Childhood Favs...

My friend Jodie over at A Beautiful Collision just added a post about remembering those movies that she watched over and over again as a child - on sick days or rainy days. You know, the movies that you basically know by heart and just thought were the greatest thing ever. You can check out her blog to see her thoughts, but I thought it would be fun if you all started sharing your childhood favorites. When I fill out those online profiles for blogger or facebook one of the categories is movies and for some reason my childhood favorites never seem to make the list. But when Jodie mentioned sick or rainy day movies a few came to mind immediately...

The Star Wars Trilogy. Yes I would watch all three movies while at home sick. In fact I wonder if I was really that sick because I imagine it would have been tough to stay conscious through 6 hours worth of movies. But after you've seen movies five plus times you don't need to concentrate that much. I remember getting to the end of Return of the Jedi and feeling so sad that it was over. No more "galaxy far far way", no more Hans Solo and Chewbaca and R2D2 and Luke and Leia. Little did I know that all those happy memories would later be tainted by Jar Jar Binks.

Back to the Future. Oh my I loved this movie. Or, more importantly, I loved Michael J. Fox! I remember being on the bus for first or second grade and the girl sitting next to me asked if I had a boyfriend. Of course I said "yes". "What's his name?" was her next question. To which I responded "Michael, Michael Fox". It wasn't a mistake either, very deliberate on my part. It was as if leaving out the middle initial somehow would make it less obvious that he was a famous actor. Anyway, that movie brings back memories of a birthday party that my dad surprised us all by renting Back to the Future (do you remember what a big deal it used to be to rent new popular movies? Unlike today when there are at least 100 copies of a new movie.).

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that jumped out immediately and brought back very tangible childhood memories.

So sorry Jodie for completely copying your post. I just couldn't help it! And for everyone else - please share. I know you already have something in mind. And while you're at it check out Jodie's post for a trip down memory lane with Daniel and Ali (if you don't know I don't know if there's any hope for you - JK)!

Anyone out there...

read the last Harry Potter yet?

I would love to have someone/anyone to discuss with. I spent about 30 minutes trying to sum it all up to Matt after i finished reading it Sunday night - he read books 1-4 so he was genuinely interested, but I think I lost him after a bit.

It's kind of a weird feeling to come to end of the Harry Potter story. I've always loved Harry Potter and been a fan since the get go. I'm not one of those who spends time in between books pondering what is to come and debating various theories with others. I just get very excited when a book is about to come out, buy it right away, read it right away, and then feel sad/depressed when it's over. The last couple of books (not #7 - I won't post anything about that for those who haven't read it yet) I've felt sad because of how they ended and some of the characters who were lost. But now, to be at the end is a different feeling. I guess it's called closure!

So although I don't want to discuss specifics I would love to hear if you've read it and if so, what did you think? Loved it, hated it (hard to imagine), just so-so? Did you cry or stay dry eyed? Did you feel closure or do you want more? I'll post my answers in the comments....

All in a day's work

Today I cleaned out our fridge. I hate cleaning out the fridge and rarely do it. This should be obvious by the pictures I've posted. It's typically Matt's job because I get so grossed out by all the old leftovers and yucky food that has gone bad that he has to do it. I think he gets grossed out too, but he knows that I will hold out longer so he caves in and does it.

Just to keep you all somewhat interested I figured I would post some "before" pictures. This was after I had cleaned out the bottom shelf so about a third of the mess is actually gone already.

Wow, look at all those salad dressings! Who knew two people (two salad eaters, that is) would need so much dressing?

Luckily this time around there weren't too many mold leftovers. There was actually a container of moldy macaroni and cheese - I didn't think that was possible and I know it wasn't too old, which leads me to think there might be a problem with our fridge. Actually we have had issues with the door not closing well. I sometimes wonder if it's because our house is so old and the floors are a bit crooked so gravity is working against it. Unfortunately it's most likely due to the fact that the fridge is overstuffed and it's physically impossible to close unless really pushing it shut. Still with me? Anyone completely disgusted with me?

I found a great deal of expired condiments, tortillas, salad dressings - things like that, items that gets in hidden in the back of the fridge and replaced with newer stuff. Well, except for the salad dressings - those are quite obviously displayed on the fridge door. I guarantee that I have never served any of you expired salad dressing. I'm quite good at checking the dates. But if I am good at checking dates, why why why are all those containers still in my fridge? I think that's a whole other issue that I'm not gonna get into now!

So now for the after pictures....

A couple of things to note. When I was looking at the pictures on my LCD screen I thought perhaps you wouldn't be able to see the difference between the before and after. Ha ha.


Anyone need some mustard? The top right of the first before picture shows four, actually I think five (a small one in between the two larger ones) mustards. That's after throwing away a few. I like mustard as much as your average person. But according to my fridge I must be a really big fan.

Onto the door.

