Once Upon a YAY!

Of course, one could argue that it wasn't her stepmother because Abigail obviously didn't marry James, and Catherine and David only thought they were married . . . but I suppose that might be splitting hairs a little, no?


So in case you missed the memo - or the zillions of commercials - ONCE UPON A TIME IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you missed the other memo - which would pretty easy since it wasn't exactly widely published - I got really confused last season trying to have multiple conversations with different people every week.  So we're all having them here.  Kayla, Miranda, Sarah, Shayla (maybe) . . . dang, I feel like quite the odd one out.  Someone out there with an -ee ending name better be watching this too! :-)  Anyway, introductions and pleasantries are done with, on with the fun.

As I have a little while yet before the show starts, here's where things stand:

>> Charming/David is hot.

>> Huntsman/Graham is hot, has a to-die-for accent, and better actually be dead.  Unless they have some sort of really amazing work-around to explain him showing up in non-flashbacks he absolutely cannot come back in the present, curse-broken story line.  The idea that there are no consequences in FairyTaleLand when something happens here totally ruins the whole thing.

>> FairyTaleLand shall be known as FTL because that's a lot faster to type.

>> TEAM EMMOCHIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>> Geppetto shall be referred to as Bra'tac around here.  Because I can.  (Bray-tack)

>> The second Emma's car starts acting like it's alive is the second I turn off the tv.

>> Red/Ruby is as awesome as they get.

>> Mr. Gold shall be known as Rumplilocks.  Because it amuses me.


And now - FINALLY! - the main event!


~ That is one very close-up shot of a horse.

~ Well we're just getting right into new mysteries, aren't we?

~ Monument Valley much?

~ Ooooooooooh, another hot accent!

~ I wish aurora's actress had died her hair.  She's supposed to look like me!  (well . . . kinda . . . ish . . . )

~ Trippiest. Reuinion. Ever.

~ The dwarves certainly found each other fast.

~ How weird would be it to suddenly realize not only did you have a kid that you didn't know about, but that she was your age you also had a grandkid?  And he's ten?

~ "Grandpa?"  AWKWARD!!!  Me?  Actually lol'ing.

~ Trust Grumpy to get straight to the point. :-)

~ "Great, let's watch."  I heart Grumpy.

~ I really want "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast to play in the background right now.

~ From the things you see coming a mile away file: that soldier dude's totally going to turn out to be a chick.  Which means it's probably Mulan.

~ Betcha that amulet is the new book, if you know what I mean.

~ (commercial: Natalie Portman for Dior perfume.  Have you seen the pictures of her with her hair dyed blonde?  Trippy.)

~ (commercial: Campbell's soup.  Who the heck hangs a deer head in a dance studio?  Other than maybe my dad?)

~ Well, there go the theories that Dr. Whale would be on Regina's side.  I thought they were dumb anyway.

~ *insert sad trombone noise here*  Poor powerless queen, ha!

~ Wait, so she totally destroyed FTL?  That sucks if it's true.

~ I love scenes between Rumplilocks and Regina.

~ Called it on Mulan.

~ So . . . it's called a wraith like in Lord of the Rings . . . but it acts like a dementor from Harry Potter?  May those Herbie the Love Bug theories weren't that off the mark.  (but they better be)

~ That is one shiny dagger that bodes no good.

~ So that's what happened to the Smoke Monster . . . (only five points.  That's the most obvious reference on the planet.)

~ (commercial: some car or other.  Kick the car and the back door opens?  Kinda genius)

~ (commercial: Cinderella on blu-ray.  What is up with the weird wrong-voice overdubs?  Disney fail!)

~ (commercial: is it just me or has this election been going on since I graduated from high school?  So. Sick. Of. It. All.)

~ Wait, where's Ruby going?  I didn't like the sound of that . . .

~ "One night stands?!"  "We were cursed!"  Most awkward parental conversation ever!  I'm rather cracking up.  The look on Charming's face . . . HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

~ This hole situation has got to be seriously messed up for Emma psychologically speaking.

~ So Emma argues that if they hadn't sent her away she would have been cursed with them but they would have been together.  Am I the only one who's first thought was "ummmmmm, no?"

