It's Time for Another Movie Review Post

• The Taking of Pelham 123 - The premise and plot of this movie were interesting, but the language was awful! I don't think the movie ran more than 5 minutes, maybe 10, without hearing the f word. It was really bad in that respect, and the language was distracting. I wouldn't recommend this movie, mostly because of the language.


• Public Enemies - Honestly, the real reason I chose this movie was because parts of it were filmed in a town in WI that we sometimes drive through, and I thought we'd maybe recognize some things. Well, we did, but the movie wasn't real great. It was slow, and I fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through. Josh told me how it ended, and it doesn't sound like I missed anything worthwhile.


• Star Trek - I'm not a trekkie, and I don't know if I've ever seen a whole episode of the original series (although I have seen some of the subsequent ones). Josh isn't a trekkie either, but he's seen enough Star Trek episodes to get many of the references to the original tv series in this movie and explain them to me. However, even if Josh hadn't been there to share the allusions with me, I think I would have enjoyed this one. I didn't care for the love interest angle or Spock meeting himself, but other than that, it was pretty good.


• The Proposal - A predictable yet sometimes cute and funny movie. Mostly fluff rather than substance. Entertaining, but nothing special. Not for kids.

Movies, A Party, and Good Deals

Josh and the kids watched Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs last night. I peeked in here and there while working on the computer. From the bits I saw, I wasn't real impressed.

Then, after the kids were in bed, Josh and I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We both liked it, but, as with most books-turned-into-movies, the book was better. There's just so much more to a book that doesn't lend itself to screenplay and/or would make a movie extremely long.

Church this morning, then back home to eat lunch.

E was invited to classmate SP's birthday party at the roller rink in C this afternoon. I took her, and, instead of going back home and picking her up when the party was done, I went shopping at some stores nearby. There wasn't really anything in particular that I was looking for other than a valentine card for Josh which I ended up not getting because I couldn't find one I liked. However, I came away with some good deals from Kohl's.

I'd gotten a $15 Kohl's gift card for Christmas that I hadn't spent yet. I'd been thinking about getting some dark brown dress pants for work, and I found some on the clearance rack for $14.40 (70% off the original price). I also found a church dress for next winter for E on the girls' clearance rack (60-70% off) and some long sleeved t-shrits with Lego Star Wars on them for J for next winter (about 50% off). I even had a coupon in my purse for 15% off the whole purchase which I'd forgotten about, and yesterday was the last day it was good for. I came away only spending $22 of our money. Good deals!

I picked E up at 3:30. It was only her second time at the roller rink, but she had fun!

In Which I Earn the Bad Mom Award

E had basketball games at her school last night. It was also our night for our "compulsory volunteerism" in which we had to supervise at the games for 2 hrs (make sure there are no problems with fans or students from our school or the other team's and help as needed).

E's team lost, and when her game was done, I handed over the blaze orange supervisor's vest to Josh to wear while I went and finished proofing and printing the bulletins for Sunday since they weren't ready for me yet while I was working there earlier.

After putting the kids to bed, Josh and I watched The Soloist. I wouldn't recommend it. It wasn't horrible or anything, but it was R.E.A.L.L.Y. slow. I think it could have been a good movie, but it just seemed so drawn out when it didn't need to be. I watched the whole thing, but Josh fell asleep during it.

J had a basketball game this morning at P, H. Josh took J and S to the game while I took E, G, and F grocery shopping with me. E and G wanted to come with me and pick out presents for their friends whose birthday parties they will be attending soon, and F wanted to spend the remainder of her $10 money from Christmas. E was scheduled to have a 3 hr cheerleading practice this afternoon (or so I thought), so we had to get the errands run in the morning which meant we couldn't all go to J's game.

J's team won his game.

After lunch I took E to school for her practice. We were about 5 minutes early. Pastor's car was the only one there, but that didn't really faze me since the other cheerleaders usually get dropped off, and the coach gets there right when practice is supposed to start. I watched E open the door and go into the building.

On the way home, I had to stop at Piggly Wiggly to pick up a couple of things that they had really good deals on.

When I pulled into the garage, Josh came out with the phone in his hand and said that E was waiting at school and didn't have practice. Oh, no!

