Comic-Con Crazy

Hey everyone! Can you tell what I'm writing about from the title? That's right yesterday we went to the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. It was our first ever con, and the four kids were in tow. Yikes!

A few days before the Con, our plain was to walk there, meaning that we would walk from our house to the Bremerton Ferry, ride the ferry to Seattle, then walk from there to the Convention center, all in all it would have been a 2 mile walk (about). Then we found out it was going to rain. It's not the end of the world really, I mean it's rains all of the time here, but when you factor the long walk and the fact that we were going to be wearing costumes, well it was just a bit much. So yes we decided to drive. We reserved a parking spot through the Con's web site in a garage that was about two blocks away. If I had know the trouble we would run into with that garage, I would have gladly walked in the rain. More about that later.... So who did we cosplay as?...

Well I was Katniss Everdeen

Darien was Darth Vader

Zachary was The Hulk

Nathaniel was Link

And Olivia was Hello Kitty

Yes I made the hat, this is a better picture of it a few days before the Con.

And no, Jeremy did not dress up.

So we get everyone ready, pack a lunch and head out, but 30 mins into the drive we remember that we forgot the passes to the Con it's self. Yeah, of course we do. We have everything else under the sun, and we forget the one thing that gets us into the place. Yup so we go back, hoping we don't get there to late and miss the pictures with Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, and Dwight Schulz.

So the parking garage... Oh my... Keep in mind that I had not seen the garage before I booked it. My thoughts were, "Okay lets pick a garage not to far for the Convention Center, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg... Oh look here's one." Yes it was just like that. The parking garage was the worst I have ever seen (this coming from a person who has been to many city parking garages). The ramps in the thing were not wide enough for two cars, and that would have been okay if there was a light to help people take turns, but there wasn't, so I have to back up a lot, before I could even find an empty spot. Then I find one that looks big enough for our mini van, but my first few attempts to get into it fail, and by that time, I have myself in a some what stuck position. Luckily Jeremy was there to take over and park for me, with me guiding outside the car. Eeeeek!

So we made it, and we begin our walk to the Con. Not a single drop of rain has fallen yet, making us both think, that we would have been better of taking the ferry. Once we get to the Convention Center it is complete chaos, because there are just so many people there. We grab our kids hands and make our way to the 4th floor taking in all of the awesome costumes. We get our lanyards, then find the line for the pictures with the celebrity guest. We were lucky, we didn't miss them, and we didn't have to wait long.

I don't think they see a family of 6 wanting a picture often, because all 3 of them were surprised. They were so nice, and commented on the kids' costumes. John de Lancie (AKA Q), even had his hands on my shoulders, and Dwight Schulz (AKA Mr. Barclay), had his arm around Jeremy. I love this picture, I  love Michael Dorn's smile and I love Nathaniel's blank expression.

We made it to the kids area as well. They had a super hero mission there, and if you completed it, you got a free T-shirt, mask, and coloring book. They also had face painting and balloon animals, with princesses and fairies.

The balloon animals were $2 and the face painting was $4, I didn't mind paying for that at all.

I also ran into an old friend...

Katie and I went to church together as teens, yup in the good old state of Maryland. I found her again on facebook about 5 years ago noticing that she lived in Washington. Little did I know that someday I would live there too. When we both found out we were going to Comic Con, it seemed like that best time to meet up. I have forgotten how awesome her hugs were. We hadn't seen each other in over 12 years.

After that we walked the floor a lot, braving the crowds and went to see the Lego display

Nathaniel really liked this, the only down side was once again the crowds. I was really hard to move in there, and didn't see as much as we would have liked.

Luckily at the end of the day getting out of the parking garage wasn't as complicated as getting into the garage, well that is after we sat in our car and waited for 3 stuck cars to finally figure out who is going first and then work out how to make that happen. This gave us a chance to just sit back and eat our lunch (which by this time was a very late lunch). We got home around 4pm, ordered pizza, and chilled for the rest of the evening. I was glad I got the picture with the Star Trek peeps, I was really glad I got to see Katie again, and I loved seeing all of the costumes, and those things made it worth it for me. The crowds were really crazy though, and the parking a nightmare, but we'll remember that next time.

