Besides the fact that they are awesome, they all star one amazing actor by the name of Warwick Davis.

It would be almost impossible to have not seen Mr. Davis in some movie. Aside from the fact that he works almost continuously (1992 was the last year he didn’t have something come out, and the only year since Star Wars Episode VI in 1983 that he didn’t have anything), but he’s also been in some of the biggest movies of all time.

Of course, his big role was arguably the most famous little person movie of all time, Willow,

but for my money, his finest performances were in some movies near and dear to my heart, Leprechaun 1 – 6.

This is, of course, not to mention some rolls in movies you probably saw but didn’t recognize him in, such as a member of the goblin corps in Labyrinth, or Marvin the Robot in the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy.

Maybe it is because I am a big fan, but I always recognize him instantly, even in makeup. I’ve learned that, for some reason, no one else seems to recognize him. For example, I don’t know how anybody could have watched the Harry Potter series without recognizing the same actor played Flitwick and Griphook:

Because he is a little person, he is not known as a hugely successful actor, but his resume matches any but the absolute biggest movie stars (I mean biggest figuratively, not literally). I was so happy to see him get some big on-screen moments as Griphook, and I thought he was fantastic. Hopefully casting directors will (continue to) take note.

Isn’t it about time for a Willow sequel?

He’s talking a LOT. It appears that the fears of those who thought he might not talk that much because his older sister/chatterbox wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise are unfounded. He’s up to about five word sentences these days, and they are pretty understandable sentences too. He definitely lets you know what he wants and what he doesn’t want.

He has also discovered the concept of “two” and will often point out when there are two of something, like “Two clocks!” or “Two water bottles!” So far this doesn’t extend beyond two, but if I remember correctly from Evie, it will be awhile yet before he gets more than two. If you say, “I one it,” he will say, “I two it!”, but after that he immediately jumps to, “Ollie ate it!”

He also loves singing, and sings little snatches of songs spontaneously. It’s funny because he usually gets the tune, so you know what he’s singing, but a lot of the words are sort of nonsense approximations of the actual words. You can tell, though, that he’s singing just for the pure joy of singing, which is hard not to find adorable. He does tend to get stuck in infinite loops though, repeating one phrase endlessly, like “Little lamb! Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Little…”

His favorite thing to do is to get the stool out of the bathroom and use that to turn the lights off and on. This is rather unfortunate. I much prefer his second favorite thing to do, which is to work in the play kitchen. He mostly makes coffee and things that are “very hot!”, including oatmeal, which usually turn out to be cups and pots full of necklaces or crayons. He’s very good at entertaining himself, playing at the kitchen or reading books to himself, sometimes for hours.

He’s getting pretty good at climbing stairs, to the point that we’re considering removing the gates in the near future. He likes to have a book in his crib at naptime, though I don’t think he does anything with it, other than just sort of stare at the cover while he’s falling asleep. He likes to “float” in the bathtub and doesn’t mind getting his ears or even really his eyes wet (very different from Evie in this respect!).

Not so much on the potty training. At first, he was going in the potty all the time, and we thought it was going to be so easy. We were soooo smug. Well, he’s all done with that. We’ve been putting him on the potty every night before the bath and other times throughout the day, and he’s gone in there maybe once in the past three months. Furthermore, just getting him to sit on the potty is a big struggle. Total reversal from our early successes. I guess all we can do is keep doing what we’re doing, and hope he changes his mind.

It’s always very interesting to me watching how Evie and Ollie interact with each other. There is so much love between them, it is really amazing. I guess I’m not surprised that he adores her so much and copies her every movement, since he’s the little brother and older kids are just so cool, but I am sort of surprised at how much she really thinks of him. If he’s hurt, she cries. If he cries, she tries to make him feel better. She is always asking him to play with her, and she doesn’t seem to mind at all when he’s following her around, copying her. I assume that will change at some point, but for now it’s very sweet.

