Oh, The Horror Of It All...

I love horror movies. Yep, I do. Not only me but my whole family loves horror movies. It is not uncommon to find us all sitting around watching something creepy and then plan to re-inact it on Halloween.

So before you all decide I am crazy let's pick apart a horror movie and we can start with "Scream" not one of my favorites but it incorporates "the rules" of a horror movie which is always one of the most important things to remember when watching. This is one of your standard slasher movies in which the core group being attacked are high-schoolers. We start with the murder of a girl alone at home who decides to flirt with some stranger over the phone. Bad choices = bad consequences. This is always a main theme of a horror movie. Especially if those choices are drugs, drinking, and casual sex. Since these activities are rampant among teens they make an easy target for the psychotic murderer. If you move on from this type of film to something like "Last house on the Left" you see what happens when parents are involved and it isn't pretty for the psychotic murderer. Back to "Scream" we see that these kids begin to formulate a plan for survival but are always thwarted by the "it can't happen to me" attitude and end up dead in a myriad of creative and horrific ways. Until we reach the end when the good kids live and the virginal, quick thinking GIRL saves the day.

So tell me what about this would I not want to impart to my children? Make bad decisions and it could kill you, is that extreme? Yes, unless you are the parent of a child who has died from a poor choice. Be smart and always be aware of your surroundings, this is good advice for everyone. Your boyfriend could be a crazy stalker murderer, thankfully this isn't always the case but unfortunately it has happened so be careful ladies and gents. Girls are strong and can save the day, hell yes they are and can. I do not want my kids to be limited by society's idea that only a man can save the day. 

Horror movies are a great way to open communication to talk about many different things that ordinarily you may have a hard way to ease into. 

As an end I am making a list of our top 3 favorite horror movies enjoy!

Hubby

1. Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte
2. Psycho
3. Silence of the Lambs

Me

1. Homicidal
2. Where Sleeping Dogs Lie
3. The Wicker Man

Son (13)

1. Friday the 13th
2. Resident Evil
3. Halloween

Oldest Daughter (12)

1. Candyman
2. Descent
3. The Ring

Middle Daughter (6)

1. Dead Silence
2. Monster House
3. Sweeny Todd

Youngest Daughter (4)

1. Trick r Treat
2. Silent Hill
3. Jaws

This is by no means an exhaustive list believe me there are soooo many I would love to list. I would love to hear what some of you favorites are. 

Well behaved women seldom make history.......

I see this little quote all over the place, have you seen it? It seems to have been turned into an anthem for women everywhere. What does it mean?

It was in an article for “American Quarterly,” about the pious and extremely well-behaved colonial women described by Cotton Mather as “the hidden ones,” that Ulrich made her now familiar observation . The author of the sentence is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich who has since written a book of the same title. 

I feel we as women take so many things for granted, there was a time when our voices were not heard, when we were basically equal to slaves. Yet women worked within those societal and oftentimes legal confines to make a way for themselves and their daughters a way to have a voice and an opinion and a way to be safe in their homes. These women were amazing soldiers in the war of equality among men and society, we have come a very long way. These women took a stand against injustice and made themselves be heard, they did it with grace, with elocution, with education, with families at home, with husbands and families that weren't supportive, they did it because they felt a calling. So when I see these stickers and t-shirts and mugs with this cute little saying, I wonder do you know the women you are referring to, is it you? Are you facilitating change? Are you raising women to stand in the face of adversity and to do what is right despite the cost? It's a tall order and a great burden but as we have seen in the past and will see in the future we can bear it and we will carry on the torches handed to us by those beautiful strong souls that have come before us.

We are not done yet changes are coming, women are still enslaved are still unequal are still treated as property. I have hope that one day freedom and equality for women will be worldwide.

Meet 100 Women Who Changed The World

Time to CLEAN house!

Uggghhh it's that time again! Time to clean house, admittedly this is something I do about once a week, I know I'm a slob. I currently have about 5 loads of laundry to wash fold and put away by Friday, my fridge to clean out bathrooms to clean and a floor to mop. It may not sound like allot but it is.

So lets go with laundry...
Me and laundry we have a love hate relationship I hate washing folding and putting away clothes, however I like wearing it. And let's just say for arguments sake the general public is also grateful that I wear clothes.
So here is what a normal dirty laundry pile and clean laundry pile look like at my house... To your right is a lovely pile of dirty laundry, I firmly believe this pile is capable of hiding at least one adult or two children.
And the lovely picture to your left would be the mounds that now need to be folded and put away, I would like to add that they are all placed on a lovely made bed so I feel like I should get some bonus points for that or something.