I drove back and picked her up, but I went into the office and checked on my computer there. Practice was scheduled for 1:00-4:00 NEXT Saturday afternoon!

I felt so incredibly horrible! Bad mom award for the day? Yep, that would be mine. :(

At home once again I spent over 2 hrs cleaning the house and folding laundry. Not fun, but productive, and now the house looks much better.

With our permission, J has started reading the Harry Potter books. Someone at school is reading the first one. Because it wasn't in the school library, J started with book 2. When we were at the community library this morning, I checked for book 1, but all the copies there were checked out there, too. Guess I'll have to put it on hold for him.

J just started reading the Harry Potter book this past Wednesday and is already almost done. Pretty good for a boy who mainly enjoys non-fiction!

Music, Movies, and Sunday

The concert we went to last night actually ended up being a full worship service rather than just the concert it seemed to be advertised as, so we were a bit underdressed. That was okay though, and the band sounded great!

Last night after putting the kids to bed, Josh and I watched the movie Flywheel. It's by the same people who made Fireproof. The movie's message was good, and the movie was pretty good, too.

Josh had to usher for early service this morning, and F and her kdg class sang in the same service.

G's classroom celebrates summer birthdays on the child's half birthday. Since G's half birthday is today, he and I made dirt cake cups (his choice) for him to share with his friends at school tomorrow. There was enough left over for everyone in our family to each have some, too. Yum!

Josh went over to work in the afternoon and was there til almost 7:30 trying to fix a bunch of computers.

The kids watched The Jungle Book 2 movie this afternoon. I entered some budget stuff on the computer and putzed around with a bunch of blog stuff.

Just Stuff

Last night Josh and I watched Echelon Conspiracy. It was alright, a bit confusing at times. It reminded me a bit of War Games, one of Josh's favorite movies, but he didn't really care for this one.

I left this morning to stop at work and do a few things before returning some things to the library and going grocery shopping.

R left for Mom and Dad's today, but she'll be back again next week for a couple of nights.

Last night and today I've also been working on our budget and entering receipts and stuff.

G went to JK's house today to play for a while in the late morning and early afternoon.

Josh and the kids have been emptying out a bunch of stuff from the basement into the family room. Some weatherization people are going to be coming to our house to seal some of the areas around the house's foundation, and they have to be able to get at where the insulation is where the basement's ceiling and walls meet.

Now all the lumber we had in the basement to finish it with is in the family room along with dressers and lots of other stuff we had stored down there. I think this is also spurring Josh on to move ahead with finishing the basement.

Movie Reviews

Don't even bother:

• 3:10 to Yuma - Boring!


• Flash of Genius - Had the potential to be a good movie but didn't carry through


• The Day the Earth Stood Still - Odd

Worth seeing:

• Frost Nixon - Interesting retelling of Nixon and Watergate


• The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger's Joker is somewhat disturbingly maniacal, but the movie is pretty good. Even though this is a Batman movie, it's not for children.


• Defiance - True account of Russian Jews during WWII who escaped into the woods to live

Don't miss:

• Slumdog Millionaire - Finally a movie I'd heard good things about that lived up to the hype

Catchin Up ... Again

E had her first clarinet lesson of the year at school on Monday.

Tuesday I took F with me when I left work since she had an appt at the health dept for her kdg shots. She also got the flu shot, which was actually a mist inhaled through her nose, and, since S was with us, I had him get that, too. F did so well when she got her actual shots though. She received 3, and she didn't cry at all for any of them.

I had to work concessions Tuesday night.

E had musical practice Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

S and I went grocery shopping on Friday after I got done with work.

Josh and I watched Knowing after the kids were in bed. I thought it was alright til about 3/4 of the way through. It started out with a supernatural bent, but then it switched to a Biblical and alien combo that was odd. I wouldn't recommend the movie.

I had to work concessions again on Saturday. I started at 7:45 am and finished just before 3:00 pm. While I was gone, Josh got cleaned all the remaining toys that we're getting rid of out of the family room. It looks great!

While shopping on Friday, I'd forgotten to buy a gift for a baby shower on Sunday, so on Saturday, Josh, the kids, and I went to Target so that I could get the gift and look for some new tennis shoes for myself since mine are falling apart and are worn down to no tread on the soles. (I didn't find any new ones.)

