birthday month fun - part 3

can you guess what other fun was had for the birthday month...

well, let me just tell you
we loaded up guzzy with a bunch of friends
(luckily we met most of the people in a parking lot across the street from where we were headed)

and headed out to the drive-in

with everyone else and their red balloons
(this is the line down the driveway and along the highway waiting to get in)

to see IT

and the beauty of taking guzzy
is that it's perfect to put the littles in that would be too scared
iPad with downloaded, kid friendly, netflix movies and noise canceling headphones
did the trick!
plus there's a bed - which is perfect for tired tweens  :)

and who doesn't love dq ice cream cake?!?!
we had TWO - and frito lays for days!!!

selfie september (aka birthday month celebration) - day 5

the BIG birthday month celebration - week 1

it's that time of year again!
yep, the month i was born
and the time i do a lot of celebrating
and this year is a BIGGIE
a milestone, one might say
feel free to go back to past septembers and see what how i've celebrated in the past

so - here's the start of this year's celebration

day 1 - i was in kansas city for a wedding over the weekend and my sister, niece and nephews surprised me and come up to see me with my mom.  my sister made the mistake in letting me pick what i wanted to do - anything.  sean won't see scary movies with me so i made them go see the conjuring with me.

day 2 - got to hang out with my brother's family in kansas city.  we had a picnic lunch at the park.

day 3 - this was an early morning of traveling to dallas for work so it was a low-key night of catching up on trash tv

day 4 - since i was in dallas i took advantage and meet up with my peeps at a restaurant we hadn't tried before.  they even brought cupcakes that the waitress brought out with candles lit and all!

day 5 - did a little pampering with a mani/pedi

day 6 - this was a late night of traveling but took some time to read a book for fun and i was met at the airport by my husband when i arrived back to town!

i know that's not really a week but day 7 really goes with 8 so i'm saving that for the next post!
you'll just have to come back to hear how my husband spoils me...

best picture show 2011 day 2

Remember the all day movie marathon from last Saturday?  Well because they select so many movies as part of the best of 2011 at the Oscars they show them all over 2 Saturdays.  Yesterday we headed back to AMC for the other 5 movies.  Here's my take:

• Winter's Bone - This was an interesting story and it's sad that there are probably families out there that really are like this.  There was some messed up stuff in that movie.  I think this is one of those stories that's better as a book (although I have not read the book).
• Black Swan - I wasn't sure I wanted to see this since I was a dancer back in the day and had heard some strange comments about the movie but I ended up really enjoying it.  It's like a train wreck - you can't stop looking.  Don't watch this with your mother!
• Inception - I had already seen this one.  It was much easier to watch the second time around.  It takes a lot of paying attention because it's hard to tell what's real and what's a dream.  I enjoyed it.
• The Social Network - This movie is about the controversial creation of Facebook.  Hard to believe all that went on.  It's worth watching.
• The King's Speech - This is about the Duke of York and his stammer.  The whole movie is about him trying to overcome this speech impediment.  I couldn't wait for this to get over - I was BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!!  For that very reason I'm sure it's going to win.

Since I had already seen Social Network I skipped that one and headed to dinner to help celebrate a 60th and 40th birthday for some of my friends.  It was a great Saturday!!!

If there's an AMC anywhere close to you that's participating in this next year - GO!

Make sure to watch the Oscar's tonight!

best picture show 2011

Remember my day of movies last year?  Well, it's that time of year again - the Oscars are just around the corner so we headed to our local AMC for the first five movies up for best picture.  This year I was actually able to get Sean to join us!

aren't those some sexy glasses?!?!

This is my personal take on the first five movies (in the order we saw them) and whether I liked them or not.  The movie name is a link to the movie website if you want to learn more about the movie.

• Toy Story 3 - Andy is heading off to college and Woody and the gang get donated to a day care.  The movie centers around their shenanigans at the day care and trying to get back to Andy.  Whether you have kids or not you should see this movie.  I just can't get over how clever it was.  I think the Toy Story series just keeps getting better.  Oh, and it was in 3-D!!!
• 127 Hours - This is a true story of a guy that goes cave exploring without telling anyone where he's going and ends up in an accident, getting his arm stuck between the rock and a boulder.  That all happens before the opening credits.  The rest of the movie recounts his thought process and survival. It was interestingly filmed and VERY graphic - glad I saw it - even if it was through my blanket for part of it.
• The Kids Are All Right - This was about a lesbian couple that had children from a sperm donor.  When the children are old enough they want to meet their "father".  I couldn't wait for this one to be over.  B-O-R-I-N-G!!!  Not sure why it's up for best picture.  Because of this movie we almost lost Sean for the rest of the day.
• True Grit - This was the story of a 14 year old girl whose father was shot by an outlaw.  To avenge her father's death she enlists the help of a drunk U.S. Marshall to hunt down the killer.  I loved, loved, loved this movie!!!  Go see it!  I don't like westerns but somehow this was different.
• The Fighter - This was about two boxing brothers and their journey in the boxing world.  A little boring and predictable.  It was alright but not my favorite.

