The Day After Christmas

Christmas was nice; my brother and his family were over.


Went to see Frozen this morning and loved it.





It's a sweet story about two sisters and has a good message about love and helping each other out.


I somehow overlooked mentioning a couple of other favorite holiday movies in an earlier post.





Polar Express is a wonderful, imaginative movie.


And of course there's this guy.





It's cool how The Grinch ends up understanding what Christmas is about in the end.

Christmas Joy pictures

Here is a picture from CJ on 12/15/13. The set is beautiful.





And here is a picture of the decorated lobby of the church from 2011.

Christmas Joy

Curtain falls on a holiday tradition | year, wells, people - News - The Orange County Register


My church has had a Christmas play set during different time periods every year for the last 40 years.  It started out small but grew into a full production with a set and costumes.  I've been going to it every year since about 2003.  I went twice this year, on December 7 with my mom and again on December 15 with a friend.  This is the last year for Christmas Joy; I'm going to miss it.  It's been a real source of encouragement to me over the years.  They will be moving onto something else for Christmas but aren't sure what exactly.  I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.


I will post more pictures as I have them, but in the meantime here's a link to a story in the Orange County Register.

More holiday specials.

Here are some other favorites...Movies this time.





A Christmas Carol makes a great statement about what Christmas should be about.






It's a Wonderful Life has a good message about not being defined by your circumstances and that things do happen for a reason.






And there's A Christmas Story which always makes me laugh.






And Home Alone, which has a good message about families sticking together but is funny also. The kid sure is resourceful. Good stuff.

I got the images from Wikipedia.

Christmas specials.

This is a good time to talk about some of my favorite Christmas specials.






"A Charlie Brown Christmas" is a must.



Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Rudolph.










Or Frosty.


Santa Claus is Coming to Town--What's not to love?





And the Little Drummer Boy.





I watch these shows every year and never get tired of them.


I got the images from Wikipedia.

Christmas is coming.

It's always fun to walk around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights this time of year. Some of the decorations are pretty elaborate, but some are simple and still very nice. The house across the street has four stars across the eaves of the front porch and it looks good.






Most of the lights aren't quite as over-the-top as the house in Christmas Vacation but some come pretty close.


I love that movie by the way.

Thanksgiving.

Had a nice Thanksgiving with Mom, my brother and his family and my oldest nephew.













I do have a lot to be thankful for and I'm having a good weekend.

Survival Guide

I'll call this Michelle's Survival Guide.


1. Don't be defined by your circumstances or by what other people think. When it gets right down to it, it's what God thinks that counts, and He wants us to trust Him and follow His plan for our lives.

2. Learn to forgive and let go, for your own sake if nothing else. In the long run, the only one you hurt by refusing to forgive is yourself. Forgiving doesn't mean anyone has gotten away with anything; it means you're giving yourself a break.

3. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. You can avoid a lot of problems by doing this.

4. Don't say things about others you wouldn't be willing to say to their face.

5. On the other end of the spectrum, don't say things to others you wouldn't want them to say to you.

6. When you find yourself dealing with conflict, step back and consider what you might be doing to contribute to it. It's very rare for conflict to be completely the fault of one person. Keeping in mind that people who hurt are usually hurting themselves can be helpful. Of course as with anything, there will be exceptions, and no, it's not an excuse for bad behavior. However, realizing it's a problem on their part can keep things in perspective.

7. Ask yourself if it will matter in a year, six months, a month, a day or even an hour from now. If the answer is "no" maybe it's not worth the hassle.

8. It's not mistakes or failure that is the issue; we all fail at times. What really matters is whether you're leaning anything from your mistakes.

9. Remember this too shall pass.

10. Back up all your files.

Random stuff

I’m too young to remember President Kennedy but old enough to remember Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King (and I was pretty young, so the memories are vague).

I live in an ideal area. I am about ten minutes from the nearest library, less than a mile from the nearest fire station, a couple of miles from the police station, about ten or 15 minutes from the beach, a couple of hours from the mountains and desert, ten minutes from the nearest shopping mall, within 20 minutes of an adult school, community college and university, 20 minutes from the airport and three blocks from the grocery store and drug store.

I’ve lived about 45 minutes south of Hollywood my whole life…Believe me, it’s overrated. Some of the history behind how the movie industry got started there in the late 30s/early 40s is interesting, but other than that…Blah. The insane traffic and ridiculous parking alone is enough to give me reason not to go out that way very often.

I love to read and have my nose stuck in a book as much as possible.

I love stuff from the 80s. I love shows like Quantum Leap, Murder She Wrote and Magnum P.I. I also love bands like Journey, REO, Styx, and Foreigner.

