Photo a Day: Dec 7 - 20

The last couple weeks have been little more than a blur! We've been running around like crazy,  making cookies, wrapping presents, driving to and from the Happy Valley. Travis had a work Christmas Party and we've had several dinners with family. I'm actually worried that we won't get through all our Christmas movies in time! I love Christmas movies. In fact, I tend to prefer Christmas movies to all other movies ever. But since we instated the "no movies except on weekends," it's been hard to fit everything in! We have watched Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street (new and in color!), The Santa Clause, Elf, a Charlie Brown Christmas, and The (cartoon) Grinch. 

We just need to cram It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street (old black-and-white), The Christmas Story, and the Muppets Christmas Carol in before Thursday. I'd like to watch more, but I just don't think we'll make it and those are the favorites!

There are also lots of non-"Christmas" movies that I consider holiday movies, you know, like Family Man, Hook, and Harry Potter. (They have Christmas scenes. That makes them festive.)

Anyway. Travis is on the scheduling boat and is helping to make a million plans for us, but my favorite things to do are eat cookies and watch movies that make me cry. 

(Speaking of movies that make me cry, we rewatched the first two Hobbit films in preparation for number 3 this week. I think Peter Jackson should be put on trial for crimes against humanity and books. I kept telling myself, "You probably over reacted. You'll watch the extended edition and feel better. They're bound to include more stuff from the books, plus- stop being so overly dramatic. He didn't totally ruin it." 

But then we rewatched them. And guess what? They are worse than I remember. THEY ARE SO BAD. Why, Peter? Why? Do you hate Tolkien? Is that it? Oh. You just love money more. You have sold your soul to the evil book-ruining, video-game-loving, bizarro, destroyer and usurper of joy that is Hollywood. That can really be the only explanation. Because seriously, the movies are so bad. 

Stop telling me to just enjoy it as a movie without comparing it to the book. And stop telling me that he was just trying to include more stuff from the Silmarillion and appendices. 

Because 1. It is a deformation of the book and can only be seen as such. 

2. I HAVE READ THE SILMARILLION AND APPENDICES. STOP TRYING TO TELL ME LIES. Sure. Include the Necromancer. The White Counsel. Legolas should definitely be there, I agree. 

Barrel fights. Absurd Romances. Gold that melts instantaneously to be poured on unsuspecting dragons. Strange Goblin musical numbers that sound like they belong in a Broadway theater production of The Hobbit. Surfing down stairs. And everything CGI. Why? 

I have watched the extra features of the LOTR movies an obscene number of times, and I can tell you: They did not go this video-game crazy. They actually built stuff. They made masks for orcs, they made crumbing statues, they carved gigantic mini-cities out of foam and seriously, Jackson. Why are you such a quitter?)

Oh. Oops. This blog post took an unexpected turn. Sorry guys. 

No. I retract that. I am not sorry. Peter Jackson should be sorry. He should know better than to upset a fan-base which probably owns a lot of swords. (This isn't a threat. Calm down, NSA.)

Anywho... here are some pictures. 

 August and Mama as captured by Micah.

Grey. Just 'xploring the world.

 Making Gingerbread cookies. // Wielding a sword.

 But for real. I really like them.

The cutest stockings ever crafted, made by my amazing Grandma.

 Ha! This picture is so hilarious to me. Poor little outsider Grey.

 Someone has two new teeth!

Swinging high! // Making a mess I mean... Making Oobleck.

Photographer Micah boy in the mirror.

Fact: it is Friday. {England}

Fact: it is Friday: Where I talk about myself. On Fridays. I don't talk about my babies, unless I want to, which sometimes I might. But mostly Fact: it is Friday is when I'm going to tell you something you maybe didn't know about me. Or perhaps a story from my bucktoothed-childhood or bratty teenage years.

Becky Fact 6: I grew up reading Harry Potter, Peter Pan, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland and knew that if anything wonderful and magical ever happened to me it would begin -as all those stories do - in England.

In my teenage years I began reading non-magical British literature, like Pride and Prejudice, the poetry of Keats, Wordsworth, and Lord Alfred Tennyson, and cookbooks by Jamie Oliver (totally counts as British Lit, thank you very much). And my conviction that England was more awesome than America grew.

I dreamt of how much happier I'd be if I'd been raised in England, constantly practiced my British accent, and tried to think of ways of making an Englishman fall in love with me and then bring me home with him.
I actually studied maps of London until I knew how to get from Kensington Gardens to Buckingham Palace, to Westminster Abbey, to anywhere famous at all.


College was the first time that I had a chance to do anything about my love for distant England, and I applied for the London study abroad my sophomore year. It is the most popular study abroad and less than half the people who apply get accepted.
But despite my poor grades, I was able to talk myself into being accepted (and I wrote a pretty awesome essay about how obsessed I was with England).
I was leaving in a few short months, and what's more - two of my roommates were going with me. 
It was to be the best time of my life. 


