Why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Just Might Be the End of Me

I love Harry Potter and always have. I'm not a crazed fan--just a little geeky maybe. I've read the books only about a quarter as many times as my kids have, but I've loved them, too. The movies have had their highs and lows, but they all reference back to the books for me.

So, like the poster says, It All Ends. We have tickets for the midnight premiere tomorrow night. So what's the problem, you say?

Well, its certainly not this scene, which features one of my favorite actresses as possibly my favorite Harry Potter character showing off her awesomeness.

It definitely isn't this image, which makes me want to stand up and cheer without even having seen the movie. (We all know what is happening here, don't we?!) Neville finally gets to channel his inner Gryffindor!

It might just start with this poster, in which you get a glimpse of the cataclysmic destruction of what is probably one of the coolest and most beloved movie sets of all time. Yes, it was never real, but there is that little part of us that somehow hoped it was and, even knowing better, loved it anyway.

This is definitely one of the reasons. Can't even stand looking at this poster.

But, I can live with all those things, joyous or bittersweet. (I am, after all, not THAT crazy about this story.) My real dilemma is the fact that I am old and sleep is precious and often far too fleeting. And I am sacrificing it---loads of it--in honor of this darned movie.

We started our Harry Potter rewatch last week. It sounded like a good idea at the time (and still does), but I think we all went into it not realizing what a huge time commitment it was. Seven movies, some more than 2.5 hours long! I'm not the only one that is sleepy these days.

And tomorrow night, somehow I'm going to keep myself up until after midnight just to START watching another movie? And not make it home until 3am? And still manage to wake up at the somewhat normal time and still be a somewhat functional mom? And,did I mention that I'm old?

So, why am I doing this?

Because, even with all that, it is completely and utterly worth it. I don't think the movie will disappoint those who love the story. For my own sake, I would be perfectly happy to wait a few days and enjoy it at a reasonable hour of the day or night. But I'm doing this to make a memory for Max and Camille. My kids will never forget sharing this experience with Mom. They will never forget how excited they were waiting for that screen to light up. They won't forget doing something kind of crazy with their friends and their friends' moms.

So, you might not want to depend on me for much on Friday or Saturday or maybe even Sunday? I might not be coherent, but I'll have a smile on my face.

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Anderton

My wonderful niece, Nicole Green, married the equally wonderful Will Anderton in the Salt Lake temple on April 24th. I was fortunate enough to get to fly down for the wedding and join in the celebration.

It was cold and snowed like crazy, but that just made for more interesting pictures.

Nicole was the most relaxed, easy-going bride I've ever seen. While all the surrounding events were elegant and beautiful, the focus was on the importance of the ordinance. I think that is what made the day so special, in spite of the inclement weather. The bride and groom and their families really knew why they were there.

Father-of-the-Bride, Dave Green, keeps the bench dry for his daughter.

My cute niece, Michelle Green, still smiling in the cold and snow.

Great-Grandma Borders holds cutie-pie Kemry, daughter of Vandy and Tyrel Murri.

Windermere Half Marathon 2011

Brett ran his third consecutive Windermere Half-Marathon in May. He did a great job running and I was very proud of him. Keeping in shape to run this distance is time consuming and difficult, both mentally and physically. Added to that is the fact that he was running injured prior to his knee surgery in December, followed by a six week recovery period with no running at all. I'm not sure I could have come back from that, especially in that amount of time. Then again, I'm pretty much a wuss.


Two other fun things:

A bunch of other people I knew were running and I got to take pictures of them as well. Among them were my friends Emily and Shannan, who carpooleed with us for the race. Great photography lesson from Shannan's bright shirt: she was always easy to find in the huge crowds of runners. Next year, Brett won't be wearing a black shirt.

Fun thing number two: The reaction my BYU ball cap got while I was taking pictures on the sidelines. Lots and lots of "Go Cougars" "Yeah, BYU" and "Rise and Shout" comments from total strangers running the race. One was from a stringy old guy with a bare chest and hair (a wig?) halfway down his back. It made me wonder just how many other LDS runners were entered in this one.

Happy Birthday, Cam!

Hip, Hip Hurray! Cameron turned six on May 4th and wore the birthday hat to prove it.

(Deep Breath) Ahhh . . . ahhh . . . pwwwwttt! There go the candles!



We'd already had a really busy week and Cam's birthday was more of the same. (Can I remember now what even made that week so busy? Nope. Either it wasn't important or I'm senile or maybe even both.) No time for a fancy cake.

How do you make a little kid happy with a fairly plain birthday cake?

I have the answer: You put it in a bundt pan, frost it chocolate and tell them it is a doughnut cake! He was thrilled, bless his heart. He even called it a doughnut cake before I could tell him what it was.

Too bad I didn't have sprinkles! (I did, but the kids ate them. Welcome to my life.)


As it turns out, he opted for just the ice cream anyway. And who can argue--ice cream always trumps cake.


Isn't that right, Cam? Cam? Guess he's busy.


Without a doubt, the favorite present of the day was the blue triceratops Pillow Pet from Grandma Borders. Two months later and he still hauls it everywhere with him.

Now, that is birthday love! That would be a home run, Grandma. Good work, as always, though we still need to talk a bit about the hatchet that you got Max this year!

Turns out Cameron wasn't the only one celebrating his Birthday. Apparently in honor of the holiday, Natalie decided to hang around the backyard in her Birthday Suit.


How very . . . appropriate?


A big thanks to Natalie, who's celebratory nudity forced me to finally use the copy of Photoshop Elements that I've had for more than two years and haven't touched. Yeah for the blur tool!

