I somehow forgot to do last weeks, but here's the new one:
1. For me rule-following is the opposite of creativity.
2. House of Mirth was the last excellent book I read.
3. I like fill-ins because they're fun! It reminds me a little of the silly questionnaires my friends and I did in elementary school, only without the drama and jealousies they created (I had one friend who would always ask which friend of our threesome each person liked best. Talk about stirring up trouble! I think I remember our teacher eventually banning questionnaires from our class.) I think these are also good to keep for personal history. I would love to read things like this about my parents, grandparents, etc. of what they liked and thought.
4. In nature I like looking at everything! I don't know how to pick one thing. I love mountains, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, meadows. I wish I could see these things more often. I don't always appreciate the desert, though.
5. Someone with public speaking skills should win the US elections.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was watching this old Steve Carell interview about the 40-Year-Old Virgin (which I haven't seen. I would guess if it was edited it would be very short.):
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to either going to see Annie Get Your Gun or watching License to Wed, tomorrow my plans include scrapbooking party and Sunday, I want to finish Anna's costume for her play!
And I have a new playlist in honor of DA. At this point I am anxiously awaiting an album, but I may be over it by then!
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This was so much fun to do--thank you Dan for this wonderful Mother's Day gift! It was really neat watching the movie here because the audience was so energetic. Lots of cheers and stuff throughout the movie. This one seemed very different from the first so I can't even compare the two. Prince Caspian definitely had more laughs. I think it's challenging for the filmmakers to get the audience to swallow this world with talking animals and moving trees, but I think they did a pretty good job of it, although I thought the centaurs were a bit creepy. You have so much more control about these things when you're reading. Right now I'm reading a fantasy book with elves and dwarves in it , but when I picture it in my head, they all just look like regular people. Is that cheating? Anyways, with a movie, you can't get away with that. The guy who played the Dwarf Trumpkin was excellent, and the girl who plays Lucy reminded me so much of Amy that I loved her parts. I did not fall asleep, which I was worried about because it started so late at night, but I think I had about 3 diet pepsis that day, so I made it through! All in all, it was a great return to the magic of my childhood.
I like to call Amy our "teacher of life." She always explaining to us how things work and why they are the way the are. I can't tell you how many times a day she starts off saying, "I know why . . . people have names, mailboxes have flags, etc." And her explanations are always very interesting.
Everyday when we drop Jeremy and Anna off at school, Jeremy says to Amy "Goodbye Martian, Sleepwalker, Six-year-old, Pony Lover, Frankenstein," to which Amy always screams, "I DO NOT LOVE PONIES!!"
I love Amy and her cuteness, but I have to say I just looked over where she was eating some mac and cheese, and although she did clean up her plate, there are about seven macaronis sitting on the tablecloth. That's when you just have to look at the positive.
And here's where it all began--Amy one day old:
1. There is absolutely NO way you can get me to wear makeup everyday!
2. The super mega heat today reminds me that summer is almost here!
3. I cannot live without my lip stuff.
4. Backpacking and rock climbing are two things I'd like to try.
5. When life hands you lemons use them to clean your house.
6. Spending the night at my grandma's house is my favorite childhood memory.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching The Pursuit of Happyness, tomorrow my plans include baby shower, possibly Anne of Green Gables party at the library, and seeing Prince Caspian and Sunday, I want to go to church and relax!
Here's more than you wanted to know about what we've been doing (minus boring things like housework, driving kids around, childcare, doctors appts., etc.):
Dan had a birthday last week, and here is a card that the kids made for him:
Dan bought his own present this year--his long coveted components for a media PC. Among other things, it will allow us to record in Hi Def, and we can also now record channels we couldn't previously record like Qubo. I'm excited about being able to record The Office without it being too fuzzy to watch.
The girls helped Dan dig the holes for the posts for our new white vinyl fence. I'll try to take a picture of the final product after we've mowed the lawn.
This is just one of about 25 pictures of pictures in a fairy cookbook Anna bought at the book fair. Oh the joys of a digital camera!
And now a very important review of my Netflix activity for the last 30 days:
Monk - 5 discs: Season 4, Disc 2-Season 5, Disc 3. We only have one disc left that's out, and then we will have to wait until July to see Season 6. It will probably be good to have a break--we are clearly Monk-obsessed, but we justify it because it something the whole family loves. It has also resulted in more Clue playing, and of course when someone is ready to make their accusation, they say, "Here's what happened. . ."
The Others - I don't usually watch thriller type moves, but I had just read The Turn of the Screw and had read that this movie was similar to the book. It really wasn't, but it was a pretty good movie with a surprising ending.
Foyle's War - I'm always looking for a good British series, and I liked this one (it was more like a movie because it was just one long show), but I wasn't wowed enough to get another one right away. But I don't think you can always judge a series by it's first show--they have to spend so much time introducing the characters and the setting. Am I ready to get hooked on another show? I'm not so sure! It's about a detective during WWII. Maybe I'll try another one someday because I like Michael Kitchen and WWII stuff.
Dodgeball - Sent back. Wanted it for home video for soundbites, but couldn't handle wasting my time watching it again and forgot just how bad it was.
Shameless - British series. Sent back. I have to take back what I said about judging a series by it's first episode, because it took me about ten minutes with this one. I learned that NR can be a little scary. I was exposed to more questionable content and bad language in about ten minutes than I have been in about 10 years.
The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum - These were part of my whole Bourne experience: Read first book, watch first movie, read second book, watch second movie, watch third movie, read third book. Well, the only thing the books and the movies really share are the titles. The first book was awesome, the second book okay. The first movie excellent, second movie pretty good, the third movie absolutely amazing. I'm glad I had just watched Supremacy because something in Ultimatum would have gone right over my head. Ultimatum was riveting and suspenseful, I love the use of music or lack of music for dramatic effects, and the camera work makes you feel like you're right in the middle of it. And this may sound weird coming from a Brit Lit Chick Flick fanatic, but I loved that there was no new love story. That can be very refreshing in movies. The only part I didn't like was a major car crashing scene that was a bit excessive and very unpleasant to watch. So now it's on to reading the third book.
Instant Play - I've also tried to watch a couple of shows that you can play instantly from Netflix, but have had some technical difficulties. I watched one episode of the British Office series--pretty interesting but there's no subtitles so I think I missed a lot. I watched one episode of Heroes, which was pretty awesome, but had a couple of parts that bothered me. And I watched one 10-minute segment of Sister Wendy, the art-loving nun. But for all of those I can't seem to be able to watch anymore. That's probably a good thing, seeing as this is the longest post EVER.
Anything else you want to know about my media life? The only show I manage to watch on TV right now is American Idol, and the two Davids have been my favorites all along, and it looks like they will be in the top two, but you never know.
Here is David Cook's most memorable performance for me so far--a version of Billie Jean:
Here's my favorite of David Archuleta's, the only one I really liked on Andrew Lloyd Weber night:
With the new media PC I am hoping to watch The Office more regularly. I have heard I've missed a couple of really funny ones, but I can't for the life of me remember on Thursday nights to watch it!! And that's the most mellow night of the week usually.
I feel like those people who get up in church and talk for too long, and you get the idea that they just can't make the break and end their talk because they feel like there's something more that they want to say. When this happens I'm in agony because of my short attention span, and I get that twisty feeling in my stomach and want to scream. I'm a producing this effect yet?
1. The macaroni and cheese had an extra secret ingredient; it was Worcestershire sauce!
2. I looked through my window, and what did I see? Plums are actually growing on my barren plum tree!)
3. Right now, I need to listen to some upbeat music to get me in the mood to clean.
4. Nowhere is where I went Thursday night; it was fun. We had pizza and watched Monk.
5. Why do headaches hurt so much? I'm a big baby when it comes to headaches--I would rather have my hand cut open or something.
6. All I can think of is the Fill-ins are hard this week.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to staying home, tomorrow my plans include cleaning, video editing (North Dakota trip), taking Jeremy to a birthday party, watching while Dan puts a new fence in (Yay!), and maybe watching The Bourne Ultimatum, and Sunday, I want to celebrate Mother's Day!
This isn't a very good picture of the kids playing Clue, because when they saw the camera they all darted in different directions, but watching my kids all playing a game together makes me very happy for some reason:
Jeremy had a scout campout last weekend, and this is a picture of he and his friends putting out the fire with Sunny D:
Anna turned nine on April 30, but we celebrated a day early because the next night was Wild Wednesday, our busiest night of the week. By tradition, she got to pick out dinner that night: mac and cheese, peas, watermelon, and lemon-lime soda:
As you can tell by the look on her face, Anna got just what she wanted--a Nintendo DS (and she also got a game from Kaylynn, Jeremy and Amy):
Dan bought Jeremy a super duper backpack for hiking and camping, and decided to put Amy in it for a ride. If her face looks a little read, it's because Dan managed to lift her up into the ceiling fan, and she has a nice little bump on her head as a result. After the tears she was laughing quite a bit:
A couple weeks ago Amy got an ugly splinter in her hand, and it was agony to get it out (both for her and us--I wonder what the neighbors thought of the blood-curdling screams). Ever since then, any time she gets hurt, we say "Well, it's not as bad as the splinter, is it?" She's also getting two teeth pulled in May, and I keep telling her about the shot and how it's so much easier than getting a splinter out.
And now for Friday Fill-ins:
1. Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are hydrogen and oxygen!
2. Thinking about what mankind has created often amazes me.
3. You can keep doing that forever, the dog is (I don't get this one, maybe someone can explain it to me).
4. Take butter, worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, and Chex cereal, mix it all together and voila! You have the best comfort food in the world!.
5. If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow white pumpkins.
6. I wish my hair was best au naturel.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to in-home date night (Bourne Supremacy and take-out), tomorrow my plans include scrapbooking and Sunday, I want to go to church and then relax!
