Movie Review

****I have new craft projects I've been working on and as soon as I take some decent pictures and finish them, I'll share****

I seem to be watching a lot of movies as of late, so, here is a completely biased review of the last 5 I've seen (all rentals):

Atonement

- This movie was completely not what I expected it to be. From the previews I expected a dark mysterious love story gone wrong. And while it does contain most of those elements, it's more. What I liked most is the story is presented as an account from 3 different perspectives: Briony (little sister), Cecelia (big sister), Robbie (family friend/gardener). It dragged me through a range of emotions from hot-and-bothered to bawling for 5 minutes after the movie ended.

Overall: A+ Rated: R for sexual content and language

August Rush

- A coming-into-your-own fairytale of sorts. Freddy Highmore does such a great job playing someone younger than he is (he was FIFTEEN when he filmed this). Robin Williams' character reminds me of the guy in Pinnochio who lures the boys to Pleasure Island. I also had the idea that Keri Russell was a spoiled brat in the movie and I was completely off-base. Movie is definitely a feel-good, however the emotions could be influenced by the music. I was in tears by the end and Ryan's eyes were brimming but I didn't see a tear fall.

Overall: A- Don't know the rating and I'm too lazy to look it up. Guessing PG

****Okay, I'll try to make these next ones shorter...this post is getting too long****

Dan in Real Life

- Reminded me of Meet the Parents, but not as awkward and embarassing, plus the overall movie and message makes it worth the tense moments. Juliette Binoche is the perfect actress for this character. She reminds me a little of Conny, of one of my old roommates from Germany.Anyways, it has a great family message and one of love and self-discovery.

Overall: B+ Rated: PG-13

Jane Austen Book Club

- I don't know if anyone else has seen this or is as big of an Austen nut as I am (okay, I shouldn't say nut, because I've only watched the movies and read 2 of her 6 novels), but I love Pride and Prejudice SO much that I try to read everything related to it, esp. if it's about teh A&E version of P&P with Colin Firth - yum-o. This one was more about relationships between women and their significant others. While some of them parallel the themes of Austen's works, overall the movie took its own life. It didn't pick up as quickly or as much as I wish it would have, but it's okay if you need something to watch while you're scrapbooking or doing another craft project.

Overall: B+ Rated: PG-13 (I think)

Persuasion (2007 - Sally Hawkins version)

- Again, if you're an Austen fan you'll love this one. It's the tale of an 1800's girl who rejects a proposal and then a year later the dude comes back into her life. Through a number of meetings and misunderstandings, they finally end up together again. I didn't think I'd like this version, just because I know there's a 4-hr version out there that is probably better, but I have yet to watch it to compare. (It's on my wishlist of things I covet) It's a short movie (think Kiera Knightly vs of P&P) but in the end I was once again in tears because of the happy ending (notice a trend?)

Overall: A++ Rated: PG

Okay, if you've made it this far, you deserve a free movie rental, so here's a redbox code for you: MISSYOU - go rent something and grab some popcorn.

Ellie Jellie

Since many of you visit my sister's blog and probably have noticed there aren't any new pictures of my niece, I decided to post some that Tara took while visiting our big sis' family



Clearly these pictures are almost identical, but they're the only ones I have.

Isn't she cute!

****Thanks for letting me know the links didn't work, Mandi-loo! They should be working now.****

New Me

Before:
(okay this was taken with my phone at an unflattering angle, mind you)

After:


(also taken with my phone, but in MUCH better lighting)
I had about 8 inches cut off the back (not quite long enough to donate to Locks of Love) and about 6 or 7 inches from the front and sides. I'm quite happy with it thus far.

When I returned to the office (most of the guys were still there) I got a new nickname from my boss. I'm now called Sassy Red.

Sigh...

I don't really feel like I have anything of note to post, but I feel I should make an attempt.

Ryan was accepted into Colorado (hooray!) and then jetted off to Kansas Thursday. One of the girls he used to work with lives there now, so she arranged transportation and a place to stay with some guys that live in the area. Very nice of her.

It turns out this University (of Kansas) is the best fit for his career goals. So.

We're Moving to Kansas. Yay!

School starts the second week of August. We're hoping to move out there in July.

The more and more I look for places to live the more disheartened I become. Because it's a college town, prices are definitely more expensive than Kansas City, a mere 39 miles away. I think we'll need to keep looking up until the last minute. I also suspect we'll have to take a trip out to Kansas to get the ball rolling on a house hunt.

Now the work starts on prepping our house for sale.

