my thoughts on the final "Lost"

This week is going to be stressful, sad and already started off on a bad note, but I want to take a moment to reflect on something that took up a lot of my time for the past 6 years:  LOST.

The very last episode was last night and I will be honest:  At first, I was too wrapped up in "how's this going to end?" to appreciate the actually ending.  Now that I've had a chance to think, look at other people's reflections and watch the ending again, I can say that is was very appropriate, moving and that I am happy about it.

If you haven't watched it yet, please don't read furthur.  And if you have never watched it, then you probably don't want to read anymore, so see you in another post, brotha! (hee hee, I love Desmond!)

What I loved:

That it really was all about love:
Juliet and Sawyer, Jin and Sun, Charlie and Claire, Jack and Kate and Desmond and Penny all ended happy together.  I wished there had been another Desmond and Penny scene because my favorite episode is "Constant" where Desmond calls Penny on the phone and they declare their love to each other and promise to find one another.  That episode made me realize what they show meant for me (love) and carried me through all the low times.  Oh and I didn't forget about Hurley.  Someone in the blog world put it exactly right when they said that Hurley represented Love itself.  Didn't he, though?

It was also about Redemption:
So the island was real and the Sideways World was their "purgatory" or waiting place?  Ok, I'll go with that.  Sideways world seemed a little off anyway.  But how great was it that most of the Losties had a chance to redeem themselves?
When Sideways Locke told Jack, "You don't have a son!", I was mildly confused.  What is going on?  But now I know, with the little help from others, that Jack needed a son in his limbo world to help him resolve any daddy issues he had.  And Locke had to be at fault for his father ending up a vegetative state so he could have a relationship with him.  Also, in Sideways world, he accepted his fate in his wheelchair.  Sayid's love, Nadia, was still alive and even if he couldn't be with her, she had a chance of happiness.  (It was reaching that he ended up with Shannon but I'll go with it because it brought Boone back and I love him). Sawyer was actually the good guy and respected the law.  Kate was still a fugitive, yes, but she said she was innocent and I believed her.  Hurley didn't have the bad luck that plagued him in his real life. Desmond had his father-in-law's respect. Jin and Sun ended up together, happy and pregnant. All of these things happened so they all could break free of their earthly baggage and "let go". 

It could just be the story of Jack and that's okay with me.
Maybe the Sideways world was just Jack's test to see if he could go toward the light...or not.  All the people who showed up at the church all had connections to Jack.  He saved Rose's life. He couldn't save Boone's. These are examples.  All Jack ever wanted to do was save people.  And then he finally realized he couldn't.  And that is when he knew he could.  That the Losties all gathered in the church to help Jack move on was beautiful because even though they all died at different times and in different places and maybe some much later on, Jack is the one who made it possible to move into the light.  He saved the light when he re-corked the evil during his time as Island protector.  

Lost ending=Titanic ending
At the end of Titanic, Jack (huh! same character name) and all the others from the doomed ship gathered in the ship to welcome Rose after she died.  It was the same thing on Lost!  After Jack realized he was dead, he had a reunion with the people that thought the Island was the most important place in their lives or at least the most life-altering. Some people had not resolved all their issues and weren't ready to move on (Ben? Ana Lucia? Daniel?) but connecting to others helped them to move on.

Some last things to ponder:
Juliet, Charile, Boone and Shannon all died on the island.  They didn't have a big part in the Sideways world.  Does that mean that they had already resolved their issues or redeemed themselves before they died or do you think we just didn't see it?

We know Jack died on the island after saving the it and the light.  So I guess it went on: Hurley was protector with Ben as his #2, everyone else went on with their lives...strange to think about how much time passed and how time really had no meaning for the Sideways world.

Do you think anything bad would have happened if the Man In Black would have escaped? Or was that Jacob trying not to be left alone?

Anyway, the creators of this fabulous show have to be happy because guess what? We are still talking about it and probably will for a long time.  Kudos.  I will miss it.

