At least someone loves me

After 2 days of pure living hell with the teenage Liam I am suffering from a severe lack of parental confidence. So it was quite nice to come across this conversation I had with Sophie a couple of weeks ago that I meant to blog but never got around to (of course).

Sophie: I love you, Mummy.

Me: I love you too, Sophie.

S: I love you spaghetti!

M: I love you more than spaghetti!

S: I love you more than Liam!

M: Don't you love Liam?

S: I just like him. Liam's the best brother. But Mummy...you are the BEST mummy ever.

I doubt she'll be saying it when she is 13 (although Taylor did tell me I'm a pretty good mum...but not as good as Dana's mum (I have to say I totally agree...Dana's mum rocks) but I will take it with all happiness and remind myself of it often when she is of the oft dreaded (with reason!) teenage years.


You'd think I would put a picture of her and I here, wouldn't you? Alas, there are none. I am the picture taker in this house, and when I'm not taking them I avoid the camera. I know. They will hard pressed to do a power point of me when I am dead. (I'm still freaking about death...I didn't even blog about the school teacher who died of cancer at the age of 46. 700 people at her funeral, it was amazing. And tons of pictures of her in the powerpoint! And on the same day Liam's old soccer coach died. Of cancer. Bloody cancer.)

Overheard.

Saoirse and Sophie tend to throw all the clean laundry out of it's basket (rarely a laundry basket, usually just a large rubbermaid container) and turn it into a boat. They did this this morning and both girls climbed inside, along with assorted stuffed animals.

Sophie: You're my best sister, Saoirse.

Saoirse, squeezing Sophie's cheeks: You're my best friend, sweet cheeks.

Really? Are they not the freaking sweetest things ever?

Nevermind that Sophie later tried to bite Saoirse's thigh as they fought during a rousing game of musical chairs- minus the music.

You must read this post.

You know how I love and adore squishytushy? And I have publicly wondered why she is not so much more popular because she is the freaking funniest blogger EVER? No offense to any of you other funny bloggers, but in my ever so humble opinion she is one of the best.

Recently, she attended a wedding in one of the Carolinas. I want to say South. I'm pretty sure it was South. This post about day one of the trip to South? Carolina is freaking hilarious. In a horribly awful sort of way. I don't want to give anything away, you must go read it for yourself.

I almost hate to share the hidden gem that is squishytushy, but for you all must find out what you have been missing. And if you don't like her? Well, there is something seriously wrong with you.

Oh, and if you want to find out who Rodney is you must read the previous post. Also very funny. In fact, why don't you just start at the beginning and read her entire archive? You won't be sorry.

What would you do?

I always say that my worst fear would be losing one of my children. I am beginning to wonder if I should say that my worst fear would actually be my own death. Not for my own loss, but because I wonder what my children would go through if I died. I think about this quite often (morbid?), and even had a discussion about it with William and Taylor last week.

A few weeks ago I found out that one of our playschool mums has cancer. Last week, I found out it was stage 4- maybe stage 5- and that she had been given 2-4 months, and up to a year if she does chemo. I don't know her, her daughter is in the morning class and Saoirse is in the afternoon, but I feel for her. I feel for her husband and her 2 daughters, one 4 and one 7. I feel for her family and friends- one who had just had her mother in law go missing only to be found 3 days later dead.

Not two months ago, she was seemingly healthy. She attended our general playschool meeting on February 10, with plans to go to yoga afterwards. Within one month she was unable to pick her daughter up from school.

What sort of horrible disease is this? How can someone go from vibrant and healthy to dying within in the course of 4 weeks? I know it can happen, but it so hard to believe, to accept. Back when Taylor attended this same playschool, 9 years ago, one of the dads was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He was diagnosed in February and was dead by the end of April.

I consider myself lucky that in my family, I have had only had one relative in my entire life have cancer- and that was my great grandmother, who was at the time in her 70s. This does not mean that I have not been touched by cancer, I don't think there is anyone who can claim that. My best childhood friend lost her mother 5 weeks after her twins were born 2 years ago. An acquaintance survived breast cancer a few years ago. A friend's daughter was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 18 months old. I read the blogs of mothers who have a child with cancer, the blogs of women who have lost their sister, their parent, their very best friend. Every single one of these people have touched me, have made me cry for their loss, have made me appreciate my family.

