Making It A Double Feature...

Remember back in the day how they used to have double features at the movie theatre where you could see two movies for the price of one? The last time I did that was when I went to see Forever Young and Lorenzo's Oil back in 1993*. Theatres don't do those anymore though so today my sister and I decided to make a double feature of our own.

First we went to a matinee and saw this:

I thought this movie was hilarious. I already want to see it again.

After the movie we did a little shopping but there was another movie my sister wanted to see. We thought about going a different day, but due to busy schedules we weren't sure when we'd be able to go see it together. So a whim we decided to just go. We went and saw this:


SO CUTE! This was also a very fun movie even though it did leave me wishing for 1) a boyfriend and 2) a trip to Ireland.

Even though it wasn't technically a "double feature" and we did have to pay for both movies, it really was a lot of fun.

*I had to look up the year those movies came out ... my memory really isn't that good.

The Stepfather...

If any of you are looking for a scary movie to see this Halloween, don't bother with this one. It was the stupidest movie I have ever seen. I was so excited for the potential of wetting my pants and hiding my face in my coat..but there was none of that. It never made me jump nor did I have to close my eyes. In fact, the movie only became slightly scary with about 15 minutes remaining and even then it was shoddy at best. The plot was full of holes, things didn't add up, there wasn't enough suspense or intensity to leave you on the edge of your seat. Oh, and don't even get me started on how the girlfriend in the movie wore only two kinds of outfits for the entire 1 hour 41 minutes: bikinis and underwear. Despite the fact that the movie itself was pretty lame, the language wasn't bad. For that reason alone I'll give it two stars.

Remembering Sundance...

So another year of the Sundance Film festival has come and gone and it was another year that I didn't make the trek to Park City to go "star gazing". Actually, I have only ever gone to Park City during Sundance once and it was back in 2003. My friend had received some tickets to the showing of "Song for a Raggy Boy" and she invited me to go along. I had no idea what I was in for, but it turned out to be a very fun adventure. Here are some of my favorite memories:

1 - Trying to find a place to park. It's nearly impossible just for future reference.

2 - Ignoring the teenage boys who were wanting to take us home to meet their mothers (I don't remember exactly what they said, but we got a good laugh out of it).

3 - Sitting in a theatre full of men couples and women couples. I swear everyone there was either gay or lesbian and it didn't take long for me to realize that they probably assumed my friend and I were as well.

4 - Watching the movie and really enjoying it until about half way through when I eventually figured out that a certain word they kept saying over and over was, in fact, the F word. They had such thick Irish accents that I didn't realize it at first. After that it was hard for me to sit through the rest of the movie (but the movie itself was SO GOOD!)

5 - Sitting through the Q&A session with Aidan Quinn (the star of the movie). He was so dreamy.

6 - Talking to and getting my picture taken with Aidan Quinn. I still keep this picture on my bookshelf at home.


7 - Getting caramel apples afterwards and talking with my friend about Aidan Quinn. We were both on a natural high after that.

I had such a great time that I would love to go again. Unfortunately it hasn't happened yet, but perhaps someday it will.

Christmas Break Recap...

I have returned! I am so excited to finally post my first blog of 2009. I started my blog January of 2008 and in reading my blog posts from the past year, 2008 was one amazing (and often times hilarious) journey. I hope that 2009 is just as great.

I had an amazing 12 days away from work and I realized more than ever that I LOVE not having to work. Life was fun and relaxing. There was no stress in having to wake up at 5:30am to go to work, no scraping my windshield because I was up before the sun, no sitting at work bored out of my mind because there was nothing to do, and no coming home completed exhausted and feeling like a little more of my brain wasted away by staring aimlessly at a computer screen all day. Instead, I was able to:

1 - shovel close to a foot of snow off my parent's driveway on Christmas day (and if you think I looked hot before the shoveling, you should have seen me an hour later!):

2 - Spend three full days (and nights) with my parents and two of my sisters over Christmas.

3 - play with nieces and nephews:



4 - make fun of my brother as he tried the Skip-it (an old toy of mine that the grandkids play with now):



5 - go fabric shopping with my mom for material to make a new quilt.

6 - spend a day in Payson with my sister and her kids as she helped me cut all the fabric for my quilt (while listening to my 5 year old niece say to me, "You really are no good at this, are you?").

7 - do more shopping with my mom to buy more quilting supplies.

8 - crochet a scarf:


9 - complete my first block for my new quilt:


10 - do more shopping (for fun stuff unrelated to quilting).

11 - go see "Marley and Me" with my roommate (no movie review is forthcoming):


12 - go to dinner with friends visiting from New York:


13 - visit Temple Square to see the lights - even though it was snowing and well...there were no lights (I stole this picture from my sister):


14 - help my roommate paint our house.

15 - watch lots of movies and just relax.

The Show of All Shows...