Then we all went to Chili's for supper. I had a gift card for the restaurant, and none of us had ever been there before. We really liked it!

After supper we took our time getting home and visited two furniture stores and looked at reclining couches. We're thinking of getting some for our family room. It won't be til next year, but it was fun to see what there was and get a better idea of what we like and want. We realized in doing so that some couches don't work well for Josh since he is so tall and some of the backs are too short for him to sit or recline comfortably.

Later at home Josh and I watched Taken. The movie was interesting, but I'll admit I fell asleep for the last 15-20 minutes of the movie just because I was so tired. Josh told me how it ended though, and I don't feel any real need to watch the part I missed. The movie was okay, but not anything to get too excited over.

G and his second grade class sang in early service at church this morning, and they did a really nice job.

This afternoon I went to that baby shower I mentioned earlier. It was for a friend who is one of Josh's co-workers. She and her husband are expecting their first baby, a girl, in October.

After playing a Scattergories-type baby game at the beginning of the shower, the guests were asked to make an 8x8" scrapbooking page for a book for the baby. One of the hostesses scraps, and she had her supplies there. She'd set up about 16 spots at some tables where there were coordinating papers all according to a theme like "Baby's First Christmas", "Baby's First Bath", "Baby's First Birthday", "Baby's First Valentine's Day", etc. She had all of her stamps, stickers, embellishments, and papers there for people to use. I don't scrap (other than the pages I did of my family for my grandparents' 60th anniversary book last year), but it was fun. There were some people there who'd never scrapped before, but those who had were helping those who hadn't. I thought it was a neat idea.

I stopped at Kohl's on the way home from the shower. E needed some new pj's for the cooler weather, and they were 50% off at Kohl's. I found some for her, and I also got 15% on the scratch-off card at the register for an even better deal.

When I got home, Josh was hard at work cooking up tomato soup to freeze, using the tomatoes from our garden.

I'm really going to try and update my blog a bit more often so that I don't have to do these long recaps on the weekends.

L.O.N.G Day

I had to be over at the high school this morning at 7:00 am to help get the concessions ready for the volleyball tournament which started at 8:30 am. There was also a football game that started at 1:00 pm. CL and I were anticipating a long day due to both sports, but we'd figured we'd be able to close down after halftime of the football game and then clean everything up. However, the volleyball tournament was running behind, and so we had to stay open about an hour longer than we'd anticipated. Everything went fine, and we made over $1000, but it was a long day, and my feet hurt.

While I was working, Josh was at home with the kids, and he got over 12 half pint jars of strawberry jam made (from strawberries we'd bought a few weeks ago in order to make more jame but had stuck in the freezer til we got around to it) as well as some more zucchini soup to freeze and a bunch of zucchini bread and muffins.

Josh and I watched the movie New in Town after putting the kids to bed. I'd wanted to see it since Josh and I both attended college in a small Minnesota town. Josh said the movie was better than he expected. I thought it was alright. My biggest beef with it was the dorky "Minnesota" accents the characters had. (Josh said they talked like the people in Fargo did (a movie I've never seen). As I said, we went to college in Minnesota, I've talked with people who were born in Minnesota and/or lived much of their lives in Minnesota, and I don't know anyone who talks like that. It was annoying, although to be fair, the stereotype of the selfish, snobby girl from the big city (in this case Miami) played by Renee Zellweger was cliched, too.

However, the movie did have its funny parts. The clip in the deleted scenes where Renee Zellweger's character steps outside of her house in the middle of winter and holds her nose suddenly due to the cold was one Josh and I both thought was hilarious! We knew exactly what she was doing, having stepped outside into those Minnesota booger-freezing temps ourselves!

Movie verdict? Cliched characters, pretty predictable plot, but enough funny parts to make it enjoyable.

Hey, Y'all!

Hello from my IL's house, down south in AR! If you're wondering why you haven't heard from me in a number of days, that's why.

We're here visiting Josh's parents and grandparents, playing outside and in the playhouse, going to a museum, washing cars, working in the grandparents' garden and washing the windows of their house, going to church, going for walks, doing home improvement projects for Josh's parents, and just plain enjoying time with extended family. I've also been taking lots of pictures, so there will be lots to share with you once we get home!