With this playschool mother I find myself wondering "What would happen if...?" What would happen if I was that sick? If I was told I would die? Who would take care of my children? Oh, I know that William would take good care of them but I worry about the little things...who would make sure the girls faces were clean before they went to school? Who would veto Saoirse's choice of a black and pink shirt with a yellow skirt and brown, pink and blue striped tights on a achool day? Who would make sure that the laundry was washed correctly? I see what happens to my house after I have worked the weekend, what in the world would happen if I wasn't there.

I am sure that they would get it all together, that eventually my teenagers would step up and grow up and lend a hand. I know my mother would be there, that I have at least 4 or 5 incredible friends who would help William with the girls, with housework, with whatever they needed.

And then there is the big question, the question that keeps me awake at night, wondering what I would do? Wondering what other people would do? What would I do if I was told that I was terminally ill but that I could increase my life expectancy by up 8-10 months if I did chemo? Would I do it? I have always thought that I would not. That I would do my best to enjoy my last few months with my family without going through the rigors of chemo.

But now? Now I don't know. Wouldn't I want another 8 months with my children even if I was extremely ill? If I chose not to have chemo would my children one day say "Why should I fight? My mum didn't" if they were confronted with a battle of their own? Or would it be worse to put them through that battle? I just don't know.

But every night I wonder.

Why It's Important to Go Outside

At lunch break today Taylor and 4 of her girlfriends stayed indoors instead of going outside as they are requested to do if the weather is above -23. I know. Harsh isn't it? You people who don't get below freezing have it really good. Snow days when there is barely any snow on the ground, barely ever (if ever!) getting below freezing. After 6 months of winter, I am very envious. And we had 15cm of snow yesterday!

Anyways, a boy from her grade saw them and yelled out to one of the teachers "Hey! Mr. B! Why are you making me go outside when these girls are all sitting in the corner?" God, boys. Are they ever any good?

So the girls were sent outside after being issued a punishment requiring them to write a two page essay on the importance of going outside.

I am not the hugest fan of this teacher, so told Taylor not to take it to seriously. She took me at my word and wrote what I found to be a rather amusing essay, even if it is full of run on sentences and no structure. Hmmm...much like her mother's blog. Here, in full is her essay. Please note, that when it comes to proper school work she does write correctly!
Why It’s Important to Go Outside
There are many reasons why people should go outside. I can list at least five right now. Number five on my list is that you (her teacher) would probably rather be playing sports (he's the head of the soccer academy.) than reading this. The fourth reason is because fresh air is good for the soul. Three, the body needs exercise which you usually get from going outside. Almost last, the second reason is to give teachers a break from students and the noise they make while indoors. Last, but not least, the number one reason is that you never know when someone’s going to tell on you, like certain fourteen year old boys. I thought it would be interesting also to put why it’s good not to go outside. The reason for this is that I’m sick, and I’m just starting to get better. I didn’t want to outside because, even though I know it’s not true, I believe the cold makes you sicker, especially if you are sick beforehand. Plus the interacting of many students, some of whom are sick, is not good, and when they all go outside, its not good because you risk the chance of getting sicker, at least sicker than you already were. I also believe that writing this essay is a bad idea, as it prevented me from going outside and enjoying some fresh air like I would have if I hadn’t had to write it. Then again, I had to walk over to my friend’s house so that I could print this,(crappy non working expensive printer! she didn't actually walk to her friend's, I just emailed it.) so this was very good for me and my health. In conclusion, I would just like to state that this has been an interesting learning experience, and that it probably won’t happen again as the weather is supposed to get much warmer.

This essay was done (and completed) by Taylor W. 8C.


She totally contradicts herself in this but I appreciate her attempt at humour.

