Random Thoughts

1. I am obsessed with Pinterest. OBSESSED. I've been wanting to join for awhile and finally bit the bullet. Now I can't stop thinking about things I want to pin. I definitely feel the creative juices flowing. I should send a quick thank you to Emily-my-cousin-who-is-getting-married for introducing me to this fabulous site.

2. My other obsession lately centers around the Fortress. It's a book written by Gabrielle Lord that features a teacher and her students of a one room school house who are kidnapped and taken to the Australian Outback. I read the book when I was in elementary school and loved it. Then I happened to come across VHS (my granddad used to tape HBO movies and give us copies) and I remember seeing the title and wondering if it based on the movie. So I popped it in and it sure was!It was a low budget HBO movie and is scared the bejeezus out of me. But I was very excited the I was watching a movie made from a book. (I was 8 so it was probably the first time that happened.) ANYWAY, since then, I've asked people throughout my life if they've seen or read the Fortress and NO ONE ever says yes. (Even my friend Amy who gave me the book doesn't remember reading it.) Then, a few weeks ago when the Polack and I were in Louisville, I was reading the Courier-Journal and someone wrote in to a tv/movie column and asked about a movie he saw growing up where Father Christmas kidnaps a school teacher. And I was like, I totally know they're talking about the Fortress. And luckily the columnist knew that too. So then it brought up all these memories and I spent the rest of the weekend go on and on about the Fortress to the Polack so much that I'm sure he'll be fine if he never hears that word again. And I've been on the hunt for the book AND the movie. I bought both and read the book in a few hours. Over the weekend, I finally got to watch the movie and it was just like what I remembered, especially the scene where the class has to swim under a rock to get to the other side of the cave. I think I have a fear of drowning because of that movie.

3. I feel like I've already written about my Fortress obsession but I don't see any record of it on my blog. So if you have already heard the story than I'm sorry for repeating myself. And if you haven't heard the story, then YOU'RE WELCOME. (Because it's nice memory of my childhood!) And I'm offering my copies up if anyone wants to borrow them. Just keep in mind that the dubbing of the movie is really bad and I've written to the Amazon seller who will hopefully replace it. I only paid $4 for the movie so I'm not that invested in getting it fixed.

4. And now I totally want Nicklas to read the book. He just finished The Hobbit which he was reluctant to read but we made him because he paid a whopping $7 for the book and I'm NOT GOING TO WASTE MONEY LIKE THAT. He ended up loving it so much that he's moving on to Lord of the Rings. Sometimes you have to push your kids, yo, especially when one forgets to bring his homework folder home all the time and you make him write a letter to his teacher explaining all the ways he can help himself remember. And he gets upset because he's embarassed and he he doesn't want to draw attention about the situation to his teacher. But too bad dude, I don't care that you think second graders shouldn't have to write reports. And then you take away his DS for a week. I'm talking about Seeger now, not Nicklas, though Nicklas just lost his jump drive at school and hasn't found it.

So both my boys are working on being more responsible.

5. I'm going to see Jon Stewart this week and the Polack is hopefully going to see a Tigers playoff game so that has led us both in to conversations about cutting back in other ways so that we can do the fun stuff that keeps us happy. For kicks and grins, we've vowed to not eat out for the whole month of October and to also try to keep our grocery bill down to $100/week. That will be the tough one which is really sad that our grocery bill for a family of 4 hovers around $700/month.

6. I read an article in the local paper about a guy that is vegetarian and grows half of the food he consumes and I definitely wish I was that green thumby although I don't eat nearly enough vegetables, nor do my kids,nor do we want to. But if we had fresh grown veggies, I'm guessing we'd eat more of them so I really, really want to start a garden next year. Except the deer are pretty plentiful around the homestead so now I have to figure out a way to protect the garden from the deer. No one seems to have some tried and true method. Also, I almost hit a turkey crossing the road the other morning when I was taking Seeger to school. I realize that has nothing to do with vegetables but it does have something to do with all the nature I'm experiencing now that I live out in the county.

7. At my age, when many of my friends are going on or have surpassed the ten year marriage mark, it means that friends are also going through divorces. I just learned of two in the last month and I tell you, it doesn't get easier to hear. Every time I find out someone is getting a divorce, I'm always shocked and I always want to know WHY and it's so unimaginable to me. Which is good - being unimaginable - but it always causes me to go through a grieving period because gosh, it must be so hard , especially for the kids. I'm not against divorce, I'm just so surprised by it and it makes me realize you really don't know people like you thought.

8. My parents divorce was THE BEST THING that happened to my family. My parents were miserable and that filtered down to me and my siblings so I'm glad it happened and now that my own friends are shocking me with their divorces, I wonder if my parents' friends and family members were shocked by their divorce. I can't imagine they were but then again, I was in the thick of things. It's been 20 years and I'm sure mom and dad look back amazed at how long they lasted together.

9. Wow, this post really has been pretty random. And long-winded. Hopefully you didn't have too much difficulty in understanding my train of though. To keep things even more random, I'm ending on thought 9, NOT though 10. I'm crazy like that.