Spore!

We have a new addiction at our house. It involves little creatures trying to survive on little planets. This addiction started last August when Uncle Jeffy gave JB a new PC game for her birthday. It was really cute. She could create little creatures to her hearts content. They would sing, and dance, but that was about it. Then for Christmas, she used her Santa/Grandpa Great Christmas money to purchase the full on version of SPORE. All I can say is "WHOA!" This game involves creating a little one celled creature, assigning it a home planet, and then guiding it through various stages of evolution. So far Jb and I have created a cell who has survived the premordial soup, and has passed through the creature stage, and has evolved enough to form a little tribe of six creatures. This is where I believe our evolution is going to stop, however. JB is so kind and sweet, she wants to make friends with all of the other little tribes she comes in contact with. So her creatures sing songs and dance for the other creatures, who respond violently and end up attacking and killing all six members of her tribe. She doesn't have the heart to make them fight back, and frankly I am not smart enought to figure out how to make her kind/sweet/everyone play nice creatures evolve further without turning into killing machines themselves. Interesting metaphor isn't it? This IS just a game...right?

Heroes

Date: December 22, 2008

Time: 6:45 a.m.

Situation: JB came running into our room, eyes wide as saucers, panting and on the verge of tears. "MOM, there is something in my room! It's either a great big spider (hands rounded to the size of an orange) or a mouse!" So I, of course, said what every good mother says in a situation like this.... "Go tell daddy."

He was working on a morning report in his office, but bravely armed himself with a shoe and headed out to greet the deadly foe, whatever it was. I, of course did what every good mother does in a situation like this, and stayed in bed. Hiding.

Soon Daddy returned, to put on his bathrobe, a full pair of shoes, gloves, and to grab a towel to catch what had turned out to be a very young mouse that has trapped himself in JB's closet. I recall the placement of our fish net, and agree to go get it for him. I give him the net, and he bravely goes into the fray of mouse hunting. JB is on her bed and manages to give the little screams of "OH!" and "There he is!" at all the appropriate times whenever little mouse pokes out his head or tries to make a run for it. Daddy catches him in the net, trapped against the floor, but then realizes this isn't such a great plan, because as soon as he lifts the net, the mouse will take off. So quickly, he lifts the net, and throws the towel, covering the mouse, and scoops at all up into a ball. (Cue screams from JB). Daddy then braves the snow in his bathrobe to take the little guy outside and set him free. (Hooray! Hooray for daddy! Our Hero!)

Where was I during all of this? I, of course, was doing what every good mother does in a situation like this, and was planning my next blog post...

Jingle Bell Rock

JB and The Boy rocked it out in the 4th grade Christmas concert. Sorry about the picture quality, I was way in the back.

Celebrate the Season

We attended Dad's Work Christmas Party, an annual event that is held at USU's beautiful Alumni House. The meal was catered by Hamilton's Restaurant and was deliscious! Mom's favorite was the candy cane cheesecake. YUM! It was interesting to me how many people said how JB was looking more and more like me every day. It was funny how that startled me a bit. I have never been one of those "girly" girls. You know the kind. The ones who can be given a garbage bag or old sheet and will tuck it here, and fold it there and VIOLA! a gorgeous 3 piece holidy outfit complete with sequins! I don't know how they do it. JB does. She just knows how to put together an outfit and make it look fantastic and in my opinion is absolutely stunningly beautiful. More than that though, she has a sunshine that pours from her soul, creating little pockets of happiness all around her. To be told that she looks like me....well that to me is the best complement ever, to know that in some way, I look like her.

Hosanna

DSCF0021, originally uploaded by tlcbull2.

The St. John's Children's Choir wrote this beautiful Christmas song with the help of Nancy griffin from the Utah Opera Company's Opera for Children. This is rehearsal video, but they are still great!
Merry Christmas!

Thoughts of Christmas

Well. Amazingly Christmas is here already. I haven't gotten used to the idea that JB is back in school after summer break and BOOM it's Christmas. I must admit I am not feeling very festive this year. I always look foreward to that time of year when the Christmas carols start playing on the radio and that warm tingle shoots through my spine saying at last the Holidays are back. It's that little tingle that usually has me playing Christmas Cds around August, preparing Christmas parties and making shopping lists, etc. This year... I got nothin'. I did put up a tree though, only because Jb asked me to. No parties are planned. No carmel corn, lollipops or slush is made. Honestly, only 5 gifts are purchased, some are wrapped. oh well. Maybe tomorrow....

Bon Jour!

Greetings!

Well we are back from our France trip and JB has worked hard to get mostly caught up on her homework. She is an amazing kid and has had a great attitude about doing her extra work. Dad ended up having to work more than we thought, so some of our exploring days were edited, leaving us to visit some attractions we hadn't planned on seeing originally. We visited a bunch of old churches and abbeys, went to a tiny little zoo, and visited a real castle. Mom shot over 750 images, some of which may be seen at her flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcbull