Family Edited DVDs

Hey guys, as promised I'm back to tell you about the movies we ordered from www.FamilyEditedDVDs.com! We got them in the mail yesterday, and as expected they were white discs with a label on them that says the movie title and "Edited for Content". They came in those paper sleeves with the clear circle. We got 14 movies, none of which he "had" to own... but thought it would be fun to see in an edited form. Plus they were cheap and have no language, etc... When you put them in, it goes right to the starting of the movie. No menu or anything.

Jeremy watched Troy today and said it was great, and was edited in what seemed to be all the right spots. So far we're happy with them! But if you want to get in on the store closing, you'd better act fast! Tomorrow, Jan. 31st is the last day!!!! They're $7.50 each with free shipping, but there's a 10 DVD minimum order. We don't watch the tube, so thought we'd stock up on some entertainment!

quotables

The other day, my 3 big kids each said their share of funny things without meaning to be funny. They were all within an hour or two of each other. Glad I grabbed the notebook to write them down! I'm so glad kids are funny.

Gavin, hot chocolate is our enemy. ~ Drew

I always feel good inside after I have sweets. ~Drew

It's not fair... they don't make fair games these days. ~Gavin

(Gavin) Mom, I think my brain needs some quietness. (Me) Do you wanna lay down? (Gavin) No, some computer time would help. (Me) hahahaha, nice try buddy. (Gavin) I'm seeweeous!

Can I cut some cheese for you? ~Morgan

Tonight after Jeremy got home from work, he was talking to Gavin about his behavior today. And Jeremy was listing some of the things he did wrong, and after Jeremy talked about him lying to his Mom.... Morgan piped up in all seriousness, "That's a problem." Jeremy and I had to hide our smiles and Jeremy promptly asked them to bow their heads so he could bless our meal and we could silently smile away!

Quadruple surprise!

Last night after our hike we came home to quite a surprise! Drewy ran out to feed Annabelle, but ran right back in without feeding her because he heard noises that he knew Annabelle wasn't making and thought it was a moose. Jeremy went out with him to investigate and what did he find that was making that noise??? PUPPIES! We had NO idea our doggie was even pregnant! SO, we have 4 adorable puppies and one very good mama dog living in our family room downstairs!
We have 3 male and 1 female, 2 black and 2 yellow! Annabelle is a lab, and that's what they look like for now, but we think the daddy is either the neighbor golden retriever or another dog that has been galavanting with our un-fixed dog! Oops, we've been talking about getting that done for a year now.... serves us right. :) But we're always up for adventures, why not puppies? So here they are in all their cuteness.

Annabelle is such a champ! We think she had them out there overnight in this freezing weather (thankfully it wasn't 2 weeks ago...) then we were gone all day yesterday. Thank goodness our boy was listening last night, or we might not have had such a happy story to tell. They were completely clean, she bit off the umbilical cord at just the right spot... what a gal. So we gave our doggie a triple wash bath today so our house doesn't smell like dog and built a huge plywood kennel on the linoleum for the 5 of them by our back door in the family room by the gas fireplace for warmth. It works perfectly. We're still a bit shell-shocked though, any one looking for a puppy?

Hmm... if you have a birthday coming up you'd better watch out, we know just the perfect gift! Black or yellow?

The last two weeks...

Here's 11 month old Annika taking a cruise around the living room. She only goes backwards, but it's a start! Her brothers and sister love to push her around the living room. She's all smiles.

This was an amazing sunset from last week! It looked like the glow of a huge fire.

Almost two weeks ago, I thought it would be fun to have a girl's night out to the movies! A big group of women went to see Bride Wars! It was a hilarious chick flick... very fun to see with friends. Carly and her mom, and Janeen left before the photo op... it was a fun night!

Yesterday Kep and Rachel invited us up to Hatcher's Pass for a hike/hunt on a great trail! The guys brought guns incase of rabbit and ptarmigan sightings, but as Rachel said on her blog.. we were a bit to much for any little critter. I'm sure they darted back in their little hole or hid behind a pile of snow while we passed. It was a fun trek on a nice day! The babies didn't make a peep on the entire walk... they're tough Alaskans already. :) And of course we had to hit DQ on the way back for lunch and ice cream! Yum! Thanks, guys for the great company and for getting us out of the house!

the Kroon family

favorite inauguration moments

Yesterday, I watched inauguration events in the morning, then again for the recap at night. I am a history buff and I found myself engrossed the process of Barack Obama becoming the President! I think I was too young before to really care about the swearing in of a brand new president. In 2000, I was busy with my first baby. I actually was in the hospital giving birth to Drew on Election day... on Nov. 7th. We watched it on TV while I was laboring! I had him 6 minutes after midnight. I don't remember anything about the following inauguration, how sad!

Today I found some fascinating pictures taken from space! Above is a picture taken 423 miles above the earth of the swearing in of President Obama on the Capitol steps. My favorite picture wouldn't download. It was zoomed farther out and showed the entire 2 million that were gathered there, they reached all the way past the Washington Monument. The White House was visible too. Someday, we'll make it there. I hear all the sights are free to get in to.

But honestly, the first thing that was a highlight for me was seeing Malia and Sasha take in the day. Not only are they adorable girls, but man... they are about to live an unforgettable life during an unforgettable time along with their Mother and Father. Yesterday, after watching some of the events with the kids on TV, we prayed for our new President as we started school. And today, we focused on Malia and Sasha.

I guess the parade ran a bit too long for Sasha. It said it was 2 hours long.



This picture reminds me of Jen and I. I was that little sister once.
I was a pest. I love Sasha's mischievous grin. As I was checking the news this morning, I came across this sweet letter that the Bush daughters left for the Obama daughters. What a gift!

Read the letter printed by the Wall Street Journal here:


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123239885943895155.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

My second highlight was seeing what seems to be a great relationship between Barack and Michelle. Seeing them dance brought tears to my eyes! Maybe because I'm a romantic. And her dress? Great choice. She was stunning.

So that's my superficial wrap-up of President Obama's inauguration! Nothing about him, but the women in his life made me smile. :)

My first published article!

Last week, I started submitting an article I wrote about Valentine's Day to various small newspapers; one local last week, then 3 out of state this weekend. I heard back from our local paper early last week, briefly stating that they were interested in reading it. I hadn't heard if they liked it or if it ended up in some inbox recylcle bin. This evening, I got a big surprise! My Dad and Marla Kay stopped by to congratulate me on the published article! HUH?? The Frontiersman published it in today's paper! I had no idea they were using it. So Jeremy drove up to the post office to snag a couple copies for us to read! I'll have to admit, I was a bit embarassed to have them read it right in front of me... At least with blogging, I don't have to sit with someone while they read a post. It was there alright, on the Opinion page... which I wasn't expecting... AND they put my personal email address on there for people to contact me! Yikes.

It was super exciting, but a bit disappointing at the same time... a sentence was mutilated when they stuck a title box over part of the article... they changed my title... and didn't write back with even a short note to tell me it was being published and when! I've learned a lot and am grateful that it was that easy to get an article published locally. It is really fun to see something you've written in print!

I've been doing tons of research on freelance writing this past month and have learned a bunch about the business. I am eager to submit more. Though it's a scary affair that isn't for the impatient! Waiting is so hard for this gal.

If you want to read it, they published it online as well:

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2009/01/19/opinion/columnists/doc4972b85d4d7f8490302172.txt

a sweet find

Today, I received A Walk to Remember (Family - Edited Version) in the mail from Swap A DVD! It was a movie I wanted to own if a few crass words and scenes disappeared. I was able to choose the Family Edited Version on Swap A DVD this fall and I was thinking no one would ever post it on there wanting to get rid of it. Someone did last week and sent it to me. I was so excited. So when I got it today, I started wondering how many other films are available in this version. My search led me to Family Edited DVDs. We have quite the collection of clean movies and would love to add to it since we don't watch TV. And there are tons of movies we're interested in seeing/owning if they cut out all of the language and sexual content. Who knew family edited movies existed? We had heard snippets about companies making them a couple years ago, then never heard anything else.

This company is liquidating their entire collection and closing their store on Jan. 31st. We're thrilled we found them before it is too late. Each DVD is $7.50 (that's half off) and there is free shipping. The only catch is that you have to buy 10 DVDs or more because they are trying to get rid of their inventory. We started searching and had no problem finding 10. Actually, we bought 14! No movie rentals for a LONG time for us! I found this tidbit of info about the company and it explains a little more....

"Family Edited DVDs, the leading provider of clean entertainment, is finally closing its business. After 6 years of providing clean edited movies, they are selling off all of their edited DVDs inventory. The following is recent statement from them:



Due to the current state of our economy, and other economic conditions, we are no longer able to stay in business. We are liquidating our inventory and closing our store.
We have thousands and thousands of edited archival backups that we MUST clear out of our inventory. This is your absolute last chance to get edited movies.



They have over 850 movie titles that are all edited to remove vulgar language, gory violence, and sexual content."

The only thing we're unclear about is whether they come in a nice case like A Walk To Remember or if that was done by another company. It kinda sounds like they burned on a DVD-R (for you techies) and don't have an official movie case. But we'll see when we get the box. Most are movies one or both of us have wanted to see, but didn't because of the reasons for it's rating. We're very discerning movie viewers and want to keep it that way!

Some movies like Titanic are great films except for (ahem) certain parts. We bought that one along with others that should have been pretty easy for them to edit. So, if you decide to expand your DVD collection and it turns out it's not what we thought... Sorry. :) Maybe you should wait until we get ours in the mail! I'll post about how it all turned out.

should I laugh? cry? or both?

It was one of those days... started off great, got crazy/frustrating in the middle, and ended beautifully. AND I could have used one of these thingamajigs today! What is it, you ask? It's a Banana Guard of course! Isn't it hilarious? But ingenious? They even have one that comes in Radiant Red... I'm not too sure I'd describe one of these as "radiant". But that's the one I'd choose. And the shape leaves much to be desired, but did they have a choice? I think not.

Okay, so here's the story. The day started with a great morning of school, we had a snack mid-way and finished around 1pm. Then before free time, Gavin, Drew and I were sharing the bathroom. They were brushing their teeth, and I was fixing my hair. I was wearing a tank top and Drew looks over at me and says.. "Mom, it looks like you have something under your arm! It looks like whiskers or something." And Gavin pipes up, "Yeah, Drew. Mom has whiskers under her arms." As if it was old news to him. I said, "Well, when you become an adult, you'll get hair under your arms too. But I just shaved it yesterday." They were all bewildered by that and quickly moved on to something else. While I had a good hearty laugh.

Annika took a 3 hour nap, which was great and the day was going smoothly. Then the kids were excused for some free time before we headed to town for art lessons. This was a make up class for their first class they missed last week! So I started packing the diaper bag, ran Annika's carseat cover through the wash, and got things cleaned up so we could leave the house at the right time. Then I remembered that the cell phone battery was getting low, so I dug it out of my bag. Enter the banana. I threw a banana in my bag yesterday on the way to church, because I usually eat my breakfast on the way to save time at home. But I was too full after my english muffin to eat it. It was never thought of again. Fast forward 24 hours. I reach my hand down into my bag to fish out my phone. I dug under my wallet to find something mushy laying on top of my phone. yuck

Yup, it's my banana that is now brown and mushed all over the outside and inside (even under the battery) of my poor phone. I wiped it up, not really thinking anything of it until I flipped it open to find the screen blank, the buttons not functioning, and I was unable to turn it off. So I put it in the diaper bag thinking that the girls and I would run to the phone store and have it fixed real quick while the boys were in art class for an hour and a half.

So we got in the van without another hitch after I packed 4 water bottles, pb&j's, and my workout bag ready for class tonight. I even let the kids watch a movie in our new van on the way. Things were looking up. We arrived 10 min. early to find out that we were an hour early! Hmmm.. this threw a hitch in all of my plans for the afternoon. I had 2 places to run and Jeremy to meet there to trade cars/kids so I could get to my workout at 6:15.

So we tromped back to the van, and headed to get the phone looked at. The agent was unable to fix it herself and announced that it would have to be serviced in Anchorage and we may need to buy a new phone. :( Okay... so back we went to the real start of art class. The boys were settled in class at 4:30, so I decided to try to squeeze in the other errand I had before I was meeting Jeremy back at the studio at 5:00. Which was the original ending of their class, when we would trade vehicles and I would head off to some time to myself and kickboxing. We made a mad dash to Target. (enter the hallelujah chorus) And made our exchange, then heading into the store to find the two items I needed. They had neither.

So got back in the car, then back to the studio. We made it before 5:00 to meet Jeremy. It was then as Morgan and I were reading a book in the van waiting for Daddy, that I noticed my gym bag was no longer on the front seat where I "left" it. I had hung it on the front door, where I always hang things that need to make it to the van when I'm heading somewhere.. and it wasn't there! At first I thought my car didn't lock like I thought it did and someone swiped it while I was in Target, because it looked like a purse sitting there. But once I thought about it for a bit, I realized I left it hanging on the door. :(

This was a big deal, because it was the first class I was going to go to since our van-less existence the past 2 weeks and since she reopened after New Year's. I was ready to head back. So I was so bummed...

Jeremy arrived and I told him the happenings of the last 2 hours . He listened as tears rolled down my cheeks. In the grand scheme, none of it was really that big of a deal... but all in one day? I was just too much for this lady. Instead of still taking some time for myself, I decided to head home with the fam. I just didn't feel like leaving them tonight.

As I drove down our road leading up to our house, I was laughing to myself. Then I saw it and laughed harder. The extension cord from our block heater on the van was stretched halfway down the driveway. Of course I forgot to unplug it before I drove off! We came inside and reheated leftovers for dinner. And lo and behold... as I was handing out drinks, I spilled an entire glass of water across the table. Just perfect. But the day was redeemed by Game Night. Jeremy started Monday game nights last fall. Morgan picked Candyland and guess what? I didn't even come in last. And now all are in bed. And I'm sitting with a cup of tea and my laptop. Sigh. It was a great day that makes me appreciate those "boring" days even more.

Homeward Bound

Cabin Fever has struck our family in a big way these past couple weeks... because we CAN'T leave the house when Jeremy is at work! Our van's transmission finally went out, and we've been home 9 days so far with no car (2 out of 11 days, I was able to get out to church and to a wedding.. woohoo!) 4 stomach flus including little Annika and way below zero temps and you've got the makings of an exciting bout of Cabin Fever.

I've been documenting our little homespun adventure through pictures.. and I know one thing for sure: I'm no Caroline Ingalls. How did Ma make it with her 3 girls indoors all winter? They didn't exactly have indoor playgrounds, libraries, and Target in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Drew read "A Little House Birthday" (We collect the My First Little House Books along with the chapter books...) to me today and one page shows Laura staring dismally out the window at the winter scene. It says "The winter seemed long, and Laura and Mary began to be tired of staying always in the house." And I was thinking, "Preach it, girl!"

So here's to finally bringing our new van home tonight,

Jeremy just called and he's on his way home with it!

What have we been up to? Here goes:

The boys were so bored one day, they decided to dig through their toy box and take pictures of things they wanted to Ebay! I might add that we've never sold anything on Ebay, we're just buyers. But they thought it was a great idea, so we now have pictures of a pair of shorts, a Hot Wheel car, a Happy Meal toy, a jet, an Etch a Sketch, etc...

Morgan and I started playing with our camera flash and discovered that if you cover the flash with your finger when you're taking a picture in the dark, the picture turns out red! We took pictures like that for a good 20 minutes. And that was on New Year's Eve, we're party animals, we know it.

I even took a picture of Morgan's hair to document how long it's getting....

We let Annika drink out of a regular cup, she got really wet, but had a lot of fun!

Lo, and behold... visitors! Jeremy's sister Jen, Jimmy, and their friend Alex from Oregon were up for Christmas and stayed a couple days with us... it was great fun. We miss you guys already.

We have been watching our Amaryllis bulb grow like crazy over these 2 weeks. It started blooming today. This picture was taken yesterday. And of course I picked it because it's my fave color, RED! You should try one, they're so easy and pretty!

My first outing on the 7th day was to Victoria's wedding in Anchorage! Jeremy and I have known Victoria since she was around 7 years old, and she's 21 now and married! She attended our church in Anch at Chapel by the Sea. She married an wonderful man (so we hear), and it was such a joy to be there that day.

Yesterday, we decided to look cabin fever in the face and laugh at it.... We started the day off with school...

then headed outside in -17 temps like crazy people...

did some sledding...

played with our doggie and snowboarded... then headed inside to warm up and....

bake some Y U M M Y cookies! Seriously, the best I've ever had. Thanks Mom, for the recipe, plus she sent me all the ingredients!

then, our day ended with a sick, sick little sis. This is me holding Annika about 10 minutes before the poor dear threw up. Thank the Lord she was in her high chair with bib on! She has been sleeping all day... seriously. She woke up for 20 min. at 10am, then slept 4 more hours, then was up for 1 hr. and is asleep again! The only plus to this whole sickness is that I've had the pleasure of having my sicky baby fall asleep in my arms twice today. That never happens anymore.

It actually has been really good for me to be home all these days. And the kids don't seem to mind a bit. Drew said he prefers being home to going out anyways. Jeremy just pulled up with our new wheels! Gotta go!!!