Sheep

Friday night I made a vain attempt to teach Carter to count sheep to help him sleep, which he didn't really want to do at all.

I told him I'd ask him in the morning how many he counted. . .

Soon after that, grandma took over and told him stories for another hour, thus making the sheep idea just another weird thing Mel told him to do one time. . .

I asked him the next day:

"Carter, how many sheep did you count last night before you fell asleep?"

". . . . . . . . . . sixteen."

Sounds like a good number to me.

That kid cracks me up.

January 3rd Revisited

When I got to work this morning, despite the forcast saying it would snow a lot over night, there was nothing on the ground. The wind was blowing in from the north, but that was it. Not like this day.

Now, an hour later, this is the view from my window:


I wanna go home now. . .

Oscar Night!!

We celebrated the Oscars at the Clubhouse in our neighborhood last night. We had reserved it so that we didn't have to stress about filling our hosue to the brim to invite everyone we wanted to. It was such a good plan. So much easier to relax.


Me & Ben


Nick & Korianne


Emily & Jenny


Vanessa & Kevin


Julie & her daughter


Tanner & Reagan (Korianne's daughter)

That wasn't everyone, obviously, but they're the best pictures. . .

I was a bit surprised at the winners. And when I say a bit, I mean that when I guessed, only got 7 right out of 24 categories. Jenny was our big winner with 14 right, Ben & Kevin each got 13. The rest of us were pretty pitiful. I am becoming more and more convinced that I don't even need to watch the movies. It doesn't help me. . . .

This is the list of winners:


Picture: “The Departed”
Director: Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”
Actor: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Actress: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Original Screenplay: “Little Miss Sunshine”
Adapted Screenplay: “The Departed”
Cinematography: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Editing: “The Departed”
Foreign-Language Film: “The Lives of Others”
Documentary: “An Inconvenient Truth”
Animated Film: “Happy Feet”
Makeup: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Art Direction: “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Sound Mixing: “Dreamgirls”
Sound Editing: “Letters from Iwo Jima”
Visual Effects: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
Costume Design: “Marie Antoinette”
Original Score: “Babel”
Original Song: “I Need to Wake Up,” from “An Inconvenient Truth”
Animated Short: “The Danish Poet”
Documentary Short: “The Blood of Yingzhou District”
Live-Action Short: “West Bank Story”

Another Birthday Weekend

Ben had a conference in Logan this weekend, and my dad had a birthday. Therefore, I went to Syracuse. Nathan and Jenny came up too, and Natalie had a little scare with her baby and had to go to the hospital, so we ended up with nephewpalooza at my parent's house overnight. It was a late night, but we had some fun. . . Here are a few pictures as evidence of the boys' ultimate cuteness:

Grandpa's chair is a pretty cool place for Carter and Tanner to play

Ethan is now missing 2 teeth.
It makes him feel pretty cool, but it makes me feel pretty old.

All three boys hanging out in the "dog house"
(which is code for under the desk in the kitchen)

Tanner's Birthday Pictures

I promised pictures of Tanner's birthday party w weeks ago, but I only just got my camera back this weekend (because I was an idiot and left it on the table at the party). So. . . Here are a few choice pictures from the party:

Tanner in his cool Thomas chair, wearing a fireman's helmet

Nat & I with the birthday boy

Tanner with his Lightning McQueen birthday cake

There Are Spoilers In This Post

OK, so, I have been considering the shows I watch on TV lately and I have noticed a huge presence of death in almost all of them. I'm wondering if that says something about me, or if it says something about television. Probably both. It's probably about what I choose to watch on television.

I realized after the post about Meredith that I am constantly reading about where a particular series is going and they talk about killing off a main character in an upcoming episode. The 2 big ones, LOST and Heroes. But now Grey's Anatomy is a big part of the game too. . . Sure, Meredith made it, but her mother died. . . and she was a pretty big character in the show. And LOST has killed of tons of series regulars. . . same with Heroes, and I know Grey's is a medical drama, so it's inevitable, but still. . .


