May the Force be with You

Today was Amanda's 11th birthday party. She wanted a Star Wars theme last year, but since there was so many Harry Potter things going on last summer, we did Harry Potter last year and saved Star Wars for this year. As a huge fan of Star Wars (my brothers and I can probaby recite the entire original Star Wars movie by heart!) I was excited to do this party for her and had some great ideas for fun stuff to do at the party!

The invitations we sent out looked like a light saber handle and then when you pulled out the "blade" it had this printed on it: "In a galaxy far, far away, on the morning of 28 July, a baby girl was born. The Jedi Council named her Amanda and they knew she was the chosen one. In the 11 years that followed her birth, young Amanda has been learning the powers of the Force. Meanwhile, the Republic discovered a new enemy. The Jedi Knights felt a strong disturbance in the Force. Fear, pain and suffering have opened the path to the Dark side. Many Jedi Knights have been lost. The very future of the Jedi Order is in jeopardy. Young Padawan Amanda has been called by the Council to seek out future Jedi. Master Yoda is urging the younglings to complete their training and take part in the upcoming trials.

Each Padawan’s presence is requested to complete their Jedi training and prepare for the trials on 26 July 2008. Transport to the Jedi Temple, on Coruscant, will be departing promptly at 10:00am from the Nehring docking bay. Please advise the Jedi Council as soon as possible as to whether each Padawan will accept the challenge of the trials.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

Please note that due to new security protocols in the Republic, no weapons will be allowed on all transport vessels. Rest assured that the Jedi Council has secured enough equipment for the Padawans to complete their training."

The guests arrived at 10:00am. We had a sign on the front door that said Welcome to the Jedi Training Academy. We had Padawan tunics for each of the trainees to wear. The house was decorated with black and silver foil stars, Star Wars figurines and the dining room table had a black tablecloth, napkins, forks and cups and a large black plate with a smaller red, green or blue plate on top of it. There was also some Star Wars confetti sprinkled all over the middle of the table.

First we made lightsabers (foam pipe insulation wrapped with electrical tape) and they got to choose which color of light saber they wanted - red, green, blue or purple. Then the Jedi trainees went outside into the desert wasteland of Tatooine (our unfinished backyard) and had light saber agility training. They each got a red balloon and tried to keep it up in the air with their lightsabers.

Then it was time to break the Death Star pinata. Amanda helped me to make the pinata and I painted it and drew all the details on it. Then we took a wooden dowel and wrapped it in electrical tape so that it looked like a lightsaber and the trainees used that to break the pinata.

When they came back inside, we took photos of them with lightsabers. The photos turned out really cool! It really looks like they are holding lightsabers! We told them to make their best Jedi faces, and we got some good ones!

The trainees then took a break for lunch, and they had Saber Dogs, Tatooine Tortillas, Millenium Melon and Jedi Juice. (That's hot dogs, blue tortilla chips, watermelon chunks and green kool-aid with purple kool-aid ice cubes.) For dessert they had Force Floats (blue kool-aid and Sprite mixed together with vanilla ice cream).


After lunch they made pretzel lightsabers. They dipped pretzel sticks into red, green, blue or purple candy melts. Then they watched the movie, Star Wars, Episode I. (As her parents, we kept trying to convince her to watch the REAL first episode, but it was her party after all, so we let her choose.)

While the trainees were watching the movie, I put together a certificate that congratulated them on completing their Jedi Training that had their photo on it. After the movie ended and they were ready to head home, they each got a goodie bag that had coloring pages, some scratch magic stars, a package of pop rocks and a light stick in it.

The trainees had a great time and were ready to go out into the galaxy and fight the forces of evil!

-Lora

See all the Star Wars party pics HERE.

Observation

How observant are you? Can you pass this test?



Just for the record, Lora & I both failed.

Mid-Life Crisis

I've been planning a mid-life crisis for a few years now. The planned answer/remedy was to be a new BMW motorcycle, particularly a R1200RT. During a recent visit (of many) to the BMW dealer who services my 1993 BMW R100GS, I started seriously looking at them. While I was well aware of the price of admission for one of them, the thought of actually chewing on that high price - nearly $19,000! the way I wanted it outfitted - almost triggered a crisis of its own. No new RT this time around. I'd have to make due with the GS.

On the way home, I made an unplanned stop at Madera Honda Suzuki. I was in the neighborhood and had never been in. Being a bit depressed from the above mentioned BMW shop visit, I went in to take a look. I walked around, looked at the bikes they had, and was headed for the door when I saw this 2006 Honda ST1300; Honda's version of the BMW RT. Comparable to an RT in purpose of design, the differences are mainly in engine architecture and electronic gizmos. Another difference is the price tag. I had walked right by it when I came in and didn't see it. I had never thought about an ST, but this one caught my eye.