Spewing forth

It's been a while. A month? Maybe two? I don't even really know. "Where have you been? What have you been doing?" you may ask. Or you may not. But, of course, I shall tell you whether you care to hear or not. Where have I been? Here. I have no life, I have been here. In front of my computer quite often, in fact. Doing what? It certainly hasn't been blogging, or even reading blogs. Well, I am still obsessed with facebook, and am getting back into twitter. Plurk? Well, I couldn't really give a flying fagoozy about plurk. I don't like that karma counting shit. Karma on plurk is rather like who sits at the cool table in high school. It all comes back to high school for me, people. And one does not like to go to places that remind one of not so fondly recalled days.

Anywho, now that I have sewed forth my regular "I've been gone from blogging" crap I shall truly enlighten you (not so much) with how very fascinating (read: uninspiring) my life has been for the past few months.

*We have had two birthdays. Liam turned 13 and 16 days later Taylor turned 14. As my daughter gets older I find myself so fascinated by her. She is tall and thin and oh so smart (but can not explain why she dropped from a 92 to an 80 in French) and she still has the your-mother-is-going-to-give-you-away-to-the-Hutterites attitude that she has had since she was approximately 9 months old. And she is so amazingly self confident. Where does this come from? Not I, that is for certain. She tries out for sports teams and singing contests, not worrying whether she will make it or not. I never tried out for anything for fear of failure, not even soccer when the teacher who was coaching the team asked me to try out. So she fascinates me. Polar opposites, her and I. And as she ages, we are getting along better. I like her. I couldn't always say that.

And Liam is Liam. He's 13. Who the hell likes 13 year olds? How many times can one tell a teenage boy to pull up his pants and brush his teeth so-I-don't-waste-$7000-on-braces-for-nothing before one starts banging one's head against the wall?

Why must I keep referring to myself as 'one'?

*There was recently a murder at a bar 2 blocks away from my house. I have complained about this bar to the city before, that due to the smoking bylaw drunk old men stand outside the doors at 4 pm and catcall to teen girls walking to the store and parents picking their children up from the daycare right next door. So when I called my city councillor's office the Monday after the murder, Doug, the fella in the office said "I've been expecting your call." So finally I am not the only one calling and complaining about this bar. In April there is a community league meeting that city representaitves will attend and it is my hope that the bar will end up shut down. When you can't send your teens up the road on their own, there's a pretty big problem. I had way more to say about that once upon a time, but who wanted to open the blog and write about it? Now it just sounds lame, but I can't be arsed to delete.

*We have so far in this New Year, experienced financial woes like never before. Thank God we have no credit card debt because we would be seriously fucked. As it is, I have been receiving notifications from my 3 utility companies with the dreaded "PAY NOW!" in big black letters. Christmas just killed us, normally I spend January catching up but here it is the middle of March and I am only now seeing the light at the end of the bills. It was so bad that when I suggested to William that maybe I should get a full time job he didn't even say "No way, not a chance, I'm not having strangers looking after my girls!" He said "Maybe that would be a good idea." ACK! Friday he gets his paycheque and he calls me and says that maybe I do need to look into that full time job. His paycheque is hideously small. Disgusting. He goes into work and pretty much says to them "I absolutely can not support my family on this, I'm going to have to look for another job." And so they offered him a $12 an hour raise. This is going to make a huge difference to us. They even gave him a cheque today that was a week's retro pay. Things are definitely looking up. It even makes the fact that my Chil.d T@x Bene.fit is going down by $350 a month not look so bad.

*And my two little ones? They are a post in themselves. And one day? I'm going to have to post about them. Until then, I am totally missing How I Met Your Mother.

Oh bugger this, it's too much work.

So privacy and I? We don't get on. It's too much work going through comments and searching for email addresses and then typing them up.

Jeez, I really am a lazy fecker. I'd rather be playing spider solitaire apparently. Or watching True Blood, my new obsession, on iTunes.

Part of the reason I wanted to go private is because I discovered that a "friend" had this address and I'm really quite uncomfortable with the idea of her reading it. It's not as though I am talking about her, but I just don't want her knowing some of the things going on in my life. I also figure that sometimes I will say things that piss William off, but being private on blogger makes no difference on our home computer when it comes to him. If I'm logged in he'd see it if he bothered to read the blog. I never know when he is going to read it.