The Beatles are the first band I remember liking. I was pretty young, so the memories are vague, but I remember hearing their songs on the radio in the mid-60s and dancing around to them. I thought Paul McCartney was cute even at that young age. Hahaha.

I sing in choir at my church.

I have been going to my church for a little over ten years now.

We went on a family trip to Massachusetts in 1976 and were there for the Bicentennial. Some of the highlights for me were getting to see the Grand Canyon, the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, the Painted Desert, some Civil War battlefields in Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, the Liberty Bell and the Atlantic Ocean. There was other cool stuff, but that was what stood out for me.

Batman is my favorite comic book character.

Emergency!

I got the images from Wikipedia.

One of my favorite shows when I was a kid was Emergency! The storylines centered on the beginning of the paramedic program in the 1970s and followed the adventures of Station 51. There was a good combination of drama (the sometimes scary rescues and scenes at the hospital) and comedy (the amusing and sometimes silly banter between the men at Station 51-Especially Chet and Johnny).




EMS has come a long way since Emergency was on the air. Admittedly some of the situations/dialogue/equipment, etc. are dated now, although for the time it was pretty accurate. I'm working my way through the show on Netflix and it's bringing back some good childhood memories.


I liked the whole cast, but my favorite character was Johnny Gage, charmingly portray by Randy Mantooth. He and Kevin Tighe (Roy Desoto) had good chemistry as partners. Roy's somewhat more serious character brought balance to Johnny's more carefree, no strings on me character.

Quantum Leap

The images are from Wikipedia.

I watched Quantum Leap back when it was on the air in the late 80s-early 90s. I became reacquainted with QL when it was in reruns on the G4 network (although unfortunately that particular network doesn't exist any longer). QL was and still is one of my favorite shows. It had such a positive, hopeful message, which is something that is rare in entertainment today.

A lot of what made QL special was the chemistry between the two lead actors, Scott Bakula (Sam Beckett) and Dean Stockwell (Al Calavicci). The contrast between Sam's somewhat naïve, idealistic, kind and gentle character and Al's more worldly and irritable (though good-hearted underneath the gruff exterior) character was excellent. Sam and Al often disagreed on various issues, but they did care a great deal for each other.





Also, Sam had to deal with a different situation every week where his job was to "put right what once went wrong." Sam never knew, and neither did fans, what he would have to deal with from leap to leap. Sam was one of the kindest, most unselfish characters in T.V. history. There were times when he got tired of not being able to stay in one place long enough to have a life of his own, but he always did what was right.





A series of Quantum Leap novels and comic books were published from 1990 to 2000, and although I have read and for the most part enjoyed them, the T.V. show is a tough act to follow.

Pumpkin Patches

It's after Halloween, but it's not too late for autumn-type stuff.



I used to take my oldest nephew to the pumpkin patch around this time of year when he was little.




He's in his 20s now so he's outgrown that, but those were some fun times.

More Halloween stuff

The owl is cool.




"It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is one of my favorites.








I like "The Headless Horseman" in its various forms.







And there's Young Frankenstein and Ghostbusters. They always make me laugh.

The images are from Wikipedia.

Halloween

Halloween is a fun time of the year. I found this images and thought they were cute.





Pumpkins are cool.




I love old haunted houses, so this is a must.



And the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is one of my favorite rides. I'll post more Halloween stuff later.

Dad's service

It was a beautiful day to have Dad's service to scatter his ashes at sea yesterday. I got to see some cousins I hadn't seen in a long time, and everything went smoothly.

Here is a picture on the ship just before we scattered Dad's ashes.



And another right after we scattered his ashes.

We had lunch afterwards at the Blue Water Grill.

A beautiful ship...

Common Sense

A friend sent this to me in an email and there is a lot of truth to it.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend.
Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.
No one knows or sure how old he was, since his birth
records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such
valuable lessons as:
–Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
–Why the early bird gets the worm;
–Life isn’t always fair;
–And maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies
(don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies
(adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when
well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were
set in place.

Reports of a 6 -year-old boy charged with sexual harassment
for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using
mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding
an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers
for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in
disciplining their unruly children.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became
businesses, and criminals received better treatment than
their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend
yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar
could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live,
after a woman failed to realize that a steaming
cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap,
and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death,
–by his parents, Truth and Trust,
–by his wife, Discretion,
–by his daughter, Responsibility,
–and by his son, Reason,

He is survived by his 5 stepbrothers;
–I Know My Rights
–I Want It Now
–Someone Else Is To Blame
–I’m A Victim
–Pay Me For Doing Nothing

Not many attended his funeral because
so few realized he was gone.