Well I do have tips if you are ever going to go to one of these, and if you are taking your kids

1. If your kids are going to wear a costume, make sure all of their accessories attach to their costume, if not they will be carrying them, meaning you will be carrying them.

2. Pack a lunch. They have food venders there, but the lines are always long and the food is expensive. They don't look though your bags at any point, or say anything about outside food, so just bring some. Even if it is just a snack.

3. Beware of the parking. See if you can ask around for a safe and non expensive place to park.

4. There are crowds and a lot, so remind your kids of what to do if you are separated. The staff at this Con had bright green shirts on, so it was easy to point them out to the kids.

5. Look at the schedule before you go, and decide what you are and are not doing. If you want signatures or pictures, get to the right spot early, and beat the lines.

6. Warn your kids before hand that they may see some crazy and scary costumes, but that is all in fun. If your kid is really scared of some costumes though, you should probably avoid going.

7. Bring cash, because not all of the venders accept credit.

8. Bring a bag. This was something that we had wished from the beginning. When you get there you are handed a schedule and info on the con along with a free comic book, for each of your party members. It would have been nice to put them in a bag, and not have to carry them around everywhere. We were told that they sold canvas bags at the main merchandise vender, but when we finally made our way back there, they were all sold out.

Thank for reading, and if you ever go to a con have fun and take in all of the awesome nerdyness.

New Year Resolutions, The everyday, and Leaving for Disney soon

Hey everyone!


New Years Resolutions

Right now I'm taking my time, to write a normal post. YAY! Okay first off, New years resolutions. I know we are already almost through this month and I'm just now talking about them. Oh well... because posting on my blog more often is not one of my resolutions :). So what are they? You ask...

Number one is, "Make an effort to find the good in every situation" This past year has been stressful and very frustrating, most of that was due to moving and buying a house, but I know in years to come I'll most likely have to go through all of that again. So for now on, I'm going to try and take a step back, see the whole situation, and not just what I'm going through right now. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." I feel that God has always taken really good care of us, and I know He's not going to stop now, so I just need to trust Him, and see Him in every situation.

Number two is, "To be more social" I have, not so great social skills, and my biggest problem is I'm not good at continuing the conversation. Wonderful people will come up to be, and ask me how I'm doing, and all I'll says is "fine thank you" and then I'll walk away... Not even thinking (until later) to ask them how they are doing. I think I can hear God shaking His head as I write this, because I pray for friends all of the time (I do have friends, they just live far away), and He sends people, in church mostly, (wonderful people) to go and talk to me, and I don't even notice it until later. So if you were one of those people, then I am sorry.

Number three is, "To keep things as simple as possible" Now this doesn't mean to be lazy, or to not try anymore, it just means not to complicate things. Like if you tell the kids they can watch a movie, and they pick Willy Wonka for the 3rd time this week, and I don't want to watch that again. Instead of telling them to pick something else (because if I do it's going to take them 15 mins to work it out), just let them do it, and I'll go into a different room. I'll be happy that quite time is about to start, and I'll not worry about how often they watch that silly movie. This also means that I won't worry about things that I don't have any control over.



The everyday

Things are good over here at the Legates' house. Mostly normal. I'm glad football is coming to an end, but I'm also glad about the outcome. Go figure the one year I don't follow it, and don't watch any games, is that one year that my team is in the super bowl. I grew up in Maryland, so yes I do mean the Ravens. I'm still debating if I should break this football fast, and watch the super bowl... Yeah I have no idea.

It seems I am raising another Star Trek fan. Olivia (the 2 almost 3 years old), really likes to watch it, and also will request it. I really don't know what to say about this. I love my kids, and I love how they love the same things I do. This also tells me to be cautious about what I love, and what I do around them. I think the main reason she loves Star Trek is because of the scenes with the ships flying by. She loves space ships. Her and Nathaniel love to build ships together out of legos. She also really loves super heroes, her two favorites are The Hulk, and Iron Man. There is a Hulk cartoon on netflix, and she loves it. She loves to stump around the room saying "Hulk Smash" while it's on.

I put together a new schedule for us! Yay! It use to be that the first half of the day was set in stone, because of the home schooling, and the second half was just what ever. That was fine until that boys started to play more video games, and were reading less books, so I fix it...

