Wii!!

Wii!!!
I played the Wii (pronounced We) for the first time yesterday and it was amazing!
For those of you who don't know, the Wii is the new gaming console from Nintendo that comes out this Sunday. Now for some of you are probably thinking video games are no big deal and that you don't care, but you're wrong. The entire marketing behind this new system is aimed at non-gamers, especially non-gamers over 40.


Now I know that sounds weird, why would Nintendo spend money marketing towards people who aren't even going to buy this, well once you have seen it you just might.
The Wii is a revolution in gaming, instead of a typical controller you use the Remote, or Wiimote as some are calling it, The Wiimote, as seen below, is shaped like a television remote and is strapped to the wrist, there are about 4 buttons total, two towards the bottom, one big on towards the top, a directional pad, and a trigger in the back. Now all that looks different, but the real revolution is that the controller is motion sensitive. If you're bowling you move your hand just like you're really bowling and the ball will move the same way, if you're playing baseball you pitch or swing the ball much like you would in an actually ballgame and the characters on the screen do the same.


Now if you're playing a game like boxing you can attach the Nunchuk, seen below with the Wiimote, and hold the Wiimote in your dominant hand and the nunchuk in your other hand. Too punch you punch with your hands, to block you pull your hands up to your face, the more force behind you're punch the more powerful the punch on screen.


There are even more games out there, I played Excite Truck, a racing game, and you turn the Wiimote sideways in your hand and steer like you would a car, if you want to go left you steer left, if you want to go right you steer right, the only button you have to push is for gas, there's even an attachment that comes with a couple of other racing games, shaped like a steering wheel, you place the Wiimote in the center and you only use the steering wheel, to go faster you slant the steering wheel forward, to slow down you pull it back, and the rest is just like steering a car.

Now the Wii comes with one game, Wii Sports, which includes the aforementioned baseball, bowling, and boxing, plus tennis and golf, which are played much like the real sport. I also got to play the new Zelda game, where you use the Wiimote as your sword, slashing and attacking just as you do, and the nunchuk as your shield.

All in all the games were awesome and the whole experience was a gamers Nirvana. Personally I started looking into the Wii last week and changed my X-mas list from money for a Video iPod to money for a Wii. But I've found out that the Wii will likely be hard to find for a while after X-Mas, so I'm going out this Sunday, early morning, to try and find myself a Wii during the opening day rush. If I'm successful, it will be part X-mas gift from Jeri, and part from money I've been saving for this, but ti will remain wrapped under the tree until Christmas (mainly so i actually study for Finals)
So wish me luck this Sunday as I venture out at about 5am to find myself what might possibly be the Greatest Gaming Invention Ever!!!
You can learn more at http://www.wii.com and be sure to watch some of the Wii Experience Videos to see some people actually using the Wii.
Here's a Video:

My New Favorite Video!

That is all!
Travis

Halloween Party

We went to a costume party last night. Here are some pictures.

No, the "tattoo" on my wrist is not real. Just marker.

Just a few things

So, it is almost November. Travis is almost half way finished with Law School (praise God) and I am halfway finished with my masters too. Working full time and going to school wears me out, but it's worth it. And, none of you people can say that you go to work and look at the Pacific Ocean all day.

I have to say, while a good many of my kids at work are spoiled beyond rotten, they are very sweet- all of them. And they are generally very good...none of them are in anger management or play therapy like many of my kids when I work at Head Start. Growing up in Malibu some of them may end up in therapy for most of their adult lives, but that is an entirely different story. :-)

A couple of months before we moved here some of the businesses down by Starbucks were destroyed by a fire (thanfully my dear Starbucks was not harmed). The businesses burned down included a movie theater, Ben and Jerry's, and a "mexican" restraunt - I use the term "mexican" loosely, because I am sorry...but I have yet to taste any good mexican food since moving here. Anyway...today i was asking some of the kids if the Ben and Jerry's was open again, because they have been working on getting those places up and running. One kid said, "No Mrs. Tidmore, it was fired up." :-) Hilarious. One kid has speech problems, and calls my Ms. Tinfore. He just can't say Mrs. Tidmore...but he says Ms. Tinfore at least twice in every sentence he speaks to me.

