September 2007 Archives

Last night we had Ellen alone, as Katie had a PJ party at a friend's (10 or so 6 and 7 year olds for 5 hours...um...no thanks!), so we decided to watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark." As this is clearly a movie that would scare the bejesus out of Katie, we needed a night when it was only Ellen and us. So, about 8:00 we queued up the movie and the little squirt sat in rapt attention for 2+ hours as one of my all time favorite movies slithered its way into our living room. Much to our surprise, she wasn't scared by some of the corpses or exploding heads or snakes or other bits of movie nastiness, but, to illustrate her naiveté, she did ask early on if the people who were getting killed in the movie were really dead.

What I liked best were two things. First, regarding the scene with the Germans getting their faces melted by the wraith of God after opening the Ark, she said how great the "graphics" were. Trying to conceive of a movie made before there was computer animation in it boggled her mind. Second, when it was all over, and I asked her how she liked it, the simple answer was "That was amazing!"

A new, life-long fan, and well deserved.

Katie has a weekly assignment to write either a journal or a story or poetry over the weekends for class. For this weekend, this is what she came up with (and she drew a picture to illustrate it):

Lilly, Lilly ballerina. Lilly lilly on the wall. balance standup very tall. skips and twirls across the stage. Oh, no an "F!" Towering rage. will she do a good job? yes! bravo! Encore!

Cute, isn't it?

Today, the family bid adieu to our beloved hermaphrodite, Joe-Anna. The resident snail of Ellen's bedroom, and mother/father to fully 16 currently living offspring (which may explain why s/he died...), passed away today at an indeterminate age. The truly interesting part of this story, however was the funeral service that Ellen came up with and performed.

She asked that we all wear something black and follow her outside where she would conduct the funeral. With Ellen standing on the deck, after she guided us to stand in front of my apple trees, she read first from Genesis, and then recited from memory (and as dramatically as you can imagine, complete with hand gestures and dramtic pauses) the story of Pandora and how Death was released upon the world. According to Kim, Ellen thought it appropriate to say something about how life started and ended.

Finally, she finished by digging a small grave and putting Joe-Anna (who had been sealed inside a single egg carton shell) into the ground. After covering him/her with dirt, she allowed Katie (who was quite bored by this point) to place the headstone dedicated to Joe-Anna the snail, indeterminate birth date, date of death September 8, 2007.

Safe passage, Joe-Anna. Ellen will look after your children.