I did start a wordpress blog so I guess if I have something to say that I don't want specific people reading then I will say it over there. Although in reality by the time I am ready to write I am usually no longer pissed off (say if it's about William) and what potentially could have been quite a good post just becomes my usual shite.

Anyhoodoodledoodledoo (as my friend Squishy Tushy says, and it always makes me laugh) on to William and the daughter. The only reason I wanted this private was because I was worried that he is going to get hurt and I didn't want him getting mad at my saying so. But you know, I worry. What can you do?

So when William was 17 his ex girlfriend had a baby girl. He was, as I said, 17 and I'm pretty sure he was pretty messed up. He saw her once as a baby and again when she was 9. By this time, the ex was remarried and Michaela was being raised as his daughter. William agreed not to tell her who he was, he was just introduced as the brother of Sue's (the ex) friend.

From the moment I met William he has always talked about her, about how he would like to get in contact with her. He had done a bit of searching for both mother and daughter on the internet with no luck. And then on New Year's Day on facebook he searched for her again, spelling her last name a little bit differently than what he had been using.

And he found someone with her name, sent a message asking if she lived in Australia and had a mum named Sue and it was her. She said she thought she knew who he was. They have been messaging back and forth the past week and a bit and have talked on the phone (calling a mobile to Australia...not cheap!) She said that when her mother went to tell her about William when she was "an angry teenager" she didn't want to hear it but that she was willing to hear his side now. He told her about those days (some of you will know he was also being abused by his doctor at that time), about his childhood, about where he is today. She has a little boy, just 3 weeks older than Sophie, and she said to William that once she saw the pictures of our girls she had no doubt about being related to him. And really? Her son has the exact same blond curls that Saoirse had at 2. A different face, but you can definitely see a resemblance. She herself looks a bit like one of his sisters.

We have known that William needs to go back to Australia for this medical case and now he is very determined to get back and meet Michaela. And while I am happy for him and I support his going back both for the case and to meet her, there is a part of me that is saying "What the fuck? We can't afford this. We can't afford for you to take 3 weeks off of work, to buy a plane ticket to Australia." That is selfish of me, I know, but I just don't see our fortunes turning in the next 4 months. These next few months were to be spent saving and trying to get ahead and now that is all gone. And it frustrates me that I am upset about this. I know that this is what is best for William...to meet her, to hopefully get some answers or some closure in regards to the abuse... and I know that any positive changes in William will be good for our family. But there is a little part of me that is terrified...scared that he won't get the answers he wants from the medical board, scared that things will not work out with Michaela, scared that he won't come back. And that is silly, I know, but I can't control those feelings. I find I've been a bit off with him this week, a little bit quieter than normal, a bit distance. When he asks what is wrong I say nothing.

I just don't know how to explain it all to him.

I'm so fickle, oh so fickle.

So it seems I have a few people worried that something horrid has happened which has caused me to go private. Let me reassure you that nothing has happened. In fact, things are pretty good. Minus the fact that I am suffering from post Christmas lack of money. But that's a common Emma ailment, since I also suffer from spenditallnowitis.

No, the sad reality is that it seems that all the happening bloggers on facebook belong to Blog Networks. And I want to join too. I want a list of blogs I read in my sidebar. But...I do not want my family and friends reading this blog. So I thought I would create a family friendly blog. I was just going to go to Wordpress and have the option of password protected posts, but then I thought "Do I really want IRL people emailing me for the password or my mother saying 'What is going on!?' " Yeah. Not so much. So I am going to keep this blog and make it private and then have an open blog that goes on facebook.

I'll probably use this blog more, because there is a lot of stuff going on that I am not quite ready to share with the IRLers. Like William finding his 25 year old daughter on facebook. That was a bit of a shocker. Along with his newfound determination to go back to Australia. I'll save that story for when this blog is offically private. I'm going to leave it open for a week or so, you know for those stragglers who don't get here that often. I think you need a gmail address for an invite to a private blogspot blog. I have that for some of you, not for others.

Change is in the air.

I am moving. Not to sure where to yet. Wordpress maybe for the password protected posts. Leave me a comment or email me at emmamcdonATgmailDOTcom if you want the new link once it is up.