Of course nobody can frustrate them like each other either, so you take the good with the bad. They always want whatever the other has, and they can’t help taunting each other with whatever the other wants. Oliver in particular is very protective of whatever he has, getting upset if Evie so much as looks at it. I think this is sort of a survival technique on his part, since her looking at it is often followed by her demanding it, or saying, “I had it first!”

In other words, they are brother and sister.

Evie is going through an extremely difficult phase at the moment. Everything is “wrong”: she didn’t want to wear her snow pants, she DID want to wear her snow pants, you picked the wrong hat, you won’t play hide and seek, you found her too quickly when you were playing hide and seek, you weren’t supposed to sing along, you WERE supposed to sing along, etc.

Picking out clothes for the day is particularly difficult. The daily power struggle got to be such a hassle, that we had to make a rule that Evie is no longer allowed to pick out her clothes. Whatever an adult picks, she has to wear.

I don’t know that this has been a success exactly. We did get rid of the power struggle, but we replaced it with over an hour of sobbing, pleading, and whining every morning. Her socks don’t feel right. She wanted a dress today. She DIDN’T want a dress today. Her tights don’t feel right. Her turtleneck doesn’t feel right. Her pants don’t feel right. The thing is, it really doesn’t matter what you pick, it’s not like you could have made a different selection and avoided the whole disaster, she just automatically demands the opposite of whatever you pick. Only to have the whole thing repeated again at night with pajamas.

Did anybody else have this issue with their 4 year olds?

I’m just so tired of constantly fighting with her, constantly telling her to hurry up, constantly threatening her with everything from, “You’re going to miss breakfast” to “Should we call school and tell them you’re not coming today?” to “No story tonight, you missed your chance”.

When Evie was one, everybody said, “Just wait until she’s two.” When she was two, they said, “You think that’s bad? Wait until she’s three!” Then it was four, and I have to say, that’s the worst so far. I’m hoping it gets better from here, since nobody has yet told me, “You think four is bad? Wait until you see five!”

Mom was born to Bert & Elizabeth Tow, a twin to William. The twins were separated at an early age and my mother was raised by her fraternal grand-parents. When she was in her teen years she went back to live in Detroit with her parents and brother where she graduated from the Dominican high school. Upon graduating from a Catholic all girls’ school she thought she would go into the convent. Anyone who knows her will chuckle; someone who had 7 children certainly didn’t belong in a convent.

My mom & dad lived in several towns before settling down in Janesville. My mom took on several roles in her life, not only as mother to us but to several other children in the neighborhood. She was the disciplinarian as my dad worked 2 and 3 jobs to support our family. Mom tried to go to work for a little while outside of the home but that didn’t prove to be profitable. With 7 kids, it was hard to find a babysitter for that many children. My mom had to try to salvage some kind of sanity so she volunteered at Mercy Hospital as a (Pink Lady).

My parents were very proud people; they taught us a good work ethic, and how to love one another. They were proud that they never had bad credit, which was a worry my mom had till this day. My mom lived a long good life. She went more places, saw more countries than she had ever imagined. That in part was due to her children being sprinkled around the world at different times.

Talking with the Snyder girls in July and reminiscing about times when we were young and listening to how much my mom touched their lives, it makes one stop and realize how other people were touched by her kindness.

My mom told me one day that she made me into the person I am today and I guess that is a correct statement. For if it wasn’t the hard lessons I was taught, the parenting skills I learned, the kindness and love for my siblings and closeness of family, I would be a different person. We always knew that we were loved. My mom was a good story teller. She should have been a best selling author. Mom had a good sense of humor. Erin from Hospice tells me she was visiting my mom and she told her she had food on her chest, to which my mom replied, “I am saving some for later”. Just recently when it came time for the hospital bed, so it would make her life easier, she flipped flopped on wanting the bed. I asked her why and she said, “Because she didn’t want to die in a hospital bed; she wanted to tide in her own bed”. I told her we didn’t want her to die, so that’s why she was going in the hospital bed. She STUCK OUT HER TONGUE AT ME.  That meant to me that she really knew what was good for her but change was hard for my mom to accept. She hated to ask for help. She hated losing her independence but also was smart enough to realize what was in her best interest.