~ Can't decide if I like Phillip or not.  He's got a Graham-ish look to him, but . . . I just don't know.

~ Punch him, Emma!  Do it!!

~ That seriously looks like Oceanic 815 is coming down on Storybrooke.  (dude, it's the same people.  y'all better just get use to the Lost references.)

~ I'm getting some very Twilight-ish vibes from Rumplilock's and Belle's relationship future, and I don't like it.  At least she walked out this time.

~ Speaking of bad vibes, I don't recall any announcements about casting someone for Shang.  Here's hoping that's not how things roll.

~ Very clever putting Aurora in a purple-ish dress, but I'm with Merryweather.  Make it blue.

~ That thing did not look unlike the banshee from Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  Just a little.

~ He calls her Snow, she calls him David.  Weird.

~ Something I forgot to mention with the little things at the beginning: Jefferson is hot too.

~ Torch from a broom . . . I love you, Prince Charming.

~ It's got to be so much fun playing the FTL version of the character in our world.  Especially as memories are coming back and such.  (see also, "One night stands?!?!"  Still laughing at that one.  Here's hoping the internet makes a gif of that reaction!)

~ (commercial: Disneyland for Halloween.  I find it an interesting choice to pair with this show.  Obviously it's a good demographic, but juxtaposing the animated characters with their OUaT counterparts . . . a little weird.)

~ Again with the best chance thing.  It's totally this show's version of "with great power comes great responsibility."

~ You know Regina, maybe it's not working because IT'S NOT YOUR HAT.  Duh.

~ Well that was unpleasant.  Bye Phillip.

~ Ladies and gentlemen, the most disappointing (and probably painful) face plant of all time.

~ Who wants to bet Snow and Charming get separated somehow every season and we get dozens of "I will always find you" scenes every season.

~ If they wrote Henry out of the show I'm gonna be ticked.  Especially if they took Ruby with him to do it.

~ Because having the amulet will make her feel so better about watching Phillip get dementored.

~ Oh good, there's Henry.

~ I like me some rage filled Prince James.

~ Walk in on adoptive mother about kill grandfather . . . and she still tries to convince him she's not evil.  I'm beginning to think Regina's less evil than just nuts.

~ And now we're Twilight-ing again.  I swear, if I have to start calling her Bella instead of Belle . . .

~ Yeah, that "you must leave" line was right out of the Edward Cullen playbook.  Dude, if they screw these two up, I swear . . .

~ I want Henry to call Charming "grandpa," like, all the time and watch Charming get all awkward.  He's cute when he's awkward.

~ "I will always find them."  Toldja so.  We're starting a drinking game, choose your drink of choice and every time Snow or Charming pulls that out we all take a collective swig.

~ I was wondering why we weren't seeing Aurora & Co in our world.  I wonder how their little corner only got frozen.  And if those were concurrent scenes instead of flashbacks, why was aurora asleep?  Back in the pilot episode Maleficent and Regina were talking and they totally made it sound like Aurora's story had already played out.  They traded the dark curse for the sleeping curse and it didn't work.

~ HOLY CRAP YOU CAN'T END THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  NOT!  FREAKING! OKAY!

Okay kids, what did we all think?  Me, I'm soooooooooo glad to see this show back!  Here's hoping for more one night stand moments and less constant finding each other.


P. ost  S. cript
 This just seems appropriate.  Fun fact:  Alice here has a friend who's also friends with Wendy (if you know what I mean)  and apparently she and the guy who's friends with Peter are kind of internet famous and they totally got married this summer.  How cute is that?!

And Then Today

Second grader comes to school wearing a suit jacket he hasn't quite grown into.

Me: (Boris), you look so handsome today.  How come you're all dressed up?

(Billy): He's getting married.

(Boris): I'm not dressed up.  I just felt like wearing my jacket.

(Billy): It's too big.

(Boris): No, it fits just right! stands up to show off his jacket . . . which is just a little big.

girl sits across from (Boris)

(Billy): Don't sit across from him!  He's getting married today after school!

Entire group: Miss Lacey, what's so funny?


I will never understand their logic, but I never want it to stop.  :-)


P. ost  S. cript
So apparently Princess Bride is 25 years old.  You know what that is?  Of course you do - it's:

So Yesterday . . .