One little girl's parents both write for TV shows. I won't say which shows on here, if you want to know you can call or something. But the little girl is is quite possibly one of the funniest kids I have ever met, without trying to be funny. Her parents are always telling her jokes, and she comes to school and wants to tell me the jokes. A couple weeks ago, I got this one: "what flowers grow between your nose and your chin?" see, I really didnt know the answer to this, so I was genuinely entertained by this joke, and yes, even if it wasn't really that funny to me I would laugh at a 4 year old's joke...but I liked this one. The answer? You are probably quicker than I and have already figured it out..."two lips." What flowers grow between your nose and your chin? Two lips (tulips). :-)

The kids pack their lunch, no, the parents pack the kids lunch and they bring it to school. Their lunches KILL me.

• Crackers wrapped in sea weed. WHAT??
• Clif bars, which are made of soy beans and what looks to me like poo (I THINK they are supposed to ressemble a granola bar?). I tasted one. I promplty spit it back out. NASTY.
• Ceasar salad. Yes. A three year old with a Ceasar Salad lunch.
• Hummus. PUKE. One little girl (3 yrs old) comes almost ever day with a little container of hummus and various food items to dip in said hummus.
• Avocado sandwiches. While I am completely in favor of any meal involving avocado, I have never seen a 3/4 year old eat an avocado sandwich.

Mom...I am glad you steared clear of very strange lunch choices and stuck to the basics. Although...these kids seem perfectly happy eating their 500% organic meals with 0% taste. So, whatever. But I can't help but think that my kid would stick out like a sore thumb in these parts because I couldn't pack my kid something to eat that would make me puke. So...good ole PB&J wins out for me. A little turkey sandwich, whatever happened to that? I'm all for healthy...but I'm all for taste too. Healthy does not equal nasty to me. I'm less for the cardboard/poo granola bar like items and more for the actual granola bar items. Call me old fashioned, but I like a little food in my food. Have you ever seen the movie "The Breakfast Club?" Well, they are all in detention. It's lunch time, Claire (Molly Ringwald) pulls out her lunch and it is sushi. They all look at her like she is crazy, and she finally says, "Can I eat?" and the guy says, "I don't know, give it a try." Yeah, lunch is an adventure at my place of employment.

Ok...to round off this terribly long post, have you tried Vitamin Water? It's GREAT! At least the grape one I am drinking right now is like an explosion of crazy flavor in my mouth. Seriously, go to the market as soon as you read this and buy one. It's a toned down version of gatorade. YUMMY.

Whoa!! More than one post in one day!!!

So...I wanted to post some pictures of the super fun Dodger's game we went to for my birthday (a couple months early). The game was September 23. It was our last game till next season to attend, and it was great! The seat Travis got were FABULOUS!!!!!

View from our seats.

More of the view from our seats.

Russell Martin!!!

Me, obviously.

Nomar Garciaparra

Jeri's 12 of 12 part 2

here's the rest that wouldn't post.











Friend John.

More overpriced alcohol. Notice all the sale tags. Still not affordable.

Yeah, I don't know.

Bonus!! Happy Halloween!

Jeri's 12 of 12

I haven't had time to post these yet. I took them on the 12th, but posting them on the 14th. Anyway...here they are. (time stamp is 2 hours later than it actually is)









A tiny pepper plant.













Travis pretending to juggle.










'Shrooms.










Us.









Overpriced produce.









My drug of choice.










Tilt your head to the right. I forgot to flip this. A display of tortillas.









Overpriced alcohol.











Lamp post, and tree.

So, blogger won't let me post the rest of my pics. I will make another post for those.

Travis' 12 of 12

12 of 12 is the newest Internet Craze Swiffering the Nation! Take 12 pictures on the 12th day of each month and post them online, so here it goes my first 12 of 12. BTW the time stamps are all 2 hours off for some reason.