Tidbits

A few tidbits from the last months:

No Ground Squirrel for Us. We're Happy to Eat the Goose.
(Borders family joke.)

This is what 15 pounds of goose made into sausage looks like. Max, a connoisseur of peppered beef sticks, Slim Jims and all things like unto them, is in his happy place.


Now Dash Away, Dash Away, Dash Away All

Natalie wishing for Christmas in April. Except her sled is a doll bed and her 'reindeer' a stuffed puppy and a blue teddy bear.


A Favorite Activity

If you ever need to keep kids happy, give them a bucket of water, an old paintbrush and send them out to the driveway.


Kindergarten Mother's Day Program

Cameron's Kindergarten class had a party for Mother's Day. I knew there would probably be a program, but didn't expect much participation from Cameron. Just sitting still with that many people in the room would be a success for him.

The program started off teary as his general ed teacher, Mrs. Kennedy read this truly horribly, devastating picture book that I probably will always hate even more than "I'll Love You Forever." It is called "Let Me Hold You Longer"and is about celebrating all the 'firsts' and 'lasts' you have with your child. The firsts are great, the lasts are killer. I don't know how she could read it out loud since all the mom's in the room and even the Aides were bawling by the time she hit the last page.

Then came the program, all about the seas and the creatures that live there. Cameron sang along with his classmates on some of the songs, did the actions on a few and generally stayed where he was supposed to be, which for him, is a huge success. Mixed in with the music, the individual children stood up and read a sentence they had written to describe their mom. I was so shocked when Cameron stood up. His teacher gave him a small paper, but he didn't look at it. His eyes found mine and locked onto them. He stared at me with such intensity and said very slowly and distinctly "My Mom is Good."

I cried. His aides cried. Some of the other moms cried. It was obvious how hard he worked to get that one sentence out--the one he had actually written himself. It was a crying kind of day, I guess.

I am so proud of all Cameron's hard work. We've seen so much progress lately and know how hard he's had to work to get there. Heavenly Father has great things in store for Cam and we are very blessed to be a part of his journey.

Rise and Shout, You Clever Child

One of my friends from our BYU married ward just posted this as her status this morning:

So we see this dead cougar on the side of the road on the way to AZ and Cade says, "Why couldn't it have been a Ute?"...good boy, good boy!!

Oh, that made my day. I love clever kids, especially when they bleed Cougar Blue.

Speaking of dead Cougars,---as in BYU alumni, not as in older woman after younger man--except that fits, too, because we are in that annual four month stage where Brett likes to remind me that I'm 'older' than he is--I'm not really dead. Just haven't had time to post anything for a while. I'll be trying to catch up over the next couple of weeks. Lots of neat things have been happening around here.

Mom Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde

When I was a kid, my brother Kurt used to wrestle for our high school. While we enjoyed watching his matches, they weren't the only source of entertainment available. We always kept an eye out for our town's own Dr. Jekyll/Mrs. Hyde, Mae Emmett.

Mae was (and is) a very nice, normal woman from my hometown. But every time her son Doug wrestled, she experienced some bizarre personality shift. That calm woman vanished and in her place appeared a screaming, hair pulling, fist pounding spectacle. Her cheers and yells were so loud they would overwhelm all the other ambient noise of the gym. If that weren't bad enough, as the match progressed, Mae would gradually move down the bleachers and closer and closer to the mats until she crouched at their very edge, pounding the floor with her clenched fist.

'COME ON, DOUGIE!!!'

Dougie?

If it weren't humiliating enough to have your mother screaming at you from the very mat you were wrestling on, did she HAVE to go and use your childhood nickname?

There wasn't a kid in that gym that wasn't at least half as embarrassed for Doug's sake as he was for himself. Doug's blue singleted teammates sat on the bench, heads bowed and slowly shaking from side to side in shared humiliation, hands covering their eyes.

If Doug wasn't doing well, the volume and ferocity of Mae's cries would increase along with the pace of her pounding. If it appeared that Doug might be pinned, her cheek would lay flat on the mat, along with the referee's, checking to see if both shoulders were down. All the time, the yells and screams would continue.

"GET OUT OF THERE, DOUGIE! GET OUT OF THERE! "

Once the match was over, Mrs. Hyde would take a break until the next match and Mae would quietly melt into the crowd.

When I was a kid I SWORE I would never be like Mae Emmett.

When we signed Max up for wrestling I knew I was about to have the chance to find out. I've watched enough wrestling to know that it is REALLY hard, sometimes even brutal. Pain is a given. Blood is pretty common. Broken bones are an occasional reality.


Could I watch someone hurt my little boy without going all Mamma Bear on the other kid? Or without humiliating him with a Mae-like spectacle?


Fortunately, the answer was yes, I could. At least for now. In part, I could do it because these kids are young and still learning the ropes, which means the amount of real pain they can inflict on each other is minimal. There was blood, but it was from Max's knee. If it had been his face? No guarantees.

The other thing that helped is that Max did really well against kids with lots more experience. He was never pinned in all the matches. He won lots, some on points and a few on pins and lost a few, all on points. No one ever pinned him because he is squirmy, strong and insanely stubborn about not giving up under those circumstances.


Maybe that means as the years go on and the competition gets rougher, I'll be able to handle it. Don't get me wrong. My heart was in my throat every time he stepped on the mat. I was so nervous for him I'd shake. But, I hope that I'll always be in control and not embarrass him.

Then again, who knows? Maybe I'll discover that I have that inner Mrs. Hyde, too, and go all Mae Emmett on him. Poor kid.

At least Max knows I'll never call him Dougie.