Tracey Alvarez's Blog, page 14

Love That Lasts A Lifetime

I’m a sentimental romantic, I admit it. I’ll cry over Disney movies, I’ll cry over commercials, I’ll cry in books when the hero and heroine get their Happily-ever-after and I’ll cry even more if they don’t.

One thing that never fails to make me cry is hearing stories of love that lasts a lifetime. Two people who’ve chosen to share their lives with each other. They’ve often raised families, and no doubt have gone through the Valley of Marital Death like every other couple, and yet have come out the other side.

Today I’d like to share two very special clips with you.

The first is Fred’s story. Fred wrote a song about his wife Lorraine who passed away only a month ago when this story was recorded. They had been married 75 years. That’s right – 75 years of loving each other and now Fred is alone. I cried – yep, the kind of ugly crying that makes you hide in your room so no one can see what a mess your face is. But it was a good kind of cry, the one that fills you with longing and the hope of having someone who loves you as much as Fred loves Lorraine.

The second clip is made by a cute couple who first shot to stardom on YouTube with a quirky marriage proposal. They then went on to make this clip, in honour of their parents’ and grandparents’ relationships. I thought it was beautiful.

 

 

Do you know anyone who has had a marriage that inspires you? I’d love to hear your stories!

Tracey

Friday Funnies

This edition of Friday Funnies is all about kids – in honour of Miss 12, who will be Miss 13 on Sunday. I can’t believe how quickly the years have gone by! So to get you through to the weekend, here are some clips to make you smile.

The first clip is from the Ellen show where she chats to a cutie-pie called Dustin who does an adorable rendition of ‘Call me maybe.’

The second clip is a three year old giving a run down on what she thinks ‘Star Wars’ is about – too sweet!

Lastly, here’s a compilation of some of the cutest kid videos on You Tube.

Have a great weekend!

Tracey

Friday Funnies – The Walking Dead Edition ♥

I spent the week in Revision Hell, and so speaking of hell, and the heaven of TGIF, here are this week’s Friday Funnies. Because Season Four of The Walking Dead premiers on New Zealand screens this Tuesday, and because it’s one of my favourite shows EVAH, today is all about ZOMBIES!

First up is The Walking Dead Superbowl Ad – man, I love this and not just because Darryl is dreamy (though he is) and not just because it’s funny (because it is) but because Darryl’s last line just too sweet! Apart from the last video today, so forget I said that.

The next clip is a short interview with Andrew Lincoln as he makes fun of the Governor. Good Lord, *fans self* Andrew is HOT, and with that plummy British accent…? Smokin’ baby.

 

 

“The Walking (And Talking) Dead” — A Bad Lip Reading of The Walking Dead. This is clever, satirical, and just plain hilarious – skip to 4:00 if you haven’t got time to watch it all – you won’t regret seeing Rick & The Governor do Broadway!

The last spot is all Darryl’s. Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus Needs These 10 Essentials to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse.

Have a great week and let me know if you’re also looking forward to the return of The Walking Dead! Who is your favourite? Darryl or Rick?

Tracey.

Friday Funnies

I survived the first week of the school holidays! After successfully avoiding seeing the movie ‘The Smurfs 2,’ I couldn’t avoid the dreaded ‘shopping trip in the city’ with Miss 12, so today, I need some laughs to get me through to the weekend. Here are this weeks choices:

An oldie but a goodie, this skit of medieval helpdesk still makes me giggle.

A lip-sync battle with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Stephen Merchant, and Jimmy Fallon – now you know this is going to be funny!

The Dancing Nana just makes my heart smile. She’s gorgeous, and I hope I’m just as groovy as she is when I get older!

Have a great weekend everyone! (And for Kiwi parents – stay strong for the last week of the holidays!)

Tracey

Friday Funnies

Everyone ready for the weekend? I am. After a week of editing and fingernail biting from watching the America’s Cup racing, I need some light-hearted fun to get me through Friday. Hope you enjoy this week’s funny clips.

First up today are cute cats doing cute things – they sure made me smile.

I know it’s mean to laugh at other people falling down, but honestly, if you try and jump on a fast moving treadmill, you’re kinda asking for it.

‘Frasier’ was one of my favourite sit-coms ever, and this little clip between the characters Daphne and Frasier’s dad Martin, is a CLASSIC!

Have a great weekend!

Tracey

People of Courage – ♥ to Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Abraham Lincoln. Rosa Parks. William Wilberforce. Father Damien. Nelson Mandela. Their names have power, they resonate with us, they are men and women who exemplify courage.

Last week I attended Miss 12′s class production. The class had been studying ‘Courageous People’ and each little group of students chose a person and came up with a skit or Power-point slides to show the parents what they’d learned. Miss 12 did an excellent job as the narrator of Abraham Lincoln’s story, but it was a small group of children who acted out Martin Luther King Jr’s story that had me in tears.

Chosen to play the lead role was a gorgeous little lad from Ethiopia. I’ll interrupt myself here to say that Miss 12′s school is a small, very multi-cultural school with almost eighteen nationalities represented. Also cast in the skit were boys from the Philippines, India, and China. With the usual ten-year-old giggles, they acted out three incidents of racist behaviour. What struck me, what made me feel sick to my stomach and proud all at the same time, was that to these kids, racism was just something they read about. It didn’t connect with them, it didn’t seem real, because these boys were all best mates and so far in their young lives they had never come across true bigotry. I pray they never will.