I forgot to take the camera with me today so I didn't start until almost 5 o'clock, here's the first one: Jeri curled up in "Her" chair with her beloved Dodgers Blanket.


This is the autograph card I pulled out of a pack of Baseball cards I bought today, It's a player for the Phillies (John Krug I think) and it's his actual autograph. I've gotten back into collecting cards since we started following the Dodgers.


Another card, this one came out of a topps pack I bought today, for some reason Topps has "Signers of the Declaration" and "Signers of the Constitution" cards randomly inserted in with their Baseball cards, maybe as a way to educate the nation.


Bonus Picture: This months Bonus theme is Halloween! This is the Halloween decorations outside of our apartment.

I captured this pic of the sunset from the steps outside out apartment. I like the way the sun and the clouds mix.

Another Sunset this time with a pit og the hills surrounding Pepperdine and the Ocean in the Picture.

Jeri as we get ready to head to the grocery store and to get some coffee.

Some Car's Head and Tail Lights as it passes by the intersection we were sitting at.

Ahh Ralphs, the local (Overpriced) Grocery Store!

I took this Self Portrait in the Rear View Mirror, hence the strange reflection of my hand across my face.

The Sign outside the local starbucks, and incidentally Planet Blue Kids, apparently in Malibu there's enough kids from this strange "Planet Blue" that they have their own store!

Jeri taking the first sip of her Mable Machiatto, this was her first time to try it and apparently it wasn't good. I think this might by my favorite of all the pics I took today!
And Finally a group of deer! These deer are constantly roaming around outside our apartment, at least until you want to take pictures of them, luckily there were several walking around when we came home from Starbucks. This was the best one I got. I really like the intensity of the Glowing eyes, it's slightly spooky.

Feel The Excitement

So, not many of you, if any at all, probably caught last night's Dodgers game or scores. Did you hear about the game? If not...it is a GREAT story. I have come to love baseball. My poor husband has been dragged to game after game...he does enjoy them, but I am sure not as much as I do. While the Dodgers are my number one team, I have found myself flipping channels and stopping on a baseball game - that wasn't my Dodgers. Now, anyone that knows me at all knows that me and sports of any kind (with the exception of soccer) were never pals. A live football game can be fun, and a live basketball game can be fun too. But I would NEVER watch a football game or basketball game on TV. You could not pay me enough to waste however many hours of my day watching those two sports on television. Until a few months ago...that is how I felt about baseball.
Whatever it was that changed my mind (Travis will tell you it was Russell Martin) it is just fine with me. I LOVE baseball. LOVE IT. It is so much fun. I don't know a bunch of baseball history and I am still learning the game, but anytime you want to go to a baseball game I'm right there with ya. My second home is Dodger Stadium. Last night's game just made me a BIGGER fan of baseball, if that is at all possible.
I won't bore you with all of the moments that I thought were exciting in the game (even though I didn't see every minute of it) but I will tell you that my boys hit 4 Home Runs in a ROW. That was a very exciting few minutes, and I could not believe it. They made several good come backs in that game against the Padres (San Diego), with whom they are neck and neck for their division spot in the playoffs.
If you want to watch this game I am talking about...come on over. I am happy to re-live every beautiful moment with you.

American Idols Live!!!

Travis is out tonight, I'm watching the Dodgers on TV. They are winning, of course, thanks to my boy Russell. We are going to one game for sure on Friday and possibly another game either on Saturday or Sunday. We finally got our t-shirts to support our favorite player...yes you guessed it....Russell Martin. We will be wearing those this weekend. Dang, the Reds just scored. Okay okay, I better write this and get back to the game.

Saturday night we went to AMERICAN IDOLS LIVE concert!!!!!!! WOO HOO!! It was AWESOME!! We didn't take the camera in, but we had great seats. Thanks to Travis' job we got FREE tickets!!

We have a couple pictures from before the concert, but of course blogger isn't letting me post them. Oh well, I'll post them tomorrow if it will let me.