After Sean having been gone for 3 months it was so great to just sit and hold his hand for an entire day!  As usual, it was a great time with my friends, making funny comments about the movie, sharing snacks and having dinner together.

Can't wait for the next 5 - even though I've already seen 2 of them.

Road Trip 2010: Day 8

We really enjoyed reading about your favorite 70's songs and then hearing them as we were driving.  Congratulations to...

 

Here's what you'll be receiving in the mail.  Wild Turkey BBQ sauce and Kentucky homemade country soap (made especially for the monks of Gethsemani).  Sean says "upon its use you will become holy".  I just thought it was an ironic combination.  Enjoy!

Yesterday was an extra early morning.  We were up and on the road at 3:00 am which is maybe why I'm dragging and am so late posting today.  We went from Raleigh to Cedar Island where we caught the 7:30 am ferry to the outer banks of North Carolina.  We got to see the beautiful sunrise over the water.  I can't tell you the last time I saw the sun rise - I'm just not a morning person.

It was really foggy that morning.  At one point I noticed something strange looking in the fields.  We finally stopped in the road (hey it was really early and no one was on the road) to figure out what it was.  They were spider webs!

We finally made it to the ferry and let Duke out to stretch his legs and check out the sand and water while we waited to board.

We got on the ferry, checked out the view, which was only water and decided to head back to the car to nap and watch a movie.  The Jeep has this stupid rule that you can only use the DVD player if the emergency break is on.  We kept thinking, who in their right mind is going to watch a movie in their car while it's not moving???  Well, now we found a reason to use it - now where can I find a ferry in Texas and Maine that is long enough to watch an entire movie?

Sean pretending he's driving the boat.

Once we got to the outer banks we were ready to break the Jeep in further.  They have all these areas where you can take your car out on the beach and drive them around!  I have to admit I was scared to drive but Sean talked me into it and it was FUN!  We stopped and had a picnic on the beach and let Duke play some ball.  We even got to see a lighthouse.  On the last run in the sand Sean got us stuck - you had to all see that coming.  I don't have any pictures of that part because I was panicked because the tide was coming in and we were in an area we weren't supposed to be (at least that's what we were told even though there were no signs).  We deflated the tires even more; apparently you're supposed to deflate them to drive on the sand better.  We had deflated them down to 20 psi before we started on the sand but we were told to deflate them more to get unstuck and they ended up down to like 15 psi.  A nice man finally came and helped us dig out the tires and then he even did the driving to get us out of it.

Duke got his first taste of the salty ocean water and didn't care for it much!

Duke spent most of the day here (yes, he's under the passenger seat)...

After getting unstuck and airing the tires back up we were ready to continue on our journey - to Virginia Beach to visit a co-worker.  They have a beach house on the outer banks so we stopped to see it.  Can you imagine having this view???

We finally made it to Virginia Beach and Jean and JD's house.  We watched their little boy, Drew, hit some balls in the back yard and let the dogs get acquainted (it took a while).  Sean and I headed to dinner on the water with Jean and JD. 

We got up this morning and Jean made up waffles - yummy!  Look how cute they are - thanks guys for the great hospitality!  Can't wait to come back and get to see the inside of the beach house.

Best Picture Show

In select locations the AMC theatre has started to offer a marathon of the movies up for best picture at the Oscars.  Since there are 10 movies up this year they offered it over two Saturdays (there were some locations that actually offered it as a 24 hour deal).  Since Craig and Amy were in town last weekend I wasn't able to attend the first Saturday.  It ended up being alright since I had already seen 3 of the 5 showing last weekend. 

The first movie started at 10:30 AM and the last one for the day started at 8:00 PM.  There were five of us that were there together and I actually ran into someone I knew there too.  Did I mention the free, bottomless, popcorn???  YUMMY!  If you buy a large drink it's free refills all day too.  We got about a 15-20 minute break between most of the movie.  They would do movie trivia and give up prizes.  Tamara won the soundtrack to A Serious Man.

