Our weekend up north and a question

Monday I had an email from my boss. Tragically he lost his son during labor. We had been receiving messages from him updating us all on the progress but late Friday the messages stopped. We all assumed they were celebrating the arrival of their son and hadn't had time yet to update us. I mean, we are after all just the co-workers. But sadly we learned why there was silence for so long.

On Wednesday they had a beautiful service for him. Their church is huge, modern, and absolutely beautiful. The congregation resides in the wealthiest 20 mile radius in the state. And the size of this new church and all its amenities shows it.

Which leads me to my question. At what point in modern times did it become acceptable to wear shorts, flip flops, and dirty stained t-shirts to church. Actually to a funeral for cry'n out loud???

Where has our sense of decorum gone? Is it simply a case that if we can get the freak'n kids into a church we don't care what they wear? Just so long as they are there? I mean seriously folks. Would it kill them to put on a pair of pants and a button down shirt for 1 lousy hour? Or for the girls to wear a skirt that actually covers her underwear????

What am I missing? Am I that out of touch? What happened to Sunday best?

And what is wrong with parents these days?

I'd love to hear from you.

WWC

So, it should have been a no brainer, but it took till I was loading my pictures for the week for me to come up with the ultimate High and Low. Well, at least as far as this chick is concerned. I mean, true Newtness would allow no other picture:

High

Low

(Oh, wait, I don't do low)

**********

And now, the pictures I took before it dawned on me the Newtness of this weeks WWC

High and Low - balance of nature

(ok, this didn't come out as good as I planned but there is a bird on the roof and a cat in the grass)

High

Low

Newt the Bookworm

It's crunch time at work. Big time. So my brain is going 20 million miles a second. And nothing I do distracts me from all the spinning my mind has been doing. For some reason the only thing lately that has helped me relax and not be one giant stress ball has been reading. And I've been reading a lot:
The glorious and beautiful Tink suggested Twilight.

Thank you very much, not half way through and I had to run out and purchase New Moon

This is a really fun vampire series. It is Laurel K Hamilton without the hard core porn getting in the way.
These books are the epitome of beach blanket reading. Simply fabulous.








Next up was Soon I will be Invincible. A pretty funny take on the world of super hero's and super villains. I thought this book was a lot of fun to read.

And lastly, I just finished I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. This is the same young author who wrote the heart wrenching "The Book Thief". He's an amazing author! The best part is, he's still young. And I can look forward to what I hope will be many more years of fantastic books from him.


I have not had a chance to post WWC or even get out and admire all the photography. I'll get there, I will, I promise.

Some times life goes by at the speed of sound.

Avoiding the heart

I've had a movie sitting next to the tv for over a week. I think it's called movie denial. Or maybe the fear of feeling to much. Getting too emotional. Or maybe too reflective about our lives. But something told me that the movie was going to effect me in ways I wasn't in the mood to deal with.

Damn I hate it when I'm right.

Five minutes into the movie the tears started and they haven't finished even though the movie is out of the player and back in the red envelope for the mail.

And that is the amazing power of movies, books, music. When they make us feel something. When they open up wounds, or dig into our hearts and find our hidden desires. Or when they make us face our greatest fears.

We can get so wrapped up in our daily lives that we forget to take time out to explore what makes us human. Let our emotions out. Set free our dreams, fantasy's and wishes.

So here are some of the movies I watch for mood. Be it to make me happy, to make me dream, to make me laugh, or to make me cry.

While You Were Sleeping

Love Actually

Notting Hill

Bridget Jones

Pirates of the Caribbean

Men In Black

Lara Croft

Resident Evil

13th Warrior

The Ref

Someone Like You

Practical Magic

2 Weeks Notice

Italian Job

Eastern Promises

Dead Like Me

and now, my newest:

PS I Love You (This is the movie talked about above)

So what are your mood movies?

Weekend in pictures

Not too much excitement. But enjoy:

Paradise on Earth

Some things are worth the wait. We've talked about it since we met. We explored the posibilities, but we never found anything that made us get serious. But then, out of the blue, we found heaven. 12 wooded acres and 450 feet of our own shoreline on a small private lake. With an absolutely perfect cabin to top it all off. It's located in a rural part of NW Wisconsin. The dogs absolutely love it. We have even discovered that our little Caleb is far more bonded to us than we thought. He's been off leash and he sticks close. In fact he's my little shadow. So this cabin has been good for our whole family.

There are a ton of pictures. But I had a hard time sorting through.

Pictures of Texas

Texas was beautiful. Here are a few shots.

Flower at the hotel garden

Same flower from the back
and close up This is our Plano office
Snowy Egret at the lake behind our company facility
I wouldn't mnd working at this facility if this is my view every lunch


This little guy was a surprise to see (it is a ferret)

This waterfall is at a restaurant we ate at

Duck in the pond at the same place
This interesting guy kept coming into the eating area begging