Photo a Day: How You Feel Today

Today, I feel tired...

...just like my cat.

It's been a fairly busy few days.

I cut, packaged, and froze 80 pounds of chicken.

I had an eye appointment, and my doctor said everything is looking good from my surgery.

I sight-read some piano music for a musical number in our ward on Sunday. A few girls that were planning to sing couldn't make it, so the pianist had to step in to sing. She brought the music to my house 15 minutes before church started, I played through it once, and then played in sacrament meeting.

I also taught the gospel doctrine lesson (that's my current calling; I teach once a month), and had helped Jakob prepare his talk in primary as well.

I cleaned at my dad's office.

I had a short piano recital for some of my students. Jakob did great, I messed up a little (but I hadn't practiced all that much-I decided last minute to play at the recital). I decided to take May off of teaching, which is probably a good thing, because Pete just started working Wednesday through Saturday for 12-hour days. 48 hours of work, plus 8 hours of commuting time. He's a good man, that one.

I did my visiting teaching. Yay!

I went grocery shopping.

I'm totally caught up on laundry.

Pete and I watched "First Knight". "The law will judge YUH!"

I made cornbread for our ward's chili cook-off, which won a little award. Here's the recipe, from my kids' preschool teacher, Miss Karla:

Cornbread

1 cup butter melted

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup cornmeal

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Add buttermilk and stir.

Stir dry ingredients together and add to liquids. Stir just until moistened.

Pour into greased 9"x13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

And, I fed the missionaries last night. They ate SOOOO much food! I don't know what I'm going to do when my boys are that age, and eating me out of house and home. Note to self: quantity, not quality.

Today, I've done pretty much nothing. Even moms need days off every once in a while, right?

Pink, It's My New Obsession

The thing I had been waiting for for so long finally happened!

You know, this thing. Did I mention I had been waiting for so long?

Yes, my friends. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie came out, well, today. I was going to say last night, but it was technically this morning. And my sisters and I went to the midnight premiere!

And because we're cool, we dressed up as characters from the movie/book.

We look awesome, huh? Kar is Bellatrix Lestrange, I'm Tonks, and Lex is Luna Lovegood.

The movie was, in short, awesome. I laughed, and cried, and laughed, and sighed, and got chills, and laughed, and jumped, and laughed, and went "eeeee!" a few times under my breath.

We went to Perkins for some pie before heading over to the movie. I had way too much fun with my "wand" (a wooden cooking spoon). I would say "Alohomora!" at the door before opening it up. We were walking in the dark and I'd say "Lumos!" It really is a shame that magic isn't real.

I was surprised and pleased by how many people dressed up. But some people's characters were kind of a mystery. Like, they'd have their faces painted a certain way, but it wasn't definitive. I was like, Draco? Voldemort? Crabbe? Ron?

When I was walking down the hall at the theatre, a chick yelled down the hall, "Hey, Tonks!" I turned around, thinking maybe it was someone I knew. But I totally didn't know her. But hey, it made me feel good, knowing that my character was recognizable by how I dressed up. I don't know, maybe it was the hair that gave it away.

When we got there the movie workers were like, "You can't bring your wands in here. You might cast a spell or something." But then the manager guy was like, "Oh, we're not letting wands in? I didn't know." So we didn't know if they were being serious or not. I ended up taking the wands back to the car, but later we saw a ton of people with wands, so maybe they were being dumb teenagers or something.

It was so fun, but I'm definitely paying the price in tiredness today. But that price is worth it. SO worth it. If you get a chance, go! Like, go today!

P.S.-If you're a Harry Potter fan, check out this site. It's crazy.

Thrilled Chills

EEEEEEEE!!!! I can't wait!

But, after watching this, I realized I so need to read the books again!

Let's Go to the Movies

Lately I've seen a bunch of movies that I've been pleasantly surprised by. Not that I'm, like, a film critic and impossible to please, but I don't absolutely love everything I watch, either. And, I don't rush out to see every single movie in existence.

But Pete's always willing to give movies a shot. He took me out on a date last Friday (YAY!), and after eating at yummy Chili's, we rented a few movies.

We rented Horton Hears a Who! for the kids. And they love it. And it's funny, and cute! I never did see the Cat in the Hat remake, or the How the Grinch Stole Christmas remake (the ones where the live people were the characters). I saw snippets, and they were awful. But Horton is computer animated, which is what the others should have done in the first place. My boys asked to watch it over and over. We're thinking it will make a good birthday present come March for Brock.

We watched Ghost Town, and actually I hadn't heard anything about it. It has Ricky Gervais in it, who played the same character as Steve Carrell in The Office in the British version. It was funny, and touching, and uncomfortable (in a Michael Scott kind of way/open mouth insert foot), and just really good. Viewer be warned: there are two F-bombs.

I didn't really know what to expect with The House Bunny. It's a Happy Madison production, hence dirty Adam Sandler humor. But it didn't have too much of that (or maybe I'm desensitized). The main girl, Shelley, says a few phrases that I'm like, a girl SO wouldn't say that. But overall a cute story. Viewer be warned: you get to see her bare butt for a second. And I think there's one F-bomb.

Finally, I went to a movie with my mom and sisters on Saturday. I was surprised by Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I was expecting...well, I really don't know what I was expecting. I hadn't seen any previews, probably because we don't have TV. But Kevin James is a crack-up. I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would, though it was far from serious. It kind of turned into an underdog wins/action kind of movie. I actually really liked it, and wouldn't mind seeing it again. (Pete, if you're reading this, that's an invitation to take me out on another date!)

So, if you're stuck inside because of the freezing cold like we are, or just want something to rent, I'd recommend any of the above.

The Next Ebert and Roeper

Pete and I went to the Twilight movie yesterday.

I give it a very unenthusiastic "meh". I don't know what Pete would give it; maybe an "eh" or even a "huh". Maybe Pete should blog about it, mmm?

Cheesy effects, bad acting, crazy wigs... But I think the salt in the wound for me was that yesterday a very different, very awesome movie was supposed to come out. And, they showed the preview for it. *sigh* (Only) eight more months...

The REAL Countdown

Everyone in the blogosphere has been talking about when the new Twilight book is coming out. (Is it tomorrow?-I haven't been keeping track...) Twilight Schmilight.

Oh no, my friends. THIS is what I'm looking forward to. CAN'T. WAIT!




November 21, 2008, baby!