Movies

Nick & I finally reinstated our Movie Wednesday last night. We went to see The Fountain. It was a weird movie. Like, seriously weird. I don't want to give anything away, and it's not all bad. I actually liked it. But some of it was just BEYOND weird. It felt like one of those movies that wants to make you feel stupid. & I have a hard time with those. It will probably require a second viewing to wrap my brain around the whole thing. The performances were great, I just felt like Mr. Aronofsky was saying, "remember me? The director? I'm HERE!!!".



On the subject of movies, It is a fact that I would have to see at least 6 movies a week for the rest of the month of December to be able to see everything I want to see this year. I can't decide if this is a statement on me, or the movie industry, but I'm going to blame them. Up until November of this year, I saw MAYBE 4-5 movies that I even mildly enjoyed. 2006 has been PATHETIC! Until now. All of a sudden, there are a million things to see. Now, I do understand that I can see some of these in January, and obviously I will. But I'm just overwhelmed by the number this year. . .

The following is my list of movies I still want to see this year, by category, in case you care:

Movies that have been out forever that I may be too late for:



Currently in theaters:



Being released this month:



Independent stuff that will probably never make it to Utah:



Things I'd like to see if I have time, but will probably see on DVD:

The Wreath

I had the best experience buying a wreath at lunch time today. Maybe it was good juju for having taken a huge bag of clothes to the DI minutes before. Maybe it was just luck. Either way, I was thrilled.

I picked out a wreath that probably should have cost me around 25-30 dollars, WITH the 40% discount. I don't really know what the actual price was on it, and that was part of the problem. I got up to the register & found that I had picked through the wreaths to find the prettiest one, which also didn't have a price on it. The guy working the register was frustrated. I'm not sure if he was mad at me, or at the stockers, or what. He was obviously not feeling well, and there was a stiff breeze blowing in the front doors. He was literally shaking. When he noticed the lack of tag, he said "oh man! dang it. . . Do you know what the price was on this?" I didn't remember, I had looked at so many. At this point, his laziness kicked in (the place was packed, so there was no one to go check it and 8 people in line behind me). So he said "Looks like $4.99 to me" and rang it up. I protested, "I'm sure it was more than that". "It's your lucky day then. I don't even care how much it was", he replied.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I got a wreath for $5.

It's a good day.

Holiday Decoration at the Hess Household

OK, so I promised to take pictures of the insanity. . . and the truth is, I couldn't find my camera. Our house is SUCH a mess right now. By the time we got done putting up the tree, getting out all the ornaments, setting up the Christmas village, and filling our new jars with pretty things in JUST the right way, I didn't have it in me to dig for the camera in the rubble. So I used the camera in my phone. & they aren't good pictures. But you'll get the idea.


Ben's mom painted all of her kids a Christmas village, and we brought Ben's back with us when we went to AZ in October. I think we ended up with some extra pieces though. There are a LOT of buildings. I love the way it looks on the top of the entertainment center. After some tweaking with levels, it looks like a fabulous little town.


In my constant efforts to copy things I see at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, I decided we needed something like this to showcase some of my glass ornaments that I bought, not really thinking that some day children may have access to the tree. While it's Tanner this year, and not our own children, I love that there's a solution to the problem and that we don't have to forgo these pretty ornaments entirely. Hooray for Thai Pan & these great jars for such an awesome price. I'm a little bit giddy about them.

*Snow* *Snow* *Snow*

There was a winter storm warning last night. 3-8 inches of snow was supposed to fall. And in Springville, it did. How'd we get so lucky? Everywhere else got just a dusting in the valleys. . .

Maybe it's because mother nature knows how much I dislike driving in the snow, and how Springville does an AWFUL job of plowing it's roads, and how my windshield wipers only work really well when they feel like it. . .

And maybe I did something along the way to offend her . . .

Maybe.

I know it's pretty, people, but it's also slippery.

