Techno Dance, Harry Potter, and a Rooster

Techno Dance
Each month there is a Stake Dance here that Marlayna has been trying to attend (when she feels well enough to go). This month's theme was Techno and she had a bunch of glow-in-the-dark stuff that she put on. She looked so cute! (but, would not let me take a picture). She is making friends, but the nearest LDS kids live about 3.5 miles away and we are too far out of the way to successfully arrange carpools. I have to say that I am very proud of Marlayna because she never worries about showing up at an event by herself. She just goes right on in and joins the fun.

When I was her age, I was attached to my "pack" of friends. I was scared of arriving to things like dances by myself, I needed someone to go with. I even needed other girls to go to the bathroom with me, for whatever reason, I don't know. I have been wondering why I was like that at that time in my life. Was I programmed that way and then changed later in life as I became more self-sufficient, or was this part of public schooling and just what everyone did?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I rarely do this, but we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday, which was opening day. We waited in line outside for over an hour before getting into the theater and then waited another 30 minutes for the movie to start. Sam told me she had already seen it the night before. People started clapping when the movie came on. The last time I remember being in a theater when people did that was Star Wars. It was kind of funny.

I have to say that this is by far one of the best Harry Potter movies. It is PG and the only thing I would warn parents about is that since the characters are older, they do engage in a bit of kissing (snogging as they call it). They did an EXCELLENT job on the movie and choose the scenes that made for the best movie. It is a very good book too, so in all, I feel that it is better than some of the others.

Banana the Rooster
We bought 9 chickens, one died a few days after we got it (too bad there is not a guarantee on chickens), and now we have 8. We started noticing right off that one chicken was not like the others. This chicken acted as though it needed to protect all the others when we come out to feed them, change their water, and muck out the poop. It would run up in front of the other chickens and stand between us and them or try to gather them all together as a pack.

After a while, we realized that this chicken, Banana by name, is in fact a rooster. As chicks you can't really tell them apart, but we sure can now. He is one proud fella. It is kind of fun to hear him crow in the morning. The kids are hoping to have some chicks born, so we will allow a few of them to stay on their eggs after we get them established at laying.