:)





















Leaving for Disney soon!

We only have 5 weeks left until we fly out to Orlando. I'll have to let you know how it goes. The only thing I'm really worried about is flying with Olivia. Other than that I'm really looking forward to the trip. It's been a while since we were able to take the kids on a real family vacation. We are already making list of what to pack, and making list of what to see. I'm also looking forward to warmer weather (yes please), and a chance to see the sun again (you don't get to see it in Washington often). We also made a count down chain!

 Jeremy came up with the poem on the Mickey head, and I put everything together. I got the idea from pinterest.

Okay we'll that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by :)

Finished with DS9

So yes we finally finished Star Trek Deep Space Nine. I'm sad that it's over :(  ... Yes that does mean that I liked it, a lot more than I thought I would. Remember this post? When I wrote that, we had just started on the 3rd season. I mentioned the Dominion and a possible war, and yes that does happen. They hint about it off and on throughout the first 5 seasons, and at the end of season 5 it finally happens. As far as wars go on Star Trek, this one takes the cake. It lasted for the rest of the series, and has you very worried, and on the edge of your seat. It was awesome, and it makes me even more proud to say that I am a Star Trek fan (in a very big way). So for all of you non Star Trek fans out there, all I have to say is...

"You guys just don't know what you're missing."

Deep Space Nine goes on the awesome list!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to watch some Star Trek today :)

Deep space nine

Jeremy and I have been going through all of the Star Trek series (not in order mind you). Our goal is to watch all of them. We have both loved Star Trek for a long time, but before we started doing this, our love of Star Trek was limited to only 1 or 2 series.

Right now we are on Deep Space Nine. We started in the fall, and with our normal Star Trek watching ability, we should have been done by now.... So why aren't we? Well the first season was very hard to get through. Like most tv shows the first season is the trial and error season, and they don't always get it quite right. This was very true for this particular series of Star Trek. The biggest problem was the characters... Commander Sisko was rude, uncaring, and very demanding. He didn't want to command DS9, and he was mad at the world. He also didn't like Captain Picard (and I just can't trust a guy who doesn't like Captain Picard). Major Kira is just as bad, and because of that, her and Sisko tend to butt heads quite often. Doctor Bashir is a pain in the neck. He talks way to much, and its all about nothing, (and I do mean nothing) he is a big wimp, and a horn dog (and I'm not sure how all of that can go together, but it does). Now mind you there are cool characters on the show, but in the first season they don't have very big parts.

Once you finally get through that crazy first season things start to get better, and I actually started to like the show. The characters get better, Sisko becomes nicer and starts to care about the crew, Kira backs up a little, and Bashir develops more of a normal personality (oh thank goodness). Also all of the good characters from the start like Odo, Dax, and O'Brien take a bigger role in the series.

So we are now on season 3 (YAY!) They now have the Defiant (which is an actually star ship), so the episodes have become more interesting, and more of them are happening outside the station. They have become huge enemies with the Dominion, and I see a war brewing (should make for some interesting episodes to come). All in all, it's not so bad. I still think TNG is the best, and Voyager was also better, but this will do. I am thankful that the awful first season of DS9 didn't ruin my love for Star Trek (as if that could ever happen).  ;)


Happy First Contact day to all of my fellow Trekkies!

Lately...

Okay so I know it has been a little while since I blogged. Well things have been pretty normal around here, and I haven't had much to blog about. Not that my life is boring, but I'm sure you guys don't want to read a post that is just about normal stuff like... Today I woke up, and showered. Then I ate breakfast..... you get the point. There are somethings (little things) that have happened in the last few weeks, that stand out, and if you want to hear about those than keep on reading.

We now have Start Trek DS9 on DVD! We just got it and I am super excited to watch it. So far we have only seen the first episode. We started watching that on Thursday, but only got half way through, then finished it yesterday. Jeremy is on this new diet and workout, and that has been interesting. He has lost some weight (not that he need to lose much mind you), and he super excited about it. The first week of his new diet however, he was super grumpy, it's funny how yummy food can make you so happy, and how not being able to have it, can make you so mad. I think that's why I avoid diets.

