This has been a nice break from the regular grind and a good reminder of the movies I love. Thanks, Melessa. It's a movie meme. Here are the general rules:

• Pick 10 (or so) quotes from your favorite movies.
• Post them here for everyone to guess.
• Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
• NO googling or cheating by doing an online search. We use the honor system.

Since I have very few readers, have fun guessing the ones you know!

1. You can bend the rules plenty once you get to the top, but not while you're trying to get there. And if you're someone like me, you can't get there without bending the rules. Working Girl -- It's a classic. Probably the only movie of Melanie Griffith's that I like - especially since I can't really remember any others.

2. If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. Singin' in the Rain. I saw this for the first time when I had the flu my junior year of high school, and I was hooked. I've loved Gene Kelly ever since. I mourned the day he died.

3. Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Princess Bride. Way to go, A!

4. I didn't know you could fly a plane.
Fly, yes. Land, no. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I'm gonna give that one to you, A.

5. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. To Kill A Mockingbird. No one else but Gregory Peck could've played Atticus Finch.

6. Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn't make me Madonna. Never will. Another Working Girl quote by Joan Cusack. Loved that 80s hair.

7. The King's stinking son fired me, and thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it? Couldn't resist another Princess Bride quote, Melessa. Too many to choose from really.

8. We run stupid headlines because we think they're funny. We run maimings on the front page because we got good art. And I spend three weeks bitching about my car because it sells papers. But at least it's the truth. As far as I can remember we never ever, ever knowingly got a story wrong, until tonight. The Paper. I was in journalism school at the time, so I could really relate to alot of the movie especially the caffeine intake and swearing (not by me but by those around me).

9. Yeah, well if life were to suddenly get fair, I doubt it would happen in high school. Such an accurate statement from Sky High. Got that one, Melessa.

10. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. When Harry Met Sally. Too easy, A.

11. And if things had gone differently for me tonight then I probably wouldn't be saying any of this. I grant you everything. But give me this: he personifies everything that you've been fighting against. And I'm in love with you. How do you like that? I buried the lead. Broadcast News. Such a great flick! Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks and William Hurt. I had to put this in my Blockbuster queue since I haven't seen it in such a long time. I can't wait for it to get here.

12. I want my two dollars! Better Off Dead. One of the classics from my teen years, Melessa.

My college photography professor passed away this week. He made a great attempt at trying to teach me photography, and sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn't. Thank goodness he had his thermos because I know I wasn't easy to teach and there were others who were more clueless than I. Rest in peace, Woody.

A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Today I mailed off nearly 400 letters and delivered files for two different projects to two different printers. Maybe those shingles won't come back after all.

Now I have the next two days to fret (althought I'm not sure I've ever fretted) over parent-teacher conferences. One of the conferences should be pretty low-key. We will be sharing some concerns in the other. When I say "we" I actually mean D. He has been blessed with the ability to handle conflict calmly and rationally, so I'm going to be leaving it up to him to explain our issues. Hopefully, this will all be a non-issue and I will have a good report on Friday. Say a prayer and keep your fingers cross because the stress is making me a little ill. Thank goodness I'm so busy at work.

Happy Easter!

A combination of elements were working against me to try to get a decent picture on Easter -- Four kids, one of whom is only 16 months old; cold weather; the pressure of trying to get everything loaded so we could get on the road to grandma's house; and the lack of a real camera.

However, I managed to take this picture on only the second try, so I stopped right there and called it good.

Oh, the madness. And I'm not even talking about basketball. I haven't even had the time or energy to fill out my bracket, so I'm going to quickly write down the teams before I go to sleep tonight. Hopefully, that method will work out better for me this year than it did last year.

Anyway, I have so many projects going on write now that I felt like I could've had a panic attack during a staff meeting today. I've never had a panic attack, so I'm not sure what it feels like. But if it's anything like a concrete block sitting on your chest and an overwhelming desire for an alcoholic beverage whether you like one or not, then that's what I was having. As a result, I gave myself the night off. I sent the older three kids to my parents for the night, so my MIL wouldn't need to watch them tomorrow. And D and I went to dinner at a nice restaurant. It could've been nicer if we had a babysitter for Spencer, but dinner with only one child is still a treat.