Christmas Crazy From the Land Down Under.

Burgh Baby is hosting a bit of Christmas Crazy and while I do love all things Christmasy I have neither the money nor the space to go all out. A post from 2 days ago shows you a bit of my decorating and though I did not take pictures of Christmas towels I assure you tha they are in all 3 bathrooms. I am surprised by the amount of people who don't put Christmas towels in their bathroom.

Today I am posting, totally without permission and stolen off of facebook, pictures of William's mother's house in Melbourne. I said myself in that same post from 2 days ago that I didn't fully feel the Christmas spirit until the snow arrived and I just don't know how Australians do it. Not only is there no snow, it's the middle of bloody summer! It's unnatural is what it is. Imagine trying to cook a turkey dinner in 40 degree heat. Do they even play Let It Snow on the radio there?

My MIL, a very kind and lovely woman, is a wee bit fond of knickknacks. When the shelves in the 2 pictures below are not full of snowmen, Santas and other assorted Christmasy decorations (minus, I note, the fun filled Hallmark snowman we sent her a few years ago) they are full of pictures and other assorted garage sale knickknacks. Now I'm a pretty cluttered person myself, but her shelves make my eyes hurt.




A white tree. My SIL sent her this tree all the way from Scotland as she couldn't find one in Australia. No offense to any white tree lovers out there, but I hate and despise them with all of my being. My mother shocked me this year by buying a white tree. I was appalled and called her all sorts of grinch like names. Have I said my mother and I are very different? Her white tree is themed in red and silver, while I buy into the theory that your tree reflects your life story with ornaments that are loved and have a tale behind them. Anyway, back to the MIL...They do have a regular normal green tree as well, in the sunroom, but I could only steal so many pictures.


Deer in the garden in the back yard.


The front of the house.


The inside of the carport.


Carport roof.


I am not sure how much decorating the average Australian home does, but I am told that people do stop and get out of their cars to take pictures. But, for me, it just doesn't look right without snow.

Happy Birthday Holly!!

Everyone's favourite anglophile turns 31 today! (Which would make her exactly 4 years and 3 days younger than moi. Bitch.) In honour, or perhaps in spite of, turning the dreaded 3-1, Holly opened up her blog to questions. 31 of them to be exact. Today she answers those questions and is hoping to hit 100 comments (frankly I'd be pleased with 31, which is exactly the number she had a couple of hours ago when I read her post) so, if you happen to be a lurker at Holly's blog, or have yet to visit her, do so today, learn a little bit about her and throw a happy birthday her way.

Hope you have a fantastic birthday Holly!

The most wonderful time of the year. Or is it?

I am having a hard time believing it is only 8 more sleeps until Christmas. It took me a while to get into Christmas this year, usually I am pulling out Christmas CDs in July and starting my shopping. Money was tight this summer so I didn't start as early as I normally do. Money is still tight, but I have had a bit of help from my own Father Christmas (aka my Dad) and some fantastic sales so I have managed to do pretty good. Of course, I have still yet to get Taylor and Liam's big gifts (an iPod touch for Taylor and a PSP for Liam). It was so much easier when they were little and you could buy 10 or so gifts for the $200 plus it now costs to buy one single gift for a teenager. But as much as I worry, I know that we are very lucky. Everyday in the paper there is a column about Adopt-a-teen, where low income families are given a $50 Wal-Mart gift card for their teens. As of today, 4000 teens still were in need of a gift card. I can't even imagine that being all my kids would get, so definitely, I know that we are blessed.

The other thing that was keeping my normal Christmas spirit at bay was the lack of snow. I can't believe I just said that! I always say that I would like the snow to arrive Christmas Eve and to be gone by New Years but really, it just isn't Christmas until it is white. I really don't think I could live somewhere warm. Or somewhere rainy, for that matter.

Normally, as soon as the Halloween decorations come down the "snow" ones go up (and stay up until mid-March, when I am finally absoultely sick to death of the snow!) But, with the exception of Remembrance Day there was no snow in November. I put off putting up the snow decorations until the last weekend of November.

Snowmen in the hallway.


In the last few days we have plenty of snowflakes to wish upon.