Last night Josh and I went on a date to the late show of Angels and Demons at the theater. Very good movie! We both enjoyed it. There were some predictable parts but enough twists to surprise you. It's a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, but I liked Angels and Demons much better. It's got more action and does not border on the heretical but is really more about political (albeit church) intrigue. Definitely worth seeing.

Movie Reviews

Josh and I have watched a slew of movies lately.

• Gremlins - I got this one because, believe it or not, I'd never seen the whole movie before, only clips. I'm surprised that it was marketed to kids when it came out. I know that I definitely would not have liked it as a child. I would have thought it really scary. (I never liked alien movies when I was little except for the original Star Wars trilogy. ET? I hated it! But I digress ...) Gremlins wasn't bad. The special effects were very 1980's-ish, and it was neat to see a movie again where fantasy characters weren't all CG. However, now that I've seen it, I probably won't watch it again.



• Rent - (I watched this one by myself.) I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I didn't like it, and normally I like musicals. In fact, I only watched about 1/3 of it. The music was good, and the actors and actresses seemed to play their parts well, but I didn't like the storyline. I didn't know what the musical was about before getting it. I probably wouldn't have gotten it from the library if I had.



• A History of Violence - I thought the premise of this movie sounded interesting. A small town cafe owner saves the people in his restaurant one day when 2 mobsters show up and he shoots them. He is then "mistaken" for an ex-mobster, so the viewer needs to figure out if he really was part of a crime ring or not. The answer comes out by the end of the movie. However, the movie was fairly violent, and I was uncomfortable with the level and type of intimacy shown between the lead actor and his wife. The movie also took a little while to get moving. You can skip this movie



• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Great movie! Both Josh and I really liked it! Although I've read the Prince Caspian book, I've only read it once, and it's been a few years, so my memory of its details is foggy. Consequently, I can't very well compare this movie to the book, but the movie stands well on its own. You can tell Aslan is a CG character, but his facial expressions are amazingly lifelike, even if he is a lion who talks. :) Good plot, casting, costumes, and special effects. It's rated PG, but, knowing our kids, they wouldn't be ready for it ... maybe when they're about 12 YO.



• Lakeview Terrace- Interesting take on how a black cop (Samuel L. Jackson) views and deals with his new neighbors who are an interracial married couple. Josh commented that this movie has some horror film elements ... "Hmmm ... It's dark, the lights are out, the door to the house is open. I think I'll go inside" ... and other such predictable scenarios. I was bothered by the way the husband and wife kept things from each other, weren't themselves with each other, and manipulated their spouse. You can bypass this movie.

Rainy Day

It's been raining for quite a while this afternoon and is only about 50 degrees.

I worked more on piecing the quilt most of the afternoon.

The kids are watching and oldie-but-goodie, Old Yeller. The funny thing is that I remember when I was little and renting Old Yeller on video back when we had to rent the VCR, too! Remember when you had to rent both?

Last week we got Swiss Family Robinson (We'd recently finished reading a condensed version of the book to the kids.) and Holes (which E and J's teacher is reading to them at school and J finished reading at home), both which they really enjoyed.

Movie Reviews

Josh and I recently watched

• City of Ember - Okay movie. It was one of those movies you could tell that the book was probably much better, but neither of us has read the book. However, I think if you have read the book it would be worthwhile to see the characters come to life on the screen, but I don't anticipate that the movie would quite live up to your expectations.


• Appaloosa - Don't bother watching this one. There were a few big name actors in it, but the movie was so S...L...O...W. I remember looking at the counter on the DVD player at 38 minutes and wondering how much longer the movie would last.

Movie Reviews

My take on movies we've seen recently:

• Hancock - This is not your typical superhero movie. It shares the reactions and feelings of the people who have to clean up and pay for the destructive mess that a superhero causes when fighting for justice and saving others. Will Smith's superhero character carries more baggage than normal superheroes, and he is abrasive and rude. The movie has some language and is quite crude at times, but I liked this movie in the same way I enjoy the tv show House. However, I would not suggest this movie for children not yet in high school.