Really, the only place to escape the death is in sitcoms. . . but even Ugly Betty, the only show close to a real sitcom I watch, has a story line relating to death with Alex and Faye. . . I'm just saying. . . maybe TV is a little heavy on the death thing these days. That's all.

This is AWESOME!

Will Meredith Really Kick the Bucket?

I say no.
The show is named after her
and way too many story lines revolve around her.

What say you?

On a related note, there is apparently a spin-off of Grey's in the works featuring Addison. . . Not sure how I feel about that yet.

Routine

Vacation messes with my routine.

I hate to admit that I need certain things to be the same. I am like a small child in that way. I could never be one of those women with 6 different purses that I switch between depending on my outfit. I would lose things. I would lock myself out of my car, my house, my office. I am fully content in the routine of my life. I know precisely which pocket of my purse contains my favorite lip gloss, my keys, my badge for work. I know where I can find my cell phone and that my drivers license is where it ALWAYS is.

Going on vacation means changing the routine.

In an attempt to get around all the new rules involved with boarding an airplane, and in an attempt to not carry such a heavy bag on vacation, I overturned my purse onto our bed before we left. I removed everything that didn't seem totally essential for the trip. Also, I removed everything that resembled, liquid, gel, or aeorsol and put it in my duffel that I checked. Lip gloss, listerine breath spray, my inhaler. Beyond that, I also moved my drivers license to the top pocket of my backpack for easy access and then stuffed my purse down inside. Also, my cell phone charger was tucked in a pocket somewhere, meaning it wasn't plugged in next to my bed last night.

What does that mean?

This morning when I left the house, I had to run back for my badge, had a half charged cell phone (because I hadn't pulled the charger out last night and now the phone is full on dead), no drivers license (I didn't notice this until lunch time), and no lip gloss.

Vacations ruin my routine and make me grumpy when I get back. . . But I'll still go again.

Arizona

I have been missing in action for a few days. Sorry about that.

Thanks to a good tax return, we were able to make it back to AZ this weekend to visit Ben's parents. We had a really fun time. We ate too much, talked a lot, walked through model homes, shopped, and did 3 puzzles. It was a full weekend, but a good one too. I have come to remember how much I hate small planes. I really thought I was going to have a panic attack on our way home today. But I survived, thankfully.

Now life starts again for real. . . It's going to be a crazy week!

The picture is of Picacho Peak, found at www.sonoran-sunsets.com. Or, as Ben would say, Picachu Peak.

It's Official. . .

I HEART DESMOND!
Such a fabluous episode. . .
If you didn't watch LOST last night,
watch it online RIGHT NOW!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am not generally a huge fan of Valentine's Day. It's a pretty contrived holiday, if you ask me. But I am embracing the idea today, just for fun. I wish I could claim these cupcakes as my own, but alas, they are courtesy of Freed's Bakery. I just thought they were pretty. Ben and I will be celebrating the holiday tomorrow night for several reasons.

#1-- Ben has class tonight.

#2-- It will be much less crowded out on the town tomorrow.

We have a tradition of buying socks for Valentine's Day, so we'll be heading to the Gap and picking out something nice for each of us. I'll share our choices once we've made them.

In the mean time, I'm crafting my traditional Valentine CD and happened upon this great website where you can make your own conversation hearts. This is one of the ones I made.

Have a great V-Day!

Trolley Square Tragedy

While sitting safely in our living room last night, watching Deal or No Deal, the local news cut in. This is not something that happens very often, and even as we saw the news card come up on the screen both Ben & I said "Uh Oh". Turns out that was an understatement beyond belief.