Second grader: Teacher, I know what BYU stands for.

Lacey: Really?  What?

Second grader: I don't think I should say.

Lacey: Why not?

Second grader: It's not a good thing to say.

Lacey: Okay, you better not say it then.


For the record, I am dying to know what he was going to say.  U of U family with a bashing acronym?  Or slightly odd second grader awareness of church, state, and school?  The world may never know . . .


P. ost  S. cript
I'm sure you're all sick of this song, and I wouldn't really call myself a fan either . . . but this is awesome.

Is It May Yet?

Okay, so I don't quite mean that.  But five and a half weeks into the new school year and it's clearly going to be a looooooooooooooooooooong year.  I'm in second and fourth grade this year - mostly because pretty much all the aides are in second and fourth grade this year - mostly because the second and fourth grade classes have about five times as many kids as should be allowed in a single class that is not a university gen-ed requirement.

Well . . . that is a slight exaggeration I suppose.  But my fourth grade class started the year with 34 kids and two weeks in it was 35.  It's never quiet, and it's pretty much impossible to figure out who the whisperer is because there's just so many to choose from.  Even with three adults in the classroom when I get there in the morning.  We've come to the conclusion that this year's theme is going to be organized chaos, and it'll depend on the day whether it's more organized or more chaos. 

Anyway, it isn't all bad news.  A few little things going on so far:

~ Remember (Andrew) McKissypants?  He's in second grade now . . . and over the kissing, but not so much over the hugging.  Which is fine, because he's still such a sweet little guy, and the hugs are still quite the ego boost, and really, who couldn't benefit from two or three little-kid-hugs a day?  We did have a talk about great big second graders staying in line in the hall instead of running halfway down it for hugs though.  And we might have to have a talk about hugs from behind . . . because he's developing a habit of doing that.  Particularly when I'm sitting down.  And his hands generally end up in an area that would make my mother blush to hear about it, if you know what I mean, *wink,wink*nudge,nudge*.  So far I've just kind slid them up to my shoulders.  I guess we'll see if he keeps it up next week.

~ Second grade reading groups - reading a story about characters going on a plane.  I ask the kids where they would go if they could go anywhere in the world on a plane.  The answers were pretty typical - New York, Mexico, Australia, California . . . Blanding.  His grandparents live there, so it makes sense.  But I giggled.

~ Did I mention that second grade had 32 kids last week and got a new one this week?  Oy.

~ The fourth grade class I'm in is with the teacher who's fifth grade class I was in last year . . . and who's fourth grade class I was in the year before.  We both keep getting confused as to what exactly we're supposed to be doing sometimes.  Expecting them to know all the stuff they'll be learning this year and stuff.  It's kinda trippy.

~ New kid in fourth grade?  Totally a drama queen.  Made the year a little bit longer just by showing up.  She can be sweet, but she's one of those that you have to catch in the right mood, and her moods are the most unpredictable I've ever seen.

~ So I know some of the fourth graders from second grade a couple years ago.  How is it that the things they did in second grade were cute but now the exact same things are obnoxious?

~ Back to second grade.  (Sam) is always in a bad mood and all uncooperative when I call his group back to work with me.  And yet, ten minutes later when they're washing up for lunch he tells me he wants to come live at my house.  He accidentally called me mom once earlier this week and I went into the "do you really think you want/you don't want me to be your mom" bit I've developed that usually has kids changing their minds pretty quickly.  But he's totally still in to it, saying he'll come home and live with me.  Even after I tell him all there is to do is read big fat books.  And every day since it's been the same thing - "Miss Lacey, when are you going to take me home to your house?"  I may have to fall back on my trick-or-treating line (modified, of course) - "if you can find my house you can stay."  :-)

~ Did I ever mention that I got called grandma last year?  Totally understandable because the kid lives with his grandparents.  We both had got a laugh out of it once he stopped blushing.

Sooooooooooooooooooo . . . so far so good I guess.


P. ost  S. cript
And this is why I didn't know what to do when being charged by a buffalo.  All you have to do is look at the first frame to count about a gazillion stupid things happening.  Seriously, they had it coming.  Also: I'm 90% sure I know exactly where they are.