I may forget to blog over the next couple of weeks because some of my projects already require a significant amount of writing. On the other hand, I may remember to blog just to give me a break from the other stuff I will be writing about. We'll see how it goes.

Now I'm off to complete my Wii workout for the day. It's the most consistent exercise I've gotten in a very long time.

Let the madness begin. D took timeout from our all-too-brief spring break getaway to print out the men's NCAA bracket. We were pleasantly surprised to see the Sooners get a 6th seed. It feels like they've been gone from the tournament for so long, and it feels good to be back. I'm not sure how long they'll last, but I'll enjoy the stay. I'm happy for Baylor. They have played so well and deserve to make it into the tournament.



Now, I have to start picking my teams. D and I always fill out brackets and usually wager dinner or something. I try not to put too much thought into it, but I do base my decisions on more than a team's mascot, school color, etc.

I used to get more excited about this time of year, but when I could spend the entire time focused on basketball. Now, I have a few other distractions. Regardless, I'll still find a way to fit it all in. And some day, I will be retired and spend my March following the madness -- literally.

What were they thinking?

State House approves law that would allow concealed weapons on campuses; state Senate to vote

I am so tired, but after tonight I and a group of individuals will have helped make many, many people very happy and, in many cases, changed their lives and as a result hundreds of children's lives will be impacted as well. That is not an exaggeration. I don't always necessarily feel like I have my "dream" job -- I don't really know what that is, but I do believe I have the best of both worlds.

I have a career doing work I value and more importantly I feel valued by those I work for. At the same time, I only work part time (most of the time) and it is relatively flexible, so I still am available for my kids' activities and can volunteer at school -- hopefully a little more once Spencer is a little older.

Life is good.

I didn't realize it has been a week since I had blogged. I had another post in mind, but I've decided it's much too controversial too put out there into the blogosphere. So I shared my rant with my husband and one of my best friends. Hopefully, that got it out of my system.

This week may be very light on the blogging as well since I have some type of activity every evening, and this is the only day I don't have something specific I have to do -- and I'm trying to keep it that way. I'm on my own this evening so I'll be attempting to get Anna to Girl Scouts and Jeremy to Boy Scouts. Fortunately, Anna's troop moved up the meeting time so rather than meeting at the same time, she'll be meeting a half hour earlier. Isn't it amazing how things will work out when you don't worry about them?

Now, if I can just manage not to worry about how I'm going to get Anna to her soccer game tomorrow and and maybe still drop the two oldest off at skate night before making it on time to bunko. And did I mention that I'm crossing my fingers that D makes it home in time so that I don't have to take any kids with me to bunko? Yeah, I'm going to try not to worry about it. Of course, I'll be so busy at work preparing for huge meetings on Wednesday and Thursday that I won't have time to worry about what's going on in my personal life Tuesday evening.

And then I'll spend Friday dealing with the fall out of the meetings but that evening I get the pleasure of taking my daughter to see Annie. I know there are people out there who hate that particular musical, but I believe every little girl should see Annie on stage. My daughter is very excited to see it, and I'm excited to take her.

Now if I can get some rest before then...

Anna had a great time at the young writers conference. She bought a few books, met the authors and got the books signed by them. She took two classes taught by authors and one of them wrote poetry which she seemed to really enjoy.

I took her to lunch after it was over, and we had a very enjoyable time. As many meltdowns and drama queen moments as she can have, moments like we had that day are so worth it.

She has started reading one of the books we bought and is really enjoying it. Even better - it has a Christian focus. The author also has a Web site with games and other activities, so we'll have to bookmark it. Anna is already talking about going again next year, and she's trying to talk Jeremy into going when he is old enough.