Homeschooling is going great. On most weeks we can finish early and take Friday off. We also just got our "Book It" stuff in the mail. I'm sure you remember Book It from when you were a kid. Well they also do it for Homeschool families. It also gives me the freedom to do the program the ways I want, and customize it if need be. I decided to do it by hours. They will get there ticket if they do 10 hours of reading. I even made up a reading log. Now of course once I told the kids about this, they were like "10 Hours! That's a long time." Then I explained... "You don't have to do it all at once. You can start by doing 30 mins a day, and if you do it like that, then it will take you 20 days. If you do 1 hour a day then it will take you 10." Of course after I explain that, Darien jumps in and says "Well I'm going to do 2 hours a day, so it will only take me 5 days." Yeah I really don't think he's going to do that.

On Thursday Link got lost! Wednesday night, I asked the boys to let Samson out, so they did, but Link went out with him. Now normally that's fine, we have a fence. Ten minutes later, I ask the boys to let Samson back in, and they did, but Link didn't want to, so they just closed the door. I didn't even know Link had gone out in the first place. So he was left outside all night. This gave him time to figure out a way out of the fence. I get up Thursday, and can't find Link anywhere, so I ask the boys if they had seen him. "Oh you are looking for Link... well he stayed outside last night." Oh my! Well he wasn't in the back yard anymore. So I start to make up fliers....

Lost Cat

Orange and white Tabby. Goes by the name Link.

Has a tag, but with wrong address and phone number.

Please call ***-***-****

We went out and put them up all over the neighborhood. We came home, and I notice our garage door is open, so I go in and close it. Once closed I hear a Meowww, and Link jumps out of a box. Yup he got out of the backyard, came around front, and went into the garage and hid. I know he is a smart cat.

This past weekend I had my little sister Shelby over to visit!

I know she is super cute!!

She came over and on Saturday we all went to the Renaissance Festival. 

Yeah that does sound like fun, and it should have been, but no. There were way to many people there, and because of that, we didn't get to see all of the fun stuff. Last year we had a lot of fun, but I guess now to many people know about it, and I hate crowds.

Also while Shelby was over, Link found a new hiding spot...

Yeah... Wow... and he's my chubby kitty, so I don't know how he does it...

Sunday we went shopping, just the girls. At least that was fun...

Well that's all for now, thanks for reading...

Life lessons you can learn from Star Trek!

Jeremy and I came up with this list. We tried to make it funny. If you don't understand it, then you need to watch more Star Trek....

Enjoy...











- Be like the borg and adapt.
- I'm not a Betazoid, so just please tell me with you are thinking.
- If you can't come up with a Logical Solution, then there is no solution.
- When giving orders, it is important to say "Make It So" or else it would never get done.
- Don't mess with the temporal time line, its just not worth it.
- Never play chess with a Vulcan
- When applying for a loan stay away from the bank of Ferengi, or anyone with extremely big ears.
- If your boss asks you to accompany him on a business trip, leave your red shirt at home.
- When faced with a confrontation, you should always handle it with diplomacy. However when diplomacy fails remember "Today is always a good day to die."
- If things are going to get ugly, just leave your emotion chip at home.
- If you feel like you don't fit in, the borg collective is always looking for new members.
- No matter how awful and ugly your outfit is, It's "In" somewhere in one of the many galaxies.
- Rules are meant to be bent and sometimes broken, in order to save your own skin.
- If your skin is not green, then you are not one of the most beautiful women in the galaxy.
- Being overly confident and self righteous and also taking huge risks is the only way you'll ever be promoted to admiral.
- Tribbles don't make good pets.
- The Smartest person is never in charge.

Playing catchup!

Hi everyone, well it's been some time (not much mind you) (but some), since I updated you on just the things going on in the life of Randi.

Well lately I have been getting ready to start home schooling next year, and I'm excited. I'm sure the excitement will wear off once the hard work kicks in, and the kids start to misbehave, but for the moment I'm looking forward to it. Last week I went out to get school supplies, and that was fun. I found everything we needed (yay) and a few things I never knew we needed (of course) (*wink*). I now finally have all my home school things organized. I don't, how ever, have all of the books yet, I have a little over a 3rd of them (19 of 51) (I know it's a lot). I have to get teacher's keys, test books, and work books along with the regular ones, so that racks up the number a bit. Tomorrow, how ever, I am going to a Home School Curriculum Fair and Workshops, and I hope I can find some of the books I need there. If not then it's back to ebay! I have been getting them used on ebay, and it's about half the price (most of the time).