Turkey Cupcakes

Thanksgiving this year was a party with my mom's side of the family. "Big Thanksgiving" we call it, though I'm not sure why. Unfortunately, something I ate on Wednesday, probably the Pei Wei, unfortunately, didn't sit well with me. By the time we made it to Thanksgiving dinner, I was SURE I was going to throw up all over the turkey and stuffing. What a DEPRESSING day to be sick. Especially that kind of sick. Anything else & I still could have enjoyed the taste of mashed potatoes. Seriously.

Before I was totally overcome with the nausea, I concocted the following Thanksgiving cupcakes:
OK, that's not a picture of mine. That's a picture of Martha Stewart's rendition. But I'm a dork and took pictures of mine with my mom's camera, and then forgot to download them. So you'll just have to take my word for the fact that they looked basically like that. It was close. . . They were darn tasty, regardless. One batch with spice cake mixed with pumpkin spice pudding, the other with yellow cake and banana cream pudding. I wish I'd tasted them . . .

I meant to get a lot done this weekend. I got almost none of it done. But we DID visit the new Thai Pan Trading Co. up in Clearfield and BOY HOWDY, did we come away with some great Christmas decorations. I am so excited to put them all up.

I'm pretty much opposed to decorating before December, generally, but this year is going to be different. This weekend is party weekend, and I want to have the Christmas stuff up before the Pampered Chef party on Friday. So it's starting tonight.

I'll take pictures this time. Really.

The Cheese of Thankfulness

Every blog I read right now seems to be focusing on Thanksgiving, and rightly so. This is the time of year, after all, to remember all of the things we are thankful for. Despite the best efforts of every retailer on earth to skip right over the holiday and head straight on to Christmas. . . I would like to take a minute to bask in all of the things I'm grateful for. It has, after all, been a year chock full of things that are good. It may be cheesy, but that doesn't make it less true.

1- My family. Seriously, folks, my family is the best. They are all SO cool. I really never have more fun than I do when the big bunch of us, which is getting bigger by the day, gets together. They are all so accepting and supportive of one another, and of me. Who could ask for more than that? My nephews are such a joy to me. Until I have my own kids, these boys fill the part of me that wants to mother and spoil little ones. I love them so much.

2- My husband. I honestly would never have suspected 2 years ago that life would be this good by now. I can't believe my luck. I'm married to a guy who I have so much in common with, who also treats me better than I've ever been treated. On top of which, by marrying him I inherited this other fantastic family that I really love. They are all so sweet and accepting of the new girl that married the baby of the family. That's saying something. . .


3- My job. Despite the whining I do, I have it pretty good. I get to do a job I like in a really fun environment, and get paid well for it. My boss is cool, my co-workers are cool, and the company is just getting started. It can only get bigger and better.

4- My friends. We have SO many great friends. The kind of friends that will offer to egg the house of someone you're mad at, or cry with you when you need them to, or participate in your pumpkin carving, gingerbread house building, easter egg dying insanity every time you ask. They'll fly to Utah with only 6 weeks notice to see you get married. They're great! All of them. I have been feeling the loss of one of them very acutely lately, coming up on the anniversary of her death, and it's making me cherish all of the rest of them that much more.

5- The gospel. I have come to value this part of my life so much more over the last year. I have really begun to grasp what a difference it makes in my life and how important it is to me. Here's to never going back to apathy!

6- My house, car, etc. . . I know we're not supposed to love belongings, and it's not that I love them in the same way I do any of the above. But I AM grateful for them. I'm so grateful to have a nice house, a car I love, and that my husband has a car that he loves. I am so grateful that we can help others when we need to, because we are financially stable enough to have a little left over. I grateful to be comfortable.

That's it for now. I know that's more cheese than you're used to from me, and I don't want to gross anyone out.

It's Over

I didn't have it in me to post on Saturday night. The last day of convention was nuts. I thought a short little 2 hours of the store being open would be pretty mellow. I was wrong. The distributors were very intense that last day, trying desperately to get those last sales tools and their last few entries into the drawing. It was the only day I thought someone would literally grab me to get my attention.

