All You Need is Love

Yesterday was a crazy beautiful day. I started with a flash mob mission with a group of yet unnamed Chattanooga Pranksters. Although this mission was not a prank; it was about love. Loving the people of Chattanooga. We brought the worldwide FREE HUGS campaign to Chattanooga yesterday. (If you are not familiar with Free Hugs, just search for it on youtube.) We hugged people on Frazier Ave & Walnut Street Bridge for 4 hours. We hugged everybody that would let us - the natives, the tourists, the bikers, the joggers, the dogs, the hobos, everybody that needed a hug. Some people looked at us with disdain. Some were scared, annoyed, or confused. Many people were grateful, encouraged and blessed. A few hugged us with tears in their eyes that strangers would take an afternoon to love on other strangers. The most asked question of the day was "Why are you doing this?" "Just to put smiles on faces," we'd say. We all knew that the world has gone through a lot lately. Devastating earthquakes, massive tsunamis, record-high gas prices, and a brand new war our country is entering. We figured everybody could use a little love right now. It was a life changing experience for the six of us.

If you'd like to join us on future secret missions, there is a link above to our meetup group for all our other flash mob mayhem and prankery.

After the emotional & empowering afternoon, I went home & watched ABC's Secret Millionaire. Big mistake after such an afternoon. I was able to keep it together until the millionaire gave the money to the youth basketball organization. There's just something about a bunch a kids and grown men sobbing that reduce me to a soppy mess.

Then I had to make the second mistake of watching Extreme Home Makeover on my lunch today. Of course there is only one episode on the ABC site right now and it is an Army soldier and his fiancée. Staff Sergeant Zeigler has a very similar injury to my friend Mark, who is an Army captain injured in Iraq by an IED and also defied the odds and astonished all his doctors. With all that's happened with my friend Mark, myself being married to a retired Navy Petty Officer, and sister to a Marine Lance Corporal and newly enlisted Army/National Guard, I didn't have a hope or a prayer of not crying during that episode. Especially when they get married on the show! (Don't worry, I'm not giving anything away; they reveal the wedding in the previews for the episode.) Oh my goodness, I think I am totally cried out for the week, maybe the month.

I don't know about you all, but I really don't like crying. Even when they are tears of joy. But I just can't help myself lately. I think it may be because I just feel so blessed myself lately. My family is healthy for the most part. I finally have a bit more regular job, which means we are also finally caught up on our bills for the most part. I have new family in town as my sister-in-law just moved here. And the tipping point lately has been the reassurance that there are good people still in the world. This was proven to me sitting at a red light on a rainy day when the fellow Corolla owner in front of me jumped out of his car and ran over to give me free head lamps to replace the head light that was out. For no reason, other than he had gotten better ones, these were just sitting in his trunk collecting dust and he noticed one of mine was out. He literally headed the bulbs to me and drove away.

So my hope for all my friends that read this blog:

~That you may also be blessed by kind strangers.

~That your families are blessed with good health.

~That you have enough to meet your needs.

I love you all, Have a blessed day!

Movie in 48 HRS!!

Over the weekend, a group of my movie-making friends and I made a movie in 48 hours. We had from 7 p.m. on Friday to 7 p.m. to write the script, cast the actors, perform and shoot the script, edit and score the film. The contest was sponsored by 48 go green and all the films have environmental themes. At 7 p.m. on Friday, we received an email with our requirements:
Theme: Save the animals
Character: Prof M. Johnson
Prop: Bowl
Line: "Can you help me?"
All these things had to appear in our film. This is our entry. Please watch it and vote. You do have to create a free account to vote. We need your votes to move on in the competition. We have the opportunity to have this viewed at the Sundance and Cannes independent film festivals, so please forward & repost to your friends too!

A Future Passed - High Res Version - Videos - 48 Go Green

Who doesn't love TEXAS! and remakes!

I fell in love with Texas at an early age while watching my parents watch Dallas.

I remember being invited to go to Awanas at my friends' church and not wanting to go because it was the night that Dallas was on. (I did go, but only because my parents said I'd be home in time.) I remember cowboy/frontier culture being a HUGE part of my household growing up.

I may not have loved all of that as a kid but I did love Dallas. I still love Little House on the Prairie and westerns. My favorite movie last year was True Grit.

I spent most of last year watching an Aussie soap about a family of cowgirls called McLeod's Daughters.

And now I find out that TNT is remaking Dallas. A ton of you will make fun of me, but golly gee, I'm EXCITED. I love me some cowboys!

I sure hope it doesn't suck! A lot of the things that have been resurrected from the 80's has not been great. Indiana Jones was good, but not as good as the original.

Strawberry Shortcake looks like she mated with a Bratz doll.

My Little Ponies are now anime characters with huge strange cat-shaped eyes.

The new Transformer toys look like cheap imitations of the old ones. The modern prequels to the Star Wars trilogy relied too heavily on CGI and weird characters like Jar-Jar Binks. The new Tron relied too heavily on the flashy 3D technology. Fame, Dirty Dancing, Knight Rider and Cosby all were remade and flopped.

Exceptions to this rule: The Dark Knight reboot of the Batman franchise pretty much erases my memory of that other one that started in 1989. The remake of "We are the World" was in my mind a great remake, had it not been for the almost completely forgotten genre of country music. I mean I could have done without the auto-tune act, but it is part of our musical culture of this era. The whole project was originally to be a cross-section of the current musical culture, coming together for a common goal. The reboot of Star Trek makes me proud to be a Trekkie. G. I. Joe was kinda awesome. The new Super Mario Bros. and Zelda games are pretty freaking cool.

More remakes are coming our way. There may be more than 75 remakes in the works for the big and small screen. From Alien to The Yellow Submarine, there is something for almost every letter of the alphabet. (Can I just say I'd love another Gremlins movie!!) Why are there so many remakes? I feel like it may be because we've just about told all the stories there is to tell. There just aren't any completely new stories anymore. We are at a point where we have to retell an old story, tell an old story in a new way, or take an old character on new adventures. Occasionally, we will have a completely new story and we will enjoy it. But we can also take comfort in our old friends. This is an exciting time and I can't wait to see what comes of all these projects coming our way!

Birthday Perfection

Today (well I guess technically yesterday since it's after midnight) was my birthday. And it was a pretty good birthday - I'm still alive (which about 10 days ago was questionable!). I got to sleep in til almost noon. I woke up with a purring kitty on my arm. I visited with one of my best friends, Emily. I watched 2 movies on netflix while folding clothes and sewing. I enjoyed choc-iced-cream-filled Krispy Kreme dougnuts, Gold Peak Tea and Zaxby's chicken, and played my favorite car game, "The Muppets Sing Glee" with my wonderful hubby! My whole birthday cost less than $20 this year. I think we've hit a new record - the most fun birthday on a budget!

I was going to blog a lot more than this in November. I was going to share one of my favorite things with you each day of my birth month, but the universe had other plans. More about that later since I have to go to sleep soon so I can get up and help my Mama cook Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Seems like everyone in my family is kinda sickly in some way this year.

Anyway, I just couldn't let my birthday go by without recording it in some fashion this year. Thanks for reading!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rainbow Brite

see more Lol Celebs

I just saw this and loved it. I kinda hate what has happened to rainbows. That is all for now. Just remembering more innocent days...

We're Organized Wednesday

Sorry, peeps! I wrote this yesterday during a break at school, saved it to look at after I got home, and totally forgot to log back in and post it! Darn MS!


Wednesday's theme here with Queen Glimmering Moon will be Organization!

Why I chose organization:
~ One of my favorite blogs also has We're Organized Wednesday. Check out Leanne at Organize & Decorate Everything. I've always wanted to link an organization project to the linky party they have on Wednesdays, but I haven't gotten any organizing done recently. Soon though, very soon! Her current contest is for a beautiful RediShade - the giveaway is open through Saturday, October 2, 2010, if you'd like to enter!