We started going to a new church yesterday. We have been looking, and trying out for quite sometime now, and I'm so glad to say that our search is finally over. We thought we would try out the church that runs our home school umbrella, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Pasadena, MD. It's a very small church! Jeremy counted 29, and that was including us, but we did like it, and we both want to go back. The last church we went to was Faith Baptist Church in Glen Burnie. That church was huge, but no one wanted to talk to us, and Nathaniel's Sunday school teacher was very rude to us. We went twice, and that was enough to know that we didn't want to be a member.

Jeremy is taking a college class online (pre-calculus), he has been doing this after work on week days. I'm glad he's taking it and catching up on college, but this does mean less Jeremy and Randi time. We are use to that though, and it has taught us to make the best of the time we do have. Lately we have been spending that time watching Star Trek Voyager. We just got the whole series on DVD, and we are almost done season 3. We are excited to move on to season 4, because that's when they get rid of the character Kes (Jennifer Lien), and get the character Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Seven of Nine is much more exciting than Kes, and much hotter (yup I think she's hot).

Olivia is 4 months now, and she is going for her appointment in 2 days. She is getting so big, and she is growing more and more beautiful. She has been laughing up a storm! Her favorite thing to laugh at currently is me singing the Subway Five Dollar Foot Long song. No matter how hard she is crying, that song always brings out a giggle or two.

It has now been a year since we came back to Maryland, and I can't decide weather it went by fast or slow. I guess that means it's in-between. I still feel like I haven't reconnected with some of my family and old friends. It is partly my fault for being busy, but I also feel like some of them still haven't forgiven me for moving away in the first place, and they have acted bitter and mean to me, and I have been avoiding them. Jeremy and I are deciding weather or not to re-enlist, and this is what made me think of how long we had been here. I miss being away, but I also like being home again. Next May would be the best time to re-enlist, so we have a year to Pray and think about it. I'm sure God will lead us to the right place, and take care of us. He has done a great job of that in the past, so I'm not worried.

Well I think I have told all that I can think of. Thanks for reading!

Is Verizon Fios better? I think not!

Okay so here is the problem, I don't like Verizon Fios! There I said it. The two cable companies around here are Comcast and Verizon. When we lived on Fort Meade we had Comcast, we only had a few problems, and that was mainly because the wiring in our house was messed up and out dated.

When we had to get cable for our new house Jeremy wanted to go with Verizon just to try it out (he thought it would be better). I didn't want to, because it seemed like more money to me. In the end though Jeremy won (big surprise).

Now we both hate it and want to switch back. One of the problems is, we don't get the same channels that we use to get on Comcast. We have the Digital Preferred, which is the same package we had with Comcast, but we don't get the History Channel or Discovery Health, (there are more, I just don't know them off the top of my head) and we did with Comcast.

Also for some odd reason they kept sending our bill to our Fort Meade address. So when we finally got our mail all squared, and everything sent to our new address, we called Verizon to change the address. Jeremy was on the phone for 80 mins, after getting transferred 9 time, and finally getting to the right department (maybe), they were closed because it was after business hours. So we had to call back another day, by this time we were both ready to cancel. So Jeremy called again, and this time after only getting transferred 5 times, we found out, if we were to cancel it would be 350 dollars!! So not cool! So now we are stuck with them, of the next 2 years (fun!).

The crazy thing is, we really don't watch that much tv. Jeremy and I only like a few shows, which are.... The Biggest Loser, Mythbusters, 19 Kids and Counting, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and Star Trek. He likes Lost, but I don't care for that, and I like Bones, but he doesn't care for that. So in reality all we really need is... NBC, ABC, FOX, Discovery, TLC, SyFy, and Nick (for the kids), that's all, so I keep thinking, "If only there was a cable company that let to choose the channels you wanted and only those channels, and it would be like a dollar per channel per month." Right? Wouldn't that be great? Wishful thinking right? I just hate flipping through all of those channels, and finding nothing I like, and I just find it useless, when I just end up watching the same old shows I always watch.