Once home, the plan was to go to a movie, so we could actually see each other for more than one waking hour this week. We went to a play instead.

We had put off going for FAR too long, as lots and lots of our good friends were in it, and as we were walking into the mall to go to Stranger Than Fiction, we realized it was closing night for Little Foxes. So we high tailed it to campus and parked at Heritage (because it was game day for football and basketball, so parking was in short supply) We decided to go to Thai Ruby for dinner, and because of the parking situation, we concluded that we needed to walk. . . and let's remember that my feet hurt more than I could ever remember them hurting. . . I was very happy to sit down in the Margetts. Even if it was for 3 hours.

A note on Little Foxes. . . the cast was great. They all did a great job. But Laura Sorenson wins the MVP. I thought she was AMAZING. GO Laura!

Observations on Day 4

-- Different shoes today. Same results. I don't remember the last time my feet hurt this much.
-- I could work for an MLM until my dying day and STILL never understand what motivates people to want to be a distributor.
-- I wish I did understand what made them want to. . . then maybe I'd be better at my job.
-- I am really good at customer service when I need to be, but I never really LIKE it.
-- I need one of those mats that the people stand on at Walmart. Where can I get one of those? Walmart?
-- When pressed into a discussion about my religion, I am not as good as I once was at defending myself. Living in Utah and having those conversations very rarely has made me weaker.

One more day. . . Oh how wonderful Thanksgiving weekend will be.

Today

Those people on the commercials that talk about "gellin' " like it's some kind of miracle to put those inserts in your shoes are liars. Plain and simple. I got the inserts, I put them in my danskos, and my feet STILL hurt. A lot.

I talked a lot today. I was greeted by many many INTENSE distributors, just as predicted. There were no panic attacks, though. I was surprisingly unfazed by the crowds. I am developing a theory about my claustrophobia that could account for that. I think if it's my ground, and I don't really need to get anywhere, I don't freak out. I talked for at least 6 hours straight today. At least. I may lose my voice by Saturday.

But it won't be because I didn't take my Airborne. Or consume large quantities of Mangosteen product. . .

Preparations

So far at convention, I have. . .

-- lifted WAY more than my back should have lifted.
-- folded about 200 t-shirts and put stickers on another 400 t-shirts
-- stuffed hundreds of bags with lip balm, water bottles, and lemonade powder
-- arranged, rearranged, and rearranged again the tables and sales tools in the store

This is the big wall mural the distributors can buy a piece of.

It's twice this long, but this was all I could fit in the picture.

It's definitely a different convention than Nu Skin has. Very rock & roll. Also, tonight I went to a party at Struck, and I won a t-shirt. I'm pretty psyched about that. I'm on a roll.

Here we Gooooo. . .

Convention starts today. It's not really that I'm dreading it. It's not that I'm looking forward to it either. I'm not totally sure what to expect, having a totally different job than I ever did at a Nu Skin convention,but these are my guesses:

-- LOTS of hours on my feet
-- INTENSE distributors attempting to drop tackle me for a "Joe's Story" DVD
-- A lot of Rah! Rah! Rah! GO XANGO!
-- Meals catered by the Salt Palace that make me wish I'd stashed a ham and cheese sandwich somewhere
-- Sore feet
-- Dehydration
-- More Rah! Rah! Rah!
-- Complete and overwhelming claustrophobia
-- Anxiety attacks from said claustrophobia
-- More Rah! Rah! Rah!

GO XANGO!!!!

I WON!!!!!

I never win anything! I can't tell you how giddy I am right now. I've explained how addicted I am to cupcakes, to those of you that don't know. . . & I am now (soon to be) the proud owner of one more cupcake book to add to my growing collection. Autographed by the author & everything!



I won it on 52 Cupcakes, one of my most favorite cupcake blogs (yes, there are many)

Woo Hoo!!!