Disneyland pt.1

Me and Mickey Mouse!!!!!!!

Me, Mickey, Laura and the kiddies

Pluto

Goofy

Toontown

Week of firsts

So I had a few "firsts" this last week....

It started out as a bad week.... you see, I thought I'd be smart and eat the leftovers from easter... turned out I gave myself food poisoning and was miserable all week. Nausia, throwing up, heart-burn and awful pain in my esophagus... needless to say, I was miserable! And if I don't ever see another Saltine cracker it won't be too soon!

Allthough, I have a new theory on why the US has the most number of obese people in the world. Because, as I was miserable, the only thing I could really do was to sit/lie still and watch the telly, and it struck me how many adds/commercials are about food and/or restaurants.... We are being BOMBARDED from every angle and that is my theory for why we have so many people with weight issues..... we actually create food addicts!!!

But I degress, this post was supposed to be about my firsts.... so after my rotten week, Laura treated me to a fabulous full spa-treatment pedicure. It was my first time EVER, and I LOVED it. I am totally hooked, it was faulous, and my toes have never looked this fashionable. The toenails are now chocolatey brown with pink polkadots! I love just looking at them and wiggling them..... he he he

Another first was the pleasure of watching conference on my very own computer... yay, and a MILLION THANKS to Lauras' brother Adrian, who gave me the computer!!! Also, my very first one.

And then, the biggest FIRST of all...... a childhood dream come true, an event 30 years in the making..... the first trip to D I S N E Y L A N D.....
Pictures and stories to follow in the next little while, and in the meantime, I am going to revel in my firsts and the pure joy of "the happiest place on earth"

The Island

The basic idea is if you could take 3 and only 3 things out of the world (and onto a remote island where no one would ever see them again...) what three things would you get rid of?

I - Porcelain Figurines..... they are the most annoying useless things, why anyone has them is beyond me...

II - Cigarettes... foul, nasty, things they are! And I wouldn't care if the tobacco industry took a hit....

III - Guns.... I hate firearms.....

This "excercise" was hard for me... everything has consequenses and many things are intricately connected, so I had to really think.... but this is what I came up with..... thank you Dave!

'Oy, Fred! C' mere and help!'

'Give her hell from us, Peeves.'
And Peeves... swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

In honor of my favorite comic duo.......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY!!!!!!

'We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go,' said Fred, with a mysterious wink. 'Come in here…'

'This, Harry, is the secret of our success,' said George, patting the parchment fondly.

'It's a wrench, giving it to you,' said Fred, 'but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours.'

'Anyway, we know it off by heart,' said George. 'We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it any more.''

And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?' said Harry.'A bit of old parchment!' said Fred, closing his eyes with a grimace, as though Harry had mortally offended him. 'Explain, George.'

'Well… when we were in our first year, Harry – young, carefree and innocent

–'Harry snorted. He doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.'

– well, more innocent than we are now

– we got into a pot of bother with Filch.''We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason

–''So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual –''– detention –''– disembowelment

– '…'This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school.
'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs,' sighed George, patting the heading of the map. 'We owe them so much.'

'Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?' said Fred.

'That was a sample of fertiliser from Norway!' said Percy, going very red in the face. 'It was nothing personal!'

'It was,' Fred whispered to Harry, as they got up from the table. 'We sent it.'

'Hello, Harry,' said George, beaming at him. 'We thought we heard your dulcet tones.'

'You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out,' said Fred, also beaming. 'There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you.'

About blogging

So I've been thinking about a friends' negative opinions on blogging and stuff, and though it is hard for me, I will admit it got under my skin a little.... in truth I was a bit bothered by it..... I did try to see things from other perspectives and what I came to is this.... many blogs out there are purely sensational "journalism" they excist only to rant and rave, they are impersonal and have no character or warmth to them.
I understand that because of such bloggs, one can get uninterested and even a little harsh.

However, allow me to bring another view or side if you will into the equation. From someone who comes from a place of scrapbooking, keeping memories, sharing ones' life through pictures/writings/etc. the world of blogging has opened up a WHOLE new way of sharing and exercising ones' skills in writing and creating.

So here is what I am thinking, MY blog is like my scrapbook or my journal... except it is online, and I don't have to make lots of messes to share my life/interests/thoughts. (Like glue on me, my clothes, and everywhere else, paper clippings everywhere)

To me it is not an excuse to distance myself from friends and family, if anything it is the other way around where I feel a strong sense of responsibility to reach out, when I feel like crawling into my hole and withdraw from the world. It's almost therapeutic.

So, to my friends who are negatively inclined to the world of blogging, I have one plea... give me a chance to maybe change your view.... and let me share my life with you, unsensored, untouched and honest.

A great story! Help Save the Trolls!!!

So I stumbled across this blog, it's in Norwegian, and it's about loosing the Norwegian mythical creatures such as the Trolls, Nymphs, Nisse, etc. I just thought the article was fantastic, and I do believe it is important for any culture to keep their mythology, their creatures, it's part of ones' culture, it's part of who we are. In fact, in many ways it is the essence of who and what we become.

Personally I've always had an overactive imagination, ever since I was a little girl, I would talk to little "mice" who lived in treeroots, fairies in the forrest behind my house, or in the rocks by the wayside. The flowers were as real and alive as I was, and the birds could talk if one only would listen.

The stories of Asbjørnsen and Moe, Elsa Bescow, Thorbjørn Egner and others were influencial in all this. Stories, where animals talk, stones and rocks are alive, even lakes and brooks aren't always what they seem, all this was grounds for a world around me that was both scary and facinating at the same time. Face it, who wouldn't be scared by this troll....

and I'd be willing to bet that anyone who grew up hearing stories about this guy would hurry home when the sun set, and look at the mountains to make sure you got to safety before he could get you and trap you in his cave for EVER...

I'm adding some other pictures to show and inspire anyone who wants to keep this tradition alive, and maybe find the inner troll or fairy in your life.

Help SAVE THE TROLLS by telling stories and make up creatures or just re-tell some you've heard!

Good luck!

This last picture is from Elsa Bescow.

Natures' Alarm Clock

So at the crack of dawn, which is when I usually wake up, I have the pleasure of waiking up to lovely songbirds... I have doves, sparrows and hummingbirds right outside my window, or so it seems at least :)

There are also some really nice sounding black birds, that live in the area, that make some funky "clicking" noices, put all these together, and I have a beautiful symphony to wake me every morning......