I am selfish and sad to let her go. But I know my mother was a Christian and a child of God. She will be in heaven and I will see her again when the Lord calls me home.

Let’s celebrate her life and share our memories and stories of BETTY JANE CATHERINE ANN ELIZABETH TOW HALBACH together.

I love you mom,
Susan Mullen

In case you’re worried I’ve gone soft, I’ll have you know it wasn’t all knitting…I also folded some laundry. Then, when everything went bad, I even consoled myself with a ginger beer.

You have no idea how many statements in this house are followed up by, “Quote!”, “Now there’s a quote!” or “Put that on your e-blog daddy!”

Me: “I thought I’d make some oatmeal for breakfast today.”
Evie: “Looks like we’re back to our natural habitat!”

Sara: “Who’s that actor who was in that movie where he was a violin teacher?”
Me: “No idea.”
Sara: “He’s older, black, super famous…sort of rotund?”
::me throwing out every possible suggestion::
Sara: “Never mind, I’ll find it.”
::Internet searching::
Sara: “Finding Forester!”
Me: “Wait a minute…wasn’t that Sean Connery? Your rotund black man is Sean Connery??”

This time it was my Grandma. Today would have been her 84th birthday. Instead of celebrating with a party, we are attending her funeral.

It was certainly not surprising, and we were all fortunate to have time to visit and say goodbye. In fact, people have been predicting her demise every day for at least 5 years now.

Aunt Sue: “I’m not really sure why she still hangs on.”
Me: “Are you saying she’s stubborn? Now there’s a shocker.”

If I had to describe my Grandma in one word, it would be fierce (and not in a Tyra Banks kind of way). Stubborn would certainly be fitting, but I think fierce is more accurate. A stubborn person doesn’t give up. A fierce person fights like a cornered badger. A stubborn person is solid, like stone. Grandma was full of fire.

When my Grandpa died, it was hard to imagine the family without him. However, Grandma took over as the matriarch of the family without missing a beat, keeping everybody in line. She was not a person who was afraid to tell you how she felt. Even towards the end, she didn’t miss anything. Because of her frail appearance, it was easy to forget that her mind was still as sharp as ever, until she would make a comment that was right on the money. I’m glad that she got to meet my kids.

I haven’t talked to anybody yet who wouldn’t agree that this was one of those situations where her death truly was a mercy. Being confined to a bed is no way to live, and even before that, she hadn’t been able to get around easily for a long time. Her health was on the decline for so long, and there really wasn’t much left to give.

So Grandma, we’re so sad that you’re gone, but we understand. I know how much you missed Grandpa, even after all this time. I know, in the end, he came to get you, just like you always said he would.

Rest in peace.

Betty J. Halbach, Janesville  (1928 – 2012)

January 20, 1928 – January 12, 2012
Betty J. Halbach, 83, of Janesville passed away Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, at her home. Betty was born on Jan. 20, 1928, in Detroit, MI, the daughter of Elmer and Elizabeth. She graduated from Dominican High Academy in Detroit. She married Frederick W. Halbach on July 3, 1948. Betty was formerly employed as a teacher at St. Mary’s School, Janesville, then later worked at Fairbanks-Morse Company and the Janesville Janitorial Service. She later managed the Regency House Apartments in Janesville. She was a member of St. Mary Catholic Church, Milton.
Surviving are four sons and three daughters: William F. of Janesville, Susan (Terry) of Janesville, John C. (Sharon) of Warren, IN, James (Becky) of Hanover, David A. of Janesville, Mary of Janesville, and Cathy (Terry) of Janesville; 19 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Frederick, on June 12, 1997. Her parents and her twin brother, William, also preceded her in death.
“A special thanks to Agrace HospiceCare and Senior Services of Rock County for their many kindnesses to Betty and her family.”

