The Talens' Tales

After a recommendation from Wilbert's brother, we watch the movie Australia this weekend. And what a fantastic movie it was. It was a great "date" movie, having thing for the both of us. A little love story, a little action, a little humor, great cinematography. A fantastic film and for the most part, pretty clean as well. Hurray for good films. The story is pretty complex. As Wilbert's brother said, "It seems like it is going to end about three different times." Basically, a rich English woman heads to Australia to find her husband who is running his cattle station. She finds her husband is dead and the cattle station is failing, so she tries to get it back on her feet. World War II is on the brink of coming to Australia, which threatens to destroy everything she has found that she loves in Australia. There is a whole lot more to it than that, so if you haven't seen it, check it out.

I hope that people don't get sick of the quotes from other peoples kids on here. I just find them very funny. It is probably all that I will write about when we have kids of our own some day. We got to the Buskers for lunch and their four year old son just thinks I am fantastic for some reason. We had Wilbert's brother with us and the four year old comes up the stairs. "Hi Mrs. Talen! Hi Mr. Talen! Hi brother!" he says with his cute little lisp. His mom says, "You're right. That is Mr. Talen's brother." "Oh. I thought you had a kid," this four year old replies to me. (This is the same kid that was pressuring us to have children earlier.) During dinner, he ask Wilbert's brother in his cute lisp, "Why does your shirt have a dragon on it?" His mother laughed a little and then asked, "Why does you have a shirt with Spiderman on it." "Because I got it for my birthday," he answer matter-of-factly. "Well, he...

So, as I said earlier, our washing machine broke. We called our local appliance store and as Wilbert described the problems on the phone, it didn't sound good. They sent a repair man anyway and he confirmed our fears. It is not worth fixing. Thankfully, when we were at the Buskers for Thanksgiving, they said they had an extra washing machine. When they moved into their new house, the previous owners left their washer and dryer and the Buskers already had one of their own. So they had been storing this extra one for a few years and really wanted to get rid of it. So, we now have a new to us washing machine. The Buskers gave it to us for a very good deal, so even if it wouldn't last, we don't have too much money stuck into it yet. It is older then the one we had that broke, and it lived its life in a basement, so it is sort of ugly on the outside. But, it works and the price was right, so it will work.

Here is my attempt at an apple pie for Thanksgiving. It turned out pretty well I think, though the design on top is a little off center. I had to move it over so the crust would cover correctly. I will maybe post a picture later of the other dessert I made. It was a Pumpkin Chiffon Torte. And that was tasty, but a lot harder to make then it sounded. The first step was to dissolved two packages of unflavored gelatin into hot milk. I had to try three times before I finally got it. The gelatin kept gelling in gross little clumps. But, all turned out well and we had a lovely Thanksgiving meal with the Buskers. Their children where as entertaining as ever. Wilbert brother came up from college to spend the weekend with us. He brought tons of laundry since he could do it here for free. "Could" is the key word in that sentence since our washing machine clunked out last night while he was doing his first load. I had noticed once time before that it was leaking a bit, but I cleaned it...

Okay not that I want to complain, but I really like this week. Why? I have not and will not have to cook a single night this week. Please don't get me wrong. For the most part, I really do like cooking, especially when I have the time to do. But sometimes when the school weeks are busy, it is nice to have a break. So how did this wonderful week of no cooking happen? Monday: Leftovers from Sunday. Tuesday: Wilbert got a gift certificate from a parent for a free large pizza from the Pizza Ranch. Wednesday: Spaghetti Supper at church for the youth group. Thursday: Leftover from Monday and Tuesday. Friday: Fund Raising Supper at school. Saturday: Mom and Dad are taking us out for Wilbert's birthday. Next week though, it will be quite a bit different. Oh well, I will enjoy it while it lasts.

How is it possible that the Monday after the most relaxing and restful weekends since school started, I have zero energy? I don't think I ever really woke up today at all. Classes seemed to go okay, so I hope that was not just a dream. The plan for my night now is working out and then going to bed very early.

This story really happened back in September or October, but I just remembered it the other day and thought it was too good to pass up. We were at a soccer game and the cheerleaders from school were having a brat supper as a fundraiser. We rarely pass up a meal at school, so we got ourselves some brats, chips and a drink and sat down to enjoy the game. Eventually we noticed a little boy whose family goes to our church. I would guess he is in 2nd grade. He approach Wilbert and the conversation went something like this. B(oy): Hey, you look familiar. W(ilbert): I go to your church. B: Oh. Hey, those are some nice looking chips (referring to the bag of Doritos Wilbert was eating). W: Yeah, they are pretty good. B: You wouldn't happen to have another bag, would you? W: Nope. This is all I have. B: Are you sure? W: Yep. B: Okay. The boy left and Wilbert finished his chips. A little while later this same boy walks behind Wilbert and gives him a noogie. We are not quite sure what his pare...

There are several perks to volunteering to help with a concert of some of your favorite music artists. 1) You get to hear the concert for free. Granted, you are probably not sitting down in front of the stage the entire time, but still you can't help but hear the music. 2) You get a better then front row seat. I spent much of the concert on the side of stage helping Wilbert run their slide show. Yeah, they were about two feet from me. 3) You get the cool "Promoter" pass so that you can go back stage and back to where they hang out while they are not on stage. 4) You get to eat their left over food, which is really, really good. 5) At least for one night, you are on a first name basis with some people who are way more famous then you, but who love Jesus just as much as you. We had a great Selah and Avalon concert at our school on Monday. At first, they were not quite sure about playing in our small gym in our small town, but we won them over thanks to friendly people and t...

Since I am a currently childless married woman who loves kids, I often babysit for my friends who do have children. I babysat the two fantastic kids of a fellow teacher last Saturday. Soon after arrived, Grant (who is four, not three any more) and I had this conversation. G: Do you have a little boy named Grant? M: No. You are the only little boy named Grant that I know. G:Do you have a little girl? M: No, I don't have any kids. G: Why not? You should have some kids. As if the pressure we sometimes get from adults isn't enough, now a four year is telling me we need to have a child. Patience people, patience.

I teach the novel Peace Like a River to one of my classes. A fantastic novel, a must read really. One of the main parts of this novel is miracles that a young boy witnesses. So I have my students do a little miracle project where they have to look at a miracle from the Bible in depth. They have to write a paper and create a visual presentation. One of the students in my class had the miracle where Jesus healed the man with a crippled hand. This student decided to draw a picture for his visual aid. So, he took a piece of paper and foleded it in half. On one half he drew the man before his hand was healed. After deciding that the hand he drew was crippled looking, he flipped his paper over and drew the man after he was healed. The student then unfolded his paper and said, "Well, I guess Jesus not only healed this guys hand. He also miraculously lost 30 pounds." I bet all of that guys friends were really jealous then.

One of the best things about early November at school is the annual Soup Supper. Cheesy Vegtable soup and a yummy dessert here I come!