Put up the snow decorations and bring on the snow! Liam built this fort that Saoirse loved playing in.


Once the snow decorations were up it was time to get ready for the Christmas decorations. I just bought this one at a craft fair and although it is technically a snowman, he will only come out for the month of December.


He's perfect for our fireplace-less house. No more untying stockings from the bansiter. They tell me he can hold the weight of all our full stockings so we shall see.


A mish mash of decorations...the tree at the back was made by Saoirse in layschool last year, and the pine cone is from this year. On the right hand side you may notice a glass candle holder, it has an etching of Mary holding Jesus. I bought that for my Granny when I was about 13, it was one of the few things that remained with her for the next 15 years and when she passed away my aunt gave it back to me.


The Christmas tree, partially decorated. It is still only partially decorated. The girls keep removing decorations to play with them and they don't seem to make it back onto the tree. Saoirse is quite concerned over what ornaments belong to who and quite can't understand why Liam and Taylor have so many more than her and Sophie. I have told her that as they move out and have their own trees their ornamaments will be given to them and she is now laying claim to numerous ornaments. "Can I have this one when I grow up and have my own tree Mummy?"


I love these bells. I bought them about 8 years ago at a home craft show. They are hanging this year on my garage door so that I see them whenever I come in or go out.


So I'm feeling the Christmas spirit now. I constantly have the radio set to a station that has been playing Christmas music since the end of November. I wish I could find my Time Life Christmas Treasury CDs because it has about 4 songs I love that I never hear and have on no other CDs. I need to wrap a whole lot of gifts. I am stalking the Christian television station to make sure I watch all the Christmas episodes of Facts of Life, Happy Days and other retro sitcoms. We are reading multiple Christmas related books daily. I am pretty happy. I am excited to see how much Sophie will love Christmas this year. Everyday she says "Mummy! Guess what?" and when I say "What?" she says, with absolute glee, "Christmas!!!" How can you not love Christmas when you have little kids around?

When Joseph beat up Baby Jesus

As a child did you ever read the book or see the TV movie (with Hot Lips from MASH- I'm really dating myself here!) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? If you haven't and you have a child between 5 and 10 I highly recommend either book or DVD.

It is all about a family of 6 very naughty children who take over the church Christmas play. I was given reason to think of the Herdman kids today when the playschool's very own Ralph Herdman beat up Baby Jesus during the playschool field trip.

We went to Fort Edmonton, which is a historical park. Well, as historical as a city that only just turned 100 a few years ago can get. After we had visited one of the houses where the kids baked cookies, sang songs and made a Christmas ornament using sheep wool we walked next door to the church. The park interpreter said we would tell the story of the birth of Jesus with the children playing all the important roles. All the roles actually. He chose one of the sweet looking little girls to play Mary. A wise choice he made. Then he said to a boy in the front row "You can be Joseph." I looked at him as the boy jumped up and said "Are you sure about that?" Not such a wise choice was made this time.

I posted these photos on facebook earlier and the mother of Mary pointed out that it looked as though Joseph was practicing karate. He may very well have been. Mary is clearly looking over at the interperter and thinking "Dude! Are you crazy!? Do you not know what this kid is capable of?"



This picture was supposed to be of Mary and Joseph journeying to Bethlehem. Mary is no fool and knew that counting on Joseph to get her there was just not on. She was way ahead. Bringing up the rear is the donkey, who was quite pissed off at being a donkey and let her displeasure be known by pretty much refusing to move.


This is quite a sweet picture is it not? Joseph, proudly showing off the newborn Jesus to two shepherds. Don't let the camera fool you! Joseph had already beat on the poor baby Jesus. You could look at it and say it looks as though those 2 shepherds are protecting the baby, but really? I'm pretty sure one of them would have been all for throwing the baby out of the cradle. I had to call out to Joseph by his real name to get him to stop hitting the doll while the story was being told and afterwards I said to the interpreter "So is this the first time Joseph has beat up Baby Joseph?" I was a bit surprised to find out that it was not. Afterwards one of the mum's (Mary's) was telling me that last week he had come to school with scratches all over his face. When she asked what happened he said his sister had done it with a knife. She is two!!! But you know, if that's what he does to her dolls at home, I'm not sure she is entirely to blame. Even if she does look evil.