Last night, about 6:45, an 18 year old kid in a trench coat walked in to the Trolley Square mall with a shot gun, a pistol, and a backpack full of ammunition. He opened fire and before it was all over, had killed 5, critically injured 4 more, and was himself shot and killed by police. See the whole story here. As I watched the whole thing unfold on TV, it occurred to me how many young and stupid people are causing irreparable harm to the families of others in our state lately. There have recently been at least 2 accidents involving drunk drivers in which large chunks of people's families have been killed. And now this. There were children there! It's a hugely traumatic experience for adults, certainly. And the idea that this is a place I shop and see movies fairly frequently scared me at just the thought of having been there. But this 18 year old kid walked into the Spaghetti Factory, full of families eating their dinner, and opened fire! What must have led him to do something like that? What made him so angry? Was he on drugs? It all seems so random.

I'm a pretty conservative person, not a big fan of banning all of our guns, and in this case I don't think the guns were the problem. (they seem to have been legal weapons) I DO think we need to pay more attention to what our children watch on TV and in movies, what video games they play, and how much time they spend playing violent role playing games. It is only natural to limit the exposure that children get to these things. There has to be a connection.

All we can do at this point is pray for the families of those who died in such a senseless act of random violence, and for the lives of those still laying in hospital beds, hoping to live. None of us here in Utah can quite believe that something like this happened so close to home.

Weekends Pass Too Quickly

This past weekend went by insanely quickly, and I wish it wouldn't have. There were several highlights to the weekend. I left my camera at home today, so I'll have to share the pictures later.

#1-- Kim, Helaina, and Isabella came down and we went swimming, had Tony's Pizza, and watched Chronicles of Narnia.

#2-- I finally learned how to play Mexican Train (Dominoes)! Santa gave them to me for Christmas and we had yet to pull them out. I am hooked now. I made Ben play again with me last night.


#3-- We celebrated Tanner's birthday with about 50 other people at Jenny's Grandma's house last night. It was an insane crowd. I'm pretty sure Tanner had a great time, and that's what it was all about. It was fun to see Jenny's family again. They live too far away!

And now I'm back to work, like it or not.

Pinochle

Barta & I came THIS CLOSE to beating Ben & Trish in pinochle last night, which may have been a first for us. But alas, it was all tugged out from under us at the last minute, like the kitchen rug.

Sadness.

Lost

***Spoilers***

I was so excited with the new episode of Lost last night. It was fantastic! We learned so many new things. I am completely intrigued by Juliette's back story and all of the possibilities they brought up. Is this some sort of utopian society that she signed up for, and then couldn't leave? Why can't the people on the island get pregnant, and with her there, did it get any better? And Ben is French chick's daughter's father?! SO many questions.

I'm interested to get back to the other island a little bit and see what's going on with the other passengers. I miss Hurly! I am pretty psyched that we're going to have 16 straight weeks now. Hopefully they'll answer as many questions as they present new ones.

**photos from Lost-Media.com

Little Children

There are certain movie days when I really miss having Dallas around. Nick had class until 7 last night, making it impossible for him to make it Salt Lake for our Wednesday movie on time, so I decided to go catch Little Children on my own. It was playing at the Tower, which is a tiny little old run down theatre in Salt Lake that plays exclusively arty movies you won't find anywhere else. Dallas and I used to go there all the time, but since he moved away, I haven't been back. It was a little weird to go by myself. It's probably a safe neighborhood, but in the dark, I was wishing I had a guy with me.

Little Children was a good movie. It plays a little like a documentary, with the omniscient narrator explaining things to us as if the people we are watching are too tricky to understand. It's a interesting choice, therefore, that a character in the movie is a maker of documentaries. I didn't hate the narrator, surprisingly. In fact, I liked the choice, once I adjusted to it. The camera angles were equally jarring at first, but as I adjusted to them, I really liked them. The subject matter would have probably gotten under my skin pretty badly a couple of years ago, but for some reason, it didn't. Maybe it was because, in the end, I really liked the message the movie carried. Everyone makes bad choices, but our future is a clean slate.

--------------------------------------

Of the 5 movies I wanted to see before the Oscars, I've now gotten to 3 of them. I may have changed my list a little since the last time. I don't think I can stomach Blood Diamond at the moment. I may have had my fill of the blood and gore for a while. It's just been too much. I would still like to see Letters From Iwo Jima (but it will not be coming to Utah) and possibly Venus and Volver. We'll see if any of those happen.