A Tale of Two Wall-E Robots

One day, Big Brother and Little Brother was going to go to a birthday party.  They were very excited about this birthday because it was at a place called Laserquest, where children can run and shoot their friends with lasers.  Awesome.  The brother's less-than-excited Dad was going to take them to the party at 4:30 on a lovely Saturday afternoon. 

At 4:50, the brother's Mom received a phone call from the aforementioned Dad.  What time did the party start was the question.  Mom looked at the invitation and gasped.  The party time was in military time, which means the party started at 1430 hours, which meant 2:30, Dad had to explain to horrified Mom.  Then really-less-than-excited Dad had to explain to crushed brothers that they, gulp, missed the party. 

But heroic Dad came to the rescue.  "We can go to the mall!"  "We can get a treat for you!" As an aside, this is from Dad who doesn't see the Brothers all week because he works in a different city right now.  So keeping the peace and seeing his sons happy is important to him. 

Two hours later, happy-again brothers come home with their treasures.  Big Brother bought baseball cards and proudly showed off his Yankees Mickey Mantle and Derek Jeter.  Little Brother came in with not one, but two Wall-Es. 

Mom looked at frazzled Dad and was about to ask why? but Dad quickly explained that there was a sale.  Two for the price of one and a half or something like that.  Smiling wide, Little Brother explained that he was giving one Wall-E to his soon-to-be-excited Cousin from Canyon.  Mom was touched.  Dad was just glad they were home.

A few days later...

Little Brother decides that he wants to keep both Wall-Es.  They are both cute.  They would miss each other.  They both love Little Brother.  He begins to place them side-by-side whereever he sits: at the breakfast table, on the couch, in the car.  No amount of pleading will convince Little Brother that he doesn't need two robots who look exactly alike. 

And now, Wall-E #1 and Wall-E #2 are apart of the family, evening joining in on family activities:

They even beat us at Sorry. 

Big Brother said, "I can't believe I got beat by a pair of stuffed robots."  Little Brother danced happily away with his Wall-Es in his arms.

The End ?


*If this post seems familar to you, it is. What can I say? My kids love things in multiples. 

OKC Hail Storm on May 16th

Because we have another chance of severe weather today, I thought I would share with you an amazing video of footage from Sunday's hail storm in OKC. There are a lot of youtube videos of the storm, but this one is the best because of the pool.

Luckily, we didn't receive anything but rain where we lived but we barely made it home from the mall in OKC before all "hail" broke loose. Ha.
Living in the OKC area is never boring, weather wise. (I know, Texas is equally as interesting! Don't want to offend any fellow Texans here.) I hope we are lucky today as well and miss all the strong stuff. But if we do have hail or worse, you can bet that I will not be standing by a window, filming it. Seriously.

Just a note: you might want to turn off the volume of this video because all he says is "OMG" over and over and it gets a little annoying after awhile. Also, if you think it is a long video, skip until a minute in.

this post is about my brother

I have mentioned the awesome blog before and I hope you have been reading it because it is just really great.  The other day it mentioned that people who help you parallel park are awesome.  And they are. 

When my brother and I were in driver's ed, we had a very strict teacher as our driving instructor.  Now, we were good kids and she liked us (ok, she liked us because we of our great sisters) but it still made me nervous.  Especially the day we were supposed to parallel park,  I was terrified.

And that is when my brother came to the rescue.  He sat right behind the instructor and because of that she couldn't see his sly hand gestures that told me to keep backing up, keep backing up, turn, turn, turn...stop!  I parallel parked perfectly that day.  Thanks to Casey.  He is awesome.  I don't know if I did the same for him but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

Of course, I have not been able to parallel park one time since that day.  But that is okay.  I like parking further away from buildings and walking anyway.

a new story for your enjoyment

A couple of things I need to mention (why did that make me think of Yoda?) before you begin to read Rhett's latest story.  First, these stories must use their spelling words for the week.  That was a big "ahh" moment for me.  Second, we have a neighbor that recently put up a bathouse in her backyard.  You know, for mosquitos.  Uh, yeah.  Anyway, my friend and I were recently talking about how awful of an idea that was and Rhett started listening in.  We ended up discussing bats and vampire bats and everything in between. Noah and Rhett started joking about it how you could become a bat from any little thing. For example: the wind blowing your hair was a sign of batness!  I know, it was totally silly but hilarious to them.  Also, I wasn't planning on putting this on the blog, but Rhett really wanted me to.  Obviously, all your nice comments about his last story went to his head. Anyway, I thought these notes might help. 

Bat People
by Rhett Houston

One day a few famous people named Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez were in a plane.  They all played for the Yankees.  Above them was a dinosaur. They threw baseballs at it.  But that made it worse.  They were out of the plane when this happened.  The dinosaur sneezed, and they were covered in...well, I probably shouldn't say.
There was a jungle nearby.  They ran into the jungle.  Alex know as A-Rod tripped onto some kind of animal and it bit him. 
Auhhhg! "That hurt!" He said. 
That was a batness bug! It gives you a sickness that has symptoms.  They turn you into a bat!
Huh?
Paper falling from the sky! A sign of batness. 
The next day...
Ahh! A-Rod is a bat!
Open that bottle of coke! I heard that gallons of coke kill them!
"We're talkin' about A-ROD!" said Nick.  We've got to travel back to New York to get a cure.
A-Rod looks afraid. 
There's a circus over there.  "Let's go in," said Derek. 
Hey, we're in New York.  That must have been a portal!
A-Rod found an item and ate it.  Hey! I'm cured!

The End?

a quick look into my week

I think I need glasses.  I am starting to realize that I squint when I look at the tv and computer.  Huh.

The other day the boys and I were driving home from somewhere and they were fighting.

You did not.
Did too.
Did not....
I say, "Wow, look at those beautiful wildflowers."

Rhett said, "Yes. They are pretty."
Noah said, "Mom, are you trying to distract us? Because I guess it worked."

The boys have a talent show in music class at the end of May.  Rhett is going to doing something very funny and talented but I can't really explain it.  But next time you see him, ask him to do his "talent" and he'll crack you up.  Noah can't do it and was sad but I told him that I will teach him to play "Jaws" on the piano.  He was excited.

Seriously, things are really blurry right now.  Has it been like this for awhile?  Or am I just now noticing?

Rhett had his field trip yesterday.  We went to a homestead where there is a house that was built right after the land run of Oklahoma.  The family ordered it from the Sears catalog.  And it was a two-story house!

Speaking of Okies, Dad, your comment really made me laugh hard.  And cringe about the hookworms...

Today I have a Mother's Day Tea with Noah.  I remember two years ago when I had it with Rhett.  It is bittersweet, this last month of school.  I feel so sad that we are leaving that sweet little school.  The teachers are great and I found a lot of friends there.  We are excited to move and look forward to new experiences, but there will be things we will miss.  I had to bring flowers in a vase for the tea.  I picked my own roses and placed them in a square vase.  It looked great.  I would show you a picture, but I upload photos to the laptop and Seth takes that during the week.  So that is why you haven't seen a photo on my blog in awhile!

It is amazing how quickly I reverted back to my old self.  Not having to keep the house clean anymore, I relaxed this week and haven't made the bed in several days.  I thought that if you do something 21 days it would become a habit.  Guess not.

I wish all the wonderful Moms I know a wonderful Mother's Day.  Isn't being a mom great?

things are starting to look up

I really didn't mean to be such a tease yesterday.  I needed to vent but I didn't want to further embarrass my child.  If you really think about it, you'll understand.

Anyway, today is a better day.  Said child is back at school and...

Our house is under contract!!!

Woo-hoo!!

We are so relieved and excited.  Everything is working out.  We'll be out of here by the first of June and in our new home in Tulsa.  I feel so good that it is actually happening now.  May will go by so fast since it is the last of school.  It is so busy during that time.

Have a great day!

And PS- Happy Birthday Melissa!!

this is now my new decree

After staying up until 2 am last night doing something no one should wish on anyone else, I will never take the term "nit-picking" lightly again.  In fact, I think "nit-pickers" are saints.  And so are the "nit-pick-ees."

And that is all I have to say about that.