A lot of these things are cascading: we get rid of one thing, and that makes another thing less important, so we get rid of that thing, etc. An example of this was dropping satellite t.v., which eventually led to drastically downsizing our television, which made our Netflix subscription expendable. (You could argue this was a a chicken and egg thing, because really it was the decision to watch less t.v. that made all three of these expendable, but this is sort of the order we went in.)

Anyway, just like getting rid of junk from your house makes you want to find more things to get rid of, canceling services does the same. The more things you get rid of, the more you start to question other things that you paid for. And the more things you start to cut, no matter how small, start to add up.

Between canceling cable, switching our cell phone plans, getting rid of our land line, canceling Netflix, and a few other non-essentials, we realized the other day that they all add up to roughly a 2-3% raise! It’s kind of amazing how much you spend on all of these little things, and how much you take for granted that you just have to have them.

I can verify we’re doing just fine without them. Better, even. (2-3% better, give or take)

Well, all I can do is put the information out there.

I just ordered another 2 pairs of glasses from Zenni. Last year I tried out a pair of plastic frames, and they served me well. Unfortunately, Oliver slapped them off my face, and they broke on the floor. I don’t blame Zenni for that. They weren’t “cheap” frames, they were just slapped off my face and onto the ground with a lot of force. The style I chose had little brackets or clasps at the corners, which were thinner than the rest of the frame, and one of those broke.

Since they were so inexpensive, I had ordered an extra pair last time as a backup. Those got me through until I could place an order for another two pairs. This time, I was even more adventurous in my selections. I dub this the “zenni-effect”: the glasses are so cheap, why not try something crazy? Get a frame you would never have thought of before. This is something you could never afford to do when the frames were $400 and you could only afford one pair. If you’re paying that kind of money for frames, they better be a pretty good, solid, risk-free pair!

The only complaint I had about my first order was that the lenses seemed particularly hard to clean. On my previous, store-bought lenses, I could just clean smudges off with my shirt tail. These glasses required a cloth at least, and even still they never quite seemed to get clean.

I did some research online, and found out that the anti-glare coating that I paid extra to add (recommended, especially if you work on computers all day) works as a smudge magnet. So I thought perhaps I might risk my eyes and go without the anti-glare coating this time. However, Zenni offered an additional smudge-resistant coating for $10.

Both of my new pairs have the new coating, and so far they seem to be perfect! Just as good as my old, expensive ones. So my one caveat is that, if you are getting the anti-glare coating, go ahead and spring for the anti-smudge coating as well. Best $10 I ever spent.

So anyway, unless you hate money, order glasses from Zenni Optical. I get nothing out of this, other than the satisfaction of saving my readers money. It’s just too good of a deal to keep under my hat!

“swashbuckling chicken” – I just…I…wow.

“so i stopped the apocalypse” – …and now I’m looking for something else to do.

“things that are going well in schools” – Aw, this made me so sad! I just imagine some depressed parent looking for just one example they could point to that something was going well in our schools these days…and only able to find my blog.

“rocket propelled banana” – Not sure what it has to do with me, but I’m in!

“advantage of pseudopods” – Plastic surgery has gotten so crazy these days. People are actually weighing the merits of attaching pseudopods?

“von trapp dog training” – So long, farewell, arf wienerdog, goodnight.

“just simple drawings of different types of puppets” – That’s all I’m looking for. Is that so much to ask, Internet?

“zombie narwhals” – This one captured my imagination. I googled it myself and found a surprising number of hits! There’s a wealth of information about this topic. I never knew narwhals were such staunch zombie fighters! And the possibility that all their zombie fighting might inevitably lead to a few zombie narwhals has come up a time or two before. Absolutely fascinating.

“zombies vs jedi” – I’m sorry, but this wouldn’t be much of a fight. I don’t know how I’ve never considered a lightsaber as a zombie fighting weapon before, but I’d be hard pressed to imagine anything better for slaying zombies!

“The first snowfall of the winter of a boys 18th year means he must take his first step towards manhood.” – This was actually a spam comment, but it is definitely the strangest one I have ever received!