It's Barta's Birthday!

It's Barta's birthday, and as I love her so much, I thought I'd tell everyone about it. Barta is one of the coolest people you will ever meet. I have had the sincere pleasure of spending many a summer day and night with her at the Castle, as well as MANY late nights at TGIFridays, and pinochle games aplenty. She runs the acting program at BYU, acts and directs outside of school as much as she can, and has a fantastic managerie of 4 legged friends at home to keep up with as well. She's an amazing listener, a truly talented woman, and a fantastic friend.

Happy Birthday, Barta!
I love you!

Torn

Do I watch Lost tonight, when it's on?

OR go to Salt Lake to see a movie I will very likely miss if I don't see it on a night that Ben has class?

Such a hard choice. . .

Pan's Labyrinth

So, last night Kevin and Vanessa were going to Pan's Labyrinth and invited us to go. It was a late movie, and Ben had an early meeting this morning, so he didn't go, but I decided to. I had heard SUCH great things about it and I needed to see it myself. I don't even know what word to use for besides intense. I felt similarly walking out of the film as I did after Children Of Men. It just overwhelmed me. There are so many horrible graphic moments, and very few moments to take a breath and recover from the graphic ones. So very little of it takes place in the fantasy world, and so much of it in the real world of this little girl. But even the fantasy world is not what I expected. I thought it would be more colorful. More engaging. But even the fantasy world was an intense and rather disturbing place.

That's not to say it's not a good movie. It is. A great movie, possibly. I think as I get more distance from it I'll be more and more impressed with it.

The poster I used is one showing the creepiest of creepy characters, who is only in the movie for a couple of minutes, but he totally haunted my dreams last night. Thanks so very much, Guillermo del Toro. It's a good thing I don't sleep alone these days.

Super Weekend

Our weekend was pretty mellow. For once, we had no plans on Friday or Saturday nights, so we spent a lot of time just wasting time. I finally found February fillings for our big glass jars and Ben played a lot of Zelda. I took a 3 hour nap on Saturday that I am REALLY wishing I was taking right now. We also attempted to get a good steak, but something was going on in the Provo/Orem area and the waits for steak were 2 hours long. RIDICULOUS! We settled for something else both nights.

To show for the weekend, I have the following photo of what our jars look like now:


Sunday was the Superbowl, and while we don't really care that much about football, it's a fabulous reason to gather and eat. And BOY DID WE. It was a crazy mess of food in our house. On top of all of the hot wings, nachos, bacon and cheese wraps, and oreo balls, I made football cookies:


It's obvious that I didn't do my research first and pretty much screwed up the helmets for the Bears AND the Colts, but it was the thought that counted. :) They tasted good, at least.


Good times were had by all.

3 things I'm craving

1-- a nice sunny day with between a 75 & 90 degree temperature. And a nice long lunch break under a tree in the park with a good book.

2-- A nap in the love sack with the sun streaming through the window.

3-- A smaller waist line and healthier self while still drinking Coke and eating whatever I please.

Stupid Heber!

I am so annoyed I could spit! (ok, that's not totally accurate because I think spitting is nasty, but you get the idea) Remember that speeding ticket I mentioned in passing during my Sundance revue? I just called to find out how much it was and how to pay it.

$82.00!!!!!

For going 9 MPH over the speed limit!
OK, technically I was going 19 over, but the ticket says 9 over.

What a crock! Not only did I get sucked in by what was CLEARLY a speed trap, they are charging me a ridiculous amount of money for it. I guess they win. I have contributed a HUGE chunk of money to their stupid county, and I will NEVER speed through there again. IF I ever drive through there again. I'm half tempted to go the long way around just to avoid having to buy gas or food or anything that will contribute to the economy of Heber ever again.

(Sorry Tanners. I love you, just not your city)