Here's my take on the 5 movies we watched (in the order we watched them):

• Up - This is a Disney animated movie.  I had actually already seen this with Sean (he loves animated movies) but I watched it again.  It really is a great movie and I enjoyed it even more the second time.  Their eye on all the detail is amazing; all the way down to one of the characters with his tag sticking out of his shirt.  This movie took you through all the emotions - and that was just in the first 10 minutes!  The premise of the movie is an older man trying to live out his deceased wife's dream and becomes friends with some unlikely things.  In the adventure he sees his childhood idol for what he really was.  My favorite part was when the old man was looking through the Adventure Book his wife created and learned even though making it to Paradise Falls was her childhood dream she ended up living her real dream and that was spending her life with him.  On Netflix I gave this one a 5 star!
• A Serious Man - This is a Coen Brothers movie - that should say it all right there.  The premise of the movie is a Jewish man that seems to have the worst luck ever that was past to him from his ancestors.  It was extremely slow and almost awkward.  My favorite part of the movie was the end.  This was because it was over and because that was actually the best part of the movie - the last 10 seconds.  On Netflix I gave this one a 2 star (bumped it up from a 1 just because of the ending).
• The Hurt Locker - This one was spoken so highly of that I was excited to see it even though I don't like war movies.  It was based on the Iraq war and the unit that disarms bombs.  There was absolutely no plot to the movie and the camera action actually started to make me sick a couple of times.  I could appreciate the movie but didn't enjoy it.  It was literally the same scene like 5 times over in different locations.  I didn't have a favorite part to this movie except maybe the end because it was over.  I gave this a 1 star on Netflix.
• An Education - This was based in 1960's England and was a high school girl getting an eduction scholastically and the pressures of her father to excel and an eduction in boys.  My favorite part of this movie was when she realized the guy wasn't what she thought.  I guess that really just hit home for me.  We've all had that guy in our life that we wanted to be the one so bad we made up excuses and glossed over the sure signs only to come to our senses later.  We then put our focus on the right stuff (school and career) and in the end have the really right one come out of no where but we try not to accept it.  Oh I digress.  I ended up giving this one 4 stars on Netflix.
• District 9 - This was a sci-fi movie which are usually hit-or-miss with me.  The premise was that a bunch of aliens landed above Johannesburg, South Africa.  They were all moved from the mother ship to what was essentially a slum called District 9.  They had been there so long and were multiplying that they tried to evict them.  There was a lot of blood and gore in this movie so don't go see it if you have a weak stomach.  My favorite part was when an alien robot thing put up this force field and caught all the bullets being shot at it and then turned them all around and shot them back at the people.  Of the 5 of us that went together Tamara and I were the only ones that made it all the way through this movie.  If the others had waited about 10 more minutes they would have gotten into it and liked it I'm sure.  It probably took 30 minutes before you weren't just sitting there going "what is up with this movie".  It was shot in a documentary style.  I gave it 4 stars on Netflix.

It was so much fun and I will definitely do it again next year.  Who knows, maybe if they have 10 movies next year and Dallas offers the 24 hour marathon I'll do that!  Now the only two movies I won't have seen up for Best Picture are Precious and The Blind Side (both are in my Netflix queue but haven't come out on DVD yet).

Don't forget, the Oscars are tonight!!!

The Avatar Bandwagon

One of the things that comes with being married to Sean is his fascination with Science Fiction movies. I'm sure you've heard of the type - has the entire collection of Star Wars and Matrix. He's tried to get me to have a marathon watch party with them but I've escaped it so far.

I wasn't able to escape getting drug to see Avatar. All I had seen on the commercials was blue people and I couldn't figure out why he thought I would want to see it. I decided it was probably time I went to see a movie he wanted to since he always goes to see ones I want to.

Since we were going, I decided we should go big so we went to the IMAX 3-D version. First of all 3-D has come a long way. The movie literally looked like it was happening on your lap! At times during the movie there were fireflies and embers floating around and you were tempted to swat them away.

Although the movie was 3 hours it really didn't seem like that long. It was action packed and had a good story. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone. If you're waiting for it to come out on DVD - DON'T!!! I would also recommend going the extra mile and at least see it in 3-D. I think I've now become obsessed with 3-D and can't wait for all the new 3-D movies to come out.

Here's Sean with his sexy 3-D glasses on.

Our self portrait - man we are lookin' good!