Jesse turns 4!

October may be National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but in my home, it's also the "birthday month." It's actually the second such "birthday month" in our home. My husband and I both have a birthday in May, while our children both have a birthday in October. (Pretty convenient, eh?) Yet it seems we can never celebrate the kids' birthday the way birthdays are normally celebrated. One year, for example, the kids had three birthday parties each because we went to different relatives' homes to visit in California. And this year, each child got to celebrate their birthday twice because their special day ended up being on a school day. So, for this year, each child gets a special "family party" for their birthday and, later, on the following weekend, a birthday party with friends. (Alas, I won't share those pictures publicly because of the parents' privacy concerns.) Jesse got to have a little party on this day, his REAL birthday where he turned 4, and then on Sunday he'll have a party with friends. Yay!

Here are pictures from today's party. Happy Birthday, Jesse! You are four years old! We love you.

Jesse with his yummy birthday cake!

Jesse with his goofy sis, Jennifer.

Jesse enjoying some of his birthday presents. (Cake? What cake?)

Jesse getting some extra B-day love from his daddy before he heads off to work.

31 Spooky movies for adults and kids

Recently, I read this interview with a writer who said she tries to watch one horror movie for every day of October, just to get into the Halloween spirit. Once upon time, I tried to do this, too. I even tried to put together a list of 31 movies for those 31 days, but ended up running out of some REALLY good ones so I moved on to other things.

Seeing that in the interview rekindled my curiosity to see if I could actually put together such a list. And, ta-da! You'll find that list below. I even managed to put one together for kids! Yay!

In the lists below, I have included movie preferences in the event of remakes or other versions of movies which I didn't care for. I also noted one movie in the list for kids that frightened my daughter at the time she saw it so I included a note on a good age group for it -- just my opinion, though.

There are A LOT of good horror movies for adults that didn't make the cut since I could only include 31. These are the 31 I recommend but there are other good ones, too.

Enjoy!

31 Horror/Halloween Movies for Adults

1. The Thing (1982)
2. Friday the 13th
3. The Amityville Horror
4. The Messengers
5. Poltergeist
6. 13 Ghosts
7. The House on Haunted Hill
8. Fingerprints
9. Interview with the Vampire
10. Underworld
11. Gothika
12. The Grudge
13. The Grudge 2
14. Night of the Living Dead
15. The Shining
16. Nightmare on Elm Street
17. It
18. Psycho
19. The Exorcist
20. Dawn of the Dead
21. The Ring
22. Saw
23. Saw II
24. The Omen
25. The Omen II
26. The Omen III
27. The Evil Dead
28. The Changeling (1980)
29. Hellraiser
30. 1408 (Unrated Version)
31. Halloween



31 Horror/Halloween Movies for Kids

1. Corpse Bride
2. The Addams Family
3. The Addams Family Values
4. Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
5. Twitches
6. Twitches, Too
7. Bedknobs & Broomsticks
8. Ghostbusters
9. Hocus Pocus
10. The Nightmare Before Christmas
11. Coraline (not recommended for the under-10 crowd)
12. The Haunted Mansion
13. Halloweentown
14. Monsters, Inc.
15. Gremlins
16. The Worst Witch
17. Scooby-Doo
18. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
19. The Dog Who Saved Halloween
20. The Canterville Ghost
21. Blackbeard’s Ghost
22. The Little Vampire
23. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
24. The Halloween Tree
25. Spookley: The Square Pumpkin
26. Clifford the Big Red Dog: Clifford’s Big Halloween
27. Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular
28. Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie
29. Casper
30. Monster House
31. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

People like that

For all of last week, the kids weren’t feeling so good. Jesse had a terrible cough and stuffy nose and Jennifer was complaining of stomach pain and nausea. Jennifer was not as sick at first – she was well enough to go on her class field trip – but as the week progressed, she got worse and kept coming home from school complaining of discomfort. And at first, Jesse stopped coughing so much, and I thought he was better so I stopped giving him medicine, but then it returned with a vengeance, along with stomach pain. So yesterday I took the kids to their doctor to find out what was up. Turns out they both have a stomach virus.