This is absolutely hilarious.

Dad

Dad passed away on September 2. He never regained consciousness and was comfortable. We're planning to have him cremated and scatter his ashes at sea on September 29. It's been difficult, but it was all the waiting that was hardest. He's not suffering anymore. This is the first time I've been through the passing of an immediate family member and I am learning it can be a complicated process. The staff at the hospital was wonderful, and the Chaplain came in and prayed with us when we took dad off the ventilator. That was comforting. My church choir has been supportive too.

Update

We decided to have Dad taken off the ventilator yesterday (August 29). He's breathing on his own. We're not expecting him to recover or anything; it's just a matter of time. He's been moved from ICU to a regular room. He's being kept as comfortable as possible and we're letting things take their natural course.

Catching up.

There's not a lot to report about Dad; there haven't been any changes. My brothers were here this last week and went home yesterday. It's still wait and see.

Crazy week.

A lot has happened this last week. My dad had a massive stroke on August 18 (shortly after I had finished making my post about the White Rose reading) and is in the hospital. He was already a stroke patient (he had a stroke about 13 years ago). This one is on the left side, the opposite side of the first, and it's larger. So far he has been unresponsive. It's pretty much wait and see at this point. It's not completely unexpected or anything but it's difficult.

White Rose reading

I had the opportunity to see the White Rose reading at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on July 19. It’s a play about students at the University of Munich who protested what the Nazis were doing. Scott Bakula was part of this, and I’m a big fan of his. This is a slightly revised report already posted on the Scott Bakula Fan Forum.

Beverly Hills is about 40 minutes from me, but I don't go out that way very often and I was reminded why as I drove out there. L.A. traffic is ridiculous and so is the parking. Fortunately it was after rush hour (the play didn't start until 9) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I found parking without too much trouble and got inside with a little time to spare. I looked around a bit and went in and sat down just before 9. There weren’t really that many people there and I got a seat right up front in the third row. Lucky me.

The actors came onto the stage to do a sound check just before they started and I got my first glimpse of Scott. He looked fabulous. I had brought my camera, and snuck a quick picture but it didn't turn out, dang it. Theaters usually don't allow cameras or recording, and I normally respect that but this was SCOTT for Heaven's sake. I would have kicked myself if I hadn't at least tried to get a few pics.

The reading/play itself would have been worth seeing even if Scott hadn't been in it. World War II was such a sad time. Anne Frank is one of my favorite historical figures and it was interesting to listen to a reading about this group of German students protesting what the Nazis were doing. I especially liked the interaction between Scott's character and the character Ashley Bell read. Scott's character was a police investigator and he was having a lot of trouble with these students being arrested, especially the girl because he had a daughter her age. He tried very hard to get them released but unfortunately he was unsuccessful.

I waited for a few minutes afterwards to see if Scott would come out and talk to people and sure enough he did. He spoke to some of the people doing sound and then went into the lobby. I went into the lobby too (no I wasn't stalking him) and he was talking to some people. I went over to him, introduced myself, shook his hand and told him he'd done a wonderful job and then went on my way. It was brief, but I was glad for a chance to meet Scott anyway. It was a fun night. I hope he does some more plays.

Summer Time

This summer has flown by quickly. My youngest brother Ben's kids were here the third week in June, and my oldest niece (middle brother Jack's girl) was here from July 12 to July 22, so that kept me busy. They sure do grow quickly...Carson and Kaitlyn are both taller than I am. I had a job interview for a possible tutoring job in July, and felt pretty good about it. I was told I would be contacted to start in the fall. Our church has started learning the music for the Christmas Joy play we do every year. I won't be able to be in the actual production because of my crazy work schedule, but I'm learning the music so I can help out when they record the voiceover to be used on the DVD. I had several fun times with friends and went to see some movies with the nephew, I'll blog about that later. That's pretty much what I've been doing recently.

It's been a long time.

I have sadly neglected blogging. I do want to blog, so I am going to make a concentrated effort to set aside time to do so more regularly. Life recently has consisted of my finishing school. I now have my preliminary credential in Adult Education with an emphasis on ESL and English. I enjoyed school, but I'm glad to be done. It's not a good time for teachers, job hunting has been a challenge, but I'm hanging in there. I've been doing volunteer tutoring through the South Bay Literacy Council. That is a good way to get some practical hands on teaching experience, and my students have been very fun to work with. They are motivated and it's been rewarding helping them with their English. I always have loved all areas of the English language, so it does make sense for me to be helping others learn English. Other than that I've been keeping busy with family and church.