The land of the Lost.

*****News from the producers at the Comic-Con event this past weekend. ******
* The island did not travel when the hatch imploded, but something did happen.

* We'll see more of Locke and Jin on the show. "Dead is a relative term," and there's still a lot of story to be told about those characters.

* Their favorite episodes are "The Constant" (Carlton) and "Exodus" (Damon). Damon adds that he really liked season four, and he admitted the show has had its "ups and downs."

* They reiterated that getting an end date for the show has really reinvigorated it in terms of giving it energy and purpose.

* We will see Rousseau's story this year, but it won't exactly be a flashback. We're done with flashbacks and flashforwards, but there will be some time-jumping excitement anyway. There will be storytelling on and off the island, and in different periods of time.

* Vincent the Dog is fine and will be in season five — and will survive until the end of the show.

* The Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle is central to the show, and we'll see more interesting permutations of it over the next two seasons. And Kate will see Sawyer again.

* The nameless extras in the Zodiac boat with Farraday, stranded with the island gone, may be toast, but "things are looking up" for Farraday himself.

* Speaking of Daniel, he has a little notebook that tells him stuff that's happened, and stuff that will happen soon, and it's going to figure prominently in season five.

* Richard Alpert is "quite old," thanks to the island's mystical properties, and we'll see more of his history this year. We'll also see him barefoot in "the near future, pun intended," so we'll find out how many toes he has.

Smith Luau

Some highlights from the Smith luau this past weekend. The happy couple, Jason and Mandy, will be getting married this coming weekend.

What happens....

....when your internet goes out for two days and you work from home?? You get time to play!!! HOORAY!! I tried out a composition technique I had seen on a blog using my wedding rings.

I really like this composition. I also had some time to try out my BFF's playdough cookies. It was great to be able to do this with my kids because I don't get a lot of time to be able to do things like this with them since I am always WORKING at home. UGH! The kids and I had a great time making these. Thanks Tearz for the recipe!!

The colored dough!

Baking!

Not as pretty as Tearz's but still fun to make. BTW, Sam decided they had to have some chocolate..."What's a cookie without chocolate?" Therefore, we added the M&Ms.

Elements of fun.

Playing around with Elements and trying to learn all the great tricks and tweaks. This is the original pic.



The new version.

Toy Wars

What on earth made me decide to blog about this topic? I was thinking the other day about the different prizes, toys, etc., kids get today with their fast food kid's meals. When kid's meals first started coming out (yes, I am old enough to remember that), they had great toys. It was so much fun to go to BK and get a crown and a kids meal and see what your cool toy would be. I decided it would be fun to do a little comparison of some of the toys my kids have gotten with their kid's meals from some places we have been to recently. So, here it is.

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Contestant No. 1: Arbys

This is a "spy glass" from Arbys. If you look into it, you can see things on a wall on either side of you, so it appears your looking forwards, when you are really looking to your left or to your right. Not too bad, but my kids got bored with this one quickly.

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Contestant No. 2: Burger King

Burger King gets big props from me for having Indiana Jones kid's meal toys because I am a huge Indiana Jones fan. However, the paper ant and snake are lame and their destruction time in the hands of my two year old was less than five seconds. The whip also didn't last long as the handle unraveled like a roll of toilet paper. I have to say I did not get any of the other Indy toys in this set, so I can only judge this one. Nice try BK.

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Contestant No. 3: Taco Bell

Todd and the Talking Pinata of Tolerance. This was the culprit that spawned this blog. Although TB is trying to do right by providing kids with a book, I honestly laughed out loud when I read the title as I pulled it out of the bag. The book is in Spanish and English, so I suppose they are also trying to build on children's early grasp of learning new languages. However, given the option of chosing between Todd and his talking Pinata or Indy's whip or Arby's spy glass, I picture kids running for the latter. Good job with the attempted education factor TB.

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Contestant No. 4: McDonalds

Kung Fu Panda figures. Okay, so the clear winner of this little challenge is Mickey D's. (IMHO). We are still in the process of collecting the rest of the figures, but we did manage to snag three of them, all of which have some sort of action whether it is jumping, rolling or swirling a stick around the monkey's head. The interaction my kids had with these toys was by far the longest of all the toys mentioned here. They were colorful and fun to play with, even for us big kids.

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Obviously the most important thing is the food being consumed by your child at these places which is getting better as some offer yogurt, fruit and juice/milk in place of french fries and soda now. However, in the Toy War....the winner today is Mickey Ds. Let me know what you think or what your kids have gotten in their kids meals!

4 years, going strong!

As some of you may know, Sam and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on July 10. Sam is so great at gift giving. I wanted to share with you what I got this year. The 4 year traditional anniversary gift is flowers/fruit. Sam got me an edible bouqay of chocolate-dipped "flowers." He also got me a Versace fragrance gift set which has a wonderful, fresh flower smell. I went with the nontraditional gift of an appliance...well if you count a Bluetooth headset as an appliance. I am so thankful and lucky to have such a wonderful and thoughtful husband.

Fun with fireworks!

Trying out slow shutter speeds on the backyard fireworks show at my brother-in-law's house.

The Baby Borrowers

I took an opportunity to watch this show last night and I am so glad I did. This show is a wonderful way for teens to see that "playing house" isn't all about fun and games. The show lets teens become "parents" of real babies!!! The entire show will also allow the teens to experience toddlers, tweens, teens, and elderly. Since I have teens and toddlers, I could appreciate this show on so many levels. The mom in me felt a little vindicated at seeing how they showed what a tough job being a parent really is. Bravo to the creators of this show, and if you get a chance to watch it....DO IT!! Wednesdays, 9/8C.

Something new!!!

I've been trying to get this technique figured out, and I think I am getting it...everything B&W except the petals. This is just a quick practice one and needs touch up, but "By George, I think I've got it!" Cool!