25 Random things

I did this on facebook about a year ago, but I wanted to post it on here. If you have read it before and don't care to again just skip it.

25 Random things about me...

Randi Legates

1. I cut my own hair, and it looks great! Moving on...

2. I'm a Trekkie, but you all know that.

3. I know how to solve a Rubik's cube.

4. My kids are the best.

5. The Mythbusters make me laugh.

6. I love to sing, but only in the car.

7. I've lived in 4 different states, and moved across country twice.

8. My first car was a 1971 Super Beetle! The coolest car ever!

9. I now drive a MOM car, named Phantom (by the boys), a 2004 ford Freestar.

10. I'm a Hufflepuff, for all of us Harry Potter fans.

11. I have been a Navy wife for 7 years. WOW!

12. I have all of Star Trek OS, TNG, and Voyager on DVD.

13. My first Hollywood crush was Wil Wheaton (he was Wesley Crusher on Star Trek TNG), I was 10 and I was in-love. (I had a crush on Wesley Crusher)

14. For the last 4 years, I have put up my christmas tree on the day after Halloween.

15. I like cheese A LOT!

16. Ice cream doesn't last long in this house (tee-hee).

17. My favorite food is Chili.

18. My favorite color is yellow.

19. I sleep with a stuffed pooh bear, I always have, ever since I can remember.

20. I can quote word from word the 3 original Star Wars movies.

21. My favorite song is "ShaBoom" by the Chords.

22. Switchfoot is my favorite group.

23. Legend of Zelda OoT is my favorite video game!

24. I've know my husband for almost 10 years, we met in June of 2000, when we were both 15

25. My son Darien is named after a character in the cartoon Sailor Moon.

Raising a bunch of Star Trek nerds

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm a Star Trek nerd. Not just a Trekie, I'm a Treker (that's even more hard core!). Now I know that our kids are supposed to take after us, but sometimes it just surprises me.

The other morning, before my husband went to work he turned Star Trek on (we have the dvds). He was finishing an episode that he had started the night before. This was fine and all until I needed the kids to get ready for school. Everyone was setting around watching Star Trek, eyes glued to the tv. Everyone but me, who was getting the morning things done. Believe me, I would have loved to join them. I needed the kids to get dressed, brush their teeth, put shoes and jackets on, and put their lunch boxes in their book bags. Now these things would normally take 15 mins all together, but not on this day. They just couldn't leave the living room! So after finally getting them to get dressed, brush teeth, and pack lunch boxes, all that was left was shoes and jackets, but we only had a minute. Not of course they can do this in one min, but when Star Treks on...

I finally tell the kids "hurry we have to go!" And Darien says "but I can't do this fast!" Now I have seen him get ready really fast before, but of course not today. And Zachary says "You mean we aren't going to finish this show" Wow! I finally had to go over and turn it off, and of course I get this look from Jeremy like "What, I was watching that!" Wow again! Yes I also wish I could set down and watch Star Trek in the morning, but it's just not going to happen. So needless to say, Star Trek has been banned in the mornings, because I really don't want my kids to end up missing the bus, because then I would have to drive them to school.

Although it was a very interesting episode (I had already seen it). For all of you curious Trekies out there, the episode was Chain Of Command, of Season 6, of The Next Generation. AKA "There are 4 lights!"

...Captain Picard Rocks...

Just one more week and then...

Okay is it's just one more week until we pull out of here, well it 8 days so yeah. Things have been good so far, but next week will be stressful.

Last Friday I got to see Star Trek!! Woohoo!! Last Friday we were celebrating because Jeremy detached from the Uss Hampton (no more submarine), so we took the kids to Mimi's, and then to the drive-in to see Star Trek. It was great, and I loved it, and I can't wait to buy it on Blu ray, yes we have to get this one on Blu ray. We love going to the Drive-in. It's in Santee which is about a 15 min drive from us, and most of the time there is hardly anyone there, but not that night. I kept thinking to myself, there can't be this many Trekies that live around here, so WHY ARE THEY HERE! This is a Star Trek Fan movie only!! Tee-hee!

Okay so next week, on Tuesday the movers will come, and they will pack us up, and take everything away on Wednesday. Saturday (early), we are pulling out of here and hitting the road. So keep us in your prayers, and I will write again once we get to Maryland.