This is the class, minus the one child who refused to participate at all. My very own angel (who really is compared to Joseph!) is in the left hand corner with the purple sweater. And note Joseph there...I think he is looking at the star that led the wisemen to the stable.

Emma (sort of) reviews Twilight.

Crap. All the pictures are reversed and I am way too tired to change it. Start from the bottom ok?

So I'm a pretty late convert to the world of Twilight mania. I read the books in about a week this summer, and have since been overloaded with Twilight mania by my 13 year old daughter. Like today, we went to pick up the very last Twilight shirt from Chapters which was supposed to be hold for me only to find out that someone had grabbed it before the sales guy got to it. Bitches and bastards. So we went to the embroidery store and had a Team Edward shirt made (you might catch a glimpse of it in the picture below). That is parental dedication, my friends. So is allowing your daughter to go to the 10 pm show on a school night.

I don't know how Edmonton ended up being one of the markets where the show would open a day early, but really? I'm not complaining. And neither were all the teenagers in attendance, some of whom were dressed as though they were sure Edward would jump out of the screen and have his way with them. Seriously? You need to wear a short black dress, which I am pretty sure would have been totally appropriate for grad?

Oh, right the movie.

Since my pics are backwards let me start with the end. I went to the movie with my friend Fiona, her daughter Avery (the little tiny one there, who I swear is 9! And who's favourite movie is some freaky horror film. Something like Saw 2 or along those lines. So don't judge her mother for taking her to the rather tame Twilight. Judge her for letting her daughter watch movies like Saw 2!),Taylor and Taylor's friends Dana, Marissa and Taylor. This is a photo of the 5 girls.



The arrival of James, Laurent and Vitoria at the baseball field.


Jasper and Alice. Jasper sort of freaked me out. He was so odd looking and made all these weird faces. I had pictured him as so much better looking! Alice, however, is almost exactly as I pictured her.


Bella and Edward.


Edward. When I first saw Robert Pattinson, I thought "There is no way that guy is good looking enough to play Edward!" But would anyone have been? In the book they are made out to be these absolutely amazing looking creatures, and I am not sure there is a single actor out there who could have met that goal. He's grown on me though and I can't imagine another Edward. I might have to read the book again to see if his image works while reading the story. The only real issue I had with Edward was the lipstick. I see no Oscars in the future for the makeup artists on this film.


I think this is a movie that would appeal to both fans of the series and someone who hasn't read even one book at all. There are things that bothered me as a reader, the biggest thing being the first kissing scene. In the book it is almost like a peck, whereas in the film it is quite intense and not short at all. Jessica wasn't a bitch like she quickly became in the book. Charlie's house wasn't tiny. I don't think it came across in the movie that Edward felt like cold marble. Cold they explained, marble they did not. Little things, but things I noticed.

The casting was pretty good, keeping in mind that no actor is as beautiful as we picture those immortal vampires to be. The scenery was gorgeous...watch out for when Edward takes Bella on her first vampire flight.

The 2 hours and 1 minute I spent watching Twilight literally flew by. I don't think I have ever had a movie end as quickly as this one did. I highly recommend you go see it.

Oh, and my apologies to Fiona who had to listen to me taking pictures (most of which can be found on facebook) and video as well. I took video of the movie starting, thinking that all the girls would start screaming. But I guess the manager's request that they keep it down worked. There were a few yelps when Edward had his first scene 5 or so minutes into it. Or maybe it was longer. As I said, it flew by. And yes, the manager really did come in shortly before the movie started to ask that the screaming be kept to a minimum.

Anyway, go and see it. Go, go, go.

Too-late-for-Musical-Monday Tuesday- Love, Love, Love

Guess who I'm going to see tomorrow???!!! I am so excited. Like pathetically excited. But whatever. Expect crappy too dark pictures the moment I get home tomorrow night.



So James? You, me, Oilers dressing room? You can pretend I am skinny and I will pretend you have a sexy Glasgow accent instead of that posh English one.