After we were done at the doctor’s office, we drove through downtown Eugene on our way to the grocery store. As I drove, I happened to notice these girls in the car next to me, staring wide-eyed at me. I had my hair up and when I wear my hair up, the third degree burn scars on the back of my head are visible. The fire permanently damaged some part of the hair on my scalp, so I have hair missing in the back, making my back hairline uneven. This, too, can be seen, along with the left-ear-that-is-not-an-ear (I lost my ear in the accident so the doctors reconstructed an ear for me made out of rib cartilage). Judging from the looks on these teen girls’ faces as they freaked out over my face and head, I could figure out what they were reacting to. I completely ignored them, stifled a growl and drove off. Far be it from me to stay within their view so they’d have to withstand such horror!

But, seriously, even as this was something that I’m used to by now (after over 30 years of living with these scars, I’ve seen the worst of people in how they react to my burns!), it still kinda hurt. It made me sad, you know? That there are young people out there still reacting so negatively to someone who is not “beautiful.” I know we live in a world where beauty is EVERYTHING and if you are not beautiful, people will shun you and talk negatively of you. But it saddens me that we are allowing the future generation to grow up thinking this kind of logic is okay. Why are we teaching our children that it’s okay to react so negatively to people with burn scars, deformities or even skin ailments? Why are we teaching them to think less of someone who is not so appealing to the eye?

Given that these girls were teenagers, I was reminded of one other unpleasant experience involving teenaged girls I came into contact with. Once, while I was in church, I was sitting in a pew in front of a group of teenaged girls. (And, yes, I had my hair up!) It wasn't long before I realized the girls behind me were kicking the pew I was sitting in. I turned around to let them know this was uncomfortable. They only laughed and said, “Sorry.” Then they did it again. I was so annoyed by it, I left the church. Yet I was saddened that young people could get away with being so mean to someone like that. And that, worse of all, they thought it was okay to do that!

No. It is NOT okay.

It’s rude. It’s not nice. And it hurts. Ya know? Have a little compassion for someone not as BLESSED or LUCKY as you to be so beautiful.

I am grateful that there are people I know who are not so shallow and who are kind to others no matter their appearance. These are the people I cling to. These are the people who I feel are important people in my life.

But the biggest kind of comfort I took from that experience? Knowing that my own daughter will not grow up to be like those girls. Knowing that other little girls who have accepted me will not grow up to be like those girls. And you know why? Because they know me as a person. They know me as a human being – and that’s what we all are underneath the burn scars. We’re human beings with feelings. With personalities. With hopes and dreams.

My reminder of this was reinforced after Jennifer found out about what had happened. Of course, she was irritated. She said, “Those girls!” Then she stuck her tongue out in the direction we’d driven away from. (Haha. My feelings exactly.)

I only shook my head and told her the same thing I have been telling myself for years, “There are always going to be people like that.”

She frowned and said, “I don’t like people like that.”

Yeah. Me, neither.

Jen turns 10!

My oldest child, Jennifer, turned 10 years old today. Hooray! Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

Because her birthday falls on a school day this year, we decided to have a little family party today, then on Saturday, she'll have a birthday party with her friends. She will have TWO birthday parties this year! How cool is that??

Here are some pictures from today. Because my husband works at night, we decided to celebrate her family party during the day before he leaves for work.

A surprise awaits Jennifer upon her return home from school!

Ten years old means a ten dollar bill. Woot!

Interestingly, I call her a "silly monkey." Before her birthday came along, she let me know she wanted a BROWN sock monkey. Took a while before we found one!

She lubs her new robe! Arr!

She'd been asking for My Neighbor Totoro for MONTHS! So nice I found it at Target. And, yes, she wanted Dumbo, too!

Jen enjoying her birthday cupcake with TWO flavors of ice cream! Num.

Little brother Jesse had fun eating his cupcake.