• Wall-E - Josh and the kids watched this movie while I was gone one night, so I watched it another night by myself. I was surprised at how deep it was and what a heavy message it had, IMHO much more so than kids' cartoon movies usually do. Although I liked it, it didn't really strike me as a movie for kids, not because of language or violence, etc., but because I thought it just wouldn't interest them. However, my kids really liked it and have been going around imitating robot voices and saying, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaall-E. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeve." Of course, the first half of the movie didn't have many lines anyway!



• Fireproof - I've heard so many good things about this movie, and I was looking forward to seeing it. From the glowing reviews I've read others write about the movie, I think I'm going to be in the minority. The movie had a wonderful message. I really liked its take on marriage being more than just romantic love and how it should reflect and portray God's self-sacrificing, unconditional love for us. However, I think the acting in Fireproof left something to be desired. With the exception of Kirk Cameron, many of the characters' acting abilities lacked believability which I felt was distracting at times. I do think Fireproof is a movie worth seeing, but you will have to ignore the sometimes-forced acting and concentrate on the message.



• Return to Me - I thought this movie started out slowly and disjointed. It did improve as it went on. The focus of the movie should have been on the young couple falling in love, but I felt the parts of the 4 old male friends were written and performed better and stole the show. I'd watch this movie again if it was on tv, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to watch it on DVD again.

What I'm Currently Reading and a Movie Announcement

I'm currently reading Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML by Elisabeth and Eric Freeman. This is definitely NOT the kind of book I usually read, but I'm enjoying it! Josh suggested it to me. It's not written like your typical textbook and is very easy to read, even if you don't know much about html. So far, I've known about half the information in the book. Most of the html I already knew I learned through looking at codes here and there on the web when I wanted a specific thing, but I've learned that I wasn't doing a couple of the things exactly the correct way, and I've picked up some new tricks as well. If you want to learn a bit more about html, I'd recommend this book!

At the same time, I've started reading a new-to-me set of books called the Mithgar series by Dennis L. McKiernan. There are quite a number of books in the series. Right now I'm about halfway through the first book, The Dark Tide. It's pretty good so far, very high fantasy and Lord of the Rings-ish in style.

I didn't start reading books in the fantasy genre til Josh suggested I read J. R. R. Tolkein's The Hobbit* and LOTR triology back when he learned Peter Jackson was making the LOTR movies. I really enjoyed the books but still didn't read any more fantasy til I picked up the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini this past summer. To my surprise, I'm discovering I really like the high fantasy genre, although maybe I shouldn't be so surprised since I also like reading historical fiction set in the Middle Ages, and high fantasy shares a similar setting.

*I just discovered that the same team that wrote the screen play for the LOTR movies has written one for The Hobbit and production is set to start in 2010 with the movie to be released in 2012!

Belated Short and Quick Movie Reviews

Last Friday night Josh and I watched Tristan and Isolde. I liked the historical setting and costumes but not the plot. Way too much love in the style of Oedipus for me.

The week before last I never got around to posting that Josh and I watched the movies Kate & Leopold and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Kate & Leopold was one of the better romantic comedies I've seen in a while. Even Josh kind of liked it.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was alright, too. I was expecting it to be a remake of the book (which I don't really care for), but it had a bit of a twist to it that made me like it more. The DVD we watched had both a regular and a 3D version of the movie, but we watched the regular version since we didn't notice that 3D glasses were tucked into the DVD case til the next day. Oh, well!

Sunny Sunday

Today's sunset

(Day 25 of 365)

E had basketball practice this afternoon. G attended a classmate's birthday party at McD's. The rest of us ran a few errands.

After picking up G from the party, we stopped at Papa Murphy's to use some gift certificates we had to get a pizza for supper. We bought the garlic chicken pizza, one we'd never had before. Oh! My! Goodness! It was SO absolutely scrumptious! You can bet we'll be getting that one again, but my diet needs to recover first!

Something we won't be doing again is seeing the movie Catch and Release which Josh and I watched on DVD the other night. Ugh! I like Jennifer Garner as an actress, but this movie stunk. It was probably one of the worst I've seen, but Love in the Time of Cholera definitely still holds that dubious award IMHO.