I had begun praying about whether or not I should go before I even put in my application, and I prayed pretty earnestly. I didn't want to be in England if I should be here.
But the days grew closer, and I had no answer, which to me meant "You can make this decision yourself."
I had my flight plan. I had started packing my bags. Christmas was looming, and I was to go home for Christmas and then fly out from home before the end of the month.
One evening I was at work at the MTC, scooping mashed potatoes for missionaries. My fellow food-scoopers and I were singing Christmas carols, and suddenly - I got my answer.
I knew, just as we sang the words "Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angels' voices," and I completely collapsed.
I wasn't supposed to go to England.
I was supposed to stay here. IN PROVO.  
I knew it and it broke my heart. I did fall to my knees and I started crying.
It was like watching someone I loved die. I had been planning this my entire life. And it was being taken from me.
I was SO MAD. Couldn't God have let me in on this a few weeks earlier? 
My best friend Lana was at work with me. When she asked what was wrong, and I gasped "I'm not supposed to go to England,"she went white, and quickly hustled me away to a freezer to stand in and sob, and then went and told our boss that I needed to go home early. 
She knew that a serious meltdown was on it's way. 
Yeah, falling to the ground and sobbing was just the tip of the meltdown iceberg.

It might seem silly to you that one minute I was planning on going to England and the next minute I felt that "God had spoken" and wanted me to stay home. But I've been praying and listening for answers my entire life, and I know what it feels like when God finally responds.
I felt that burning, that clarity of mind, and almost like a voice telling me, I heard clearly "You can't go on the study abroad."

So I didn't go.
I stayed home.
And, yes, one fateful day - less than a week after the new semester had started here in Provo - I met a tall, skinny young man named Travis Pitcher.
(And 10 months and 2 days later we got married.)
And I felt a bit better about the whole "missing out on England and letting my dream shrivel up and die - so that I could stay home and meet the man of my dreams" thing.
Except that I didn't really let my dream shrivel up and die.
I continued to nurse my dream for England.

And a few months after we were married, Travis and I went to England.
No, it wasn't for four months.
It wasn't even for four days. It was technically an extended layover on our way home from Africa.  But we had enough time to go find fish and chips (with mushy peas, of course) in a dive of a pub and eat them in Kensington Gardens (where I spent some time crying at the Peter Pan statue).
And we had enough time to eat at Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant (which Travis still uses as the measure of whether or not Italian food is delicious [think: "Wow, this is almost as good as the pasta I had at Jamie's"])
We had lunch at the Eagle and the Child, where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to meet to write and talk about literature.
And yes. Apparently most of the things we did in England had to do with food.
We went to Christ's Church Cathedral, where they filmed Harry Potter and I spent a long time speaking only in lines from the movie. We went on Addison's Walk, where C.S. Lewis finally decided that there was a God after all, and rested and read a little from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We went to Alice's Sheep Shop, where I bought a teacup.
It was perfect.
I mean, London was okay. But if you go to England, go to Oxford. It's one of my favorite places in the world.

And Travis and I have plans in the works for another trip to the United Kingdom. We're thinking of spending our three-year anniversary in Scotland (since Travis's sister and brother in law are moving to Scotland.)
And another trip to Oxford is an absolute must.

So if you don't have a Friday Fact to share, may I suggest a topic? What's your dream? What have you always wanted, thought about, planned for?
And did you get it? Will you get it?

Happy Friday, people.
And don't you dare tell me anything about the HP movie that came out last night. I have tickets for tomorrow afternoon (the first movie I'll go to in the theaters since the last HP movie - during which I was highly pregnant.)
I read Harry Potter for the first time when I was 9 years old (and probably 15 times since then) and this feels like the end of an era.
All you 12 year-olds in the theater last night, pretending that you're fans.... you didn't wait in line for the books at midnight.  You don't know what this movie means to all the twenty-somethings that have been waiting for this movie since they were preteens.
And you probably don't even celebrate July 31st with a party every year (Harry's birthday, you guys.)

Anyway.
Friday Fact.
Write one. OR ELSE.



 


<br /> <br /> <a border="0" href="http://babymakingbybecky.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i878.photobucket.com/albums/ab344/rebeccahlouise/FactFriday.jpg" /></a><br />

*       *        *
Fact: it is Friday. 

I think you should do it too. 

And here are your instructions (not really rules...):

1. Write a fact about yourself.

2. Elaborate.

3. It can be long or short, detailed or not.

4. Don't write about your kids. (Unless you want to. Because, I mean... it's your blog. I can't stop you from writing about your kids.)

5. Link up to this blog, so we can all read some facts, and not feel bad that we dropped out of school to be stay-at-home moms. (Since if we're reading facts, then we are still learning.)

6. You're not a dropout like me? Or a stay at home mom? No biggie. You can still play.

Can't think of what to write? Start like this:

Fact: When I was a kid I was really good at...

or

Fact: My biggest pet peeve is...

or

Fact: I have a third nipple.

Etc.

Fact: I would love it if you voted for me by clicking below:

Fact: it is Friday. {LOTR}

Fact: it is Friday: Where I talk about myself. On Fridays.