The fridge was much easier to keep clean before I started juicing, now it is full of so many veggies that it looks like I am trying to turn my fridge into a greenhouse. But Again I think I should get some points here for the "starting to make healthier choices" category.

Bathrooms are the bane of my existence, Why do they not clean themselves already? What is a soap and make-up hoarder supposed to do to keep a bathroom clean? On top of that bathroom number two is used almost solely by children which makes it even harder to keep clean. I think they each use a quarter of a toothpaste tube to brush their teeth every morning.

So for a while I did flylady which works really really well if you have the time to put into it, I know its only supposed to take a few minutes but in reality it takes a bit more time. I did this for quite a while and then something happened. I have heard of this happening to other people but I had no idea just how much time

the Derby Monster can take to tame. Now if you know derby at all you know it isn't all skating it's committees and groups and games and papers and studying and 50 emails, texts, facebook messages, or calls in one day especially if a game is coming up. Of curse I wouldn't change it for the world which means the world has to understand that the house only gets cleaned about once a week. 

Oh by the way I need to get a move on it because I have practice tonight!

Time to pull up the big girl panties...

I am sitting here drinking my green lemonade (a juice I made out of: 2 apples, 1 lemon, 1 head of romaine, and 5 or so Kale leaves) and I am thinking "SOOOOO it is time to pull up the big girl panties and make some changes." 

Yummy green lemonade

I really hate change because it makes me uncomfortable, but I recently heard a crazy ass (awesome) coach say "do something everyday that scares you" That's not me I don't do that! I am starting to think maybe it is time. Today I am wearing my skates all day.

Do you not see the large grout lines here!!!! By the way, I made my lemonade with skates on.

 I know that may not seem too scary to some of you but to me it is frightening. I have huge tiles with huge grout lines (meaning huge cracks, see them they are HUGE) I hate cracks. I have had a very close relationship with a crack in a park and I have to say when you are a "big girl" you don't catch air often but this mighty crack sent me flyin'!!!

It's time to challenge myself. This is pretty hard for me because I am big and slow and self conscious  about my lacking skill set. I hate to feel like I may be holding someone back but I hate the idea that I may be the only thing holding myself back, even more. It's time for me to see what I am capable of, maybe it isn't what I have hoped but how will I ever know if I don't pursue it? Last night one of the beautiful people I know (all the people I know are beautiful to me in some way or another) gave me a little reality check. I hate being figured out and she did it in like a few seconds, she had my number before I even opened my mouth to give it to her! Time to move on or stay put. the choice is up to me. Harsh words and I think I heard them because she said it not to be mean but because it was the truth.

How bout you are you holding back from something that you know you can accomplish? Are you the voice inside your own head telling yourself you can't do it or you aren't good enough? How will you ever know what you are capable if you don't give it all you got?

It's time to Doooo Itttttt!!!!

I really want steak for dinner, please...

Ok, I am not vegetarian by any sense of the imagination. I do like to drink fresh juices and I really love salads but that's about it. As for meat I love it especially in the form of bacon. So last night I made some asparagus, mushroom, onion and cheese stuffed chicken breasts. My littlest says "Please Mom no rice, I hate rice". Like we have rice with every meal or something! We don't, but even when I make it, it is usually some kind of special rice, not plain rice. So I am feeling a little defeated right about now because my baby thinks my rice stinks. I recover from setbacks pretty quickly and I say "how about salad". She is good with salad, which she refers to as "flowers". So as soon as I pull my beautiful stuffed chicken out of the oven, my oldest says "Mom, can we have steak for dinner tomorrow, I really just want some steak". Of course you want steak because I made this beautiful chicken!!!! Man, it was not my night. Of course dad scored the home run because his contribution to dinner was Oreos. How can I compete with Oreos?

So as for the workout I suggested that I would be doing yesterday, I totally lied. I didn't do it. But I did do it this morning. I even have a really good (at least in my mind) reason for putting it off. See if I did it yesterday I would be sore today and since I have practice today I might as well do my workout and practice in the same day so I can be sore tomorrow, an off practice day. I know it totally makes sense, to a procrastinator! Anyway I did my Ketteworx and I survived. It even felt a little good. My knees are still giving me some trouble so I am drinking my comfrey root tea, and applying my comfrey ointment. Not to mention taking some glucosamine. I feel like an old lady!