It was used, but not much. The previous owner had bought this one new to replace his ST1100. He had the dealer trick it out with a few after market items before he even picked it up: a Heated Corbin saddle and Corbin Smuggler trunk (that's what really caught my eye first), Helibar riser with attached RAM GPSr mount, dual power outlets, Honda tank & knee pads and saddle bag liners. Being more than a year old, the price on the sticker was less than a new one (and much less than a BMW). The price would have been worth it if the bike was bone stock, without the after market add-ons, but the add-ons were there as well as the stock seat. And most suprising was the mileage: 376 total miles! The bike hadn't even had it's first service yet and still had two years left on the factory warranty! I suprised the salesman by looking for him, handing him my card and telling him I would be back to ride it.

I left the shop and spent the next 20 minutes driving home figuring out how to tell Lora I found a new bike. That conversation obviously went well.

I'll post more about living with the bike later.

See many more pics of my first week with the bike HERE.

Rebecca's new glasses

Rebecca got her first pair of glasses shortly after she turned three years old. They were light brown metal frames with Spongebob on the ear pieces. Over the next three years she got two pink pairs in a row. She has worn this last pink pair for about two years.

Recently we went in to have her eyes checked again and even though her prescription did not change, her glasses were small and her lenses were scratched. I hadn't planned on getting new glasses for her unless the prescription had changed, but the doctor's office suggested we see what the insurance would pay for towards a new pair of glasses. Since we had different insurance than the last time, we decided to give it a try.

We went to the glasses shop and while the sales lady was checking with the insurance, Rebecca started trying on frames. She had a great time and picked out a pair of pink wire frames. The sales lady came back and told us that insurance would cover everything! Cool! I was excited about that! At the last minute, Rebecca changed her mind and chose a dark red plastic frame. I asked if she was sure that was what she wanted and she said yes.

So today we went and picked up her brand new pair of glasses. The frames are bigger so they fit her better, and she got transition lenses which she was very excited about! She looks great!

Happy 4th of July!!

We have been out of town on the Fourth of July for the last two year in a row (New Mexico on the way to Texas in 2006 and Alaska in 2007), and this year the girls begged us to be home for the fourth of July. So we did, and we had a great time!

On Wednesday we decorated our house. We put out a bunch of flags and hung some twirly foil star things that looked pretty cool. (Unfortunately the wind played havoc with them for two days and pretty well destroyed them.)

On Thursday we went to the Kerman Ward potluck BBQ. There was a whole lot of food and we all set up our chairs and blankets on the back lawn of the chapel. When it started to get a little bit dark, the kids all got sparklers. (Most of them started writing with them on the blacktop. What's up with that? What ever happened to twirling them around in the air?) Then the kids moved back and the Young Men lit some fireworks there in the parking lot. When it got dark, the fireworks started. The city of Kerman shoots of their fireworks from the high school stadium, which is a block away from the chapel, so we had great seats! The fireworks display was awesome! We got some great photos! We love our new camera!

Today our culdesac, Michelle Avenue, all gets together and has a big block party. This is the fourth year we have done it. Everyone really got into the 4th of July spirit. There were things going all day long, snow cones at one house and swimming at another, water balloons at another, etc.. We had a potluck BBQ, and we all got a chance to sit and talk. We even got a fly-over of sorts. Some jets who were lining up for a fly-over of the downtown Fresno stadium flew over us and it was really neat!

As it began to get darker, we got out the poppers (they make a popping, craking noise when you throw them at the ground) and sparklers for all the kids. There had to be at least 30 kids out there, all going through what had to be a million sparklers. We had a huge bag that we had been kind of collecting over the last several years, and then everyone else had some too. Then we all pooled our fireworks and had quite a show. We had bought the Moondance Fountain and the Red, White and Blue Salute or something like that from Phantom Fireworks and I want to remember those for next year. They were great!

It was a fun way to celebrate the birth of our nation and the freedoms we enjoy and should never take for granted.

-Lora

See all the July 3rd pics HERE.

See all the July 4th pics HERE.

Blogging my weight loss journey - Month 6

Setback. That is the word for the day. Or the month, as it were. Apparently I am still under the delusional expectation that I can eat things I am not supposed to and not gain weight. I find it so frustrating that I can't just get to where I want to be weight-wise and then not have to work at staying there for the rest of my life.

And, yikes! I started sneaking food again. That is always a HUGE red flag. Things are definitely going in the wrong direction if I am trying to sneak food!

My back started hurting right around the middle of the month and I was one, mad!!! and two, worried that I might hurt it worse, so I backed off on the exercise, which, of course led to no exerise for the rest of the month. Arg!

I am halfway through the year and I am halfway to my goal. I have to get my act together and get going back in the right direction. I have to get my portion control back under control. I have to stop eating after 7pm. I have to stop buying sugar-free desserts, because I have been eating them as though it's okay to eat three of them at a time. As much as I HATE to have to do it, I need to start writing things down again so I have to be truly accountable to myself for the things that I eat.

Month 6
weight lost: +1
inches lost: +5"

Next month's word - turnaround!