Missed That Party Boat

So a while back I made a brief, slightly cryptic-ish reference that apparently led some people to think I was going to give birth to my own nephew.  While that certainly would be rather impressive (well, not so much today I suppose as it would have been 100 years ago), I suppose the time has come to clarify.

Because if you didn't figure it out from that paragraph, my sister is pregnant.  My baby sister.  The one who still weirds me out just by being married because, dude, if I'm not old enough for that sort of thing there is no way she is old enough.  And I'm not old enough. (and now is not the time to bring up my high school reunion from last month so you can all just stop right there.)

Anyway.  It's a boy - again, I hope you'd already figured that out - and he's due in December.  Guess who else is having a baby boy in December?  Two of my cousins.  Apparently there was some sort of awesome party back in March that we weren't invited to.  :-)

So it's really weird to think about (especially the part where this is one cousin's second kid), and Luke is having such a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he's going to an uncle that he doesn't always remember the meaning of the word uncle.  And then he goes and freaks out his fifth grade teacher who came to visit us on her trip to Utah by making her think it was his sister who's pregnant.  That was an amusing thirty seconds . . .

I suppose this is the part where I start talking about how I feel all left out and stuff . . . but . . . no.  Guilt trips notwithstanding, I know the time is not right at the moment, and I'm okay with that.  (actually, the other nursery leader asked me a few weeks ago if being around the nursery kids every week was making us baby hungry and the honest answer I gave her was that it was kind of doing the opposite.  I get my fill of little kids in those 2 hours and then go home and don't have to change diapers during the week.  Win-win!)  I do sometimes feel a little awkward because I'm "supposed" to feel left out - at least, that's what popular culture around here would have me feeling.  And there's always a sense of dissonance when you know you're out of sync with your surroundings, no matter how artificial or inaccurate or even only semi-existent it is.

If I was still the girl who graduated from high school ten years ago, or maybe even the girl who graduated from college six years ago I would be feeling a lot more dissonance.  And it would definitely bother me a lot more.  It seems like this year has been all about appreciating how I've grown in recent years . . . it's kind of odd actually.  I've never noticed a theme to years in the past.  Is this one of those grown-up things they never tell you about?  Maybe once I get used to it I'll stop sounding like such a broken record when I'm blogging about it. 

Anyway.  Apparently I'm an aunt.  And that's probably not a weird thing to those of you out there who gained the title at the age of ten, or three, or fourteen, or whatever . . . but for me, it's pretty weird.  And for our hypothetical future oldest kid's sake, I'm glad they won't be the oldest grandchild (on one side at least).  That comes with a pressure all its own . . .


P. ost  S. cript
In the mood for something that makes no sense? (well . . . it makes sense to me, but I've seen all the previous episodes . . . and I know everyone in it)  Want to see my small screen debut? (well . . . unless you count the episode before this one that I was also in . . . but I only had one line.  and not counting all the other times I'm on youtube . . . )  Anyway . . . whatever.  Behold: on Friends they went to Central Perk - this is what we did.  It was free.  And awesome.  And it's the source for my current facebook profile picture.  (fun fact: you'll also get a peek at all three attractions I worked at!)

Just a Reminder

I used to do this all the time, especially right after I got my digital camera.  I'm determined to start up again.  starting today.

On that note, in case you've forgotten:

Souvenir cup lemonade refills are totally worth looking forward to for six months.

1) Secret menus rock.
2) 2x4s are fabulously cheesy.
3) I am SOOOO getting all four types of onions next time.
4) Cheese/onion fries? WOW.

Root beer floats with the consistency of a milk shake?  Kind of fabulous.

Hot Dog on a Stick WATERMELON lemonade?!?!?!?!  Either manna from heaven or ambrosia from the gods, but I just can't decide.  I'm already crying at the thought that it's a limited edition and probably won't be there next time.

Luke totally got a cooler souvenir cup than I did.  No fair!


Happy labor day to all those out there laboring instead of getting a day off to celebrate the fact that there's a federal holiday to honor the fact that you labor!  (Seriously, did people ever get this day off?  Outside of schools and feds?  Forget Valentine's, today is the ultimate fake holiday!)



P. ost  S. cript
So it turns out pink, like, doesn't exist.  Trippiest thing I've heard all week.