And when the young lad recited part of Dr. King’s famous speech – “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they are not judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” I got goosebumps, major goosebumps. If it’s been awhile since you’ve listened to Dr. King’s speech, I hope you’ll take five minutes to watch this clip. Sometimes we need to be reminded.

So after this teary-eyed, touching moment at a kids school play, what to do with it? Say, “Wasn’t that sweet,” and carry on as usual, status quo? Write a blog railing against the racism that exists in New Zealand and every other country in the world? I don’t have the answers, and my little blog couldn’t possibly tackle this topic in one, or even twenty, posts. I just know I’m grateful for the little school my daughter goes to. I’m grateful that her friends come from different parts of the globe and it matters not one whit to her and to us, they are awesome girls. And I’m grateful for their teacher who encourages them to stand up for what is right and who teaches them about Martin, Abraham, Rosa, William, Father Damien and Nelson.

I’ll leave you with a song clip from my favourite band ever – Lady Antebellum. “Generation Away,” talks about using our lives to make an impact, about leaving a legacy for later generations.

And if you haven’t got time to listen to it, here’s a couple of lyrics to end with.

Tracey

Friday Funnies

Teenager Number One after a *cough* hard week of studying.

TGIF! Thank goodness we’ve made it through another week – bring it on, weekend! Hope you get a few chuckles from my clips this week, enough that the thought of Monday Morning won’t destroy your good mood.

This first clip is Mr. Bean at his best. I don’t know how big Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean is in the U.S, but in New Zealand he was HUGE. This clips is in honor of Teenager Number One who had his mock exams this week – and he did a suitable amount of ‘mock’ studying. *Eye roll*

This next clip contains bloopers from one of my favourite series, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (Season 6). Lovelovelove the one where Sheldon’s spanking Amy!

The last clip combines two of my favourite things, coffee and stand-up comedy. Remember Jerry Seinfeld? Well, he’s back! (Probably you guys knew this already and I’m a little slow on the uptake, but hey, New Zealand’s always a little behind!) Here he is talking about coffee with Jay Leno.

Have a great weekend, peeps. Stay safe but have fun!

Tracey

Snow Fetish

 

Yellowstone National Park, WY in winter.

I love snow. Unless you’re living in the South Island of (which I don’t) or close to one of the North Island’s four mountains (which I also don’t), snow in New Zealand is special. In fact, snow has fallen only once in over 50 years in the seaside suburb we live in – my mother lived her whole live in the area and didn’t remember it ever snowing before. As a child my parents took me to one of the highest hills in the region where after a storm a little snow was reported, but by the time we arrived it was more like dirty, sludgy stuff – nothing like the image of rolling white fields and the snowman I’d intended building.

My first real visit to the mountains was when I was twenty-one and on a skiing weekend with a couple of friends and my now husband, then boyfriend. As you do, while trying to make your new beau think you’re wildly fun and interesting, I decided to have a go at this skiing thing. He and I both discovered just how uncoordinated I was! I never made it beyond the beginners’ slope (after taking out half of the other newbies in a klutzy pile up which was totally NOT my fault! Well, maybe a little bit my fault), but my snow fetish really kicked off on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu.

One of the few times I remained vertical on the snow…!

During my twenties and thirties we visited Mt Ruapehu and some of the South Island areas that get snow, but it  wasn’t until our first trip to the U.S.A in 2007 that we visited the Rocky Mountains and I fell head over heels all over again. Standing on a mountain track in the Rockies with my family, laughing like a loon as we all experienced the gentle pitter-patter of our first snow fall was something I’ll never forget.

Later in 2011/12 we travelled through Canada and part of the U.S.A again, and this time during winter. Oh boy! Did we find snow! Wet snow, dry snow, icy snow, snow that look like teeny-tiny balls of polystyrene, I couldn’t get enough. Even getting stuck in knee-deep drifts and laughing so hard I nearly fell over didn’t put me off. 

On a tour of Yellowstone National Park in winter.

Last weekend we travelled up to Mt Ruapehu to the same ski field that my husband and I went to together twenty years ago. This time we took with our two kids and a bunch of other teens/young adults for a day in the snow. While my husband took off with the older guys skiing and snowboarding further up the mountain, I stayed with the younger kids on the beginner slopes while they tobogganed and threw snowballs.

Turoa Ski field, Mt Ruapehu, where I skied (one time only!) 20 years ago!

 And yes, Miss 12 and her friend ganged up on me and won the brief but vicious snowball fight!

My kids’ idea of a snowball!

I hadn’t been back to this ski-field since pre-kids, pre marriage even, but aside from the swarms of other skiers (which made my introverted soul shrivel a little) the snow magic was still there.

I love that white, fluffy, wet, cold stuff!

Tracey

Freaky Friday

Thought I’d do something a little different this Friday. Since I covered some things that terrify me in Tuesday’s blog, Fear Factor – Real Life Edition, today instead of some clips that make me laugh I’ve got three clips of things that make me break out in a greasy sweat. Freediving, being buried alive, and bulls.

The first clip is of the incredible New Zealand World Champion free-diver, William Trubridge. He dives down on one breath to 55 metres, swims another 33 metres through Dahab’s Blue Hole Arch and then up again to the surface. Just amazing, but makes me shiver.

The second clip is of Bear Grylls voluntarily being buried alive in the snow in the Canadian Rockies. I’m having waking nightmares just watching it.

The last clip is of bulls. Yeah, these four-legged bovines give me the willies.

Have a great weekend and hope for your sake it doesn’t involve diving into the deep, being buried in an avalanche, or running from a tetchy bull.

Tracey