautiful almost-Spring day today. It was a day that reminds you that Winter doesn't last forever...just seems to. Thank God for days like these! I'm not sure how non-skiiers would survive until April without these early March "heatwaves" of 58 degrees!
The kids and I played some soccer, some monkey-in-the-middle, did some bike-riding, some dirt digging, and even some skateboarding. Skateboarding, however, was Cat riding down the driveway on her belly; quite a sight!
Kids were out like ants at a picnic. After living in what felt like a ghost-town neighborhood for the past four or five months, saying hello, watching them walk, talk, laugh, ride their Razors and bikes was wonderfully cathartic! I just kept telling myself, "one more month and we can do this everyday!" and I swear it gave me a surge of energy I've been missing.
People, I think, are like flowers; they need sunshine and warmth along with the basic nutrients. When we go without for too long, we start to droop and lose our vibrance.
I remember when I was a kid my mom read that if you put a pointsettia plant in a closet for two months or so, its leaves will change to red in time for Christmas. My mom waited anxiously for two months, ticking off days on the calendar in anticipation of a horticultural masterpiece. When she finally went to the closet and opened the door for the first time in ages, she found a brown stick with shriveled leaves that were so frail the subtle breeze caused by the door opening caused most of them to fall to the floor! My poor mom felt terrible! I think not so much that she was out one pointsettia plant left over from the previous Christmas, but that she actually killed a perfectly good plant!
Pointsettias gain their color slowly so by the time Christmas comes, they're stunning. But did you ever notice what happens after? They slowly fade and get kind of sickly looking, don't they? Just like humans! We get this great color all Summer long and man do we look good! Healthy, vibrant, glowing...by the Christmas rush though, we're struggling to find our tan lines once so difinitive we couldn't believe we were ever as white as that strap mark!
So relish these days because Mother Nature just sends them once in a while in these late days of Winter to keep us from losing our leaves. Tomorrow could be 30 degrees again.
The kids and I played some soccer, some monkey-in-the-middle, did some bike-riding, some dirt digging, and even some skateboarding. Skateboarding, however, was Cat riding down the driveway on her belly; quite a sight!
Kids were out like ants at a picnic. After living in what felt like a ghost-town neighborhood for the past four or five months, saying hello, watching them walk, talk, laugh, ride their Razors and bikes was wonderfully cathartic! I just kept telling myself, "one more month and we can do this everyday!" and I swear it gave me a surge of energy I've been missing.
People, I think, are like flowers; they need sunshine and warmth along with the basic nutrients. When we go without for too long, we start to droop and lose our vibrance.
I remember when I was a kid my mom read that if you put a pointsettia plant in a closet for two months or so, its leaves will change to red in time for Christmas. My mom waited anxiously for two months, ticking off days on the calendar in anticipation of a horticultural masterpiece. When she finally went to the closet and opened the door for the first time in ages, she found a brown stick with shriveled leaves that were so frail the subtle breeze caused by the door opening caused most of them to fall to the floor! My poor mom felt terrible! I think not so much that she was out one pointsettia plant left over from the previous Christmas, but that she actually killed a perfectly good plant!
Pointsettias gain their color slowly so by the time Christmas comes, they're stunning. But did you ever notice what happens after? They slowly fade and get kind of sickly looking, don't they? Just like humans! We get this great color all Summer long and man do we look good! Healthy, vibrant, glowing...by the Christmas rush though, we're struggling to find our tan lines once so difinitive we couldn't believe we were ever as white as that strap mark!
So relish these days because Mother Nature just sends them once in a while in these late days of Winter to keep us from losing our leaves. Tomorrow could be 30 degrees again.
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