Joy...and if all the animals along the equator were capable of flattery...

Job 8:21 (New International Version)

21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.

Joy is what I feel when I look at the pictures I posted today. They are some of my favorites, because they really reflect their individual personalities.

First is J.P., my middle child. He is all boy...rough and tumble, always skinned up or scraped up somewhere, and always mischievous. He's not a troublemaker, but he is always in the middle of something.

Next is Clay, the baby. He's sweet and innocent...when he's asleep. ;)

Then there is Andre, the oldest. He's a natural leader, kind and caring, and very much an instigator when it comes to trouble involving the younger two.

The fourth photo is of my late husband, taken not long before his death. He was a good man and an incredible father.

The last picture is one of hundreds I have taken of him with the boys. It's one of my personal favorites.


In other news...

I just love the Ocean's movies. I watched 11 and 12 last night (I still need to get 13), just because. Granted, 12 is not as good as 11, but 13 is better and makes up for the slowness in 12 IMHO. I have always wondered, however, about the part in 12 when they're talking to Matsui in the restaurant. I always laugh when Linus (Matt Damon) takes his turn and quotes Zeppelin lyrics. I googled the conversation, and this is what I found out (http://theboard.byu.edu/index.php?area=viewall&id=14656):

Question: During one scene in Ocean's Twelve, the characters played by Matt Damon, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are sitting in a bar with this guy (Robbie Coltrane) and they start speaking in gibberish. Damon's character is completely thrown; are they speaking in some sort of code, or is it just plain nonsense? - AJ Flickchick: Your question epitomizes the difference between Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Ocean's Twelve (2004). The virtuoso list of needs for the casino robbery in Eleven - "a Boesky, a Jim Brown, Two Jethros, a Leon Spinks, a Miss Daisy and the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever" - sounds like gibberish, but it's sheer, smirking hipster showing-off. Thing is, it's clever - each term actually means something by way of a highly personal kind of free association, as Steven Soderbergh himself explained (and all I had to do was ask!): "We [Soderbergh and screenwriter Ted Griffin] felt we had to come up with some funny, Damon Runyon-esque turns of phrase that weren't arbitrary - we did sit down and think them out. So, Carl Reiner is the Boesky, as in Ivan, the powerful, rich magnate, inside kind of guy. Jim Brown is the confrontation Bernie Mac has with Matt Damon - the 'Don't mess with me or you're in for it' moment. The two Jethros are Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, the idea being 'We're going to need gear heads, car fanatics... some people who are total hillbilly under-the-hood guys.' A Leon Spinks is the disruption of the boxing match: A sporting event with some controversy to it - that's what Leon Spinks means to me. The Miss Daisy association is driving; that was the SWAT van, a ruse involving transportation. The Ella Fitzgerald is the tape of the fake vault, which they're going to play back and have [Andy Garcia's character] Benedict think is live: 'Is it live, or is it Memorex?'" Makes snarky sense, right? But the gibberish in Twelve is just that: gibberish, though it's supposed to be some kind of sophisticated code that allows thieves to talk freely in a public place about setting up a job. "A doctor who specializes in skin diseases will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television," says Rusty Ryan (Pitt). "Later, he will wake up in front of the television, but not remember his dreams." "If all the animals along the equator were capable of flattery, then Thanksgiving and Halloween would fall on the same date," replies Ocean (George Clooney). "When I was four years old," counters Matsui (Robbie Coltrane - hey, that's funny, a guy who looks like Robbie Coltrane playing someone named Matsui), who's in a position to set them up with a much-needed gig that involves robbing a reclusive Amsterdam antiques dealer, "I watched my mother kill a spider with a tea cozy. Years later, I realized it was not a spider. It was my Uncle Harold." The desperately baffled Linus (Damon), aware that it's his turn, chimes in with lyrics from Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir": "O let the sun beat down upon me/Stars to fill my dreams/I am a traveler in time and space/To be where I've been." Ryan and Ocean swear Linus just called Matsui's niece a whore, but they're obviously jerking his chain. Which is all very well and good, but jerking the viewer's chain is something else. You could do your nut turning over the goofy non sequiturs in your mind, trying to grab will o' the wisp clues. Halloween and Thanksgiving on the same date... You wear masks on Halloween, you know, like a burglar, and if Halloween and Thanksgiving are on the same date then that means the job will go well. But what about the equator animals and flattery? Maybe that means that if you can get your crew - the animals (thanks a lot, boss) - to play nice together and work toward a common goal ("equator" = "line," as in getting your ducks in a row), then the job is doable. Whatever. The actors seem to be having a blast, but the scene oozes contempt for poor schmucks who shell out their hard-earned bucks to see a movie. And that, in my book, is the problem with Ocean's Twelve in a nutshell.

I also love the part in 12 when Tess has to play Julia Roberts...hilarious. The scene with Bruce Willis is one of my favorites!