I don't talk about my babies, unless I want to, which sometimes I might. But mostly Fact: it is Friday is when I'm going to maybe tell you something you didn't know about me.
Or maybe a story from my bucktoothed-childhood or bratty teenage years.

Becky Fact 1: I am a big huge LOTR fan. We're talking about wearing cloaks to school here, people.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to write about on Fridays (like 10 minutes), and mostly I want to write about myself still. Since I don't care about politics, and am not very fashionable, and what else do people talk about on blogs besides fashion, politics and themselves?

I also thought long and hard about the first Becky Fact to share (like 5 minutes) and decided that what you really need to know about me is: I was (and maybe am still) obsessed with the Lord of the Rings.

It began in third grade when Mrs. Kanthak would gather the nine year olds about her in circle and read to us from J.R.R. Tolkien's famous children's book: The Hobbit.

Dang. I was hooked. 

I remember her reading in a creepy Gollum voice. I remember when our special treat to watch The Hobbit cartoon in class was canceled as a punishment for misbehaving. I remember when, joy of joys, my dad found me my very own copy of The Hobbit in the basement - and it came with a three sequels!

I reread The Hobbit on my own when I was ten, and I started The Fellowship of the Ring, but gave up at the Council of Elrond. That was thick stuff.
But I returned a year later and reread The Hobbit (I'm a serious book rereader. Usually I would rather read a book I've already read than a new book.) followed by The Fellowship.
Again, the Council of Elrond stumped me, but this time I just went ahead and skipped to The Two Towers (because how could that boring part be important?) I think I (kind of) finished the books that year.
But I missed a ton. Like, maybe the whole plot.
When I was 12 I reread The Hobbit and began the trilogy again. "Why did you keep trying?" you may ask.
Here's why:
1. I have always loved reading bigger, thicker, more impressive books than other people around me because it makes me feel smarter than them.
and 2. Maybe you aren't grasping how much I loved The Hobbit. BEST BOOK EVER.
I knew the LOTR must be equally wonderful, as soon as I could figure them out.

And 12 was the magic number at which I could read the books all the way through and understand them. AND LOVE THEM.
And I may have picked up some Elvish. And I may have had a sign on my bedroom door that said "Speak friend, and enter."
And I just might have started collecting LOTRs memorabilia. And still have a Gandalf action figure that I love, which my roommates through the years have loved to mock.

So I loved the books. I read them several times in a row. (That's another thing I still do. I read the 7th HP book 3 times during the first week it was out.... it's a problem.)

And then trailers starting appearing on tv for the new Fellowship of the Ring movie. And they were accompanied by a twelve year-old (me) ranting like this: "Who the heck is that freaking elf? (Liv Tyler: Arwen) That better not be Legolas. I don't care that there are only men in the Fellowship. I can't believe they're just adding girl characters for drama. I mean, WHO IS SHE?! Why is she even in the movie? Have they even READ the books?"
People.
This is before the movies were even in the theater. I was already mad about them.
And the movies were PG-13, so my dad said I couldn't go see them.
And he made me wait. But they were in the theaters for like 3 months, because they were so awesome, so he FINALLY let me go.
And I was sad that Tom Bombadil and the Barrow-Wights and many other things were taken out.
But the sadness was overshadowed by how awesome the movie was. And how handsome Legolas was.
(Orlando Bloom = a 13 year old's heartthrob.)
Aaaaanyway. Some vapid girl in my 9th grade theater class was overheard to say "I tried to read the books, because the movies had so many hot guys in it, but it was boooooring."
And to this day I still picture her when I think about people who are annoying or stupid.
And my best friend and my seminary teacher and I skipped out on seminary the day the extended dvds came out, so we could be the first ones in line at Wal-Mart. (We're talking like 6am.)
And I probably memorized the movie. And the cast commentary.
And the like 30 hours of special features.
Probably.
And, what was that? You want to hear about how I wore a cloak sometimes in middle school?
Ummm... What more needs to be said?
My mom made it.
It was reversible (black on one side and sparkly silver on the other...)
And yeah. I thought I was awesome.
Because I was. Duh.
(And, oh yeah. I still read the books almost every year. Maybe I brought them with me to Africa to read. Because that was an important pound to add to my carry on luggage.)

*        *        *


Fact: it is Friday. 
I think you should do it too. Imma going to make a button, and maybe a linky list for next week.
And here are your instructions (not really rules...):


1. Write a fact about yourself.
2. Elaborate.
3. It can be long or short, detailed or not.
4. Don't write about your kids. (Unless you want to. Because, I mean... it's your blog. I can't stop you from writing about your kids.)
5. Link up to this blog, so we can all read some facts, and not feel bad that we dropped out of school to be stay-at-home moms. (Since if we're reading facts, then we are still learning.)
6. You're not a dropout like me? Or a stay at home mom? No biggie. You can still play.


Can't think of what to write? Start like this:
Fact: When I was a kid I was really good at...
or
Fact: My biggest pet peeve is...
or
Fact: I have a third nipple.
Etc.

Fact: I would love it  if you voted for me by clicking below: