Interactive Disney

Well,

For some reason, in my mind its so much easier to send an email than to make a blog post. Anyway, I have to share what Sydney has been doing lately with her disney movies.

 

Sydney has only recently discovered the disney shows. She is obcessed with Cinderella and Snow White, but she loves to watch all of them. She talks to the main characters throughout the show. When the movie starts she greets the main character "Hi cinderella", "Hi tarzan", etc. She will also do this periodically through out the movie. When she's done she'll tell them good bye. She was watching Lion King, the part where Simba's dad dies. Sydney kept telling him to wake up and get up. We didn't know exactly how to tell her that he's not getting up. She does the same when Snow White eats the poisoned apple.

 

I'm amazed at how much she understands, and reminded at how much she doesn't. But hey, she's two. She's growing up so quickly. It amazes me. We love her so much. She is so sweet with us and her sister. I wish I had a picture to put on here. I bring some pictures with me to work so I can do that. Y'all will have to remind me.

New commitment to cleanliness

This email a message thing works great. Now I'll both my readers so much more (both of them even)! Ha! So, we're turning over a new leaf and we're going to keep our home clean! With two little kids under 2 year of age, we haven't always been the best at this. Sydney use to follow us around and just recreate the mess that we cleaned up, true story. Savannah is now a little more content watching us from a bouncing chair instead of having to be held 24/7. We got a toy chest (a real nice one from RC Willy) to help with the toys. Sydney doesn't put the toys away yet, but she only pulls one out at a time. Its been wonderful. Before Sydney would have her toys scattered all over our home. This makes it difficult to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. You never know what you're going to step on.

 

Anyhow, I need to get to work, have a good day.

testing

I'm just curious what would happened if I attached a file to the email.

Confusion at the school district

I just got back from a training from the school district. I do think they are great and so far I love my job, but oh my gosh! How much paper work is there involved? There are so many things to remember. I can't keep everything straight. I have forms for this and that. I have lots of trainings to keep track of. I have evaluations where I need to make goals for myself and then show data for my improvement. I have so many things to juggle. Oh, and yes, I have students to see, students paperwork to organize, all my files are in disarray. Okay, I may be exarragting, a little, but not much. I'm feeling a bit overwhellmed right now. I'm suppose to do this in a 40 hour work week?? I wonder if the general public understand how much people in education do for the little pay. I'm always hearing people tell me how crappy our schools are, well, we're doing the best with what you give us. Well, not all teachers I guess. I've met a few I rather don't like myself, but some of us are really trying.

So, what's going on?

Okay, I've been so bad about writing on here. I'm sorry Lacey. I'm going to repent and be better. In my defense I just started a new job. I've already mentioned this previously, that I've been recently hired by Davis School District as a Speech-Language Pathologist. I'm working at West Point Elementary and Syracuse Jr High. Its been a lot of work. It seems that as an educator you donate a lot of time that you don't get paid for. I've put in a lot of time, which Lindy hasn't cared for too much (which is also my excuse for being a bad blogger).

 

Well, who cares about me, you guys aren't here for me anyway, its my cute kids you want to know about.

 

So, Sydney is 2 years old now, she is our loving, emotional child. She loves to give mom and dad lots of hugs and kisses. She gets very upset when one of us leaves. She likes to talk to her little sister (as long as Savannah doesn't touch her). Savannah likes to grab things, including her older sisters hair. So, Sydney is in the stage where everything is hers, and if she doesn't get it then she gets very upset ( I mean throw herself down and kick and scream upset). We've been told that the emotional child has a tendency to be the tantrum child as well (feel free to correct me if you feel that I am wrong). Sydney loves Mickey Mouse (and the gang), Little Einstein, Strawberry Shortcake, and Carebears. She knows all the theme songs to these cartoons (at least she tries really hard).

 

Savannah is 7 months old, she is our big eyed smiley girl. Everyone who sees her mentions her big eyes. She loves to smile and laugh at people. People keep mentioning to us what a happy baby she is. If only they really knew... lol... She has her moments. Anyway, she especially loves to watching Sydney do just about anything. She thinks its all funny. Savannah is starting to get interested in toys; however, she still prefers to have people make silly faces at her. She's in the process of learning how to sit up on her own. She still tends to fall over, but she's getting there. She can roll over on to her belly (which she does everytime we put her to bed). The funny thing is that her tummy isn't her favorite place in the world, but she won't roll back over. We know she can because we've seen her do it before, but she won't do it on a regular basis. We think she be quicker at the walking thing than her older sister. Sydney took forever to roll over and sit up. She didn't start crawling until like 11 months or so. Oh and we've started Savannah on solid foods, she's slowly getting better at eating.

 

Anyway, that's what's going on with our kids. Pretty boring unless you have kids of your own I suppose. Well, have a good day.

--
--Bob Bateman--
http://bobbateman.blogspot.com

Testing

This is a test to see if I can use the email a post feature. If this works It'll be a lot easier to make posts. I'll be able to do it at work even (when I can find the time). Well, here goes nothing.

California Trip

Sorry, I haven't written. We went to California for a week. We just got back yesterday. We went to Disneyland for 3 days, Seaworld, Universal Studios, and the San Diego Zoo. It has been a long week. We had a lot of fun, but truthfully, I'm glad we're back home. I didn't realize that a Bangerter trip (we went with Lindy's family) consisted of getting up early and going to bed really late, with little to no dead time. You see, I'm a lazy person so this was a difficult thing for me. But we had a good old time. Sydney loved it (when she wasn't throwing a fit about something) and Savannah, well, she liked looking at people.

I'll have to write more about it in the future, because I gotta go. And I'll post some pictures too. We took a gb worth (and my mother-in-law too more!).

Harry Potter Theories

---Warning--- If you haven't read through Harry Potter book 6 and you want to, then you might not want to read this for as it contains plot spoilers.

My brother, Nate (aka Chuck) told me yesterday that instead of playing WoW (World of Warcraft, an online game that a few of us are obsessed with) he was obsessed with Harry Potter. He spent a good part of the day looking up conspiracy theories on the Internet about what might happen in book 7. Well, Nate, you inspired me to do the same (I better be quick cause I gotta get ready for church).



Harry Potter book 7 is coming out soon. And we're very very excited. Any there are thousands of theories out there guessing at this or that. There are several going theories. Apparently there are several people (including Lindy's grandmother) who can't bare the thought that Dumbledore isn't actually dead (See Dumbledoreisnotdead.com). I personally think he is. At another website, the writer says:

Often in heroic stories the mentor of the lead character dies before the hero has the final confrontation with the ultimate evil. This is seen time and time again, famously in films like Star Wars (Obi Won killed by Vader - “Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”), and the Lord of the Rings (Gandalf dies - resurrected, but the hero doesn’t realise this after the quest is complete). There are reasons for this as well. If Dumbledore isn’t dead then he will feel compelled to help Harry in the final battle, likewise Harry will feel he has to protect Dumbledore. The death of the mentor is generally the turning point, the catalyst, it turns the reluctant hero into the ‘enthusiastic’ hero. The death of the mentor is also the signal that the hero has learned everything he needs to, Harry now knows how to defeat Voldemort - he just doesn’t realise it.

This makes sense to me. Harry has to defeat Voldemort alone, he can't have help from his mentor. The question that has been by many conspiracy theorists is the following: Did Dumbledore plead for Snape to save or kill him??

This of course raises the question, is Snape really evil? Well he killed Dumbledore didn't he? Dave Kopel gets a pretty good argument in an article entitled Severus Snape: The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter book 7. You just have to read the article. They also mention in this article why he thinks Harry has to die at the end of the 7th book. My sister-in-law, Lindy, and I really hope this isn't the case. The whole messianic ending of the 3rd Matrix movie was kind of annoying. I can see how it could happen. I just hate to see the hero die in the end. Errr.



Oh, and here is some commentary on the book cover art for the new book: Judging a book by its cover by David Haber. Interesting.

Anyway, what do you guys think?

Smiley Baby

Savannah is such a smiley baby. She loves to look at people and smile away. Here is a picture of the her (a little old - its from April). She's so wiggly. We all just love her to pieces.

It's June!!

It's finally June, but I want Spring back. Its too hot!!!

about being outside. She wants to be outside every second of every day. She's bang on the door and shout outside, outside. The problem is that we don't have our own back yard with our apartment (its shared and there is not fence from the street). Sydney has the tendency to make a bee line straight for the street. Often times she will point out cars and trees (over and over again), but mostly she just likes to run around. Oh, she's also So, anyway, Sydney has been obsessedobsessed with swings and slides. She wants to be on them all day (literally). When we take her off of the playground equipment or we take her inside, we become the most horrible parents in the world (in her eyes). We're not really that outdoorsy (I wish we were more, but what can you do). Perhaps we'll have to change our life style to accommodate our daughters outside fetish.

Into the Temp World

Well, I do have a job lined up, but... it doesn't start until August. What to do, what to do... how about a temp job. So, I started a temp job today. It was absolutely brainless, required minimal thinking. Sad thing is, I bet I have more education than my supervisor and his supervisor... LOL. At least I don't have to think at all while I work. My job starting in August will require a lot more thinking, planning, and etc.

Okay, this is another LOST posting, so again, if you aren’t interested in the TV show LOST, then you are welcome to read older posts about other random subjects.

Okay, so… What did you think about the season finale? This episode (as most do) brings up several questions:

Who the heck are the people that have a boat off the coast? Apparently, they aren’t friendly to the island.

How is Walt tied into this? You were right Danny, Lock wasn’t dead. The island wouldn’t let that happen. I was shocked to see Walt helping him.

What was up with the flash-forward of Jack??? Wow, that was crazy ending!

Whose funeral did Jack attend in the flash-forward? We at least know it was a girl and apparently Jack didn’t necessarily consider her a friend. It was kind of a scary neighborhood where the funeral parlor was at.

Who are the good guys? After watch how mercilessly Sawyer killed that guy, I wonder who the good guys are? Those others that were holding the hostages didn’t follow Ben’s orders and just shot into the sand instead. Sawyer didn’t have to kill Tom. I wasn’t too happy with what Sawyer did.

Where do we go from here? I wonder if Ben and Lock will be able to convince the survivors that these people are bad and maybe they’ll join tribes?? I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting. Apparently, Jack’s life will be more fulfilling if he stays on the island, and there are several people that would rather stay there.

And, we were very upset about Charlie dying. We know that it had to happen with Desmond’s predictions and all, but I think we were being hopeful. He’s been annoying most of the show, but there were moments when we really like Charlie. We like how he became a surrogate father for Clair’s baby.

Oh, and Hurly rocks!!

I saw a news report about a movie that's coming out on June 22 called September Dawn (click here to go to September Dawn's official website), a supposed "historical fiction" that appears to be more fiction than historical. Its about the mountain meadows massacre that happened on September 11, 1857. According to Wikipedia it is directed by Christopher Cain, is described by a press release as fictionalizing the "point of view held [by] direct descendants ... that the iconic Brigham Young had complicity in the massacre, a view denied by the Mormon Church." [Press release (2007-03-26)]

Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_Massacre. There is no evidence that Brigham Young ordered the attack, on the contrary, there is evidence that he order the local Mormon settlers to do nothing. The problem was that the local militia didn't wait for a reply from Salt Lake. By the time the reply came the massacre already happened. No, there is still a lot of controversy over this, especially with a TV movie coming up. If you look at the Wikipedia discussion and history on this article you'll notice there has been a lot of debate. Some believe that the LDS church did a cover up. People are entitled to their opinions, as am I.

What bothers me the most about September Dawn, is that they make some pretty big claims about Brigham Young's involvement that aren't provable. On the website for September Dawn it says, "On June 22, the truth will be revealed". This infuriates me to no end! When you have no evidence for the assumptions you are making then you cannot claim the truth! Just because Christopher Cain is sure Brigham Young was behind this doesn't mean he is! Can Christopher Cain write history??? This movie makes Brigham Young look like an 19th century Osama bin Laden. I'm not saying the massacre didn't happen. It was a sad dark day, but it wasn't directed by Brigham Young. I hope people will realize this movie is not what happened, but what someone believed happened. They say they did their research, but they sure have filled in the holes with some anti-Mormon propaganda.

It is true that the massacre occurred. Yes, these Mormon settlers did this. But I wouldn't say the Mormon church did this. On the Wikipedia discussion page under "Pretty Good Article" this comment is made:

In Iraq, members of the US Military raped a woman and killed her whole family. It was, in fact, an official squad of the US Army. However, they did not operate upon that unit's rules of engagement and did not take orders from the military directing this action. So, I would not say that the US Army raped that woman and killed her family. I would say it was the individuals who did that.

This was a horrible thing that happened, but don't blame the LDS church, especially when the evidence is incomplete or missing.

I also wonder about the timing of the production of this movie. This is going to have a great effect on Mit Romney's presidential campaign. The movie was written and filmed before Romney declared his intentions to run for office, but it seems convenient if you want to put a barrier in front of his way. People are really looking at his religion, which is stupid. Just because Mit Romney is a Mormon is no reason he shouldn't be elected into office. People should decide to vote for or against him on the political issues. Yet, how he handles this film will be very important for his candidacy.

Right now I'm waiting for a DVD to finish burning. Lindy and I recently bought Vegas Movie Studio + DVD. Basically, it is video editing software and DVD creation software. We've had a DVD burner for about 2 years, but we had no idea how to use it so it acted as our CD-ROM the whole time. Finally we are starting to create family videos. I would put them on here, but with a dial-up connection it would be ridiculous. (Sorry Jim, none of my new neighbors have wireless networks. Stupid North Davis County folks – Get with the times!)

Anyway, so we made a photomontage for our mothers for mother’s day. We made ourselves a copy. Apparently, Sydney thinks it’s the coolest thing since ice cream. She loves to look at pictures of family members, that and the songs we put on there are songs we sing to her everyday. So, Sydney (even as I’m writing this) is watching the video and shouting out “Nana!” (Savannah’s nickname) to her own baby pictures. All babies apparently look like Savannah. She loves to sing with the music. Usually she’ll get at least 3 words from a phrase/sentence and mumble the rest of them. It’s hilarious to listen to. When the video ends she shouts out “Again!” and we watch the video over and over and over and over. Ha! That’s what we get to do as parents of little children, watch their favorite videos over and over again.

When I went to get Sydney out of bed this morning she was jumping in her crib as if it was a trampoline and shouting “Bounce!” Then she started practicing her colors (red, blue, purple, yellow). She loves to practice colors and numbers. Whenever she sees a number she starts counting and then yells “Blast off!” (too much Little Einstein apparently). Kids sure do make life interesting.

So, who else is watching Lost? Okay, if you watch and are up-to-date you should read this. If you aren't up-to-date or you don't care then you may not want to read this.

So, what's up with Ben killing off Lock???? Lock was one of my favorite characters in the episode. I missed the episode where Lock killed his father. I guess I assume that he solves his problem. It seems like the only way people can die is if they figure things out and the resolve their main conflict.

I can't believe that they are actually going to get off the island. They are going to want to drag it out for another season at least. We still don't know the origins of the others (apparently Ben isn't really from here), we don't know all the details of the island. And that big black cloud that attacks people.

So, remember the episode (I'm assuming you actually know what I'm talking about , LOL) the episode where Mr. Echo stares down one of those black clouds. Well, if you pay real close attention you seen faint scenes from Echo's past. So, I'm thinking maybe those black clouds are really the characters' past coming back to get them. Of course there is always the theory that all of these guys are dead and in purgatory ( I don't believe that personally). I'm rambeling now. Meh...

Next Wednesday is the season finally. I wonder what questions they are going answer. I assume they are going to bring up some new questions. Is another hatch going to blow? Is Charlie actually going to drown like Desmond said? Err, I can't wait till next Wednesday....

Day two...

I'm going to attempt at becoming a runner. I'm on day two of my new running schedule. My sister-in-law, Kelsey, had a schedule that is suppose to gradually get you to the point where you can run for 30-45 min straight. I guess a combination of running and walking is the way to go. At anyrate we'll see how that goes.

So, mother's day. We had a dinner for Lindy, her mother (Alice) and my mother. My brother Brad and his wife Heidi came too. We had a good old time. Lindy's dad and I were cooking for everybody. That basically meant I was watching Lindy's dad grill. He's the master and I, the apprentice.

Anyway, I ought to get going.

Here are some pictures of my family.



Little Savannah, our new edition to the family. She's our little angle.

Here' Sydney! She's our little ball of fire. She has enough energy to power several midwestern towns. It has been a joy watching her develop and learn. She's always surprising us.

Savannah kept slowly falling to the left. This was a particularly difficult shot to get. Sydney has decided to call Savannah "Nana". She often asks to "hold her". She does get a little jeolous. When we're holding Savannah, Sydney wants to be held to, by the same person.

This is Savy's blessing picture. The deer-in-the-headlights look is a signature of Savy's.

We spent way too much time trying to get this simple picture of our family. I think this one turned out pretty good.

Getting both children to look good in the picture is unbeliveably difficult. Savannah's falling asleep while Sydney's having a melt down. Errr.

Well, I finally did it. I graduated. I walked last Friday. I took Sydney with me as I walked, she was awesome. I'm done with school altogether. It is nice to be done. I have accepted an offer from Davis School District that won't start until August. I'm trying to find some temp work for the summer. I've been in school my whole life, I can't believe that I'm finally done. Kind of feels weird. Now I get to work for something better than $7/hr. I haven't made that in a while, but it's all good.

On Saturday I took a big 2 hour long Praxis test, another hoop I have to jump through in order to get licenced. Well, they give me a answer sheet that has 180 places where you can fill in your bubble with your number 2 pencil. At any rate, I figured 180 questions in two hours (120 minutes), well, that less than one question a minute. I'm freaking out because I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up. Half way through the test I was just a little behind, I'm flying through this, probably too quick, cause I'm afraid that I'll have like 30 questions left when they tell us to stop. To my surprise after I have finished 120 questions the bottom of the page says "stop, close your book". Apparently, the answer book was a generic sheet. I was flying through the stupid test, when I didn't need to. Well, I didn't skim through or anything, but I was unduly stressed out.

At any rate, I am done with anything involved with school, except the graduation bit. Now I can spend my full attention on trying to find an income. Hopefully sooner than later.

So, having two kids is so different than one. I'm sure anyone who have more than one will being thinking "duh!". It's nice to be able to tag team the kids. But keeping our house clean has been a joke, not that we were ever really good at that to begin with.

Sydney is starting to show signs of jealousy of her sister (just a little bit). When one of us are holding Savannah, Sydney will want to be held at the same time. However, Sydney is starting to say "hold her" because we'll always ask her if she wants to "hold her". We'll let Sydney hold little Savannah for a few moments before they both start crying. It's better than before though. Sydney calls Savannah, "Nana". We weren't sure if we wanted to encourage that because of the dog in Peter Pan. Anyway, this is enough rambling about our two daughters. Next time I'll try to be a little more cohesive with my postings.