My apparent love of mustards is surpassed by my love of chocolate sauces. Now that I won't argue with, but I was surprised that I had enough sauces, syrups and toppings to fill a whole compartment.

Anyone else notice the big yellow jar in the bottom left compartment? That's a jug of Jose Cuervo Margaritas. Before it was hidden in the back of the bottom shelf. I figured that was a real waste - I would totally forget it was there! And now that I've remembered I think I'll be enjoying a margarita tonight!

Now I need to go throw out ALOT of trash! And I gotta go grocery shopping - my fridge is empty!

a day of firsts...

Today Catherine went pee pee on her little potty for the first time. It was right before her bath and no one even noticed at first. Afterwards I was thinking about how easy to potty train she was going to be and how cool it would be to have her trained at two.

Fifteen minutes later she pooped on the floor.

Like I said, a day of firsts. First pee in the potty, first poop on the floor.

I'm trying to convince myself that my earlier thoughts were true and all that sitting on the potty just got things all stirred up. Allow me to have my fantasies....

Free shipping

This is my first time posting on Works for me Wednesdays - it's hosted by Rocks In My Dryer and always has at least a hundred helpful tips and ideas submitted by other bloggers. I think I first heard about it from Crafty P awhile ago and I'm always suprised when I check in each week and see that the ideas keep coming.

I hate finding a good deal online only to realize that after you factor in shipping it's not such a good deal anymore. That's why Wal-Mat's Free Store to Site shipping works for me! They now have an option to buy items online and have them shipped free to your local store. I recently purchased on outdoor recliner and saved myself $15 in shipping. The shipping was very quick and I just picked it up when I had other stuff I needed to get at the store.

Not everything is available to be shipped this way, but you can do limit your search to Site to Store items. I noticed that some of the really big items - like a swing set - did not offer free shipping, and some of the smaller items (DVDs, books) had $.99 shipping (not bad). Alot of furniture had the free Site to Store shipping - a friend just bought her toddler bed from Wal-Mart and had it shipped free.

I think this is relatively new service. Around Christmas I was trying to order an art desk for my 3 year old and every store only carried it online and was charging $20+ to ship it. Site to Store was only available in about five states - not mine of course, which was a bummer because Wal-Mart's price was the best. Now it's offered in probably all BUT five states. Hopefully this is helpful and you can save some money on shipping costs while taking advantage of good prices.

Let Everything That Has Breath Praise the Lord

That was the title of the song that Ella danced to in church this morning. She was part of a group of 3-6 year olds that did a four week worship dance class with Renee K. and then performed in church today.

Ella loves to dance. She dances all around the house and makes up all sorts of moves. But she's never been to great about following along during her dance class. Occassionally she'll do the moves, but the majority of the time she's marching to the beat of a different drum. But she likes it and looks forward to it so we encourage her to have fun with it and keep reminding her that she's dancing for Jesus.

I pretty much knew what to expect this Sunday. I knew that Ella would not really do the routine. She would do a few moves and then get distracted and do her own thing and then start watching Renee again and following the dance. I thought she would probably stand there and play with her scarf or her dress (I had many many talks about not lifting up her dress and I'm very thankful that it got through to her). I honestly thought she would be pretty subdued. In that sense I was very suprised - for about 10 minutes before church she was running around on stage with the other kids and then in the minute or two before it actually started she was jumping up and down in her spot. As far as how she did - I was right on.

I was determined not to laugh. I had laughed extremely hard during the dress rehearsal which was five minutes before the actual performance. I figured I got it all out and I knew what Ella was going to do or not do. But as the music started Renee whispered for the girls to "smile" and Ella proceeded to give her famous "Pirate Smile" looking back and forth for about fifteen seconds. For those of you who don't know Ella's pirate smile, I've included a picture....







Now, that was over a year ago and it's not so extreme these days, but that is often the way Ella smiles when you actually tell her to smile. Now usually if you tell her to say "cheese" she'll give you a relatively normal smile.

So as soon as the pirate smile came out I lost it. I basically laughed (silent, shaking, tears rolling down face laughter) the whole way through the dance. I have to say that she did a great job in getting up there and just having fun. I wasn't sure if she would go through it because she sometimes gets very shy or scared in new situations, and being up on stage in front of alot of people was certainly new.

If after all that you still are interested in watching, I was able to download it to google video. The quality on our camera is good but for some reason it didn't transfer that great. I used a new program and might have to fiddle with it a bit.

A couple of things to notice...
- The laughter you hear is mostly from our one pastor's mom sitting behind me. She loves Ella to death and said it reminded her of watching her grand daughter do ballet. I know she was really trying to hold it in (because she too had watched the dress rehearsal and giggled through that and we talked about trying to hold it in next time).
- Ella singing praise the Lord - with the emphasis on Lord.
- A little yawn somewhere in the middle
- How beautiful they all looked and how good the others did.
- The lovely choreography by Renee.

Now for your viewing pleasure.....