Niki is about 3/4 of the way through "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. Okay, so I'm going to have to start reading the "classics" before I assign them to Niki so I can be prepared for the discussions that follow reading the books. I know, I know...I should be reading them first regardless. We all know the monster Frankenstein and its often familiarity with Halloween. I just finished watching the movie with Niki. Niki says the movie was accurate to the book - summarizing it so the normal 'the book had more detail than the movie' applied here as well. I just told Niki not to finish reading the rest of the book because I saw the amount of detail in the movie and that was gruesome enough let alone using more words to describe it.

I learned several things after watching the movie. Some were - 1) Frankenstein is the scientist/doctor not the person he created 2) The bride of Frankenstein was Viktor Frankenstein's bride (married earlier in the day) who was killed by his creation.

Niki and I had a short conversation about mid-movie and then an extensive talk post-movie. I'm not sorry I had her read the book/watch the movie. It gave yet another opportunity to talk about some heavy topics - but...I'm going to read the rest of the books before I assign them to her which means I need to bring a book to bed with me. Maybe Charles Dickens? It's not the first time I've used books we read for school as a catalyst for a deep conversation that, otherwise, are hard to talk about out of the blue just by the nature of the topics. I remember reading "The Giver" by Louis Lowry with her (maybe 6th gradish). We talked about abortion, euthanasia, and birth control. In 8th grade, Niki was given the first "Twilight" book to read from a friend at school. She told me a short summary of the plot as we'd sit in the car waiting for Zach to get out of school. I was not interested in reading the book - vampire/human love story. No thank you. It wasn't until I went to see the movie with Catherine and Niki (basically because they begged me) that I was at all interested in reading the book. The movie wasn't bad. I went home and picked up the book and started reading it. Overall, a very good story although I told Catherine and Niki that I wanted to rewrite the main female character (Bella) about a million times over. I ended up reading all four books. Using the book's topics - we talked about sex before marriage, death (life after death), abortion, relationships (boys), marriage, etc. It was really interesting when Zachary (big Zach, not brother Zach - that's how I've decided to refer to him for purposes of this blog...which I guess I'll have to tell him about the blog at some point) - was over this past Saturday. He saw the Twilight DVD case on our shelf while Niki, myself, and my friends Anna and Kleo were all chatting in the living room. He turned to Niki and said, "You have...Twilight?" She timidly said yes. (She'll tell you very quickly she doesn't like the cult of Twilight that has emerged since the movie - they refer to themselves at Twilighters. So she wasn't really proud of having the movie and didn't want Zachary to think that she was a Twilighter.) Kleo asked if Niki and Zachary if they had read the books and Zachary quickly replied, "No! I'm not going to read it. How am I supposed to compete with that?" I thought that was a very insightful and valid comment coming from a teenage boy. The main male character in the book (vampire) is THE PERFECT man. He's handsome, strong, perfect body, manners, romantic, smart,...perfect in every way imaginable. Zachary has a very valid point - girls read these books and want to find a guy just like Edward (main character of the book) but...he doesn't exist. It's not a realistic view of relationships. There are girls who are breaking up with their boyfriends in search of someone more romantic, more...everything. Hence the whole reason why I think books are a fantastic way to hold meaningful discussions with teenagers about their faith and beliefs. You can put it in the context of the characters in the book first and then relate it to real life thus alleviating a lot of the embarrassment of having these conversations with...your parents.

The "Frankenstein" book/movie brought up a very interesting discussion between the two of us. We talked about stem cell research, abortion, respect for your body (tatoos, piercings, etc), meaning of life, God as the Creator, death (after death), playing God (creator), etc. Frankenstein's creation sees himself as someone essentially good (or at least not evil) as he hides in a barn and slowly learns/remembers how to speak, read, and interact with people again by watching a farming family through the cracks in the stable into the family's home. He secretly helps the family plow their frozen potato crop because he's enamored by them. Through a misunderstanding, the family first learns about their secret tenant when he tries to help the grandpa. In that moment of misunderstanding, the farmer beats the monster with a pole and crushes the monster's hope for love from the family because of the emotional pain inflicted with the beating (not the physical). Niki and I discussed how one comment, one joke, one snide remark can cause permanent damage between you and the person you said the words to. It is so important to be kind to others at all times because by mere words, we can permanently affect someone to the point we hurt them so deeply, they can't even discuss it with anyone - internalizing it and wreaking havoc in that person's mind for the rest of their life. Think about the damage that can be caused when someone is teased about their weight or told they are stupid or if they feel abandoned. There's so many ways mere words can alter a person's thoughts about themselves....for long lengths of time if not permanently. That's where apologizing and asking forgiveness comes into play as a remedy for the wound.

The "monster" is trying to understand his meaning in life. He quickly realizes he doesn't have parents like everyone else. He's made from parts of other people. Were these good people? Evil people? Does he have a soul? He's outcasted by all those he comes in contact with - he doesn't belong. So where does he fit into this life? What's his purpose? His creator sees him as a monster - so he was created and brought into a world where not only he's different from everyone else but even his creator/father sees him as evil. How does he even have a chance to be good in these circumstances? Where is he to find love? What's life worth without love?

Gruesome movie - but a great catalyst to a productive conversation about religion, beliefs, and morals with my teenage daughter.

The insurance company paid for a new fireplace insert (minus our deductible) and the chimney company come out and installed it today. The chimney company was fanstastic - not only were they friendly people...they were also professional and upfront with us through this whole thing. It didn't take as long as they had anticipated to put the chimney sleeve and fireplace insert in so they took off $350. Yay for American Chimney Company!!! The best part is that the fireplace is an energy efficient model so we get a tax credit on it.

Here it is:



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Our bathroom remodel is coming along. Les and I both wish it was going faster but being parents of four kids limits us some days. At the end of the day, many times finding the energy to BEGIN manual labor is not only hard to find but nonexistent. It's coming along though. We had high hopes we'd have it finished for our guests coming this weekend...but I don't think it's going to happen. Sorry!!!!!!!! We gave it a valiant effort. Here's some pictures from the past few weeks. The last one is from today.


We took the bathroom down to the studs so we could find the source of the leak and replace the floor boards and drywall that had rotted out.

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Niki painted the bathroom for us. Poor thing - she hates painting now. I don't really blame her. Painting the house started out as fun for the two of us but the amount of times we've painted - we're both pretty worn out on it. Still have more rooms that need to be painted. The sherbet green in the dining room and kitchen are going to have to be repainted before we put the house on the market.

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Daddy's little "helper"

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The bathroom as of today.