So, if you know of anyone looking for a 2b/2ba, 1,032 sqft condo right by UVU (UVSC)who wants new floors, we're pricing ours between $140k and $145k (not yet determined).

Alright, time to get to work, earn my keep.

She's in Labor!

My big sis is in labor! Funniest thing, too, because she was going to be induced today. I guess that baby didn't want to be forced out.

(Oh, and I was going to post this on her blog, but I don't remember her password to get in!)

Accepted!

Ryan was accepted into Indiana State University! Good job, my sweet brainiac.

So now the decisions start. Kansas or Indiana...or...? We're still waiting to hear back from 3 schools.

Even though we just got back today from Colorado, Ryan will be packing back up and heading to Kansas on Thursday for his Campus Visitation Day. I hope he has fun. I'm jealous and would love to travel a bit more...

In Colorado

On borrowed internet. Ryan's at the University of Northern Colorado for his interviews today. I'm chillin at our ghetto hotel (damn my frugalness) watching tv and debating a quick shower now or if i just wait until i want to actually do something.

I'm using the unsecured wireless from the hotel next to us. How funny is that? I think the even sadder part is that it's just as fast as our Comcast we pay a boatload for at home and the signal is weaker here...must look into that.

Anyways, today I'm going to try to make a baby teether from some sweet-potato colored wool felt for my soon expected new niece. I'm craftlifting this:


from EnchantedDandelions.etsy.com

Aren't those cute? I'm not using the brightly colored green for the leafy greens, but I've opted for a more subtle, natural looking green. I'm also making it a rattle/toy by adding a bell to the top part of the carrot.

So, let me tell you about this trip. It's been the what-can-go-wrong-has trip. We left our house 30 min later than we'd wanted to. I packed the bags from the bed, Ryan grabbed the pooch for his depositing to my mother in laws (thanks for watching him!). We get to the middle of Parley's Canyon, just outside of SLC and we know we won't be saving much time on this drive. The roads were HORRIBLE through the canyon. So we get through that, and then I hear Ryan gasp. He FORGOT his SUIT! All his hanging up clothes for today's interviews were still in our closet. NOT good. Since we were in Park City I asked him if he wanted me to turn around and we could go through Provo Canyon, hop back up. At this point, we were about an hour into the trip so he thought, "no, let's just keep going. We need to get there and if worse comes to worst, we can go to Wal-Mart for some slacks and a shirt and tie." Needless to say he was in a foul mood from Utah to Rawlins, WY.

Weather was worse than we thought it would be. We saw 3 semi's flipped over, 1 uhaul on it's side (after I said I hoped everyone was okay, I also wondered if they opted for the insurance for that rental...), were stopped for 30 minutes. Like, completely. We turned the car off and debated playing our travel yahtzee we have stowed in the car, but instead opted to sing along and make fun of the terrible country songs from the only station we could get (mind you, had we REALLY cared we could have grabbed either of our laptops or ipods and watched a movie).

We planned on arriving to Greeley around 3:30 or 4pm to make it to the dinner hosted by the current students and faculty at 5. We rolled in at 5:45 and were weary and grumpy, but Ryan wanted to make an appearance.

So immediately after that we checked into ghettotown (k, really, once you're asleep and lights out, who cares, right?) and went to Kohl's and found him some clothes for today. Okay, he looks smokin hot. Mmm. I picked out his clothes, and I'm wishing I snapped a picture of him this morning. We got him a black argyle sweater and a light green fitted shirt, a yellow/beige tie, slate grey slacks and a belt. We got lucky and the shirts were buy one get one, as were the ties. But still, at $28 each...we were set back a pretty penny. The belt was marked $25 but when we paid ended up being on clearance for $7.50, the sweater marked down from $19 (a clearance price at that) to $10 at checkout. Hoo-rah!

We grabbed dinner at TGIFridays (we didn't eat at the dinner because we were so late, even though it was a potluck and very casual...) which was SOOO good.

Okay, so that's our trip thus far. Greeley is beautiful and MUCH bigger/nicer than I thought. I'm debating doing some exploring and looking for some of the houses I've been saving online at realtor.com or just making my little teethers. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Shower-time!

New Look

I've been trying to figure out a new background and layout I'd like for awhile. I found this one from Pyzam.com but it wasn't really to my liking. Things were a bit squooshed. So, I finally bit the bullet and hunted through all the code until I could figure out how to tweak it the way I wanted it.

(okay, I'll admit it took about an hour of making a change, hitting 'preview' and then making sure everything was hunky dory.)

Hooray for me!

Oh! This was the other one I debated using. The blue won this time.