~I really love the way that the first letters of "We're Organized Wednesdays" spells WOW! (Yes, I know I'm a nerd, but feel free to comment anyway.)

~Organization is something I love. It brings me joy. I need an organized environment to work in if you want my best work. Maybe its because my work is chaotic and makes a mess, so if things are cluttery in the first place, it's only gonna get worse as I work until I explode! I'm just a little OCD, but not enough to make me eccentric - just enough to make me odd, and according to my hubby, slightly frustrating :) Geez, it's not like I'm a Monica Gellar!

~If I link up to the WOW linky party every Wednesday, then you are not just benefiting from my organization but from many others more organized than I! If you click on the WOW party link, you will get pictures of so many other's projects that you won't be able to stay disorganized for long. You can't help being inspired by all the wonderful organization projects that Leanne does and those that link up with her. I can't wait to get my work studio organized so you can see it too!


In other news, I am still substitute teaching at East Lake. I think this is my last week. I think they finally found a music certified sub to hire as an interim teacher, since the regular teacher is going to be out so long. This makes me a little sad, because I've fallen in love with all my students. One of the dangers of long-term sub jobs - you are there just long enough to get to know everyone and, if you are half-decent at what you do, just long enough to care about the kids. I am going to miss them, but I am looking forward to having some time off from subbing. I really have to get some stuff completed for my next trip to Kingsport. I owe my brother a diaper bag and my sister-in-law 2 nursing tops. For once, I'm going to finish baby gifts from the kid is a year old (right now he's a month old). I don't think I've posted pics of the baby on my blog yet so here goes:

This is a collage I made of baby Kaedan. The others in the photos are my brother (proud papa) and my mom (first-time being Nana).

I also am starting my cleanse to help treat my gallstones naturally. Today I am having all liquid stuff & natural foods. Tomorrow will be all blended or juiced stuff. I have a bunch of frozen organic fruit in the freezer so I won't actually have to go grocery shopping for this until Friday. Friday will be all juice and Saturday morning will be the official start of my lemonade cleanse. Not really sure what I will do after this over. I know for sure that I don't want to go back to the way I was eating. But I also don't want to go without some of my favorite things for the rest of my life. I like the idea of a diet without anything processed. All natural, organic food. A friend of mine calls it "God" food. She only eats things that God created and Man has not tampered with. If it came from the ground or out of a tree, it's on her safe list. I have a cookbook that is all about eating according to the dietary laws in the Bible. While the restrictions are interesting and make a lot of good sense, the preparation and such seems like it would be very time consuming. I don't know how a modern family with two working adults could manage it. Every time I read a recipe from there, I always have in the back of my head, "Gee, I know why women were homemakers for centuries. Just the cooking took most of the day!" I wonder though if I went to an all-natural, slow food sort of diet, what would the effect on my body be of one cheat day of eating whatever I want? Which let's face it, would include fries, chicken tenders, buttery popcorn, fried mozzarella sticks, and loads of sugar. Things that make you go hmmmm....

Flashback Tuesday!!

Introducing Flashback Tuesday!!

How many of you had a pair of these????



Listing on Etsy

I had a pair of denim boots back in the day, but I can't tell you what brand they were. I've never been very particular about brands.

This particular pair was for sale on etsy, and if I had been a little quicker in catching this listing, I just might have bought them! I don't know if I would have worn them everyday, but they'd be great this week at school. It's spirit week and they would have been perfect for Decade Day! Aw, who am I kidding? I'd rock these as often as I could just because they are boots. I love boots! Tis the season again too -- I am so happy!! Almost time to bust out my scarves too! There was such a nice nip in the air this morning. I'm on cloud nine :)

So I want to start blogging for you guys more regularly. To help me with that, I am going to have themes to help me get started everyday. I'd been trying to decide what each day would be. This was a sure-fire sign of what Tuesday should be - "Flashback Tuesday". I hope you all enjoy! And stay tuned to see what each day will bring!!

Peace Love and Purple elephants,
DeAnna