Do you remember growing up and going to all those Stake Youth Dances or Junior High Stomps? I do, and I remember hating them! I've never been a lover of dance. I guess you could say I have always been a little uncomfortable with the idea of people watching me make a fool out of myself. I know that's what you're supposed to do during the teenage years, but dancing was just never my thing. I never understood why people would want to flop their body around in completely unnatural ways. But while I never enjoyed the art of dancing, I have always found great delight in the art of observing. And over the years I have come to appreciate REAL dancing (Dancing with the Stars, anyone?). Watching people who know how to dance can be very fun and sometimes even beautiful. But, it's not often that you find that quality of dance at an LDS church activity, where people only seem to know how to flop around and make fools of themselves. But, I have to admit that though I don't enjoy being the one on the dance floor, observing others can be an enjoyment all it's own. Case in point:

Saturday night I went with some friends to an institute activity. We thought it was supposed to just be a drive-in movie, but before the movie they had dinner and dancing. Well, we emerged from our car to partake of the deliciousness of the hotdogs, but quickly retreated back to the vehicle to avoid the dancing. We were all a little unnerved by the fact that everyone out there was 10 years younger than us and we didn't have much desire to re-live those awkward moments of our youth. So, while we waited for the movie to start, we sat in our car and observed (amid great humor, I might add) person after person make a complete fool of themselves.

We found such great enjoyment in this, that we even began giving some of the people names:

1 - Gumbi: The kid who could bend in unbendable ways.

2 - Senorita: The woman on a mission to salsa the night away.

3 - Cancun: The lucky man stuck dancing with Senorita, who appeared to have just come back from some tropical Island.

4 -Manpri: You know this person. The guy who is either brave enough or gay enough to wear capris.

5 - Tighty-whitey: The guy who wore those freakishly tight girl pants. He was in our direct line of vision and what an awkward three minutes that was! We could see everything possibly bulging out of those pants (keys, wallet, and whatever else I won't mention). These pants were so tight we could even see his bunched up underwear line! We were relieved when he left the dance floor.

6 - Knockout: The girl who about had her head taken off by her dance partner.

7 - Jackie and Owen: The delightsome duo who happened to take notice of us sitting in our car and tried to coax us out. It didn't work, much to their dismay. If Jackie would have thrown some martial arts into his dance routine, maybe I would have changed my mind. :)

8 - Rewind: The awkward couple who was attempting to dance in the parking lot outside of the designated dance area. We had to turn around ("Rewind") to watch them dance.

9 - Stilts: An extremely tall guy at the dance.

10 - Stilts Returns: Another extremely tall guy.

11 - Stilts Strikes Back (with Sliver): Yet another extremely tall guy who was dancing with a girl half his size (why we called her Sliver).

12 - Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb: Two girls that appeared to be about 10 years old, crashing the dance.

13 - Pepe Le Pew: An Asian guy with an incredibly large white streak down the middle of his hair.

14 - Happy Feet: The guy whose feet kept on moving.

15 - A Juan: A Mexican guy who was checking us out when we pulled up next to him at a stop light. My friend said we'd call him "Juan" since he was Mexican. His license plate said "A1" so then she thought we should call him "A1". After a quiet, thoughtful moment she burst out with "A JUAN!"

Oh, how was the movie? Well, I couldn't tell you. The dance went so long that by the time they got around to starting the movie, we decided to take off. It kind of defeated the purpose of going to the activity in the first place, but I think we hit a grand-slam with that dance. It was the show of all shows!

Call Me Crazy...

I am completely addicted to Enchanted! The entire movie is just wonderful, but I can't seem to get enough of this scene (see clip below). I watch it over and over! I think because it's just so fun and makes me want to dance along. Last night I babysat my nieces and nephew and they wanted to watch it but we didn't have enough time before they had to go to bed. So, we watched this clip! I had been singing the song pretty much all night and my poor nephew kept saying "Stop singing that song!" I guess he didn't love it as much as I did. But once we turned on the special features and he could see how they made the movie, he was happy.

Star Wars: "It's an Exciting Movie"

A Movie with a Message...

Friday night I went and saw this movie. Overall, I was quite impressed. It was rated PG so definitely one you can take the kids to (if you have kids). Granted, the movie did have it's flaws (they apparently lived in Europe but only one of the actors had a European accent), but if you can get past the flaws you will quickly see the message trying to be portrayed: that it really is possible to love ourselves for who we are. We are all unique individuals and we should never feel that we don't "measure up" to those around us. We should love ourselves no matter what, and we should also love others for who they are and not for what they look like.

If anyone has been debating about whether or not to see it, it is a movie I would recommend. Like I said, it's not perfect and there might be parts that have you scratching your head. But if you don't go into it expecting a blockbuster hit, I don't think you'll be too disappointed. And compared to some of the movies out there these days, this one is definitely refreshing.