The rest of my plans today include Silent Hill Downpour and some knitting. working on the Pendleton Cowl from the Stumptown Knits KAL, oh and I almost forgot I have to go pick up some steak...

NSO's are Superstars too! Um, WTH is an NSO?

The NSO or Non-Skating Official is a statistics person that stands in the middle of the track. So cool but I still don't know wth you are talking about! If you play or watch Roller Derby you know exactly what I am talking about! That's right Roller Derby, no not that "Whip It" thing ( I love that movie by the way). No not quite like you used to see on TV either. I am talking about Women's Flat Track Roller Derby, a strategic game of speed, agility, and physical contact. Yes there are some booty shorts involved and often times some fishnets but these girls are hard core athletes and deserve to be treated as such.

Now an NSO would be the people you see in black in the center of the track with the refs. These volunteers (none of us get paid) track scores, penalties, jams, the penalty box and perform a multitude of other tasks. So when the refs are making those calls the NSO's write it all down, when the ref gives the score the NSO's keep track. Don't get me wrong I love my refs, but sometimes they make a call using only hand signals, now it still needs to be written down so you have to be familiar with rules and hand signals. We make sure the scores are correct, we let teams know when their players are close to a major (a penalty that you have to sit in the box for), We have to listen to many different refs at once and decipher the information given in a matter of seconds (since a jam only lasts up to 2 minutes it is very fast paced).  On top of all of that  we have to wear black because we are as neutral as Switzerland and we CANNOT cheer for our favorite skaters or our team. That was in bold because I totally understand that rule but it blows.

We NSO's try to keep the same standards so we have online boards and groups to confer with each other. WFTDA training clinics are held annually where you can hone your NSOing abilities and use them at national levels. We are there for the love of the game and to support the girls that have worked their booty short covered asses off to bout. So thank an NSO for their dedication to the sport and the team and if you think you might be interested in giving it a shot contact your local league, I am positive you have one in your area or one really close by.

Non-Skating Official/Volunteer Descriptions of Positions

Inside Penalty Tracker—Writes minor and major penalties that skaters receive during the bout 
on penalty tracker sheet.  Must pay attention to inside penalty referee who tells you what type of 
penalty and which skater receives a penalty. 


Outside Penalty Tracker—Writes major and minor penalties on dry erase board for NSOs who 
relay outside penalty information to inside penalty trackers.  Must pay attention to outside penalty 
referees who tells you what type of penalty and which skater receives a penalty. 


Scorekeeper—Writes each jam’s score on scorekeeping sheet.  One scorekeeper must relay each 
jam’s score to the scoreboard operator.  Must pay attention to jam referee to get score of each jam. 


Penalty Box Timer—Times skaters’ penalties when they sit in box. 


Jam Clock Timer—Blows whistle to signal the start and end of each jam, and when the pack passes 
the pivot line, allowing the jammers to go. 


Scoreboard Operator—Uses computer program to time the period, jam, and 30 seconds between 
jams; and inputs each team’s jam score from the scorekeeper.


Inside Stat Board—Indicates on large dry-erase board which skaters have 3 minor penalties, and 
need to go to penalty box for the forth minor. 
Relaying outside penalty info to inside penalty trackers—Sees minor penalties written on the 
outside penalty dry erase board and tells the inside stat board and inside penalty trackers to mark a 
minor penalty for the skater and the penalty. 


Door Checker—Stands at the door entrance and tallies the number of adult and children’s pre-sale 
tickets, and the number of adult and children attendees who pay at the door.   


Line-up Tracker—For each jam, writes players’ numbers and indicates if a player entered the 
penalty box in the middle of a jam or started a jam in the penalty box. 


Merchandise—Sets up merchandise table and items for purchase.  Completes merchandise form 
that tallies the number of merchandise items prior to selling and after final purchases at the end of 
each bout (home and away). 

Announcer—Announces both teams at bout and provides commentary of action during bout and 
promotes merchandise and attending after bout party. 


Photographer—Takes professional-looking pictures at home bouts. 

Videographer—Records video of home bouts. 

EMT/Medical Assistance—Provides medical assistance to hurt skaters during the bout.