Travis is in his second week now of his second year. Things are going well. I only have one week left of my job and then I have 3 whole GLORIOUS days off of work before I start my new job! I am excited. I can't wait to get back to doing what I know I am good at.

Ok, I have to get back to my game and my trail mix. It is an exciting night here in our apartment. I was hoping I would find the Dodger's game on TV to watch while Travis' was out. Quiet night. I need one of those every once in a while.

That's all folks!

It's been a while!

Ok, so, it has been a month since we posted. I decided to update. My mom will be glad since she reads this thing 100 times a day. Hi mom (becky mom).

So we have been busy. Our friends Kenny and Jennifer from ACU ame to visit us the beginning of this month. It was fun. We did a tour of Warner Brother's studios and saw some filming of the Gilmore Girls.

We also went to a very strange play called Lobster Alice. It stars Noah Wyle and Nicholas Brenden. Travis and Kenny really enjoyed it, I think me and Jennifer we a little confused. Noah Wyle played Salvador Dahli, and he was PHENOMENAL. Seriously, he can act.

Last week Travis' parents came. We went to a taping of a new sitcom called "The Class." John Ritter's son Jason Ritter is in it. It was pretty funny. I reccomend trying it out when it starts in a few weeks. We also went to a Dodger's game. I have to say that I really like going to Dodger's games. Yes, I like Russell Martin, but he is not the only reason I like going. The game was boring for the first 9 innings because NO ONE scored. They played the Giants. Bottom of the 10th inning my boy (RM) gets up to bat and hits a walk off homer. Awesome.























Last night we went to a Law School BBQ. The new 1L's (first year law students) finished thier orientation and we met some of them at the BBQ. TONS of them have children. It is crazy. I mean, the ones that do have children have at least 2. It is hard enough without kids, I don't know how they do it. Better them than me. (I am sure that is a relief to several of you reading this, my sister, our parents-- no worries. We have at least 2 more years without em.)

At the BBQ I met one of Travis' professors from his first year. He could not say enough good things about Travis and kept going on and on about how he loved having Travis in his class. He told me that Travis was one of the most hilarious people he had ever met, and that we must laugh all the time. I told him he was not the first person to tell me that we probably laugh all the time. We do laugh a good bit of the time, and I think that is what helped us through his first year of Law School. His prof told me that it looked like Travis had his priorities straight because we seem to have a good relationship and he was proud of Travis for making it through his first year keeping our marriage first. I told him he was not the only one!! :-) But, I never doubted.
I was glad to hear that this professor liked Trav so much. I too, think he is hilarious. I am glad when others think so too. Travis starts his 2nd year on Monday. I am proud of him.

What?

You are 73% REAL Texan!!

You're way more Texan than average. You're parents were probably from here too. We're glad to have you. You probably go to the border for Christmas shopping and are well versed in BBQ, Mexican Food and .. well thats pretty much it.

How Texan Are You?

That seems low for me. Very low. I am doomed.

Three Years

Three years ago today I married my best friend.

Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God every time I remember you..."

More Vegas

I made this in photoshop from several pictures I took in front of the Bellagio. It's sort of a panoramic, hope you enjoy it. The next one is the same thing, but I used some pictures taken after it got a bit darker.


And here's a video of the fountain show we watched at the Bellagio, it's a bit shaky, but still looks great.

Viva Las Vegas

We went to Vegas for a few days this weekend for our anniversary. It was tons of fun. The following few post are just a few pictures from our trip, for somereason it wouldn't let me put them in one post. If you want to see more we have tons...just e-mail us. We didn't have time to do everything. We went to the shark reef and up the Eiffel Tower and the Stratosphere tower. We went to M&M world a couple times...bought a few things for the neice and nephews. The Coca Cola store was cool, too. Since we were only there a short time, we didn't go to any shows.





At the Belagio right before the water show. We will post a video of this later...very impressive.









These next pictures are all from the Shark Reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay...the blue blobs are jelly fish..